#10: Kings Of Leon - 'Aha Shake Heartbreak' (UK import)

What can I say? According to the alterna-snobs over at Pitchfork, I’m supposed to hate these guys because they’re such posers and the English press loves them. That’s pretty much true on both counts, but here lately, this CD is my musical crack, the one album from which I can’t tear myself away. It probably helps that I can hardly understand any of the lyrics (here’s one line I think I made out: “She had problems with drinking milk and being school-tardy” -- uh, okay?). It also helps that they have learned to split the difference between jittery, caffeinated rhythms and laid-back, stoner dirges. But I think everyone needs a band like this to root for. Hell, these guys are barely old enough to rent porn, but they make rock bands seem cool again. And if that’s just an illusion, it’s one that I can live with for a little while longer.

('Aha Shake Heartbreak' will be released in the U.S. in February 2005.)