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Check out
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around Winnipeg tonight! |
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Check out
this week’s
online CD reviews by our
music staff |
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Amon Tobin
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
(Ninja Tune)
B+
Website: www.ninjatune.net
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The goal in Tom Clancy’s
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory video game is to stop China, Japan
and North and South Korea from starting the Third World War. Listening
to this disc is a lot simpler and will leave your nerve endings
un-frayed. While there is a whole team of percussionists, drummers
and flutists on this soundtrack, the samba lessons are MIA. The
feel of the disc is very undercover-esque and had me and my cats
sneaking around the house, checking around corners for mysterious
men with knives and ninja skills. With freakishly frightening
string arrangements on Ruthless and quick-paced drum and bass
on Displaced, you’ll go from tense to neurotic before the
frantic Kokubo Sosho Battle. This isn’t just a soundtrack,
it’s a must-have for Amon Tobin fans.
Shannon Ander
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Destiny’s Child
Destiny Fulfilled
(Columbia Records)
D
Website: www.columbiarecords.com
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Poor Kelly and Michelle.
We all know the only destiny Beyoncé fulfilled on this
album was her obligation to the girls to put out another album.
But a star can only take so much. Between commercials, movies
and her booming solo career, Beyoncé’s going to
need to find time to cut the other children loose for good.
This album is simply dead boring, and I can’t sympathize
with ballads about rich women done wrong by their men. No wonder
men treat them like crap if they practice harmonizing all day
long. With track titles such as T-shirt, this is likely Destiny’s
Child’s last and worst album. There just aren’t
any memorable hits like Say My Name or Bills, Bills, Bills (which
Kelly and Michelle will soon need help paying). Say No, no,
no to this album.
Shannon Ander |
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Groove Armada
Groove Armada: The Best Of
(Jive/Zomba Recording Corp.)
B+
Website: www.grooveymusic.com
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Oh snap! This energetic
assortment of hit material by U.K. dance act Groove Armada has
certainly captivated my attention. In fact, just listening to
this nostalgic collection has released me from any previous misconceptions
and empowered me with renewed interest. The group’s recent
opus contains a host of funky tracks, including a few of its patented
psychedelic instrumentals, such as In My Mind (Blue Skies), for
those reflective moments. Just a little sumthin’ sumthin’
for those trips down memory lane. However, tunes such as the rhythmic
Easy should provide adequate inspiration for crowds of intoxicated
ravers to get up and groove. After becoming hypnotized by its
trance-like vocals and raptured into a state of nirvanic consciousness,
you’ll need the services of the Amazing Kreskin to administer
an antidote.
Horace Carrington |
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John
Butler Trio
Sunrise Over Sea
(Lava Records)
B
What You Want EP
(Lava Records)
C+
Website: www.johnbutlertrio.com
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John Butler was born in
California but moved with his family to Western Australia at the
tender age of 11. His talents seem to have been developed somewhat
equally in both locations. The California upbringing appears to
have affected his songs lyrically, as on his odes to love, living
in harmony with nature and an iconoclast’s view of politics.
Musically Butler portrays the same kind of nervy excellence that
loads of his Down Under countrymates have delivered throughout
the rock era. He is a particularly skilled slide guitarist/banjoist,
and rather than channel his muse into the typical blues form he
instead builds some very cool and tight acoustic rock songs. Album
opener Treat Yo Mama is a funky, near-jazzy burner that crackles
with energy. Butler’s voice is reminiscent of the throaty
yodel of Anthony Kiedis — minus the tone-deafness. The EP
What You Want pulls two tracks from Sunrise..., as well as Across
the Universe and a 12-plus-minute extended version of Betterman.
There’s also a video clip of Treat Yo Mama. Start with the
full album.
Jeff Monk |
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Twilightning
Plague-House Puppet Show
(Universal/Spinefarm)
C+
Website: www.twilightning.net
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Power metal from Finland?
As if. Plague-House Puppet Show is the sophomore full-length from
the sextet Twilightning and is packed with big riffs and screeching
leads, operatic vocals, galloping beats and the occasional Van
Halen synth. While the formula works well on tracks such as the
title cut, other songs lack a certain edge and come off as a bit
fluffy and pretty. Take the track Into Reason, for example. Its
overly grandiose wails and pompous instrumentation seem to recall
the later days of Def Leppard, and the cut could almost be classified
as hair metal. In fact, these guys can sometimes sound like the
Bon Jovi of the Eurometal world. I have a sneaking suspicion they
make the devil horns with the thumb out, if you get my meaning,
and I bet they don’t hang out with the badasses from In
Flames. That isn’t to say this disc blows, only that Plague-House
Puppet Show should be considered something of a training bra for
budding metalheads. Listen to this disc a few times then strap
on some Hammerfall for full barbed-underwire support.
Mike Warkentin |
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Elefant
Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid
(Hollywood Records)
B+
Website: www.elefantweb.com
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Elefant has nothing in
common with the massive, lumbering animal. With a sweet sound
that won’t step on you, Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid is full
of lovely melodies, soothing sounds and ivory-smooth production.
If The Killers teamed up with Ryan Adams — at his most sensitive
of moments — and wrote something relaxed and love themed,
it would sound something like Elefant. Just listen to Love. The
melody sounds borrowed from an Adams song but Elefant makes it
their own enchanting tune. The only downfall of this album is
that you may wonder if the group can write about anything besides
love — and Tonight Let’s Dance is as cheesy as Van
Halen’s Dance the Night Away. If you can get past a couple
of gag-inducing, overly mushy duds, this is a great album.
Jared Story |
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The
O.C.
Mix 4
(Warner)
C+
Website: www.musicfromtheoc.com
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The O.C. — the hit
TV show where young, pretty people sleep with other pretty people
whose pretty parents sleep with other pretty parents, all in pretty
California. Pretty depressing for Winnipeggers. But the show has
managed to put together a soundtrack that can be described as...
well, pretty good. The Futureheads kick things off with Decent
Days and Nights, a catchy pop-rock tune with that Franz Ferdinand/Killers
sound. Scarecrow, by Beck is an irresistible, bluesy little number,
that sounds fresh and new. Not every track’s great; in fact,
most are just average. Take matt pond PA’s rendition of
Oasis’ Champagne Supernova. The cover doesn’t sound
much different than the Oasis version, which begs the question
why The O.C. didn’t just go ahead and get the Gallagher
brothers’ permission to use the original. You’d think
those rich, pretty people could afford the real thing.
Jared Story |
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Various
Artists
Cold Heat: Heavy Funk Rarities 1968-1974 Vol. 1
(Now Again Records)
A
Website: www.stonesthrow.com
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In music there are
those who got there first and then the hundreds who followed,
trying to get a crumb off the table of musical success. James
Brown and his band may have been the most obviously successful
heavy funk-a-teers, but in every two-bit studio across America
in the late ’60s/early ’70s there were many soul
brothers and sisters working steadfastly to get hits built on
the funky foundation that Brown commercialized. Cold Heat delivers
no less than 16 amped-up throw-downs that should come with a
dance-floor-filling guarantee. Suffice it to say that blasting
combos with names like The Soul Seven and The Detroit Sex Machines
live up to the haughty handles with pride. These are the scorching
jams for the ages, released from their dusty tombs to funk the
Earth again! Funk In Excelsis Groovy.
Jeff Monk |
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