Phantom Planet

Fans of the 2001 film and cult classic Donnie Darko remember Phantom Planet singer Alex Greenwald’s role as Donnie’s bullying nemesis, Seth Devlin. As Hollywood pop bands go, Phantom Planet is leagues better than, say, the odious Dogstar. The band’s second album from 2002, the Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake-produced set The Guest, was jammed with plenty of post-Queen ear candy, but this new self-titled set, produced by Mercury Rev bassist Dave Fridmann (the Flaming Lips and Mogwai) rocks out a lot harder and much more darkly. There may be a lot less going on in the bait-and-tackle department, but the walls of guitars and slamming drums add the kind of gravity too often missing from power-pop sides. And Greenwald sounds like Ray Davies trying to be Paul Westerberg—for a Hollywood guy, not bad.