Two Hours Traffic — Little Jabs

On the surface, Little Jabs may seem like straightforward indie pop/rock, but Two Hours Traffic are skilled enough songwriters that several of the tracks on this disc are leaps and bounds beyond anything you'll hear on the radio. The lyrical quality is a little plain — perhaps akin to latter-day Weezer — yet it becomes clear by about the fifth song that it's not really important what THT are saying. This four-piece have partly thrown traditional song structure out the window and opted instead to string together one chorus after another, making a number of songs instantly memorable. A few of the tracks toward the end of Little Jabs are perhaps a little too MuchMusic-friendly, but there are enough gems here that the slip is negligible. It's likely that a significant piece of the credit for keeping things in check goes to producer Joel Plaskett. Little Jabs, much like Plaskett's recent Ashtray Rock, has summer party album written all over it.