Anya Marina's Spirit School

Between having tunes appear on hit TV shows Grey's Anatomy and Castle and another one on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack, San Diego–based Anya Marina's music has gotten high-profile exposure, leading up to her latest studio effort, the Spirit School EP.

The title track has a raw, garage-pop sound that is matched by Marina's Stefani-meets-Jett vocals and the catchy chorus, "We're rubber/ You're glue/ And no matter what you say/ We're gonna stick it right to you." "Busrider" has an ’80s-electro sound to match Marina's odd raps and rhymes, while "Whatsit" has a disco flavor to it.

Marina spends most of the EP dabbling in singing, rapping, and spoken-word vocals, sometimes using her breathy croon to merge these styles together, usually with middling results. She also has a thing for Aaa, aaa, aah-ah-ah-ah-ing her way through portions of her songs, which gets very old, very fast. Certain ideas that sound good at first are soon overused, and so, though only five brief tracks, the EP runs out of steam.

• Album: Spirit School (2010)
• Artist: Anya Marina
• Label: Chop Shop/Atlantic
• Songs: (1) You are Invisible (2) Whatsit (3) Spirit School (4) Busrider (5) Satellite Heart (Tiny Stars Remix)