(Friendly Fire)

www.friendlyfirerecordings.com

There’s a doomed romanticism running across these songs, as if Matthew Thomas Dillon (aka Windmill) was the only living organism left in a dead-white plastic universe. He is, not surprisingly, upset about this, his nervy, piccolo-sharp voice raised in anguished protest of fluorescent lights, airport departure lounges and plasticine earplugs. His voice is so razory, so unusual (though Wayne Coyne is obviously a reference point) that it cuts through lush arrangements of piano and strings and bangs right up against the limits of song.

Not that there aren’t some great songs here. “Tokyo Moon”, up first and shockingly good, could be the desperate ode to loneliness that Arcade Fire never had the guts to make. “Asthmatic,” later on, prickles with piano and swells with massive harmonies. It has the sheeny exuberance of an Evangelicals cut. These tracks show that Dillon is best when he marshals all the elements of pop – big choruses, group vocals, steady triumphant rhythms – into his angsty, alienated compositions. “Jump out, jump in, jump out of your skin,” he exhorts in the drum-banging, anthemic “Plastic Pre-Flight Seats,” the voice frayed with feeling, the melody arching towards catharsis, and if you listen hard enough, you almost do.

Standout Tracks: “Tokyo Moon”, “Asthmatic” “Plastic Pre Flight Seats” JENNIFER KELLY