Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

Add Date: March 9

Artist: Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

Album: The Brutalist Bricks

Label: Matador

Genre: Rock, punk

Comments: Ted Leo is now on Matador Records, becoming the second indie powerhouse to sign to the venerable imprint--see Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Belle & Sebastian and The New Pornographers on the active roster--in recent months. (Sonic Youth put out its first Matador album, The Eternal, last year.) The expectations are high for anything that Leo touches, but it's hard to imagine making a better debut on one's new label than The Brutalist Bricks, his strongest effort since the 2001/2003 combo The Tyranny of Distance and Hearts of Oak.

I'm a big Ted Leo fan, and I'll be the first to express disappointment in his previous LP, 2007's Living With the Living. There were some fine songs on there, to be sure--"The Sons of Cain" and "Army Bound" come to mind--but I can't even remember the last time I listened to the second half of that record. For one thing, the playing time is 61 minutes; length usually works against punk rock, and that was certainly the case here. Leo has earned his reputation for punchy guitar hooks and intense, often political lyrics, which just don't fly in a 6-minute song.

I'll end my airing of grievances and say that The Brutalist Bricks does almost everything right that Living got wrong. As mentioned before, it belongs right up there with Tyranny and Hearts, the two finest records thus far in Leo's canon. If you're not hooked in by the first 15 seconds of opener "The Mighty Sparrow," then you're clearly in the wrong genre. There are many more gems throughout, from the aggressively melodic "Bottled in Cork" to the ass-kicking "Where Was My Brain?" to lead single "Even Heroes Have to Die." Not that the other material is filler, either; throughout the record, Leo showcases his fine songwriting, and the Pharmacists (Chris Wilson on drums, James Canty on guitar and keyboards and new member Marty Key on bass) are in fine form. And what can you say about Ted, but that the dude can shred the guitar. One of 2010's best.