Simple Plan – Get Your Heart On!

Okay, this isn’t doing much for our street cred, but damned if the pop songs on Get Your Heart On! don’t have (some of) us singing along to every catchy chorus and bopping our heads incessantly. This is absolutely the definition of guilty pleasure, but we don’t care. Not every song on the record is a winner, but enough of them are such sugary sweet bubble gum gems that we dare you to listen to a hook-laden track like "Jet Lag" and reject it completely. Come on, you’ve got to admit that some of these songs are perfectly crafted pop masterpieces. And even if you don’t, we don’t care. We’ve got this one on repeat.

All Pigs Must Die – God Is War

Let’s cleanse the palette with something that is essentially the opposite of mall-punk: God Is War, the first full-length from extreme music supergroup All Pigs Must Die. This is crushing, uncompromising hardcore from veterans of two of heavy music’s greatest bands – Converge and The Hope Conspiracy. All Pigs Must Die delivers a straight up brand of all out intensity that is not for the faint of heart. This record will beat the crap out of the part of you that admitted to liking the new Simple Plan album.

Active Child – You Are All I See

Nothing guilty about this pleasure. Active Child absolutely knocked our socks off with You Are All I See. The brainchild of electronic musician and singer Pat Grossi, Active Child has dug deep to produce an expansive collection of songs drawing from a variety of influences. The songs are both accessible and challenging, a miracle mixture of components that makes every track simultaneously fresh and familiar. There’s an ethereal element here, but one that never lacks energy. Perhaps it’s the scope of this record that compels us to describe it in conflicting terms. This is an album of inspired musicianship from an artist taking his craft to the next level.

Handsome Furs – Sound Kapital

The rise of indie synthpop has been welcomed by any listener who remembers the best of ‘80s pop, even though Handsome Furs are very clear to tell us that “nostalgia never meant much” to them. Be that as it may, Sound Kapital serves up the best of a genre that still carries a stigma of the generation of excess. The tracks here are catchy, but still edgy, continuing the Montreal duo’s tradition of top shelf songwriting and quirk. Recommended.

40 Watt Sun – The Inside Room

If you’re looking for another toe-tapper, look elsewhere. This is depressive, down tempo, doom-influenced rock at its most challenging. What makes 40 Watt Sun so compelling in spite of (or perhaps as well as) its oppressive pace and mood are vocals unique in both voice and melody. At times achingly beautiful, at other times just aching, this is a record best saved for a long, lonely night.

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