I don't often have time to listen to an album twice a day, so when I find
myself listening to the Plastic Constellations debut album two to five
times daily -- I'm as impressed as you are.


"Let's War" opens with one of the album's best songs, "Ditched and 
Drowned." This song gives somewhat of a false impression of the album --
it sounds kind of like Braid and Nuzzle are collaborating. It will draw
you in, but if you are expecting 10 more tracks of this, you'll be quickly
dissapointed.


"Slow Support" truly sets the tone for the rest of the album. The Plastic
Constellations, from here on in, sound like an updated version of
Pavement. The vocals don't stray too far from Stephen Malkmus' squeaky
vocals of older Pavement albums. In fact, in striving for vocal
comparisons, I would have to say that the closest I could come would be to
cross Malkmus with Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments' Ron House and you'd
have something close to what is going on here.


Musically, The Plastic Constellations play loose indie rock like Pavement
delivered for years, but with a very modern sound, incorporating that
dissonant element that everyone likes these days.


"Back It Up Now" shows that not only do the Plastic Constellations know
how to rock but that they want to see you shake your ass at their
shows. When the band kicks into their shouts of "M-O-V-E-M-E-N-T" I don't
see how anyone in the audience could be left standing stil at a live show.


Unfortunately, the next track, "Let It Rumble," slows things down, and
with the music heavily focused on a piano, loses a lot of momentum. I like
the song alright, but I don't think that putting it in the middle of the
album is the right place for it.


As soon as "Let It Rumble" ends, "The Backseat Drivers" brings it back to
the rocking pace we've become accustomed to. "You Are Not Chicago" slows
things down again, but the lack of the piano in the foreground (and the
prevalence of soft keyboard in the background) actually allows this song
to work much better than TPC's other slow song.


As the album draws to a close with the eponymously titled closing track,
the Plastic Constellations treat us to a little bit of possibly
inside-joke humor with a song about slaying a serpent and each member
kicks it solo-style for a second, telling how he helped to slay the
dragon. Normally a song like this would fall flat on its face, but due to
the incredibly catchy nature of the music it is hard to do anything but
put this song on repeat.


While "Let's War" may not be the best album of 2000, it is certainly one
of my favorites. So much so, in fact, that I am thinking of driving six
hours to Minneapolis this weekend just to see these guys kick it live
style.


Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go listen to this album for the third
time tonight.