Artist: Standard Fare

Album: Out Of Sight, Out Of Town

Label: Melodic

Release Date: 12.12.2011

Rating: 7.5

Somewhere between The Sugarcubes, the fictional Sex Bob-ombs, and The strokes lies a band called Standard Fare. They are a quirky, upbeat, and highly catchy pop trio of indie rockers hailing from Sheffield, England, Formed in 2005 and made up of Emma Kupa, Danny How, and Andy Beswick, they adopted their rather banal name fram a sign Kupa saw on a bus in Newcastle. The group found themselves in high acclaim with the success of their 2010 debut, The Noyelle Beat.

The second installment in the band's legacy of bright, poppy, and dance-worthy tracks, Out Of Sight, Out Of Town, is full of the band's signature he-said/she-said, boy/girl vocals and a tight guitar/bass/drums sound that comes, almost exclusively, with rock trios.

However, Out Of Sight, Out Of Town does go a bit deeper than previous Standard Fare material with maturing lyrical content and the addition of a trumpet player and violinist on many tracks. "Darth Vader" and "Early That Night" stick out in particular as meter sticks for the bands maturity as they slow the action down and transmit soft, reflective moments of romantic frustrations and unfaithfulness.

Stand out tracks on the album are "Dead Future", "Call Me Up", "Older Women", and "Half Sister". Across the songs, guitars are bright and light-hearted without being gutless. The 'his and hers' vocal exchanges are reminiscent of John Doe and Exene Cervenka, yet uncannily similiar to Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians when Kupa sings solo.

Now, does Standard Fare bust down the walls of indie rock boundaries as we know it with this release? Heck, no! They do one thing few bands do, they know who they are and they maximize what they do well better than an In 'N' Out Burger. That quirky, jaded, lovelorn bebop that is so heighly contagious and enjoyable is Dtandard Fare's Double Double Cheeseburger and the album delivers it with both drive-thru windows, baby!

So, let melancholy go for an hour, drop the anarchism anthems and folktronica experimental projects for a moment and tune into this smile-worthy, indie bop. Take a road trip and crank phrases like "ba-ba-ba-ba-bite my tongue" as you leave gridlock, fax machines, and time clocks behind.

Album Review: Terry Malts

Artist: Terry Malts

Album: Killing Time

Label: Slumberland Records

Release Date: 2.21.12

Rating: 4.2

After listening to the album for the full 33 minutes and 30 seconds a few times, I wholly teleported into the stark studio (or garage?) in which the album was likely recorded. Between the recoding dropping the sonic highs and lows and Phil Benson's monotone singing, it frames the album perfectly: middling, not impressive, not terrible. It is what you expect from power pop: speed playing, catchy lyrics, distorted guitar, and simple drumming. But none of these elements combined to create stand out moments.

In some songs, their roots show through. "No Good For You" sounds like a beach song. Interestingly, it's "I'm Neurotic" that samples a transmogrified clip of the Beach Boys' "California Girls". "Where Is The Weekend" is the standard ode to hating your job and being a weekend warrior. This was the only song that resonated, making me want to jump up and down screaming that I like weekends too. But it also felt like preaching to the choir.

That's not to say it's the worst album of the year; far from it. But it didn't hold me any longer than its half an hour run time.