Everclear

In his thirties, with a load of drugs behind him and a young daughter waiting at home, Art Alexakis has a firm enough grip on his life to articulate the anguish other guitar-wielders yowl about. Where on the aptly entitled World of Noise the sharpest lyrics never quite mesh, here almost every song comes with a story, a tune, and a musical pain threshold. Its cast of struggling souls is evoked by somebody past pitying himself--somebody who's been around the block so often he's finally learned that compassion is for other people. (Grade: A-)