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Sevendust: Cold Day Memory

April 19, 2010 /


RIYL: Disturbed, Staind, melodic hard rock

If there’s a more consistent hard rock band out there than Sevendust, I sure haven’t found them. These guys, even after losing a founding member in Clint Lowery (who makes his studio return here), for five years, continue to produce stellar material, and Cold Day Memory should please their ever-growing fan base. Though not quite as solid as 2001’s Animosity (their masterpiece, in my opinion) or the much-angrier Home, this release deserves to be in the upper echelon of the Sevendust catalog.

Faithful fans know these cats always start an album off with a bang, and “Splinter” is no exception. Clint Lowery, returning after five years off to work with Dark New Day and Korn, makes his presence immediately felt with superb background vocals and his signature guitar riffs. “Forever,” the first song from the album officially released online, is a beast unto itself. Lowery, along with guitarist John Connolly, bassist Vinnie Hornsby, and drummer Morgan Rose, are as tight rhythmically as I’ve ever heard them. It’s as if Lowery never left.  The signature melodic choruses really kick into gear on songs such as “Unraveling” (the first single), “Last Breath,” “Confessions,” and “Here and Now.”

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The true separator for Sevendust over the years has been singer Lajon Witherspoon. He’s had the most soulful and diverse voice in the genre since the band burst onto the scene in the late ’90s, and he hasn’t lost a step on Cold Day Memory. He’s what makes the band’s sudden changes between brutal and beautiful possible – and successful.

Fans as well as the uninitiated will find little to complain about with this release. A part of me was really hoping for something a little more experimental – what they did with “Burn” on Alpha was truly transcendent for them, and I’d love to see them build upon it at some point – but nevertheless we still have another dozen solid Sevendust songs. That alone is superior to a lot of the other stuff out there. (7Bros. Records/ILG)

Sevendust MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Metal, Rock

Like the song in the iPad commercial? Check these out…

April 16, 2010 /

The song is called “There Goes My Love” by The Blue Van, a Danish blues-rock van. The commercial has been all over the airwaves lately, but if you’ve been living under a rock (or are just really good with the 30-second skip button on your DVR remote), take a listen:

The song is from the band’s third album, Man Up. I reviewed their first two efforts, The Art of Rolling and Dear Independence and enjoyed them both. Here are a few highlights from their first two releases:

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Artists, External Music, Get to Know, Playlists, Songs, Videos

Ratt: Infestation

April 16, 2010 /


RIYL: ’80s rock, cold beer, hot women

The ’90s were dark days for the hard rock bands that made their bones in the previous decade. Some of them may have achieved their greatest chart success between 1990 and 1993, but that owes more to the dawning of the Soundscan era than the band’s Q factor. There is a story about A&R reps calling their bands on the road when Nirvana’s Nevermind went supernova, telling them, “Come on home, boys. It’s over.” There was simply no room for hair metal in the new grunge order.

And who should come to hair metal’s rescue but…Mickey Rourke. As former wrestling superstar Randy “The Ram” Robinson in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” Rourke gave voice to the frustrations of more than a few disgruntled rock hounds when he dismissively observed how “that Cobain pussy had to come along and ruin it all.” Of course, this rallying cry came about a decade too late, as most of the bands from the era had either burned out (Motley Crue), gone the reality TV route (Poison), or morphed into bitter codgers, like Warrant’s Jani “I’m the ‘Cherry Pie’ guy” Lane.

Which brings us to Ratt, a band 20 years removed from their last gold album and a good 25 years removed from their last really good album. (“Way Cool Jr.” was fun, but let’s be honest here, people.) Infighting and drugs have dominated the band’s existence since 1992 – guitarist Robbin Crosby died of an overdose in 2006 – but Stephen Pearcy, Warren DiMartini and Bobby Blotzer have circled the wagons with two new members to make Infestation, the band’s first album in 11 years and a no-nonsense throwback to the band’s early ’80s glory days. Randy the Ram would have loved this record.

With nary a power ballad in sight, Ratt tears through these 11 songs like they’re running from the Devil himself. Similarities to earlier Ratt songs are unavoidable, as “Look Out Below” bears resemblance to “Slip of the Lip,” and “Best of Me” is this album’s “I Want a Woman.” Yes, the song titles (“Last Call,” “Garden of Eden,” “Take a Big Bite”) would empty the Rock Cliche Police’s ticket book, and Pearcy’s voice is a little worse for wear. (Great understatement, that.) Still, weathered or not, Pearcy has one of the most unique voices of the ’80s hard rock scene, even if he’s lost an octave off the top, and the songwriting here is surprisingly good. Anyone who misses sure-as-shit guitar solos and rock bands who just want to have a good time will consider Infestation a sight for sore ears. In truth, it’s a three-star album, but they get an extra half-star for exceeding our expectations so greatly. (Roadrunner 2010)

Ratt MySpace page
Click to buy Infestation from Amazon

Artists, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Metal, Rock

Shelby Lynne: Tears, Lies, and Alibis

April 16, 2010 /


RIYL: Roseanne Cash, Tift Merritt, Neko Case

It took ten years for Shelby Lynne to declare I Am Shelby Lynne, following her little-noticed first life as a glossed over country-pop singer from the late ’80s to the mid ’90s. This period was so little noticed, in fact, that I Am Shelby Lynne earned her a “Best New Artist” Grammy in 2001, even though the not-so-unknown Epic label had released her 1989 debut a full ten years prior. But we all know how with-it the Grammys are.

Anyway, since then, Shelby has done a little western swing (Restless), some Dusty Springfield covers (2008’s Just a Little Lovin’), and now she returns to roost in a mostly stripped back, rootsy country vibe with Tears, Lies, and Alibis. A little bit of Dusty’s Memphis soul from the last album informs this disc, but for the most part, this is country music as it was meant to be – about real life situations, and with no gimmicky production tricks or cynical modern pop chord changes and productions.

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The stripped back production is especially welcome in light of the beautiful directness of songs like “Family Tree,” which is as bitter and biting as similar minded tracks by Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan; or “Alibi,” which packs its main wallop via low key vocal harmonies that are deservedly allowed to step forward each time before the chorus hook. They only show for a few seconds each time, but that’s all the time they need to make their point.

At ten songs, the album is lean, though not a second is wasted. It’s exactly the kind of record that one hopes to find these days – the kind that has no weak moments, that doesn’t drag on too long, and that has a strong enough emotional resonance to keep inviting a return listen. Granted, it’s not going to fit every situation, but on a dreary rainy day, it’s perfectly in sync with the environment. In times of heartbreak, it reads your mind and says what you’re not courageous enough to say. And in times when you just want to hear a solid, well crafted album filled with well written songs, you couldn’t do much better. (Everso 2010)

Shelby Lynne MySpace page

Americana, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Country

Original Cast Recording: American Idiot

April 15, 2010 /


RIYL: Green Day, “Rent,” “Glee”

Here’s the God’s honest truth about the Broadway cast recording of “American Idiot” – it’s neither as good nor as bad as you’ve heard it is. These kinds of projects serve as a knives-out snarkfest for the more weak-willed music critics, who are then assaulted by the band’s faithful followers in the comment sections. Don’t take sides; they’re both right, and they’re both wrong.

The album features Green Day’s landmark 2004 album American Idiot in its entirety – they even included some B-sides from the Idiot sessions – along with a few tracks from the band’s 2009 album 21st Century Breakdown. The backing tracks are by and large Green Day’s original recordings, though “Last of the American Girls” starts off with a knowing wink to “Eleanor Rigby.” This makes for some smooth transitions from CD to the stage, though “Jesus of Suburbia” sports one of the most jarriing key changes you’ll ever hear when it’s the female lead’s turn to sing.

Perhaps the most shocking thing about American Idiot is the fact that Green Day’s original recordings of these songs are in many ways more musical than the musical versions. Stacked vocals are stripped away for the purpose of building to the big choral effect, though they don’t do that big choral effect nearly enough. Indeed, many songs are frankly undersung. The songs are already larger than life; the Broadway versions of them should be massive, like Godzilla-destroying-Manhattan big. The title track pulls a nifty layered vocal build-up during the break, and “Whatsername” capitalizes on the song’s soft-LOUD arrangement to make for a triumphant finale. “21 Guns” is the album’s showstopping moment, with the most theatrical arrangement and a vocal to match. The album could use more moments like them. “Wake Me Up When September Ends” has the pretty string touches, but for a musical about a post-9/11 landscape, that song of all songs should have been sung to the heavens.

The band were unquestionably treading a slippery slope in adapting their music for the stage, and they must have felt pressure to keep the spirit of the originals intact. Ironically, American Idiot could have benefited from a little more tinkering. It’s great to hear a Broadway score rock like this, but it would have been better to see them fully embrace what people love about Broadway in the first place. (Reprise 2010)

Click to buy American Idiot from Amazon

Alternative, Artists, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Punk, Rock, Vocal

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