Category: Pop (Page 87 of 216)

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

The Lovetones: Dimensions

March 20, 2009 /

You have to hand it to an artist, especially one that is not likely making a ton of money to begin with, for dedicating his time and resources to a project like the Lovetones. The brain child of Matthew J. Tow, the Lovetones, for the uninitiated, are a super-groovy psychedelic pop outfit, and their latest, Dimensions, is an album out of time, and multiple times at that. Tow’s baritone recalls the Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward in “Song to Humanity,” “Love and Redemption” is a direct ancestor to “Eve of Destruction,” and the instantly memorable “Journeyman” works the Mellotron like nobody’s business. It’s all quite lovely – though it often borders on laconic – and critics eat this stuff up because it reminds them of their youth (this writer included, sort of). The band’s problem, as it were, is that ’60s psychedelia is purely a niche market in today’s climate; the last time this album had a chance of reaching a wide audience was with fans of the Church or as an after-hours chill record for the Love & Rockets crowd in the late ’80s. Give Tow credit for doing what he loves, but don’t be surprised if this turns out to be the last thing the Lovetones ever do. Cold hard reality has a way of fucking up things like this. (Planting Seeds 2009)

The Lovetones MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Psychedelic

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

Ida Maria Takes Over The US…Maybe

March 19, 2009 /

Straight from Norway comes the indie-pop sensation Maria Siversten. This quirky 24 year old loves to drink, speaks her mind, and is the proud owner of her very own psychological disorder–synaesthesia, a sensory condition that makes her see colors and shapes when she hears tones or sounds. Her lyrics are blunt, simple, and to the point in a twisted web-of-a-way that often leaves you wondering what her songs are about, but the overall effect is garge-style-scuzz-rock that’ll have you dancing around the room, remote control-microphone in hand.

For the most part Ida’s debut Fortress Round My Heart (RCA) has been well received, earning her a spot on Blender’s 1001 Downloads: Top 144 Songs of 2008. (She came in at number 109.) Rolling Stone Magazine called Fortress “warm and tuneful” but also warned listeners that Ida could ”go easier on the drunken confessionals.” There’s no doubt about the fact that her record is soaked with the remnants of some heavy drinking, but it does make for some interesting tunes.

Unfortunately for Ida Maria, not everyone’s a fan of her spunk-infused pop. DrownedInSound.com wrote:

While her vocal enthusiasm is commendable…there’s not enough bite to Ida Maria’s zesty jump-around-the-room pop-rock for it to really impress. Fortress Round My Heart drags its heels more often than it kicks them, leaving its makers’ explosions of endearing energy exposed as the rarest ingredient in the Norwegian singer’s writing…

After a brief description of her touring history, DrownedInSound.com goes on to say:

The object, according to the artist…was to create a record of ten short, sharp, perfect tracks; pop music that hits hard, that you can dance and drink and go crazy to. There are moments of decently sassy pop-rock here, songs that you can just about see someone singing along to…But these moments are few and far between, and are exclusively the tracks featuring a vaguely vibrant BPM count. When she eases off the gas Ida Maria’s wheels begin to fall off; when she’s careening along to the point of near control-loss, Fortress is a fun, undemanding listen.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say her record is an “undemanding listen” but there are times when you find yourself wondering what exactly you are listening to. NME.com wrote about a few of those moments saying:

The deranged booty call that is ‘I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked’ makes sex sound like a desperate pagan ritual. ‘Oh My God’ makes boozing sound less like a fun past-time than, well, a desperate pagan ritual. By the time things turn to God, on ‘Stella’, He’s having sex with the titular character while, drunk…

Overall, Scandinavian grunge-princess Ida Maria’s unusual blend of sassy melodies and self-deprecating lyrics isn’t half-bad. If you like a little dirt in your pop music you should definitely check out her debut Fortress Round My Heart on iTunes, or drop by her MySpace for a free preview.

Alternative, Artists, CD Reviews, Get to Know, Pop, Rock Babes

Steve Kilbey: Painkiller

March 13, 2009 /

Aussie alternative rock band the Church began making music almost a quarter century ago, and while that band perfected the art of lo-fi before lo-fi was even a term anyone used, it was singer, songwriter and front man Steve Kilbey who mostly dominated the creative aspect of the Church. Kilbey’s first solo effort in eight years, Painkiller, was released in Australia in 2008 and just recently in the U.S. on Second Motion Records. But Church fans should be hesitant at best to grab this or any of Kilbey’s solo work – not because he isn’t talented or that his hypnotic vocals aren’t as spot on as they were in the ‘80s, but because it sounds like Kilbey puts his these songs together in a musical lab. There’s just a lot of weird experimentation going on, with melody and cohesion being after-thoughts. Kilbey’s poetry background is evident in some of these tracks, in particular the opener “Outbound,” which sounds like a spoken-word piece with musical backing. “Celestial” and “Crystalline Rush” are dark and somewhat palatable, as is the catchiest track, “Oenone.” But when Kilbey breaks out the test tubes and beakers, as he does on the 12-minute instrumental track, “File Under Travel,” or on the (gasp) 31-minute long “Not What You Say,” you just might fall asleep before you realize what’s happening. (Second Motion)

Steve Kilbey MySpace Page

Alternative, Ambient, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Indie Labels, Instrumental, Pop, Rock

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