Sha Sha by Ben Kweller

Sha Sha, Ben Kweller's debut album, reached the wider world on ATO Records in 2002, but its roots go back further. Kweller had been in Radish, and the first version of Sha Sha, which he burned onto CD-R and put out himself in 2000, was pieced together from outtakes of the sessions for that band's never-released album Discount Fireworks. The ATO edition is a different animal, with a heavily reshuffled track list and plenty of new songs and fresh recordings.

The songs have the scrappy, sweet-and-sour charm of indie rock made by a young multi-instrumentalist with more melodies than he knows what to do with. "Wasted and Ready" is the keeper, all slacker slouch and a chorus that won't leave you alone.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.