Category: CD Reviews (Page 49 of 398)

The Doobie Brothers: World Gone Crazy

September 28, 2010 /


RIYL: Bob Seger, The Eagles, Boston

51R3XNkkyPL._SCLZZZZZZZ_[1] News of World Gone Crazy‘s existence is likely to elicit one of three responses:

1. “The Doobie Brothers have a new one out? Who knew those dinosaurs were still around?”
2. “The Doobie Brothers have a new one out? Hope it doesn’t suck as much as their last couple of records!”
3. “Hell yeah! Good rockin’ tonight!”

Responses one and two might seem to make the most sense, but against all odds, it’s the third one that most accurately describes the Doobies’ 13th album (and first in a decade). After scoring a gold record and a Top 10 single with their 1989 reunion album, Cycles, they limped through the ’90s and aughts, releasing a pair of weak albums (1991’s Brotherhood and 2000’s Sibling Rivalry) and wheezing into the “heritage rock” tour circuit like a band whose best creative days were long past. But World Gone Crazy isn’t just another piece of swag to sell at the concession stand during their next tour – it’s actually a helluva rock record, and easily the Doobies’ best album since 1978’s Minute by Minute.

Is that damning with faint praise, considering the unevenness of what came after? Perhaps. But World Gone Crazy is still a quality album – good enough, in fact, to serve as a template for the band’s peers during their own sporadic forays into the studio. It’s a record rich with nods to the past, including the band’s reunion with Ted Templeman and their resurrection of “Nobody,” a long-discarded track re-recorded for these sessions – but this doesn’t sound like a band trying to get back to its past. Instead, the Doobies simply sound comfortable with their legacy and their place in today’s music industry. It makes a world of difference – unlike a lot of new albums from bands of the Doobies’ vintage, World Gone Crazy never tries too hard. The Doobie Brothers are who they are, and while they’re willing to acknowledge their past (right up to inviting ex-Doobie Michael McDonald in for a guest spot on one track), there’s nothing self-conscious about these performances. They may as well have been performing for themselves.

Of course, it helps that the album is stacked with good songs. This is meat-and-potatoes West Coast rock ‘n’ roll, so you shouldn’t go in expecting poetry, but within the context of a genre that hasn’t seemed to have a creative pulse for far too long, World Gone Crazy is surprisingly vibrant. “Nobody” sounds like it was unearthed from a time capsule, which is understandable, given its age – but what’s surprising is just how seamlessly it stands up against everything else on the album. Open a beer – American, of course – and turn this up as loud as the neighbors will allow. Then ask yourself why bands like the Doobie Brothers ever went out of fashion. (HOR 2010)

Doobie Brothers MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Rock

Gin Blossoms: No Chocolate Cake

September 27, 2010 /


RIYL: Marshall Crenshaw, Del Amitri, Toad the Wet Sprocket

The Gin Blossoms pulled a nifty comeback when they dropped Major Lodge Victory in 2006. It didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but this is the Gin Blossoms we’re talking about – they’re just not one of those bands, and there isn’t a goddamn thing wrong with that. Unfortunately, while the band may not be reinventing themselves, they are repeating a disturbing pattern from their days in the spotlight: following a good album with an inferior one.

Gin_Blossoms_01

And whle we’re talking about their first “inferior” album, let’s be clear about one thing up front: Congratulations I’m Sorry was not a bad record. Granted, it wasn’t a great record, but its biggest crime was that it wasn’t able to catch the public off guard like New Miserable Experience did. As radio songs go, “Day Job,” “Follow You Down” and “Not Only Numb” are only slightly, only slightly behind “Hey Jealousy,” “Found Out About You” and “Mrs. Rita” on the ear candy scale. The biggest thing Congratulations had against it was timing, and the same could be said of No Chocolate Cake. Once the Blossoms put Major Lodge Victory on the shelves, they lost the element of surprise once again. Chocolate Cake is perfectly pleasant, and occasionally more than that, namely “Wave Bye Bye” and “Something Real,” which was inexplicably relegated to the album’s basement (song #10 out of 11). Lead single “Miss Disarray” hits all of the same buttons that their earlier songs hit; the problem is that those buttons don’t work anymore.

But is that the Gin Blossoms’ fault? If anything, give them credit for sticking to their guns and doing the one thing they know how to do really well, commercial prospects be damned. A weaker band would have turned in some lame Rob Thomas knockoff a decade ago for another chance at the brass ring. Not the Gin Blossoms. If they’re going down, they’re going down doing what they love, and they deserve credit for that. Besides, that corporate circuit is a profitable one, from what we’ve heard, and there isn’t a goddamn thing wrong with that, either. (429 Records 2010)

Gin Blossoms MySpace page
Click to buy Chocolate Cake from Amazon

Alternative, Artists, CD Reviews, Pop, Power Pop, Rock

OMD: History of Modern

September 27, 2010 /


RIYL: old-school OMD, Kraftwerk

One could make a strong case for OMD as one of the most overlooked bands of synth pop’s first wave, and ironically, it was their commercial success that diminished their profile. Before the band struck American gold with “So in Love” and “If You Leave,” OMD were more inclined to mess around with their new toys just to see what kinds of sounds they could make. Hit songs were a bonus, but the band was more concerned with making art with a capital A. Then those hits came, and damned if it didn’t feel nice and warm in the spotlight. The band wanted to stay there a little longer, so they made 1986’s The Pacific Age. They were rewarded with one Top 20 single in “(Forever) Live and Die” and declining record sales on both sides of the pond. Not even a support slot on Depeche Mode’s stadium-filling Music for the Masses tour could stop the band from imploding, as singer Andy McCluskey watched the rest of the band walk away. Whoops.

OMD_02

McCluskey ultimately grew tired of carrying the OMD torch by himself after 1996’s Universal, but it was ten more years before McCluskey and co-founder Paul Humphreys buried the hatchet and embarked on a special tour featuring the band’s Architecture and Morality in its entirety (which makes them trendsetters on the ‘full album live’ front). At long last, McCluskey and Humphreys, along with original rhythm section Malcolm Holmes and Martin Cooper, are releasing History of Modern, their first album together since The Pacific Age. The good news is that they clearly recognize that there was magic in the sound of those early albums that was missing from their later work. The bad news is that they seem content to use their old songs as the framework for their new ones. And Humphreys doesn’t get a single lead vocal.

Sometimes the similarities to earlier songs are subtle, like the vocal in ther verses to “The Right Side.” The track itself is pure Krautrock goodness, but the vocal melody in the verse bears a strong resemblance to “We Love You.” Other songs are a bit more outspoken in terms of their origins; “RFWK,” another Kraut-ish gem (the title references the first initials of Kraftwerk’s best-known lineup), is essentially the 2010 version of “Souvenir,” while “Sister Mary Says” is a little bit “Enola Gay,” a little bit “Dreaming,” with a vocal melody in the verse that recalls the unintelligible vocal snippet throughout “Flame of Hope.” Interestingly, this song’s origins go back to 1981, and McCluskey revisited it for inclusion on Universal, but decided against it because it sounded too much like old OMD. That the song would be acceptable for inclusion now is either amusing, cynical or sad – we’re honestly not sure which.

Sonically, History of Modern chugs along like the long-lost follow-up to Junk Culture. Musically, it could have used a little more time in the oven. There are glimmers of hope here and there, like the shimmering “Sometimes” (dig the Macy Gray-ish vocals by Jennifer John), but the next time McCluskey and Humphreys decide to make a record together, let’s hope that the collaboration is a mutual one, rather than Humphreys agreeing to perform a bunch of songs McCluskey has already written. (Bright Antenna 2010)

OMD MySpace page
Click to buy History of Modern from Amazon

Alternative, Artists, CD Reviews, Dance, Electronica, Pop

Miami Horror: Illumination

September 23, 2010 /


RIYL: Daft Punk, Midnight Juggernauts, Air’s Moon Safari

Some like to deride Daft Punk for how little they contribute to their own songs – for a clever YouTube clip of Daft Punk’s songs, and the songs they stole to create them, click here – but the world of electronic music, and pop in general, is much, much better off for having them in it. In the beginning of the 2000s, dance tracks were largely instrumentals for speed freaks, with jacked-up BPMs and no soul. Thanks to Daft Punk, the song has returned to the forefront. Even better, thanks to their song “Aerodynamic,” some acts have begun dabbling in prog. A terrifying concept on paper, but to date, it’s working quite well in execution, and the unofficial home for this techno-prog sub-genre appears to be Australia, of all places. Two years ago, the Midnight Juggernauts delivered an alt-dance classic with their debut Dystopia, and now Melbourne’s Miami Horror jumps into the fray with Illumination.

Musically, Illumination feels like a brainstorming session between Daft Punk and Nile Rodgers and (the late, great) Bernard Edwards. Bubbly synth lines (think Supertramp’s “The Logical Song”) intertwine with scratchy guitar riffs, along with a healthy dose of the wah-wah pedal, all laid on top of a four-on-the-floor Daft Punk beat. The back half of the album is a bit more experimental, as the band delves into some more complex chord sequences. “Grand Illusion” sounds like “Aerodynamic” had it been produced by Giorgio Moroder, and “Illuminated” could easily pass for a B-side from Air’s Moon Safari sessions. Smack dab in the middle is “Sometimes,” which sounds like New Order re-imagined as the Studio 54 house band. There is no surefire can’t-miss single (though “Echoplex” comes close), but that’s actually one of the refreshing things about the album; most electronic acts have that one tune that dwarfs the others, but Miami Horror has a more balanced attack. Will definitely keep your next party hopping. (Car W.S. 2010)

Miami Horror MySpace
Click to buy Illumination from Amazon

Artists, CD Reviews, Dance, Electronica, Pop

The Airborne Toxic Event: All I Ever Wanted: Live from the Walt Disney Concert Hall

September 23, 2010 /

Note: This is a review of the 90-minute documentary film only. At press time, we did not have access to the CD or the DVD of the entire show. Though we hope to, soon.

It’s still baffling to us that Pitchfork would go so far out of their way to bash a band like the Airborne Toxic Event – they gave the band’s eponymous debut album, which we loved, a scathing 1.6 on their 10-point scale – and after watching “All I Ever Wanted: Live from the Walt Disney Concert Hall,” the insult seems twice as offensive. They seem like geniunely good, extremely gracious people, and the way they got the community involved in their landmark show was deeply touching. A local high school band plays on “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?” and a raucous cover of the Ramones’ “Do You Remember Rock ‘n Roll Radio?,” while a school girl’s choir jumps in for a rousing, kitchen-sink version of “Missy.” The band sounds great – the high school band misses a few notes, but hey, they’re kids – and they look like they’re having the time of their lives both performing and recording this show.

If there is one problem with the movie, it’s that it goes for long stretches without any music, and when they do include music, they opt for a cover version (the Ramones, Magnetic Fields, Q Lazzarus) as often as they show them playing one of their own songs. The covers are cute, but the movie could have used more original material. The set includes a separate DVD of the entire show, of course, but if we’re having our music documented for all eternity, we’re going to make sure the majority of the footage consists of original material, not someone else’s. But then again, that’s a very Mikel Jollett thing to do, favoring someone else’s songs over his own. (Island 2010)

Airborne Toxic Event MySpace page
Click to buy All I Ever Wanted from Amazon

Alternative, Artists, CD Reviews, Concert CDs, Concert DVDs, Rock

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