Disc of the week

Elvis Costello
Live at the El Mocambo (Universal) I don’t toss around perfect scores too often, but this snippet of a young Elvis in 1978—captured right after the release of his debut, My Aim Is True, with everything still to prove—is just breathtaking. Costello answers the punk call here in the tiny confines of Toronto’s Elmo, with tempos surging and careening, Elvis spitting out lyrics like a last testament and the Attractions threatening to steal the show. Simply put, this is easily the best record Elvis Costello has ever made. 10/10 Trial Track: “Lipstick Vogue” (Johnson Cummins)

Julian Casablancas
Phrazes for the Young (RCA/Sony BMG) This is it—the best Strokes-related release since Is This It. Not so much a redirection as an augmentation of the Strokes’ delicious updating of the Velvet Underground’s more energized moments, now with rich prog-pop keyboard work and an airborne ’80s FM flavour to further offset Casablancas’ laconic vocals. The blues-rock bungle “4 Chords of the Apocalypse” aside, Phrazes amazes. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “River of Brakelights” (Rupert Bottenberg)

Wolfmother
Cosmic Egg (Modular/Universal)
It’s a Sabbathian Zeppelinian epic—an immaculate, blemish-free classic rock forgery. The key difference separating these devout acolytes from the heathen masses is how every crunching guitar note and Andrew Stockdale Plant-channelling wail is inserted with micro-surgical precision, as if they’re building a model ship in a bottle. Their love of the source material is infectious and pointless to deride. 8/10 Trial Track: “In the Morning” (Erik Leijon)

Tegan and Sara
Sainthood (Vapor/Warner)
Calgary’s most famous twins return with a high-octane oddity that falls between indie Mecca and pop purgatory. Produced by Death Cab’s Chris Walla, who also helmed their superior 2007 record, The Con, this one’s an uneasy graft of schoolyard melodies and punchy arrangements, unnerving vocals and eccentric pep. Only a few songs are light enough on irritants to warrant repeated listens. 6/10 Trial Track: “The Cure” (Lorraine Carpenter)

El Perro del Mar
Love Is Not Pop (The Control Group)
From the melancholy Motown of her debut to the ecclesiastical quality of From the Valley to Stars, Sweden’s Sarah Assbring has moved on to gauzy pop that remains edgy while evoking Bryan Ferry’s super-smooth ’80s sound. The lush keyboards suit the painkilling creaminess of her voice, still the centrepiece of this rich and tuneful concoction (which includes a cover of Lou Reed’s “Heavenly Arms”). 8/10 Trial Track: “L Is for Love” (Lorraine Carpenter)

State Radio
Let It Go (Ruff Shod)
Dude, we’ve all been there. You skim a transcript of Human Nature: Justice versus Power and suddenly you feel deified by karma as the universe’s protector. And yeah, the soothing sounds of British two-tone and angsty Chowderhead politico-punk calm your frayed nerves after those intense student council meetings. Truth is, the hacky sack circle jerk of life never stops, even as the players change. 2/10 Trial Track: “Blood Escaping Man” (Erik Leijon) With My Antenna at Studio Juste Pour Rire, Sat., Nov. 7, 9 p.m., $15

Devil Eyes
self-titled (Signed By Force)
These bratty local punks finally make good on this decibel-driven ball of fuzz and cheap drugs. Devil Eyes pay homage to the lineage of truly raucous rock ’n’ roll, successfully combining it with the heavy psych/noise jamming on “Teeth” and the killer “Akuma Gyoshi.” If Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes or Captain Beefheart had reached for the biker crank instead of acid, the results might’ve come out like the glimmering “Spookfish.” 8/10 Trial Track: “Akuma Gyoshi” (Johnson Cummins) CD launch with Crabe, Desert Owls, Miss Fortune, DJ Pestilent Splendour at Bar St. Laurent 2 tonight, Thurs., Nov. 5, 8:30 p.m., $5

The Phenomenal Handclap Band
self-titled (Friendly Fire)
A rep for wild live shows precedes this big-ass Brooklyn band, but you wouldn’t guess it from their anemic debut disc of elaborate throwback disco-prog. Worthwhile ideas abound here, no question, as do guests from the ranks of Si Sé, Calla, TVOTR and L’Trimm (Lady Tigra, on the schoolyard-cool “15 to 20”), but the whole thing’s just shy of the requisite oomph such a ’70s coke-pop pastiche requires. 6.5/10 Trial Track: “All of the Above” (Rupert Bottenberg) With Simian Mobile Disco, JDH, Dave P at SAT, Sat., Nov. 7, 10 p.m., $22.15

Calvin Harris
Ready for the Weekend (Columbia/ Sony BMG)
Does one incredibly catchy, foolish, kitschy, awesome new-disco dance hit, complete with vocoder verse, ridiculous falsetto chorus and driving synth bass hooks, make up for an album of well-produced, forgettable, shameless attempts to appeal to the Kylie Minogue crowd? From an artistic perspective, probably not. But I’m still glad this exists. 5.5/10 Trial Track: “Ready for the Weekend” (Jack Oatmon)

Anti-pop Consortium
Fluorescent Black (Big Dada/Outside)
APC’s fourth full-length album marks their reunion after the 2003 break-up over creative differences, and it’s as bombastic and space-age as ever, paying homage to ’80s synths and old school flows mixed with the experimental and the avant-garde. Throw in a hefty dose of singing on an Outkast/George Clinton tip, and abstract lyrical skullduggery, and you’ve got an immersive album stuffed with flows that flood the cerebral cortex. 8/10 Trial Track: “Volcano” (Lateef Martin)

Fashawn
Boy Meets World (One)
Clocking in at 15 tracks, Fashawn’s debut album—produced by Cali’s most fruitful beatsmith, Exile—hits a nearly perfect mark. Aside for one or two less-than-stellar tracks, the album rides from beginning to end with a feelgood vibe and a good-kid-wrong-place narrative from Fashawn that places him as one of the most promising freshmen in the rap game. A guest verse from Blu on “Samsonite Man” marks the shining highlight. 9/10 Trial Track: “Hey Young World” (Morgan Steiker)

Royce da 5’9”
Street Hop (M.I.C.)
Royce made a massive comeback this year, first by joining Slaughterhouse and marking one of the best albums of the year, and now with this very strong new solo LP. Three joints by DJ Premier, including “Hood Love” with Bun B and Joell Ortiz, and “Something 2 Ride 2” with Phonte from Little Brother, give it a boom-bap vibe while songs like “Part of Me” show Royce’s range as a storyteller. 8/10 Trial Track: “Gun Harmonizing” (Morgan Steiker)

Michael Jackson
This Is It (Sony BMG)
The movie soundtrack inspired by the concert that would be Jackson’s final curtain call is essentially a remastered greatest-hits collection that mixes party favourites like “Jam” with more socially conscious fare like “They Don’t Care About Us.” The title track, the only new cut, is a smooth, mid-tempo number that finds Jackson in fine voice, fittingly backed by the other Jackson brothers. 8/10 Trial Track: “This Is It” (Gerard Dee)

Nozen Live!
Au Upstairs (Malasartes)

MINI CD REVIEWS

Cobra Killer Uppers and Downers (Monika) The stark and aggressive, yet sporadically honeyed, electro-dub-punk of this duo of dangerous damsels is definitively Berlin, even with J Mascis, Thurston Moore and Jon Spencer guesting. 8 (RB)

The XX self-titled (Young Turks) Like a starker New Order and a simplified Radiohead combined, this co-ed London quartet exhibit understated excellence on their debut album. 8 (LC)

The Black Crowes Before the Frost (Silver Arrow) By no means is Before the Frost a stinker, but the mighty are definitely stumbling here. Pity. 6 (JC)

Girls Album (Fantasy Trashcan/True Panther) A pair of down-and-out dudes from San Francisco make sloppy pop by that’s part genius, part garbage. 6 (LC) With Real Estate at Il Motore, Mon., Nov. 9, 9 p.m., $15

The Rifles Great Escape (Sixsevenine/Nettwerk) Big-sounding Britannia. It wants the Mancunian factory and Wembley in one grandiose swoop. 5 (EL)