WFHB ADDS 1/10/06
DATE: 1.11.06ARTIST: Various
TITLE: Le Pop 3
GENRE: International/France/Pop
GRADE: A
REVIEW:
Third in the "new french chanson" compilations on the Cologne based LE POP MUSIK label, featuring 16 essential songs from the "nouvelle scene francaise" and including 3 worldwide exclusive tracks... The 16 songs on "Le Pop 3" were picked and arranged by the same well versed and demanding connoisseurs who were responsible for Le Pop 1 and 2. The album features artists known and loved from the first two compilations as well as lots of new talent. Featuring CAMILLE (Nouvelle Vague singstress), BERTRAND BETSCH, MATHIEU BOOGAERTS, TOMA, MICKEY 3D, PIERRE LAPOINTE, BERTRAND BELIN, TOMA, ALEXIS HK, STEFIE SHOCK, JEROME MINIERE & LHASA and many more.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1,2,3,5,7,9,12,13
REVIEWER: soulseducation.com
DATE: 1.11.06
ARTIST: Avett Brothers
TITLE: Four Thieves Gone
GENRE: Americana/Alternative
GRADE: A-
REVIEW: Nice organic folky pop. Four Thieves Gone: The Robinsville Sessions is the third full-length release from this North Carolina-based trio. This was our first exposure to The Avett Brothers. To be honest, these fellows almost lost us...because the beginning of the first track ("Talk On Indolence") is a real turn off. Potential listeners should be forewarned that the rest of the album is infinitely superior to the initial rappish fastspeaking. Fortunately patience paid off. The longer we listened, the better the album got. So much so that by the end of these seventeen tracks we were absolutely in love with most of them. Scott and Seth Avett and Bob Crawford make wonderfully genuine and sincere music. Their folky pop is infused with subtle elements of bluegrass. The words and melodies are real and sung from the heart. There are several cuts on Four Thieves Gone that are likely to become classics in the years ahead. Stunning creations include "Sixteen In July," "A Lover Like You," "The Fall," "Dancing Daze," and "Four Thieves Gone." Includes a nifty lyric booklet. Great stuff.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 3,5,7,10,12,13,15,17
REVIEWER: babysue.com
DATE: 1.11.06
ARTIST: RobinElla
TITLE: Solace for the Lonely
GENRE: Americana
GRADE: A-
REVIEW: RobinElla used follow her name with “and the CC String Band”. The strings are still there but at times the production has gotten a little more adventurous. A little trip-hoppy here, a little moody-jazzy groove there, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink elsewhere. If you keep your ears open you'll hear the centerpiece of her expressive voice (in Dolly/Emmylou range) and tradional song forms that still carry weight and soul under some of the produciton and arrangement flourishes.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: (outside roots traditions) 1,2,7
( more traditional acoustic) 4,6
REVIEWER: Jim Manion/WFHB
DATE: 1.11.06
ARTIST: Jah Wobble
TITLE: Mu
GENRE: Electronic/World Fusion
GRADE: A
REVIEW: Legend has it that Jah Wobble was christened by old college buddy Sid Vicious, who blurted out an exaggerated mispronounciation of his given name, John Wardle, after a long night of debauchery. "The Jah suited me because I loved reggae so much," Wobble reflects. "I remember thinking, 'I'm going to keep that because people will remember it.'” It was also Vicious who gave Wobble his first bass guitar, sending him off on a career that would take him from the infancy of punk rock to the haven of “zen dub” that he resides in today. On his newest album, Mu, Wobble draws from the politicized British reggae scene of the late 1960s and the punk alienation that followed, resulting in an eclectic, heady and multilayered style of music that only he can lay claim to.On Mu, Wobble reteams with PiL cohort Mark Lusardi, resulting in a “lush, accessible record” (The Independent, UK). Britain’s Uncut magazine gave the album four stars, declaring “Mu reasserts Wobble’s status as a musical visionary and cosmic ambassador.” With cheeky humor, the pair rework the theme to television’s Kojak (in a nod to Isaac Hayes) and “at times, the album sounds like the soundtrack to an intergalactic kung-fu movie” (The Independent, UK).
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1,2,4,5,6,8
REVIEWER: globalrhythm.net
DATE: 1.11.06
ARTIST: Jason Collett
TITLE: Idols of Exile
GENRE: Rock/Alt
GRADE: A
REVIEW: He’s best known as one of the creative forces behind beloved Canadian indie-rockers Broken Social Scene, which started out as a side project. Collett’s solo career, which now seems like a side project in itself, continues with Idols, which is a slight departure from the group’s sound, although many members of BSS appear on the album. Idols is an entirely acoustic album, taking away the element of bombast that was all over BSS’ breakthrough You Forgot it in People. With the combination of the vocal style and the acoustic guitar, it’s tempting to label Idols as an alt-country album, a categorization that would be especially hard to dispute when you hear the banjo-infused We All Lose One Another – a beautifully sad lament about inevitable loneliness. The album, however, hardly feels comfortable within such a strict definition of genre. The album squirms and shifts just enough to defy that kind of generalization, thanks to songs like Feral Republic, which is a full-on folk song, infused with horns and even a clavinet (a stringed keyboard). Idols of Exile establishes Jason Collett as one of the most interesting song-writers in a rapidly expanding Canadian music scene, and the more projects he’s got on his plate at once, the more good music we’re bound to hear.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1,3,6,7,9,12 FCC: 11
REVIEWER: music-critic.ca
posted by WFHB Music @ 4:41:00 PM
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