Honorable Mehntion #4

The Postmarks: "Six Different Ways" (from By the Numbers)

In the sixth installment of The Postmarks' free piecemeal covers album, they have chosen a well-loved Cure song. Usually bands who cover The Cure end up biting off more than they can chew, attempting to emulate The Cure's style on some level. The Postmarks, on the other hand, take the song in a completely different direction. Preserving only the melody and the lyrics, they base their own version on piano and horns. It's an endearingly maudlin affair and they succeed in making the song even sadder than The Cure did.

Paavohaarju: "Italialaisella Laivalla" (from Laulu Laakson Kukista)

This song is much more down to earth than most of Paavoharju's music, eschewing experimentation in favor of simplicity. The melody is uncomplicated but heart-rending. Even for those of us that don't understand Finnish, the mood of longing for earlier days comes across loud and clear.

Beck: "Gamma Ray" (from Modern Guilt)

"Gamma Ray" captures much of what I've always enjoyed about Beck and has been lacking from his more recent work. The lyrics features superior puns and wordplay to any song he's done since Sea Change. Stylistically, it's not as schizoid as his earlier work, but it's a more than competent exercise in straightforward psych/garage rock.

Atlas Sound: "Bite Marks" (from Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel)

I haven't quite bought into the Atlas Sound/Bradford Cox mania that has overtaken the hipster crowd as of late, but I can admire a sublime track like "Bite Marks". The song is tenuous and barely manifest; it continually materializes and dissolves in a foam of static. This track reaffirms the late 80s 4AD aesthetic and cements Cox's place among his labelmates.

Bear in Heaven: "Shining and Free" (from Red Bloom of the Boom)

Weird, gauzy and dissonant, "Shining and Free" seems to fall about midway along the spectrum between Slowdive and COIL. While the percussive crescendo at the end puts me off slightly, the majority of the song is unexpectedly alluring.

Albert Hammond, Jr. "Feed Me Jack or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Peter Sellers" (from ¿Cómo Te Llama?)

While the production on "Feed Me Jack" is a little overbearing and does the song few favors, the melody rescues it from the tedium that overwhelms most of Hammond's sophmore solo album. It would have been extraordinary as a simple vocal/piano track, but the embellishments reduce it to nearly excellent. However, it's still the best track on the album.