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Check out
this week’s
online CD reviews by our
music staff |
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Aerosmith
Honkin’ On Bobo
(Columbia)
B
Website: www.aerosmith.com
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It’s hard to believe
a bunch of white, 50-year-old rock star multi-millionaires get
the blues, but Aerosmith isn’t really playing the blues
here. These songs may be blues-based, but they’re heavily
’Smithed — tweaked and rocked out. The sound here
is big, bad, signature Aerosmith powered by Tyler’s shrieks
and the over-the-top riffing of Brad Whitford and Joe Perry. The
weakest cut here is oddly (or perhaps, typically, of late) the
one written by Perry and Tyler; The Grind sounds just like every
Aerosmith song since Pump. When this quintet sticks to rocking
the tunes of Fred Mcdowell, Ellas McDaniel and Willie Dixon, things
start heating up. You Gotta Move and Stop Messin’ Around
(with Perry on vocals) are highlights. At the very least, Honkin’
is certainly better than Get a Grip and Nine Lives.
Mike Warkentin |
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The
Get Up Kids
Guilt Show
(Vagrant)
C+
Website: www.thegetupkids.com
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I was well on the way
to writing this group off as another depressing example of pop-culture’s
invasive influence on yet another talented group of musicians
— but something unusual happened on the way to the dumpster.
I began to like what I was hearing. Guilt Show is an acquired
taste. It takes a few spins for its understated effect to sink
in but when it does, it’s easy to appreciate this clean-cut,
thoughtful album that stands above most cookie-cutter emo-pop
on the strength of its writing. In addition to the typical relationship
angst that appears loud and clear on One You Want and In Your
Sea, Guilt Show explores redemption in Dark Night of the Soul,
and its final two songs are an unexpected surprise. Is There A
Way drops the raucous, guitar-driven pop flavouring in favour
of a more melodic and moody piano-led expedition into insecurity
and guilt, while Conversation finishes the album off on a more
attractive rock-like tone. Hopefully this is indicative of what’s
to come.
Joseph Morton |
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Gary
Jules
Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets
(Universal Records)
B
Website: www.garyjules.com |
San Diego-based singer-songwriter
Gary Jules has enjoyed some recent U.K. chart success with his
remake of Tears for Fears’ Mad World. To follow up that
success, Jules and partner Michael Andrews have released an easy-going
set of originals that will make some fans of this kind of hip
folk music wonder what they’ve been listening to up until
now. Trading... is the kind of album that sneaks up on you after
a few listenings. Its subtle charm comes from Jules’ warm,
Cat-Stevens-meets-Tim-Buckley delivery. Something Else is at once
melancholy and surprisingly uplifting. Downtown Los Angeles has
a shuffling beatnik swagger that makes you feel like you’re
begging dimes on Hollywood Boulevard with an out-of-work fire-eater.
Jules delivers his words with all the force of a barstool prophet
and leaves the competition crying in their herbal tea.
Jeff Monk |
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Jawbreaker
Dear You
(BlackBall Records)
B+
Website: www.blackballrecords.com
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Jawbreaker is probably
the most critically acclaimed and underrated band to come out
of the same pop-punk wave that spawned Green Day, Weezer and the
like. A three-piece from California (of course), Jawbreaker has
released six albums including 1995’s Dear You; this disc
is a repackaging of that stellar offering, with the addition of
five songs that didn’t make the original cut. The best songs
here remain Jet Black, Save Your Generation and Oyster, but the
last tracks are more of a good thing. Blake Schwarzenbach’s
restrained yet effective vocals (throat surgery prior to this
album left him with a raspier and quieter voice) carry moderately
paced pop-punk numbers that are characterized by clever lyrics
and imaginative riffage. Boxcar is the best of the add-ons, and
this package is well worth picking up if you don’t have
the original.
Mike Warkentin |
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The
Gibson Brothers
Long Way Back Home
(Sugar Hill Records)
B
Website: www.sugarhillrecords.com
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American bluegrass brothers
Leigh and Eric Gibson will no doubt get some positive press north
of the 49th parallel, not only for covering a Gordie Lightfoot
track but also for choosing it as the title of their wonderful
new Sugar Hill release. The Gibsons are excellent pickers and
even better harmony singers, and this baker’s dozen of tracks
flows through all the usual rootsy waters — sad tales of
lost love, uptempo jigs and earnest folk-flavored ditties. Their
cover of The Band’s chestnut Ophelia rings very true to
the original’s silliness yet gets lifted to another, even
happier plane by its overt Gibsonization. Leigh Gibson’s
vocals have a certain aching warble that lends a unique fragility
to ballads like Any Man In His Right Mind and Satan’s Jeweled
Crown. The Lightfoot cover is testament to the fact that a great
song, when handled with respect, can work for almost anyone.
Jeff Monk |
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Various
Artists
Songs Inspired by The Passion of the Christ
(Universal South)
C-
Website: www.universal-south.com
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Dear Lord, thanks for
all the great music you help people make. Thanks for allowing
creative people to make motion pictures that inspire and excite
us humans. Lord, please try and make sure that no one else (especially
Mel Gibson) makes movies about Jesus unless they make him black
(which would really make sense considering all the information
about the place and time he was supposed to be on Earth. And Lord,
please have someone make sure that add-ons (such as this album)
that are created specifically to cash in on a film are not allowed
to be released. And one more thing Lord: While some of the songs
on this CD are really quite good, please do something about Ricky
Skaggs and Lee Ryan and maybe even Dolores O’Riordan. They
make people have bad thoughts. Thanks.
Jeff Monk |
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Melissa McClelland
Stranded in Suburbia
(Orange)
B-
Website: www.melissamcclelland.com
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This is what Jewel might
have become if she hadn’t gone to pop-radio hell. Twenty-four-year-old
Melissa McClelland is a singer-songwriter at heart — she’s
been doing it since she was four years old — but she also
isn’t afraid to kick in a little distortion, play with drum
loops or experiment with her sound. The result is a mixture of
slow, woman-with-guitar tunes (Glimpse into Hell) and uptempo
plugged-in tracks (Good as Gold) that push the folk/guitar-pop
envelope. McClelland’s gentle, clear voice could use a bit
more power at times but, when she employs both her upper and lower
registers (as on Pretty Blue) the results are both sexy and impressive.
McClelland shows flashes of lyrical brilliance, and her skills
will only increase with time. A follow-up to 2001’s self-titled
release, this disc shows an artist successfully discovering her
sound.
Mike Warkentin |
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Outlie
Companions to Devils and Saints
(Porterhouse Records)
B-
Website: www.Outlie.net
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Locate volume knob. Twist
clockwise. Repeat. This debut full-length from California punk
rockers Outlie is a disc that begs to be listened to at aggressive
volumes. An 11-track offering of guitar-driven rock fueled by
aggressive punk chop, this disc is characterized by a sense of
urgency even though the vocals stay clear and melodic at all times.
Adding some edge to Luke Pabich’s singing definitely wouldn’t
hurt things, but the guitars here are heavy enough to keep things
really moving until about track seven. Companions... seems to
lose some momentum in the latter stages, and ends with a whimper
rather than a bang. Nevertheless, Anxieties of the Vain and Unknowing,
Dance of Shiva, and The Price of Denial make this a worthwhile
alternative to bands such as the Offspring.
Mike Warkentin |
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Vista Le Vie
Don’t
(F Communications)
B+
Website: www.fcom.fr
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Don’t, the mini-album
debut from Paris duo Vista Le Vie, sounds at times faintly reminiscent
of both Massive Attack and Portishead, but Vista’s style
is earmarked by its unique fusion of hip hop rhythms, jazz and
soul. The third track, A Curse She Cannot Win, gives an idea of
what this group is capable of conceptually and, ironically, also
reveals the group’s greatest weakness when Barbara Silverstone
recites some poetry over a techno soundscape that sounds like
it could’ve been culled directly from the Sega Genesis game
Warriors of the Eternal Sun. Thankfully, that bleak, minimalist
video-game feel disappears with Drunken Master and is replaced
by a pleasantly discordant hip hop feel, and finally capped off
with an airy mix of acoustic guitars and social discourse on Kids
With Gloves. With a few more artists such as this, France might
earn itself a reputation for more than just wartime surrender
and malnourished runway models.
Joseph Morton |
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