The Unnatural Helpers, signed to Sub Pop's sister label Hardly Art, have been banging around Seattle for a few years now as the perennial hobbyhorse of singer / drummer / songwriter / sole consistent member Dean Whitmore, who has also spent time with such Seattle outfits as the Intelligence, Welcome and Dipers. Guitar and sporadic vocal duties are held down by Brian Standeford and Leo Gebhardt (who have previously played together in the Catheters, Tall Birds and most recently Idle Times), with some additional playing by Kinski's Chris Martin. Kimberly Morrison from the Dutchess & the Duke provides confident, swaggering bass lines throughout, as well as some guitar, keys, and the occasional backing vocal. Cracked Love & Other Drugs is a collection of beguiling and wonderfully varied tunes. Album standout Sunshine / Pretty Girls finds the band at their pop best with Whitmore, Standeford and Morrison combining for a big sing along chorus. Our Most Entitled is tense, wiry and delightfully unstable, while Brave Dumb Face is a full-on freak-out, Whitmore barking out lyrics over insistently off-kilter drumming while guitars buzz in and out of the mix. Cracked Love & Other Drugs is 15 songs that conflict and compliment, in just over 25 minutes. Ricocheting between broken and twisted relationships, mock fatalist wink nodage, knucklehead party racket, absurd isolationist paranoia and open book love-letter sap-crap with the prevailing sentiment being summarily diffused just before it has gone too far. This push and pull friction along with great pop sensibilities and good old fashioned rock & roll KRAANG is in the end what makes Cracked Love & Other Drugs such an intriguing, appealing listen.