Grown Backwards

(Nonesuch Records)

***

In the ex-Talking Heads frontman's seventh solo release, David Byrne gets his croon on using a string quartet as his primary rhythm section. Byrne, like Beck and David Bowie, reinvents himself with every release, and Grown Backwards delivers a more melodic and marimba-based vehicle for Byrne's absurdly poignant lyrics. One of the albums' highlights is a cover of Lambchop's tender, melancholic "The Man Who Loved Beer"; Byrne did away with the steel guitars, but otherwise remains faithful to the cerebral tear-in-your-beer tune. The intensely hummable refrain of "Tiny Apocalypse" is reminiscent of "Road to Nowhere"'s gentle, lulling chorus. Scratchy sharp cellos kick off "The Other Side of This Life," which segues into the great opening lyric, "I don't have any more problems." With a line like that, one almost has to keep listen to decide if Byrne is full of shit or really onto something--or whether those two options must be mutually exclusive. CHAS BOWIE

EVENING

Other Victorians

(Lookout! Records)

*

Recently, Lookout! Records has made attempts to diversify its sound from the bouncy gutterpunk genre the label has come to exemplify. But if Evening's Other Victorians is any indication, perhaps Lookout! should stick to what it knows best. Other Victorians reveals a group of faux-Radiohead late-comers to the dancepunk scene who are competent with samples, effects, and Wurlitzers, but not, unfortunately, with the craft of songwriting. "Placing You Center" starts off with a basic Casio beats and some decent, ethereal OK Computer effects before launching into the lamest guitar solo since "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn," and trite lyrics about feeling "left out from the perfect place" before going back to the guitar hook. Things never pick up from there, as the rest of album drifts off into annoying clichés of guitar washes, echoplex loops, and pedestrian lyrics. CB

TV ON THE RADIO

Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

(Touch and Go)

****

The most striking assets of the Brooklyn band TV on the Radio are the vocals--strong harmonies by frontman Tunde Adebimpe and guitarist Kyp Malone that waver between barbershop duet and Peter Gabriel's icy hum, or take a deeper turn toward soul singers like Mick Collins when they play live. Either way, their prominent talents add warmth to a post-punk record that opens with stark electronics from David Andrew Sitek and slowly melts through the clinical aesthetic with plaintive emotions that, however somber, are still vibrant with feeling on songs about broken dreams and fractured wings or promises of being the ambulance to a lover's accident. Thin walls of space-rock guitars and feather-weighted drumbeats also add color to the band's first full-length in a release that's sure to propel further into the spotlight they deserve. JENNIFER MAERZ

**** Hi-C

*** Tang

** Super Sip

* Kool Aid