Ted Leo And The Pharmacists

Though people invariably peg Ted Leo’s songwriting as “literary” and “political” above all, his dense tangles of English only serve to fuel his scorched-earth campaign to rescue pop and punk by way of positive attack. Even when the Bush administration weighed on him the heaviest—on 2004’s relatively stripped-down Shake The Sheets—Leo kept wrapping punk, reggae, soul, and ska into one defiantly exuberant bundle. As if to remind everyone of all of the desperation and outrage that fuel the lovely hooks, Leo often steps down from his signature falsetto vocals for his latest, The Brutalist Bricks, which might prove to be his catchiest and most savage release at once. All the better to spur on one of the most furious live performers in rock.

Updated 07/12/2011