The second quarter was a little slower than the first for new music, but the good stuff that did arrive was very good indeed. I expect at least three of these to wind up on my best of 2005 list, and right now Motion City Soundtrack is at the top.

Commit This to Memory took two listens to establish itself atop the year's list; the first time, "Everything Is Alright" -- the year's best single -- was all that stuck out, and then the rest followed. Standing a degree of magnitude above the quite good 2005 crop, this is both a magnificent Moog-rock album and an amazing collection of singles. It drives forward even more headstrong than I Am the Movie did and barely has a weak spot in 12 tracks. I just wish they weren't spending so goddamn much time on festival tours and would come back to town for a club show.

I've been listening to an unmastered advance of Making Beds in a Burning House since last fall and it took a while to grow on me. I listened to it a lot before they played a show here in March, and got the sense of a modernized version of early R.E.M. -- an indie guitar rock extravaganza with melodies too catchy and lyrics too clever to resist. "Bees" and "Jackpot Stampede Deluxe" are great, and I hope the band's arrival on Lookout! will be enough to break them into real success. (Unfortunately, I'm not seeing them tonight because their Madison show was hijacked by a major label AAA act called Blue Merle, raising the ticket price and lowering the TH content.)

A couple years ago, I found myself reflexively hating Hot Hot Heat, primarily because I didn't like most of the bands that they were being linked with -- the Strokes on one end, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the other. But really, I never gave Make Up the Breakdown a chance, and when Elevator came out, I figured I ought to give it a good faith try. I'm glad I did, because it's loaded with poppy jangle-dance material that, unfortunately, is great for Verizon Wireless ads.

Mezmerize is the most important metal album since probably ...And Justice For All. It also works with a mainstream political edge that real metal has never quite done this successfully (I don't see Rage as really being all that metalish). I'm honestly surprised that the explicitly political, and just plain explicit "B.Y.O.B." made it onto Saturday Night Live. The whole album is hard but radio-friendly; I'm thinking this fall's follow-up, Hypnotize, will be... harder.

Indie rock as a whole has stagnated over the last few years. Trend chasers have produced the same kinds of mall-punk, screamo and "dance" rock over and over and over lately. For my money it's the post-hardcore bands like Minus the Bear, Piebald or Cave In that are doing the most interesting stuff these days, and Volcano fits that bill perfectly. The first two tracks, "Theatre" and "Pompeii," kind of point to where Jawbox might have been heading if they hadn't turned into Burning Airlines. I've heard they're a little sloppy live, but I hope I have the chance to find out for myself this year.