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Citizen Cope-
The Clarence Greenwood Recordings
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Recently named to Rolling Stone's
"10 Artists To Watch," along with a sly name that spells of intrigue,
Citizen Cope is about to dismiss any style over substance myths. In fact for
Cope, born Clarence Greenwood, it's quite the humble opposite, as he
proclaims - "for me it's about the song."
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Blind Melon- S/T
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Strangely, I only rediscovered this album a
couple of weeks ago, after it had remained dormant at the bottom of one of
my many boxes of CD's. I bought it around it's UK release date after seeing
the video for "No Rain" on MTV: like most people, who subsequently
heard "Change", I was taken in by the light-hearted, vaguely rocky-folky
noises and the lilt of Shannon's voice (which I later discovered to be far
weaker in a live setting than in a studio).
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Marvin Gaye-
What's Going On
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Nominally a soundtrack to Ed Burns'
film She's the One, Tom Petty's Songs and Music from "She's the One"
plays like an entity of its own, standing up quite well without the movie
itself. She's the One is one of Petty's most relaxed efforts -- several of
the songs feel like they were written and performed quickly, almost as if
they were throwaways, but that ramshackle feeling actually works in the
album's favor. With its loose ends, repeated songs, covers, brief
instrumental bridges, and direct production, She's the One is a ragged
listen, but it's a comfortable, engaging, and surprisingly eclectic one.
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Arcade Fire- Neon Bible
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Two and a half years after the Arcade Fire
burst onto the scene at CMJ, frontman Win Butler is still scared shitless.
"I don't wanna work in a building downtown." "I don't wanna hear the noises
on TV." "I don't know why but I know I can't stay." This is one paranoid
sonofabitch (those are all lines from different songs, by the way). "I don't
wanna see it at my windowsill," he coos painfully on "Windowsill," referring
to just about anything negative?wars, terror, MTV, debt, the Man, etc. It's
a mad, mad, mad, mad world indeed.
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Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers-
She's The One
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Nominally a soundtrack to Ed Burns'
film She's the One, Tom Petty's Songs and Music from "She's the One"
plays like an entity of its own, standing up quite well without the movie
itself. She's the One is one of Petty's most relaxed efforts -- several of
the songs feel like they were written and performed quickly, almost as if
they were throwaways, but that ramshackle feeling actually works in the
album's favor. With its loose ends, repeated songs, covers, brief
instrumental bridges, and direct production, She's the One is a ragged
listen, but it's a comfortable, engaging, and surprisingly eclectic one.
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Spoon-
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
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Something happened to Spoon between records
five and six--they got big. It's not as if these unprepossessing Texans were
unpopular before, but after Gimme Fiction, their music was
everywhere. There was Britt Daniel, who has since moved to Oregon,
singing karaoke on cult favorite Veronica Mars, there was his
soundtrack for deadpan Will Ferrell vehicle Stranger Than Fiction,
and then there were the countless times their tunes, especially 2002's "The
Way We Get By," appeared in other movies and TV shows.
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Hall & Oates-
Big Bam Boom
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"Big Bam Boom" was the last major Hall and
Oates album, and this BMG's version improves the sound of the CD from its
last reissue in 1996. While each LP from the duo's Eighties output on RCA
used modern technology to some degree, this album put even heavier emphasis
on drum machines, keys and sampling. The electronics seems to write the
songs, rather than complement them.
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Cush-
New Sound
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The band plays a somewhat
dreamy rock not unlike The Surfers or Everything but the Girl. Considering
the members involved, it's not hard to see why comparisons to Honey
and occasionally to The Lassie Foundation and Mike Knott's
work would be in order as well. "Angelica" has a guitar solo very
similar to The Lassie Foundation's "She's Long Gone--She's the
Coming Sun," and many of the falsetto background vocals hearken to
Wayne Everett's work with Starflyer 59 and The Lassie
Foundation.
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Pearl Jam-
Yield
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Pearl Jam is one of the few bands of the last
ten years that has released a number of great albums. Starting with the
incredible Ten and most recently the allso incredible Binaural,
Pearl Jam has continually proved themselves to be a great band, great
songwriters and great album makers. Yield is just another in a long line of
great albums. True, it isn't quite as impressive as, say Ten, but it is
close and continues their level of excellency. Like all Pearl Jam albums,
Yield contains some really great songs. One thing about Yield that is
different from most of Pearl Jam's albums is that none of the songs really
stand out above the rest. It is a consistently great album.
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The Violet Burning-
Drop-Dead
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Over the last few years I have
really taken a liking to The Violet Burning. They have easily become
one of my favorite bands. They recently released the long awaited follow-up
to This is the Moment. And a fine follow-up it is, easily one
of the band's best efforts to date.
They get things started off with "Humm," a slow romantic moody tune.
With dark introspective lyrics. Something we have come to expect from
Michael Pritzl. "Humm" was the perfect song to get things
started. Next up is "All I Want," a throw back to The
Violets of old. An upbeat rocker about love. Continue
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Ratings
Scale
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= Masterpiece
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= Classic
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Excellent
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Good
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Average
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