Ted Leo's brand of indie rock is immediately accessible and comes with hooks. He's something of a punk-era Elvis Costello with less cynicism and more falsettos. The Pharmacists' latest release, Shake the Sheets , keeps up a lively style, while reducing the range of their vocabulary and focusing more directly on American politics. It also may be their most consistent and potent release yet.
"Me and Mia," performed in recent tours, makes its record debut here. It opens the album with the rapid chords of an electric guitar and soft vocals. Before long, it explodes into the full-band sound led by its lyrics: "Do you believe in something beautiful? Then get up and be it!"
The next few songs are political. "Counting Down the Hours" begins with melancholy acoustic strumming before suddenly changing to an almost jubilant sound. Its accompanying lyrics are jarring. It is perhaps the album's most politically-charged song, with lyrics such as "[a]ccidents mean no one's guilty, ignorance means someone's killed."
Fans of George W. Bush will dislike elements of the album's message and tone. But Leo, unlike other activist musicians, doesn't make his views the music's focus. The politics might get in your way, but they are never in the way of the music.
Leo is also an optimist, as he shows in the standout track "Little Dawn." Beginning immediately with one of the album's best riffs, it builds into one of the best hooks of the album and a soaring rallying cry for the disaffected in the refrain: "And if you're not content to just believe, and if you don't consent to just let it be, stretch out your legs and dance with me all night." It falters only a bit in its repetitive closing chant.
The title track, "Shake the Sheets," has a similar message: If you're not happy with the state of politics, then do something yourself. It's a simple and recurring idea, but its reproduction here is artful. A used car metaphor describes the good and bad of political activism, and praises good intentions.The song's dual refrains, both catchy, make it a high point of the album.
"Bleeding Powers" was released as a solo performance by Leo on the Tell Balgeary, Balgury is Dead EP. On Shake the Sheets , it receives the full-band treatment. For the first few seconds it mirrors the original. Then the percussion kicks in. Crashing cymbals lead into a guitar solo that gives the song more momentum than the original version had.
There are no epic songs like the climactic finishes of the band's two previous LP's. Still, the conclusion of "Shake the Sheets" fits thematically, and has a relaxed and swinging charm. At the end, there's a sense that it's "to be continued."
Shake the Sheets was released by Lookout Records on Oct. 19. Select mp3's from this and previous efforts can be found at www.lookoutrecords.com and www.epitonic.com.