Kill Hannah

Too dancey for emo, too pop for goth, too androgynous for active rock, this Chicago cult band continues to plow its own Hot Topical path. Mat Devine, still singing girly enough to convince you he's the titular Hannah, opens by remembering when he used to dream of getting on the radio; then two songs later, in the unabashedly electro-rock "New York City Speed," he's lamenting that radio died in 1985, video in 1995. From there, pretty-in-pink guitars, metallic dub-reggae throbs, astronaut samples, and cheerleader chants help him obsess about acid rain, dead-end towns and Grandma's sad eyes.