Review

Breaking away from the infamous Chisel, frontman and underground pop icon Ted Leo has gone solo with his first outing, RX/ Pharmacist. But just as he has separated from his former mod-punk outfit, he has also distanced himself from his ability to write a straightforward song without tampering it with studio tricks and noises. RX/ Pharmacists features 19 songs of twisted samples, scattered tape loops, and an occasional track of tuneful, Jam-inspired punk. The only problem is that the actual songs featured here contain a wall of unnecessary noise in the background -- whether it's a distracting turntable or a recording that sounds as if it came from a warped audio cassette. Leo's energy and soulful vocals manage to barely balance out all of the "experimentation"; still, RX/ Pharmacists could have been a perfect album, if it didn't require the listener to constantly press the fast-forward button.