Smart pop laced with beats, fantastic lyrics and occasional strings or trumpets will always make me happier than your parents on the day you moved out.  Full text...

On 2005's I Sold Gold, David Terry's DIY indie-pop project Aqueduct matched Neil Young twang-and-lope with the soulfulness and invention of Stevie Wonder, and produced a sound so big and bent that it was often hard to hold. The new Aqueduct album Or Give Me Death unkinks a little, while retaining the monster hooks and pop-culture-addled lyrics that made I Sold Gold a favorite among fans of Beastie Boys and Pavement.  Full text...

From start to finish, each number is melodic (yet dissonant) and melancholy (yet hopeful), but all are refreshingly innovative.   Full text...

Or Give Me Death, finds Terry with an expanded sonic palette, the better to fully illustrate his new tales of self-loathing and passive-aggressive kiss-offs.  Full text...

The album is far from anything vengeful, though, as Terry alternates between outright tell-offs and songs tinged with genuine devotion.   Full text...

Terry has clearly reached a new level of musical maturity on this album, but flirting with sounds that don't quite fit in the face of such progression only keeps Or Give Me Death from fully harnessing his newfound growth.  Full text...

Barsuk’s web site: “His most melodically complex and lyrically mature release to date.” Me: “Inconceivable!”   Full text...

Or Give Me Death proves its synths are more modern than most of us would like to think, though fails at escaping the sweet-tooth melodies Terry uses to achieve the feat.  Full text...

The electronic beeps and buzzes are still there, but Terry's new found appreciation for the piano and strings seems to be a move in the direction of Ben Folds-type balladry. Also, much like Folds, we find a whole gaggle of lyrics describing a crumbling relationship that has gone horribly, horribly wrong.   Full text...