Latest WFHB Addpool CD Reviews
DATE: 10/3/05ARTIST: Rogue Wave
TITLE: Descended Like Vultures (Sub Pop)
GENRE: ROCK/ALTERNATIVE
GRADE: A+
REVIEW:The album works on all the levels that it could rightfully be asked to. It’s a complete work, with thoughtful, poetic lyrics that ring with integrity. It features a delicate instrumentalism, with melodies that owe their primitive roots to such influential bands as the Zombies and XTC. But nothing Rogue does has any real tie to the sounds that came before him. He works with matters of the heart and head in a truly original fashion. Rogue is as upbeat and positive as they come off-the-record, and he’s never sounded as if he was milking all he could from love and its frailties. As the follow-up to Out of the Shadow, an album that Rogue wrote and recorded (mostly) solo after getting canned from a job, Vultures is an apt second chapter. It comes off as less fragmented because it includes the output of a full band.
LOCAL NOTE: That full band features Pat Spurgeon and Evan Ferrell, former Bloomington musicians.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:1,2,5,6,11
REVIEWER: excerpts from playbackstl.com
DATE: 10/3/05
ARTIST: Various Artists
TITLE: Stubbs the Zombie (Shout Factory)
GENRE: ROCK/ALTERNATIVE
GRADE: B+
REVIEW: It feels odd to put a video game soundtrack on the WFHB addlist, but this isn't your standard game soundtrack of synth presets and sound effects. This is a cool collection of exceptional covers by a surprising roster of bands. Have you ever wanted to hear Flaming Lips do “If I Only Had A Brain”, Clem Snide do “Tears On My Pillow”, Rougue Wave do “Everday” or Death Cab do “Earth Angel”? Well now you can. All that and more. Have fun!
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1,2,3,7,8,10,11
REVIEWER: Jim Manion/WFHB
DATE: 10/3/05
ARTIST: David Gray
TITLE: Life in Slow Motion (ATO)
GENRE: FOLK/SS
GRADE: A-
REVIEW:David Gray's underdog status used to part of the reason why people liked him so much. So now that he's made for life and owns his own studio, can he still make records as charming and intimate as White Ladder? On the basis of Life in Slow Motion, the answer is: absolutely. The production may be a bit glossier than before, but otherwise it's business as usual: big-hearted, emotional folk-rock songs that brilliantly transcend the limitations of the one-bloke-and-his-guitar genre. He claims that the lyrics this time are about other people's lives, but in fact one of Gray's biggest strengths is that you always believe he's really lived through the traumatic events that he communicates in that unmistakable bark of a voice. A really fine album.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:1,2,3,5,6,8,9
REVIEWER: Andrew Lynch entertainmentirelend.ie
DATE: 10/3/05
ARTIST:Brian Eno
TITLE: Another Day on Earth (Opal)
GENRE: ROCK/ALTERNATIVE
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Latterly best known as an ambient composer, Eno's never been that far from the song, either as a collaborator, or producer with the likes of Talking Heads and U2. But given that he's helped developed generative music software that plays itself ad infinitum, one would think that the ancient art of songwriting would seem about as relevant to him as basket weaving. Not so. Ever provocative, he recently distanced himself from the contemporary obsession with hardware by proclaiming that the greatest challenge facing today's musician is to write songs. He's picked up his own gauntlet in some style here. Although his songs have never been particularly melodically developed, here their simplicity is their strength. "How Many Worlds" blossoms from primitive staccato piano lines into a gorgeous, string-driven instrumental chorus.There's a seductive spaciousness in this soundworld. On "Caught Between", Eno's voice croons from the distance over slow shimmering beats, and minimal piano and guitar lines. The ultra-sparse "Passing Over" showcases another fine Eno vocal performance, harmonising with himself, before switching on the vocoder for a crunchy, Darth Vader-like effect.In the 70s, Eno was intent on subverting rock lyric clichés, relishing the absurdities he came up with in the process. On Another Day On Earth he plays with language in a more considered, reflective way. This peaks on the last song, ''Bone Bomb'', sung by Aylie Cooke. "My body, so thin/So tired/Beaten for years," she intones in a haunting voice that is dramatically snuffed out into silence.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:1,3,4,6,7,9,11
REVIEWER: excerpts from Mike Barnes bbc.co.uk/music
DATE: 10/3/05
ARTIST:Echo and the Bunnymen
TITLE: Siberia (Cooking Vinyl)
GENRE: ROCK/ALTERNATIVE
GRADE: A
REVIEW:The songs sound fresh, as if the duo have recognized their strengths and aren't afraid to use them. Album opener "Stormy Weather" sounds classic and modern at the same time, combining the melodic guitar of Sergeant with the tender brooding of McCulloch's voice. More importantly, the song signals a return to classic Bunnymen: romantic lyrics, majestic crescendos, and dreamy swagger. Other songs capture the frenetic energy of the early Bunnymen. "Of a Life" begins with a searing guitar lead and repeatedly explodes. Moreover, one listen to this song and it's evident why many have claimed that U2 lifted their sound from the Bunnymen. Sergeant alternates between melodic leads and repetitive textures, not so much playing the guitar as painting with it, carefully juxtaposing deliberate strokes with seemingly random flourishes. Just who influenced who is open to debate, but one thing is not: Sergeant is horribly underrated. In other songs, such as "Parthenon Drive" and "Sideways Eight", his distinctive style simply bewilders.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:1,3,5,8,10
REVIEWER: excerpts from popmatters.com
DATE: 10/3/05
ARTIST:Neil Young
TITLE: Prarie Wind (Reprise)
GENRE: ROCK/MAINSTREAM
GRADE: A+
REVIEW:Prairie Wind is being pushed as the third in a trilogy of classic Neil Young acoustic albums, after Harvest and Harvest Moon. They do sound eerily similar. The tracks were written as Young suffered a brain aneurysm, and initially it feels as if he had simply dug out his most beautiful old songs and written new words. However, the familiarity reveals itself to be a clever ploy, as Prairie Wind contrasts simpler days with post-9/11 global panic. The songs grow darker, richer and more haunting with each listen. It's a Dream compares the false dawns offered by the utopian hippie vision and technology. Others brilliantly capture the ordinary person's feeling of crushed hopes and impotence as the world spins out of control. In the autumn of his career, this is one of Shaky's best.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1,3,4,6,8,9
REVIEWER: Dave Simpson guardian.co.uk
ARTIST: Nortec Collective
TITLE: Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3
GENRE: ELECTRONIC/WORLD FUSION
GRADE: A
REVIEW:Comprised of several DJs, graphic artists, filmmakers, and fashion designers, the Nortec Collective hail from North America's definitive meltin' pot, the U.S.-Mexico border. Nortec’s follow up to Tijuana Sessions Vol. 1 (disregard the title, nothing is as it seems in T.J.) infuses traditional norteña, ranchera and banda sinaloense music of Mexico’s tassel-sleeved urban cowboy population. DJs Fusible, Bostitch, Panóptica, Clorofila and Hiperboreal harness the frenetic pulse and sinsations akin to T.J.’s infamous Revolución street by sampling honking tubas, bass drum booms, and brassy trombones served to us on a vintage techno-platter. There’s even a lil’ vocals this time, as on the first single “Tijuana Makes Me Happy”, with hilarious lyrics backed by an irresistible auto-pilot party groove from Fusible. When in Tijuana, beware the painted mule. They gotta a nasty kick, and so does this record. Viva Nortec, la nueva frontera de la música.
REVIEWER: Micah Lashbrook underground.com
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1,2,3,5,6,9,10,13
OTHER CDS NEW TO THE ADDPOOL:
Minus Story No Rest for Ghosts
Precious Bryant My Name is Precious
B.B. King & Friends 80
Kingsbury Manx The Fast Rise and Fall of the South
posted by WFHB Music @ 5:53:00 PM
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