Music Reviews: July 2008

¡Forward, Russia! should be commended for asking questions of themselves when they could have sat pretty and cemented their position as dance-punk heroes.

Exploring the many shades of blue, Ndidi Onukwulu's Contradictor sparkles with wicked humor, intelligence, and an uncompromising emotional depth.

Not only is Arizona Motel an album full of beauty and a postscript worthy of the man who helped create it, it is one of the best country albums of the year.

Don't let that title fool you. Ben Watt knows exactly what he's doing with his très cool deep house label, as evidenced by this three-disc set.

Mayer’s career-spanning evening leaves us all to wonder what’s next.

A shamelessly, nay proudly, derivative band that worships at the altar of 60's rock and psychedelia.

PAS/CAL, an unlikely experimental pop group from Detroit, has made a pretty astounding debut album

Avant-industrialists Einstürzende Neubauten reprogram with an album of experimental miniatures.

Veteran SoCal punks supplement their last release with acoustic EP, concert DVD, and some nifty posters.

Reckless Kelly might not yet be reckless enough to knock down the walls of their country-rock roadhouse, but their raw devotion to the ruffian lifestyle makes for music that’s satisfyingly rough around the edges.

Listening to the Rough Guide to Arabic Café, I realised that this is not the same as the music you would expect to hear if you were sitting in a Western coffee shop.

The industry boned another one when it forced Bubble Puppy to become Demian to become a footnote in classic Texas hard rock.

Inevitably, Electroma will eternally be defined in music and film history by what it lacks. Calling the film one-dimensional would be understandable, but it would be simplifying a complex moebius strip whose surface, if lethargic, at least engages the screen for 70 minutes.

This is outside music, music to be set on a porch and blasted into the expanse of land around it, music that cannot be contained.

Folk singer Karen Dalton had a voice closer to Charley Patton than Sandy Denny, a unique voice that most people probably either love or hate.

High drama, stoked by tension and channeled through unpredictable shifts in course, is ultimately what makes this music most compelling.

A career retrospective anthology and 1982 live concert convince us that "diva" can most definitely be one of the good four-letter words.

Another band out of Austin, this one more country than most, The Band of Heathens offer a solid studio debut.

The Modfather's ninth solo album just happens to be the most rewardingly eclectic of his storied career.

Liz Phair's smart, daring, vulnerable, sexy, iconic debut album of DIY indie rock and next-gen feminism is remastered and appended with a few mediocre bonus tracks and a mixed-bag DVD documentary.

An outstanding and surprising dose of Finnish art disco.

Classic Canadian songbird re-releases her solid second album with long out of print bonus tracks.

A battery-powered fortress of disorienting electro-punk, Crystal Castles serves as the perfect introduction to the twisted world of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass.

Smart arrangements and Hutchinson's bold charm combine to make Sounds Like This the summer's most guilt-free guilty pleasure.

Old post-punk pros effortlessly whip up the most accessible record of their career, and one of the best.

Two new reissues portray Arthur Lee's complicated life after "Forever".

Travis’s presence, here and usually, is that of the steady hand.

The head of German dance label Gomma returns with his own project, Munk -- and provides more tongue-in-cheek electrofunk with a surprising sophistication

Gregor Samsa's sophomore album is intentionally short of dramatic pomposity in favour of dark, heart-melting immersion.

Cryptogramophone's triumphant 2-CD retrospective is highly listenable, accessible, and immensely engaging. What is the opposite of under the radar? Cryptogramophone is headed there.

For all its musical experiments, the album has the simple appeal of a potboiler novel: it picks up a flag of roaring melodrama and flourishes it rampantly, in triumph.

The question this album provokes isn't, “Why Starbucks?” It's, “Why do I care what Catherine Keener’s favorite Sonic Youth song is?”

Mogwai's seminal, near-perfect debut no longer sounds like it has been wrapped in cotton batting.

America's favorite nostalgia rock act is back with more '60s pop revivalism.

Rarities collection from the K records stalwart is rewarding for established fans and new listeners alike.

It would have been disturbing if Radio Myanmar had taken the same route as Radio Thailand, and made the SPDC junta's propaganda instruments sound deliberately exotic and surprising and fun.

God-des stumbles through each and every song, grasping for the wit and power of her shock-rap contemporaries without ever finding an iota of intrigue.

Namedropping Nick Lowe, Sir Francis Drake, and a Jacuzzi-hopping version of Barbara Boxer, Donal Hinely mixes the political, and the pathological, with a heavy dose of wit on this must-listen Americana album.

Mellencamp no doubt feels the menacing stare of death off in the distance, and it has caused him to reassess not only his life, but also his art.

These three Japanese women rumble with the best of them.

Practically unknown in America, the Canadian punk legends cover their own songs with the help of a couple of friends.

A distinctive and generous collection of tunes blending jazz and indie-rock yet doing so without preciousness or pretention.

Every A&R's worst nightmare is a sustainable media movement's dream come true.

It was a great party, you should have stayed 'til the end.

If there's a nagging conviction behind Stay Positive, it's a constant refusal to be pinned down on E Street, revealing a toxic indulgence to revel in the spit and swagger of the punk side of town.

Wagonwheel Blues daubs electronic and acoustic watercolor sketches of Americana from the Midwest prairie through the lonesome crowded west on to the beaches and rocky shores.

The third album from RZA's alter-ego is the best of the trilogy and sufficient enough to briefly prolong the perpetual anticipation of his supposed masterpiece, The Cure.

The core theme of Crayons is variety. It brazenly flaunts a collage of sounds, while showcasing the multiplicity of Donna Summer's musical selves.

Let's All Go to Bed is The Mother Truckers' third album, and it plays to the band's strengths: Teal Collins' big, brassy vocals and Josh Zee's red-hot guitar playing.

San Diego trad-rockers take the path of least resistance.

Nas's ninth studio LP lost its title. Its content, however, deserves far more dialogue than the controversy generated by what he wanted to call it.

A slight variation on the established praxis of a well-respected elder statesman of dark disco. Retro-futurism nostalgic for an era this artist was once miles ahead of.

Although burning with rage at the devastating course her native United States has taken these past years, Gilkyson refuses to let it push her to dejection.

The now defunct duo's debut has its flaws, but it's still a fine effort worthy of a listen.

These albums reveal Olson’s hard-working efforts to turn a live show into a working class carnival of sound.

A jazz collective mates avant-chamber jazz to power and rhythmic complexity -- but listen with care.

This pair of albums should perhaps be viewed as the Stray Cats' final hurrah.

The director of Earth Girls Are Easy finally sees his masterful cinematic character study on the late "punk rock warlord" Joe Strummer released on DVD, with minimal extras.

You don't have to dig your moth-eaten flannel out of the closet to enjoy this reissue. You just have to love great music.

Cross-cultural fusion albums are sometimes criticised for their falseness, but there’s no sense of falseness here, no condescension, simply a set of songs that couldn’t be made in any other way.

The Incredible Vickers Brothers is as Vaudevillian an act as their name would suggest, and with Gallimaufry, the “brothers” act as ringleaders of their own three-ring musical circus.

Cocker is not the “Sheffield Shouter” or the smooth singer of yesteryear. He’s somewhere in the middle.

Y-Love is an artist that has a career solely because of George W. Bush and Matisyahu.

Willie makes a jazz gig, singing blues and standards with his inimitable ease and generosity.

A haunting tribute to the late Robert Mapplethorpe, The Coral Sea is a monumental accomplishment in the career of one of America's truly outstanding artists.

Hits all the right spots covering Idol's 20-plus-year career.

Living is Hard is a compilation that deserved to be made, not only because the music is beautiful and worth hearing, but because it offers us a glance into the idea of continuity, of the flow of time.

Ethereal, heady acoustic psychedelia from talented sisters, kept short and sweet to leave you wanting more.

Melbourne's Skybombers take a ride on the time-honored rock 'n' roll hit mobile ... a fun enough trip through familiar scenery.

Sometimes the innate rhetoric of a photo conveys more meaning than any arrangement of scorching electric guitars and timid beats.

Joe Knapp hasn’t been napping the past three years. He’s been dreaming up this sonic masterpiece.

Donald Fagen’s other half returns as a solo act with a breezy new album, laced with the kind of reggae grooves you’d expect more from Sly and Robbie than Steely Dan.

If minimalism is taking back the beat from techno and drawing it out into one long intoxicating rhythm, Sool's purpose is to free the composition from the beat altogether.

Florida rapper, 2 Pistols, releases a debut album barely worth the words in this blurb.

A second EP from the orchestral-rockers, released just three months before their debut full-length in August. Superfluous? Not even close.

It's another indie-pop band with an affection for catchy guitar riffs and synthesizers, but Bridges and Powerlines also bring good songwriting to the table.

The Strokes' rhythm guitarist shoots further into the alt-rock mainstream on his sophomore album.

Whether writing or re-interpreting, Harris ingeniously utilizes the affability of each song’s structure with grace and respect, employing her crystalline voice to buff its rough components into a jewel.

Boasting pristine sound quality, and demonstrating the oft-inebriated Clark at his lucid, clear-headed best, this is plainly an essential document.

Custom Made blends West & East Coast vibes for one of this year’s most promising hip-hop releases yet.

Black Stars is an adeptly compiled hiplife snapshot, giving us a sampling of recent arrivals like Tic Tac, as well as godfather figures such as Reggie Rockstone.

These Dubliners bring psychedelia and prog rock to traditional Irish leanings.

It'd be hard to put together a better introduction to the former Jason and the Scorcher's leader's solo career.

The much-anticipated collaboration with Danger Mouse doesn’t live up to the past accolades of either artist.

Though their debut's title is an apt self-summary, Errors' own name is quite the opposite; the band rarely put a foot wrong.

Robert Crumb’s raggle taggle inheritors prove that the accordion -- and the saw, and the xylophone, and the theremin... -- is their oyster.

Perennially undervalued, hard rocking duo return with a break-up album that might be a bit too on target to be comfortable.

OMD's classic lineup reunites for a rearranged live take on their 1981 masterpiece. The reinterpretation succeeds, while the ensuing hit parade merely suffices.

Just try to sit still while listening to Lipp's intoxicating production on this blend of early hip-hop and techno.

The Mediterranean three-piece exudes a too-cool-for-school vibe on their latest full-length that may ultimately be too cool for its own good.

Make no mistake, Parallel Lines is a classic album, but Capitol has sunk to new lows on this seriously flawed Deluxe Collector's Edition.

Say what you will about the enigmatic career of one Michael Eugene Archer, but nearly a decade after his "disappearance" from the music world, his art still provides a paradigm for post-modern soul of first-rate quality.

Somewhere in the world of Platonic Ideals, there's a fantastic Cash Money retrospective -- this just isn't it.

Jennings’ Boneclouds was a disappointing major label debut. But his latest finds him at ease, a quick brush up to redeem his old feel before blowing us away with something great

If you can't find the mother of all street parties in the land of carnival, where can you find it? Veteran DJ John Armstrong tailors the guest list.

After their riff-driven, catchy, and enjoyable major label debut, We Are Scientists are back with a solid, but safe, album that is a small step backwards.

Generally well-balanced, eminently exploratory, and surprisingly funky, Crown Trunk Root Funk is a successful product from a musician just as adept in the studio as he is on a New York club stage or at any other venue.

Like Joe Strummer, Taha's gift is how he radiates -- that charisma, that persuasion, that force.

King Khan and the Shrines are back with a blast from the past. This compilation of earlier funk-soul cuts mixed with a scattering of new songs proves that even Khan is aware of how under appreciated he is.

Back after assorted lifestyle problems, the Garza brothers crank a slick slab of '70s hard blues rock and southern boogie. Great news if you're looking for a lifeless imitation of Hendrix, Vaughan and Santana.

Say it ain't so? An essential compilation that's actually essential!

The songs on Group Doueh were recorded by the group itself, “at home", say the liner notes, “on modest cassette recording equipment". But you don’t need to read the packaging to know that.

This Texas trio dons faux-English accents for a fun hip-hop album sure to please old school and underground fans.

San Francisco rockers create music fit for a lost world.

Young heartache never sounded as beautiful as it does through the sounds of England's latest R&B export's gorgeous debut LP.

Katy Perry overstates her own rebellion, undermines her strongest selling points.

Fans of Odd Nosdam will absolutely eat this collection up. And so will newcomers.

The new Greatest Hits album from the legendary Memphis duo draws completely from their peak period and sounds like the classic album that has eluded them their whole career rather than a "best of" collection.

This Australian electro-rock trio gets a proper release of their debut in America.

Pleasant pop/rock that isn't particularly memorable, Everest is like Spoon without Britt Daniel, or maybe Wilco without Jeff Tweedy.

Disparate gems in a dazzling hardback full of sublime visual paraphernalia: makes most 21st century music seem shapeless and masturbatory, and its packaging crass.