** NY Loose

THE YEAR OF THE RAT

(Hollywood Records)

On Year of the Rat, NY Loose dig up the bones of yesterday while adding some flesh from today; the result is a patchwork of stylistic variations that confuse and frustrate. The cascading power chords and muscular rhythm on "Pretty Suicide," the album's opening track, drip glam New York rock and roll, but then you have to sift through five faceless "alterna-rock" songs before you can throw yourself around your room again. Songs like "Kiss My Wheels" and "Apathy Is Golden" feature worn-out grunge riffs done with just enough dissonance to avoid turning the band into the next Stone Temple Pilots. NY Loose do salvage the album with their impeccable reproduction of the Velvets' "Sunday Morning," and their scorching "Detonator," a "Sonic Reducer"-like workout that features a thick rubbery bass line punctuated by jagged power chords and mammoth drum fills. With a narrower sonic focus and higher standards for songwriting, this band could get somewhere.

-- Lorne Behrman

(NY Loose open for Marilyn Manson at Avalon next Saturday, October 26.)