Love Drug

When Michael Shepard sings, even broken legs sound beautiful. His is a boyish lilt that could float on water. At times the Lovedrug frontman’s voice quivers like a toddler’s upper lip; at others it sounds like a daydream becoming a nightmare. Shepard is the entry point to Lovedrug’s pretty, progressive pop. Backed by steel-wool guitar and snarled rhythms, he brings a sense of immediacy to a band prone to artful indulgence and tales of cold hearts and mangled limbs. On the Canton, Ohio-based act’s latest disc, Pretend You’re Alive, Shepard and his cronies take cues from Queen and Radiohead to deliver delicate, papier-mâché ballads alongside sweaty rock exorcisms.