Pere Ubu: Why I Hate Women (Glitterhouse)

This will definitely not be to everyone's taste -- but I have been a longtime follower of Pere Ubu and the solo career of its portly front man David Thomas whose vocals can be as appealing to some people as Yoko Ono's screaming.

From the confrontational album title through tracks called Babylonian Warehouses, Flames Over Nebraska and Stolen Cadillac, this is a typically demanding but also wired up and jaggedly unrelenting album.

It is one for fans only probably, although those little melodic phrases and Thomas' sometimes emotionally fragile vocals could seduce the curious. I'm not counting on that though.

For Ubu-aficionados it only needs to be said that this musically taut, dramatic, witty and often thrilling album is a step into an even more tightly constructed crucible of dark visions, and the rhythm section here are the bedrock of these unnerving songs.

Oh, and that Thomas is terrific and may one day be acknowledged as among the most unique voices in rock culture.

Best Ubu in many, many years.