Mean Everything To Nothing, the second album from Manchester Orchestra, is everything you want a rock record to be: raw, urgent, emotional, and 100 percent authentic. "There is nothing fake about this record," says frontman and lyricist Andy Hull. "We recorded it live because we wanted it to sound like a band, and I think it does: live and loud!" The blistering opener "The Only One" immediately gives way to the propulsive "Shake It Out" and the torrential first single "I've Got Friends," followed by the anguished "Pride" and the menacing "In My Teeth," before slowing down on the darkly funny "100 Dollars." Then the album pauses and downshifts into less relentless yet equally gripping territory on songs from "I Can Feel A Hot One," to the ruminative closer "The River." The drama is magnified by the fact that the album's first six songs bleed into one another without stopping. The breakneck pace is both exhilarating and exhausting. "We did that to emphasize that there are two halves to the album." The first half is a brooding tale of teenage angst and anger -- the confusion and disillusionment of growing up and becoming an adult. The second half is about redemption and an overall re-evaluation of the self. >>Jim Fahy