Nightmare of You has proven that practices makes for vast improve with their sophmore album, Infomaniac. The New York City-based indie rock band has created an album based on synergetic instrumental measures.

The background of the indie band’s musical influences of the Talking Heads and Supergrass surely rounds out the sophisticated sound Nightmare of You provides on the CD.

The first line that captured my ear is “Someday, but not today,” which is a laid back track that gives us the “struggling life experience,” which incorporates a tasteful guitar solo.

The soulful song, “Experimental Bed,” is lead in by a hip-hop drum beat and is accompanied by a classic rock guitar sound that leaves you wanting more.

The San Jose, Calif. based quintent has opened eyes and ears with their latest self-titled release. Already making noise with their first single, “You’re A Fake”, the band has hit the radio airwaves and have been touring in support of the album.

The album is filled with sing-along tracks that will have fans screaming lyrics during live shows.  

I Am Empire’s intro track, “Encompass”, sets the stage with an in your face guitar riff and trascends into an all-around rock track that will keep the lyric, “We are the lost and found…” in your head for days.

As mentioned, “You’re A Fake”,  blazes out of the speakers with lead guitar picking accompanied by a solid riff, which leads into the lyric, “Get up, Get up!!”. This song has just began to break out the band, and has lasting power.

Los Angeles’s, Jay Nash’s, latest album, The Things You Think You Need , is a good representation of what you get when you juxtapose rock, folk, pop and a bit of country and then add a bit of poignant acoustic guitar in the mix. It is an effortless and easy album that is extremely likeable from the very first track.

The album succeeds in calling to a wide range of emotions, and the more cheerful tracks make for a good balance with the few somber songs, the former gaining an upper hand when determining the record’s overall mood.

The album displays Nash’s thoughtful lyrical ability which allows quiet moments of reflection and lamenting to coexist with more funky, playful offerings. With a vocal style reminiscent of both David Gray and Isaac Slade (The Fray), Nash’s soulful and seamless voice is the strongest when crooning his feelings of scorned melancholy. But he is also quite at home leading the more pop-oriented radio-friendly tracks, or even doing his best to channel Bruce Springsteen on track 6, “Hard Lesson.”

The one song that just doesn’t fit the mold of the album is on the last song, which is actually untitled. A more electronic feel combined with the haunting lyrics makes this a very short but ethereal track. 

The stark contrast in instrumentation makes this the most memorable and anomalous moment on this wonderful album. It leaves the listener with an unfinished, haunted feeling when Nash ends with “Open your eyes, you’re not alone.”