Knol Tate is almost starting to trust you, maybe just a little bit. Tate, who began Askeleton after the dissolution of his bands Kill Sadie and The Hidden Chord back in 2000, has long come off as something of a cold fish, a prickly pear, on record. But if he's seemed to be holding you at a distance, first with the lo-fi, sample-based bedroom pop of *Sad Album* and then with the cold, industrial isolation of *Angry Album -or- Psychic Songs*, he showed a more inclusive tendency with 2005's *(Happy) Album*. And now comes *The Personalization*, which is almost, well, sunny.

Is it possible Tate's just getting soft in his old age? I doubt it. He's just coming to terms with his own considerable ear for a pop hook—an ear that was always there, even when it was being filtered through experiments in texture and tone. He probably sums it up best on *The Personalization*'s final track, "A Girls Night": "I'm looking for the perfect medium / somewhere between not so good and awesome."

LIMITED EDITION OF 500, HAND-STENCILLED AND NUMBERED BY THE BAND, AND ON 180 GRAM VINYL. SWEET! FREE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD WITH PURCHASE. THE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD INCLUDES 6 BONUS TRACKS NOT FOUND ON THE LP!