Saturday, August 30, 2003
Finding an advance copy of the new Iron Maiden album is proving to be impossible. Unlike 2000, when fans had the entire Brave New World album downloaded a month or two in advance, this time around, the band and their label have been astonishingly, and impressively air-tight. However, reviews of the album are starting to filter out, and here's an interesting one from the folks at Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles. They give it a positive 7.5 review, but it seems their loyalty is keeping them from saying it's a disappointing album. Judging by what is written in the piece, Dance of Death looks more like a 5.5 or 6 out of 10. Still, a well-written review. On September 9, I'll be buying it, strictly as a fan.
Friday, August 29, 2003
More than a month after I wrote it, my review of the incredible re-release of Simply Saucer's Cyborgs Revisited has finally appeared. The album's a Canadian classic, and "Illegal Bodies" is one of the best Canadian songs I have ever heard.
The new Basement Jaxx album Kish Kash leaked yesterday. So what's it like? Well, I've only heard the thing a few times all the way through, but what I do know is there are four sure-fire, absolute knockouts, based on the first few listens. "Good Luck" is the one I wanted to hear, being a big BellRays fan, and Lisa Kekaula does not disappoint. I love her band, but does she ever sound great here...it's quite a revelation, with such a ferocious, layered arrangement underneath. Then there's "Lucky Star", the Dizzee track...it has a bit of a Bhangra-meets-UK garage feel. Very cool, but the first single should be "Supersonic", easily the best track on the album. A P-Funk-style, genre-bending funk freakout, it has a rubbery, Bootsy-style bassline, as the chorus howls, "Give me taste/Give me funk/Give me fury/Gimme some more!" This track just explodes with energy. Is this going to be the next Pringles jingle, I wonder? Then there's the electro title track, which has Siouxsie Sue sounding the best she's sounded in years.
The rest of the album is alright, but doesn't blow me away like those other four songs. I've never been crazy about Michelle N'DegeOcello, and I can't get into "Right Here's the Spot" and "Feels Like Home". "Plug it In" and "Hot N Cold" are cool little tunes, though. It's an enjoyable album, but I've heard better this year.
Thursday, August 28, 2003
Got a new cd review...this time, it's just a little one, a brief look at True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead, the album of classical piano interpretations of Radiohead songs. It has its moments, and it also makes me pine for the days when Radiohead knew how to write songs with actual melodies you could remember. How does "Go to Sleep" go again?
Outkast's "Hey Ya" is quite the surprise...they've gone indie rock on us! Goofy and catchy. I love it when hip-hop acts do weird stuff like this. Might get me interested enough in their new album, which people are already dying to froth over.
Meanwhile, another band who people are dying to hear from, The Strokes, have surfaced with "12:51", apparently the new single from their album, which comes out October 20. Another catchy little tune, this time, aided by a cute helping of synth. Not a huge leap from the band, and Julian Casablancas' vocals are once again recorded in that strange, muted way they were done on the previous album, but it's still a nice enough song. I'd like to be really kocked off my feet by the new cd, but I'm opting for the cautiously optimistic approach.
One thing I know I like is that Darkness album. Like it a whole heckuvalot. They look ridiculous, they sound ridiculous, and the know they're ridiculous, and they shamelessly revel in their ridiculousness, and I love 'em for it. And those videos! It's like they're remaking every Dokken video ever made. Take a look at the vid for "I Believe in a Thing Called Love"...it makes me smile every time I see it. It looks like Dokken's "breaking the Chains meets Barbarella.
And speaking of goofy bands doing goofy videos, Turbonegro's "Sell Your Body (To the Night)" is now out as well. Great song from a really good album.
Saturday, August 23, 2003
My review of The Coral's new album is up for the weekend. Its high points are excellent, but ugh, does it ever get bogged down by five or six awfully boring exercises in tedium. It's only half good. Download only.
So over the past couple weeks, I've been getting ready to put together a review of the new album by Chicago's The Pages, whose debut cd is called Universal Blues. It's a really good little record, some great, sweaty, Sixties-style rock & roll there. Anyway, for the past few weeks, it had been rumoured that they were going to sign with Capitol., and just recently, they did. However, they're changing their name to The Redwalls instead. The Pages was a nice, recognizable name...The Redwalls...meh. It's going to take some getting used to. I'll have more on The Pag--er, The Redwalls, in a week or two. Maybe sooner.
The new Metallica video: awful. The new White Stripes video: racy. The latter was directed by Sofia Coppola, and that's Kate Moss you see there, doing her thing.
Friday, August 22, 2003
At long last, the PopMatters list of the best singles from 1977-2003 is up on the website. No list is ever perfect ("Teen Spirit" over "Anarchy"? Are you mad?!), but I'm quite proud of this thing. it was a mammoth undertaking for the editors. Oh, and for the record, I wrote the blurbs for numbers 87, 30, 21, 9, and 3. Number three was the hardest...what could I say about something so huge, that all that's needed to be said about it has been written too many times already? Did that sentence even make sense? Anyway, I hope I did each song justice.
So the new Travis single is now out. Love these Scottish boys or hate 'em, they always knew how to write a catchy single. I still like "Driftwood" and "Writing to Reach You"...so shoot me. Granted, those singles were never anything earth-shattering, and a bit on the dumb side ("Sing", Turn"), but I always had a soft spot for the stuff, thinking to myself, "Well, it could be worse." Now it's worse. "Re-Offender" is a weak, maudlin, overproduced piece of swill that buries whatever unimaginitive hook they could come up with under heaps of strings and a generic, Alternative Rock-style shuffling beat. Boring, boring, boring. Remember the promise they showed back on The Man Who? This single is a far cry from "Blue Flashing Lights", and just continues down the same lovey-dovey, annoyingly cute, flowery road the've been on since The Invisible Band. We just might have lost Travis forever with this one...
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Two big new reviews today. First, there's my take on the new Constantines album...it's a bit of a long review, but I think it does the album justice. After dozens of listens, I think it's the best quoteunquote "indie rock" release of 2003. Still have four months to go, though.
Also, my review of Richad Hawley's fine Lowedges has surfaced. This one came from virtually out of nowhere, and completely bowled me over. Another one of the year's best so far.
So last night, I watched the bonus dvd that came with my copy of Neil Young's Greendale. Filmed in Dublin this past May, Live at Vicar Street is an incredible solo acoustic performance. Young goes through the entire album, and it's a very nice alternate version to the electric intrumentation on the actual cd. His between-song storytelling is nice as well, and it helped flesh out the story, and made me appreciate the album more. I still prefer the electric to the acoustic (I love Crazy Horse), but the performance on the dvd is excellent. One thing the live dvd did manage to do was make me realise just how good a song "Bandits" really is.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
First of all, I have to mention that my review of Gemma Hayes' Night on My Side album is now available for your perusal. It's half great, half ordinary, but do I ever love the good stuff. So much so, that I still heartily recommend the cd. I hope she sticks with the loud, electric stuff on her next album...she's really on to something there.
I didn't think I would, but when I went to the local record store yesterday, I found myself putting down the supercheap copy of On the Beach, and grabbing Greendale instead. I don't do this very often; I had heard none of the new material, and judging from Young's output from 1996 to 2002, it's not like the guy was on the hottest streak of his career. Still, I felt compelled to get it. Might've been the free dvd, might've been the weird allure of its well-documented, convoluted storyline. Might've been the map on the cover (I like maps). I dunno. So I plunked 'er in later that afternoon, and whaddya know, but I came away liking the darn thing.
"I made it up and I don't know what the hell is goin' on, so don't feel bad if you feel a little bit out of it with this. No one really knows..."
That line from Young's extensive (and do I mean extensive) liner notes pretty much says it all. Classic Shakey. Flying by the seat of his pants. The story's kind of strange (small town, murder, the devil, the media, environmentalism), and there are the usual gaping plot holes you come across on every concept album, but Young's having fun with this, and you feel it in the music.
The music? Well, it's like Crazy Horse, and it isn't. It's more streamlined...Poncho Sampedro doesn't play rhythm guitar, so it's just Young, Ralph Molina, and Billy Talbot. All the songs sound recorded live (save for a vocal overdub her and there), always at the same laid-back, steady pace, the Horse sounding like a veteran bar band, Young's rough-edged guitar sounding as good as I've heard it since Mirror Ball. And as for Molina & Talbot, well, this is the best they've sounded since 1990's classic Ragged Glory, providing a solid backbone, while Neil goes off one his wicked solos.
Greendale is best enjoyed as an entire album. Any memorable songs? Definitely the standouts are the lengthier ones, like "Carmichael", "Grandpa's Interview", and "Sun Green", but tracks like the loose barroom blues of "Double E", "Devil's Sidewalk", and the very nice "Be the Rain" hold their own, too. Basically, if you dig the Horse, you'll like Greendale. If you hate out-of-tune, electric Neil, you will not go for this one.
Young's narration reminds me of Sam Elliot's cowboy character in The Big Lebowski...the long notes for each song are delivered in a rambling, stream-of-consciousness style that don't really go anywhere, like when he says, "This song here is Chapter Six, I think, and if I'm wrong about that, I can be corrected on the internet." There's a lot of his typical hippy-dippy sentiment in his lyrics, but if you're already a Young fan, then you're one who'll probably let it slide.
Anyway, the album isn't perfect by any stretch, but it's a fun ride. It reminds me a whole lot of Lou Reed's The Raven...it might be a big mess, but it's a passionate mess, and it's great to see these guys still going strong as they push 60. Like Jerry Garcia once said, it's like black licorice: those who don't like it will hate it, but those who do like it will loooove it. You be the judge.
Oh, and as for the dvd, I took a quick look, and I can say that it's enhanced for widescreen tv's (yay), a 103 minute acoustic set of the entire album, it has subtitles (making it easier to follow the story), and it's in 5.1 surround. I'll probably watch the whole thing tomorrow night.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
My review of the new Sleepy Jackson album is now up. Very likeable album, but it comes very close to derailing in its second half. The album cover bugs me. I don't know why, but it does.
Saturday, August 16, 2003
The new Iron Maiden single, "Wildest Dreams", is only okay, but the video...well, it's quite the eye-popper. Very well done. Realvideo Hi Realvideo Lo
And Lene Nystrom's (she from Aqua) "It's Your Duty" is annoyingly catchy. My guilty pleasure of the moment. Download the saucy video here.
Thursday, August 14, 2003
My review of Catch the Rainbow: The Rainbow Anthology is up today. First disc: brilliant. Second disc: Spinal Tappish, but not without a few good moments. If they found a way to include "Run With the Wolf" and "Do You Close Your Eyes", then this would be all the Rainbow a person would need. I really love this compilation. I've always liked "Stone Cold". Is there something wrong with me?
Take a look at one of the coolest Dylan-related things I've seen on the net in ages. Incredible. This is called putting internet technology to good use. For Bobcats, anyway.
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
I got the new Constantines album in the mail yesterday, and I've been playing the thing nonstop. Shine a Light is one of the most highly anticipated indie releases this summer, and believe me, it totally lives up to the hype. What can I say, I love the thing. The album is superb, near-perfect.
The Cons are admittedly heavily indebted to Fugazi, but Fugazi's only one of the influences here. Alhough the CD does have that Dischord feel, at least they're trying to bring something new to the table, managing to incorporate neat little twists (background harmonies, keyboards, hints of a dub influence) while still packing a monstrous punch. If the last Trail of Dead album had a fault, it was that it got a little too monotonous...The Constantines sound considerably more musically adventurous.
Singer/guitarist Bry Webb has a great voice, sounding like a mix of Greg Dulli, Springsteen, Strummer, and Robert Pollard, and the band's mix of sharp guitar riffs and and organ licks works remarkably well. The organ isn't up front, like you hear in, say, Hot Hot Heat...it sort of sits there in the corner, adding sinister little inflections here and there that provide a bit more depth than just the punky guitars.
Most of the time, it's hard to make out what the heck Webb is screaming, so you have to pull out the cd booklet, which unfolds out to a huge, 9" by 18" rectangle, with the lyrics looking like they were spelled out with scrabble tiles. It's a massive chore reading the lyrics, but when you do, you're hit by just how perceptive, poetic, and vibrant Webb's words are. Dig these lines:
"Your mayor is raising fences to keep bodies off the Don Valley Parkway/Sing your praises to the mechanics of the state/Singing sweetly from the mesa into the Valley of the Damned."
"If sanctuary still exists, it's among the shaking fists/Seeking out a living free of the postures of politics/Plant a paintbomb in the market/Sing it to the whispering bats beneath the poison traffic/Caught up in the wires."
"It's hard not to surrender to the bold and comely words/What sway the bloody minded/What hang above the graceless herd/It's hard not to surrender, but I will dance down through the alleyways/With one foot in the gutter."
Music and lyrics come together in stunning, unabashedly romantic fashion on "On to You", the 'mellow' song some people have been complaining about. Here, the loud, angular guitar chords are gone, in favour of more a more subtle riff, letting a small keyboard accent carry it instead. Webb then chimes in with some of the best lines about being young and alive that we've heard in a while, sounding like a tougher, just-as-sloppy, punk response to The Libertines' "Time For Heroes", as Webb gets downright Springsteeneque, singing, "Come let me under your veil/They might say love is only trouble, we're both too drunk to steer it/We may never be angels, but we're lousy with the spirit." You then get harmonizing "oooh" background vocals, as Webb then launches into a few Bruce-like (or perhaps Joey Ramone-like?) "sha-la-la"'s as the song ends. Did Ian Mackaye ever sing "sha la la"? Something tells me, no. Kudos to Webb for being young, brave, and stupid enough to stick that into a song.
This entire album is catchy, heartfelt, abstract, accessible, and rocks very hard all the while. What more could you want? Shine a Light is so good, I'll bet there's going to be a backlash in four weeks. Too many people will like it for some geeks out there to bear it for very long. Shine a Light could be a major contender for my top ten, at least. Time will tell.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Been spendingthe past four or five days completely blown away by Richard Hawley's new album, Lowedges, which arrived about two months late (so late, I had completely forgotten about it). Hawley inhabits a world that doesn't seem to exist anymore; much like David Lynch, his music is contemporary, but yearns for a more innocent time, a world of crooning pop ballads, motorcycles, and sitting inside on rainy nights with a pretty girl. But unlike Lynch, the quiet, dreamy mood remains constant, with no Frank Booth bursting in to ruin the nice time. His music is an intoxicating blend of Phil Spector, Scott Walker, and the moody, retro stylings of Lynch's composer Angelo Badalamenti, and it differs so greatly from the music of his
contemporaries, that Hawley's complete lack of irony, his from-the-heart sincerity sounds shocking at first, but soon, you can't get enough of it. Download suggestions? Try "Run For Me", "The Only Road", and "The Nights are Made For Us".
Friday, August 8, 2003
Three reviews to mention. First off, my review of Super Furry Animals' Phantom Power is up. Good record...not as great as Rings Around the World, but nice enough. On a side note, my local record store who boasts the best selection in town, obviously hires little kids who don't know much about new music...they stocked the cd in the "P" section. Ridiculous. Anyway, Part 2 of my Notwist series, which is basically my review of their albums 12 and Shrink, has appeared, as well as my review of Gingersol's ordinary, but pleasant The Train Wreck is Behind You.
Back in March, I downloaded a track called "Sunkids" by an Australian outfit called The Sleepy Jackson. I gave it a couple listens, and quickly shrugged it off as nothing more than a Polyphonic Spree rip-off. I did absolutely nothing for me. Well, some five months later, I'm listening to their full-length debut called Lovers, and I now realize that The Sleepy Jackson is one of those bands where you have to hear the entire record to fully understand what they're all about. When I use the word "schizophrenic" to describe a cd, you'd probably shudder with thoughts of The Dandy Warhols, and although The Sleepy Jackson bears a lot of similarities (a control-freak frontman, ripping off classic hooks in their own songs), these guys make it work better thn the Dandies do. Instead of doing a Stones song, then a country song, then a Kinks song, The Sleepies mash everything into all the songs at once. Listen to one track, and you'll hear maybe four or five other bands.
What do I hear when I hear this album? There's that happy, choral rock of the Polyphonic Spree, as well as The Flaming Lips, The Fugs, The Velvet Underground, Mercury Rev, Gram Parsosns, George Harrison, the Stones, Joy Division...and that's only the first four songs! Nothing on this album is new, but like the Lips, like Super Furry Animals, like Broken Social Scene, and like Grandaddy, this bandmakes great pop songs that are never overwhelmed by any more pretentious, artsy aspirations. Instead, you dig the Harrison slide guitar on "Good Dancers", the VU thump of "Vampire Racecourse" (one of the year's best singles?), the absurdly catchy chorus on "Rain Falls For Wind", the West Coat pop of "This Day" (complete with a wonderful "na na na chorus), the heartache of "Acid in My Hert", and the sincere country strains of "Miniskirt", smiling all the while.
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Elvis Costello's upcoming album North is totally a woman's fault. The dude is madly in love with Diana Krall, and as a result, he's abandoned the return to sneering, seething rock & roll that we heard on When I Was Cruel, and has already recorded an album of, get this, jazz vocal tunes. This is lovey-dovey Elvis, and according to the press release, there are less than 12 bars of electric guitar in the entire album, as the songs focus on his vocals and piano (played by Steve Nieve and Costello). There's no "Alibi" to be found here.
North definitely isn't for everybody. If you only like rockin' Elvis, stay far away. But if you have a soft spot for jazzy ballads, just how good is this thing? Well, to begin with, Costello has an incredibly versatile voice...in concert, he jumps from rock to folk to country to Motown to jazz with great ease, and he's very strong here. The songs themselves are alright, and feature such musicians as Lee Konitz, Marc Ribot, the Jazz Passengers, the Brodsky Quartet, and the Mingus Big Band,but few really jump out at you. "You Left Me in the Dark", "Someone Took the Words Away", "Fallen", and "When it Sings" are standouts, but aside from a mild burst of energy on the bossa nova-ish "Impatience" and "True Blue" (the latter a bonus track on the Japanese version), the rest of the album gets a bit repetitive as it goes on. Definitely one that requires a few listens.
Lyrically, it's all about Krall: love lost, love found, those blue eyes of hers, and a new lease on life. Nowhere is his Krall adoration more obvious that on the title track, Costello's own love song to Canada. It's shamelessly happy, it brought the house down when he played it in Edmonton a few weeks back, and it's one of the best Canadian tributes I've heard in a long while:
So run up a banner and we'll stand underneath
You gave me a starry flag
For one with a leaf
I'm on the borderline
I jump back and forth
There's nothing to stop me now
I'm heading...
North
But as many folks'll tell you, a happy rocker doesn't always make classic music, and this is another case. Some people will hate this album, but I give it a marginal recommendation. Good for Elvis...he's happy, and trying something new. Hey, at least it's better than The Juliet Letters.
Wednesday, August 6, 2003
My review of the first two Notwist albums is up, but it's not much different from what I wrote a couple weeks ago. Just scroll down a bit on this page...
I haven't weighed in with my thoughts on the new album by The Coral, Magic & Medicine. It's okay, but aside from a handful of tracks, two of which I've already been familiar with ("Don't Think You're the First", "Pass it On"), I'm just not as bowled over as when I first heard their debut. They're going for a more consistent sound (which is good), but this record is missing the crazy energy of the other album. If it weren't for "Pass it On", the last five tracks would put me to sleep. I really like "Liezah" and "Bill McCai"...these guys totally want to be The Animals. I have high hopes for the next album. Hope this cd is just an aberration.
After waiting something like three months, I finally got my review copy of Gemma Hayes' Night on My Side. I've always been curious about this one, ever since it was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2002. Hayes is an interesting singer/songwriter...she has a fragile, unpretentious voice that doesn't over-emote like countless Girls With Guitars, she likes that typical bedroom folk music, but she also likes to play loud, too. Much has been made of her love of My Bloody Valentine, and while you hear distorted guitar swirls on songs like "Hanging Around", "Work to a Calm", and "Lucky One", they're nowhere near as overwhelming, as the emphasis is on Hayes and her pretty voice.
The first six songs are stupendous: "Hanging Around" "Back of My Hand", "Let a Good Thing Go", "Tear N My Side", "Work to a Calm", and "Lucky One" are all catchy, smart, and radio-friendly, given that nice sheen that Dave Fridmann is so good at (the dude is everywhere these days). Sadly, the last six songs on the album are weak. Nothing wrong with them, but they're mostly the typical, quiet, acoustic ballads that are a dime a dozen these days. It's when Hayes cranks up the volume that this album soars, in its Lilith Fair-goes-shoegazer kind of way. Based on those first six songs alone, which I absolutely love, I give Night on My Side a modest recommendation. This woman is a big-time talent...she's working on her new record, and hopefully it'll incorporate more of what makes the first half of her debut so terrific.
Friday, August 1, 2003
My review of Audio Bullys' Ego War album has appeared. It's the first album to cash in on The Streets' popularity, and although it's very weak lyrically, it possesses some wicked beats, not to mention some jaw-dropping sample work. It's not perfect, but it's a fun album for the summer.
The new Sloan single blows, big time. On the heels of the massive Canadian popularity of "The Other Man", the new tune, called "Rest of My Life", is all over Canadian radio right now. Yeah, it's catchy, but ugh, it's the same old thing, the same midtempo pace, the Ringo-esque drumming, the cute 60s harmonies, the intentionally precious Chris Murphy lyrics...it's like Sloan has stopped trying. Their flame sure looks to be flickering fast.
The new cover art for Iron Maiden's upcoming Dance of Death album is disappointingly bland. Bleh.
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Yikes. Got a lot of stuff to mention here. First, some reviews have surfaced. There's the decent new Mary Lee's Corvette album, the recent Vue EP, the great new Voivod cd, and the wondrous album by Aarktica.
The Elsvis Costello show last Wednesday was fantastic. Accompanied by keyboardist Steve Nieve, the man served up a very nice mix of classics songs and some new stuff. Highlughts included a furious rendition of "45", a jazzed-up "Watching the Detectives", "God's Comic", and the new song "North", an obvioulsy Diana Krall-inspired tribute to Canada that brought the house down. Best of all was when he twice serenaded us without a mike, coming to the front of the audience...there was the dude himself, crooning in that powerful voice of his, unmiked, not ten feet away from us. Amazing. Costello was so charming, so ego-free, that it was impossible not to have a good time. Here's the setlist:
Rocking Horse Road
Accidents Will Happen
Shot With His Own Gun
In The Darkest Place
Brilliant Mistake
45
All This Useless Beauty
Man Out Of Time
Indoor Fireworks
Still Too Soon To Know - unamplified
You Left Me In The Dark
You Turned To Me
Fallen
Still
God's Comic
Alison
Tart
Deep Dark Truthful Mirror/You Really Got A Hold On Me
Encore 1
Watching The Detectives
Almost Blue
Encore 2
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?
Encore 3
North
Couldn't Call It Unexpected #4 - unamplified
I might have been a serious metalhead from 1983 to 1989, immersed in Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Queensryche, but all during that time, I always had a bit of a soft spot for the more melodic hard rock bands of the era. No, not dreck like Poison and Winger...I'm talking about Ratt's Out of the Cellar, Cinderella's first album, Faster Pussycat, Y & T, and even Motley Crue here and there. Bands like those played great, melodic tunes that rocked for the sake of rocking, something that sadly vanished in the 90s. We may laugh at the stoner kids in the film Heavy Metal Parking Lot today, but the fact is, that was a fun, irony free time, and those creepy kids are just enjoying themselves.
The complete lack of pure, unadulterated rock & roll today was driven home when I first saw The Darkness on tv a few weeks ago. I just sneered and thought, "oh, these guys cannot be serious." They looked utterly ridiculous, and sounded like an opera-obsessed Hedwig (of Angry Inch fame) fronting an AC/DC tribute band. But my curiosity kept growing when folks on this board kept mentioning the band. So I downloaded the album for myself, and after a few listens, here I am, completely floored by this spectacular, over-the-top, loud, catchy, ridiculously theatrical, bombastic piece of hard rock.
Andrew WK might mean well, but he has nothing on these four guys from the UK. Permission to Land is a stunner of a debut...it's not the most original thing on earth, a combination of The Cult, Rainbow, the New York Dolls, and even a hint of The Cure, but it's done with such sincerity, that I can't help but embrace it all. The band is very solid, but the album totally belongs to singer Justin Hawkins, whose voice is unlike anything you have ever heard. Sometimes he sounds like Robert Smith, sometimes he resembles Raven's John Gallagher, and sometimes he sounds like a castrato version of Joe Lynn Turner. The singles "Growing on Me", "Get Your Hands off My Woman", and "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" are all brilliant pieces of pop metal, as is "Love on the Rocks", the balad "Holding My Own", and the glammy "Friday Night", but the real revelation here is "Black Shuck". Combining a tried-and-true AC/DC riff, Hawkins' versatile vocal range, and some of the most gloriously heavy-handed lyrics this side of Ronnie James Dio, this song makes me feel 14 again.
I'm still a bit new to this album, but I can't keep myself from saying that this is one of the best cd's I've heard all year. If you fondly remember such obscure bands as Killer Dwarfs and Zodiac Mindwarp, then you must hear this album. It'll make you glad you didn't throw away your copy of Judas Priest's Turbo.
Sunday, July 20, 2003
Shrink, The Notwist's 1998 cd, is the album that has the band fully realizing their potential for the very first time. Now officially a quartet (the two Achers, Micha and Markus; the two Martins, Gretchmann and Messerschmid), the band proceeds to blend such disparate sounds as laptop cuts and bleeps, jazz, and traditional pop song structures in a way that becomes thrilling at times. Radiohead might have received the vast majority of acclaim for their similarly-styled 2000 album Kid A, but The Notwist beat them to it a couple years earlier. In between those two albums, the members of the band worked on various side projects, such as Village of Savoonga, Console, and Tied and Tickled Trio, which gives the listener a clue as to how The Notwist's sound took such a huge turn toward the experimental.
The band incorporates the gentler, more melodic style of 12's "Torture Day", and takes it further on Shrink. Gretschmann's influence is much more prominent on this record, something you hear immediately in the opening moments of the first track, "Day 7". A hypnotic
melange of percussion samples plays for more than two minutes, as the rest of the band slowly comes in; the song then kicks off with Messerschmid's insistent beat, a fuzzed-out bass, and clean, chiming guitars, with Markus singing lyrics that are as sublime and aching as his
vulnerable, slightly accented voice: "I can see the shore from here/I see your town, your house, and you...I count the letters of your name/I count the days 'til you are here again/Day 7/And I'm love galore." The gorgeous "Chemicals" sounds exactly what New Order would sound like if they were led by as cutting edge a programmer as Gretschmann, a perfect blend of organic instrumentation, electronic tones, and cut-and-paste IDM sampling. "Another Planet", "No
Encores", and the dark, enigmatic "Electric Bear" are more of the same, the guitars and bleeps engaging in a gentle give-and-take with each other.
The jazz influence on Shrink is just as prominent as the laptop programming, something you hear immediately in the instrumental "Moron". A by-the-book lounge piece, it combines bass clarinet, electric piano, a fantastic improvised sax solo, and sharp accents by muted trumpets
that bring to mind Bernard Hermann's unsettling score from Taxi Driver. "N.L.", another instrumental, is more of a fusion of jazz, rock, and laptop, and as a result, fits in better with the rest of the album. "Your Signs" is a fantastic, seven minute tune, carried by a
head-bobbing beat, vibraphones, bass clarinet, and some Bacharach-inspired horn flourishes.
"It shifts you, grips you," sings Markus Acher on the lovely title track, and there's no better way to describe the effect that Shrink has on the listener. A woefully underrated minor masterpiece, this album deserved a bigger audience in North America five years ago, but with
the re-release of this fine album, hopefully it will become as revered as the masterful Neon Golden. For those people who are curious enough to take the time to lose themselves in The Notwist's early albums, they'll discover some very differing past incarnations of a band who has continued to improve with each subsequent release. At this rate, the next official Notwist album should be something to behold.
Friday, July 18, 2003
The Notwist's 1995 album 12 marks the first very noticeable shift in the band's style. Gone altogether are the metal riffs; there's still plenty of guitar noise courtesy of Markus Acher, but the emphasis is on even more of a Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr.-style noise, that big, fat metal guitars. You hear that instantly on songs such as "My Faults" and "Puzzle", as the band awkwardly tries to mimic the post-grunge sound of the mid-Nineties, with their insistent, melodic guitars interspersed with distorted noise, upbeat rhythms, and perky melodies. On "The String", though, they throw in a catchy, repeated riff and a danceable beat provided by Martin Messerschmid, which makes the rather formulaic set-up a bit more palatable. However, what makes 12 such a key transition album is the fact that The Notwist dares to stretch out even further, even though it's a bit tentative at first. On this album, they employ the services of one Martin Gretschmann, who puts his programming skills to work on about half of the tracks, and as a result, you're offered a glimpse at what kind of band The Notwist will become. Gretschmann's influence is most evident on a handful of songs: The beautifully dark "Torture Day" employs a subtle techno accompaniment and tiny hints of loops underneath the sparse drums and guitar, as Markus finally has a sound that's best suited for his thin voice. "Noah" has more of a laptop feel, as Gretschmann's Autechre-like aural collages start to become more audible, becoming more and more intertwined with the sparse arrangement of guitar and vocals. Amazingly, the closing track "12" has more of an organic feel, as the trio manage to sound like Radiohead before Radiohead started to sound like Radiohead, with its dark chorus, and its sudden shift to jazzy improvisation, with strings and bass clarinet (that jazzy sound comes into full fruition on the band's next album Shrink). It's not a consistent record, but 12 marks a massive leap for a band who started off as sounding one-dimensional.
Thursday, July 17, 2003
Okay, on to Notwist album Number Two. 1992's Nook continues the band's evolution, but only very minimally. On this album, the production is much better, more muscular, something driven home on the Metallica-meets-Helmet opening track "Belle de L'Ombre/Walk On". However, the focus on this album is less on metal and more on American alternative rock, as songs like "Unsaid, Undone" and "No Love" sound very much like Dinosaur Jr., with Markus Acher's slick guitar solos and very J. Mascis-like singing style. Meanwhile, "Welcome Back" and "This Sorry Confession" continue the same Fugazi/early Husker Du obsession the trio ahowed on their first album, and Sonic Youth's distorted experimentation starts to creep into tracks like "One Dark Love Poem" and "I'm a Whale". The most striking shift in style occurs on the great tune "The Incredible Change of Our Alien". It opens with ominously insistent acoustic guitar strumming, some dark, repeated bass notes, and an oddly incongruous banjo plunking away (presaging the similar use of banjo on the Neon Golden album nearly a decade later. The song then erupts in waves of distorted guitars, as Acher chants the verses, repeating each verse twice before moving on to the next, the effect becoming almost mantralike. Out of all the songs on both of The Notwist's albums, this is the one that stands out the most. Nook is an improvement, but it's still hard to enjoy whenyou know how goos the band's albums get right after this one.
Tomorrow, I dive headfirst into their third album, 12...
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
My review of the new re-release of Nick Drake's Pink Moon is now up. Believe me, every single person needs this album.
So a couple days ago, I received the North American re-releases of the first four albums by The Notwist. I was especially interested in these, not only because Neon Golden is one of the best albums to come out in 2002/2003, but because the band's background is especially fascinating. When I read articles about how the German band first started out as a hardcore trio, I had to hear this musical evolution for myself. How does a band go from metal riffs and fast drumming, to one of the best, most sublime post-rock bands in the world today?
When you first hear their 1991 eponymous debut album, you can't believe how far apart the musical styles are between album one and album five. The first album is especially rough-edged, a very capable blend of metal and hardcore punk. You hear it immediately on "Is it Fear", which sounds incredibly similar to Voivod's music from around the same time, with the muscular riffs, tempo changes, and lyrics sung in broken English. Meanwhile, songs like "Bored", "Crack it Open", "Think For Yourself", and "Be Reckless" are some good imitations of American melodic punk such as Fugazi and early Husker Du. It's a half-decent album, but it wasn't exactly new stuff when it came out, and the only hint of the bands future sound you hear is in singer/guitarist Markus Acher's plaintive voice, which sounds very oddly matched with his roaring guitar riffs. The songs that work best are the ones where Acher's vocal melodies take over like on the racing "I Have Not Forgotten You", the very Husker Du-ish "Seasons", and the well-crafted punk-pop of "Nothing Like You". Again, the album's okay, but when compared to the band's latter work, the debut sounds incredibly one-dimensional. This one's for fans only.
Coming up next: The Notwist's Nook album...
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Today's new review is of Michelle Branch's tired, overwrought album Hotel Paper. She was never the most original artist out there, but I tolerated her more when she was perky.
Monday, July 14, 2003
Couple of new reviews to point out here. There's my review of the new album by A Northern Chorus, which starts off as a nice enough dreampop album, but then quickly degenerates into nothing but lugubriously-paced tedium. Much, much better is the very fun Shout! The Revolution Rave-Up 1997-2003, the compilation put out by Kemado, with some great tracks by Elefant, BRMC, The Warlocks, among others.
New Dylan tour. New Dylan Pool. My current status will be updated nightly. I'm off to a decent start. Bob's been playing piano for the entire set so far (heard an mp3 of him doing a solid version of "Stuck Inside of Mobile" from Saturday afternoon)...no real surprises, but he did do "I Believe in You" last night, which had to be great.
Spent the last four days immersed in Simply Saucer's great, timeless classic album Cyborgs Revisited...I had the mp3's for several months, but finally got the cd a couple weeks ago. This thing is easily one of the greatest Canadian albums of all time...I go into much greater detail in my upcoming review, so watch for it soon. "Illegal Bodies" continues to absolutely blow me away, a brilliant, loud, raw, pummeling, ten minute jam that just happened to be recorded on top of a shopping mall in 1975. Unfreakinbelievable. The song is glorious.
The new Iron Maiden song, "Wildest Dreams", is a good one. The band is urging fans to spread the word online, so the song is very easy to find on your favourite file-sharing program. It's a welcome return from a band who continues to sound as great as ever.
Tuesday, July 8, 2003
The new album by The Coral, called Magic and Medicine, is very, very good. Continues in the same direction that the recent singles "Don't Think You're the First" and "Pass it On" hinted at. There are fewer nautical themes and sea chanty singalongs, and more of an emphasis on a very cool 60s garage/folk rock/Animals hybrid. I've only heard it twice all the way through, so I'm not ready to give any big, sweeping statements, but right now, I really like the thing. It's out in the UK on July 28, but I don't know of a Canadian or American release date yet.
Monday, July 7, 2003
Okay, better update my new reviews before more pop up. First, there's Telarc's Blues on Blonde on Blonde, their follow-up to the disastrous Blues White Album. Just some good blues artists having fun with songs from Dylan's classic album. Much more enjoyable than the other compilation. Also up is my review of FatCat's Branches & Routes compilation...a better comp you will not find this year. If you're new to post rock, this thing is a treasure trove.
Never wrote about the New Pornographers' gig here on Wednesday night. Loads of fun. The room was packed, the crowd loved the tunes, and the band was really on, and in good spirits. It was one of the most ridiculously happy shows I've seen in a very long time, a surprisingly long show, lasting two hours. They played all the songs that needed to be played, 18 album tracks, and a cover of Sweet's "Action". People were screaming for them to play "Jackie", but they ended with "Breaking the Law" instead. I thought it was an apt way to finish off a long, sweaty night of shamelessly joyous pop. Carl newman was a dryly funny frontman, Neko Case was her usual gregarious self, and drummer Kurt Dahle blew me away. The dude can play. Had a blast that night.
I've had the cd for nearly two months, yet I haven't written about Pure Tone Audiometry, by New York outfit Aarktica. Basically it's just composer/guitarist/singer Jon DeRosa and some guest musicians, playing some very nice ambient, droning, almost orchestral music. There's more of a pop feel to this album, as DeRosa seems to be slowly drifting towards more accessible fare, with "Out to Sea", "The Mimicry All Woman Use", and "Ocean" being the tracks that stand out the most. Two songs, "Big Year" and "Williamsburg Counterpoint", try for more of a live, group sound, but they wing up going for a bit too long for my liking. Compared to the innocuousness of the ither songs, these two wind up sounding tedious. Still, a good album. Two interesting facts about Aarktica: DeRosa is deaf in his right ear, and he uses no synthesizers whatsoever, making his albums all the more astonishing.
On Thursday morning, I got a notice in the mailbox of a courier package that was supposed to be delivered, but I missed the delivery guy. So I had to call the customer service folks to rescedule, and they said I'd get in on Friday. So Friday came, but there was no delivery. I knew it was a cd, so I wanted to get the thing in time to do a quick review on the weekend. As the afternoon faded, there was still nothing, until the courier guys phoned, saying that the resceduling was flubbed by the guy I talked to, and I had to go pick it up myself. So, I had to hightail it out to a warehouse at the airport immediately, just so I could get the dumb package before the place closed. When I finally got there, they handed me an envelope...I opened it, wondering what it'd be, because I'm expecting some good albums. I peeked in, only to see the spine of the cd: Michelle Branch. All that trouble for a Michelle freakin' Branch cd. I laughed and laughed.
Anyway, that pesky new album of hers, Hotel Paper, is quite muddled. It's obvious the album was written on the road, and all the songs feel tired, plodding along at the same lugubrious pace. John Shanks, who produced 8 of the 13 tracks, doesn't help, with his by-the-numbers, unimaginitive corporate rock production. Still, "Breathe" is a pleasant guilty pleasure, "Where Are You Now?" (produced by Greg Wells) has some life in it, and the title track and "It's You" (produced by John Leventhal and mixed by longtime Yo La Tengo producer Roger Moutenot) have a tasteful country feel to them. It's not a very good album, but you get flashes of how decent Branch could be in the hands of a talented collaborator. As bad as it is, it still blows away Liz Phair's album. But then again, that's not saying much.
Wednesday, July 2, 2003
Okay, first off, three reviews to mention: the rerelease of Drugstore's Songs for the Jet Set (pretty good), the recent debut album by Tangiers (surprisingly good), and my latest favourite album review, this time, The Ramones' great, much-overlooked Leave Home album.
Well, it's the beginning of July, which means it's time for my third annual Best Albums of the Year So Far list. Two years ago, I heard maybe ten CD's in total. In 2002, I had heard fifty. This year, I've heard a walloping 72 new releases. And it's been a pretty good year so far; Two spectacular re-releases that will blow away anything I hear all year, a fantastic Canadian album that came from out of nowhere to lead the new releases by a considerable margin, tons and tons of flat-out good albums, a handful of not-so-good ones, and a couple of real duds. So here we go. On with the list:
The Best Album of the Year So Far:
Manitoba - Up in Flames
The most shamelessly euphoric electronic album since Moby's Everything is Wrong in 1995, Dan Snaith takes the entire laptop/IDM genre to a new, much more human level. He makes Radiohead look like a bunch of tuneless novices, he shows The Flaming Lips how to combine electronic music with blissed-out pop in a way that would make Wayne Coyne envious, and he creates some of the most wide-eyed, mind-blowingly beautiful music that I have heard in years. For such a densely layered sonic collage, Up in Flames is remarkably controlled, and doesn't overstay its welcome. Spectacular.
The Best of the Rest:
In alphabetical order:
The Apes - Oddeyesee
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
Calexico - Feast of Wire
Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day
Elefant - Sunshine Makes Me Paranoid
Ex Models - Zoo Psychology
Fischerspooner - #1
Four Tet - Rounds
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
Grandaddy - Sumday
Longwave - The Strangest Things
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas, & Lost Ghosts
Jesse Malin - The Fine Art of Self Destruction
The New Pornographers - Electric Version
The Notwist - Neon Golden
Lou Reed - The Raven (2 cd version)
Tangiers - Hot New Spirits
The Thrills - So Much For the City
Voivod - Voivod
Wire - Send
Xiu Xiu - A Promise
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun
