Cracker
Greatest Hits Redux
Cooking Vinyl
Street: 02.21
Cracker = Ryan Adams - drunken brawls + mid-80s R.E.M. + drunken antics
Not just a greatest hits, but a redux! What the hell? It means that Cracker hates their former, cruel record company so much that they’re releasing an album full of re-recorded songs to beat them to the punch (Virgin Records released an “unauthorized” greatest hits on the same day as the redux – see Amazon.com for Cracker super-fan opinions on the subject). The original alt-country rockers’ second mission with this batch is to offer “versions that were truer to our live performance.” Indeed, the music smacks of raw, dudes-rocking-out-in-the-studio and jams they’ve performed for the last 15 years. You get to relive how much you wished you had your own “Eurotrash Girl” and how your heart jumped at the first open-hat hit of “Low,” preparing your lungs to handle a shout of “being with you girl/hey, hey, hey like bein’ stoned!” The new track, “Something You Aint Got” – a prelude for their upcoming album out in June – seals the deal … for super-fans. –Dave Madden

Crime in Stereo
The Trouble Stateside
Nitro Records
Street: 04.18
Crime in Stereo = Black Flag + Strung Out
Crime in Stereo hovers between the glass-covered guts of 80s hardcore punk and the melodic intricacies punk has gained in the last five years. The first track of The Trouble Stateside begins with a harrowing scream followed by silver-bullet guitars and super-pissed vocals. However, metal licks on subsequent tracks show a prowess that earlier punkers couldn’t, or wouldn’t, pull off. Screw the nay-sayers who want music to sound the same, decade after decade. Nitro found a musical marriage made in heaven. –Shane Farver

Cue the Doves
Architectures of the Atmosphere
Dead Letter Records
Street: 03.21
Cue the Doves = Hopesfall + Coheed and Cambria + Hum guitar sounds – the good stuff
Cue the Doves? I was hoping there would be some John Woo action; I wanted some birds to fly out of the CD case, then I’d dive into my kitchen and shoot up the living room couch. No such luck. Architectures of the Atmosphere? Sounds space-alicious, haughty, but cool. Wrong again. Sounds like these guys stocked up on the effect pedals and forgot the originality. Most of the time the guitar lines sound like a cheap cop-out version of Hum, stripped of their originality and coated in a post-punk sheen. There are high-pitched vocals laced throughout, with the occasional tough guy yelling. It has Hopesfall elements, but nobody was really that into that band, were they? After a song or two they got old. Imagine how this is. Oh, and it would be nice if the drummer would play the same songs as the rest of the band. I guess when you’re in space, small things like “cohesion” and “originality” don’t matter. –Peter Fryer

Demolition Doll Rods
There is a Difference
Swami Records
Street Date: 04.18
Demolition Doll Rods = The Cramps + The Kinks – a wee bit of pizzazz
If you’re looking for intricately laced melodies, harmonious vocals and rolling guitar solos, too goddamn bad. Demolition Doll Rods serve 1950s rock n’ roll with scratchier vocals and slimier lyrical content. There is a Difference is a grease-laden trip through stripped-down guitars, simple beats and straightforward lyrics. “It feels like sin, I can’t wait to do it again,” sings Margaret Doll Rod on “On the Way to School.” The Doll Rods don’t pull it off as well as, say, Lux Interior, but there’s some definite garage-cred with this band. -Shane Farver

Desole
A Story to Tell
Abacus Recordings
Street: 03.07
Desole = Further Seems Forever + Before Braille + three guitars
I never ate brussels sprouts because I had this notion that they were terrible. They looked like the pods in Aliens and smelled like old socks. Most people would agree with me. So, feeling like I had the support of the world, it seemed completely justifiable to shun the small vegetable. I was set; no brussels sprouts were going to touch my taste buds. Then one Thanksgiving my mom roasted them, and after much hemming and hawing I ate one. It was damn good. Desole is to music as brussels sprouts are to vegetables. That is: I didn’t want to like them (mainly because of the genre). I probably wasn’t supposed to like them, and then it hit me, “Damn, this is good.” Tastefully composed guitars, catchy hooks, emotion and great band dynamics are all here. And three guitars rarely, if ever, work. Even the interludes between songs are well thought out. This record works. A Story to Tell is a solid effort by this six-piece poppy/post-hardcore/indie/emo/whatever group from Arizona. (Club Boom Va 3.28) –Peter Fryer