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The Gaslight Anthem: American Slang

June 16, 2010 /


RIYL: The Clash, Bruce Springsteen, Green Day

For a band that’s been recording for five years, the Gaslight Anthem sounds amazingly seasoned on their second full release, American Slang.  The beauty of this album is hearing a band in transition.  They’ve always been rooted in a kind of Clash-like punkish pop, and Brian Fallon’s love of Bruce Springsteen has been evident since their nascence.  If you like the game of “Name That Influence” you’ll certainly hear both the Clash and Springsteen in American Slang, but the band is more than that.  The first three songs on the album just blaze as wonderful anthems, but songs like “Diamond Church Street Choir” show the band stretching out with musical choices that alternate the tempo with a kind of soulful and breezy verse and a soaring chorus. It’s flourishes like that (and the intro to “Boxer”) that illustrate that this band is maturing leaps and bounds ahead of their peers.

American Slang is tight – clocking in at under 35 minutes – and the songs vary just enough that the album never sounds like the band are a bunch of Johnny One Notes.  Often with the pre-release hype of new albums from the “New hot thing” it’s more sizzle than steak, but with American Slang, the Gaslight Anthem has crafted a substantial collection of songs that will be among the best albums of 2010. (SideOneDummy 2010)

Gaslight Anthem MySpace Page
Click to buy American Slang from Amazon

Alternative, CD Reviews, Pop, Rock

Ozzy Osbourne: Scream

June 16, 2010 /


RIYL: Dio, Motorhead, Judas Priest

It’s sad that when Ozzy’s popularity in the public consciousness was probably at an all-time peak with the success of “The Osbournes” in the early ’00s his music was at a creative nadir. His 2001 effort, Down to Earth, was absolutely forgettable and his 2007 album Black Rain was a boring mess. Metal heads had to wonder, did life as a TV dad mellow out everyone’s favorite prince of darkness?

Not anymore. Ozzy is back with a vengeance on Scream, his first consistent, energetic and flat-out great release since No More Tears. With Gus G. from Firewind replacing the stalwart Zakk Wylde on guitars, Ozzy sounds more energized and ready to rock than he has in decades. Whether he’s calling for you to pound your fist and scream your brains out in the aptly titled “Let Me Hear You Scream” or proclaiming his own epic awesomeness in “Fearless” or “I Want It More,” Ozzy’s trademark howl and delivery sound as good (if a little lower in key) than ever. He’s even managed to bring back some of his sinister creepiness on tracks like “I Want It More” and “Crucify,” a shocking feat considering that most Americans’ iconic image of Ozzy is no longer him biting the head off a bat but instead having a hard time getting his TV’s remote control to properly work.

The fact that Scream is so damn metal is even more impressive when you stop and listen to the lyrics to some of the tracks. For every tailor-made for stadium moshing track like “Let Me Hear You Scream,” there seems to be another that takes the time to be a bit more introspective and insular. “Latimer’s Mercy” is another in a long line of Ozzy songs about the dangers of drug addiction, while others like “Time” and “Life Won’t Wait,” the sole ballad on the album, show that Ozzy’s beginning to ponder his own mortality, a topic sadly made all the more relevant with Ronnie James Dio’s passing earlier this year. It’s not a somber sobfest though, because even at the album’s most serious, Gus G. is still there shredding out one excellent riff after another. It’s like a spoonful of metal to help the medicine go down. It also doesn’t hurt that he gives a couple of excellent solos throughout the album as well.

There’s a brief one-minute coda on Scream entitled “I Love You All” where Ozzy thanks the listener for all their years of support. It sounds like the 61-year-old god of all things evil, epic and metal is about the hang up the devil horns for good soon. Hopefully he can crank out a few more albums like this before he goes, but it would be a hell of a way to go out. (Epic 2010)

Ozzy Osbourne’s MySpace Page

CD Reviews, Metal, Rock

Seen Your Video: OK Go, “End Love”

June 15, 2010 /

Sweet Jesus. OK Go has done it again.

What I love about “End Love” is that the stop motion photography reminds me of Zbigniew Rybczyński’s groundbreaking videos in the early ’80s, particularly the Art of Noise’s “Close (To the Edit)” and Lou Reed’s “Original Wrapper.” Only, of course, OK Go takes the concept into outer space by turning the clip into an all-nighter and, in the end, a giant group production. Along with a few very curious geese.

Tim is clearly the best dancer of the bunch here, but that’s almost become an in-joke of sorts. If Dan and Andy suddenly learned how to be as fluid as Tim, it wouldn’t look right. The occasional inclusion of super slo-mo shots was a nice touch too, but nothing touches that human cyclone at song’s end. And now that they have gained control of the album and released it on their own label, we don’t have to worry about any of that ‘no embedding’ nonsense. Get comfy. You’re going to need to watch this one a couple times to catch everything.

Alternative, Artists, CD Reviews, Dance, Pop, Rock, Seen Your Video, Videos

Devo: Something for Everybody

June 15, 2010 /


RIYL: Jerking back and forth, whipping it, playing peek-a-boo

Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain lived and died in less time than the gap between Devo’s last decent album and the present. (Add a year if you want to go back to their last truly good album.) The band’s last album, Smooth Noodle Maps, is almost old enough to buy its own beer, all of which is a flowery way of saying that it’s been a long, long time since Devo was even close to being on their game.

Devo_01

Or maybe they were just biding their time. After all, there was no point in Devo releasing new music in the ’90s or even the first half of the ’00s, as the musical climate would have been indifferent at best and hostile at worst. Now, on the other hand, is a damned good time to be Devo, on a number of levels. Between the New New Wave movement (most of which, frankly, stinks) and the emergence of former alt.rock chart giants dominating the kids music circuit, Devo, for the first time in decades, has options. And they’re striking while the iron is hot.

Something for Everybody, Devo’s first album in 20 years, is an embarrassment of riches. The songs are insanely catchy – “What We Do” and “Human Rocket” are among the best songs the band’s ever done – and the production deftly blends classic Devo (think Freedom of Choice, New Traditionalists and Oh No! It’s Devo) with modern-day flourishes. The lyrics are still oddball, but tamer; there’s no talk of slapping mammies or altruistic perverts, and that’s just fine. Not everything here works – “Cameo” tries a bit too hard, and “Sumthin'” is too slavish in its attempt to channel “Whip It” – but this is far better than anyone had a right to expect from a band nearly 30 years removed from its commercial peak. Bravo, gents. (Warner Bros. 2010)

Devo MySpace page
Click to buy Something for Everybody from Amazon

Alternative, Artists, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Dance, Pop

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek Are Reflection Eternal: Revolutions Per Minute

June 14, 2010 /


RIYL: Common, Mos Def, Erykah Badu

It’s been a decade since Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek released their first album as Reflection Eternal. Following that album, Train of Thought (a critical and commercial success), the former has maintained his position as a darling of the hip-hop underground, releasing several albums that cemented his status as a lyrical genius. The latter has branched out into more commercial waters, providing beats for the likes of 50 Cent and the Game. The two have worked together sporadically in the last decade, but they’ve finally returned for a full-album collaboration with Revolutions Per Minute.

On this long-awaited effort, the Brooklyn MC and the Cincinnati DJ pretty much keep it the same as it ever was, with solid rhymes over soulful production. Kweli remains an amazingly gifted and literate rhymer, whether the subject matter is political (“Ballad of the Black Gold” could not be more timely) sensual (“Long Hot Summer”), or just plain ol‘ hip-hop braggadocio, as evidenced by the all-star posse cut “Just Begun.” As on the first Reflection Eternal album, Hi-Tek’s production is solid but unspectacular. Kweli’s worked with better producers (how dope would a Kweli/Kanye collaboration album be?), but he and Hi-Tek have a chemistry that keeps Revolutions fairly enjoyable. While the forays into crossover territory (featuring the likes of R&B songstress Estelle and hipster-pop duo Chester French) should probably be avoided, fans who’ve waited patiently for this album to surface will be pretty satisfied (and totally not surprised) with what they hear. (Blacksmith/Warner Bros. Records 2010)

Reflection Eternal MySpace page

CD Reviews, Hip Hop, Rap

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