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Choice Cuts: September 2004

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ALBUM OF THE MONTH

Artist: HER SPACE HOLIDAY

Album: The Young Machines

The Scoop: Drugs, death and the demise of love are all featured prominently on Her Space Holiday's latest full-length, The Young Machines. But despite lyrics about Grandma's lungs filling with fluid ("Sleepy California") and numerous tales of addictions and betrayals, Marc Bianchi often frames the stories with up-tempo, jaunty, even stately and, dare I say it, feel-good electronic music. There are a few strong parallels to The Postal Service's warm electro-pop, and, like Ben Gibbard, Bianchi is a charming, self-deprecating and emotionally fragile frontman. He's either extremely forthcoming or a fine, fine actor, as the first-person accounts of lust, broken hearts, bruised self-esteem and unstable chemical levels ring true-sometimes too true, as though listeners shouldn't be privy to all this information. It's a brave and challenging album-sometimes frustrating, but often rewarding and always revealing.

Highlight Tracks: The title track and "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend"

For More Info: Visit http://www.herspaceholiday.com

Artist: FAR

Album: Water & Solutions (with DVD)

The Scoop: Matador and Pavement are currently setting the gold standard in reissues, and hopefully their influence will continue to spread. This revisiting of Water & Solutions isn't nearly as ambitious-or as important-as the likes of Slanted & Enchanted, but it is a time capsule worth checking out, and an album that has found increased credence posthumously. Far was the sort of band more influential among other bands than popular among music fans. Their brand of raw, vulnerable, heart-on-sleeve rock had yet to even be widely labeled as "emo." You can hear their lingering effects in a variety of modern bands, from Sparta to Bright Eyes. Frontman Jonah Matranga, operating under the solo moniker Onelinedrawing, is focusing on a softer side of his music these days, but the touchy-feely quality of the lyrics-and especially the live show (captured on the accompanying DVD)-remains the same. With that said, Far most impressed when they abandoned that soft side and charged straight ahead. Water & Solutions is urgent, earnest and uneven - they sound like the young band they were. The highlights, though, remain some of the best songs of the then-burgeoning emo movement.

Highlight Tracks: "Mother Mary" and "Bury White"

For More Info: Jump over to http://www.thebandfar.com

Artist: LACUNA COIL

Album: Comalies

The Scoop: Ozzfesters Lacuna Coil are one of the brightest spots on the metal landscape and Comalies is the album that brought the Italians to the attention of many American fans. Now the album has been re-released with a bonus disc of acoustic tracks, including a live session on Boston's WAAF. Although Lacuna Coil is more classically heavy and orchestral, parallels between them and Evanescence are hard to ignore. Both bands shoot for an epic, crossover-friendly sound that appeals even to listeners usually frightened by the "metal" or "gothic" tags. Both bands are hindered by ill-advised, mediocre male vocalists (on the special edition, this is especially painful on the acoustic disc). Most importantly, the clubhouses of metal and goth-rock aren't exactly teeming with women, so Cristina Scabbia and Amy Lee, with their similarly powerful pipes, dramatic flair and-let's not pretend not to notice-feminine charms are bound to be linked and, sadly, pitted against each other by dullards in the press and fan bases. The world is big enough for both of 'em, kids, and so is your CD collection.