Alkaline Trio/One Man Army

“BYO Split Series Volume V” (BYO)

Compare to: Hot Water Music, Allister, ByAnyMeans

The overarching theme of this album is death — violent, morbid, bloody, Technicolor death. Alkaline Trio and One Man Army combine to list a dozen ways to drive yourself to despair and loneliness, and somehow find a way to turn it into ear candy.

The six-song Alkaline Trio set that opens “BYO Split Series Volume V” is reminiscent of the band’s 2000 album “Maybe I’ll Catch Fire.” Singers Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano have somewhat fine-tuned their vocal stylings and show more articulation and less cocaine-induced drawling, but the subject matter hasn’t gotten any more cheerful. The opening track takes romantic obsession to the extreme with the lines “I’d kill for you and eat the flesh/Give you the heart and burn the rest.” The Trio has a knack for coming up with creepy, gut-churning analogies.

“If You Had a Bad Time” is a tiny shaft of light piercing the gloom midway through the predominantly dark album. This quintessential Alkaline Trio ballad, a la “Blue in the Face,” hits on the new lyrical territory of living without regret. It’s upbeat, it bounces, it makes it hard to picture three guys standing in front of an upside-down glowing cross wearing starched black clerical shirts and rocking out.

One Man Army adds a punk beat without straying from the underworld feel of the album. The songs are just as full of horror, but the band seems much more happy about playing them, throwing Rancid-esque raspy vocals over power chords. The lyrics are as dark as the Trio’s, but are delivered in a different style.

Amusingly, One Man Army touches on subject matter both bands seem to find noteworthy. “The Radio Airwaves Gave Me a Lobotomy” is reminiscent of “We’ve Had Enough” off Alkaline Trio’s most recent album, “Good Mourning.” Apparently, both of these bands have had trouble connecting with songs on the radio, evidenced by the One Man Army lyrics “They never play what I wanna hear/ Just some shit I hate/ I don’t listen to the radio/ Cause I got tapes.”

Split CDs don’t always hit the mark. Mismatched bands and talentless tag-alongs often ruins half a perfectly good album. But the thematic and sonic consistency between Alkaline Trio and One Man Army makes for a disc worth maiming your mother for.

— Krista Driscoll

Sondre Lerche

“Two Way Monologue” (Astralwerks)

Compare to: Nick Drake, Ben Gibbard, Elliott Smith

Don’t let his innocent eyes and naive grin fool you — Sondre Lerche knows what he’s doing, and his sophomore full-length, “Two Way Monologue,” is the proof.

He may be barely old enough to drink at the clubs he plays stateside, but the youthful Norwegian is nearing musical maturity with his latest release. Too delicate for rock, yet too progressive for easy listening, Lerche has created 12 timeless tracks which cement his highly touted image as the biggest sleeper in independent music.

Although “Two Way Monologue” is far from simplistic, it doesn’t take long to recognize the intricate genius laid out by this warbling wunderkind. A violin-laden instrumental number starts off this lazy Sunday afternoon of an album, lilting effortlessly across the soundscape before Lerche’s voice ever announces its presence.

By the time he speaks up, it’s obvious things will only get better.

Songs like “On the Tower” and “It’s Over” feature Lerche’s feathery tone, filed on the shelf somewhere between Harry Connick Jr. and Ben Kweller, as it drifts in and out of the listener’s consciousness, taking its soft jazz influences for a run through the dandelion fields.

It’s the album’s title track, however, that really glows from its overall aural appeal. Although most of the songs test radio programmers’ patience with five-minute-plus run times, “Two Way Monologue” seems to forget it needs to quit at some point in its rambling timeline.

Jazzed-up guitars, sneaky organs and Lerche’s most impressive singing on the whole album push the song into a full-bodied lounge act crescendo. The powerful melding of sounds near the track’s end make it a toe-tapping extravaganza. It may take some time to get where it’s going, but the result is well worth the delay.

Don’t even think about listening to this album once and tossing it aside. Lerche’s effortless melodies and saccharine vocals might take a certain mood to appreciate, but there’s a wealth of great music hidden beneath its layers.

— Aaron Ladage

James Carter

“Live At Baker’s Keyboard Lounge” (Warner Bros.)

Compare to: John Coltrane, Duke Ellington

James Carter has taken another step toward becoming one of the greatest free jazz artists of the past decade, but he may have stumbled just a little this time.

“Live At Baker’s Keyboard Lounge” showcases Carter and his band members’ excellent musicianship and superior improve skills. “Tricotism,” the fast moving and seriously swinging opening track, contains a soprano sax solo from Carter. During the solo, Carter plays a rhythm that sounds humanly impossible, but that’s what makes him so good.

“Tricotism” would fit perfectly as the opener for “The Cosby Show.”

The album starts off right, but loses its luster very quickly due to the overdone organ part in “Soul Street.”

The organ starts off well, but then becomes overpowering and takes focus away from the horns and drums, which are the instruments traditionally featured in jazz.

The solo is good, but sounds too much like the kind of tune usually played at sporting events. The vocal chants also take away from the musicianship.

Carter does recover, however, and in stellar fashion, with “Freedom Jazz Dance.” The song has a deep enough backbeat to make funk godfathers James Brown and George Clinton proud, but still maintains enough improv and jazz chords to hold the swing vibe.

The big downside to the album is the overuse of soprano sax. The solo on “Tricotism,” though good, gets annoying almost instantly. The instrument squeaks and squawks enough to cause headaches.

A few songs feature soprano sax, but the solos come to a point where the squeaking is nearly nonexistent.

Perhaps the best feature on Carter’s album is the drumming. Leonard King and “Pistol” Allen both understand exactly how to play jazz, right down to the smallest details of playing dynamically.

“Get Started” and “Free and Easy” are played primarily with brushes, which adds to the level of relaxation and “lounginess” of the album.

Despite a few squawkers here and there, Carter has made a solid album that should appeal to anyone who appreciates great jazz.

— Dan Hopper

Godsmack

“The Other Side” (Universal)

Compare to: Fuel, Alice in Chains, Sevendust

It’s been said Godsmack is just a n-metal, post-grunge recreation of Alice in Chains. The band’s new acoustic EP proves the band members might have the slightest bit of talent, contrary to popular belief.

Acoustic variations of metal can crash and burn. Too many bands hide behind a wall of sound, masking the fact that they don’t have any real ability and are just the creation of record companies.

“The Other Side” is a fitting title for Godsmack’s seven-song EP, which features two new songs: “Touch‚” and “Running Blind.” The EP showcases Sully Erna’s haunting lyrics and voice well, and drummer Shannon Larkin holds the band together with his crisp beats during the more uneventful songs on the EP. The acoustic setup allows for Godsmack to show its true talents.

The failing point of the EP is in the redone songs from previous albums. Godsmack’s music is sometimes more fitting to the “wall of sound” idea. “Re-Align” acoustically sounds almost exactly like it does plugged in. In fact, it sounds better plugged in. Few of the other repeat songs sound much different on the EP, with the lone exception of “Awake,” which was fittingly renamed “Asleep.”

The obvious highlights of the EP lie in the new songs, written specifically to be heard acoustically. Despite Sully’s obvious push for Dropbox, a band featuring two of Godsmack’s members and recently signed to Sully’s Universal imprint Realign, the new songs stand out as prime examples of Godsmack’s talent.

“Running Blind,” the opening track on “The Other Side,” is a melancholy blend of the tribal influences Godsmack usually features and a hum of Middle Eastern music, an influence which first invaded hip-hop and is now infiltrating other genres. Meanwhile, tracks like “Running Blind” would have been lost in a typical Godsmack album.

The whole EP comes off as an obligatory step toward establishing Godsmack as a staple in modern metal, and perhaps this is the reason too much of the album is a half-hearted effort at acoustic music.

— P. Kim Bui