Ted Leo & the Pharmacists at Empty Bottle, February 22
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What makes Leo’s literate, edgy pop even more compelling is that a decade earlier he would have sneered at the concept. He spent the first half of the 90s playing in the hardcore bands Citizens Arrest and Animal Crackers; in 1995 he formed the fantastic, mod-influenced Chisel, whose 1996 album, 8 A.M. All Day, still holds up. But his gift for popcraft wasn’t fully apparent until four years ago, on his first solo outing, the oddly titled Tej Leo/Rx Pharmacists (Gern Blandsten), a messy, sometimes brilliant collection of 19 self-recorded tracks, including some unnecessary dub experiments, that sounded more like a bunch of spliced-together demos than a full-fledged album.
“It’s times like these / When a neck looks for a knife / A wrist for a razor / A heart is longing for bullets,” Leo sings on “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?,” the second track on the new disc and his third song at the Empty Bottle. It’s both a celebration of the power of pop songs to release us momentarily from the reality of the day-to-day and a lament for the inability of those songs to liberate us completely. “Tension is high under sea and over sky / Pressure drop, people are acting foolish,” Leo continues, drawing that last word out for a full eight beats. “Ooh–but it’s easy to see / Ooh–we could dance and be free / Ooh–to that 2-Tone beat / But it looks like it’s gone.” Leo seems to relish the paradox of writing a powerful pop song about how no one’s writing powerful pop songs anymore, and he’s crafted an entire album that straddles that same difficult line. In the hands of a less adept writer and performer, the music would crumble under the weight of imposed significance. But Leo’s ability to forge unique melodies from borrowed tunes–as well as his commitment to the backbeat–holds the album together.
