Modern music tends to suck, right to your face. “Oh but I love my N*SYNC, I love my Linkin Park, I love my Crazy Town!” They’ve all got their high points, but put in The Josh Joplin Group’s debut release, Useful Music, and you’ll see something truly new on the horizon.

Indeed, this is useful music. The album opens up with “Matter,” a very poignant song carrying the line “Dreams are not lost/they merely fall/beneath the ashes.” Joplin, the lead singer (and as far as I know is of no relation to Janis) sounds a bit like Michael Stipe or perhaps Morissey and offers up some very catchy melodies with his choruses.

This album has got quite a few stand-out tracks. “Undone” deals straight-up with an identity crisis. The narrator knows who he is, but is looking for validation, “I am mine, I am mine again/can anyone tell me where I’ve been?” The song is accompanied by an infectious chorus and guitar ensemble a la Joplin and electric guitarist D. Davis. The present single “Camera One” is difficult, and I’ve yet to determine what it means. It’s a good thing to have mystery in music. What I know is that it’s very strong, and the music is freakin’ incredible. You might want to check out the video as well.

This is a hard article to write, and I’ll tell you why. I’ve got so much to say about this album but I don’t know how to say it. I suppose I’ll close this way: I haven’t been able to take this album off my stereo for quite some time. It stays in your head in that non-offensive way most pop can’t. This album has a lot of pop sense, but there’s much more to it than that. The songs make you look inside yourself, and you don’t always like what you see. That’s often the business of art: to make you see things that anger you. This makes Useful Music pretty darn useful.

Name: Jenn
Comments:
Spider...I'll review some hard/metal music for you in the fall. I love that stuff.

Name: Spider Monkey
Comments:
You want strong music? Get Metal. If I wanted to look inside myself I would puke on a mirror and examine the contents. Why don't you monkeys ever review some good music on this electronic rag? I can make better music with my toes and a blade of grass. Josh Joplin.....human pleeezzz...