Tuesday, April 29, 2003
As much as I love the music of Bob Dylan, the one period during his career that I've been avoiding for all these years has been his born again period, from 1979-81. Although "Solid Rock", "I Believe in You", and "Every Grain of Sand" are three of about a hundred of my favourite Dylan songs, I could never bring myself to buy albums like Slow Train Coming and Saved. The production on those two albums annoy me, the cover of Saved is so cheesy it looks like it came from my local fundamentalist Christian superstore (yes, we have those where I live), and above all else, Dylan's direct and shameless proseletyzing always made me uncomfortable.
I started hearing a growing rumble among fellow Bobcats about Gotta Serve Somebody, an upcoming compilation of cover versions of Dylan's gospel songs about a month ago, so I volunteered to review the album. Sounded interesting. Well, here I am now, completely bowled over...not only is this an immensely beautiful sounding album, but it's the best tribute album I've heard in a long, long time. Tribute albums are rarely good all the way through, but this one is a triumph from start to finish.
"Gotta keep on holdin' on, just keep on hangin' on," sings the vocal group Sounds of Blackness, a capella at the beginning of "Solid Rock", which then explodes into a euphoric funked-up revival. The old guys in Fairfield Four (most will remember them from O Brother, Where Art Thou?) give "Are You Ready" a gospel chant treatment that sounds straight from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, and Shirley Caesar totally steals "Gotta Serve Somebody", shattering Bob's old version to pieces. Dottie Peoples' "I Believe in You" is sublime, and the Chicago Mass Choir's cover of "Pressing On" packs a wallop the original never had.
Best of all is the new version of "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking" by Dylan and Mavis Staples. Performed with his touring band (the best backing band in the biz, I might add), it's transformed into a wickedly nasty, searing blues tune. But that's not the best part...Bob stops the song 30 seconds in to welcome Mavis, and the exchange between them is typical Bob: enigmatic, funny, and supercool:
Bob: Why look, someone's comin' up the road, boys...
(knock knock)
Mavis: Hey there, Bobby!
Bob: Hey, it's Mavis Staplllllles...
Mavis: Hey fellas, what's up? My goodness Bobby, you've got a nice place here!
Bob: Welcome to California, Mavis.
Mavis: Thank you much. Whoa, you got a nice view...
Bob: Yeah, it is. You can sit on this porch and look straight on to Hawaii.
Mavis: Yeah, I was over in them foothills.
Bob: Why?
Mavis: I was lookin' to meet some people. I'm kinda hungry now, don't you got anything to eat?
Bob: Well, I'm sure we do. Mama, we have anything to eat?
Yvonne Staples: Sure, we got plenty of chickens out there in the yard.
Bob: Well, we're gonna go knock a few of 'em off and fry 'em up.
Bob's band: Yay!
Don't be scared off by the whole gospel thing. It's surprisingly diverse, full of life, rip-your-heart-to-shreds-beautiful, and just makes you feel all warm and happy inside. Later this month, I'll be reviewing Telarc's album of Blonde on Blonde blues covers (the sequel to last year's disastrous Blues White Album), and I already know it's going to pale in comparison to this one. Definitely one of the year's best.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Another new review, and this one's a biggie: a two-in-one review of Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes, by Turbonegro. The albums might be reissues from the late Nineties, but they completely blow away everything I have heard this year so far. I just might have to alter my album of the year criteria (it seems to change every year) to justify putting these two albums on my list in December...the cd's are that good.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Well, the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated in the first round last night. Spring came early this year! Ah, how sweet it is...
New cd arrival yesterday, Adult.'s album Anxiety Always. It's an album that absolutely seethes with anger, and such emotion is such a rare thing in the whole electroclash (sorry) genre. Anxiety Always has a real punk-fueled venom in their No Wave sound this time around, as well as a stripped-down sound compared to their earlier stuff; "Glue Your Eyelids Together", "People, You Can Confuse", and "We Know How to Have Fun" ("The conversation of a conceited bore/Is usually over before it's done") seem to be aimed straight at the soulless plasticity of the scene, and Nicola Kuperus sounds like she's ready to mop the floor with Casey Spooner (even though Adult. did a very cool remix of Fischerspooner's "Emerge"). Plus, "Kick in the Shin" is a wicked tune, perhaps the best on the album.
The album is noisy, in a minimalist way, and Kuperus's robotic vocals won't appeal to some (she ends up showing some refreshing range on "Kick in the Shin"), but it's really more accessible than many would think. Her vocal delivery is much more direct, more up front in the mix, and has fewer of those Eurotrash affectations that were on Adult.'s earlier stuff. Adult.'s message might be one that's been done to death since the dawn of punk, but they do it with such vitriolic passion, and passion is something that's really hard to find in Nu-Electro today.
Early Adult. singles like "Hand to Phone", "Human Wreck", and "Dispassionate Furniture" are very good, but I like this album more. It's much more focused, rawer, and not so pretentious.
Monday, April 21, 2003
New review today: Xiu Xiu's brilliantly bleak album titled A Promise. It's one that will scare away 95% of all people you play it for, but those who approach this extraordinary album with an open mind will surely appreciate it. Though they still might me psychologially shattered after hearing it.
A local used cd store has had the recent New Order box set Retro on display for the past month or two. I was supposed to get a review copy, but much to my annoyance, it didn't arrive, so I've been coveting the thing ever sine, but was unwilling to pay full price for it, because its song selections were a bit on the flaky side. So was looking at it again on Saturday, then went home without getting it. I then started to wonder if it was used or new (it was kind of vague), so I called the store, and yes, it was in fact a used copy. So I hightailed it back to the store with a pile of junky cd's to trade, and along with my existing store credit, was able to buy the box set for . Sweeeet.
The Retro box set is actually pretty good, not quite as bad as some people have made it out to be. It's a weird format, consisting of four separate cd's, compiled by four different people. The Pop cd is supposed to have their hits, but is missing some rather obvious choices ("Love Vigilantes", "Run"), opting instead for two tracks from the recent Get Ready album (though "Crystal" is a great song), and one song from The Beach Soundtrack. No real horrible choices, but not a definitive version, either (though the original version of "Temptation" was an interesting choice, since I already have the 1987 version on other cd's). The Fan cd has overlooked album tracksand B-Sides, and since I don't have any New Order albums (Only compilations) it was a real revelation, especially with the songs "Elegia" and "procession". Club has various good dance remixes, most notably the Shep Pettibone extended dance mix of "Bizarre Love Triangle" and an instrumental mix of the 2002 single "Here to Stay". Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie compiled the Live cd, which starts with some early performances from 1981, and ends with a killer version of "Temptation" from 2002 (the version of "The Perfect Kiss" is also excellent). The way it's mixed, with no fadeouts, makes it a kind of neat timeline.
It would've been nice if the limited edition bonus disc came with this specific set, but I found the key tracls from that cd online, namely, the extended version of "Elegia" and the video performance of "The Perfect Kiss", which I've always thought was the best version of the song. The box set isn't perfect by any stretch, but definitely worth eighteen bucks.
Saturday, April 19, 2003
My review of The Stratford 4's new album, Love & Distortion, is now out there for y'all to read. An annoying album, but it's growing on me. I still can't recommend it though...go download the six best songs (see the review to find out what they are) and decide for yourself.
A new Dylan tour means, of course, a new Dylan Pool! I got off to a much better start than the last two pools tonight, placing 115th out of 1977. Bob's shortened his set, there's no acoustic set, the piano's still htere, and he has a new guitarist named Freddie Koella, who apparently was pretty darn good.
So what happened to be leaked on the net last night, but the new Super Furry Animals album? It's called Phantom Power...I've heard it twice all the way through, and my first impression is, it's a very good album. SFA are much, much more focused here, as opposed to Rings Around the World. Is it better? Well, I do miss the ELO fun of "Rings", the r & b of "Juxtapozed With U", and the sheer craziness of "Receptacle For the Respectable", but this new one has a little bit more of a relaxed, Brian Wilson vibe to it.
"Hello Sunshine" opens with acoustic guitar and a female singer singing a couple verses, before Gruff and the band come in with a drowsy, lugubrious melody and a Jeff Lynne-like snare sound."Liberty Belle" is a gorgeous song about the aftermath of 9-11, with a breezy chorus that comes complete with wistful "woo-hoo"'s. First single "Golden Retriever" has a bit of a T.Rex feel, with its low hum of a synth, and sweeping background singers. "Out of Control" is straight country (pedal steel and vibrato guitar), with someone other than Gruff Rhys singing, along with a female singer on harmony vocals. "The Piccolo Snare" is the most ambitious song on the album, with 60s style harmony vocals, backwards effects, and a simple, repeated piano riff...the song evolves into a more upbeat, six minute jam by the entire band. "Venus and Serena" (yes, it seems like it's about the Willaims sisters..."Keep your eye on the ball") is a cool mishmash of tastefully distorted guitars, some Bacharach trumpet melodies, and some neat techno bits that never go overboard.
"Bleed Forever" is a Blur-ry piano ballad (they always have a couple Blurry moments), while "Out of Control" is another pounding glam rocker (love that synth and the handclaps). "Valet Parking" has some delightfully weird lyrics ("She came in smelling of cabbages") and a very Brian Wilsony coda of interweaving voices singing, "baby bye bye." "The Undefeated" has the band going reggae, with its steel drums and horns. The seven minute "Slow Life" concludes things, and is the only time they go off on a techno tangent, as they've been known to do, but again, it's more tasteful, as after a couple minutes, the song starts anew, with a simple guitar riff and harmonica, not to mention strings and (agh!) cowbell, not to mention some ominous lyrics, as the techno comes back in for a minutes, and the song starts all over again. Weird.
Again, this'll take some listening, but I already like it more than, say, Blur's Think Tank and the rough mix of Radiohead's Hail to the Thief. It's a lazy, breezy summer album, done like only a bunch of crazy Welshmen can do. "Liberty Belle"...man, I love that song.
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
New review today: Neon Golden, by The Notwist. Great, great album. One that totally deserves all the hype it's getting. "Consequence" continues to blow me away...
On Monday, Pitchfork published an excellent interview with Jamie Stewart, the demented genius behind Xiu Xiu. It's an excellent read, and only made me appreciate the band and the album more. Hopefully, my review will appear soon.
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
I really have to update this page more often. Beel slacking off the past couple weeks...
A new review to mention, that being the new album by White Light Motorcade. Man, I wrote that so long ago, it seems. Anyway, it has some good moments, but gets muddled by too many bad songs. Still, it's a nice change, a New York band who's not afraid to get too Britpoppy. There's potential, but the album flubs a bit.
My big obsession for the past week has been Norwegian deathpunk gods Turbonegro. Their rereleased albums, Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes, might be five and seven years old, but they're still the best albums I have heard this year. Turbonegro is sick, vulgar, and utterly idiotic, but they back up that idiocy with music that absolutely blows your head apart. Ass Cobra is one of the best punk albums from the past ten years, while Apocalypse Dudes has more of a big rock sound, still sticking with the punk influence, but lifting much of their sound from glam rock, like early Alice Cooper and Finnish legends Hanoi Rocks. I have a huge review coming up soon, so I'll let it to the talking, but for now, my year so far has been saved by Turbonegro. I am a denim demon.
I should also add that Turbonegro has a new album coming out next month, and you can sample a couple tracks here.
Got some cool Canadian mp3 picks:
"80s Rock Star" - The Weekends: Some good, harmless, fun, and extremely catchy powerpop by this Ontario band. They sound like a cross between Weezer, The Blake Babies, and That Dog, the singer sounding like Juliana Hatfield's little sister. It's not groundbreaking stuff, but it's fun, and has a melody that happily buzzes around your head all day. You can also download the video here.
"Keep the Living Things Warm" - Tangiers: What are they like? Like The Datsuns, but more "Psychotic Reaction" than Deep Purple. Like The Strokes, but more Glimmer Twins than Lou Reed. Like Hot Hot Heat, but more Stooges than The Cure. Not groundbreaking, but it's two minutes and thirty-five seconds of scorching rock & roll.
Tuesday, April 8, 2003...8 hours later
Two new reviews to mention. First of all, my Yo La Tengo review is up. Again, it's a very good album, but it's much quieter than anything they've put out before, and it's not quite the classic that ...And Then Nothing is.
Also, my review of the new Grand Mal cd has popped up. Nothing but a fun rip-off of early 70s Stones, New York Dolls, T.Rex, and Big Star, with some really cool lyrics by Bill Whitten.
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
I'm falling so far behind. My review of the goofy dance-pop compilation Global Hits 2003 is now up. I can't get over how embarrassing the Cheeky Girls are...if you thought that "Touch My Bum" song was bad, wait til you hear their new single "Take Off Your Shoes" (I think that's the title). These Romanian twins are setting a new standard for untalented singers. And they're still popular in the UK. Why, oh why?
Late Friday night, I stumbled across the entire new Liz Phair album online, and now that I have it, I have to say it exceeds all our expectations: it's even more awful than we've imagined. Absolutely dreadful, one of the most tragic sellouts I have ever seen. How could this woman go from Exile in Guyville to this teeny-pop garbage? Tonight I played all of the new album, then followed it with Exile, and the difference is so startling, so sad, that I almost want to cry. What a waste of talent. I'll be writing a lot more about this in the coming days, but in the meantime, you can sample three spectacularly awful songs here.
On a more positive note, the new video for Goldfrapp's awesome single, "Train", is out. Quite the spicy little number. Hope she's on Top of the Pops in the coming weeks. Anyway, take a look at the clip...it's pretty cool: fast slow
Also worth mentioning is the video for Royksopp's "Remind Me", which is absolutely mesmerizing. It's on Canadian tv now (it originally came out last August in Europe), and is something to behold. It loses a bit of its effect on real player, but if you haven't seen it yet, check it out. It's amazing. To quote Ms. Phair, take a look, take a look, take a look, take a look: fast slow
Thursday, April 3, 2003
Got three cd's yesterday, and they couldn't be more different.
A Promise, by Oakland band Xiu Xiu (named after the Joan Chen movie of the same name, which I've been meaning to see for the past three years), is as disturbing an album as you'll hear all year (don't get me started on the equally scary album cover). It's frightening, freaky, and above all else, fraught, absolutely fraught with emotion. What does it sound like? Well, if Tiny Tim was a clinically depressed smackhead with major obsessions with Tom Waits' Bone Machine, the Residents, and Ian Curtis's darker fare, that'd be about as half as intense as this.
Despite it being one of the saddest albums I've ever heard, I find the album strangely compelling. The cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" is stunning (is that ukelele?), as are "Apistat Commander", "Blacks", and "Ian Curtis Wish List". The album's emotional intensity is encapsulated perfectly in "Sad Redux-O-Grapher"; singer Jamie Stewart sings, "I made him a present/it was a photograph in me," and then he emits a wail that's the most intensely painful sound I've heard on record in years: "He said it did not cost me anything!!!". It stopped me dead in my tracks.
Grand Mal's Bad Timing was hugely refreshing after 39 minutes of Xiu Xiu's terror and misery, nothing but great, straight-ahead, glammed-up, fun rock & roll, like Urge Overkill, the new York Dolls, and the Stones circa 1970. If this was 1987, these guys would have some seriously big-ass hair, but instead, they're just a bunch of plain, grasy NYC schlubs who probably won't garner the attention that the prettyboys in The Strokes are getting. Too bad, cos this album's great. Not very original, but they do the formula to perfection, boast some fabulous lyrics ("Disaster Film" especially), and tons of energy. It was produced by Dave Fridmann (he of Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips fame), and features Steven Drozd on four tracks. A lot of albums like this will come out in the next nine months, but this'll be one of the better ones come the end of the year.
Best of all, is the acclaimed album Neon Golden, by German outfit The Notwist, which could be the best thing I've heard in 2003 so far (no, I didn't download it in 2002. I'm not that cool). It's one of the most unpretentious albums of its kind, one of the most effective blends of techno and pure, unabashed pop songwriting that I have heard in a long, long time. What grabbed me instantly were "Pilot", "Trashing Days" (with its banjo), "Solitaire", "One With the Freaks" (singer Markus Acher has such an amazing voice), "Consequence", the blues-meets-Stereolab title track, and the bonus track "Scoop". This is something you don't see every day: IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) with soul. This is a real keeper.
Tuesday, April 1, 2003
I always keep forgetting to mention the little capsule reviews I've been doing off and on. So here you go...you can find my brief reviews of Carter Burwell's very cool score for Spike Jonze's Adaptation, as well as Electric Six's Danger! High Voltage single, which is the front-runner for best song of 2003. So far, anyway.
John Sakamoto's Anti-Hit List has recently turned me on to a good alt-country, folk, whatever singer named Laura Veirs. She's got a real sweet voice, and her music is simple, unpretentious, and boasts some lovely production. You can download two songs from her new album, Troubled By the Fire (on Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde's own Bella Union label, of all places), here...they're well worth downloading. I have to hear the rest of that album now...
Monday, March 31, 2003
Forgot to update this thing on Thursday night, so here's a somewhat tardy review notice: My review of that most disappointing Echoboy album appeared a few nights ago. Avoid the album and download "Automatic Eyes" instead.
So, big, big news on the net Sunday, as a version of Radiohead's new album Hail To the Thief was leaked, and music geeks (including myself) were all in a tizzy, trying desperately to download it.
Before I offer my thoughts, I have to stress that the version floating on the net is not the final mix. A bit encouraging, since my initial reaction to the downloaded album was mild disappointment at how flat it sounded. Apparently, the final mix is vastly different.
So what do I think about the songs? Pretty good. I always like Radiohead, but though there's nothing really wrong with them, there's nothing much to get excited about, either. You don't need the final mix to know that songs like "2+2=5", "Sit Down Stand Up", "There There" (the upcoming single), "Punch-Up at a Wedding", "Myxomatosis", and "Wolf at the Door" are all very good songs, they don't really jump out at me like the five great songs on Amnesiac did. Still, a solid album. Not in the same league as The Bends and OK Computer, more consistent than Amnesiac, but not as good as Kid A. The final version might change my opinion from slightly positive to positive, but I alreay know it won't be a contender for my year-end top five, or maybe even the top ten.
I haven't mentioned the new White Stripes album yet. Pretty darn good. Not as great as Rolling Stone makes it out to be, but definitely one worth buying. "Seven Nation Army", "Black Math", and "Ball & Biscuit" rock my world. Thanks, Steverino.
The other day I finally found a used copy of Megadeth's Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? album...been looking for the past year, ever since I learned my seventeen year-old tape won't play anymore. Easily Megadeth's finest record, and one of the best metal albums from 1986, which had to be the best year ever for metal releases.
I also caved in and bought a nice and cheap copy of My Bloody Valentine's masterpiece, Loveless...again, a testament to how tragically uncool I am: it took me thirteen years to get it! But hey, I have it at last, and I love the thing. Absolutely unreal, and still sounds way ahead of its time (read this great review by Jim DeRogatis). It's one of those albums you know won't ever be duplicated ever again. It shows how bands like The Stratford 4 just don't measure up.
Speaking of The Stratford 4, that stupid new album of theirs is seriously growing on me. Not enough for me to change my negative review, though. I just happen to like the album's five good songs more than before. The rest is a letdown.
Oh, and be sure to click here to be seriously, seriously creeped out...
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
My review of The D4's album has magically appeared. I forgot it hadn't been published yet...it seems like I wrote the thing a lifetime ago. Anyway, a good album. Not great, but fun. Saw them play on Letterman last night, and they sounded better than on the record. The drums sound weak, when live, they're anything but.
So what do you do when you've finished watching every second of Kieslowski's Three Colours dvd's? You watch The Decalogue, of course. Watching one episode every night helps to clean your head after all this warfare on the tube.
I never mentioned Michael Moore's Oscar speech...I was laughing and cheering. He's a nut at times, but that speech was heroic.
Got the new Cradle Of Filth album the other day. I couldn't resist...they're so 1984, it made me feel like a kid again. Only the difference between those old Slayer records is, instead of one-dimensional production that we heard all the time on Brian Slagel's Metal Blade releases, Cradle Of Filth have big time record company bucks behind them. They've been around for more than a decade, but this album is the one they've been building up to. Boasting a massive, booming sound, a 32-person choir, and the services of the Budapest Film Orchestra, no expense was spared here. It reminds me of what Super Furry Animals did on their last album: they took the money and blew it all on a monster, epic album (strangely enough, it's Sony UK who shelled out the cash for both bands). The result is one of the most brilliantly over-the-top, bombastic, shamelessly satanic albums I've ever heard.
Musically, it's nothing but old school death metal, as songs like "The Promise of fever", the excellent "Hurt and Virtue", "Mannequin", and "Thank God For the Suffering" totally echo the guitar harmonies of Iron Maiden and Mercyful Fate. And like King Diamond (minus the operatics), Dani Filth's grating vocals are made all the more digestable thanks to the band's searing performance. It all comes together on the unbelievable "Presents From the Poison Hearted", as the orchestra, choir, and the band go all-out, for six completely insane minutes. It's something to behold...as is the rest of the album.
Friday, March 21, 2003
New review, new review...this time, it's my silly write-up of the album by The Libertines. This is one that's just getting better and better. I felt a few weeks ago that my review might have been too positive, but now, I can say with all confidence, that it's that good.
It hasn't been a necessarily slow week, but just one short of anything really worth mentioning. Except for...
Hooray, hooray, my Three Colours dvd's arrived on Monday...so I've been spending most of my time watching the movies, watching every second of all the extra features, listening to the soundtracks, reading critical analyses, just completely losing myself in three of my favourite movies of all time.
I can't express strongly enough how great Blue, White, and Red really are...they're so beautifully written, so beautifully made. There's a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that says, "the invariable mark of wisdom is to find the miraculous in the common," and that absolutely perfectly describes the true greatness of Krzysztof Kieslowski. Hisfilms are about regular people, living out their lives, and amidst their seemingly mundane existence, they manage to find salvation, redemption, or the miraculous. How people, no matter how different they may be, can be inextricably linked in some way or another. Simply put, the Three Colours films leave me stricken for hours after seeing them. I'll never get tired of watching these...
The dvd's are outstanding, each coming with extra stuff like analyses of each film, lots of interviews, behind the scenes footage, analysis by Kieslowski himself, as well as a few of his early student films from the late 60s. Plus, each movie has a full-length commentary by Annette Insdorf, whose own book about Kieslowski is absolutely indispensable. I've just watched Blue with the commentary, and it was a marvel to go through all the tiny little details that, even seeing the movie for the umprteenth time, proved to be nothing short of enlightening. I'll be going through the other two commentaries over the next couple nights.
Anyway, these dvd's are a must. Simply perfect. Now we just need The Double Life of veronique to make things complete...
Friday, March 14, 2003
My Fischerspooner review is up today. Again, a really good album. Plus, for good measure, read this t.A.T.u. review .I didn't write it, but I echo its sentiments exactly...it's a great piece.
Been bombarded by a ton of albums to listen to this week. First, the new Echoboy album, called Giraffe, is a big disappointment. "Automatic Eyes" is already one of the best singles of the year, a note-perfect imitation of New Order, but the rest doesn't even come close to matching it. "Don't Destroy Me" and "Comfort of the Hum" are pretty good, but the rest just gets mired in dull melodies, annoying vocals by one-man-band Richard warren, and some rather lame Primal Scream imitations.
Red Snapper's new album really caught me by surprise. They disbanded two years ago, and this cd is just a bunch of studio left-overs, live tracks, and remixes, but it holds up surprisingly well. It's a great blend of jazz and trip-hop, a very nice chill-out cd.
Hayseed Dixie's album of bluegrass Kiss covers is fun, but the joke wears off rather fast, mainly because the songs are so weak. Compared to their cd of AC/DC covers, the Kiss songs are just so weak, and just sound lousy, which isn't Hayseed Dixie's fault. The tunes just don't have the strength of AC/DC's. Still, hearing a bunch of rednecks sing "Christine Sixteen" and "Love Gun" is still loads of fun.
After a nine-year period of constant hemming and hawing, I finally got Husker Du's live album The Living End, after miraculously finding it at a used cd store. I've had a radio recording on tape since 1994...it's a superb live album, with a heavy emphasis on Husker's two best albums, New Day Rising and Warehouse: Songs & Stories. Indispensible.
Another major used find was the great Southern rock double album Southern Rock Opera, by Drive-By Truckers. I've wanted this one for more than a year, but it's so hard to find in Canada, and the double cd is so expensive here, so when I was able to trade for it, I couldn't pass it up. It's a phenomenal, highly ambitious piece of work, about Lynyrd Skynyrd, life as a Southerner, and playing honest rock & roll..."Let There Be Rock" is my new favourite song.
And lastly, the new Goldfrapp cd, Black Cherry, which I stumbled across late last night. Oh my goodness...it's something else. Gone are the wispy songs about crying horses...on this new one, she gets the funk out in a major, major way. It's heavy on nasty, low, distorted synth (the best example being the hypnotic single "Train"), sounding like a combination of Fischerspooner and Primal Scream, with the usual haunting vocals by Alison Goldfrapp. Kylie has nothing on this lady...this album is positively steamy. Is it better than Felt Mountain? Don't know yet...it's definitely a step in a different direction, but I do like it a whole lot.
Monday, March 10, 2003
My review of The Datsuns' album is now up. Several days after I posted my initial comments, the difference between the album's good songs and its useless ones became more and more obvious, so I wound up giving it a marginally negative review. It has its share of good moments (I really like "In Love" and "What Would I Know"), but half of the songs on the cd are nothing but empty, hollow stoner rock rehashes. These guys sound great, but they have to write better songs, plain and simple.
I was too busy listening to Fischerspooner's album over the weekend to post my comments on it. As maligned as electroclash is (novelty vs. legitimate art), this is a rare electroclash album that manages to hold its own all the way through. A surprisingly fun album, its three biggest highlights are the brilliant single "Emerge", the more brooding "Sweetness", and their dead perfect cover of Wire's "The 15th". Though the album gets a strong recommendation from yours truly, Fischerspooner is even better as a big, flamboyant, ostentatious, multimedia experience, and thanks to a new bonus dvd, which can be found in the new US version of the album, fans can experience it for themselves. It's astounding...my review goes into great detail about how great the dvd is, and hopefully it'll appear soon.
Friday, March 7, 2003
Another new review to mention. This time, it's Idlewild's latest, The Remote Part. I really like the album, but it can't quite keep up the tremendous momentum of the first six tracks. Good, but not great. Something tells me there's a great album in this band yet.
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
New review alert! My review of the very good Bettie serveert album is up today. I wrote it over a month ago, but it doesn't come out until next week. Don't judge it by its eyesore of a cover...it's a very fun cd, their best in a long time.
A big arrival in the mail yesterday, in the form of my long-overdue Dylan Pool prize, consisting of three jaw-droppingly stupendous hommade dvd's by the Pool's Dana Hanson. They're absolutely loaded with stuff, adding up to close to 12 hours' worth. There's stuff like performances from Renaldo & Clara, his 1964 performace on the CBC's Quest tv show, BOTH hard rain tv specials, Eat the Document in its entirety (!!!), the 1975 John Hammond tribute performance, and tons and tons of live snippets and tv appearances. A Bobcat's dream.
Also got my copy of The Datsuns' cd yesterday. Like The D4 (see my February archive), it's more New Zealand garage rock, but The Datsuns' sound is more rooted in the styles of Deep Purple and Uriah Heep...they rock like it's 1971. There's not much to it, but I like these guys slightly more than The D4, mainly because of their amazing energy, something you can witness for yourself on the very cool bonus dvd that comes with the cd. It has about 22 minutes of some good, sweaty, live footage, and, much to my pleasant surprise, is enhanced for 16x9 screens. It's a darn good album.
Oh, I should also mention that the NME's very helpful track-by-track analysis of the new Blur album can be found here.
Monday, March 3, 2003
Well, I have heard the new Blur album, or at least a reasonable facsimile of the new Blur album. I don't know if it's the final mix or what, but anyway, after listening to it one and a half times, I like it. As usual, this Blur album has its ups and downs, but it's definitely their most consistent since Parklife. Songs that immediately caught my attention were the dark, moody "Ambulance", the extremely goofy "Crazy Beat", probably the stupidest song they've ever written (but it's catchy...man, is it catchy), the trip-hoppy "Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club", the leisurely, languid "Good Song", the rockin' "We've Got a File On You", and especially the superb "My White Noise", which is by far the best track on the album. It's going to take a while to get a real handle on it, but so far, it's pretty enjoyable.
Was able to download The Coral's new single, "Don't Think You're the First", which is released in the UK today. Not a huge departure from the songs of their first album, but there's a little bit of surf-style guitar there. The nautical theme remains, as they sing, "Don't think you're the last/To be tied to the mast." Good tune, but hasn't knocked me out yet.
Yesterday, in his latest installment of his Great Movies essays, Roger Ebert wrote a fantastic piece about Kieslowski's Red, which, along with Blue and White, come out on dvd tomorrow in the US. I pre-ordered my copy a month ago, and I'm hoping it ships really soon. The anticipation has built so much that I can hardly bear it.
Saturday, March 1, 2003
The last two months' entries got a little bit too long, so they've been archived. The link is over there on the right...
New reviews! My Jesse Malin review is up...it's the best cd of 2003 so far, a very pleasant surprise. Also, my review of Kaada's wacky new album has appeared. That one's just weird. Moving, but weird. Read the review for more details on that one.
Been constantly playing that crazy cd by London fops The Libertines, titled Up the Bracket, just to get some kind of handle on the thing. It's completely insane, but I like it a lot. It's totally nuts. Wait for my review to appear...I have no idea what to say about it yet.
