Sade's new release is the first hotly anticipated album of the '10s.
It begins with a mournful guitar melody. The notes float over strings and waves of ambient tones. A high-pitched keyboard whistle is delicately brushed into the soundscape. The bass dips and locks into a deep, slowly undulating rhythm. Then, that unmistakable voice peers through, like amber piercing midnight blue. The song is "The Moon and the Sky" and the voice belongs to Sade Adu. A long ten years have prefaced this moment. For Sade's most…]]>Having returned after a five year absence, Fear Factory sounds rejuvenated on their seventh album.
Although they played a crucial role in broadening the sound of metal music in the 1990s and were able to hang around long enough to put together a respectable career, Fear Factory has never been able to top their two most important albums, 1992's Soul of a new Machine and 1995's landmark Demanufacture. Still, the Los Angeles band's straightforward but very effective formula managed to retain a strong fan base with audiences still showing interest…]]>In the sure hands of Kiwi indie-poppers the Brunettes, Paper Dolls turn out to be quite sturdy.
The Brunettes' last album, the Sub Pop release Structures and Cosmetics, was a wonderful set of charming indie pop songs. The slim disc made the most of its short playing time, trying out different feels, from twee-pop sunburst to moody minor-chord pining, and it all seemed to work. Each song felt spaced out, but still contained. Each moment created with perfection in the studio, but still with an organic sway to it. But the Kiwi…]]>Locksley make a joyful noise, but it's one we've heard before.
Locksley probably kick ass live. The drums tumble and crash, keeping things moving at a respectable clip even on the less loud or urgent material. The guitars have some bite to them, tough enough to provide a little grit, but not so grimy as to lose the sweetness of that Beatles-y augmented chord on the turnaround. The vocals are bellowed with passion but stay on pitch, while backup singers "ooh" in all the right places.…]]>Lo-fi has never sounded this ambitious.
Josh McIntyre, the man behind Little Girls, certainly knows how to avoid letting his songs be contained. On Concepts, the debut full-length from Little Girls, McIntyre’s 11 ambitious tracks crawl, leap, and piss all over pre-conceived notions of what one man with a penchant for murky lo-fi madness can do. He utiliizes fuzzy vocals, invasive beats, loopy riffs, and even a sample or two to make a compelling record that has generated a lot of…]]>The antithesis of fabricated pop music. Greg Cartwright channels pain, love, angst, and soul through his passionate, dynamic songs.
The Reigning Sound is the antithesis of fabricated pop music. Channeling pain, love, angst, and soul through Greg Cartwright's passionate, dynamic songs, Love and Curses stands alongside Time Bomb High School as their finest hour to date. Cartwright relocated to Asheville, North Carolina from his longtime base in Memphis, and the band followed. The current version of the quartet is probably its most proficient musical alignment. Drummer Lance Wille and new bassist David Wayne Gay…]]>Longwave frontman Steve Schiltz took some time off from his main band to form a solo project called Hurricane Bells, and next thing you know, he wound up on the New Moon soundtrack.
Steve Schiltz considers himself kind of lucky. In fact, he considers himself very lucky. For years, Schiltz has been the frontman for the long-standing New York-based rock group Longwave, whose pop-oriented guitar attack has always generated some incredible music, but not necessarily the sales that RCA Records was hoping for in the beginning. After taking a break by serving as ax man for Albert Hammond, Jr.’s touring ensemble and then returning in fine form with…]]>Just like it took years to realize what an incredible year 1999 was to cinema, expect the "What was the best album of the last decade?" debate to go on for years.
More than ten years ago, I was reading reviews of the just-released Flaming Lips album The Soft Bulletin. As Napster and music downloads were still pretty much in their infancy in 1999, and our one college radio station maybe played one song from The Soft Bulletin every third day or so, I trusted critics and shelled out the $15. All it took was one listen to floor me. But I kept thinking about the few…]]>Deemed music that is “not real”, electronic sounds have come to occupy and permeate spaces focused on alterity, from the fringes of academia to the disposal heap of exotica.
It should be clear to even the most casual observer of postmodern society that, as William Shakespeare, Philip Dick, and Jacques Derrida uttered, time is out of joint. The 21st century seems thus far to be a regurgitation of the 20th, its bad and worse behaviors remediated by recycling, curing war with more war and yielding irascible greed with unfettered free markets. The past continues to haunt us, showing up at every moment we seem…]]>Opening their hearts and streamlining their sound at the same time, Hot Chip make their most unabashed and colourful record, and maybe their best.
As good as One Life Stand is, it trashes a beautiful theory I had. You see, for their first three albums, Hot Chip’s recorded output bore an uncanny correspondence to New Order’s. Coming on Strong and Movement would both prove to be slightly underwhelming, somewhat misleading preludes to far more colourful and satisfying careers, while The Warning and Power, Corruption & Lies became the closest thing each band has to a consensus classic album by…]]>The Go Find somehow sounds familiar -- one more Europop band mining a bedroom indie pop sensibility -- and yet wholly distinct in a simultaneous space.
It can be said that every artist wields the influences of those who came before him or her. In the case of the Go Find -- essentially the one-man band of Belgium’s Dieter Sermeus -- its influences are worn quite proudly. The Go Find’s third album, the rather unwieldy-sounding Everybody Knows It’s Gonna Happen Only Not Tonight, is what you’d get if the Swedish alternative pop group Peter, Bjorn and John were playing at one…]]>The sludge greats' notorious debut album finally gets a proper release after nearly 17 years.
Music fans love those rare recordings by their favorite artist, whether it's an album that's been long out of print (Neil Young's Time Fades Away), never seen the light of day (Prince and the Revolution's Dream Factory), or a supposed recording that's achieved mythical status in the eyes of some collectors (Bruce Springsteen's Electric Nebraska). Whether it's the obsessive idea of being a "completist" or an interest in trying to further understand the musician's art,…]]>The dyschronia one experiences listening to Oneohtrix Point Never is similar, but not completely reverent, to the hypnagogic/glo-fi/chillwave axis in that it is music that is strangely familiar and familiarly strange.
Daniel Lopatin, who makes music in Oneohtrix Point Never and Infinity Window, has been unofficially nominated as a representative of the glo-fi/chillwave/hypnagogic axis that currently has the internet buzzing. In some ways, the music on Rifts feels, appropriately enough, both out of and in synch with these loosely defined tags. The analogue synth-heavy tracks are metric and measured, and hence are rarely loose enough catch any “waves”, let alone any chills (though the icy cool…]]>The mastermind behind Alicia Keys' "Teenage Love Affair" and John Legend's "P.D.A." steps out form behind the curtain of songwriting and his Plant Life alias to prepare audiences for his upcoming album.
Jack Splash was around for most of the past decade, but as mixtape-opener "Charlie Wilson" explains, much of Splash's career can be credited to the two years immediately following his work on Alicia Keys' As I Am. While Splash had been developing his own career for some time already under the Plant Life moniker, it was "Teenage Love Affair" that boosted Splash into the industry spotlight. Within months his name was popping up in the…]]>This, his 57th studio album, is meat-and-potatoes Mayall -- a solid record, albeit a non-adventurous one, from a spirited veteran bluesman who still has things to say and songs to sing.
In late 2008, there was a three-month gap where it looked as if John Mayall, "the Godfather of British Blues", would be calling it a day and hanging up the mantle of bandleader for good. After a gruelling tour in the previous year promoting his 56th studio album, In the Palace of the King, a tribute to blues legend Freddie King, the 76-year-old grandfather of six decided to disband his long-running outfit the Bluesbreakers --…]]>Casual listeners might prefer the more pristine-version of the band, via last year's full-length, Power Move, but Singles is a tasty morsel of a feisty young talent.
It's hard to say what qualifies as singles these days. Nevertheless, Singles is the title of the latest from Screaming Females. What comprises this release is more a collection of the band's 7-inches -- the old-school implications may scare away the youngsters who don't own record players -- and the album shows the band in its rarest form. Screaming Females hails from Brunswick, New Jersey and is equal parts Joan Jett, Angry Samoans, and Guided…]]>Whispery sopranos have options, but exercising all of them on your debut may not be the best approach.
Whispery sopranos have options. They can stand at the front of a downtempo hip-hop collective, whispering and cooing their way alongside Portishead (or, at least, what Portishead used to be). They can be disco divas. They can be ironic indie rock frontwomen. They can morph into whatever personality the music behind them requests because their voice augments the music surrounding it, rather than demanding the center of attention. As such, it's almost shocking that an…]]>Introspective indie folk that's as visceral as it is cerebral.
For only having played together for a little over a year, Matt Gigg & the Intellectuals sure know a thing or two about making concise indie folk. Planted, the band's debut, is a romantic and tethering listen full of charm and a relaxed sort of grace. Gigg himself is a witty and literate lyricist, reminiscent of a young Will Sheff. The 10 tracks on Planted employ a communal-like sound, one that would fit just as…]]>Words and Pictures by Dave MacIntyre
Illinois rockers Cheap Trick stormed the stage at Toronto’s Sound Academy Thursday night, putting to rest any doubts that there’s life after 50. The Rockford quartet—consisting of front man Robin Zander (lead vocals and guitar), Rick Nielsen (lead guitar and backing vocals), Tom Petersson (12 string bass and backing vocals) and Bun E. Carlos (drums)—put on a show packed with more zeal than most artists half their age can summon. Visually the band is stunning,…]]>At 77, Willie's hair is now down to his tailbone, and you can see his trademark red locks fade to gray about midway up his back -- it's like examining the rings of a tree.
At last year's Farm Aid concert in St. Louis, Willie Nelson made a guest appearance during Dave Matthews' set to sing a duet on Matthews' “Gravedigger”, after which Matthews remarked, “Whenever we get behind the things he believes in, the better off we'll all be”. Certainly, when you consider Willie's remarkable run of longevity in terms of artistic relevance and physical stamina, it's a hard sentiment to knock. What Willie believes in are singing, playing…]]>PopMatters sits down with Yoko Ono to discuss her most recent artistic output along with the big ideas of life, death, and the Beatles.
Yoko Ono began 2010 by participating in "Art Adds," a project that exhibits her artwork on New York City taxicabs. Replacing advertisements that traditionally decorate the rooftops of taxis, Ono's peace-promoting works (along with pieces by Alex Katz and Shirin Neshat) move throughout the city as a kind of public art. In Carol Vogel's New York Times article about the project, Ono likens the experience to a dance, saying, "The message is always in motion."…]]>The Bristol downtempo legends return. Still attacking. Only now, less massive.
No one would have predicted it back in 1991. In June of that year, when Massive Attack released their debut album, Blue Lines, they represented the vanguard of modern dance-based music and British pop in general. A trio of singles had established a totally fresh sound that incorporated American soul and hip-hop, dub reggae, and Burt Bacharach-style orchestration. Blue Lines set the template for every modern dance music collective, employing a succession of guest vocalists…]]>Vancouver dance-punk troupe parties like its 2002.
I’ll let you in a on a little secret: the title of You Say Party! We Say Die!’s new album is actually Love. In fact, the album’s track list (i.e. "Make XXXX") reads like a game of Mad Libs where the only acceptable word is “love”. As far as creative conceits go, it’s hardly inspired, but I’ll give them points for being cute. “Uninspired, but cute” is actually an accurate appraisal of YSP! WSD! as…]]>One of the Middle East's best metal bands returns with their first album in six years.
Of all the metal music to come from countries other than strong metal exporters like North America, Europe, Japan, and Brazil, Israel's Orphaned Land has been one of the more fascinating acts in recent years. Like Mesopotamian metalers Melechesh, Orphaned Land look to their own heritage and culture for inspiration instead of recycling the same old metal clichés. Unlike their countrymen, they take things several steps further, combining indigenous music and instrumentation with a strong…]]>For better or for worse, Susan Boyle is you and me.
It's not so bad, really. Her voice is fairly pretty. The songs are mostly classics. The arrangements don’t drown everything in Splenda. It's not much -- it's a trifle. It is eminently listenable. None of that can explain the following: Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream was the best-selling album of 2009, and the best-selling debut for a female artist. Ever. That is, in and of itself, far more interesting than any of the actual…]]>Gloomy and forceful, Songs of Synastry and Solitude is as much about the space between the notes as it is the notes themselves, and as much about Pavone’s own story as it is yours.
Jessica Pavone has long been a key player in the realm of classical music, though the talented New Yorker has largely done so as an accompanying member of someone else’s ensemble. Slowly and with mounting confidence she paid her proverbial dues and embarked upon her solo career with 27 Epigrams, a lilting and busy collection of violin and viola compositions that cemented her place in the small niche of avant-garde classical. Now Pavone, with the…]]>Subtlety has nothing to do with sobriety and these songs are positively liquid in their clarion call for having fun as the only logical response to a lousy economic situation.
Americana roots music singer Maria Muldaur has gone back to her personal roots on her latest album, her 35th one in the 35 years since her eponymously titled breakthrough solo disc. She has, then, gone way back, back to 1963 when Muldaur recorded with compatriots like John Sebastian and David Grisman as part of the Even Dozen Jug Band and Jim Kweskin‘s Jug band. Muldaur’s new release is a jug band record, and even features…]]>Sub:Stance is a deftly organized, brain-melting mix -- expect nothing less from Scuba.
In July, 2008, Paul "Scuba" Rose and Spymania Records' Paul Fowler organized their own night at Berlin's Berghain, a massive, acclaimed club situated downstairs from Panoramabar. Rose's live set that evening accompanied efforts from prominent dubstep and UK bass music purveyors Mala, Shackleton, Distance, and others. The since-revered Sub:Stance was born, and if the 68-minute mix is any indication of the powerful-and-eclectic experience the night offers, Berghain regulars are among the most fortunate in the…]]>Country music goes Hawaiian in this mash up of musical styles where something mysterious is always happening.
Courtney Jaye does something sweet and wonderful on her country-music-goes-Hawaiian mash-up. She finds the common sensibility at the heart of both genres, not just in the instrumentation (lap steel guitars) and lilting melodies but in the genuine loopiness that comes out of just being sincere. Jaye’s narrators aren’t afraid to get down an beg for love (“Sometimes Always”), drown their sorrows in cheap alcohol (“Box Wine”), or kick themselves for being stupid (“Queen of Sabotage”).…]]>On his debut solo effort, Of Montreal multi-instrumentalist James Husband demonstrates his real knack for penning melodies, not albums.
For the past decade, musical jack-of-all-trades James Huggins has split time playing and recording with various Elephant 6-related bands like Great Lakes, Essex Green, Marshmallow Coast, and most prominently, indie psych-pop darlings Of Montreal. Despite spreading his considerable talents fairly thin, Huggins, who records under the alias James Husband, still found time to write and record enough solo material between 2003 and 2007 from which to compile his debut release, A Parallax I. Forgoing the…]]>Words and Pictures by Dave MacIntyre
Blue Rodeo has always been one of those bands I find difficult to lump into any one genre. They are definitely country. Certainly rock and roll. And you could rightfully argue they are a blues band too. No matter what you choose to categorize them as, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor are still going strong and doing their best work on stage. Even in a venue the size of Massey Hall, and surrounded in a…]]>OK Go talks about breaking instruments in the studio, rocking out with musical idols, and the surreal sensation of playing glow-in-the-dark guitars rigged with lasers.
Let's move past the choreographed dance routines, shall we? That seems to be the mission statement expressed by the sludgy guitar fuzz that kicks off OK Go's third album Of the Blue Color of the Sky. The title of that tensely kinetic opening track -- "WTF?" -- serves as a pretty apt approximation of what fans of the band's punchy power-pop might be saying to themselves after hearing Sky's strange brew of slow-burning strummers and…]]>It is nothing short of astounding that Pallett’s music never comes off as precious, humorless or impenetrable, despite trappings that would seem to guarantee all of the above.
“This place is a narrative mess”, Owen Pallett warns us early on in the proceedings of Heartland, his seemingly forever-in-the-works third full-length album. Call it a pre-emptive strike against listeners hoping to map an easy path through the murky thicket of the album’s ostensible plot, billed as a heated one-sided dialogue between Lewis, an “ultra-violent young farmer” in the mythical land of Spectrum and the story’s godlike creator, named, likely without coincidence, Owen. Yes, Heartland…]]>How to Make Friends seems neither to have the galvanic spirit of great dance music nor the lyrical substance to make it a qualifying pop record.
Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name Of” was exhumed in 2009 in more ways than one. There was the headlining attempt, devised through social networking, to have the song deny Simon Cowell’s X Factor winner the UK Christmas No. 1 spot. There was also that little known electro band that recast the riff-heavy protest song into the languid synth-funky “Lotus”. This latter happening goes part of the way to summing up FM Belfast.…]]>The tension between Longstreth's difficulty with the art of self-editing and the expert realization by his bandmates arises again on this EP.
There is nothing halfhearted about Dirty Projectors bandmaster Dave Longstreth. His music is at times willfully difficult, yet his ear for intricate compositions and pop melodies seems to know no bounds. As a result, he is both a critical favorite (in the New York Times, among others) and a lightning rod for those suspicious of anyone who draws such acclaim (see the response to that Times piece in Something Awful's inventively rancorous "Garbage Day" review.)…]]>The Hawks keep the spirit of cosmic country alive.
Shoulda Been Gold, the title of the first "greatest hits" collection from I See Hawks in L.A. -- and yes, they fully appreciate the irony of releasing a greatest hits disc with no hits -- speaks straight to the heart of every fan of an obscure band. In a perfect world, we tell ourselves, everyone would appreciate the genius that we find so obvious. Reading the liner notes to Shoulda Been Gold, there's also the…]]>From the on-hiatus String Cheese Incident and Leftover Salmon, two jam-grass all-stars get together to make strong new newgrass.
Few musical styles are quite as polarizing as that of jam bands. The haters deplore the never-ending and meandering solos, the emphasis on instrumental improvisation over singing and melody, and the conspicuous uniformity of the fans, with their emphasis on drugs and identical dancing. The lovers argue for the unmistakable musical prowess of the players, the exciting unpredictability of the never-the-same-set-twice aesthetic, and the unmatched fun-loving and free-spirited vibe that connects the band and the…]]>The overall tone of Billy Talent III is, at best, one of stagnation and, at worst, one of regression.
Two albums into their career, energetic Canadian modern rock purveyors Billy Talent already find themselves with little to prove in their home country. The group is unerringly popular, with two multiplatinum records, many successful rock radio singles, and multiple Juno Awards. Like so many popular Canuck acts, this success has not translated into the US market, and perhaps it's not worth expending too much effort considering the reasons for this. The band's style -- melodic…]]>On this record, Can performs slow psychedelic music for a movie about a sex guide. The results are typical but not unimpressive.
Don’t be fooled by the billing. This is a previously unreleased Can album preceding the 1969 debut record, Monster Movie. It was recorded in 1968 as the soundtrack to the German film Kamasutra – Vollendung Der Liebe (that is, “The Consummation of Love”). Unmistakably Can, it’s nonetheless a much more psychedelic sounding record than the frenetic kraut rock for which the band is now more commonly known. The tempos are slower, too, presumably because a…]]>Zodiac Lady is a fun frolic through the mirrored walls of Euro disco that could charm even the bulls, lions, and scorpions among us.
Roberta Kelly's Zodiac Lady is something of a buried treasure, if you like your treasures dripping with Cuban-cum-disco rhythms and album-length metaphors about astrology and romance. Translation: Its appeal is limited to those who prefer their disco served with a wink. Oh, but what a time Roberta Kelly has in store if you indulge her world of candy-swirl strings and razzle-dazzle horns! Originally released on Casablanca in 1977, Zodiac Lady is a fun frolic through…]]>Navigare is a dark shape-shifter, but it doesn't forget to let the light shimmer in once in a while, luring you in instead of losing you in the darkness.
When you used to drum for the best shoegaze band around -- that'd be Slowdive, by the way -- you don't really have anything to prove. Simon Scott proves plenty on his debut, Navigare, anyway. The man has a way with creating atmosphere that emotes. Embers of coiling sound drift through "Introduction to Cambridge" and "Derelict Days" and build up into impressive waves of gauzy melody. You'd call these moments ambient if they weren't so…]]>