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Anna Ternheim: Halfway to Fivepoints

May 16, 2008 / Jeff Giles

Swedish singer/songwriter Anna Ternheim’s apparent musical ambitions are best summed up with her cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies,” featured here: All 10,000 layers of plastic ‘80s bombast are stripped away, leaving Christine McVie’s lover’s lament huddled, naked and shivering in the corner, and changing it in the process from an FM-friendly pop song into something darker and deeper. There’s something vaguely disquieting about Ternheim’s wind-chilled delivery here, and it threatens to coalesce in the first half of Halfway to Fivepoints, but the bulk of the album’s back half meanders from one pale mid-tempo ballad to another; between sixth track “No Subtle Men” and penultimate song “Black Widow,” you’re liable to catch yourself thinking about your grocery list, your doctor’s appointment, your projects at work…pretty much anything but the music. There are nice touches throughout, and Ternheim’s a likable enough performer, but she doesn’t have the material to carry her perpetually detached, smooth-to-a-fault vocals. For background music, you could certainly do worse, but who needs more of that? (Decca 2008)

Anna Ternheim MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, Pop

Charlotte Sometimes: Waves and the Both of Us

May 16, 2008 / David Medsker

Bar none the sauciest pop record released this year, the songs on Waves and the Both of Us, the debut by 20-year-old Charlotte Sometimes (name taken from the book and not the Cure song, thank you) are deceptively complex. The airy, hook-laden melodies flow innocently enough, but the lyrics are thick with sex, jealousy and contempt, like Natalie Imbruglia singing songs from Jagged Little Pill. The title track, for example, sounds like a prom theme, until Charlotte instructs her subject, “I take off your shirt /You pull up my skirt,” then informs him that he “better slide into me.” Now take into account the slick, within-an-edge-of-its-life production by S*A*M and Sluggo (with some much-needed assistance from Jack Joseph Puig, a.k.a. The Man with the Golden Ears), and you have a record whose mind is very much at odds with its body. Unless, of course, they’re targeting oversexed teenagers, in which case they hit the bulls-eye. As contemporary pop records go, this is definitely smarter and catchier than the usual drivel, but pray your daughter doesn’t hear it until she turns 25. (Geffen)

Charlotte Sometimes MySpace page

Artists, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Rock Babes

Curtain Call: New Songs From Past American Idol Finalists: Volume 2

May 16, 2008 / Mike Farley

The first edition of this compilation of former “American Idol” contestants was pretty bad, and while Volume 2 is itself pretty bland, the songs as a whole are a little better this time around. This round of singers is also moderately talented, but you can’t listen to this album without feeling like you’re hearing glorified karaoke. Maybe it’s the production, maybe it’s the arrangements, or maybe it’s the talent compared to everything else being released in the pop world, but there is just something missing. Alaina Alexander from Season 6 delivers three tracks that probably won’t have you humming along, and her voice isn’t all that memorable either. Rudy Cardenas, also from last season, has three distinct styles on here — R&B/pop/Jason Mraz, rock, and sappy ballad — and the third one is so bad that it evens out the fact that the first two songs are pretty decent. Then there is Sarah Mather from Season 4, who has a decent enough voice, but the songs are only average. Finally, Gedeon McKinney chose to write all of his own material, which was not a good idea. McKinney’s material is very amateurish, and brought the rating of this whole set down a full half-star. So we’re halfway with these four Volumes, and by this time next year, it’s likely that you’ll all have forgotten about these four singers from Volume 2 the same way you did when their seasons on “Idol” ended. (LABEL: Artists Addiction/Rocket Science)

Website: www.artistsaddiction.com

Alternative, American Idol, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Rock

Los Straitjackets: In Concert

May 9, 2008 / David Medsker

When alien civilizations travel here millions of years from now to learn what they can about our ancient society, they will surely be perplexed by “Los Straitjackets in Concert!,” the band’s first concert video. A group of 40-something men wearing black clothes, Mexican wrestling masks – God help bassist Pete Curry if he ever actually had to step in the ring wearing one of those things – and playing surf guitar instrumentals? They won’t make any more sense then than they do now, but thank goodness for them just the same. This show, recorded at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, has everything you can expect from a Los Straitjackets show (though the world-famous Pontani Sisters are sadly absent), from the hokey choreography to the all-Spanish-then-accent-free-English between-song banter. The problem is that a couple of the cameras are constantly out of focus, and the Straitjackets, talented musicians all, will not inspire their fans to do more than nod their heads politely while they’re playing. Still, guitarists Danny Amis and Eddie Angel put on a surf guitar clinic here, and man, is it sweet.

Los Straitjackets MySpace page

DVD Quicktakes

Chris & Rich Robinson: Brothers of a Feather – Live at the Roxy

May 9, 2008 / Red Rocker

Amassed from three sold-out shows at the Roxy in L.A. earlier this year, “Brothers of a Feather”displays Black Crowes founders Chris and Rich Robinson very much in their natural habitat. A front porch-like stage setting, complete with table (for beers), chairs, and an oft-referred-to coat rack, brings the casual best out of these hippy sibs as they breeze through a career’s worth of obscure Crowes tracks, unreleased artifacts, and well-disguised covers. Twenty songs over nearly two hours of tape, with splicing from three nights (which isn’t always so seamless, like when Rich removes his coat at the end of the opener “Horsehead,” only to have it magically back on for “Cursed Diamond”). A few new originals get propped up, including a Dylan-ish “Someday Past the Sunset” and a bluesy, slide-guitar number called “Magic Rooster Blues.” They forego the big, popular Crowes hits, opting instead for quieter, more subtle material. Chris, looking as skuzzy and unkempt as ever, strums awkwardly on a few cuts, including “Over the Hill” by Scottish folk singer John Martyn, one of many hard-to-identify covers. But when they really want to bring it, the Robinsons succeed wildly. “Better When You’re Not Alone,” with a really cool harmony vocal by Rich, and the catchy sing-along “Welcome to the Goodtimes,” featuring a nifty saxophone part and spot-on background vocals by two ladies, are the project’s highlights. A rustic, bare-bones version of “Jealous Again,” also finding Rich’s vocal contributions, winds up the DVD in signature fashion.

Chris & Rich Robinson