New CDs

U2 — "Songs of Innocence": When the wordless group vocals of "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)" open up the album, the intent of "Songs of Innocence" is immediately clear: a gamut of trend-chasing histrionics will be haphazardly adapted to fit in the framework of a U2 album, followed by lots of money being printed somewhere.

A majority of "Songs of Innocence" shows the band fumbling around with current chart trends, settling for melodies and lyrics that are simply "good enough," and generally making moves that reek of desperation instead of confidence, a stance that is very ill-fitting of U2, given that ego and a perpetual belief in their own hype has been a part of their DNA from the onset.

[...] the presence of a handful of tracks that just seem ill-conceived makes you wonder if there's anyone at the band-owned label Paracadute who can step up and offer suggestions to OK Go when a musical idea doesn't seem to be working.

"Deathless" should cement Revocation as one of the top metal bands in the word, if they haven't already reached such lofty heights on previous releases, and the group's ability to play really loud and really fast, though pausing every now and then to let listeners catch their collective breaths, makes them brilliant practitioners.