Patrick Wolf
The Bachelor
No, no, no. Mr. Wolf hasnt abandoned his glitchy, emotionally wrought rock opuses for something more mainstream. Known as an enfant terrible of those up-and-coming Brits, it wouldnt be completely out of the question that Wolf would abandon his classical training, and start scoring the emotional heartache of that horsemen of the apocalypse, The Bachelor. Having ascended rather quickly following his breakthrough The Magic Position, its follow-up deals largely with the depression Wolf suffered while touring behind that album, yet tempered with the unexpected surprise of falling in love shortly before recording the album. Its that dichotomy of dark and light that Wolf does so well; a deep darkness buoyed by the unrelenting hopefulness of beats, like on single Vulture.
Cobra Starship
Hot Mess
New York quintet Cobra Starship have become poster boys for latter-day marketing, with an eye so opportunistic, you could doubt their talent. First there was the bands prescient single from their first album, called Snakes On A Plane the song played over the credits for that cinematic piece of Oscar bait. Theyve also covered Katy Perrys I Kissed A Girl (with the appropriate pronoun swaps) and now, have taken the title of their third album from a phrase popularized on gossip blogs and are counting B-list It Girl Leighton Meester as a collaborator. The single the lesser gossip girl appears on is a synth-squawking summer jam thats as much fun as it is uninventive.
Nightmare of You
Infomaniac
Sometimes, in trying to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one, least of all yourself. Which is something the young men in Long Island band Nightmare of You are going to have to face. Theres the dub-half-step moment on I Think Im Getting Old, the non-commital acoustic strumming of Experimental Bed, and the simply wretched line of lyric on Gavi that stands alone: "I want to put a baby inside you so that I can name it and ship it off to the tabloids. Yikes. The one-time Warped tour starters have only confused fans with the directions sought on their sophomore album.
