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?

Lesley Roy: 'I'm Gone, I'm Going' (single): Emerald Isle native Lesley Roy's power pop belter starts out busier than a shopping mall the day after Thanksgiving and doesn't let up for a second. Roy seems to have pilfered from Avril Lavigne's box o' hooks with considerable abandon and, perhaps because of that, this tune is actually rather catchy and probably easy radio fodder. The keyboards in the chorus sound a lot like Van Halen's 'Jump,' only at twice the speed, while the drummer sounds like he should be auditioning for Queens of the Stone Age.

This is straightforward teen-oriented angsty matter -- Roy's first-person protagonist is misunderstood/misused by parents/boyfriend and she's not going take it any more: "I'm like a rat in a cage/About to lose it all/...Ain't gonna give up until I'm standing tall." What does stand out amongst all this familiarity, however, is something quite jarring, and unfortunately it happens to be the song's title (and refrain); normally one would be "going, gone" not "gone, going" (ask an auctioneer!) and it makes Roy seem like she is hesitating to leave, and the defiant, confident manner of this song wouldn't seem to suggest that ambivalence at all. Buy it on iTunes | Buy it on Amazon


Thin Lizzy: 'Still Dangerous' (album): It seems the Irish are in favor this week, with the 'Stack giving up another of her Celtic treasures, this time from '70s rockers Thin Lizzy. 'Still Dangerous -- Live at the Tower Theatre Philadelphia 1977' is an interesting offering for the following reason: Lizzy's biggest live success is 1978's 'Live and Dangerous,' and that bad boy went platinum (in the U.K. -- according to the British Phonographic Industry). The funny thing is, a lot of the tracks on that album weren't really, fully live -- a bunch of overdubs and post-production was added, well, afterward, and some say that the only real live sounds you hear are the drums and the audience.

Happily, 'Still Dangerous' (the recordings for which were found in an old storage bin of the band's) is as live an experience as it gets, and it sounds fantastic. Lizzy romp through the classics like 'Cowboy Song' and 'The Boys Are Back in Town' with total assurance and, somehow, in spite of that earlier live album's touch-up work, they do sound better. The sound is rawer, and the band is on whip-crackingly tight form (check out sixth track, 'Massacre') and the "liveness" actually emphasizes the band's chops and is a fitting tribute to them and the late frontman Phil Lynott. Buy it on Amazon


Living Things: 'Let It Rain' (single): Curiously named brothers Lillian, Eve and Bosh Berlin, along with pal Cory Becker, kinda seem like they want to be badasses. The artwork inside their single includes images of a human skull, a goat skull and some dude tying on a blindfold. The thing is they're good-looking lads, as their recent Cavalli photo shoot with Kate Moss shows, and for that reason they really don't seem like they would be that good in a fight. But they're trying really hard to be tough.

'Let It Rain' is standard pop-rock fare, with drug references (see? Badasses!) and clichés a-go-go -- "Let it rain/I know comin' down can ache/And tonight is the night when we'll leave it all behind," and is at times a bit clumsy, almost as if English were not the band's first language, especially when they choose to rhyme "inside" with "outside." What this reminded us of, overwhelmingly, was the fictional rock band in TV show 'Lost,' Drive Shaft, and their supremely irritating one (and only) hit, 'You All Everybody' -- the band are hip-looking, the music is sing-along-able, but ultimately it's fluff and forgettable. Buy it on iTunes | Buy it on Amazon