Elefant
The Black Magic Show
(Hollywood)

Although they began as just another one of the New York hipster elite bands that came onto the scene a couple years ago, Elefant quickly became overshadowed by like-minded NYC acts such as the Strokes and Ambulance LTD. Now, Elefant's 2003 effort Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid is a faded memory. But unlike the Strokes, whose new album reeks of pretension and monotony, The Black Magic Show is worth the wait. Obviously influenced by the Smiths and Pulp, singer Diego Garcia chants through lush, understated pop melodies that are a little more dancey and upbeat than those on that last album. "Lolita" marches with perfect New Wave staccato and "Uh Oh Hello" is charmingly catchy, providing limitless fodder for indie rock DJs everywhere.
The members of Elefant may not have a single unique musical idea in their perfectly coifed heads, but they certainly know how to draw the best pieces of good bands together to form likeable, subtly hooky songs. Garcia croons with his best Morrissey impression on "My Apology," the album's standout. "The Lunatic" has angular, descending guitar riffs and quick beats that recall the B-52's, while Garcia continues to channel Moz. The Strokes may be the ones that ended up in the spotlight, but Elefant actually executes its music with finesse.

— Emily Zemler

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs
Under The Covers Vol. 1
(Shout Factory)

Major fans of the '60s, Matthew "Sid" Sweet and Susanna "Susie" Hoffs found 15 songs they liked and prepared to re-record them Sid & Susie-style. Working within the comforts of Lolina Green (Sweet's home studio), the results are impressive. A labor of love, each song is delivered with sugarcoated honor. Generally, it's sacrilegious to cover the Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing" or Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," but these versions beg you to hit repeat and sing along. The lead track, "I See The Rain," by the Marmalade, sounds as if it were penned for the duo while the bold decision to cover Fairport Convention and Love is admirable to say the least.
Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" and "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" are performed with such zeal, they instantly stand out. The Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" is included because, "it's a reassuring song, definitely good for the hangover." Great songs, perfect vocal harmonies, swirling guitars (by Ivan Julian and Richard Lloyd) and marvelous artwork (by the New Yorker's Ed Fotheringham) add up to a disc that invites you to pull out the originals, making Volume II (the '70s) highly anticipated.

— Karen Laney

The Dresden Dolls
Yes, Virginia…
(Roadrunner)

The Dresden Dolls' second album, Yes, Virginia… follows less than a year after the completion of a nearly two-year touring cycle for the band's self-titled debut. The strength of that record, coupled with an excellent live show, allowed the band to spread its self-professed "Brechtian punk cabaret" to the masses via high-profile festival spots, its own headlining gigs and opening slots for Nine Inch Nails. In the three years since that debut, the band has apparently tired of the Weimer-era German cabaret shtick. It's subdued on this record, if it's there at all. What's left is still exhilarating, though.
The album begins with the empowering androgyny of "Sex Changes," as singer/songwriter/pianist Amanda Palmer declares, "They always said that sex would change you." "Dirty Business" paints a picture of "the kind of girl who leaves out condoms on the bedroom dresser/ Just to make you jealous of the men she fucked before you met her," atop cascading piano and bombastic drumming. No one's ever going to make the mistake of calling Palmer a prude — at least not when it comes to her lyrical material. Even the album's quiet and intimate moments manage to astonish with their confrontationally frank tone.

— Jeremy Willets

Various Artists
Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads
(BBE Records)

It's hard to describe what, exactly, this collection of reworked Radiohead tunes qualifies as. It's loosely a tribute album, though the British rock group's songs aren't treated with any real reverence here. And it's not a remix disc since the songs have been more than remixed. Whatever the case, it's a novel concept that works particularly well, thanks in part to the fact that it's such an imaginative take on the band's oeuvre.
Singer Shawn Lee starts things off by bringing out the Louis Armstrong side of "No Surprises," singing the tune with a touch of that Armstrong swagger. Producer Mark Ronson enlists Phantom Planet's Alex Greenwald to sing "Just," which he turns into a swinging jazz number, complete with a terrific horn arrangement and soulful vocals. And who knows what the hell RJD2 is up to with "Airbag," which he recasts with lots of ambient noise and random bits of distortion. Between Matthew Herbert's trip-hop take on "Nice Dream," the Randy Watson Experience's down-tempo rendition of "Morning Bell," and Pete Kuzma's sensual cover of "High & Dry," with crooner Bilal handling vocals, there's plenty here to suggest Radiohead's music deserves a place in the lounge and jazz clubs.

— Jeff Niesel

 Various Artists
Headbangers Ball: The Revenge
(Roadrunner Records)

You can make a case that heavy music has never been in better shape or that it's become rote and derivative. You could use this 38-track double CD to make either case, depending on which tracks you pick. Either way, this survey of new (as opposed to nŸ) metal from the last decade gives an overview of trends in heavy music. The two veteran bands here — Iron Maiden with a live version of "The Trooper" and Motorhead's "Killers" — are good choices, demonstrating where a lot of these bands draw inspiration. Combining elements of '80s power metal (Maiden) and speed metal (Motorhead) with death and black metal and hardcore, these bands have created, for better (In Flames, Chimaira) or worse (Hatebreed, Slipknot), a new sound.
The weakest tracks are those on which the band seems to be going for radio airplay with slower tempos, melodic vocals and cleaner production. "Forget to Remember," for instance, certainly isn't Mudvayne at its raging best. Bleeding Through's "Kill to Believe" is an almost folky ballad that feels out of place, and Underoath's "It's a Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door" doesn't live up to its title in any way. Trivium's combo of a thundering power-metal instrumenal and a death-metal-style vocal on "A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation" is the high point of disc one, but most of the standouts are on disc two, including Bullet for my Valentine's rampaging "Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow," Opeth's conflation of symphonic metal with death metal singing on "The Grand Conjuration," and Norma Jean's jarring splotch of math rock, "Liarsenic." Juxtaposing angelic harmonies with harsh music is a signature move for many of these bands, and it's executed especially well by Walls of Jericho on "A Trigger Full of Promises."

— Anastasia Pantsios