A Hundred Patterns

Arrivals & Departures Second full length from these Detroit super popstars! This music is all about fun & catchy sing along jingles. To steal use of one of their song titles: their music is "Sugar Sweet!" While there are plenty of "aww how cute" moments in the back-story of Grand Rapids, Michigans The...	Heroes & Sheroes 1. Little Brother 2. Both Hands Full 3. 1968 4. Fake Do-Gooders 5. Benjamin 6. Last to Know 7. Aluminum Crowns 8. Watson on Your Side 9. Teenage Meth-Head 10. NC-17 11. Let Me Spin 12. Copious 13. All Bets are Off 14. Dear Gabby 15. Cash Register 16. When You were a Millionaire 17. I am a Thing	Girls and Boys Early on in "Breakable," from her excellent Girls and Boys, Ingrid Michaelson muses on the fragility of the heart, in both the literal and symbolic senses--"have you ever thought about what protects our hearts--just a cage of rib bones and other various parts… we are just bre...	Last Page in the Book of Love A 30-track digipak CD by TREE FORT ANGST called 'Last Page In The Book of Love' What It Sounds Like: Chiming, guitar-based indiepop combining Postcard/Sarah-label jangle with a somewhat 60s-ish garagey energy. Think Orange Juice, early Aztec Camera, The Chills... but American.....	Keren Ann The fifth album from the Paris-and-New-York-based chanteuse is mesmerizing and beautiful all the way through. Unlike with, say, Mazzy Star or even Feist, Keren Ann shows that she can rise above the slyly sensual signing style to deliver actual croons. From the deliberately breath...
Electrified There won't be many dentists recommending this album. Dressy Bessy specialize in the sweet sticky stuff that has absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever. The Denver quartet aren't folks to stew about their problems. Instead, they bask on the sunny side of the street and write ...	Structure and Cosmetics The Sub Pop debut by these New Zealand natives features breezy, effervescent, Shangri-Las-reminiscent pop. The backing band ranges from five to ten strong and incorporates the marimba, trumpet, alto and tenor sax, and more. "Structure & Cosmetics" retains the sweetly charming,...	Let It Die Canadian singer Leslie Feist has served as a guest vocalist for Norwegian folkies Kings of Convenience, Toronto power-pop troupe Broken Social Scene, and - under the frightening moniker "Bitch Lap-Lap" - the hairy female rapper Peaches. But her unruly resume hardly prepares you f...	Re-Arrange Us On this release, the duo move beyond their trademark wall of sound with additional instrumentation, including lush strings, guitar, and horns to back up their already honed melodic songwriting.	Costello Music There's nothing terribly complicated about the Fratellis' debut album, Costello Music, but that's by no means a criticism. Rather than inject their songs with complex chords, or steep their lyrics with their political and social agendas, this Glasgow trio have instead focussed...

An Ice Cold Album That Has The Variety of Snow
When I got my cellphone, it came preloaded with this cool ringtone called "Sugar Sweet." No, it doesn't have anything to do with The Nutcracker, but I was intrigued by the 30 seconds of the song that came with the phone, so I searched out the group and got the full song. I dug it. It's a lite pop rock song that sounds more of a 60s track than a 00s track. It's catchy and I love the guitar work in it. It keeps a nice melody and ends up to be a pretty good song. The next step was to check out The Icicles' album, and this produced different feelings altogether. In fact, I felt like I was hearing different variations of "Sugar Sweet" musically on ever song, with different lyrics thrown in to keep it different. I really wanted to love the album, but every song sounds the same, with the best being truly saved till the last track. Is it lack of creativity, or lack of material, or did they just find a proven formula, and stick with it for every song? All possible, but I think it's just lack of talent, because every song has the same instruments. So it might have been because nobody wanted to get left out, or this is all you can really do with what they had to work with. In either case, it unfortunately doesn't pan out on this album for The Icicles. So pick up "Sugar Sweet," and leave it at that.

Happiness is this CD
If you need a boost, pop this disc into the player. Without being chirpy, this little group makes joyful noise. I'm really impressed with mood elevation that it brings. It would make a great gift for a tweenager with a beginning interest in rock.

Happy, Female Vocals, Indie Pop
It's a pity that the tracks can't be sampled, or even listed, at the time that I write this. The CD includes 11 songs, melodic, upbeat, with female vocals and harmonies, clever lyrics, with an unobstrusive background dash of 60's bubblegum style organ. Other bands that have some similarities to The Icicles include The Eames Era, Cub, & The Concretes, all of whose music can be heard on Amazon. If you're a fan of this type of music, I'd recommend The Icicles. Of the 11 songs, all are good and 5 or 6 have migrated to my mp3 player for long term listening.