Peculiar

New York's Slackers have been purveying their particular brand of Caribbean-influenced R&B since the mid-1990s, but they're not just high-octane ska revivalists. As their ninth full-length album, 2006's PECULIAR, attests, the band is all about groove and subtlety. Like their Caribbean calypso forbears, they feature a healthy dose of lyrical skepticism about the drift of world events in songs like "Propaganda" and "International War Criminal," as well as purveying gently swinging dance instrumentals like "Sauron" and the crowd-pleasing "Capo." Nuanced, classy, and entertaining, the Slackers are the thinking person's party band.