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Absent MySpace/YouTube flash, how does a literary singer/songwriter type like Toth hope to make an impression, especially now that he's abandoned Wooden Wand's freakier folk for smoother tunes?

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With a vocal style so wide-eyed and winsome that it makes Jack Johnson sound cynical, Matthew Thomas Dillon flirts with earnest disaster on his patchy debut. Indeed, on the thickly orchestrated "Asthmatic" and "Boarding Lounges," he pushes the goopy melodrama over the line.

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"Please let me help you remember / Your memory's shot / You've lost the plot." That refrain -- from the caustically chiding "Mekon Headman" -- is more than just a finger-jabbing offer of, um, assistance. It captions Wire's clever twist on the career retrospective: Revisit all phases of your career with new material.

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The debut album from this pop-rock duo comes so frontloaded with carbonated keepers (especially the spastic gurgles of "Girls" and liquefied beats of "Forever") that the album's back half can't help but sag.

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Like Liz Phair and Bob Dylan, David Berman is a cunning wordsmith who can't really sing. Also like those luminaries, Berman turns weakness to advantage, serving up toe-tapping short stories in a sing-speak deadpan perfectly suited to his oddly good-natured cynicism.

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With a gazillion ideas snapped together like so many Legos, Ponytail's second album is an exhilarating puzzle. Tracks marked by ringing classic-rock riffs ("Beg Waves," "Small Wevs") vie for space in your brainpan alongside screechy, art-damaged affairs ("Late for School" and "7 Souls"). Presided over by Molly Siegel -- a fiery young Yoko