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What an absolute masterpiece of a record. Before hearing this, I was only familiar with his late ‘60s solo material, but honestly, though I like that stuff a lot, I prefer this. It’s some of the darkest, starkest music I’ve ever heard. It scares the hell out of me yet I’m attracted to its heart of darkness. This is a truly emotionally compelling work.
MILES DAVIS once said something to the effect that he aimed to make music that shook your entire body and that got underneath you. I can’t think of anything that I’ve heard lately that would fit that description except for this. Listen to it on headphones late at night for the full effect.If you buy this on CD, it comes with a four song DVD taken from a show in December 2004 at Tsongas Arena in Boston when they opened for THE PIXIES in front of a hometown crowd. The sound and the performances on the DVD are excellent, so why only four songs? Talk about a tease! It really made me wish for more.
The Pipettes are a trio from the UK who recreate the ‘60s girl-group sounds that they so obviously love, though without a svengali producer like PHIL SPECTOR or SHADOW MORTON who writes all of their songs. Anyway, this insanely fun new single is by far the best and catchiest thing that they’ve done so far and it’s my favorite single of the year so far, though it’s far more reminiscent of BLONDIE and ABBA than their other material. To listen, go here.
Well, The Replacements are back, sort of. They recorded two excellent “new” (they were both written in the early ‘90s) songs (“Message to the Boys” and “Pool & Dive”) to round out this eighteen-song overview of their storied career from 1981 to 1990. While this is the only Replacements anthology to date that covers their entire career for both Twin Tone and Sire and while the sound and the flow of the tracks are both excellent, it could’ve been rounded out by the additions of classics like “Androgynous,” “The Ledge” and “When It Began”. The entire record is streaming at Rhino’s site and you can listen to it if you click here.
Finally, the UK’s best unsigned band inked a record deal with the venerable Rough Trade and so hopefully they’ll get to be heard by more people now. While I can understand why they released this song with its similarities to FRANZ FERDINAND in terms of its riff, I would’ve preferred if they would’ve released the brilliant “Once and Never Again” (by far the best song they’ve done so far) as I think it would be a smash. As for now, you can only listen to it on their MySpace page. Also, they’re playing a bunch of shows on the East Coast in July, including a Philly date. I’m totally psyched!
This is more controlled and less manic version of THE FUTUREHEADS, so as such it’s gotten some less than favorable reviews from fans and critics thus far. However, this seems like not only a natural progression from the first album but a necessary one as well for a band looking to expand its sound and last beyond the hype surrounding their debut.
After intermittent postings on RADIOHEAD’s official blog indicating that the recording of their new album has been going less than smoothly and the announcement of U.S. summer tour dates that sold out instantly, what does Thom Yorke do next? While one would expect a release of a new Radiohead album to coincide with their touring, instead he’s gonna drop his first solo album next month! Even more shocking for a singer who’s been on a major label for his entire career, it’s coming out on XL, the home of such eccentric artists like DAVENDRA BANHART. Well no one ever accused Radiohead or Yorke of not being full of surprises, at least if they’ve been paying attention all this time.
So what does it sound like? Well it’s not unlike a Radiohead outtakes album from around the sessions that produced the Kid A and Amnesiac albums. It’s a bit meditative and even trance-like in its tones and like virtually all of their other albums, I think this one will be a grower.
Contrary to what you might expect, this isn’t the first time that Costello and Touissant have collaborated. He produced Costello’s 1983 version of YOKO ONO’s “Walking on Thin Ice” as well as a few tracks on 1989’s Spike featuring THE DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND. This record features only two songs that were previously known to me. I know the title track from the performance that I saw a few weeks ago at BAM and the cover of “All These Things” was originally recorded (in a completely different version) as an outtake from the 1986 album Blood and Chocolate and finally released on disc two of Rhino’s 2002 reissue of that magnificent album. As for the rest, however, partly it’s a Touissant songbook record (what Costello had originally envisioned it as) and the rest of it consists of new songs that the pair wrote together. Touissant’s unique piano playing and Costello’s soulful delivery will remind astute listeners of songs like “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror” from the 1989 album Spike (on which Touissant was one of the many players and collaborators) as well as Costello’s more recent rock and soul-tinged work like 2004’s The Delivery Man. Overall, this is quite good, but it doesn’t scale of the heights of his better recent work like 2002’s When I Was Cruel. Still, I enjoy it for what it is and it’s yet more proof that Costello isn’t willing to rest and sit on his well-deserved laurels.
I’ve been on a bit of a RODDY FRAME kick as of late and this album is among his finest both under his own name as well as his AZTEC CAMERA moniker, which he used from the time he was a teenager in the early ‘80s until he went solo in the late ‘90s. Anyway I bought this album on cassette when I was 15 after I saw the video for the incredible single “The Crying Scene” on MTV’s then cutting-edge 120 Minutes back in 1990. I found an almost mint CD copy a few weeks ago for $1 and I’ve been revelling in it ever since. What a record! Aside from “The Crying Scene” and the predictably CLASH-like MICK JONES duet “Good Morning Britain”, this album finds Frame both in a mellow, CHET BAKER-like mood (“Over My Head”) as well as an angry, political one (“How It Is”). Overall, the album could also be interpreted as a farewell to London and a retreat back to his native Glasgow with song titles like “Get Outta London”.
This is Roddy’s second solo album and it was released in 2002. I remember reading Jack’s very favorable review of it in an old issue of The Big Takeover when it came out (as well as other “return to form” type reviews), so I decided to find it and give it a spin. It’s every bit as good as the review said. On this album, his incredible finger-picking and songwriting skills are stripped bare and are thus lovely in this context. Highly recommended late-night music.
