WHY CARE: Neil Young returns with a concept album about electric cars called “Fork in the Road,” out now.
TRIVIA: The iconic singer drives a 1959 Lincoln Continental converted to run on electricity.
STANDOUT: Young briefly drops his electric guitar, along with the blunt lyrics about cars, for a sweetly elegiac acoustic track, “Light a Candle.”
FANS DIG: The 2010 release of the Chevy Volt
ANDY SAYS: At 63, Young sounds like a much younger man, driving through each of these garage rock stompers with respectable force. But this time out, his subject matter itself loses power quickly. Three of these 10 songs use the word road in their title. Another is called “Fuel Line,” and features Young’s nasal yelp telling us to “fill ‘er up!” He’s capable of better.
GRADE: C-minus
“The Open Door EP,” Death Cab for Cutie
WHY CARE: The Seattle group releases a five-song EP, available online now or in stores on Tuesday.
TRIVIA: Frontman Ben Gibbard is engaged to actress Zooey Deschanel, co-star of “Elf” and “Yes Man.”
STANDOUT: “Little Bribes” squeezes a short, guitar freakout halfway into Gibbard’s lyrical stroll through Las Vegas, where “every slot machine is a robot amputee waving hello.”
FANS DIG: Self-criticism
ANDY SAYS: Death Cab’s latest EP sounds more upbeat than “Narrow Stairs,” thanks to sunny guitars and bright harmonies. Don’t be fooled, though. Gibbard is still beating himself up for sensitive-guy flaws: a failure to commit, a wandering eye, feeling lonely. Each song should please fans, even if the short EP probably won’t win converts.
GRADE: B-plus
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455, arathbun@heraldnet.com
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