For a preview of what may be awaiting retro-pop fans in 2007, try Barcelona (Silverthree), a three-song EP (plus five generally solid remixes) by D.C. alt-dance band Soft Complex. The title track sounds like a lovely lost song from the Aztec Camera/Simple Minds era, mixing jangly, Smiths-style guitars and vocals with low cello and ebullient rhythms, but the real gem is "Sad Note," a breathy ballad strung together with lyrical instrumental passages. It sounds like the whole of '80s radio recombined into a fluidly sentimental symphony… A-
The Scottish underground-pop scene has been sending great bands out into the world since the days of Orange Juice and Josef K, and its latest peak export is The Twilight Sad, a lo-fi quartet that explores the upper atmosphere with billowing, hypnotic songs. The band's debut EP, The Twilight Sad (Fatcat), jumps from minimalist mumble to eruptive waves of feedback in songs that owe a huge debt to The Velvet Underground and My Bloody Valentine. Their special spark of personality comes from lead singer James Graham, who whispers, shouts, and croons his way through moment-sketches like "That Summer At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy" in a voice that recalls the similarly moony Stuart Murdoch and Tim Booth… A-
The Twilight Sad's Glawegian neighbor My Latest Novel also upholds Scotland's indie-pop honor with Wolves (The Worker's Institute), a 10-song suite that's just as locked into repetition as The Twilight Sad, but with an emphasis on sober silence over expansive clatter. Frankly, a little more noise and energy would probably improve Wolves, which at times gets too enamored of its own string-draped beauty and cooing melodicism. But any album that serves up songs as weirdly baroque and catchy as "The Hope Edition" and "The Job Mr. Kurtz Done" can be forgiven a little novice airlessness… B
The hubbub surrounding Micah P. Hinson's early records seemed to have as much to do with his scandal-sheet-ready biography and defiant DIY aesthetic as with his aggressively morose songwriting, but now, with Micah P. Hinson And The Opera Circuit (Jade Tree), the deep-voiced young troubadour has constructed some songs worthy of his blue moods and obsession with the old-timey. True, songs like "Diggin A Grave"—with its banjo, accordion, harmonica, and what sounds like amplified lap-patting—can be homespun to a fault. And Hinson lacks the charm of the similarly time-warped M. Ward. But his attempts at open outreach on the rousing anthem "Jackeyed" and the wailing lament "It's Been So Long" have the fullness of a young folkie finally learning his craft… B+
Portland's The Places are ostensibly a vehicle for the drone-y blooze of Amy Annelle, a singer-songwriter with an angelic voice and an interest in dark, grainy visions of the American nightmare. The Places' new Songs For Creeps (High Plains Sigh) runs through sprawling songs that nod at Will Oldham, Johnny Cash, Fairport Convention, and Janis Joplin, and though she sometimes loses her way before she gets anywhere, Annelle captures the ominous, awesome feeling of storms rolling across the plains, with the sun periodically breaking through… B
Proving once again that timing is everything, Detroit's muscle-rock outfit The Paybacks dithered too long and failed to cash in on the garage-rock revival of a few years back, even though nearly every article about the Detroit scene cited the band as the best of the bunch, and lead singer Wendy Case in particular as a star in the making. Now that the dust has cleared, The Paybacks are still one of Detroit's finest, and their third album, Love, Not Reason (Savage Jams), is a beautiful beast, full of crushing guitars and tribal drums, like glitter-rock with a rusty edge. And Case is still a primal force: Pat Benatar with a fat lip and a black eye. On the album's centerpiece, the slinky "Painkiller," Case can barely keep a torch song from flaring up into a psychedelic conflagration… A-
Seattle's Iceage Cobra comes from the Electric 6/Louis XIV school of cock-rock, sliding hip-shaking beats into strutting proto-punk. The band's debut album Brilliant Ideas From Amazing People (Heavy Soul) sounds silly and derivative, but also crassly cool, especially when "Dance Floor's On Fire" cranks up the cowbells, "Deathmobile" roars to its chant-along coda, and "Summer Vacation" proves that it doesn't have to be July for us all to take a trip to the beach… B+
Like The Wondermints with Brian Wilson, and The Posies with Big Star, Boston power-pop stalwarts The Figgs got to fulfill their purpose by becoming the backing band for the rock icon they most resemble, Graham Parker. Since they made that transition, The Figgs' own music has become more focused and less rote, though the hooky, simple songs on the band's latest, Follow Jean Through The Sea (Gern Blandsten), still hit the homage ceiling at a certain point. The album's highlight is "Regional Hits," with its cleaned-up version of classic garage-rock shake-and-shimmy, which sounds for all the world like the long-forgotten late-'70s one-off single that it salutes. B+