Actually intelligent pop. Growly bass guitars, standard punk-pop drums, pleasantly knowing, very clear, emotionally uninteresting female vocals. Lyrics are occasionally awesome (as noted below). Songwriting also has some cool interesting moments. I liked best: 4, 7, 8, 10. Possible FCC: 9.

Track 1: Growly (but not as growly as usual for the album) guitars, punk-pop drums. Melodic. A not-very-coherent ode to independent radio.
Track 2: Wandering lyrics about the Pernicious Media. Oohing female back-up vocals give things a nice atmospheric twist.
Track 3: *Beginning of song sounds expectant, like we’re going to go somewhere exciting…but we don’t, unless you count her weird rooster imitations in the middle. Funny lyrics: Horatio Alger meets fin de siècle pop music culture.
Track 4: ***Heavy descending bass line kicks things off nicely. Lovely allusive lyrics about children and soldier games.
Track 5: Heavy bass. Wandering anti-television and advertising screed.
Track 6: *Angry vocals, growly bass. Strongly rhythmic. Repetitive choruses, but many of you will probably appreciate the verses wryly protesting the standardization of pop music.
Track 7: ***Less growly than other tracks, more melodic. Really cool layering of voices in the second chorus. False ending before the last chorus—don’t be tempted to dive for the board prematurely.
Track 8: ***Starts of with a heavy bass chord, but gets downright sprightly after that. Lyrics are an awesome mash-up of the Doctrine of Manifest Destiny and creative freedom. Some nice syncopation in the middle.
Track 9: ~FCC? A pretty unrecognizable shit occurs thrice. Growly bass. Natural voice and distorted distant-sounding voice engage in cool call and response. Some ominous reverb in the bass during the instrumental section. I’m always happy to hear a bridge, and this track has a nice one. The song title would imply an anti-G.W. theme, but it’s pretty subtle.
Track 10: **Dreamy choruses, with cool pauses and barely distorted vocals. Bass and guitar do a more minimal Rage Against the Machine style thing. I don’t mean to censure—that’s just what it kinda sounds like. Who could help liking a song containing a line like “Barbie Shaman’s rising on monobucket radio?”
Track 11: Hostile minimal bass and drums. Lyrics meander aimlessly.
Track 12: Upbeat, with lyrics full of hackneyed half-felt outrage.

-Kathryn