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Someone should tell Eric Elbogen that maturity is highly overrated. Elbogen is the one-man creative force behind Say Hi, which was previously went by the much better name of Say Hi to Your Mom. Sure, that name may be immature and juvenile, but it’s also totally awesome; changing it is like the Butthole Surfers changing their name to the Surfers. What’s the point? Needless name changes aside, Say Hi’s latest release, The Wishes and the Glitch, is a solid collection of low-fi synth-rock numbers that should appeal to fans of the band no matter what name they’re currently using. While Elbogen may have changed the band’s name in an effort to grow up, his songwriting has not changed, so fans of his vampire and robot-themed tracks on previous albums should be happy that he’s kept his kooky sense of humor intact with tracks like “Northwestern Girls” and “Magic Beans and Truth Machines.” Say Hi might be a little too mellow for synth-pop fans, but indie-rocker hipsters looking to expand their musical collection into the electronic arena should find this to be a good one to try out. (LABEL: Euphobia Records 2008)

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Listening to an EP is usually a lot like dating a Mormon – no matter how much fun the thing is, just when you’re getting warmed up, it’s all over before you get to the payoff. But Rotten in Denmark, the solo debut from Davey La, former lead singer of the Ambershades (you’ve never heard of them, which is probably the main reason why Davey’s solo and some of his ex-bandmates are schlepping the globe with James Blunt), is more like a trial-size bag of Skittles – there’s a whole rainbow of bright pop flavors in here, but the portion size is small enough to keep you from gorging yourself on the sweetness (and, more importantly, to keep Davey La from tossing in a few clunkers to harsh your buzz). There’s nothing rotten (or appreciably Danish) about it, but fans of driving, guitar-based, hook-filled pop music will be too busy eating this up with a spoon to care. Davey’s got a perfectly elastic voice, a way with a hook, and his tongue planted firmly in his cheek; there’s no way in hell he’ll manage to keep up this kind of glorious momentum over a full-length LP, but no matter – we’ll always have Denmark. (LABEL: Nylo 2008)

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In which the formerly electronic trio mentored by the Stone Roses’ Ian Brown and UNKLE’s James Lavelle moves ever-deeper into traditional pop/rock territory. South’s fourth album might catch longtime fans slightly off-guard, what with the presence of actual guitars; for everyone else, however, You Are Here will pass in one ear, out the other, and find nary a resting place in between. It’s easy to see why these guys have become favorites of TV music supervisors for shows such as “Six Feet Under” and “The O.C.” – their songs make for perfect, non-intrusive background music. Aside from the album’s nifty third track, “Better Things,” You Are Here’s 13 songs make a thoroughly unconvincing case for the band. There are no obvious soft spots, but that’s only because the album never really works up enough of a sweat to draw you in – it’s just track after track of bland, middling indie pop. Maybe they should put the guitars back in storage.  (LABEL: bluhammock/Young American 2008)

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When an album starts off with a line like “J.K. Rowling’s been following me around,” a person might be tempted to expect the rest of it to be heavy with “Weird Al” Yankovic-style silliness – maybe even a parody song or two. But Freddie Stevenson isn’t your average literary kingpin-referencing troubadour; in fact, the artist described in his press kit as a “Scottish Afro’d punk poet” seems to be pretty far from your average anything. He is also, as he makes clear early on, not a novelty artist. For his second full-length release, Stevenson follows in the footsteps of U.K.-bred songwriters such as Paul Brady and Mark Knopfler, venturing to Nashville to bring his songs to life with the help of a band that includes Emmylou Harris sidemen Brady Blade, Chris Donohue, and Phil Madeira. The result is a wonderfully warm collection that swings between the rocking, Rowling-tweaking opener (“Easy Now”) to poignantly heartfelt ballads like “Alibi Song” and “If An Alien Astronomer Could See Us Now.” When Stevenson is on, as he is on those tracks, he’s mesmerizing. Not everything here reaches those heights – songs such as “Brand New Heart” and “Ordinary Girl” lack the wit and spark he shows elsewhere – but overall, Stevenson’s Companions are an addictively agreeable bunch. (LABEL: Juicy Musical Creations 2008)

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Falling somewhere between the ‘70s rockabilly of Dave Edmunds, the ‘80s Britpop of Billy Bragg, and the modern twang rock of Steve Earle, Portland, Oregon’s Scotland Barr & the Slow Drags deliver their sophomore release, All the Great Aviators Agree, in an altogether boring package. With mostly upbeat and half-spirited tales of drinking, drowning, loving and losing, Barr takes us from Duluth (“Fall Hard”) to Rome (“Heart of Rome”) and across his “Mexican Blanket,” where he offers, “What a man will kill for is not always subject to the depth of love he feels for the things that he protects.” Pretty deep, huh? Well, only until he “drank all the wine and killed all the roses” during a “Dirty Old Waltz.” Barr and his Drags have the gruff barroom bravado of Merle Haggard and the early Stones down pat, but as the album wears on, the songs fail to support their many classic influences. It’s not hard to understand why finding any background information on these guys was almost impossible. (LABEL: Monkey Barr Music 2008)

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