Electric Six

Four mostly ignored outings after his debut album, it's inspiring that Dick Valentine is willing to put just as much crafty punch and as many cranky punchlines into his disco-metal as he did back when he was inventing the night. Seducing graphic designers and saluting bathroom cleaners and picking up plane passengers, cheering witchy women and heavy women and flashy men, aping the Doobie Brothers and Alan Parsons, he wears his hammy heart on his glammy sleeve. And he tosses in a world-historical epic called "Watching Evil Empires Fall" and a ridiculous sex song called "Dirty Ball" for kicks.