Album Review: Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II
Concept: Raekwon speaks up to complete his small saga a decade after the first installment, and as with anybody working with the Wu-Tang Clan he’s got company. Sound: The samples are what you can expect, with Kung-Fu pulp, graphic sound effects, and all kinds of backing tracks from dark, spare jazz to raw soul to [...]
Album Review: Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers
Concept: Welsh political rockers release their first album to feature lyrics exclusively by rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards, who has since vanished. Sound: There’s an 80′s arena rock feel to the melodies, although the backing instruments would beg to disagree. Manic Street Preachers have a tight grip on their hooks and know how to use them, [...]
Album Review: Pearl Jam – Backspacer
Concept: Brendan O’Brien gives grunge godfather Vedder a pop makeover. Sound: If nobody else is going to say it, I will — Pearl Jam is getting old in every conceivable way. The only thing fresh about this album is the energy in Vedder’s voice, and that is forced to carry every. Single. Song. The “rock” [...]
Album Review: Blk Jks – After Robots
Concept: South African band takes their act abroad to flex their rock muscles. Sound: Blk Jks score big on the enthusiasm factor. The vocalist’s earnest melancholy and the wonderfully dynamic drummer keep things wild and loose. The band’s tinkering sprawl on this album is very similar to that of De-Loused In The Comatorium, using South [...]
Album Review: Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
Concept: Wild Beasts shoot to elevate the proletariat. Sound: The sparkling opening bassline sets the bar pretty high for the band, but the whole album keeps the glam and flamboyant dance atmosphere popping along. The hardest part to get over is the frontman’s preposterous range. He holds both a stable baritone and an alarmingly effeminate [...]
Album Review: Mount Eerie – Wind's Poem
Concept: Phil Elverum goes metal and talks to the wind. The wind doesn’t hear. Sound: In lieu of motion or depth, Elverum tries to characterize wind with soft dirges and scathing metal guitar effects. While some of the heavier tracks have nice harmony and off kilter drumming that brings to mind the electronic kit work [...]
Album Review: Pete Yorn And Scarlett Johansson – Break Up
Concept: Seriously? Okay. Sound: Scarlett’s voice isn’t bad, and it’s definitely not the kind of lip-sync wail you get out of most Hollywood crossover scams. She actually seems to be shooting for Billie Holiday a lot of the time, which is a good choice. That’s not to say it’s even close. The obvious selling point [...]
Album Review: John Zorn – O'o
Concept: Jazz marathon man John Zorn presents the fifth installment in his ‘Dreamers’ collaboration, with odes to birds surrounding the extinct titular Hawaiian species. Sound: Zorn has literally released hundreds of albums, most of which concentrate on free jazz and range from unlistenable blathering to riveting facsimiles of torture and suffering. Very little of his [...]
Album Review: Six Organs Of Admittance – Luminous Night
Concept: Ben Chasny’s solo project arrives at its eleventh album, the fourth in its gradual progression from acoustic to electric arrangement. Sound: Six Organs Of Admittance has always been a sort of missing link in the more glorified story of rock, having worked alongside both Sonic Youth, the punks who changed the way mainstream music [...]
Album Review: Rodrigo Y Gabriela – 11:11
Concept: The popular duet group establishes a tribute to Hindu and Mesoamerican mythologies and the notion of synchronicity. Sound: Rodrigo and Gabriela are proof that ‘genre-bending’ doesn’t have to be some nearly unapproachable process of trial-and-error, having in their last album incorporated metal, classical, and Mexican folk into percussive acoustic guitar pieces. They disavow any [...]