Story of My Life (1993)

Whether singing about blast furnaces, train wrecks, or unrequited crushes, Pere Ubu lead singer David Thomas has always ached to be a romantic, but he's too playfully pained, like Dr. Seuss, crafting skewed metaphors for a skewed world. Story of My Life's tense, terse melodies (''Kathleen,'' ''Honey Moon,'' ''Sleep Walk'') are his band's most generous yet, putting a jump in your step as well as a lump in your throat. A-