Spitalfield

Gusting out of the Windy City like a brisk norwesterner, Chicago's Spitalfield deliver an album of emotionally charged, punk-tinged rock. Really bad name notwithstanding — someone should remind them that there's already a Sense Field who've been playing emo a lot longer — the band's sophomore full-length is chock full of anthemic songs punctuated with hiccupping vocals and orchestral instrumentation. Remember features some of the finest glockenspiel and xylophone work on a rock record since Rush's A Farewell to Kings. And Mark Rose has the kind of hiccupping style that results in single syllable words being elongated for effect (you know, like fa-a-ar and sky-ee-i). The band's sound is not entirely original — revisiting territory already well mined by Jimmy Eat World and Saves the Day — but damned if they don't at least try to make it sound a little different. Besides, the songs are irresistibly catchy.