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19 July 2006
Sodom, Sodom (SPV)
Germany's Sodom was never the most innovative band of the '80s thrash metal era, but when they were in peak form, as on 1987's excellent Persecution Mania, they were every bit as deserving of the same amount of attention their countrymen in Kreator and Destruction were receiving at the time. For the majority of their career, though, the band tended to coast along, recording decent, formulaic thrash well after the fad had run its course. Yet still, here they are more than 20 years later, churning out one of the year's most pleasant metal surprises. As per usual, there's nothing new at all going on here, but unlike the music of a bunch of young hacks, bassist/vocalist Tom Angelripper and his mates show the kind of charisma on the record that only a bunch of cagey veterans can do. "Blood on Your Lips" and "Buried in the Justice Ground" confidently toss in melodic riffs that get stuck in your head, while "Wanted Dead" and "Lords of Depravity" drip with the kind of rage we heard on Slayer's God Hates Us All five years ago. Top (Deutsch) marks for the mid-album triumvirate of "City of God", "Bibles and Guns", and "Axis of Evil" during which our man Angelripper launches an unflinching assault on Bush's America. Like Motorhead, Sodom hasn't, and never will change, and while it all may get a bit redundant from time to time, all it takes is an impassioned album like this one to remind us how good they can be.
[Insound]
— Adrien Begrand
"Buried in the Justice Ground": [stream]
Metal 
Beth Thornley, My Glass Eye (Stiff Hips)
Singer-songwriter Thornley has an undeniable capacity for big hooks and clever wordplay ("Why fall for the bull if you could get the matador," she asks at one point). But too much of My Glass Eye begs to play in the background as some naïve adolescent learns the hard facts of love on a WB series -- for that matter, Thornley's songs have already been licensed for several such instances, including Dawson's Creek. It's commendable that she strives for sonic breadth, trying everything from the synth-scuzz Garbageisms of "Mr. Lovely" to the bland piano ballad "You're Right Where" to the bluesy detour "Birmingham." In her willingness to purge her songs of the sharp idiosyncrasies that would make her a better songwriter but probably a poorer one, though, Thornley embraces a sterile lyrical landscape a bit too often. A gratuitous Beatles cover ("Eleanor Rigby") doesn't help, though Joe Jackson's "Got the Time" is a decent choice. Still, Thornley's cynical, anti-romantic outlook meshes with a memorable chorus often enough (as on the sharp "Once") to make My Glass Eye somewhat rewarding in itself, and certainly reflective of greater promise.
[Insound]
— Whitney Strub
full album: [stream]
Singer-songwriter 
Thee More Shallows, Monkey Vs Shark (Turn)
I had it in my head that Thee More Shallows were some kind of garage rock band -- I think due to their dignified band name, but tisn't the case. Even their cheeky album art, with its depiction of a monkey bitchslapping a shark, corroborated that false impression. But, as evidenced by this new EP, the Shallows belong more to the sullen computer science class with Grandaddy and the Flaming Lips. Dubbed as something like "an appendix" to their 2005 full length More Deep Cuts, this release seems geared to notify the uninitiated that Thee More Shallows are a band to pay attention to. Despite garnering breathless praise from Time Out London and others, Thee More Shallows aren't quite the household name that More Deep Cuts warranted. As far as Monkey Vs Shark goes, its seven gristly songs pulse and throb with both kinetic energy and leaden moroseness. This is night music, stuff that sounds better in dark places for dark moods. The title track is the standout of the bunch, twitching seductively like a bedroom elegy. Quirky and haunting, Thee More Shallows make good to keep things unpredictable in spite of their limited sonic palette. They even include an Al Green cover, which suffice to say, doesn't sound a whole lot like Al Green. Whether or not More Deep Cuts enjoys a delayed rise from obscurity like the Notwist's Neon Golden, this postscript definitely points to more good things coming from San Francisco's Thee More Shallows.
[Insound]
— Liam Colle
"I Can't Get Next to You": [MP3]
multiple songs: [MySpace]
Rock
Bazza, Freezer; a Folk Opera Based on the Book "Freezer Burn" (Bobbin Shop)
Bazza has had a career of his own invention, releasing songs at a rate usually only seen in manic depressives -- three thousand at last count. Now here's my dilemma. I respect the hell out of him in principle, but I absolutely struggled to get through Freezer. It's two discs long, and its primary musical unit is the strum. Not a fancy strum, not an energetic strum, just a plain up-and-down strum-strum-strum-strum of the kind you might play if you were still learning the guitar. Each song describes an incident from Joe R. Lansdale's book and some of them need pruning. (There was no need to spend two songs and two growly spoken-word excerpts on the advent of a whirligig, the question of who will paint the whirligig, and the accident that occurs while the whirligig is being painted. One would have been fine.) There's an outsider vibe here but Bazza is too sane to be fully Outside -- he's more like half-outside, one leg caught in the window. If lit-folk is what you're after then you'd be better off with The Handsome Family.
[Insound]
— Deanne Sole
"Like a Giant James Dean": [MP3]
"Whirligig": [MP3]
multiple songs: [MP3]
Rock 
Bump, Incredible Consequences (self-released)
Bump, from Detroit, flits from style to style on this polished debut, with bouncy mid-tempo rockers, extravagant jazz fusion solos and earnest ballads sitting in close proximity. Guitar work is particularly skilled -- see the Satriani-checking meltdown midway through the multi-parted "Concrete Lullaby -- and production is smooth. Best cuts include the jittery "Last Chance" and the treble-synthed "The More I See", where inventive instrumental tracks get equal weight with the run-of-the-mill singing. The foursome's love of 1970s and 1980s FM radio staples, comes through elsewhere in cheesy top 40 vocals. "Oblique" is particularly painful; no one but Lou Rawls could ever pull off that spoken word over soul orchestra trick.
[Insound]
— Jennifer Kelly
multiple songs: [official site]
multiple songs: [MySpace]
Indie / rock
.: posted by Editor 5:30 AM
