Marc Ribot: Cocktail Party

Marc Ribot, guitar polymath, has a knack for dropping his twisty lines into just about any context. Whether it's rock (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello), jazz (Lounge Lizards), or full-on avant sound architectures (John Zorn's Book of Heads), Ribot turns out work that makes it seem like the compositions were made for his guitar lines instead of the other way around. Cocktail Party provides a perfect distillation of his angular, funky attack. Set against a loping beat and some poppin' bass, Ribot's guitar alternates between tangled single-note passages and choppy rhythm work. Is this instrumental rock? Jazz with a pop hook and an attitude? Its own thing? Yes, on all counts.