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Cake

"Pressure Chief"

On sale at All That Jazz for $15.98

It's hard not to like Cake. Their songs are catchy, but also multilayered. They're mainstream enough that you've heard them on the radio, but they're not the usual sock puppets of Top 40.

Once you sing-along your way through "Wheels," the album's first track and well-marketed single, you get to something really worth listening to. "No Phone" is dissonant, experimental and eases you into the quirkiness of the rest of the album.

That said, "Pressure Chief" is the kind of album that is best chopped up and piece-mealed into mixes and iPods to be digested one song at a time. After a while, the monotone voice of Cake frontman John McCrea starts to drone you away from what's really important in the music -- the meticulous engineering and the thoughtful layering of computer-generated and acoustic music.

As the vocals began to push me away, I used the trumpet as a handle to keep me on until the next track. Vince Di Fiore seems to be playing from somewhere on the streets of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, and I followed him to the end of the album like a child seduced by the piper.

Rated: May I recommend some deeper tracks.

The Kinks

"Give the People What They Want"

Available at All That Jazz for $17.98

Until someone, somewhere writes some music worth listening to, we will settle for releases from the music we loved in the past. We will rely on the creativity from other generations and other decades to keep us putting on the headphones and pumping money into the industry machine so it can continue killing music.

All cynicism aside, I was happy to pick up a copy of The Kinks, remastered and released. "Give the people what they want" originally was released in 1981.

These are the days when engineers and music moguls sift through their tape collections and decide what is worth transferring to CD and what should be thrown away.

I once went to a Tribute to The Kinks night during which the disc jockey played nothing but The Kinks all night and I was amazed to realize how many good songs that band recorded throughout the decades -- at least enough to keep us entertained for an evening.

This band may have gotten drowned out by contemporaries such as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, but for those willing to dig a little deeper in the bin, this band's music is still out there. Highlight of this album: Rockin' track 6, "The Destroyer."

Rated: Buy it, you idiot.

Sound Tribe Sector Nine

"Artifact"

On sale at All That Jazz for $13.98

My first temptation is to recommend this album to classical music fans. Not just for the strings and piano instrumentation that opens the record, but also for the composition that combines contemporary and traditional musical structures in a way that can be understood by fans of any genre. This album is as much human as it is electronic. There are as many acoustic guitar pieces as there is laptop sampling.

Chill and down tempo, "Artifact" is perfect as, one, the last thing to hear before slipping off to sleep; two, a soundtrack for driving around in circles; or three, to be played while they cryogenically freeze my body. Yes, that also would be fitting. Or, four, it could be good replacement music for Enya or the Sounds of the Sea for any massage therapist with open-minded clients.

You don't have to be a regular club-goer to enjoy this music. You only need the ability to unclench your jaw, close your eyes and listen.

Rated: Is the room still spinning?

-- Autumn Phillips