Single File

Annie, "I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me": This trend of text-message abbreviations invading pop — thanks, Pink and Fall Out Boy — has gotta be stopped! Otherwise, artists with names like :P, l8r and tyvm will be signing lucrative, three-month ringtone contracts before we even realize it.

Death Cab for Cutie, "Your New Twin Size Bed": Low-voltage breakup music that employs a decent conceit; that's really all there is to say, isn't there? Well, you could also say that contentment and cash can render any standard-bearing indie band fatally dull.

Lenny Kravitz, "Love Love Love": Love! Loooooooove. Love? What is love? Sorry, I'm incapable of talking about Lenny the Kravitz without turning into an asshole; it's been that way ever since Jeff Jankowitz kept yelling "are you gonna go my way?" at me during tenth-grade homeroom. Anyway, "Love" is a Prince/Hendrix wannabe with hot video babes on speed-dial and sunglasses surgically affixed to Kravitz's face, as he writes the same damn song over and over again without realizing no one's listening anymore.

Soltero, "Living in the Fish Islands": Soltero's Tim Howard (like a one-man Calla, only way more inviting) takes a break from warm, raspy campfire blues to indulge in some murky swamp tribalism and commune with a tambourine.

 Weezer, "Pork & Beans": So Oakley shades remain a cool signifier, and using the phrase "give a hoot" still connotes old-fogeyism, apparently. But Rivers Cuomo knows who Timbaland is, so he's not as out-of-touch as he's pretending to be. Worse: I have the sinking feeling Weezer's never gonna go away.