Category: Rock (Page 25 of 241)

Michael Franti & Spearhead: The Sound of Sunshine

September 20, 2010 / Greg M. Schwartz

RIYL: String Cheese Incident, Keller Williams, Ziggy Marley

This is an aptly titled album, as practically every track beams out a catchy upbeat vibe to the listener. Franti has long specialized in feel-good grooves with a message, while also dabbling in bluesier and hard rocking flavors. But his bread and butter has always been the melodic, uplifting stuff. This album maybe overdoes it a bit, and lacks in the diversity that made for such strong albums with 2001’s Stay Human and 2008’s All Rebel Rockers. The latter yielded the band’s first Top 20 hit with the catchy “Say Hey (I Love You)” though, so it’s not a shock to see Franti and company looking to mine that vein further. Franti has been speaking truth to power for years with little financial reward, so you can’t begrudge him a thing.

There’s no call-to-arms, revolution-oriented track like “Rock the Nation,” “Yell Fire” or or “A Little Bit of Riddim,” which may disappoint some listeners. But Franti is still wheeling and dealing with the cathartic rhymes and beats as an antidote to dark times, including his own death-defying bout with a ruptured appendix last year. There’s more of an emphasis on the acoustic guitars, as well as a continuation of the reggae vibe that was a strong flavor on the last album.

The title track kicks off the album and sets the catchy, uplifting tone for the album with lyrics like “they can take away my job but not my friends.” “Shake It” pumps up the energy with an upbeat romantic number that receives vocal assistance from the dynamic Cherine Anderson, a previous collaborator. “Hey Hey Hey” remains upbeat but also features some of the cathartic, reflective vibe that Franti is so good at. “Anytime You Need Me” emphasizes a cheery reggae vibe.

One of the best tracks is “I’ll Be Waiting,” which bites the guitar parts from U2’s “Bad” with great effect on a tune about loyalty. The most rocking track on the album is “The Thing That Helps Me Get Through,” a high-energy tune with a steady beat and lyrics about getting down with that special someone as a remedy to a crazy, mixed up world. “Headphones” dabbles in some sonic ambiance to create a laid-back atmospheric effect.

The album doesn’t have the musical diversity of Franti’s past work, but it’s got plenty of the feel-good grooves that are his trademark, and this chaotic world can certainly use more of that. (Capitol Records 2010)

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Ludo: Prepare the Preparations

September 17, 2010 / James B. Eldred

RIYL: Sparks, My Chemical Romance, They Might Be Giants, Rocky Horror Picture Show

Ludo is a band that just keeps getting weirder, and that’s really saying something considering their second release was Broken Bride, a rock opera EP about atime-traveling scientist who, while on a quest to save his dead wife, ends up battling Satan and his army of zombies with his own legion of pterodactyls. The follow up to to Broken Bride was You’re Awful, I Love You. And while it found them on a major label for the first time, it didn’t stop singer/guitarist Andrew Volpe from penning horror-themed tunes about evil zombies in Lake Pontchartrain and stalker neighbors.

Ludo’s journey into insanity continues with Prepare the Preparations, an album that switches between lighthearted wackiness and the genuinely disturbing so much that it should be prescribed medication for manic depression.. It speaks volumes that the most mainstream-sounding track on Prepare the Preparations is “Whipped Cream,” a tongue-in-cheek ode to using the confectionery as a sex aid. From there things get downright insane. “Anything for You” is a deceptive love ballad that sounds normal at first, but as Volpe sings about his adventures in space, travels across the astral plane and meetings with leprechauns, it becomes apparent that this isn’t your typical love song. The same goes for “All the Stars in Texas” an ode from one bank robber to another, and “Manta Ray,” a song that may or may not be sung from the perspective of a man drowning himself (and someone else?) in his car. Its theme is subtle and not exactly clear. Something that cannot be said for the theatrical “Cyborgs vs Robots” and “Skeletons on Parade,” two songs so goofy that They Might Be Giants would think they’re too silly.

Ludo’s unique brand of weird will probably alienate ten times the people it attracts, but those who do enjoy Prepare the Preparations will absolutely fall in love with it. Most likely while driving to a horror movie convention. (Island 2010)

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Robert Plant: Band of Joy

September 17, 2010 / Jeff Giles

RIYL: Buddy Miller, Bob Dylan, Daniel Lanois

Like a handful of his graying peers – Van Morrison and Neil Young come to mind – Robert Plant has made a career out of defying and confounding his fans’ expectations. What makes Plant unique among rock’s elder contrarians, though, is quality control; he may not give his fans what they say they want, but it’s rare that he delivers an album that’s impossible to love.

Band of Joy is a case in point. In terms of tone and vibe, it picks up more or less where his Grammy-winning collaboration with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, left off: an album of rootsy, Nashville-recorded covers, rich in beautifully subdued atmosphere. But Plant remains too restless to settle for a straight sequel; he abandoned the follow-up sessions with Krauss and Sand producer T Bone Burnett, opting instead to team up with producer/guitarist Buddy Miller for a set whose title serves as a playful reminder of his pre-Zeppelin band.

What listeners are left with is an album that lacks Sand‘s stately grace, but has a pungent, bluesy heft all its own. Plant’s choice of material is as impeccable as ever – standouts include a mandolin-laced version of Los Lobos’ “Angel Dance” and a mournfully loping take on Townes Van Zandt’s “Harm’s Swift Way” – and Miller proves a splendid foil, adding dark, roiling swaths of guitar that hover over crisply recorded arrangements. And then, of course, there are the vocals: Plant remains in fine form, and if you’re disappointed by his continued disinterest in unleashing his old hammer-of-the-gods howl, you can take comfort in the presence of Patty Griffin, who lends a layer of burnished harmony to seven of the album’s 12 tracks.

So it isn’t a Zep reunion, and it isn’t Raising Sand II. Here’s what Band of Joy is: An addictive collection of strong, quietly confident performances from a 62-year-old man who could have started phoning it in 25 years ago, but hasn’t forgotten how to make music simply for the joy of it. If it isn’t one of the best albums of the year, it’s certainly one of the purest. (Rounder 2010)

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Herra Terra: Quiet Geist

September 16, 2010 / David Medsker

RIYL: Kenna, Muse, The Killers

The press release for Quiet Geist, the new album from Northeastern electronic pop quartet Herra Terra, dared to name-check two big D’s that will get us to instinctively request a review copy like a Pavlovian dog: Depeche, and Duran. Silly us. We’ve seen this before, it’s almost never accurate, and as it turns out, it wasn’t accurate here, either. But in their defense, that’s probably because they knew that comparing it to Kenna’s New Sacred Cow would just leave people scratching their heads.

The funny thing is, we’ve heard quite a few artists lately who have taken inspiration from Kenna’s first album, the joke being that no one bought the record, but everyone seems to have heard it. And we’d bet dollars to donuts that Herra Terra could play the album start to finish at their next Halloween show, if leadoff track “Ejection Seats” is any indication. The songs are better arranged than they are written, which is not to say the songs are poor; it’s just that the music doesn’t stand above the nifty shifts in tempo or the slow builds, both of which anchor “You Were the Accelerator.” There is also the matter of singer John Paul Tonelli’s voice; It’s too muscular for the kind of music the band plays. That might sound like quibbling, but show us the last synth-driven band with a butch singer. Still, there is potential here. When the songwriting catches up with the band’s sense of atmospherics, they could be dangerous. (The Mylene Sheath 2010)

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Santana: Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time

September 16, 2010 / Jeff Giles

RIYL: rabies shots, “The Human Centipede,” being punched in the genitals

Carlos Santana has claimed for years that he gets his artistic marching orders from the angel Metatron, but after listening to Guitar Heaven, even some of his staunchest fans may be forced to admit the possibility that Carlos has been dipping a little too deeply into his stash of Santana DVX — either that, or Metatron is actually a vengeful ghost who hates Santana, classic rock, and the record-buying public.

Equal parts cynically commercial and shockingly misguided, Guitar Heaven takes a dozen classic rock tracks and turns them into Golden Throats-style shotgun blasts of unintentional comedy. The idea of Santana recording glossy, lukewarm covers of “Whole Lotta Love,” “Smoke on the Water,” and “Bang a Gong” sounds senseless enough, but Metatron’s plan for the album – subtitled The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time – came with a fiendish twist. Each of these unnecessary covers, you see, comes bundled with a vocal cameo from a singer who, in most cases, has absolutely no business performing the song in question.

Time and again, unstoppable chutzpah meets immutable rock ‘n’ roll classics. Chris Cornell wails all over a limp “Whole Lotta Love.” Chris Daughtry clenches his teeth through a neutered version of Def Leppard’s “Photograph.” Rob Thomas – Rob Thomas! – steps in front of the mic for “Sunshine of Your Love.” Nas and Janelle Monae collaborate on the clattering horror that is this album’s take on “Back in Black.” (Sample line: “Carlos on the guitar, relentless / Makes me visualize the clubs when they spin this.” Really.) Gavin Rossdale adds nothing to Santana’s sax-frosted arrangement for “Bang a Gong.” Jacoby Dix of Papa Roach is somehow allowed to sing “Smoke on the Water.” So on and so forth. Perhaps no album since the Shaggs’ Philosophy of the World has presented such a stunningly ill-conceived and consistently outmatched union of performers and material.

About the only thing here that makes sense is Joe Cocker showing up to lend his still-strong vocals to “Little Wing,” which suits Santana’s style and Cocker’s voice so well that you wish they’d done an entire album together. It wouldn’t have made Clive Davis’ eyes light up, but at least it wouldn’t have included Pat Monahan of Train singing Van Halen’s “Dance the Night Away,” or Scott Stapp – Scott Stapp! – dropping a deuce on “Fortunate Son.” If you happen to see Metatron, please punch him in the kidneys for us. (Arista 2010)

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