Tom Verlaine: "Daddy, his singing's wobbly."

If you're looking for an objective review of Tom Verlaine's new CDs, best keep looking.

In June of 1996, I flew to New York to see Tom Verlaine at Tramps. Great show. He debuted a few new songs that night, one of which was this crazy, noisy thing called "All Weirded Out." Trapped in the Atlanta airport the next day, I had the chorus stuck in my head. (There's a bootleg CD of that show floating around.)

Almost 10 years later, I crack open "Songs And Other Things," Verlaine's first vocal CD since 1990's "The Wonder." Track 12: "All Weirded Out." And again, that damn chorus is nailed into my head.

This could be his best solo work yet, which is saying quite a bit. They're all different, all brilliant. Here, he may have found the perfect balance between his experimental and poppier sides. Accessibly weird, you could say. Or maybe weirdly accessible. Some have complained that the lyrics seem unfinished, which sounds like the complaints of someone who hasn't paid much attention to the lyrics of his previous works. (I love the line about the "five ugly bugs.") His riffs and solos are as amazing as ever, and he still sings like he has a mouthful of tapioca pudding. My daughter says he sings "wobbly." She's right.

1992's "Warm And Cool" was a collection of moody instrumentals featuring Verlaine's incredible, textured guitar. (Back then, everybody drew comparisons to the music from "Twins Peaks.") "Around" picks up where that one left off. Some of the stuff feels like fragments, chunks of bigger pieces. Others fall in line with what we think of as "songs." They've all got Verlaine's ringing guitar tone and veer off in unexpected directions. Billy Ficca, the drummer for Television, provides incredible support throughout, totally at ease with Verlaine's improvisations. Nobody plays jazzy drums in rock n roll the way Billy does.

Not much in new music does much for me anymore. I kinda collect records backwards, going back in time as I get bored with what I'm currently listening to: punk to garage to surf to rockabilly to country to easy listening to exotica. I haven't been this excited about a new release in a long, long time. Except maybe that T Bone Burnett thing that's on the way.