After the loving's over, after the trend's moment has passed, after the hype has died down to a dull roar, how does a Gold Chain swing? Stripped of the bling, costume thing, and parodic posturing, Gold Chains comes clean on When the World Was Our Friend, gives Sue Cie credit as his partner in rhyme, and gets back to the pop basics – though Green Day he ain't, with rhymes like "You look like Monaco but you move like the Vatican." Nonetheless, he comes close with the Joan Jett-like, digitized rock 'n' roll stomp of "Stretch." And is that '60s Brill Building songcraft discernable on "High Tide" and "Runaway" – spinning "Be my baby" lyrics into "I'll be with you, baby"? There's a plainspoken, punk-but-thuggish bent in the former, while the same song's beat is twisted into a open-ended riddle in the latter. Can you hear the insanely, infectiously repetitive synth pop of a thorny "Walking in LA" on "Runaway," or the gothed-up, mechanistic Mexi-ska workout on "Multifear"? Though the emotional bids to "show us your heart" hint at greater intimacy from the swingin' Chains – could his onstage persona be permanently merging with his mild-mannered programmer alter ego Topher LaFata? – one suspects there are larger issues at stake. Is "Come to Cali" a bid for economic revitalization? Titles like "Crowd Control" and "Multifear" touch on urban anxiety. And does it matter when Chains and Cie seem to be so clearly on the right fast track themselves? When the World Was Our Friend comes out Oct. 12. (Kimberly Chun)

Hot Mute
Extended Player (Happy)

The first track on Hot Mute's Extended Player, "She Drives a Car," reminds me of Robyn Hitchcock's "The Cars She Used to Drive." Not that it sounds similar, but with lyrics like "She is an evil genius / She set my clothes on fire," the song serves as a worthy follow-up to Hitchcock's tune about being run over by an ex-lover's car. Or maybe it's the final frame of a triptych starting with Hitchcock's "I Watch the Cars." Hot Mute have a similar sort of circularity to their songs, though there's perhaps a dash less schizophrenia in singer-guitarist Gary Wertz's lyrics. And, in keeping with the automotive theme, H.M. throw in nostalgic Cars-like synths under the guitar, and quasi-robotic backing vocals that make me think of "Cars," by Gary Numan – but are more rocking, less blue lipstick. On "Hey That's Alright," Wertz reassures the listener: "Stuck in your bed with a handful of reds and a dream? Hey – that's all right." Actually, the more I listen to it, the more it sounds like it might be a handful of "leads" (bullets) or "meds." Whichever – as you fall down the back stairs of heaven, bumping your head on each cloudy step, Wertz is convincing. (Duncan Scott Davidson)

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