This week's eMusic.

Some interesting stuff on good ol' eMu this week:

Morten Richter-Message From The Slum. This one's actually not new this week, but newly discovered by yours truly. I came across Richter (who hails from Norway) while sampling the latest IPO 3-disc set and his track "Pop-Up Window" well, popped out at me. Further investigation revealed the disc on eMusic, and it's a glam-rock, power pop delight.

The State of Samuel-Here Come The Floods. You could be forgiven for mistaking this Swedish band for another of Robert Pollard's side projects, as there's a definite GbV influence here, the songs clock in at barely 2 minutes (or less) and there are titles like "The Residents of Gloom" and "Slow Day For the UFOs". But no, SoS is their own band, and this is high-quality indie pop. And speaking of Pollard.....

Robert Pollard-Coast to Coast Carpet of Love. If it's Friday, that must mean there's another Robert Pollard record out, and actually there are two of them (he also released Standard Gargoyle Decisions this week, but the critical consensus is that it sucks). This one is being hailed as an excellent power pop record, although I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet. As usual, Pollard isn't a real eMu-friendly artist given the number of tracks on his discs - here you have 16 of 'em averaging the typical 2 minutes per.

Rockfour-Memories of the Never Happened. It's not every day you come across a rock band from Israel, but here you go. These guys used to be with Rainbow Quartz, but this one finally saw a US release on the Cooking Vinyl imprint.

An eMusic bonanza!

eMu subscribers, if you haven't used up your credits for the month yet, you will after today. Several releases of note:

* Steve Bertrand's Pain Is a Megaphone. If the name isn't ringing a bell, perhaps knowing that he was the lead singer of The Tories will. Sounds very good from the samples, although for some reason eMu has it classified under easy listening and jazz.

* New Moon, the 2-CD release of Elliott Smith rarities from the mid-90s.

* Fred's Sound Awake. This actually came out in 2005, but it's being billed as an advance of a May 22 release; I suppose it's being re-released on a label this time around. For those who missed it two years ago, here's what Bruce at Not Lame had to say: "Produced by Jellyfish member, Chris Manning(Roger`s brother), Fred will certainly appeal to many Jellyfish fans. While not all the material easily falls into `sounds just like Jellyfish vibe", there`s a few songs that sound like they walked off of "Bellybutton", in particular "Piscetarrius" and "Sound Awake". There`s a strong sunshine, almost bubblegummy feel of bands like The Association, some Squeeze, Spy Mob, Steely Dan, Wondermints and Raspberries."

* Yet another Robert Pollard release, Silverfish Trivia.

* And a 7-track rarities/demos EP from Jason Collett titled Prodigals.

Download away!