Being away from home and for as long as I have been the past week, I have to rely solely on new music for my audio entertainment and sanity because I didn’t bother to load up my new MacBook with any music. This means I can’t really do a new Digging For Fire installment. But thankfully this has been one of those weeks that has been chockfull of good releases.

First up is The Death Set’s Worldwide. I had been looking forward to this album since first seeing their video for Negative Thinking some time ago. It’s one of those albums that totally signal the start of the summer, going out and being carefree. It’s totally lo-fi, full of energy and one giant rah-rah-go team, go sing chant set to some crunchy guitars and blissfully simple keyboards. It like BS 2000 punching The Go Team in the face because they tried to flirt with Bis.

Then there is The Virgin’s self-titled debut. It’s gong to be very hard for me to be un-biased because of our personal connection to the band, but I’ll try. While this is way more commercial than I normally listen to… I can’t knock it for that simple fact. It took a few listens to dull up it’s initial polish, but soon after it got super infectious. Even though I was familiar and enjoyed lo-fi versions of some of these songs for quite some time, none of those previous incarnations were able to burrow into the back of my head and not want to leave the way these new slick and deliberate produced versions have.

And finally my favorite album of the past week, Ladytron’s Velocifero. I love Ladytron and am so glad they transcended their initial tag of being just another of a handful of Electroclash bands. Their last album The Witching Hour was so cold and stark that hearing Velocifero against it is like comparing a birthday party to a wake. And while Velocifero is still treading in the same cold & dark territory the band focused on during The Witching Hour, they do however this time infuse it with the same familiar synth-pop sensibilities that made their debut album 604 so beloved. I feel compelled to call this a return to form, but then I quickly realize the band has never put out a bad album.