Pete Yorn

Pete Yorn's debut, musicforthemorningafter, is hard to nail down. Lyrically, it twists and turns, but you really don't know where the ride is headed and you're not sure if you want to stay in the car. So you listen and try to grasp on to what is spinning around in your head, which some of you kind of like but most you'd just as soon forget. "Just Another Girl" is hooky and sunny in an overcast way. Yorn is the product of '80s Brit-pop, à la Morrissey and Joy Division, which you can hear on "Black." This puts some of us in a strange position: we are seeing the music we came of age with influence those coming of age now, with a backbeat. Yorn bears repeated listening, if only to clear out the cobwebs, recall what it is you like about pop music these days and decide whether or not he fits in.