DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
Plans
(Atlantic)
1/2

Much like Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie specialize in rock balladry. Whether Ben Gibbard is singing against heavily melodic instrumentation or just a single, strummed guitar or piano, the focus remains on his poetic elocutions of love. And yes, that can be a wonderful thing, as well as something of an annoyance. The group's latest album, Plans, offers a little bit of both.

Gibbard's vocals are best served with some momentum behind them, whether it's the post-R.E.M. jangle of "Soul Meets Body," on which the band rocks forward with melancholy purpose, or the piano-filled ballast of "Different Names for the Same Thing," which begins with a patchwork of an echoing piano and keyboard and slowly drifts into a whirligig as bassist Nick Harmer, drummer Jason McGerr, and guitarist Chris Walla chime in, playing increasingly louder.

Gibbard also clearly has a knack for words. On the opening track, "Marching Bands of Manhattan," he sings, "Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole/Just like a faucet that leaks and there is comfort in the sound." He has a light, fey, and undeniably pretty voice, but when left alone—on songs such as "Your Heart Is an Empty Room"—he tends to meander. Plans is split evenly along these fault lines, from the impressively dramatic to the heavy-handed and arena-ready. MOSI REEVES

ARMAND VAN HELDEN
Nympho
(Southern Fried/Ultra)
1/2

Beginning as an in-demand remix engineer, Armand Van Helden made a mark producing toothsome banging house tinged with a chewy hiphop sensibility. A naturally gifted innovator, he precipitated two-step with his 1996 remix of Tori Amos's "Professional Widow." With his singles, Van Helden has proven both steely and "Ultrafunkula." He's just not as proficient at creating a thoroughly essential artist album, although Nympho is his most cohesive to date.

Nympho feels reactionary instead of revolutionary. With dour cheerleader snarling on "Jenny," and sneering on "Juicy," the title track, and more, Nympho is alternative revolution dry humping electroclash in a death disco. Even with rubbery hints of Afro-Latin/punk-funk percussion, as on "Brainwashing," the blurting guitar laid atop throughout is less than nimble fretted. Quincy Jones–era Michael Jackson is an odd influence, rather overtly on the undulating "My My My," and more subtlety on "The Tear Drop"—which features a Vincent-Price-in-"Thriller"-like narrator alongside an INXS-ish lick. Nympho begs for too many exterior references, while previous work simply screamed Van Helden. TONY WARE

Frankenfurter Frankenstein Franken Fries Al Franken