Fuzzatonic Scream

Unlike many of rock's major spoken-word figures in the '90s (Henry Rollins, Maggie Estep, King Missile's John S. Hall), Bobby Gaylor doesn't have a hip alternative pedigree, and accordingly, his debut album, Fuzzatonic Scream, doesn't betray much of a punk influence. But that's not to say it's never dark, edgy, or slightly bizarre; it just creates those moods with a gentler, subtler touch, both in the straightforward pop/rock or electronic backing music and in Gaylor's polished prose. Gaylor has a keen eye for detail and a strong sense of the underlying absurdities of human behavior, and even if the backing music isn't usually anything to write home about, his narratives are more than enough to carry the record.