Author: Jeff Giles (Page 39 of 41)

Poor Ryan Cabrera. You don’t remember him, but just a few short years ago, he was the impossibly coiffed half of a teen-pop power couple, introduced to viewers of “The Ashlee Simpson Show” as Simpson’s boyfriend and fellow budding recording artist. Though a debut album produced by John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls sold well, Cabrera arrived too late to take advantage of the genre’s late ‘90s explosion, and for his third release, he’s gone the indie route: The Moon Under Water arrives via Papa Joe Records, the EMI-distributed imprint helmed by Ashlee’s creepy dad, who has remained Cabrera’s manager. Despite the new logo on the album – and Cabrera’s new, carefully tousled image – these 11 songs offer more of the same immaculately produced, puddle-deep Abercrombie rock that took him to the Top 10 a few years ago. Imagine poppier Lifehouse, or marginally more rockin’ late-period Goo Goo Dolls, and you’re on the right track – which is unfortunate for Cabrera, because as easy as this stuff goes down, the ship has pretty much sailed on this type of music for anyone who doesn’t have either of those acts’ name value. The Moon Under Water is surprisingly solid, and has more than its share of sticky-sweet hooks, but that won’t keep Cabrera from playing ribfests this summer. Maybe another reality show is in order. (Papa Joe 2008)

Ryan Cabrera MySpace page

For everyone who counts down the days between Mandy Moore releases, here’s Gayle Day’s Beautiful Dangerous, a bright-eyed, fluffy-tailed collection of sparkly clean pop songs from the co-founder of the Los Angeles Women’s Music Festival. Appropriately, this album is a miniature women’s music festival all its own – Day’s lyrics focus on life and love from an unapologetically feminine point of view. That may seem like overstating the obvious, but no, really – this is all doe eyes and fluttering lashes, the sort of album that will leave you feeling like you’ve been shopping at Pier 1, knocked back a few glasses of chardonnay, and taken a bubble bath in some Bath & Bodyworks gel by the time it’s over. If you’re still awake when it’s over, that is — Beautiful Dangerous is a whopping 14 tracks long, and what’s worse, Day strings six ballads back-to-back in the middle, all of which sound almost exactly like one another. She’s undeniably charming (albeit very corny) when she ups the tempo and sings about things like not wanting to forget to live life to the fullest, but she doesn’t do it often enough here. For better or worse, it isn’t hard to hear why her songs have been featured in episodes of The Hills. (Littleyap 2008)

Gayle Day MySpace page

She’s never been the most prolific artist, but since entering the ‘domestic bliss’ portion of her life, Sarah McLachlan has established a recording schedule that would make Enya jealous, releasing only one album of original material in the last decade. Give Arista credit for doing what it can to stuff the gap, though — Rarities, B-Sides, and Other Stuff Volume 2 comes on the heels of a deluxe reissue of her Mirrorball live album, which itself followed her second live album, Afterglow Live. Given this paucity of new material, it would be wonderful to be able to say that the 14 songs collected here present some sort of significant value for McLachlan fans, but they really don’t. Her voice sounds beautiful no matter what she’s using it for, but the bulk of Volume 2 consists of goopy soundtrack cuts (like “Ordinary Miracle”) and live cuts. And who let Bryan Adams in here? Or thought it would be a good idea for anyone else to hear McLachlan playing hook girl on DMC’s god-awful “cover” of “Cat’s in the Cradle”? There are a few cool things in here, but do yourself a favor and cherry-pick them from your favorite digital storefront and leave the rest. (Arista 2008)

Sarah McLachlan MySpace page

Swedish singer/songwriter Anna Ternheim’s apparent musical ambitions are best summed up with her cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies,” featured here: All 10,000 layers of plastic ‘80s bombast are stripped away, leaving Christine McVie’s lover’s lament huddled, naked and shivering in the corner, and changing it in the process from an FM-friendly pop song into something darker and deeper. There’s something vaguely disquieting about Ternheim’s wind-chilled delivery here, and it threatens to coalesce in the first half of Halfway to Fivepoints, but the bulk of the album’s back half meanders from one pale mid-tempo ballad to another; between sixth track “No Subtle Men” and penultimate song “Black Widow,” you’re liable to catch yourself thinking about your grocery list, your doctor’s appointment, your projects at work…pretty much anything but the music. There are nice touches throughout, and Ternheim’s a likable enough performer, but she doesn’t have the material to carry her perpetually detached, smooth-to-a-fault vocals. For background music, you could certainly do worse, but who needs more of that? (Decca 2008)

Anna Ternheim MySpace page