The Crap Stack: Extreme, Egypt Central, Erup

Here at Spinner, we receive more CDs than we can possibly listen to. Sadly, many of them, whether good or bad, get consigned to The Crap Stack, where they languish until they're eventually carted off to become shiny silver landfill somewhere. However, in our version of Musical Lotto, we've decided to rescue -- completely at random -- three discs from the pile and give them a proper and fair reviewing. Will the chosen CD be crap-tastic -- or just plain crap? Let's find out, shall we?

Extreme: 'Saudades de Rock' (album): We haven't paid much attention to these Boston glam-funk-rockers' creative offerings since 1990's 'Pornograffiti,' an album that boasted hit singalong ballads 'More Than Words' and 'Hole-Hearted.' Extreme re-formed in 2008 with a new drummer, and their latest effort, 'Saudades de Rock' (Portuguese for "nostalgia for rock") is their first long-player in 13 years and, honestly, we dig it for all the same reasons we loved 'Pornograffiti.' Admittedly, the opener, 'Star,' has some pretty daft lyrics -- "Star ... you're now bigger than Venus and Mars/You can run but you can't hide" -- but the hooks, Queen-esque harmonies and guitar whiz Nuno Bettencourt's fretboard pyrotechnics are all in place. A standout track is the storming 'Flower Man,' which starts as a hurried skate-rock piece with Police-like bass lines before descending into full-on shredding majesty. Welcome back, we say.

Egypt Central: 'Taking You Down' (single): The curiously monikered Egypt Central sound a bit too much like every other radio-friendly hard-rock post-metal band that's channeling its Linkin Park aspirations. The best that can be said about this tune is that it's inoffensive. The song almost gets interesting each time the drummer rolls his kick drums or the vocalist lets his not-bad scream take flight, but it quickly retreats to mediocre territory with the four line chorus being repeated over and over ad nauseam. That the song clocks in at a meager 2:56 is sweet relief.

Erup: 'Click Mi Fingers' (single): Now this cut is catchy as hell and is somewhat reminiscent of Mr. Vegas' killer tune 'Heads High.' That said, we'd be lying if we claimed to know what on earth Erup was singing about without consulting one of those handy lyrics sites. A quick scan of the words shows him to be a bit of a cad and the track to be little more than a sizable brag about his successes with the ladies -- all ladies, in fact: "Gal from all over di world inna di West Indies yeah!/Seh dem fall in love with me." Still, this is the "clean version," so our blushes are spared -- and, as dancehall goes, the tune seems to press all the right buttons.