VARIOUS ARTISTS
Sunaga T experience works ~pieces pour les femmes—World Standard.06
(Flower)

Giving a shout out to female listeners with an all-woman dance compilation is veteran Shibuya-kei DJ/producer Tatsuo Sunaga. Along with Pizzicato Five’s Yasuharu Konishi and Tomoyuki Tanaka, aka Fantastic Plastic Machine, Sunaga T has been one of the key embroiderers of the genre’s crazy quilt of house, jazz, lounge, bossa nova, French pop and the sheer leftfield. The latest in the World Standard series features remixes of singers ranging from Japanese songstresses like Minako Okuyama to sultry French diva Isabelle Antena. If you ever return to your home country and feel nostalgic about Japan, this album will transport you back in no time. DG

PANIC! AT THE DISCO
A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out
(Warner)

Forget that “emo,” “pop-punk,” or whatever you want to call it bears virtually nothing in common with its purported ancestor, punk; take Panic! At The Disco on their own merits. Guitar hooks come so fast they leave you winded, but before you know it the group have segued straight into slick techno or a tongue-in-cheek string quartet. Vocalist Brendan Urie writes songs about modern life (“The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage”), and the gender wars (“Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off”). But what Panic! At The Disco are really about is taking irony to degrees as yet unimagined by previous generations, including this writer’s. DG

THE COOPER TEMPLE CLAUSE
Make This Your Own
(BMG)

Along with losing their bassist Ditz Hammond in the intervening three years since their last album, British alt-rockers TCTC also seem to have lost a minute off each song. Right from the adrenalized opener “Damage,” Make This Your Own makes clear the new, five-piece format will be a leaner, meaner machine. Some may miss the experimental, electronic leanings of their previous work, but the new album rewards with a rawer, more economical approach and memorable guitar hooks with choruses aplenty. Getting off to a commanding start, the album loses momentum towards the middle but then picks up the pace again toward the closer “House of Cards,” a metaphor which could be taken as a reference to a relationship or to the band itself. DG

THE ORDINARY BOYS
How to Get Everything You Ever Wanted in Ten Easy Steps
(B-Unique)

Over The Counter Culture from 2004 was an impressive debut of working class anthems by this British quartet. Their development since then, though, has been focused on lead vocalist Preston’s antics on Celebrity Big Brother. On the group’s latest, we discover what effect the reality TV show had on their music, and it’s not surprising to find the punch gone, and pop prominent. A sell-out it may be, but it’s also a natural step forward for the group, and their sound is expanding: check the debt to the ska of The Specials on the catchy “Nine To Five” and “Lonely At The Top.” “The Great Big Rip Off,” meanwhile, still shows a bit of that original snarl, even if the rest of the album can’t keep the listener’s attention. Robert Poole


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