JD McPherson conjures the sound of Fifties-style rock & roll so lovingly that you can practically see Sam Phillips grinning from the control room while McPherson howls away in the studio. When he wasn't busy teaching art at a Tulsa middle school, the former punk rocker cut Signs & Signifiers using vintage mics, stand-up bass and slap-back echo for a sound that recalls raw mid-Fifties Sun Records hits – Elvis Presley, Charlie Feathers – as well as pre-rock R&B stars like Big Joe Turner. McPherson may sound like a purist, but he's a sharp songwriter, and his punk spirit and wry wordplay make this more than just a time trip. On the jumping "Dimes for Nickels," he laments a wallet­sucking affair: "Pawned a long gold chain and my Chippendale rocker/A sauvignon blanc and a Black Johnnie Walker." His loss is some sweaty rock club's gain. 

Listen to 'Signs & Signifiers'

“Karma Chameleon”

Boy George has said this song was about standing by what you believe in. However, at the time, he was involved in a secret affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. "Now people can understand the songs better," he said. "They were written about my relationship with Jon, and they were also written about being a gay man in a homophobic world." The lines "If I listen to your lies, would you say/I'm a man without conviction/I'm a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction," described his life at the time, he said. "I was selling this big lie."