Lady Sovereign
Jigsaw
(Midget Records)
In a few turbulent years, Lady Sovereign catapulted from underground grime MC to appearances on Total Request Live. In the spotlight, Lady Sov suffered a well-publicized breakdown, losing the plot and her deal with Def Jam. Her second album reintroduces the "biggest midget in the game," on her own terms and label. So it's strange that Jigsaw lacks personality, trading the raw beats of her early singles for trendy electro rhythms and her memorable boasts for half-baked introspection. Little here is awful, but only the outcast anthem "Let's Be Mates" and half-sung Cure remake "So Human" deliver any pop thrills. The scattered pieces of Jigsaw may promise a new direction for Lady Sov, but they don't add up to a compelling portrait. —Jeff Jackson
Span of Sunshine
This Must Be the Present
(independent)
On This Must Be the Present, Steve Koziol sings, "I bought me a radish." Good stuff. Then: "A radish for me." Excellent. Span of Sunshine is very sunshiny indeed. Loads of 1960s flourishes, with a sort of mash-up of Elvis Costello (okay so '70s, too) multi-instrumentalism, Beach Boys harmony and Monkees and early Beatles tomfoolery. The exuberant and florid poppiness in evidence all over sports a decided kids' music vibe—it's just that darned happy. The proceedings are guided by Koziol's high, reverb-soaked vocals. This one is a well-produced, shiny album aimed directly at the old-school pop lover. —James Heflin
Bachelorette
My Electric Family
(Drag City)
Thank the fates that there are still places in the world so distanced from the machinery of popular culture that they can produce such gems of originality. Though there creep through this recording hints of Blondie, Peter Gabriel, '67 Pink Floyd, M.I.A. and even No Doubt, the combination of influences is unique, in the way pop tunes could still occasionally manage to be in 1985. Sometimes the reverb's a tad viscous, but for the most part the whole effort is a restrained pop/trance delicacy, with tight, sometimes chromatically-based melodies sung by Bachelorette's primary player/songcrafter Annabel Alpers. Great lyrics, too: "Technology Boy attempts to live his life as a machine, but then his humanness experiences utilitarian resentment." A keeper. —Tom Sturm
Akron/Family
Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free
(Dead Oceans)
Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free opens with an odd groove, equal parts insistent, cool and annoying. The song quickly morphs to a heady bit of multi-layered vocalizing, then guitar roars in. Several more gear changes lie ahead, upending the textures entirely. It's hard to get bored with all this crammed and compressed into such tight sonic space like "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" strung out to yet more operatic excess. Akron/Family seems fine with hyphenation, as if they are many bands in one, and this album veers wildly from pleasant acoustic pop to jarring guitar noise, all of it lent a dinosaur rock-style studio sheen. If you think you don't like Akron/Family, just wait a minute. —James Heflin
