Sure, he's a little heavier and his suits aren't cut quite as sharply, but David Thomas is in many ways a lot like David Byrne-both were among the first to sidestep punk and new wave into their own individual niches of weird and arty pop, and today both are survivors, after over a decade, as elder statesmen of the odd. In the '70s, Byrne was more externally schizoid, while Thomas always seemed persecuted by more internal, more personal demons ("Final Solution"). Today, Byrne seeks out exotica in the musics of other countries, but Thomas still turns his attention to more inward matters, sharpening his own inherent talents rather than appropriating or mimicking the sounds of others. As on Cloudland, Worlds In Collision is a further streamlining of the Ubu equation-all those lovable tweedles, beeps and tuba blats that gave such a delightful skew to earlier Ubu are still there, they've just been sublimated to a more subdued, background level, with hooks and melodies prodded to the fore. Still, Thomas' warbly and weird vocals are just as imbalanced as ever; he has a way of delivering couplets like "I bounced a path straight across the room/Threw out the coffee and drank the soap" that you just won't hear coming from the mouths of others of his ilk. Tops: "Worlds In Collision," "Cry Cry Cry, "Mirror Man" and "Over The Moon."

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