THE EARLY YEARS

The Early Years / Beggars Banquet

4 out of 5

Putting your finger on exactly why this band totally rules is difficult at first. There’s a certain psychedelic jamminess to them that makes them sort of resembles The Secret Machines, with heavily effected guitars swooping in and out of the sky like the ring wraiths on the backs of black dragons. At other times the trio sounds like Stereolab, frenetically searching around the room, exploring its dimensions with echo radar like demented space dolphins. The Early Years are a composite of many subtle elements that really just makes you wanna get up on your chair at work and rock that air guitar like no one in the office is watching. “Song for Elizabeth” is the perfect Western drug ballad, channeling the spirits of Jesus and Mary Chain and Mazzy Star in some kind of unholy ritual. Their extended instrumentals are totally trippy without being corny at all and will rattle your spine like strychnine if you are wearing headphones. Take me away!

M. WARD

Post-War / 4AD

3 out of 5

Steely strings and raggedy vocals most notably characterize M. Ward’s body of work. The singular voiced singer/songwriter personifies the American Southwest to a tee. Just listening to this album you can almost see the desert plateaus painted in crimson and lavender hues, the sleepy towns, the abandoned shacks and surreal rock formations aside a long burning strip of highway cutting the vacuous landscape in two. Nestled neatly between indie rock, folk and American country music, Post-War sounds like a collaboration between Johnny Cash, Nick Drake and Arcade Fire. It’s a collection of campfire melodies, old time rags, myths, legends, creaky wives tales and dirty-mouthed poems. Its chugging, locomotive rhythms are at times borderline hokey, but for the most part are entrancing. It’s a unique listen for those in a quirky, mellow mood.

DEPECHE MODE

The Best of Depeche Mode / Mute

1 out of 5

Mute as a record label has definitely had their heyday in terms of releasing some really cool music over the years, but something is obviously wrong with them at this point. Seriously—what are you thinking releasing another Depeche Mode “greatest hits” album? How many of them are there at this point—15, 20 maybe? All right, so they are perhaps the coolest synth rock band in history, but still. In 1998, Mute themselves released a definitive collection of DM’s hits on two CDs—one covering their best and brightest released 1981-85, and the other covering their hits 1986-98. OK, so the group came out with a few more releases since 1998, but nothing that even approaches the quality of their earlier work. And the songs on this collection are not their greatest hits. Kudos for including “Never Let Me Down Again,” an oft-ignored gem of the DM catalog, but there are some glaring absences on this album. For example, where is “Dreaming of Me”? “Get the Balance Right”? “Blasphemous Rumours”? “Shake the Disease”? Hello??? Is anybody home? Come on, boys, you should know better.