Athena, Holding Your Hair, Whispering In Your Ear

For me a few are enough, one is enough, none is enough. This is not for the many, but for you. We are audience enough for each other.

High-energy California punk rock with infectious melodies and killer bass lines. Stop reading this review and go listen to Talkin' on the Internet. It's two and a half minutes long and will do a better job of explaining why this album is rad than words can do. Start with: Talkin' on the Internet, Slick Rick, Clashing at the Party.

The Paranoid Style's Elizabeth Nelson is both a music critic and a Washington D.C. resident and both are abundantly obvious in this collection of bafflingly interesting rock songs. Musically it's sort of Warren Zevon meets ZZ Top in the best possible way, but the lyrics are where the real action is on this record. The lyrics are dense and studded with references, but the album is equally likely to reference rock legends (e.g. Elvises both Presley and Costello) as it is to pull in law, politics, and D.C. inside baseball (defense contractor Pratt and Whitney get a shoutout?). If that sounds confusing or boring, just sit down and listen, It's a gem. Start with: I Love the Sound of Structured Class, Client States, The Interrogator.

There's a lot to love on this wild and freewheeling punky indie rock album. There's an unforgettable moment sbout 45 seconds into I Got Heaven, where Marisa Dabice sing-songs in an increasingly bored tone "And what if we stopped spinning? And what if we're just flat?" before absolutely roaring out "And what if Jesus himself ate my fucking snatch?", and then pivots into a much softer, catchy rock bridge that sounds ripped from one of Garbage's early albums. That kind of high contrast mix of high gloss and no gloss is the core of the album, rapidly cycling though sneering aggression, sexuality, and tenderness. Start with: I Got Heaven, I Don't Know You, Loud Bark.