Under Attack by the Alarm

The Alarm is to Europe what the Bon Jovi is to New Jersey – and the United States – old 80s hair metal marvel boys trapped in the times of tight spandex and Aquanet. And the latest effort, Under Attack, is no different than their lonely hit “Sixty-Eight Guns” – plenty of lackluster, fist-pumping anthems that desperately want the good ol’ times back (just check out “My Town” and “Few and Far Between”). Maybe it’s unfortunate for them that the Jovi were famous first – or at least, deservingly famous – but with a humdrum automaton like Under Attack, it’s no surprise. At least Jovi had “Livin’ on a Prayer.”

Turn on Red by the Takeovers

For the prolific and peculiar Robert Pollard of the infamous indie troupe Guided by Voices, being eccentric is nothing short of expected. And on his latest musical venture – the collaborative effort of the Takeovers, with GBV bassist Chris Slusarenko and Mudhoney’s Dan Peters – idiosyncrasy has turned obscenely hysterical. Maybe it’s the fact that the Takeover’s latest album Turn on Red plays out like a mental breakdown – the tunes spontaneously jump from lo-fi 70s rock to chipper new wave beats to sleazy power-pop in a matter of minutes. Or maybe it’s the lack of tight production that distorts the disc’s exceptional talent. Either way, the Takeovers Turn on Red could easily become a Pollard record to recall if not for its lack of an attention span. Still, it does work. Well.

The Kids The Club: An indie pop compilation

There’s that old adage – the one that music snobs of the 90s love to tell the new generation of aficionados with a wag of a finger – “this is not your brother’s Indie.” And that may be definitely true of the Kids At the Club compilation from How Does it Feel to Be Loved? records. Unlike the hard roughage of our indie fore-fathers, Kids… is an overstuffed goodie bag of starry pop numbers and dance curves that is a blend of pillowy soft voices, simple keyboard slits, twisted tamborines and excitable guitar work.  
But behind the haze of dusty garages that have sheltered the new indie underground, Kids… runs from the watered down sugar  of Voxtrot’s “The Start of Something” to the quiet femme fatale angst of Tender Traps’s “Ampersand” with speed. And – with the expectation of  “Black Minds, White Lines” by Swedish playmates the Salty Pirates – the low tones and breathy of this love fest compilation make for an easy, smooth listen.