Core Samples, featuring reviews of Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan; Ginger; Death to Anders; Aimee Mann; Bauhaus; Love Psychedelico; The Red Velvet; Raconteurs; Kathleen Edwards; B-52’s; Love; Sheryl Crow
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
Sunday at Devil Dirt
V2
The second album from Isobel and Mark continues in the vein of their first, with a variety of musical styles such as folk, orchestrated pop, blues and even an R&B-ish number. ("Come On Over, Turn Me On"). Mark does most of the singing and he is in good form here. Isobel's feathery voice is lightweight on its own, but she sounds good with Mark. Isobel wrote most of the songs and produced the album, and she is talented at both. Lots of good songs here, but I think my favorites are the sweet and folky "Keep me in Mind, Sweetheart" and "Trouble."
Pam Kirk
Ginger
Market Harbour
Round Records
This is the third solo album from the Wildhearts' frontman Ginger in three years. Where The Wildhearts' primary focus is on hard rock dominance, Ginger's solo work explores just about EVERYWHERE else in the realm of modern music.
First single "Casino Bay" starts off this record with a big blast of spacious power chords and great pop melodies, and for the next hour the hooks never let up, creating one seamless piece of music.
Last year's opus, Yoni, touched on reggae, jangle pop, Motown, and even a little disco. This time out, the bases covered on these fourteen songs (and seven interludes) are considerably more elaborate: power pop ("The Queen Of Leaving", "Overeasy"), country ("House Of Moths"), Phil Spector ("Awareness And The Great Integrity", "Shatterproof", "Casino Bay"), 70s soft rock ("Regret.com"), and yes, even some hard rock ("Attentionette", "Josser Bank"), with touches of Celtic, folk, electronica, and even circus music. All of this is done with outstanding hooks, lyrics, and vocal melodies to die for. Only on this album can you get a lyric like "I have to declare/With my hands in the air/You're just too fucking weird" sung as a 50s pop melody ("Couple Trouble")!
Easily his most elaborate project to date (nearly thirty credited musicians, including eight lead vocalists, counting his two children on "You And Me (That's What I Want)"), Ginger has pulled off the hat trick of three outstanding albums in just a twelve-month time span (Yoni from January, 2007, The Wildhearts' self titled comeback effort from April, 2007, and now this album, released in January, 2008). With the next twelve months looking to be just as busy (TWO Wildhearts albums are planned and likely another solo album for January, 2009), it'll be interesting to see if he can keep up the amazing quality of work.
This album is available in the U.S. as an import or download (currently on iTunes and Rhapsody), but it's worth every penny! [www.gingerandthesoniccircus.net] [www.thewildhearts.com]
Phil Fleming
Death to Anders
Fictitious Business
self-released
Death to Anders' music inhabits a space somewhere between the Mountain Goats and Fugazi, a space threaded through with noise, jangle, nasal vocals, and catchy, often beautiful melodies. Populating the dark lyrics are a cast of characters -- alcoholics, cop killers, sexual predators, ex-convicts, and just the lonely and forlorn -- heading through, or dreaming of, the wide open spaces of the Great Plains, the West, somewhere unspoiled and vast. Escape is a predominant theme, whether literal or through drink or sex, and lurid as some of these characters may be, they read like a hometown newspaper, the ordinary person just cumulatively pushed too far.
You can listen to many songs on their websites. [deathtoanders.com] [www.myspace.com/deathtoanders]
Jen Grover
Aimee Mann
@#%&! Smilers
Superego Records
The icon on the cover is a wonderful parody of a smiley face icon, which along with the title makes a joke about people who are annoyingly cheerful. Putting the two together creates the right atmosphere for the songs.
Because there is no electric guitar on this album, just an acoustic, Mann comes closer to modern folk than she has before. I don't miss the electric guitars. The keyboards, horns and string sections more than make up for them, particularly on the single "Freeway", in which the keyboards go for a Cars-like sound. Then there is "Ballantines", where the horns create a happy counterpoint to the story of a musician's downfall. "Columbus Ave." puts melancholy sounding strings to good use in a story about the real life tattoo studio where Aimee got her tattoos, and the people there who are down on their luck.
Mann continues what she started, on Lost In Space and The Forgotten Arm, writing as therapy -- not the pop culture self-help type of therapy, but a true therapy session with a psychologist. She shows the same kind of empathy for her characters that a therapist would, and the solutions she offers her characters could help them get their lives together. Aimee also meant these songs to be short stories, and they work well as fiction -- solid plots, with well-drawn characters.
This is one of the best albums I've heard so far this year. Mann never wavers in her vision, to be honest, frank, and unafraid to say what she feels or means, both musically and lyrically. Smilers is an album to truly smile about, for the wonderful music, and the sharp writing. [www.aimeemann.com]
Andrea Weiss
Bauhaus
Go Away White
Bauhaus Musik
On rare occasion, while listening to a new album for the first time, I'll proclaim out loud (even with no one there), "Oh my God, this is awesome!" I've just done that.
It's been 25 years since their last album as a band, though all have continued in music in other bands and projects. According to the band's website, this album, was recorded in 18 days, with the band playing together in the same room, often taking first takes as final takes. The result? It is as though they never skipped a step, never missed a beat, never went away in the first place. Peter Murphy's voice is still strong, accurate, exquisite, powerful, and sexy. Daniel Ash's guitar playing is still edgy, steely, hypnotically abrasive, and noisy. It's all there, all the things we loved about the Bauhaus of old, yet without just repeating themselves. The songwriting is top-notch, bold, current, and darkly sly, and this is undeniably a rock record -- no mellowing out here.
But just try to read those white on white liner notes, or even the tracklist, especially with 40+ year-old eyes! You have to turn it sideways just right so the light catches the gloss of the ink. Otherwise, you might not even know it was there. And, you know, from an artist's point of view, that's actually pretty cool. From a reviewer's point of view, though...
Sadly, the band has declared that this really is the end. Apparently personalities clashed yet again during the recording of this album. They might have gone away white, but, for a moment at least, they came back golden. [www.bauhausmusik.com]
Jen Grover
Love Psychedelico
This is Love Psychedelico
Hacktone Records
This band was huge in Asia, with four hit albums in a space of ten years. The duo of Kumi, (vocals) and Naoki (guitar) formed in 1997, when the two met at college. This album is their first release outside Asia.
The band has its roots in 60s and 70s rock, but I hear modern garage bands like Veruca Salt, the Breeders and early Bangles more than classic rock. However, it is a seamless blend of old and new, and a very good one. The band takes their influences and makes something of them, such as "Your Song", where musical hooks worthy of the Bangles vie with upbeat lyrics that make the song's title self-explanatory. Kumi sings in both Japanese and English throughout the album, often alternating lines in both languages, and while I don't know Japanese, I found that I don't need to. The songs make sense to me anyway. I recommend this album to those who want their music straightforward, fun and catchy. [www.myspace.com/lovepsychedelicous]
Andrea Weiss
The Red Velvet
Lights Won’t Go Out
self-released
It took two years for the band to complete this album, even with Russ Fox’s studio at their disposal, at least when it wasn’t occupied by other bands. With much writing to do to fill a full length, and having to fit recording in between day jobs, family obligations, playing out as much as possible, Russ’ stints on tour as crew with other bands, and everything else life threw at them, it just took time, but it was certainly time well spent. The Huntington, WV indie rockers really put their all into this work, wanting to get it just right, and even hiring the amazing Martin Feveryear to master it. The sound is clean and clear, every instrument, every voice distinct and well balanced. Everyone except Mark sings, swapping out lead vocals and creating rich harmonies. The songs are bright, uplifting, and affirming. “Lover Never Change” gets an update that really improves the song, and Jordan’s vocals on “Useless” are particularly pleasing.
If I have one tiny complaint about this album, it’s that it’s maybe a little too careful. Of course a band wants their debut to be just perfect, all the ducks in a row and colored just right, but live this band exudes a passionate abandon that makes them really exciting and fun, and this album could use just a touch more of that. But don’t let that deter you from picking up this terrific sounding disc, and by all means, see them live if you get the opportunity. [myspace.com/theredvelvetmusic]
Jen Grover
Raconteurs
Consolers of the Lonely
Third man/Warner Brothers
This album is mostly early 70s rock, with very little modern indie rock to bring the sound into the present. It's more blues oriented and warmer than Broken Boy Soldiers, less power pop than "Steady As She Goes." Some songs, like the marvelous "Old Enough", are very laid back, others, like the single "Salute Your Solution", are nicely edgy and tinged with a bit of punk to make them race along.
Lyrically the band lives up to its name, as raconteurs means "storytellers" in French. Both Jack White “the third” and Brendan Benson do tell wonderful stories, like the mystery of what happened to Billy, his mom, boyfriend, the priest, Billy’s younger brother, and the milkman that is "Carolina Drama", or the great breakup song "You Don't Understand Me." The one cover here, Terry Reid's "Rich Kid Blues", fits very well -- another story, more blues based rock.
The Raconteurs are more than just Jack White the third's solo project; it's a real band. And even though the sound is very different from any of the members’ main bands, this band's work stands alongside them. [www.theraconteurs.com]
Andrea Weiss
Kathleen Edwards
Asking For Flowers
Zoe/Rounder Records
One thing that's immediately noticeable on this album is Edwards’ voice. It sounds lived-in; she's been around for a long time, seen many things and done a lot, too. This homegrown quality can turn any song in to something special, like "Sure as Shit," a love song, but a bitter one; she's in love, but doesn't like the person she loves. This is just her on guitar, and the music highlights this bitterness, how deep her feelings run, and her anguish over the situation. She doesn't belt out the words, she sings with quiet resolve, making the emotions in the song even starker. Indeed, she sings quietly on most of these songs, even with her electrified band backing her up, which makes songs like "Oil Man's War", the story of a couple fleeing to Canada to escape the draft and Vietnam, haunting and a sad echo of Iraq, or angry, like on "Oh Canada", about social injustice in her home country.
She can be wryly funny, like on "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory", with lines like "You're the buffet, I'm just the table," or on the title track, with "Don't tell me you're too tired, ten years I've been working nights." But the funniest and best song on the album is "The Cheapest Key", where she tells a lover to go to hell, with lyrics like "Don't write me off, here comes my softer side, and there it goes."
This album is Edwards’ third, and her best. It is her most consistent, well written, and musically solid. She spent three years writing these songs, and the care she took with them shows. [www.kathleenedwards.com]
Andrea Weiss
B-52’s
Funplex
Astralwerks
The B-52's want to have sex with you. All the songs on the album say so, as all are about sex.
The music is slicker than on their past two albums, but also in tune with the times. Keith Strickland got into techno when he moved to Key West. The sound of this album, the keyboards, bass, drums and guitars, flow together into a seamless whole that brings techno into the next century, as in "Love in the Year 3000." That track is also Fred Schneider's sexiest song on the album, where he sings about making "space love in zero gravity." His voice is still snappy and campy as it's always been.
The band get political, like on the title track, which deals with sex as materialism and as something to consume. "Juliet of the Spirits" makes the personal political, the acts of sexual liberation and freeing oneself up to love or have sex. "Keep this Party Going" is about revolution, as a love-in at the White House turns political, and love will overthrow the government. "Eyes Wide Open" and "Too Much to Think About" could address coming out, the former realizing how much you love someone of the same sex, and the latter addressing sexual confusion.
This is a very good album, even if the music is slicker than it needs to be in spots. It is great to see this band back on the scene, after the disappointing Good Stuff froze their career. In the aftermath of Ricky Wilson's death, when homophobia and AIDS-aphobia, caused a backlash against the band, they released Cosmic Thing, not knowing what would happen, and were surprised when it hit so big. Funplex is their true triumph over adversity, and they stick together forever to party, rise above those who would keep people down, and to love everyone however they want to. [www.b52s.com]
Andrea Weiss
Love
Forever Changes: Collector's Edition
Elektra/Rhino, 2008
Forty years after its original release, Forever Changes remains an enduring, enigmatic masterpiece. Arthur Lee swings from high ("Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale") to low ("A House Is Not A Motel", "The Red Telephone") and back again before reaching a sort of epiphanic resignation ("You Set The Scene")… or at least some kind of existential standoff. First given a special edition treatment in 2001, Rhino now returns to the well for a super-deluxe two-disc set, and while normally I really have it in for that sort of thing, I'm giving this one the big thumbs up because 1) the second disc includes, among other material, the entire album as it was remixed in the 70's, and 2) ‘fess up – some of you still don't have this album yet. And you really should. It still sounds fairly contemporary, and is one of the most tastefully restrained recordings of the psychedelic era, considering all the studio trickery and the mellotron onslaught that was in fashion at the time (Their Satanic Majesties Request, anyone? Perhaps the Stones should have gotten on My White Bicycle and ridden straight past Strawberry Fields to answer The Red Telephone). Love instead largely abandons the electric guitars that dominated their first two albums and goes acoustic, with brass and string flourishes courtesy of orchestrator David Angel that heighten the emotional punch of the material. Only "A House Is Not A Motel" and "Live And Let Live" allow lead guitarist Johnny Echols to let fly with crackling electric solos, and he makes the most of these opportunities. The remix on disc two is worth listening to for the new details one can hear – the vocals are pushed forward and in some instances stripped of echo, and there's some kind of proto-rap at the end of "You Set The Scene" missing from the original version – but I certainly prefer the original mix, not least because the melodic bass lines (particularly on "Andmoreagain" and "The Daily Planet") are more prominent. Forever Changes always seems to stand out from its peer group because Arthur Lee never really fell for that peace-and-love hippie jive – sure, maybe he wanted that utopian idyll as much as everyone else, but he couldn't help leavening even his loveliest material with a dose of dark fatalism (unlike, say, Elektra labelmates The Doors, who were all about playing in traffic from day one), as though Lee knew that the good times wouldn't last. And with Charles Manson hovering on the periphery of the L.A. music scene at the time (future Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil was actually a member of Love – albeit briefly – before Lee replaced him with Bryan MacLean), the bad vibes were probably a lot thicker there than in San Francisco or Swinging London. Danger lurks in the grooves of this album, along with joy and sorrow and life and death and the whole shebang; this multi-dimensionality is what makes Forever Changes rise above so much of the rest of late-sixties rock. While others were telling us to simply smile on our brother – and Brian Wilson couldn't even get THAT much done – Love told us that smiling was okay, as long as you carried a big stick. Watts isn't far from Sunset Boulevard. Cielo Drive is closer.
West Anthony
Sheryl Crow
Detours
A&M Records
Detours is the best album Crow has released since 1999's The Globe Sessions. Bill Bottrell, the producer of her first album, is back, and he couldn't have come back at a better time. He shakes up her sound and makes it come alive, something that was drastically needed after the blandness of her last two albums.
The music is strong here and flows powerfully, forcefully, and while it is smooth, it never falls asleep. It keeps working and moving gracefully. This is mainstream rock at its finest. It’s smart and nothing is wasted or out of place, overblown or unfocused.
Lyrically Crow is writing what she knows again -- simple, but direct political and social commentary, and relationship songs that lose the sappiness of her last two albums. If this album has a flaw, it’s that some of these songs are a bit too simple, for example "Love is Free." Crow knows that New Orleans needs a lot more than love to get back on its feet, and implies that maybe one reason the federal government dragged its feet on cleaning up the mess from Katrina was to "keep people in their place," especially if they're poor or Black. But there needs to be more content overall in this song than just summing things up by saying that love is free, and "devil take your money, money got no hold on me."
The other political songs, like "Gasoline", which imagines worldwide unrest at overthrowing governments over oil, and "Peace Be Upon Us", which reaches out to Islam, with Ahmed Al Hirmi singing a verse in Arabic telling Al-Qaeda to go to hell, are better. "God Bless this Mess" is the best. "Mess" is just Crow and a guitar. The character worries about her brother, who comes back from Iraq mentally disturbed, tells how people she knows have no time to relax anymore, then blasts Bush and his war for causing this situation. Likewise, the climate of greed, ignorance and hate, spawned by the Bush years, is attacked in "Motivation" and "Out of Our Heads".
The relationship songs are tough musically and intelligent. "Diamond Ring" may be the last word on Lance Armstrong, but it’s when Crow talks about herself that she raises her game. The title song is about her recent life, and how she was a stranger to herself, and "Make it Go Away (Radiation Song)" deals with how she felt about being diagnosed with breast cancer. The sweetest love song, though, is "Lullaby for Wyatt", her adopted son, who was six weeks old when she adopted him. He's heard gurgling at the end of the song.
Crow, in a "World Café" interview, all but disowned her last two albums. She was very wise to do so, and then come back with an album as great as this one, a wonderful album from start to finish. [www.sherylcrow.com]
Andrea Weiss