Brave Combo
The Process
Rounder (www.rounder.com)

Over the past two decades and about a dozen albums, Brave Combo have built themselves a reputation as a delightful good-time band from Denton, Texas. Their trademarks include frenetic polka standards, twisted covers of classics and quirky original material. "The Process" focuses on happy pop songs about the vagaries of everyday relationships. The bouncy melodies are accompanied by dark lyrics like "Hello, my life sucks/ In a thousand ways it's just/ A disappointing loss of time/ And energy." (listen! MP3)

The material comprises 10 original songs (one with some lines from Edgar Allan Poe), an instrumental and a cover of "Double Vision." The arrangements are well-crafted. Angst and ennui have never sounded better. I miss the polkas, but tracks like "Why, Oh Why" still sound like a classic polka orchestra, with that same crazy groove with a smirk that we've come to expect from Brave Combo. - Ivan Emke