Mika Miko: We Be Xuxa

I’m a sucker for lo-fi. You can’t go wrong with punk tunes that have purposely bad sound quality. Mika Miko fits the bill. The singer is drowned out by the fuzz and noise of her band, and the songs blow along fast and shapelessly. However, for the genre No Age is better. Same with Times New Viking. And any number of other lo-fi rock outfits. While Mika Miko provided a nice blanket of static, they don’t offer anything too remarkable. If you’re not a sucker for lo-fi, you can live a full and productive life without ever hearing Mika Miko.

Rating: * * *

Art Brut: Art Brut vs. Satan

Three albums in, and Art Brut still sound awful. The singer can’t sing (he kind of talks his way through the songs) and the band sounds like it’s making it up as it goes along. But I’ll be jiggered if it’s not intriguing all the same. I can’t say that I’d want to listen to it all the time—after a while Art Brut begins to sound like a fun-loving tornado siren. They’ve got energy and creativity. I’ll even give it to them that the band name fits: it’s outsider art. If you can tolerate it, you’ll probably love it.

Rating: * * * *