The Brutalist Bricks

Although Ted Leo and the Pharmacists started as a bizarrely experimental solo project following the breakup of Leo's earlier band Chisel, 2003's Hearts of Oak was a straightforward meat-and-potatoes rock record that felt like the work of a singer-songwriter who could potentially break through commercially while maintaining his indie cred. That mainstream triumph has not yet happened -- for one thing, he's had rotten luck with labels -- but Leo has made perhaps an even greater leap forward with The Brutalist Bricks. On first listen, the album seems perhaps a bit regressive: the hints of reggae and Irish folk that sometimes made the Pharmacists sound like a modern-day Thin Lizzy are absent, leaving all the musical focus on Leo's obviously deep-seated love of Wire, Buzzcocks, the Replacements and other '80s college radio staples.  ("Ativan Eyes" namechecks UK anarcho-punks Flux of Pink Indians.)  But although the album is less musically varied than before, the songs' melodic richness and impassioned delivery suit Leo's insightful and always-intriguing lyrics. And for the first time ever, the overall sound of the album  -- easily the best-recorded, punchiest, and most dynamic Leo has yet released -- is up to the quality standard of the songs themselves.