After loving 2005’s Body of Song, I was really looking forward to this one and fortunately, it doesn’t disappoint. Unlike that album’s more direct approach, this album feels like a survey of every style that Mould has tried in the twenty (!) years since HUSKER DU broke up and he went solo. It contains several SUGAR-like blasts such as “The Silence Between Us”, perhaps the best track here. However, just like on his last couple of albums, the vocoder and experimentation with disco-ish beats are featured prominently on several tracks (even in the otherwise straightforward, poppy and terrific opener “Stupid Now”), which reminds listeners that this is an ‘00s Bob Mould album and not something from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Still, at times, this feels a lot like listening to an imaginary record that was shelved during the period he recorded Workbook and Black Sheets of Rain for Virgin since at times it’s reminiscent of the former as well. All in all, this is an excellent effort and along with the new ones by JOE JACKSON and THE MAGNETIC FIELDS, my favorite new album of 2008 so far.
I liked their last album The Warning, but often times I would just gravitate towards its best songs, the excellent singles “Over and Over” and “Boy from School”. On Made in the Dark, however, they take the template set forth by their last album and make an even better album that’s listenable from start to finish. The highlight is “Ready for the Floor”, which is one of my favorite tracks of the year so far.
This came out in October, but I didn’t know about it until a few weeks ago, so I promptly ordered it as The Undertones are one of my all-time favorites. How did I miss this? Anyway this album is another corker and the second consecutive great record they’ve made since their surprising reunion (with new singer PAUL MCLOONE) at the turn of the century. It’s very much in the spirit of their first two records as well as 2003’s Get What You Need, though “Fight My Corner” nods towards principal songwriter JOHN O’NEILL’s post-Undertones band THAT PETROL EMOTION (which also included his brother DAMIAN O’NEILL, also The Undertones’ lead guitar player) and there’s even a piano ballad here, but otherwise this is the band’s trademark, ultra-melodic and speedy assault on the senses.
Not only is this a great and massively influential album, but it’s also more consistent than most give it credit for. Sure, the amazing “Cherry Bomb” is the obvious highlight and the best song on here, but check out “Is It Day or Night?”, “American Nights”, a cover of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND’s “Rock and Roll” and the surreal, epic “Dead End Justice”, which plays like the plot of a B-movie on USA Up All Night where women in tight clothes break out of prison.
Yes, what you’ve read is true. STEPHIN MERRITT loves THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN (and in particular Psychocandy) and on this album, he isn’t afraid to show it. I really didn’t expect this kind of noise-pop record from him, but it’s a treat nonetheless. Even at this very early juncture, this may very well end up as one of my favorites of the year.
A much more sparse, intimate and hushed collection of songs than either her 2004 album Hidden Vagenda or 2006’s spectacular Remember That I Love You, this album is one that demands close listening, preferably late at night. The most haunting song here is “Hold My Hand”, which deals with the often taboo subject of child abuse. It’s difficult listening, but very moving. A lighter moment is at the end of the last track “So Far to Go”, where Dawson shouts out a list of states. Yet even this, much like the rest of the album, feels cathartic, as if she had lots to reveal and that she wanted to get out, but wasn’t able to do so during her stint in THE MOLDY PEACHES.
After the fantastic Volume Four (his best studio album in almost two decades) back in 2003, Joe comes back from a five-year silence with another terrific album, though a fundamentally different one from its predecessor. Instead of harking back to his first three albums, this one reminds me more of his early ‘80s albums like Night and Day and Body of Soul. Much more piano-heavy than its predecessor, this one also reminds me of the live album Summer in the City, which showcased Joe leading a trio with GRAHAM MABY on bass and GARY BURKE on drums. Maby, his long-time bassist, returns here, but instead of Burke, DAVE HOUGHTON returns on drums (he also played on Volume Four along with Maby and guitarist GARY SANFORD, who is absent here). Lyrically, much of it seems to deal with love and loss. His move from New York City to Berlin also seems to have inspired him as well with his new hometown given a shout-out in one of the songs.
The album was officially released last week and comes with a bonus DVD which contains several live performances and Joe’s guide to Berlin.
A “Free at Noon” show sponsored by WXPN, this was Mould’s second visit to World Cafe Live in less than three months. This show reminded me of the first time I ever saw him play live, where it was just him solo with an electric guitar, as it was on this occasion as well. In the forty minutes or so, he must’ve played at least a dozen if not fifteen songs, mixing material from his solo records (though oddly, only one from his new one District Line), SUGAR (“Hoover Dam” and “If I Can’t Change Your Mind”) and HUSKER DU (“I Apologize,” “Celebrated Summer” and encore “Makes No Sense at All”). He was in much better vocal form than his last performance here as well.
George Tabb has been in many punk bands over the years, including ROACH MOTEL, FALSE PROPHETS, IRON PROSTATE and more recently FURIOUS GEORGE. While it’s nice to know who he is and how he turned out as you read this book, ultimately it doesn’t matter because it starts when Tabb is a mere four years old and ends when he’s in tenth grade. Set primarily in the uber-wealthy Connecticut town of Greenwich, this autobiography concerns Tabb’s family and upbringing as one of the few Jews in Greenwich, thus earning him the undeserved consternation and ridicule of his peers. This is a book I would recommend for anyone and especially those who wonder how outsiders are made and where the mentality comes from.
This album, like their more recent release Lost and Safe, is almost indescribable but completely bewitching in its spell. A perfect album to just sit and relax to, its odd combination of found sound, glitchy techno ala FOUR TET or CARIBOU and occasional vocals (from ANNE DOERNER) really works though on paper it really shouldn’t just judging from the description.
