AFI
Love Like Winter

My CD-ripping software of choice (GRIP, for all you audio geeks out there) has an amusing habit of mismatching releases when it searches for the track titles online. AFI's latest, for example, came back as a Barbara Streisand bonus disc. How I laughed at the idea of this being easy listening.

Still, even before slipping this CD into the tray I had an inkling that it might be a little more accessible than the AFI I once stumbled across on a '90s punk compilation. US #1 LPs, after all, aren't usually made by young upstarts on provincial labels with fire in their bellies. Here, the angst gives way to polished synths on a track that sounds like White Rose Movement covering Busted. Not as bad as it sounds, actually, and still much better than Barbara.