So you're ready to say goodbye to an old identity, but in the end you kinda return to it anyway. Seedbed consists of the final line-up of Scooterbabe and more than a few friends, and this album was intended to serve as that band's last effort.

Seedbed Stalemate (Tiny Engines)

Six years later, Stalemate emerges as the first Seedbed album. And, yes, if you squint enough it also sounds like it could be the last Scooterbabe album. JJ Posway has even more control over this effort, but instead of crafting a tight and coherent set, he has overseen a discordant and diffuse ramble of songs that barely hold together.

That is, both within each song and the songs in the album as a whole. If you're looking for jaunty guitar pop, you'll find it. But, like every other element here, idea after idea and sound after sound pile on to leave a deconstructed pile. Most of the time, this sort of jumble is a complete wreck. Posway has somehow assembled his piles into something astounding.

And yes, this harkens back to the 90s (and the 00s, and . . .) and often sounds like someone took a sledgehammer to Built to Spill and then drizzled it on a canvas a la Jackson Pollock. That's cool. Weird, and not entirely fulfilling, but dazzling in the ambition and effort. Who knows what Seedbed will foster, but this first effort is hard to put down.

Jon Worley