Exile on Coldharbour Lane

This London exponent of "sweet, pretty country-acid house music"--formerly Alabama 3, until someone remembered the similarly named country-pop group--makes its hybrid work on this debut album. In fact, Exile on Coldharbour Lane sounds like the record U2 wanted Pop to be. Fronted by one Reverend Dr. D. Wayne Love, A3 prove their seriousness about roots music with a mournful version of John Prine's "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" while sprinkling the rest of the disc with blues harp and acoustic guitars. Dr. Love's schtick is a bit silly, but his commitment to saying something about the utopian rave culture's potential for waste is obvious in songs like "You Don't Dance to Techno Anymore"--in which a DJ watches a girl overdose in front of his booth.