Joni Mitchell − Shine
Despite being a walking advertisement for how smoking can ruin a beautiful voice, Joni Mitchell can still write a damn good song. For “Shine,” she has tackled the heavy subjects of genocide and the growing war on the environment, even revamping her classic anti-DDT anthem “Big Yellow Taxi” for a 2007 audience. As in all of Mitchell’s later work, jazz is a major influence (“One Week Last Summer”), but she’s still at her best when she picks up an acoustic guitar and sings from her heart (“This Place”). I can forgive her for destroying her vocal cords, because her music still makes me miss California and still makes me want to save the world.
Grade: B
-Katie Presley
Super Furry Animals – Hey Venus!
Hey Venus!, Super Furry Animals’ eighth album, is their shortest and quite possibly their most straightforward. Unlike the expansive, sometimes challenging, and significantly slowed-down Love Kraft, this album shows its hand quickly and works through a series of brief and relatively successful pop songs, summarizing everything that makes the Welsh band so great.
The first single, “Show Your Hand,” opens with a Beatlesque harpsichord line and expands into a fine piece of psych-pop, complete with strings and fuzzed-out guitars, followed up by “The Gift That Keeps Giving,” which sounds like it would’ve fit on any of the band’s nineties releases. “Suckers” and “Let The Wolves Howl At The Moon” are pretty typical slow Furries songs and the latter does a fine job closing the album.
What makes the album so frustrating, however, is the fact that it doesn’t show any progress or innovation from the band’s previous outings. It doesn’t make a cohesive statement and it lacks the sudden surprises and relentless experimentation of the rest of the band’s back catalog. It’s a good starting point, and consistent throughout, but from a band as creative as Super Furry Animals it’s hard not to want more.
Note: Hey Venus! is currently only available in the U.S. digitally and on vinyl. The CD will be released stateside in early 2008.
Grade: C+
-Andrew Hall
Nina Nastasia and Jim White –– You Follow Me
On her fifth solo album, New York singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia gives full billing to longtime drummer Jim White, a contributor since 2003’s “Run to Ruin.” However, for the first time, White, also a member of Nick Cave’ Bad Seeds and the Dirty Three, among others, feels like a major collaborator, making himself a part of both the songwriting process and the performance of these songs.
Compared to her earlier full band arrangements, “You Follow Me” is nearly skeletal, reduced to guitar, vocals, and White’s drum kit. They are further accented by Steve Albini’s production, which makes the album’s minimal instrumentation strikingly rich. Though Nastasia has two of the three instruments in use, neither she nor White allow each other total control over any track. When White could fall into the background, he unpredictably erupts into flurries of percussion, almost always when Nastasia is at her loudest and her most commanding, like on “In the Evening” or “I Come After You.”
While singer-songwriters playing guitar are often annoyingly dull, this collaboration elevates an already compelling songwriter into new territory, turning songs about conversations into hauntingly spare, full-on musical conversations as well. The results are both difficult and rewarding.
Grade: B
Andrew Hall
Deer Tick − War Elephant
“I like all music… But country.”
You’ve heard it. Meeting that new girl, maybe.
“What kind of music do you like?” you ask.
“All music but country,” she replies, and giggles. Maybe your friends say it. Maybe you say it. All music but country. Pop. Opera. Throat singing. Noise rock. Avant-garde radio warbles. But not country. Well, none of you can say it any more. Deer Tick has dropped 14 tracks of whoop-ass on country-haters everywhere, an incredible hammer of reclamation smashing downward on a genre now known for NASCAR, trucks and cowboy hats. Singer/songwriter John McCauley must have smoked Marlboro a new corporate headquarters to get his voice to the perfect level of grit that gives such life to his songs of betrayed love, stymied love, unrequited love, love, man, love, and plenty of it. Underneath, the music is powered by guitar, drums, and whatever else, a living, kicking muscle.
Grade: B+
-Graham Trail
St. Vincent âˆ'”Marry Me”
St. Vincent is the performing name of 24-year-old multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark, who is now making her solo debut after backing up such acts as The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. On “Marry Me,” Clark surrounds her dexterous guitar work and quaint, angular soprano with keyboards, horn sections, children’s choirs, Moog, and strings to create a quirky and charming blend of singer/songwriter, wartime jazz/blues, and indie pop that is all her own. While her subject matter rarely strays from the standard love and heartbreak, Clark’s jesting wordplay and stately grace give her intricate arrangements a certain polish that keeps them above the mushy.
Grade: B+
-James Truitt
Stars − “In Our Bedroom After the War”
The fourth album from Montreal-based band Stars is extremely satisfying. It is less heartbreaking than anything they’ve done in the past. Problem: I love heartbreaking. However, this album is catchy and I also love to dance when I walk. The instruments, as always, are beautiful. One could easily listen to this album several times without listening to the lyrics and be entertained. After those first listens, however, the lyrics reveal themselves to be poignant and accessible. Another classic Stars move put to use on “In Our Bedroom”: the appearance of dialogue from movies or elsewhere, which adds a shot of pure human-ness into your listening experience. Heartbreaking? Not so much. Delicious? Absolutely.
Grade: A-
-Katie Presley
Telephone Jim Jesus –– “Anywhere Out of the Everything”
Sharing a spot on the loaded Anticon roster, Telephone Jim Jesus (a.k.a. George Chadwick) sounds a lot like some of his contemporaries. This is not a bad thing. He makes dense, experimental hip-hop, brimming with crunchy drums and synthesized atmospherics. On “Anywhere Out of the Everything,” TJJ has succeeded in creating a dark and brooding collection of songs that reflect his displacement from home and lonely travels of the world. On the song “Dice Raw,” he enlists the lyrical bombast of Pedestrian and Why? that makes you wonder what other collaborative magic he’s capable of. At times straightforward and at others, avant-garde, “Anywhere Out of the Everything” manages to stay fresh start to finish.
Grade: B+
-Kyle Gilkeson
Two Gallants – “The Scenery of Farewell”
The Two Gallants newest effort − a 5 song EP/mini-album − represents the quieter, softer side of the group and centers on scenes from a break-up. For some 2Gs fans, the softer side of the band might fall short. On “All Your Faithless Loyalties,” originally released in 2005 on a Hurricane Katrina benefit CD and re-written for this EP, the changes − most noteworthy is the use of a simple verse-chorus structure − don’t work. That being said, the rest of the record is good. The 2Gs’ lyrical prowess, combined with the band’s staple of melodic drums and rolling guitar, never really disappoints. “Seems Like Home To Me” is a perfect example of the best side of the band, only slightly softer. “Linger On,” another good track, proves that the band can play well with a pianist. All in all, 2Gs fans will accept this record, newcomers will have an easy introduction into the band, and everyone will hope their upcoming full-length is more like previous albums than “The Scenery of Farewell.”
Grade: B
-Grant Margeson
Double Negative –– “The Wonderful and Frightening World of Double Negative”
Opting out of both the “life sucks, everybody hates me” negativism of legendary turn-of-the-century ’80s hardcore revivalists Tear It Up, as well as the obtuse weirdness of current old-school kings Fucked Up, Double Negative play breakneck, lo-fi hardcore with a profound sense of excitement and energy. Leads squiggle like old Black Flag, and thrash beats Infest the entire 10-or-so-minute album, but the whole thing feels fun and refreshing instead of oppressive or bummed. Which makes sense, considering a double negative is actually a positive. Whoa!
Grade: B+
-Alex Frank
