ADDS FOR 5.29.06
DATE: 5.29.06ARTIST: Mark Knoffler & Emmylou Harris
TITLE: All the Roadrunning (Warner)
GENRE: COUNTRY/ALT
GRADE: A
REVIEW: This lush and earthy collaboration between Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris may sound like it rose from an amiable weeklong studio session, but the 12 tracks that make up All the Road Running were actually recorded over the span of seven years. The boot-stomping "Red Staggerwing" and the gentle "Donkey Town," both of which were bumped from Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia record, give the ex-Dire Straits leader a chance to flex his country muscle, while the wistful title track spotlights the lovely Harris, whose playful demeanor and guarded confidence helps keep Knopfler in check during his sometimes excessive soloing. The two couldn't be more at odds vocally, but Knopfler's laconic drawl is like an easy chair for Harris' fluid pipes, and standout tracks like the 9/11-inspired "This Is Goodbye," the wistful "Beachcombing," and the infectious single "This Is Us" come off as effortless statements of vitality from both camps. ~
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12
REVIEWER: James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
DATE: 5.29.06
ARTIST: Ralph Towner
TITLE: Time Line (ECM)
GENRE: Jazz
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: This is Ralph Towner's 21st recording for ECM and his fifth made entirely solo. A mix of through composed pieces, improvisations and a couple of standards, it's a reminder of a singular talent. Towner's use of 12 string and classical guitars is pretty much unique in jazz. Similarly, his playing has little to do with conventional jazz harmony, though it's hard to say where else it comes from...Towner's most discernable influence is probably Bill Evans, and there's something of the pianist's unsentimental, impressionistic melancholia in these pieces. But there's muscle too; the freely improvised 'Five Glimpses' and the gorgeous "Freeze Frame" brim with invention and power. In short, beautiful music from a master of the guitar.Reviewer: Peter Marsh
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 3, 7-11, 13, 14, 15, 16
REVIEWER: bbc.com
DATE: 5.29.06
ARTIST:Gigi
TITLE: Gold & Wax (Palm)
GENRE: INTERNATIONAL/ETHIOPIA
GRADE: A
REVIEW: For her third album, Gold & Wax, Gigi invites US guitar master, Buckethead to play with the addition of noted keys-man, Bernie Worrel, who has worked with Talking Heads, and multi-instrumentalist, Bill Laswell, who also produces this effort.
With a swirl of jazz, exotic old world vocals, and a mélange of rhythmic styles that runs throughout, Gigi and her guests develop and present a captivating album of songs. Beginning with an upbeat jazz tune, “”Semena-Worck,” one can easily see the allure of such music. An underlying example would be Dead Can Dance’s Lisa Gerrard’s fascination with such world vocals and the music that carries it. If you listen closely, you can begin to hear DCD and their own style, while more ethereal in nature, still has root in this style. The first song certainly opens the door for the rest of the album, which can be called an entrancing step into a new world ready to be explored, mapped, and enjoyed. Every song on this album is an intrigue that gently pushes into the next song. “Jerusalem,” a song that extends nearly 9 minutes, is a steady rhythm that finds Buckethead guitar encapsulated into its heart, making the track a standout as it hypnotically spills from the speaker.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS:
REVIEWER: musictap.com
DATE: 5.29.06
ARTIST: Camera Obscura
TITLE: Let's Get Out of This Country (Merge)
GENRE: ROCK/ALT
GRADE: A
REVIEW: The album opens with the first eerie organ bars of "Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken". Though the beauty and slickness of Campbell's voice and the provocative lyrics ("Hey Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken/Cause I can't see further/Than my own nose at the moment") are unmistakably Camera Obscura, the music itself strays from their previous two albums. It's faster; the drums and tambourine play a bigger role in than in older songs. Campbell's vocals aren't as soothing or aS melancholy. Here she sounds more confident, and the song sounds very produced. It's a good song, though. It's catchy.
"Tears For Affairs" is more of a bluesy (but up-beat bluesy) song with a defined rock beat. "Dory Previn" and "The False Contender" are slower tunes with much less of the "rock" of the majority of the album. The album's title track might be the most pleasing. It has the heavy pop rock beat Camera Obscura is so fond of this year, strings, and steady tambourine, but it's Campbell's wide-eyed voice that makes the song so pleasurable. "If Looks Could Kill" is a dancey tune, upbeat but still treading the cynical, bittersweet lyrics songwriter Campbell is most noted for. She sings: "I promise hidden words of tenderness in every single line that I write/Still you act like a man who is cross with every woman he's never had/If it's true looks could kill and you will be the first to make me mad/Then you'll have to go/Maybe you'll have to go."
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8
REVIEWER: musicforamerica.com
DATE: 5.29.06
ARTIST: Tim Easton
TITLE: AMmunition (New West)
GENRE: FOLK/SS
GRADE: A
REVIEW: For his first release in over three years, and his third for the New West label, singer songwriter Easton goes even further back to his roots. Easton sticks primarily to emotional ballads, with even his own strumming guitar and occasional percussion relegated to the background as he sings primarily of alienation and lost or waning love. The album's generally dark, somber lyrics mesh well with his doe-eyed sleepy voice and the laconic tempo of the songs. "C-Dub" and "News Blackout" returns him to Bringing it All Back Home-era Bob Dylan with prominent harmonica and political lyrics on the latter that creep into the personal as he closes the song with "Sweetheart please, please take my hand." There is a lonely, solemn quality to the unaccompanied "J.P.M.F.Y.F." (short for Jesus Protect Me From Your Followers) that sounds like Easton strumming in his bedroom as he quietly lashes out at those who are "spitting in the face of love with one hand on the bible and the other in the purse." The closing cover of the blues standard "Sitting on Top of the World" brings the disc to a resigned and tranquil conclusion. A personal album that takes a few spins, or more, to appreciate, Tim Easton shoots his bullets with a silencer on the scraggly, moving and introspective Ammunition.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12
FCC: 9
REVIEWER: allmusicguide.com
DATE: 5.31.06
ARTIST: Mojave 3
TITLE: Puzzles Like You 4AD
GENRE: rock/alt
GRADE: A+
REVIEW: With great seasonal timing, Mojave 3 has snapped their music into Brit-pop shape with an album full of bubbly summer sounds. With the exception of the album’s slower songs like “Most Days”, “Big Star Baby” and “You Said It Before”, Puzzles Like You rocks like the band never has before. From the opening two-chord kick of the first track, “Truck Driving Man”, you know this is going to be a record that rings well in the summer air. Relying heavily on 4/4 beats and rock song conventions, the upbeat side of Puzzles Like You carries a top-down cruising quality that brings a sunny smile. Farfisa organ riffs, resonant pedal steel guitar atmospheres and glockenspiel tones ornament the tunes in all the right places. Rachel Goswell’s bass anchors and punches the clock while Neil Halstead’s breathy voice rides each song’s wave with relaxed intensity, sometimes supported by Goswell’s subtle but sure backup vocals. Guitarist Simon Rowe picks out scrumptious leads, keyboard player Alan Forrester comps and enhances melodies with a variety of keyboard sounds including some stately piano and drummer Ian McCutcheon kicks out perfect beats on his kit. It all comes together in melodious focus like the best Cure songs minus the goth makeup. The songs on Puzzles Like You are wistful, smart and speak from the heart. Sprinkled with sadness, nostalgia and self-examination the overall mood is still happy, sometimes giddy, with the wisdom of experience. “Breaking the Ice”, the first single, is particularly rich in this mood. The album is loaded with potential radio hits - “Truck Driving Man”, “Running With Your Eyes Closed”, “Ghost Ship Waiting” and “Kill the Lights” among them.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 FCC:6
REVIEWER: Jim Manion/WFHB
DATE: 5.29.06
ARTIST: The New Orleans Social Club
TITLE: Sing Me Back Home (Burgundy)
GENRE: Louisiana
GRADE: A
REVIEW: After the post-Katrina migration of Big Easy musicians, part of the Lone Star State is starting to look like New Orleans West, but the refugees aren't ready for cowboy hats.That much is apparent from the title of this all-star album by the New Orleans Social Club, a loosely assembled collective based in Austin, Texas. Sing Me Back Home, in stores Tuesday, is flavored with love and good feelings for the storm-ravaged musical destination. It's that sense of purpose that weaves together a diverse cast of stars that ranges from Ivan Neville, his uncle Cyril Neville, Dr. John, Henry Butler and the Sixth Ward All-Star Brass Band Revue. Cyril Neville, now a beloved fixture in Austin, shines on the opening "This is my Country.'' It's a Curtis Mayfield song written at the time of the 1960s civil-rights movement that resonates anew in the wake of the Katrina response. That song is followed by nephew Ivan's funky reinvention of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son.''
The rest of Sing Me Back Home is more of a celebration of the New Orleans spirit: Texas icon Marcia Ball teaming with Irma Thomas for the uplifting "Look Up''; Dr. John doing a reverential "Walking to New Orleans''; the subdudes' lilting stroll through "Make a Better World.''
REVIEWER: Jim Abbott Orlando Sentinal
DATE: 5.29.06
ARTIST: The Bottle Rockets
TITLE: Zoysia (Bloodshot)
GENRE: rock/mainstream
GRADE: A
REVIEW: The Bottle Rockets play truly believable blue collar rock ’n’ roll. And the collar’s as worn and greasy as the guitars are twangy. The St. Louis quartet plays haphazard barroom rock that hints at any number of roots, especially country with songs sung in an “aw-shucks,” Crazy Horse kinda way. The band’s new Bloodshot record, Zoysia, has the group strumming distorted guitars beneath frontman Brian Henneman’s reedy croon. The band rocks steady and seems suited for nights spent scootin’ on the sawdust, fueled by perhaps one too many cervezas. Henneman exudes heartbreak in his “melancholy trousers and masochistic shirt” on cuts like “Happy Anniversary,” stubbornness (“when I drink I drink/when I quit I quit”) on “Quit,” or exasperation over human ignorance on the track “Blind,” where he asks “Could our own two eyes be our own worst enemy/If we all were blind I wonder what we’d see.” First-rate American roots rock ’n’ roll.
REVIEWER: RochesterCityNews.com
Charlie Musselwhite Delta Hardware Real World
Oakley Hall Gypsum Strings Brah
posted by WFHB Music @ 12:56:00 PM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home