Category: CD Reviews (Page 92 of 399)

Me, Myself, and iPod: ESDMusic’s weekly free downloads

April 7, 2010 /

esd ipod

We receive roughly 6,000 press releases per week that include links to mp3s that we are allowed to post for your downloading pleasure. Why haven’t we been posting more than one or two a month, you ask? Quite simply, by the time we get through all of the press releases, we’ve received another 6,000 emails with newer, “better” songs to run instead. It’s the kind of thing that can get away from someone if they’re not right on top of it.

This is our attempt to rectify the problem. Each week we will run a list of songs for your DRM-free downloading pleasure. And in the time it took us to type that last sentence, 15 more songs just came in. Geez.

The Futureheads – Struck Dumb
The band’s second album This Is Not the World was a bit of a non-starter, despite the fact that it should have appealed to anyone who liked the band’s post-punky debut. “Struck Dumb,” from the band’s upcoming third album The Chaos, still showcases the band’s trademark angular pop, but the edges are smoothed out a bit.

Deluka – Cascade (Acoustic Version)
This synth-pop band’s debut is set to drop later in the year, and this acoustic take on their self-titled EP’s best song is damned good. Usually we wrinkle our noses at acoustic versions of electronic songs, but this one works, and works well.

SPEAK – Digital Love
Everyone loves a cover, and this ultra-sheen pop rock band (think Cash Cash) surprised the crowds at South by Southwest with a faithful take on a track from Daft Punk’s seminal Discovery album. Sure, the keytar solo could have been handled a little better, but we bet this was fun to watch when it happened.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Round and Round
Rare is the song that carries both a haunted, gothic feel (think Joseph Arthur gothic, not Bauhaus gothic) and a sunny, ’70s mellow gold vibe as well, but this song does just that.

In Tall Buildings – The Way to a Monster’s Lair
We’ll be honest: this is the first we’ve heard of either NOMO or Erik Hall. But one spin of this moody but driving track has us wanting more. Anyone looking for a good breakup song would be wise to check this out.

Kaiser Cartel – Ready to Go
Boy/girl duos: they’re the new animal band name. Still, as trends go, this boy/girl thing is a pretty damn good one (The Bird and the Bee, Mates of State, Codeine Velvet Club, Matt & Kim, She & Him, the Ting TIngs), and now that it’s become a movement of its own, perhaps Kaiser Cartel can seize the opportunity to jump to the next level. If “Ready to Go” is any indication, they are poised to pick up a lot more fans when their album Secret Transit drops in June.

Alternative, Artists, CD Reviews, Downloads, Electronica, Gothic, Me Myself and iPod, Melodramatic, Pop, Power Pop, Rock, Steal This Song

Santana: Supernatural, Legacy Edition

April 6, 2010 /


RIYL: Eric Clapton, Dave Mathews Band, Ozomatli

This Legacy Edition re-release of Santana’s 1999 smash-hit, Grammy Award-winning Album of the Year ups the ante by remastering the original album and adding a second disc of bonus tracks that should delight any fan of the original. The bonus disc has outtakes, remixes and unreleased material with several of the same guests from the original album. There’s also a 24-page booklet with rare photos and a 2,000 word essay by Hal Miller on the album’s creation and significance.

The remastered original sounds great, with Santana’s hot, melty licks singing through the mix of warm bass, dynamic percussion, horns, vocals – the guitar legend is a Jedi Master at weaving his lines into a song without stepping on anyone else. Songs like “Put your Lights On” with Everlast and “Smooth” with Rob Thomas received so much airplay that some people may never want to hear them again. But this shouldn’t overshadow the other great tracks on here.

“(Da Le) Yaleo” features Santana wailing at his best, no pop restriction here. “Love of My Life” with Dave Matthews and Carter Beauford is a soulful gem that makes you wish DMB would add a lead guitarist. For those that don’t care for Matchbox 20, “Africa Bamba” is a beautiful track that is truly smooth, without the pop sheen. Lauren Hill & Cee-Lo help Santana explore hip-hop flavor on “Do You Like the Way,” but it’s “Maria Maria” with the Product G&B that really has classic staying power. With its catchy hooks, soulful vocals and mix of both acoustic and electric virtuoso guitar, it’s no surprise that this tune is the one that’s still a mainstay in Santana’s live repertoire. “Wishing It Was” with Eagle-Eye Cherry is another tune that continues to resonate with deeper substance than the bigger radio hits, with its contemplative lyrics and memorable licks. Underrated closer “The Calling” is an epic blues with Santana and Eric Clapton trading licks on a great finale.

One of the highlights of the bonus disc is “The Calling Jam,” also featuring Clapton, and one of seven previously unreleased tracks out of the 11 on the disc. A cover of Cuban band Irakere’s “Bacalao Con Pan” has smoking leads in a Latin rock setting, while the single “Angel Love (Come For Me)” features a horn section and Santana playing sweet leads behind the vocals. This is something most guitarists don’t know how to do. They should listen to Carlos to learn. “Rain Down on Me” with Dave Matthews and Carter Beauford might even be a better song than their collaboration on “Love of My Life,” with Dave singing in a bluesier vibe that resonates well with Santana’s guitar. “Exodus/Get Up Stand Up” is a hot tribute to Bob Marley, while a cover of Lighthouse’s 1971 hit “One Fine Morning” is another high-energy winner. “Maria Maria (Pumpin’ Dolls Club Mix)” provides an alternate dance-oriented approach, while “Corazon Espinado (Spanish Dance Remix)” offers another take on the original album track with Mana.

There’s an uplifting spiritual vibe throughout both discs, along with a great diversity of material and some of Carlos’ most tasteful playing. All of which makes this set a definitive keeper. (Sony Legacy 2010)

Adult Contemporary, Blues, CD Reviews, Latin, Pop, Rock

Steal This Song: Oh Mercy, “Lay Everything on Me”

April 5, 2010 /

There are few ways to get our attention faster than comparing an artist to Neil Finn. It’s a double-edged sword, though; there are scores of artists who try to emulate Finn brothers Neil and Tim, but almost none of them succeed in replicating his signature blend of rich melodcism with a healthy dose of neurosis. Still, when someone dares to make the comparison, we listen.

And, if the song turns out to sound more like the Go-Betweens than the Finn Brothers, we listen again. And again.

oh mercy

Alexander Gow and Tom Savage. The new McLennan and Forster?

“Lay Everything on Me,” the first single from Melbourne quartet Oh Mercy, feels like a lost track from 1987, the kind of thing that would have received heavy airplay in the early days of 120 Minutes. Think the Immaculate Fools, Danny Wilson, the aforementioned Go-Betweens, or if you want a modern-day comparison, Jupiter One. It’s insanely melodic guitar pop, with a simple, driving drum beat (and lots of cowbell) and a bare-bones scratch guitar line. But this is no retro hipster douchebag band cashing in on a movement; they simply favor melody over an ironic pose or sonic gimmicks – as it should me, damn it.

The band’s debut album, Priviledged Woes, is set to drop in the States soon, and after a dozen spins of this song and a quick glance of the songs on their MySpace page (which features a nifty cover of the Cardigans’ “Lovefool” that they recorded for an Australian radio station), it can’t come soon enough.

Oh Mercy – Lay Everything on Me

Alternative, Artists, CD Reviews, Downloads, Pop, Steal This Song

Scorpions: Sting in the Tail

April 5, 2010 /


RIYL: Bon Jovi, KISS, Spinal Tap

When the Scorpions announced that their new album, Sting in the Tail, would be their last, some cursed, others cried, but most asked, “Wow, really, the Scorpions are still together?” At this, the other two demographics immediately responded, “Well, they won’t be soon, but thanks for pouring a little more salt in the wound, you cruel bastards,” but at least the band has offered up quite a bit of music in their 45-year career – yes, seriously: the original incarnation of the band came together in 1965 – to keep their fans rocking well into the future. The Scorpions’ previous album, 2007’s Humanity: Hour I, found them teaming up with producers James Michael and Desmond Child for a concept album that was better than you might think (and, believe it or not, even featured a guest appearance from Billy Corgan on one track), but for their grand finale, the group has opted to go back to basics and re-embrace the straight-ahead heavy metal sound that earned them their greatest success.

When you first glance at the track listing, you may well be tempted to call the Rock Cliche police, given that there’s a clear violation on the allowed number of songs per album which feature the word “rock” in their title: while I believe it varies from country to country, it cannot possibly be acceptable in any nation to offer three on one record, as they do here with “Raised on Rock,” “Rock Zone,” and “Spirit of Rock.” Still, there’s something to be said for playing to the fans, and those individuals who can successfully scream “Scorpions ROCK!” without even the slightest hint of irony are not likely to complain about such a transgression, nor will they laugh out loud about the band’s daring decision to close the album with a song entitled “The Best Is Yet To Come” the way almost every critic in the world – including yours truly – surely did. But, then, we music journalists are jaded and cynical lot…unlike the Scorpions, who are clearly still enjoying themselves.

One of the aforementioned “rock” songs – “Raised on Rock” – kicks off the proceedings, and it’s good…or, at least, it sounds like the band made a conscious effort to write a track that would make those listeners checking in on the band for the first time since “Rock You Like A Hurricane” think that they were having a flashback. There isn’t an ounce of originality in the song – think about Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love A Bad Name,” then try to keep from laughing at the :44 mark – but it’s still a great riff and a monster chorus. The same can be said for several other songs on the album, too, including “The Good Die Young,” “Lorelei,” and…well, okay, you probably won’t be able to keep from laughing at “Turn You On,” either, given that it rhymes “if you wanna feel the sting” with “come on, baby, shake that thing,” but it, too, is catchy as hell.

Whether you’ll view Sting in the Tail as a worthy final chapter to the Scorpions’ 19-album career will, as you might suspect, depend heavily on how many of those albums you’ve actually heard (not to mention whether you can enjoy the music without choking on the lyrics), but for those who who haven’t bothered to follow the band since they whistled their way into the top 10 with “Winds of Change,” it at least serves to prove that the band can indeed still…wait for it…rock you like a hurricane. (UMG 2010)

The Scorpions MySpace page

CD Reviews, External Music, Metal, Rock

Barenaked Ladies: All in Good Time

April 2, 2010 /


RIYL: Camper Van Beethoven, Moxy Fruvous, The Housemartins

From the outside, it always looked like the Barenaked Ladies got most of their goofy humor from Ed “One Week” Robertson, and most of their moody depth from Steven “The Old Apartment” Page – so when Page quit the band last year, it might have seemed safe to conclude that subsequent BNL albums would contain a lot of tongue-in-cheek rapping and punny wordplay. Creative dynamics are never that simple, of course, but it still may come as a surprise to many fans that BNL’s first post-Page effort, All in Good Time, contains some of the band’s darkest, most mature work.

Barenaked_Ladies_04

Even better, Time goes a long way toward correcting the blandly pleasant drift of the Ladies’ recent efforts, restoring some of the bite and emotional depth that lurked beneath their sunny pop hooks. For the first time in recent memory, Barenaked Ladies sounds like an honest-to-goodness band here, and not just because songwriting credits are split relatively democratically between Robertson and his fellow remaining BNLers (Kevin Hearn, Tyler Stewart, and Jim Creggan). There’s an organic, lived-in feel to these performances that shines through the band’s usual production gimmicks; even the album’s requisite rap number, “Four Seconds,” sounds more authentically funky.

There are a number of tracks that sling arrows at departed friends and lovers, and it’ll be hard for fans to resist the temptation to wonder how many of them were inspired by Page’s absence. “I tried to be your brother / You cried, and ran for cover,” Robertson sings on the opening track and leadoff single, “You Run Away”; later, he spits “Can you forgive me for / What I had to do? / I’d use a metaphor / But I’m done with you” in the charging “I Have Learned.” But how truly personal these songs are isn’t as important as the breadth of their appeal – and both of those tracks offer more resonance, boast more feeling, than the band has shown in years. The same is true for much of the rest of All in Good Time. Call it addition through subtraction. (Risin’/EMI 2010)

Barenaked Ladies MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop

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