1. Eat It Up
2. A Drug I Can't Deny
3. From The Start
4. Margarida
5. Nothing Left To Borrow
6. Answering Machine
7. Estranged In Ladyland
8. Who Do You Think You Are?
9. Dead And Gone
10. Me, Myself And I
11. 1 2 3 Arriba
12. XXXXXXXXX Borderline
13. Bleeding In Style
14. For The Ramones

A rather peculiar album landed in my mailbox, coming from the Italian punk/pop/old school glam/rock band Le$ter And The Landslide Ladies.

I popped it in the stereo and got a tuned-down, storytelling piece of easy-to-the-ear rock n' roll. Strong riffs and a blistering rhythm section get overpowered only by very powerful, almost spoken-word vocals. There's a touch of the British glamrock originators as well as the New York protopunk bands and even a slight hint of B-52's musical madness.

It's obvious that this is a band that does not attempt to reinvent the wheel, but reaches back to what stuck in their head when growing up, and take it for a ride. This is why all of the songs have a nostalgic feel to them, but never come over as oldies.

All things considered, this is music that requires you to listen intensely in order to appreciate the great effort that went in the songwriting, much like the Ramones are more then just two-chord hit wonders. If you delve deeper than what you hear at first, you find thought-through structures and a brilliant mastery of the art of making a song work.

The big listeners on the album are opener "Eat It Up", the anthemic "From The Start" and the melancholic follower "Margarida", the poppy title song "Estranged In Ladyland", the up-and-down rocker "Who Do You Think You Are", the closer "For The Ramones", and practically everything in between.

Without going too much into detail on the songs separately, I can guarantee that this is a big addition to any alternative rock lover's cd collection.

I don't expect anyone to blast this album loudly from their car stereo, but make sure this one isn't too far from your home music installation if you're in a relaxed mood. Le$ter will do the trick!