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Motörhead: The Wörld Is Yours

February 4, 2011 / James B. Eldred

RIYL: Motörhead

The World Is Yours sounds like Motörhead’s previous album Motörizer, which is to say it sounds like Kiss Of Death, Inferno, Hammered, We Are Motörhead, and most of the other 20-plus albums in Motörhead’s discography. Lemmy growls and scowls, while guitarist Phil Campbell and drummer Mikkey Dee support him by playing as loud and as fast as they can. Its a formula that worked in 1977 (albeit with a different lineup) and it still works today. About the only discernible difference between this record and Motörizer is that Lemmy doesn’t bother with anything close to a ballad this time around. Instead we get non-stop speed metal songs about killing (“Outlaw”), screwing (“Waiting for the Snake”) and just being the all around badass that the 65-year old bass player from hell is (“Devils in My Hand”). The closest thing to sonic experimentation on The World Is Yours is “Brotherhood of Man,” which loops what sounds like a distant soccer chant as the chorus, while Lemmy somehow makes his voice even more menacing by lowering it a couple registers.

Sure, its nothing new. But at this point does it even matter? This is Motorhead sounding like Motorhead, and that’s good enough for us. (Motörhead Music 2011)

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Candi and the Strangers: 10th of Always

February 3, 2011 / David Medsker

RIYL: Blondie, Cocteau Twins, Lush

Forming a dream pop band is one of the ultimate acts of devotion one can commit. No band in the genre ever rose above cult status in terms of sales, but the ones that have done it well will live forever. You have to think that Austin quiintet Candi and the Strangers knows that their commercial potential has a visible ceiling, but God love them for reaching for it anyway. The band’s sophomore effort, 10th of Always, is like listening to the thoughts of a cool girl in love. She feels the same things that everyone else feels but refuses to let it show, so even when the songs swoon – and boy, do they swoon – it’s done so with impeccable taste and composure, and perhaps a bit of detachment. Cool girls don’t lose their shit, you know.

Fans of Blondie are going to lap up this album, and not just because “Femme Sonique” is a toned-down re-write of “Atomic.” “Nico Regrets” captures both the smooth and edgy aspects of Blondie’s sound, and the epic closer “The Weather Is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful” is like the Jesus and Mary Chain getting their hands on some lost girl group song and turning it inside out. “Glide,” meanwhile, is positively blissed. There are times, though, when singer Samantha Constant’s vocals are a bit too far down in the mix, and despite the album’s consistently strong songwriting, it takes several listens before some of the songs leave a visible footprint. But such is love, even with a cool girl – you take the good with the bad, and with 10th of Always, it’s all so pretty that complaining about imperfections seems petty. (Candi and the Strangers 2011)

Click here to download Candi and the Strangers – Nico Regrets

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Over the Rhine: The Long Surrender

February 3, 2011 / Scott Malchus

RIYL: Lucinda Williams, Joni Mitchell

“The Laugh of Recognition” is the pretty, mellow song that begins the new Over the Rhine album, The Long Surrender. With layers of piano, echoed guitar and the drummer chugging along with brushes on the snare, the song sets the mood for this collection of lovely music from the underground folk rock band.

The songs of The Long Surrender are country-based, atmospheric treasures full of passion and featuring nothing but the finest musicianship from Karen Bergquist, her husband and band mate, Linford Detweiler, their producer Joe Henry, and the fine musicians he’s helped assemble for this album. Upon first listen, you may think the album could use a rocker or two, something a little upbeat, but repeated listens reveal that the album doesn’t need it. Bergquist sings with such conviction and the lyrics are so intricate that the songs demand attention rather than too much foot tapping.

What separates Over the Rhine’s music from so many of the singer/songwriter “Grey’s Anatomy” soundtrack crowd is Bergquist’s unique vocals. With a slight slur in her voice, it recalls a little bit of Rickie Lee Jones and a touch of Lucinda Williams, who also duets with Bergquist on the track “Undamned.”

If you’ve never heard of or listened to Over the Rhine, The Long Surrender is an excellent starting point. After 15 years of albums and touring, it would be nice if these critical darlings would wider attention from the general public. (Great Speckled Dog 2011)

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White Lies: Ritual

February 2, 2011 / James B. Eldred

RIYL: Bands that sound like Joy Division, Joy Division

Ritual, the sophomore album from freakishly pale London post-punkers White Lies, opens with “Is Love.” It is a love song about love that goes into great detail about how damn awesome falling in love feels. Is it a sign that the group of anemic goth London boys are looking up? Maybe they finally got some sun?

No. Don’t worry. While “Is Love” does extol the virtues of falling in love, nearly every other track on Rituals is a counterargument to that upbeat track, explaining in great detail why love is a hideous monster filled with dread and despair, and something that should be avoided at all costs.

On “Bigger Than Us,” lead singer Harry McVeigh worries that his significant other may be leaving him because she’s taking a different way home from work, “You’ve never taken that way with me before / Did you feel the need for change?” The somber tone of “Peace & Quiet” is a little more abstract, but its a safe bet that when he bemoans a “great pressure coming down on me,” he’s talking about love. He’s definitely talking about love on “Streetlights,” which opens with the oh-so-cheerful lyric “Hold tight for heartbreak, buckle up for loneliness.”

White Lies are mopey bastards, brought up in the school of Joy Division, combining sparse yet soaring riffs with dissonant melodies, all while McVeigh does his best to sound just like Ian Curtis. So yeah, they’re derivative without an ounce of originality in them. But they’re still fun in their own “I can’t believe they’re serious way.” Besides, there are far worse Joy Division rip off groups that you could listen to. On a scale of Interpol to She Wants Revenge, they’re definitely a high Editors. (Fiction 2011)

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Epigene: A Wall Street Odyssey (The City, The Country and Back Again)

February 2, 2011 / Ted Asregadoo

RIYL: The Who, Rush, Yes

On paper, I should like this album. It has many of the elements I like in rock music: big themes, a narrative, and prog-rock flourishes. But this is quite possibly the worst album I have heard in this genre for a long time – and yet I admire the moxie of Epigene, the husband and wife duo of Sean Bigler and Bonnie Lykes. I mean, who has the balls to produce a two-CD concept album – especially in 2010? Well, I think we know the answer to that question, but simply producing such an opus of this scale isn’t enough; one has to have substance. And while the story of A Wall Street Odyssey (The, City, The Country and Back Again) isn’t short on earnestness, it lacks an important ingredient in rock operas: a certain amount of subtly, and a generous helping of hooks and thunderous power chords.

The story follows Yossarian (in a nod to Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22”) from his career as a Wall Street stockbroker, to drug-addicted homeless victim of corporate downsizing, to being saved by his brother and brought to an agrarian commune of left-libertarians where he learns to toil on the land, commune with nature, and find love. After some time has elapsed, Yossarian finds he’s compelled “go back” to the belly of the beast and tell anyone who will listen about the virtue of land and living simply. Naturally, the sight of a bearded country bumpkin spouting the evils of corporate capitalism, dense urbanism, and the culture it breeds is met with disdain. And even though Yossarian is ostracized for his beliefs, the financial and political apocalypse he warns the city-dwellers comes to pass, and, predictably, a one-world fascist government arises and oppresses the people. Yossarian (with the help of a bicycle that flies) is able to leave the city and get back to the freedom of the country – believing, in the end, that he has to let each find their own way in the world.

Like I said at the outset, the story isn’t subtle. But it’s not just the story that lacks subtlety. The songs themselves are more mini-sermons than fully formed tunes. Lacking sufficient hooks, a variation in style, and even some much-needed ambiguity, song after song on A Wall Street Odyssey are exercises in tedium. Alas, it’s a tedium that’s borne out of the best of intentions and ambitions, but falls under the weight of its own bathetic excesses. (Amammi Music 2011)

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