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 Fucked Up
Couple Tracks (Matador/Select)
Keeping tabs on the steady flow of extremely limited seven-inch vinyl from these hipster-approved Toronto punkers is nearly impossible, but now, thankfully, we get most of their latter-day wax output in a nifty, corporate-friendly CD format. While most bands would just stoop to scraps off the cutting-room floor for limited-edition singles, this collection proves to be some of the best work they’ve ever done. All 25 songs stand on their own instead of being compromised to fit into a larger body of work. 9/10 Trial Track: “Generation” (Johnson Cummins)
 Nouvelle Vague
3 (Peacefrog)
With half its tracks featuring vocals by the original songwriters (such as Ian McCulloch and Martin Gore), in duet with the usual crew of cooing girls, and with arrangements expanding on straight bossa nova, this reanimated covers project sounds reinvigorated. Not every track is a winner, but a twangy take on Talking Heads’ “Road to Nowhere” and the Psychedelic Furs’ “Heaven” gone bossa-lite make great cocktail music. 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Master and Servant” (Lorraine Carpenter) With Clare and the Reasons at l’Astral, Tues., Jan. 26, 8 p.m., $30
 Spoon
Transference (Merge)
With mere guitar, bass, drums, voice—the latter by Britt Daniel, forever perfecting a balance of tough and tender—plus a spot of piano, Austin’s Spoon serve up their seventh portion of quick-on-its-feet rock, laced with falsetto funk and roadhouse blues. Romance and spiritual epiphany are recurring motifs, but Daniel’s tales of heart and soul are neither sappy nor tacky. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Got Nuffin’” (Lorraine Carpenter)
 Retribution Gospel Choir
self-titled (Sub Pop)
This could be considered another glorified solo record from Low’s Alan Sparhawk, but something forced him to turn the volume knob up here. After two false-start EPs, this first full-length finally makes good, with Sparhawk, as usual, sharp as a tack in the lyrical department. RGC are as comfortable with dirges in the darkness as they are with Laurel Canyon rock or simply just kicking out the jams. These songs should really ascend live. 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Bless Us All” (Johnson Cummins) With Murder Ford Monument at Casa Del Popolo. Tues., Jan. 26, 9:30 p.m., $12
 Ben Gunning
Mal de Mer (Zunior/Outside)
A not-so-jaunty nautical theme informs the second solo album from former Local Rabbit Gunning. Across tracks like “I Can’t Swim” and “Jetsam Tale,” a cruise ship staffer’s descent into malaise serves as the platform for Gunning’s sweet ’n’ sour philosophical musings on Big Questions. Gunning’s plaintive vocal style hasn’t changed, nor, amid this fluid, meandering jazz-rock, his quirkiness—which becomes queasiness at times, suiting the title. 7/10 Trial Track: “Silhouettes” (Rupert Bottenberg) With Hobson’s Choice at Casa del Popolo, Sat., Jan. 23, 8:30 p.m.
 Motion City Soundtrack
My Dinosaur Life (Columbia/Sony)
In the early aughts, there was a glut of emo rockers from the Midwest plucking at our heartstrings and rocking with youthful purpose. Fewer flies are buzzing, and the survivors will need to find unique ways to adapt. These Minnesotans barely stave off certain doom by retaining the melodic core that first gave these groups relevance, and cutting out the cheap gimmickry. 5.5/10 Trial Track: “@!#?@!” (Erik Leijon)
OK Go
Of the Blue Colour of the Sky (Capitol/EMI)
So a few years ago, OK Go YouTubed a homemade music video with them doing a choreographed routine, and suddenly went from label-merger casualties to award-show performers. Of course, when they performed at the MTV awards, they did their treadmill dance with the song they wrote playing in the background. Pretty much sums up their latest. 5/10 Trial Track: “This Too Shall Pass” (Erik Leijon)
 The Juan MacLean
The Future Will Come Remixes (DFA/Scion AV)
Gavin Russom’s remix of cosmic funk jam “Accusations” is more restrained and robotic, but equally psychedelic. Canyons rework the bubbly, whimsical title track into a slick classic electro groove. House of House make melancholic piano lament “Human Disaster” into a wash of relentless percussion and pulsing synths. Shit Robot makes “No Time” super dark and heavy, as if it were Juan five years ago. 9/10 Trial Track: “No Time” (Jack Oatmon)
 Ke$ha
Animal (RCA/Sony)
A chilling window into the vacant mind of a Valley party girl. Regrettable 4 a.m. Facebook confessions set to a Black Eyed Peas perma-loop, with auto-slurred talk-singer Ke$ha successfully giving the impression she’s found a miracle hangover cure in flavoured vodka. If you ever wonder what your slutty daughter does for kicks, these are the impetuous in-the-moment ramblings of loutish youth. 6/10 Trial Track: “Backstabber” (Erik Leijon)
 Jack Splash
King of the Beats Vol. 1 (independent)
Between the snappy, sparkling jams he cooks up—dude’s worked with Missy, Foxx, Keys, Legend, you name it—and the lame, lurching, grab-ya-balls braggadocio of his rapping, it’s clear that producer-plus Jack Splash is better off behind the board, not the mic. On this second of three “mixtapes” (full albums of originals, actually), part of a grandiose build-up to his J Records debut in May, wicked little bundles of funk abound, but the vocals should have been left entirely to pals like Cee-lo Green, whose refrain on “38 Special,” one mere line looped, nonetheless elevates the track to honeyed heaven. 6/10 Trial Track: “38 Special” feat. Cee-lo (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Robin Thicke
Sex Therapy (Interscope/Universal)
Thicke’s fourth set strays from the ’70s soul vibe he mined so well on 2008’s Something Else. Instead, he opts for a more generic R&B sound on tracks like “Shakin It 4 Daddy” which, not surprisingly, falls flat. But he redeems himself on songs like “Mrs. Sexy” and “Jus Right” by riding the retro wave that worked so well for him before. 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Jus Right” (Gerard Dee)
 Bei Bei & Shawn Lee
Into the Wind (Ubiquity)
The collaboration between California’s Bei Bei He—since seven, a player of the Chinese guzheng, an outsized zither—and Ubiquity’s ubiquitous kitsch-funk studio rat Shawn Lee amounts at the very least to sultry jams suited to some grainy, bell-bottomed Hong Kong gangster flick—and that’s no complaint. The more sublime moments, however, recall the astral jazz pluckings of Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Hot Thursday” (Rupert Bottenberg)
MINI CD REVIEWS
Jookabox Dead Zone Boys (Asthmatic Kitty/Domino) Oddball dirty noise-funk: a hodgepodge of weird sounds, percussion and non-musical vocals forming into a perfect symphony of dissonance. 8.5 (EL)
Buzz Ensemble The Planets (Fidelio) With the Buzz brass and Mélanie Barney’s organ, Holst’s big damn astronomic suite—a fave of James Hetfield’s—gets even more oomph. 8 (RB)
Virulence If This Isn’t a Dream 1985-1989 (Southern Lord) An early picture of Fu Manchu’s Scott Hill and Ruben Romano before they hit the bong and were still in full-fledged Black Flag and B’last mode. 7.5 (JC)
Alice Russell Pot of Gold Remix (Six Degrees) The discerning listener’s Amy Winehouse, reconsidered by DJ Vadim, Mr. Scruff, Llorca, Dusty and—standout!—the Heavy. 7 (RB)
We Are the City In a Quiet World (independent) Kelowna kids evoke Death Cab, Coldplay and Conor with boy vocals, piano and guitar co-starring in solidly written, pro-produced tunes. 6 (LC)
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