Although Todd Carter, lead singer and songwriter for the popular New York City based band The Looking, calls the eleven tracks on their irresistible, multi-layered debut CD Tin Can Head “a series of love songs,” the eclectic and provocative, ultra-poetic tunes are unlike any other love songs you’ve ever heard. “Lele” is about the death of a little kitten Carter found on the side of the road in Hawaii; he was intrigued by the meaning of the feline’s adopted name: Ascension. Drawing upon Carter’s study of philosophy, “Spinoza” is about a guy falling in love with a Dutch philosopher who once said our emotions are all pre-determined. The singer, whose voice has been described as “Morrissey meets Johnny Rotten,” composed “Revolt, I Do” and “I’m Your Labyrinth”—a title which perhaps best gets to the heart of the abstract matter—on a silent retreat two years ago in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Combine these offbeat ideas with a compelling hybrid sound that draws on Carter’s equal passions for the British New Wave he grew up with (New Order, The Cure); the rich folk music he played (sometimes on mountain dulcimer) in Bloomington, Indiana while attending IU; and classic country music (The Carter Family, Johnny Cash), and The Looking starts looking like the psychedelic rock country blues band that’s taking over Manhattan with a fury.