Author: Jeff Giles (Page 24 of 41)

O+S: O+S

March 20, 2009 /

A guy, a girl, and a synth: It sounds like the setup for a bad music-nerd joke, but those three ingredients have become some of pop’s most popular in the 21st century, and a quick shortcut to niche stardom for artists moonlighting from less lucrative solo careers (see: Heap, Imogen; George, Inara). O+S, the latest sample-happy male/female pop duo – and earliest contender for least Google-friendly band name of the year – comes courtesy of Azure Ray’s Fink and Remy Zero’s Cedric Lamoyne, a.k.a. Scalpelist, and the duo’s pedigree adds a thin layer of folky weirdness to the assortment of loops and sound effects that go hand-in-hand with projects like this, but it’s neither as odd nor as compelling as you might hope. Though O+S take pains to cover all the genre’s bases – from the doomy “Knowing Animals,” which sounds vaguely like the work of a narcoleptic Siouxsie Sioux, to “Toreador,” which suggests a slowed-down Bird and the Bee, and the Sarah McLachlan vibe of “New Life” – none of the songs are all that memorable. It’s a shame, too – these tracks were built from field recordings Fink created during in Omaha, Alabama, and Haiti, which should have helped them sound like something other than Mazzy Star taking a nap in an elevator with Frou Frou, but ultimately, it’s just more of the same mostly soothing, slightly menacing bedroom pop you’ve heard from plenty of like-minded artists, minus the hooks. (Saddle Creek 2009)

O+S MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop

Living Things: Habeas Corpus

March 20, 2009 /

Imagine the Killers recording a sequel to Def Leppard’s Slang – swapping anti-capitalist manifestos for love songs – and you’ll have an idea of what to expect from Habeas Corpus, the second effort from St. Louis trio Living Things. It sounds pretty ridiculous on paper, but it isn’t a bad sound, actually – Habeas Corpus loses points for buffing up the rough edges the band displayed on 2005’s Ahead of the Lions, but it’s got enough glammy sass and swagger to overcome the added layers of gloss. Unfortunately, no amount of ‘tude can overcome lyrics like “Endless summer nights I miss you…There’s an island in your heart / I want to run into your sun…only love can break your heart.” You’ve got to give Living Things props for being subversively funny enough to meld an album’s worth of party-rock arrangements with darkly political subject matter – it’s hard not to like a record that puts a song like “Post Millennium Extinction Blues” within spitting distance from something as proudly, basically carnal as “Shake Your Shimmy” – but no matter how brightly this bauble glitters, it’s still mostly plastic beneath the surface. It’s tempting to wonder whether the band was trying to make some sort of brilliant meta-statement by cloaking its politically aware sloganeering in such blatantly commercial music – but it’s more likely that this is the work of armchair politicians who like to party. Again, that isn’t such a bad thing; once they get around to writing sharper lyrics, it might actually be pretty damn good. (Jive 2009)

Living Things MySpace page

CD Reviews, Pop, Rock

Jeremy Jay: Slow Dance

March 20, 2009 /

Any album whose press release describes the artist in question as “a mixture of a storyteller, artist and singer” is basically promising to deliver at least a handful of unintentionally funny moments, and Jeremy Jay’s second full-length release, Slow Dance, does not disappoint. Offering New Romantic synth-pop for the hipster crowd, Jay sounds like nothing so much as a socially stunted teenager with an eight-track recorder and far too many Cure records – except where Robert Smith’s self-flagellating occasionally results in real pop poetry, Jay is chock full of lines like ”I was walking around / In this lonely town / Yeah, I headed to the pier / What did I see there? / A fish in the water.” With an overabundance of analog synths and theatrically unemotional vocals, Slow Dance doesn’t sound terribly dissimilar from Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island singing “Jizz in My Pants” – except Samberg is, you know, joking, and Jay appears to be 100 percent serious, although it’s awfully hard not to laugh when he sings stuff like ”We’re walking down the streets / For chocolate chocolate / We’re walking down streets / We’re breaking the ice / Cold cold, yeah.” It’ll be heralded as a stunning sophomore effort by the cutting-edge corners of the blogosphere, but if you don’t get it, don’t worry – the problem doesn’t lie with you. (K Records 2009)

Jeremy Jay MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop

K’Naan: Troubadour

March 6, 2009 /

Talk about an album arriving at the right time: Troubadour’s leadoff single, “If Rap Gets Jealous,” has used a stomping beat, a Kirk Hammett cameo, and K’Naan’s wicked flow to create an iTunes phenomenon – just a few months after Kanye dipped his toe into synth-pop with 808s and Heartbreak, and a few weeks after Lil Wayne announced his Rebirth as a rock artist. But Troubadour really isn’t about trendy hybrids and gimmicky cameos, despite what the presence of the loathsome Adam Levine on “Bang Bang” would lead you to believe; it’s really a thrillingly eclectic, smartly arranged, finely layered collection of socially aware hip-hop whose influences are as diverse as its guest stars (Chubb Rock, Mos Def, and Chali 2na also make appearances). The songs are undeniably informed by K’Naan’s uncommonly peripatetic existence – he was raised in Somalia, fled to New York with his family, and is now based in Toronto – but his messages are as universal as they are uplifting, particularly on tracks like the Lennon-jacking “Dreamer” and brilliant “Wavin’ Flag.” Our current fascination with all things pan-cultural (M.I.A., “Slumdog Millionaire”) will surely fade in time – and it’s already brought us some horrible crap (the Pussycat Dolls’ cover of “Jai Ho”) – but any trend that boosts the fortunes of an artist this talented is one worth being thankful for. In what’s shaping up to be a renaissance year for hip-hop, Troubadour will likely go down as one of the genre’s best releases. (A&M/Octone 2009)

K’Naan MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Hip Hop

The Blind Boys of Alabama: “Live in New Orleans”

March 4, 2009 /

They’ve never had a hit or sold a ton of records, but the Blind Boys of Alabama have been making beautiful music for 70 years and running, so in lieu of the sold-out week at Madison Square Garden they deserve, this DVD – filmed during an appearance at the legendary New Orleans institution Tipitina’s last spring – serves as a suitable tip of the hat to one of modern music’s most distinguished careers. Fittingly, the Blind Boys were on the road promoting a CD, Down in New Orleans, that paid tribute to the city, and the show’s location also enabled them to enlist a passel of the Crescent City’s musical finest, including Susan Tedeschi, Dr. John, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The production values aren’t the best you’ve ever seen, the sound mix occasionally wavers into muddy territory – and if you’ve ever been to Tipitina’s, you know that fitting all those performers on the club’s tiny stage requires some delicate balancing – but what Live in New Orleans lacks in polish, it more than makes up for with the performers’ obvious, bone-deep commitment to the music. There’s little showmanship here, just the performers’ decades of experience, but that’s more than enough for a damn fine show. Live showcases the Blind Boys doing what they do best, and functions as a nicely priced introduction for new converts, who will also enjoy the brief BET-branded documentary bonus feature. (Saguaro Road 2009)

Blind Boys of Alabama MySpace page

Blues, Cajun, Concert DVDs, Soul

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