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Peter
Case
Beeline
Vanguard
If Peter Case
had never entered a recording studio again after 1983, he’d still be lauded in
most circles nowadays for having put pen to paper and written “A Million Miles
Away” while fronting the Plimsouls; unfortunately, it wasn’t long after the
group released their Geffen debut (and swan song),
Everywhere At Once that
they gave up the ghost and disbanded.
Thankfully,
however, Case didn’t end his music career at that point; three years after
Everywhere At Once , he re-emerged on Geffen as a solo artist,
releasing an eponymous debut album produced by the one-two punch of T-Bone
Burnett and Mitchell Froom and featuring arrangements by Van Dyke Parks.
Two further
Geffen albums followed ( The
Man with the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar
and
Six-Pack of Love
), but each
was slightly less popular, and, by 1993, Case had retreated to independent label
Vanguard Records. They must treat
him pretty well; it’s now ten years later, and he’s been there ever since.
(The only exception has been Thank
You, St. Jude , a
self-released collection of acoustic re-recordings that snuck out last year.)
Unfortunately,
Beeline , Case’s latest album, isn’t quite up to the standards
he set with his previous Vanguard release,
Flying Saucer Blues . To
be fair, though, those are some pretty high standards.
(Some folks say that Case’s single best solo work is his 1995 album,
Torn Again , but, then, everyone’s entitled to their own
opinion; me, I’ve gotta go with Flying
Saucer Blues , with his Geffen debut a close second.)
Beeline starts
strong with “If You Got A Light To Shine,” which has a lovely chorus.
According to the liner notes, the track was written the weekend after
September 11th; knowing this fact adds poignancy to the song, and it
also makes Case’s plea, “If you got a light to shine, shine your ever-loving
light on me,” seem all that more desperate.
Unfortunately, while the opener is uplifting, a great
deal of the album is really a bit of a downer.
Case says, “I never sat down to write these songs…they’re the ones
that came to me through the last year.” While
there’s certainly nothing wrong with following divine inspiration, if that’s
what these songs came courtesy of, but maybe a little quality control might’ve
helped here and there. “Evening
Raga” is definitely a drag, and “It’s Cold Inside,” which bears an
undeniable musical similarity to Tom Waits, is a bit of a snooze as well.
“If You’ve Got A Light To Shine” isn’t alone in
the wilderness, though. “I Hear
Your Voice” is another very nice track, as is “Gone.”
In fact, whether by coincidence or design, the best tracks turn out to be
the odd-numbered ones…which means that, ultimately,
Beeline is only about
half of a really good Peter Case album.
It should be noted that, of the even-numbered tracks,
“Something’s Coming” isn’t all that great to begin with, but in the
category of “legitimately awful” is the album’s bonus track, a remix of
the song by Rob Swift. Save
yourself the excruciation and turn off the disc after track 10 (“First
Light,” which is actually so good that it should’ve been odd-numbered) fades
to a close.
Case will
probably be forever remembered by the general populace as a musical footnote
(one involving the words “Plimsouls” and “A Million Miles Away,”
naturally), but, for those who enjoy the strains of contemporary folk, he’s
carved himself quite a nice niche and continues to compile a strong discography.
Beeline may not be at
the top of his recorded accomplishments, but there’s still enough strong
material to recommend the disc to his fans.
---originally written for PopMatters
Hydra Head
When a band’s
sound is described as “Radiohead meets hardcore”...as Cave-In’s last
full-length album, Jupiter, was...it’s hard not to be petrified at the thought of
what they might sound like. Thankfully,
Tides of Tomorrow, the band’s new
EP, doesn’t begin to inspire a comparison as crazed as that one.
The band’s goal was to produce their equivalent of Guns ‘N’
Roses’ Lies or Alice in Chains’ Jar
of Flies: acoustic-based music, but with as much intensity as their earlier
material. Frontman Stephen Brodksy
seems to have brought some of his solo material’s sound (which is closer to
Elliot Smith than Slayer) to Tides of
Tomorrow; the best track on this EP, the title cut, is a 6-minute pop epic
that builds to an awesome crescendo before its delicate fade-out. If these six songs are, indeed, tides of tomorrow, it’ll be
worth seeing what washes up from Cave-In in the future.
---originally written for Amplifier
Private Music
Honesty time.
While I couldn’t imagine this wouldn’t be a strong collection, given that the show’s theme song is Love Spit Love’s cover of the Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now?,” the real reason I asked for the opportunity to review the soundtrack to Charmed is because my wife’s a really big fan of the show.
Further honesty (and all apologies to my wife) --- the first thing I thought when I saw this disc on the “to be reviewed” pile was not, “Oh, boy, Jenn’s gonna love this!” (It was, however, the second thing I thought. Just for the record.)
No, in fact, the first thing I thought was, “A soundtrack for Charmed? Isn’t Charmed a little long in the tooth to just now be getting a soundtrack CD? Season 6 is getting ready to premiere!”
The sixth season? That’s pretty late in the game for the show to finally get off its posterior and release a compilation of songs heard during various episodes, especially when you consider that most shows barely make it through their first season before getting a soundtrack into record stores.
Even worse, as you examine the contents of the CD, it becomes quickly and painfully apparent that this isn’t actually a compilation of songs heard on the show at all...with two exceptions. One is the theme song by Love Spit Love, of course, and the other is the Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize,” which was featured in “Daddy Dearest,” an episode from last year.
Otherwise, however, the other nine tracks on this soundtrack are 2003 releases...and, if the WB’s website can be trusted (and why wouldn’t you put your trust in the website of the network that broadcasts the show?), they didn’t appear in any episode during Season 5.
Musically speaking, it’s hard to argue against it being anything less than a very strong collection. In addition to the aforementioned cuts, there are inclusions from Smash Mouth, Third Eye Blind, Goldfrapp, Stereophonics, Vanessa Carlton, Andy Stochansky, Rachael Yamagata, Balligomingo (featuring Lucy Woodward), and Ziggy Marley. In particular, the Goldfrapp and Stereophonics songs are strong enough to inspire you to run out and purchase their latest discs.
How convenient, then, that their contributions are available on their respective latest discs. And so are the contributions from Smash Mouth, Third Eye Blind, Vanessa Carlton, the Flaming L:ips, and Ziggy Marley.
So, in other words, the only tracks exclusive to the soundtrack are the ones by Andy Stochansky, Rachel Yamagata, and Balligomingo...and it’s clearly no coincidence that Stochansky and Yamagata are both signed to Private Music, the label that released the disc.
Sure, soundtracks are, more often than not, designed to push new music from both old and new artists, but Charmed has been around for six years and has featured quite a few songs in the episodes aired over that time, some clearly used to inspire an emotional response in the viewer. The executive producers of this soundtrack...Kenneth Miller, Jonathan Platt, and Jonathan Scott Miller...should be ashamed of themselves for slapping together a disc full of 88% new tracks and calling it the Charmed soundtrack. The viewers who have stuck with the show over the years deserve better than that.
Presumably, the songs on this album will be spotlighted in Season 6 of Charmed, but do the artists a favor and go buy their albums; don’t waste your time with this disc. On the whole, if you’re a fan of the show, the only reason to buy it is for Love Spit Love’s “How Soon Is Now?”...and, frankly, if that’s the only reason you’re buying it, you’d be better off buying the soundtrack to The Craft, where the song first appeared.
---originally written for PopMatters.
Manifesto
Much as This Is Cinerama was a companion piece to Va Va Voom, so Cinerama Holiday plays a similar role to Disco Volante. (To clarify for the uninitiated, Cinerama Holiday is a collection of the A-sides and B-sides of the singles released from Disco Volante: “Wow,” “Lollobrigida,” “Your Charms,” and “Superman.”) Former Wedding Present frontman David Gedge and his Cinerama co-conspirator, Sally Murrell, are no doubt aware that their fan base is so devoted that not only won’t they think twice about picking up the singles when they’re released, they’ll pick up these collections of the singles, too. The thing is, though, these collections are really handy for Cinerama fans stateside that aren’t always in a position to plunk down the big bucks for import singles. They also demonstrate just how great a songwriter Gedge is, if he can afford to throw such wonderful songs as “10 Denier” and “See Thru” into the B-side pile. Wedding Present fans will particularly enjoy Gedge taking a stab at another unlikely cover, this time the Carpenters’ “Yesterday Once More.”
---originally written for Amplifier.
The Commodores
Live!
Motown/Universal Chronicles
Call it the
R&B equivalent of the old Paul McCartney joke, but somewhere around the time
Lionel Richie found himself swimming in hit singles, courtesy of his Can’t
Slow Down album, the Commodores went from being “one of the top bands
during their tenure at Motown Records…credited with seven number one songs and
a host of other top ten numbers on the Billboard charts” (as they’re
described in the All Music Guide To Rock) to being “that band Lionel
Richie used to be in.”
Then, in 1985, the Commodores blew Lionel a raspberry
and had the biggest hit of their career with “Night Shift”…and without
Richie.
Lionel got his revenge by releasing a greatest-hits
album, Back To Front, in 1992, including songs he recorded with the
Commodores (like “Easy,” “Still,” “Sail On,” and “Three Times A
Lady”), but only giving a slight parenthetical credit of “recorded with the
Commodores”) in the liner notes for those songs.
Since the Commodores hadn’t really followed up “Night Shift” with
any further hits, this maneuver served to further perpetuate the myths that
“Lionel Richie WAS the Commodores” and “the Commodores were all about
easy-listening-style ballads.”
Let’s tackle both those myths, one at a time:
1.
Lionel Richie might’ve a songwriting fiend (he did, after all, write or
co-write virtually all of the band’s hit singles) with a smooth set of vocal
chords, but he was NOT the Commodores. The
Commodores were the sum of their parts. Lionel
Richie was the band’s lead vocalist as well as their alto sax man, but Walter
“Clyde” Orange was the group’s CO-lead vocalist (and drummer), Thomas
McClary manned the guitar (and wrote “Slippery When Wet,” a number-one
R&B hit for the band, all by his lonesome), Ronald LaPread plucked the bass
strings, Milan Willliams handled the keys, and not only did William King blow
the trumpet, but he also served as the band’s choreographer.
2. The Commodores damned sure weren’t all about easy-listening ballads. Anyone who’s ever had a booty and shaken it to “Brick House” knows that much (though you’d be surprised how many people don’t associate that song as being by the same band who released “Easy”). But if you need further proof, then you need look no farther than the Commodores, Live!, recently released on CD for the first time ever in the United States.
The disc’s liner notes, by A. Scott Galloway, refers
to Live! in the same breath as Frampton
Comes Alive. Album rock fans
might have an aneurysm at the mere thought of comparing the two, but if the goal
is to capture the live experience as well as a place in time in just a bit over
an hour, then the comparison is apt.
Recorded during the Commodores’ 1977 tour of the US
(specifically, on their dates at the Omni Theater in Atlanta and the Capital
Center in Landover, MD), Live!
captures a band at the height of their game.
The group were touring behind their self-titled fifth album, which
introduced the world not only to “Easy” (#4 on the Billboard charts) but to
“Brick House” (#5) as well. They
were definitely on top of their game, blending the funk with the soulful ballads
with effortless ease.
There are plenty of hits in evidence here:
the aforementioned “Slippery When Wet,” “Easy,” and “Brick
House,” as well as “Sweet Love” and “Fancy Dancer.”
Several tracks are extended in length from their album and single
versions (“Zoom” cracks the ten-minute mark here, for example), but the
performance and the listener’s inclusion into the live experience makes the
time fly by.
The stage patter is easily as much fun as the music
itself. When Lionel says, “Ah, I
feel like I want to talk to all the ladies out there for just a minute,” the
shrieking begins; when he then leaps headlong into “Just To Be Close To
You,” you can well imagine it doesn’t stop.
Later, he makes the observation to the Atlanta audience that “we
started out last time with 9,000, then 10,000, then 15,000.
Now, it looks like we’re gonna have to find a larger place to play for
the Commodores family, y’all!”
The concert closer in those days…as it likely remains
today…was “Brick House.” Also
turned into a ten-minute R&B rave-up, the band would regularly hold a
“Brick House” contest. On the
album, however, Lionel changes the routine, saying to his bandmates, “I want
y’all to look out in that audience at all the fine brick houses in Atlanta!”
“Listen!” Richie then shouts to the crowd.
“It is impossible to have a brick house contest tonight and only pick
one winner. So, tonight, let it be
known that the Commodores have declared all the ladies in the building tonight
to be brick house winners!”
The ladies of Atlanta, as one would likely expect, were
decidedly pleased.
Tacked onto Live!
was the band’s contribution to the soundtrack of “Thank God It’s
Friday,” the top-40 hit “Too Hot To Trot.”
It’s nice from a chronological standpoint, but, without question, it
does feel like a tack-on.
---originally written for PopMatters
Hugh Cornwell
Hi-Fi
Koch Progressive
As front man for the Stranglers, Hugh Cornwell secured his position as a punk rock footnote long ago. The Stranglers, however, evolved away from punk into more of an art rock band; equally, since leaving the band and doing the solo thing, Cornwell has gradually come to embrace a melodic and semi-psychedelic sound. Tracks like “One Day At A Time” and “All The Colours Of The Rainbow” start slow and gradually build into epic numbers. “Putting You In The Shade” and “Dark Side Of The Room” are straightforward pop/rock tracks, and the rather…let’s face it…goofy “Miss TeazyWeezy” is a fun psychedelic pop song. The addition of new, live version of two Stranglers songs (“Golden Brown” and “Always The Sun”) seem tacked on almost as an afterthought. They’re a nice treat for fans, perhaps, but neither track do anything to represent the general contents of Hi-Fi. While Cornwell’s previous album, Guilty (released in the US as Black Hair Black Eyes Black Suit), felt more like it was trapped in the ‘80’s, Hi-Fi is a nice blending of ‘60s and ‘70s influences with current production.
---originally
written for NineVolt
Astralwerks
The
name didn’t ring a bell with me, personally, but it turns out that Astralwerks
recording artist Cosmo Vitelli borrowed his name from the 1976 John Cassavetes
film, “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.”
Who knew? Well, Benjamin
Boguet did, apparently, for it is he who has taken on the sobriquet in question.
Cosmo Vitelli first popped onto the scene in the late ‘90s, when his
second single, “We Don’t Need No Smurf Here,” received the coveted Single
of the Week award from New Musical Express.
Sounding a little bit like Air and a whole lot like Daft Punk, Clean
is the latest addition to the French electronic dance scene, and it’s
undeniably good fun. (Yes, that’s right: good,
clean fun.) The album’s first
single, “Robot Soul,” is described in the press release as a cross between
Daft Punk and Chic, and, well, the shoe fits; preceding it on the album is
“Party Day,” which is almost as catchy and equally danceable. Clean has a little something for everyone:
“Perfect Lies” and “People Should Think, Machines Should Work”
are atmospheric, “Alias” is a rocker, and “Icons” is undeniably funky.
It’s perfect for the open-minded dance music fan in your life.
---originally
written for Amplifier
Stars:
The Best Of 1992 – 2002
Island
Despite the
title of their debut album, Everybody Else
Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, when the Cranberries first made the scene
in late ’92 / early ‘93 with songs like “Dreams” and “Linger,” the
simple fact of the matter is, everybody else wasn’t
doing it.
Think of the
time frame for a moment.
Nirvana’s Nevermind
and Pearl Jam’s Ten were the
predominant forces in music at the time; jangly acoustic pop with female singers
wasn’t exactly at the height of its success right about then.
While it can’t be said that the Cranberries were truly ahead of their
time, they certainly defied a lot of expectations by proving successful in the
marketplace with their debut album, even though it was released right as grunge
was hitting its apex.
Unfortunately,
when the band’s sophomore effort, No
Need To Argue, emerged, it was preceded by a single, “Zombie,” that
seemed to have borrowed its hard guitars straight from the Seattle scene.
The song itself isn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t representative of
the album’s material, and it was certainly a career mis-step to release it as
the first single. If the band’s
theory was that the song would say to any detractors, “Look, we’re about
more than just the jangle,” then it backfired in spectacular fashion. Songs like “Ode To My Family” and the brilliant “I
Can’t Be With You,” which followed as singles from the album, came nowhere
near approaching the chart heights of “Dreams” and “Linger.”
It was also
becoming all too clear with No Need To
Argue that lead singer Dolores Riordan’s instantly-recognizable vocal
idiosyncrasies were going to be played up more often than her decidedly-pleasant
singing voice. When the
band’s third album, To The Faithful
Departed (their first without production by Stephen Street), emerged with
“Salvation” as the first single, it was clear that this wouldn’t be
changing anytime soon.
The late Bruce
Fairbairn, who manned the boards for To
The Faithful Departed, was a very odd choice of producer for the band.
One can only presume that the band’s musical interests were now closer
to “Zombie” than “Linger,” since Fairbairn’s track record included
work with AC/DC, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Kiss, and, erm, Loverboy.
The album isn’t horrible, but, God knows, it wasn’t up to the
standards of its predecessors...or, honestly, to its successors, either.
The band, however, must’ve thought differently; there are more tracks
from To The Faithful Departed on Stars
than there are from either of the two albums that preceded it.
Songs like “Free To Decide” and “When You’re Gone” aren’t
bad, but it’s hard to view “Hollywood” as anything other than a blatant
re-tread of “Zombie.”
The band’s
next album, Bury The Hatchet, was appropriately titled; the material was much
closer to the band’s earlier work, as if the group was saying, “Right, sorry
about that last album, please come back and listen this one, because it’s much
better.” The lead track,
“Animal Instinct,” is one of the band’s best-ever songs, and “Just My
Imagination” could easily have been taken from the group’s debut.
Unfortunately,
despite being very much on the road to recovery, all but the faithful had,
indeed, departed by this point.
Thankfully,
when the band’s most recent studio album, Wake
Up And Smell The Coffee, appeared in stores, at least one of the band’s
longtime fans had returned: producer Stephen Street.
The result was, some would say (and with very few voices of dissention),
the album that really should’ve followed No
Need To Argue. “Analyse”
was, to be honest, a little too much like the bastard child of “Dreams” and
“Linger,” but, hey, better that than the bastard child of “Salvation”
and “Hollywood.”
The three
non-single tracks appearing on Stars
are “Daffodil Lament” (voted by the fans as the top non-single from the
band’s five albums, and rightfully so), “New New York,” and “Stars”;
the latter two tracks are both previously unreleased.
“New New York” is, as is to be expected, a reaction to September 11th;
the Cranberries have never been afraid of getting a little political with their
lyrics. “Stars,” oddly enough,
opens with the band sounding like they’ve copped a few moves from Suede’s
musical handbook...but it works; it’s a truly great track, and it bodes well
for the future.
You’d be hard
pressed to find a greatest-hits disc with a more impressively laid-out booklet.
The first spread is a collection of magazine covers and articles,
followed by a collection of live photographs, tour memorabilia, artwork for the
band’s singles, a clothesline holding naught but Cranberries tour shirts,
promo photos, and candid shots of the group.
Only thing missing: lyrics.
It’s too bad
that the Cranberries lost the majority of their sales figures based on the
creative mis-step that was To The Faithful
Departed; it was, at least, a noble failure.
But Stars is certainly a fine
way for folks to get caught up.
---originally written for PopMatters
A&M
On a certain level, it’s hard not to like Sheryl Crow. She went from being Michael Jackson’s back-up singer to being a multi-platinum artist in their own right; it’s not like she hasn’t paid her dues. Plus, she’s got a lot of major-league musicians as buddies, and they like to chip in on each other’s albums (folks putting in appearances here include Liz Phair, Tim Smith of Jellyfish, Lenny Kravitz, Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Dave Faragher of Cracker, and, uh, Gwyneth Paltrow), which is pretty cool. On another level, however, it’s very easy to grow weary of her very quickly, since, whenever she puts out a new album, the singles are played ad nauseum. Take, for instance, “Soak Up the Sun,” which is arguably one of the best pop songs Crow’s released in her career thus far; it might not be on par with “My Brilliant Mistake,” but it’s still a great summer single, no question about it. That having been said, if the song is removed from playlists until next summer, there would be no complaints from this writer. C’mon, C’mon is a hard album to actively dislike, but it’s certainly not a groundbreaking work. “Safe And Sound” is a definite highlight of the album, with a darker tone than much of the other material, but, otherwise, virtually everything here blends into each other without much individuality. Well-performed mainstream pop-rock? Absolutely. But that’s about the extent of the praise warranted by this album.
---originally
written for Amplifier
Elektra/Fiction
Any casual Cure fan who has the previous two Cure best-of collections (Staring At The Sea and Galore) need not apply for Greatest Hits. If you’re looking for the singles from Bloodflowers, don’t waste your time; the only album the band’s released since the last best-of is ignored here. If you’re looking for the obligatory new tracks, there are two: “Cut Here” and “Just Say Yes.” The former’s better than the latter, which is no doubt why it’s being released as a single; the latter, a duet with the lead singer of Republica, is okay, but it’s not worth buying the album for, so just invest in the single. Preying on the hardcore Cure fans, the album is initially being released with a bonus disc of acoustic versions of all the tracks on the first disc. This is good stuff…and, it should be noted, is the only reason the album is worth buying. The four stars given to Greatest Hits are solely for content and are in no way meant to indicate that this is a need-to-own disc; when the initial run is gone and the acoustic disc is no longer being printed, no-one need ever buy this album again.
---originally
written for NineVolt
The Candyskins
Death Of A Minor TV Celebrity
Velvel/Ultimate
Perhaps the only criticism to be levelled at Death Of A Minor TV Celebrity, the Candyskins' first US release in half a decade, is that it presents a band who has evolved without allowing its fans here in the States to hear that transitional period.
Belinda Carlisle
A Woman & A Man
Ark 21
A few weeks ago, while making the rounds in order to promote her new album, Belinda Carlisle popped up on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” where, before the end of the broadcast, she ended up dancing with host Craig Kilbourn.
A Woman & A Man is an excellent record for fans of early ‘80’s music; Belinda, like the rest of us, has matured over the years, and she’s crafted a well-performed, well-pop album that the world would do well to take notice of.
Paul
Carrack
Beautiful
World
Ark 21
Let's give the man his props before we tear his new CD an equally new center hole, shall we?
Peter Case
Flying Saucer Blues
Vanguard
There used to be a musical constant: Peter Case’s solo work sounded nothing like his stuff with the Plimsouls.
Cast
Magic Hour
Polydor
When it became obvious that La’s frontman Lee Mavers
was never going to get off his arse and put together a second album, guitarist
John Power took it upon himself to start his own band: Cast.
Catherine Wheel
Adam & Eve
Mercury
Once upon a time, Catherine Wheel was best known for their lead singer, Rob Dickinson, being the cousin of Bruce Dickinson, late of Iron Maiden.
The
Catherine Wheel
Wishville
Columbia
When Catherine Wheel first emerged in the early
‘90’s with their singles “Black Metallic” and “I Want To Touch You,”
they were less about rock ‘n’ roll and more about dark, powerful tracks of
epic length. In other words, half
the “fun” of their songs seemed to be that of setting a mood or atmosphere
that was undeniably glum but nonetheless memorable.
Their evolution into a more mainstream rock band has
been gradual but obvious. In retrospect, their previous album, Adam & Eve, was definitely a harbringer of things to come,
setting much of the stylistic tone for the new disc, Wishville.
A few tracks hark back to their original sound on occasion, such as “Gasoline,” but the Catherine Wheel (not sure where the “the” came from; perhaps there’s a Ms. C. Wheel out there somewhere who got a bit grumpy about them using her name?) are definitely heading into Pink Floyd territory (i.e. album-orentied rock) with much of this disc. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…but it’s not exactly where they seemed to be going when they started their career.
The
Church
Hologram
Of Baal
Thirsty
Ear
It's unfortunate that, to the public at large, the
Church will probably be remembered for no more than their one US hit,
"Under The Milky Way." They've
been around since 1981, and much of their work prior to that is quite excellent.
Cigar
Store Indians
El
Baile De La Cobra
Deep
South Records
Brian Setzer and his Orchestra might've picked up on
the swing tip long before it was cool, but it's the Cigar Store Indians who've
released the best Stray Cats album never made.
Clem Snide
Your Favorite Music
Sire
From the looks of Clem Snide on the cover of their new album, Your Favorite Music, they look like they’d sound like a cross between Weezer and the Foo Fighters: kinda geeky and kinda goofy (they’re wearing pale blue tuxedoes, standing ankle-deep in water), but in a potentially-fun kind of way.
Coax
Fear
Of Standing Still
Paradigm
If you haven’t heard Coax before, they’re sort of
an offspring of British pop band the Dentists.
And by “sort of,” I mean to say that it’s actually 75% of the
band...which makes them as much the Dentists as Paul, George, and Ringo would be
the Beatles if the three of them put out an album under a different band name.
What
do the Dentists sound like, though, you ask?
A fair enough question.
Hugh Cornwell
Black Hair, Black Eyes, Black
Suit
Velvel
While this is technically a new album from the former Stranglers frontman, Black Hair, Black Eyes, Black Suit was actually released in the UK in May of 1997, under the title of Guilty.
Marshall Crenshaw
The 9 Volt Years:
Battery Powered Home Demos & Curios (1979-198?)
Razor & Tie
Marshall Crenshaw is a pop legend, but, aside from co-writing the Gin Blossoms’ “‘Til I Hear It From You,” he hasn’t made much of an impact on the charts since his self-titled debut album of 1980.
The 9 Volt Years contains obscure, sometimes unreleased material that dates as far back as that debut (such as demos of “Rockin’ Around In NYC” as well as the aforementioned “Someday, Someway”) and farther. Crenshaw will eat up this disc as a whole, but the inclusion that makes the whole thing worthwhile is “You’re My Favorite Waste Of Time,” one of the best songs of his career.
For Marshall Crenshaw, The 9 Volt Years is kind of like his version of the Beatles’ Anthology 2; it’d deserve 4 stars for its historical importance alone, but it’s a testament to his ability that it safely earns the same amount for the quality of its content.
Crowded House
Afterglow
Capitol
No, you haven’t missed a news briefing; Crowded House are still broken up. Afterglow is simply a pleasant postscript to the band’s brilliant career.
The
C-60s
The
C-60s
Spongebath
The C-60s start their self-titled album out with
“Remote Control,” a bouncy number which references self-gratification (“I
think about you during masturbation”) in its lyrics.
Something else everybody seems to do lately (and please
nominate this for Best Segueway of the Year, if you would) is play power pop
with a hint of punk. The C-60s are
following somewhat of the same format, but there’s a bit of a difference to
their sound.
The Cunninghams
Zeroed Out
Revolution
Last issue, in the review of the debut CD by Agnes Gooch, a theory was proposed.
The Cure
Galore: The Singles 1987-1997
Elektra
Hard to believe it’s been just over ten years since that old man stared blankly from the cover of Staring At The Sea, the Cure’s first singles collection. It’s a rare alternative music fan’s collection that doesn’t have at least one Cure CD, and, until now, Staring At The Sea has always been the one to have; with such classics as “Boys Don’t Cry,” “The Love Cats,” and “In-Between Days” (among countless others), few would deny its indispensability.
There’s a difference, of course.
The Cure
Bloodflowers
Fiction/Elektra
Arguably the least surprising thing about Bloodflowers, the Cure’s first album of the new millenium, is that, once again, the press has picked up on the rumor that this will be the band’s last…but, frankly, who cares?
Catie
Curtis
Catie
Curtis
Guardian
Part of the breed of female singer-songwriters that’s
brought us Ani DiFranco and Dar Williams, Catie Curtis is definitely someone
destined for greatness...and, hopefully, with the aforementioned artists having
done a great deal for paving the way, she’ll reach it in rapid fashion.
Her self-titled new album, her second on Guardian (part of the EMI family
of labels), deserves to be her breakthrough, especially after all of the
critical acclaim her last record (her major-label debut) received.
Furry Sidekick
When Brian Kassan departed the Wondermints, he had quite a task ahead of himself to top the work of the band he was leaving behind; additionally, since then, his former band has done nothing but top themselves, the culmination being their invitation by Brian Wilson to serve as his backing band on his first-ever solo tour.
Kassan’s new band, Chewy Marble, released their self-debut in 1997, and it was pretty good pop, but it wasn’t everything it could’ve or should’ve been. Fortunately, 2001 brings the band’s sophomore effort, Bowl Of Surreal, which has better songs and, just as notably, better production; even “Midtempo Trap,” which had previously appeared on the first International Pop Overthrow compilation, sounds better here.
Piano drives the incredibly Beatle-esque opener, “Inside Our Head,” and the instrument is spotted again throughout the record, particularly on “You’ll Be Around,” “You Don’t Have To Go,” and the waltz-like “Dressed In Blue.” Straight-ahead power pop is still the name of the game on “Annie” and “Tiny World,” but there’s considerable diversity all around, particularly with the aptly-titled “In The Next Five Minutes.”
Don’t call it a comeback; it’s just Kassan finally showing that Chewy Marble can more than hold their own against his former cronies.
Stockholm/Koch
At what point during the last six years did the Cardigans get so bummed out, man? Was it a sudden thing, or did the transition occur gradually? The latter, presumably. It’s not as if they haven’t been releasing mildly morose lyrics since the get-go; as far back as 1994’s Emmerdale, Nina Persson has been singing lines like, “Symptoms are so deep / Something here’s so wrong / Nothing is complete / Nowhere to belong.” But, for the most part, the band’s music has been sufficiently upbeat as to belie their dark lyrical undertones. This time, however, the Cardigans have abandoned virtually any trace of keyboards and have gone for an all-natural, acoustic sound, more like the work of a singer/songwriter than the creators of First Band on the Moon and Gran Turismo. Persson’s gorgeous voice still shines as brightly as ever, particularly on “You’re The Storm,” but this is a whole new musical direction for the group. While not outright jarring, it could still prove a bit off-putting for those seeking instant gratification from a familiar-sounding new Cardigans album; one can only hope that the musical sensibilities of the band’s audience have changed as much as the band’s seemingly have.
(originally appeared in Amplifier Magazine)
CFTPA,
Twinkle Echo
Sounds
Like: Magnetic Fields, Future
Bible Heroes
Is
It any Good: It is if you like
your clever lyrics coupled with lo-fi Casiotones. “Toby, Take A Bow,” a
tribute to “the greatest Smiths fan ever,” is alone worth the price of
admission.
Rating:
3
(originally
appeared in NineVolt Magazine)