Frank Sinatra

Christmas with Sinatra and Friends

(Concord; US: 6 Oct 2009; UK: 6 Oct 2009)

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It seems odd in 2009, more than ten years after Frank Sinatra’s death, to be finding new Christmas compilations featuring old recordings, somehow rearranged to represent a take on a Sinatra Christmas different than the ones that have come before it. Stranger still is that the recordings from the “friends” who appear on the album don’t have any obvious connection to Sinatra other than that they are of Christmas songs in a similar style to the ones Sinatra himself recorded. And yet Christmas with Sinatra and Friends works for many of the same reasons that the previously released Christmas with the Rat Pack works. Most importantly, Sinatra sounds his best when he’s around other people.

Sinatra’s immediately identifiable baritone, for all of its signature character and charm, is not what one would call a versatile instrument—at least, not in this context. His songs are sung with a sort of reverential majesty, a technique that works brilliantly on something like “The Little Drummer Boy”, but less so with the context of frivolity, as on “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. Having other artists show up every two or three tracks breaks up what could turn to monotony, and despite the incongruity of some of the guest recordings being from the ‘90s while Sinatra’s are largely from the ‘50s and ‘60s, hearing Mel Tormé sing his own “The Christmas Song” and Rosemary Clooney on “White Christmas” breaks up the proceedings nicely. It’s not by any means a defining collection of works, but as a simple collection of songs for Christmas, one could certainly find worse than Christmas with Sinatra and Friends.

—Mike Schiller

Quintus McCormick Blues Band

Hey Jodie!

(Delmark; US: 22 Sep 2009; UK: 23 Sep 2009)

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Watch out for Jodie: Jean Knight came to his defense in ‘71. Millie Jackson got Caught Up with him and went to war with his wife in ‘73, while both Johnnie Taylor and Bobby Patterson warned of his smooth-talking, back-door-working ways on “Jody Got Your Girl” and “Right On Jody” respectively. Now Chicago resident Quintus McCormick calls out the shape-shifting everyman Casanova on the suave soul ballad “Hey Jodie! (Take Good Care of My Baby)”, the title track and opening number of the bluesman’s debut studio album. 

A popular draw on the Windy City’s blues circuit since forming his band in 1994, the singer/guitarist has put together a solid album of 14 original songs and one cover, a scintillating electric blues ‘n’ boogie reading of Shirley and Lee’s “Let the Good Times Roll” with Roosevelt “Mad Hatter” Purify on piano. It will leave you wondering how this could possibly be McCormick’s first label release. Highlights include the low-down blues of “What Goes Around Comes Around”, the toe-tappin’ southern-edge-of soul-blues of “Fifty/Fifty”, and “You Got to Do Me Better Than That”, both punctuated with tight bursts of brass supplied by the Chicago Horns, and the rollin’ ‘n’ tumblin’ blues of “I’m A Good Man, Baby”. Really, he is.

—Alan Brown

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground

(Suburban Home; US: 23 Jun 2009; UK: 19 Oct 2009)

There’s something to be said about a band who has the gall to release its debut album exclusively on vinyl. Then again, when you are a group whose sound is as rooted in imagery as much as it is in sound, it would seem to be the only logical choice. Such is the case for Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, whose eponymous, inaugural full-length is available only on wax in the States. The album boasts a sonic prowess that seems tailor-made for the LP format, right down to the super surrealist cover art one can study for hours.

“We are the children of the pre-digital era,” the band proclaims on its Web site. “Before your favorite dot com was just decimal points and numbers.” Based on the psychedelic pop swirl of these 13 exceptional tracks, which owe as much to the Decemberists as they do late-period Beatles, this is one release that needs to be picked up and held as opposed to merely downloaded. If ever there was a male response to Aimee Mann’s Bachelor No. 2, this would be it.

—Ron Hart

Gene Watson

A Taste of the Truth

(Shanachie; US: 25 Aug 2009; UK: 21 Sep 2009)

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Gene Watson has a mellow, old-fashioned country voice that smoothly glides over the lyrics of love and loneliness in classic fashion. At 65 years old, Watson’s no longer a hit maker in these days where youth matters more than talent in mainstream county, but he’s just as good a singer as he was when he had top-10 records like “Fourteen Carat Mind”, “Nothing Sure Looked Good On You”, and “You’re Out Doing What I’m Here Doing Without” in the early ‘80s. His Texas drawl still knows how to linger on the points of the song where the yearning heart meets the regretful mind. Watson delivers the 11 songs on his latest disc, A Taste of the Truth, with the same command he’s always had. He especially knows how to put across a ballad, and his rendition of the heartrending “’Til a Better Memory Comes Along” rivals that of previous versions by Mark Chestnutt and Shelby Lynne in its quiet intensity. While this may be the album’s highlight, the other tracks are uniformly first rate, and he’s backed up by a top-notch band led by keyboardist Dirk Johnson and includes Aubrey Haynie on fiddle, Sonny Garish on steel guitar, as well as special guests like Alison Krauss and Rhonda Vincent.

—Steve Horowitz

Quantec

Cauldron Subsidence

(Echocord; US: 10 Nov 2009; UK: 10 Nov 2009)

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The press for Quantec’s latest release points to the influences of the Berlin and Detroit electronic scenes throughout Cauldron Subsidence, and it’s true, for both certainly make their presence known. Berlin is represented via the ultra-minimal, kick-driven beats, while Detroit is evident in the style of the synth work on display. Mixed with the dub ambience Quantec had made himself known for on past releases, the two locative influences make for an appealing sound; one that distinguishes itself from any other minimal electronic releases in recent memory. However, there’s a problem: Despite the appealing hybrid sound, it’s very difficult to discern any real motivation or drive behind these ten tracks. They’re terribly mechanical and never bother to develop beyond the sound they establish in the first 30 seconds.

Almost every track is, apparently arbitrarily, between six and seven minutes long (with one eight-minute outlier), and a majority of the tracks end by simply doing a quick fadeout on the beat that had been going for the six or so minutes before the conclusion. Some vocal samples float around to change up the sound a bit. The album’s strongest track, “Pandemonium”, makes expert use of these samples, actually, but mostly, it’s just like listening to someone talk over the beat Quantec plays to an established crowd here. Many dub techno fans have already expressed appreciation for this latest work, and it is, at the very least, a well-produced and polished one. If he ever wants to step beyond that already-established audience, however, he’s going to have to allow for a little bit more adventure in his sound than the simple Berlin-by-way-of-Detroit augmentation he achieves here.

—Mike Schiller

Bruce Gilbert

Oblivio Agitatum

(Editions Mego; US: 13 Oct 2009; UK: 5 Oct 2009)

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To answer a rarely asked question: No, being a former member of underground avant-pop legends Wire is not a valid excuse for turning out mind-numbing “avant-garde” drones like Oblivio Agitatum. Gilbert is no stranger to such “challenging” endeavors, though this is his first truly new solo work in a decade. Over three tracks and 40 minutes, you get nondescript electronic droning that a three-legged dog could make with an old synthesizer and an hour of spare time. Yes, there are slight modulations, and no, they don’t make Oblivio Agitatum any more listenable. “Is this music?” Teenage Fanclub once asked playfully. Of course not, but a better question here would be, “Is this a joke?”

—John Bergstrom

Two Hours Traffic

Territory

(Bumstead; US: 9 Aug 2009; UK: 9 Aug 2009)

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When listening to Territory, the third full-length from Two Hours Traffic, you can’t help but think that if you cut the young members of the Charlottetown quartet, they’d bleed the salt water of Canada’s east coast. It’s not just the band’s chunky power-pop medleys, a remarkably regional sound that reveals these guys as good-old eastern boys. On Territory, it’s the themes of the record that allow Two Hours Traffic to show its true colors. Lyrically dense, Territory proves an admirable evolution for the band with a collective age that hovers around 100. Mature rockers, such as “Weightless One”, showcase the band tackling heavier themes than on previous releases, and it’s Two Hours Traffic’s ability to grow accustomed to the struggles young bands face that really aides Territory and gives credence to the band as artists.

—Joshua Kloke

Skeletonwitch

Breathing the Fire

(Prosthetic; US: 13 Oct 2009; UK: 12 Oct 2009)

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When a band is on the cusp of something really good, sometimes all it takes is a great producer to provide that one last push over the top. Athens, Ohio’s Skeletonwitch has built a steady following over the past few years thanks to a phenomenal live show and such promising releases as 2006’s Worship the Witch EP and 2007’s full-length debut Beyond the Permafrost, but the band’s combination of vintage thrash metal and icy black metal touches has been in need of refining. Veteran producer Jack Endino is on a major metal kick these days, having helmed terrific recent releases by High on Fire, Toxic Holocaust, and 3 Inches of Blood, and as he did with each of those bands, he strips Skeletonwitch of the flashy sounds of past releases and focuses on good, honest traditional heavy metal on Breathing the Fire, his dry tone lending a welcome warmth to the new tracks. The band delivers mightily on its end as well: The songwriting far more focused than before, best exemplified by the rousing “Stand Fight and Die” and the rip-roaring “Crushed Beyond Dust”, the dual leads and riffs by Scott Hedrick and Nate Garnett complemented by Chance Garnett’s wonderfully evil snarl. After several tries that nearly got it right, Skeletonwitch is officially for real.

—Adrien Begrand