The New Amsterdams

At the Foot of My Rival

Elmar/Curb Appeal Records

Originally a side project of the Get Up Kids’ Matthew Pryor, the New Amsterdams are a band in their own right these days, especially with “At the Foot of My Rival” hitting stores. If you’re not listening closely, the album might fool you. It’s full of upbeat, folksy songs with random infusions of jazz guitar or country twang at unexpected intervals. But the lyrics lay bare the depths of Pryor’s emotion.

“Wait,” the second track on the album, is a pretty good example of this happy/unhappy dichotomy. “Wait/what if the world’s gone bad tomorrow/life is before being lied to/what then?” Pryor sings over a poppy folk beat. Similar is “Ex’s ‘ Oh’s,” which even features a mariachi band in the background but is actually about divorce.

Not all songs feature this moody paradox. “Hughes” is quiet, minimal, and sweetly sad to the point where you feel like you’ve just had a good cry. And the first single off the album is “The Fountain of Youth,” pretty much the only genuinely happy song on the album. But most of the other songs will keep you guessing-in a very good way.

Cheer up, New Amsterdams. This album is awesome.

–Becki Lee

Jennifer Lopez

Brave

Epic

On her fifth studio album “Brave,” Jennifer Lopez’s outlook on love is different from the songs she created during her relationships with P. Diddy and Ben Affleck.

In the opening track “Stay Together,” she suggests people should stay together instead of breaking up. “Forever,” produced by The Clutch, nearly shook my headphones off with the diffused “oh” sound effects.

The first single from the album is “Do it Well.” The song flatters a man that knows how to treat a girl right.

The song “Never Gonna Give Up” may make you think Lopez has become a classically trained singer. It starts with violin accents that mimic the sweet sound of a string orchestra. Then a crazy “switching” sound effect begins and gives the song an R’B feel.

Lopez also supplies women with a national anthem packaged in the song “Mile in These Shoes.”

There are not a lot of collaborations on this album, but Lopez does collaborate with Ludacris for a bilingual rap on the “Do It Well” remix.

Lopez is like wine; she gets better as she ages. Her vocals are stunning and surprisingly good and she is brave to dip into the classic, disco, and soft rock genre. Finally, a brave Lopez steps out the box.

–Paulette Wilson

POLYSICS

“POLYSICS OR DIE!!!! -Vista-”

MySpace Records

For their first record on a new label, Polysics decided to revamp their 2005 greatest-hits album “Polysics or Die” with new songs from their albums “Now Is The Time!” and the Japan-only release “Karate House.” For old fans, most of these songs are familiar, but it may be a wonderful way to reintroduce the band to an American audience.

For those who have never heard of Polysics, they look and sound like a Japanese Devo, with influences from other new wave and electronica acts. The band makes the language barrier pointless by singing songs in mixed English, Japanese, and front man Hiro’s “space language.”

That space language is heard prominently in the first track “Electric Surfin’ Go Go,” an amazing track. The band seems to pride itself on being unorthodox, with one track, “I My Me Mine,” breaking out with a delightfully insane recorder chorus, pulled right out of an elementary school music class.

The rock anthem “Coelakanth Is Android” was also a good pick for “Vista.” It’s just perfect for any moshpit.

The selection is definitely very different from the original album. With seven tracks pulled from recent releases some songs are missed.

But some classic tracks are back for this album, including the redone version of their 2000 hit “Black Out Fall Out” and a Vocoder-filled cover of “My Sharona,” that dare I say is even cooler than the original.

Overall, for those who haven’t listened to Polysics before, this is the time.

–Tyler Waldman