Originally published in Verbicide issue #5

This compilation, for the most part, contains straight-up hardcore songs: constipated vocals, grainy guitar, and all. Personally, I only like hardcore at a live show; it’s not the same coming through speakers. I am not a fine judge of hardcore music, so if you are into that particular genre, I highly recommend this CD. As for me, the hardcore songs provide a static backdrop to enable me to listen to the songs that stood out for their respective uniqueness.

The first track by Rouge (“Murmur, an Exotic Fever”) is a melodic and tightly constructed anthem that sounds like Sleater-Kinney on heroin. Andrea Lisi’s “Wish I Wasn’t” is a tender ballad that eloquently expresses the black hole betrayed vulnerability leaves you in — a song that moves me deeply, and unlike most folk chick singers, Ms. Lisi’s voice fully convinces you of the depth and sincerity of her emotions. Malabaster’s “This One Doesn’t Work/This One Does Work” provided me with great racing music at 3 am on Route 21 through Newark, smoking four-cylinder throwbacks into the Stone Age. Beauty Pill’s “This is the Hidden Track” flooded my mind with memories of the early 90s: movies like Reality Bites, my crush on my auburn beauty Angela Chase, Lisa Loeb’s “Stay,” and indie pop music.

I would have been satisfied if the compilation closed with this track. Instead, New Jersey’s own Thursday closes, leaving me with the desire to violently body-slam the singer’s pathetic emo-ness out of him.

(Exotic Fever Records, PO Box 297, College Park, MD 20741-0297)