Album of the Week (12.11.05)

Artist: Love Is All

Album: Nine Times That Same Song

This album won't be available until next month, and I already know damn well that it's going to make my "best albums of the year" list at the end of 2006. Love Is All bravely splice the exuberant twee melodicism of Architecture in Helsinki with the gutter-punk majesty of the Stooges and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Much to my surprise, they also make exceptional use of the saxophone - in a free-form skronking way that seamlessly blends in with the guitars, bass, and drums (think the Stooges' "Fun House"). Nine Times That Same Song is consistently concerned with the universal joys and pitfalls of love. Thankfully, Love Is All is smart enough to write sincere songs that avoid love-song cliches by presenting their ideas as a dizzying rush of make-out sessions, broken hearts, crushes, moping around, and orgasms.

Personal favorites: "Make Out Fall Out Make Up" and "Busy Doing Nothing"