December 2016 reviews

Highly recommended: Johann Johannsson, Loscil

Well worth your while: John Legend, Daughter

As always, these reviews ran in the Waterloo Record.

Streaming is great for sample purposes, but please find a way to directly support your favourite artists financially.

Childish Gambino – Awaken, My Love! (Glassnote/Universal)

The world hasn’t felt this on the edge of chaos since the early 1970s. That might be why soul music in particular has been looking to leaders of that era for inspiration. Now comes Childish Gambino, a.k.a. the acclaimed actor and screenwriter Donald Glover (Community, Atlanta), ditching his hip-hop career for a full immersion into George Clinton’s early Funkadelic records: the psychedelic rock guitars, falsetto lead vocals, full-band backing vocals, sludgy beats.

On first impression, it works incredibly well—as an homage. Glover is a fantastic singer, even managing some powerful Prince-like squeals. His musical collaborator, Ludwig Göransson, plays most everything except drums, and it’s his arrangements that make the album work at all.

On deeper listen, however, an homage is all it appears to be. Glover’s singing is convincing enough that one assumes he’s conveying some kind of spiritual salvation from a world of woe. Actually, on the opening track, “Me and Your Mama,” when it sounds like he’s fighting a life-or-death battle in a fascist oligarchy, he’s actually howling: “You really got a hold on me, so this isn’t just puppy love.” For a rapper and a screenwriter, it’s strange that the lyrics are the weakest part of this project. But even the music, while interesting, doesn’t really hold up as more than a pastiche. It hits a real low on “California,” which is nothing short of cartoonish, akin to Ween covering Nilsson’s “Lime in the Coconut.”

The best thing about Awaken, My Love! is that it might send the curious scrambling back to discover Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain, an album that I had an overwhelming urge to listen to on the morning of Nov. 10. It holds up. A little too well. (Dec. 15)

Stream: “Have Some Love,” “Redbone,” “Boogieman”

Jóhann Jóhannsson – Arrival OST (Deutsche Grammophon)

Loscil – Monument Builders (Kranky)

If you were either spooked out and/or captivated by the beauty of Denis Villeneuve’s new film Arrival, a large part of that experience was the score by Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. (Jóhannsson’s score for Villeneuve’s previous film, Sicario, was nominated for an Academy Award last year; they’re currently collaborating once more for the remake of Blade Runner due next year.) All ominous bass tones and digitally manipulated human voices, it’s the ideal accompaniment to interstellar communication, of sonically illustrating the awe and fear and responsibility of inchoate dialogue with an alien species. In an inverse process, Jóhannsson wrote the theme before Villeneuve even started shooting; the music would be played on set to set the tone. It’s far from an afterthought; it’s as integral to the film as the script or the cinematography. Even better: here, it also functions entirely independently as a somewhat unsettling meditative soundtrack.

Why Vancouver composer Scott Morgan, a.k.a. Loscil, has not been tapped for any Oscar-bait assignments is anyone’s guess. (He has, however, scored the 2006 Genie winner for Best Documentary: Scared Sacred.) He’s been creating fascinating minimalist ambient music for more than a decade, and his 11^th album could well become a calling card. Inspired directly by Philip Glass’s stunning score for the 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi, as well as the photographs of devastated landscapes by Edward Burtynsky, Monument Builders is sparse, expansive and evocative. French horns and percussion permeate the occasionally pulsing synths and layered atmospherics; melodies and movements are glacial yet hardly obscured.

In these past few months, if not the past year, we’ve all had plenty of reasons to shut off the noise of the world and mourn the losses that pile up seemingly every week. In addition to everything else 2016 has handed us, between these and Colin Stetson’s reimagining of Gorecki’s “Sorrow” symphony, it’s also given us an antidote. (Dec. 1)

Stream Arrival: “Heptapod B,” “Properties of Explosive Materials,” “One of Twelve”

Stream Loscil: “Drained Lake,” “Straw Dogs,” “Anthropocene”

John Legend – Darkness and Light (Sony)

The classiest man in all of R&B is still riding high from his wedding-dance smash “All of Me” from 2013, and he has every intention of staying on top of the pop game on his fifth solo album (not counting his Roots collaboration). He has a surefire way of doing it—namely, a song called “Surefire.” And another called “Love Me Now,” which, yes, might sound like a Coldplay song—but infinitely better because it’s in the hands of Legend. Guest spots from Miguel and Chance the Rapper are surprisingly uneventful; Legend does far better on his own on the rest of the record. However, when Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard shows up on the super sultry and soul-shriekin’ title track, it’s thrilling and chilling and holy moly, can we sign these two up for a full-length duets album? Hot damn. (Dec. 8)

Stream: “Love Me Now,” “Darkness and Light” feat. Brittany Howard, “What You Do To Me”

Bruno Mars – 24K Magic (Atlantic)

Surely only the most joyless can resist “Uptown Funk”—at least the first 100 times you heard it. Bruno Mars knows a good vibe when he hears it, which is why the title track of his new album tries (and fails) to head uptown once again. His frequent collaborator Mark Ronson isn’t around this time; it wouldn’t appear that a hitmaker of Mars’s calibre would need him, but this sounds like Mars is flailing around trying to land the right groove. His singing and vocal arrangements—and, when he does his best James Brown, like on “Perm,” his shrieks—are flawless, and he commands a tight band that no doubt slays in the stadiums. But the songs this time out don’t really catch fire, and, as happens too often with Mars, the lyrics are laughable: “You need to activate your sex”; “Let’s just kiss until we’re naked.” It all probably sounds way better on stage, when all we have to do is watch the man with the moves. (Dec. 8)

Stream: “Perm,” “Finesse,” “Too Good to Say Goodbye”

Sting – 57^th and 9^th (Universal)

Sting is not through with rock music—or is he? After his lute album, his Christmas album, his symphonic reworkings, his original Broadway musical, it’s been 13 years since he put out something resembling pop music. Somewhere in between there was a Police reunion tour, and a collaborative tour with Peter Gabriel. But here, when he sings rather lethargically over a mid-tempo rocker, “Here comes the sound of everything I’ve ever feared,” one can’t help but wonder why he bothered. He perks up on the surprising rocker “Petrol Head,” and the old activist does have a few things to get off his chest: “One Fine Day” is his somewhat schoolboyish letter to the editor re: climate change that would make Bono blush (“Dear leaders, please do something quick / Time is up, the planet’s sick”). It’s all impeccably executed, of course, but unless you’re the rare breed of Sting fan who prefers his ’90s output to the rest of his career, this might just send you scrambling back to that lute record. (Dec. 8)

Stream: “I Can’t Stop Thinking About You,” “Petrol Head,” “Inshallah”

Warpaint – Heads Up (Rough Trade/XL)

Daughter – Not to Disappear (Glassnote/Universal)

“You’re a new song, baby, you’re a new song to me.” So goes the lead single from the third album by L.A. quartet Warpaint, a band whose 2014 Rough Trade self-titled debut would have given few to predict that the band would write a four-on-the-floor post-punk disco pop song heard repeatedly on alt-rock radio stations. It’s a new song to them, it’s a new song to us.

Warpaint shares a similar mood to The Xx, though instead of a Jamie Xx, they have drummer Stella Mozgawa, who’s just as inventive when she’s working a drum machine as she is when she’s turning Jenny Lee Lindberg’s dub-reggae-influenced bass lines upside down behind the kit.

“New Song” finds Warpaint cannibalizing their own sound in a pop-friendly package; sadly, the result is insipid. The rest of Heads Up, however, finds them emerging further from the shoegazy haze of their earlier work, pushing their rhythm section to the front of the mix while the two guitarists-vocalists get more abstract and rely less on copping directly from the Cocteau Twins’ playbook (or, more accurately, the Golden Palominos). Heads Up is a huge step up, on every level—and though they probably do have pop songs in them somewhere, that’s not where their talent lies; maybe they shouldn’t even try. “New Song” is more of a distraction than a gateway drug.

British band Daughter share the sleepy female vocal aesthetic of Warpaint and The Xx, but crank up the volume on the guitar amps, which sound like a howling winter storm. Not to Disappear, Daughter’s second album, came out in January; it’s a beautiful slow burn, and it seems all too fitting to end 2016 with a chorus that goes, “I feel numb in this kingdom.” Vocalist/guitarist Elena Tonra sounds like she spent her childhood listening to The Cure’s Disintegration and Jeff Buckley’s Grace, while her Swiss guitarist and French drummer manage to steer clear of shoegaze cliché. They’re not always successful; Tonra’s lyrics can stumble, and their attempts at ratcheting up the tempo (“No Care”) don’t really work. But when all their elements snap together, like on the triumphant single “How,” the results are stunning. (Dec. 15)

Stream Warpaint: “Whiteout,” “So Good,” “Don’t Wanna”

Stream Daughter: “How,” “Numbers,” “Doing the Right Thing”

September 2013 reviews

The following reviews ran in my weekly column for the Waterloo Record and Guelph Mercury in September; highlights of the month (Neko Case, Man Man, AroarA, The Julie Ruin) have already been posted as individual reviews.

Belle and Sebastian – The Third Eye Centre (Matador)

The last decade of Belle and Sebastian’s career may not seem to have been that productive—just three full-length records—but this 19-track collection of b-sides and rarities proves otherwise (and die-hard fans will point out that there are still some covers and compilation tracks missing). This was the period when the Glaswegian pop band broke out of their twee image and embraced their omnivorous tastes, resulting in a more muscular sound. Listening here, their b-sides were an excuse to indulge in genre exercises into ska, country, bossa nova, Latino rock’n’roll, surf instrumentals, or hilarious slow-jam odes to S&M. The lyrics are also more ridiculous, like the mid-2000s song about zeitgeist porn, “Suicide Girl,” or singing about “eating a falafel of peace” in a song called “The Eighth Station of the Cross Kebab House.”

The hands-down highlight is a previously unreleased remix of “Your Cover’s Blown” (the original appeared on a 2004 EP), in which Glasgow DJ Miaoux Miaoux sounds like he invited Nile Rogers and Daft Punk to have their way with the backing tracks; the band obviously loved the reinvention; it was the surprise hit of their summer tour this year, and they made a video for the new version. It’s not a typical remix with a thumping bass thrown under it; the three-part, six-minute suite opens with a mid-tempo soul clap, segues into a pulsing disco number at twice the speed, then settles in for a gentler reprise. It’s one of the most satisfying moments of the band’s entire career; meanwhile, the rest of this naturally uneven collection proves that even their off days are solid. Long live their life pursuit. (Sept. 12)

Download: “Your Cover’s Blown (Miaoux Miaoux Remix),” “Suicide Girl,” “Heavin in the Afternoon”

Black Joe Lewis – Electric Slave (Vagrant)

It’s been 20 years now. Can we admit that grunge sucked? Nirvana still holds up, naturally, but most everything else sounds like it was merely paving the way for Nickelback. That’s why Black Joe Lewis is here to steal rock’n’roll back from the soulless and the sexless and brings some of its lineage back. Bo Diddley, the Stooges, the Cramps, the Dirtbombs: meet your latest offspring.

He’s not the only one, of course. Jack White’s done a fine job of it in the last 15 years (Lewis tapped White’s engineer, Stuart Sikes, to record this album). But Lewis is all bluster and bombast and heavy as hell, possessing the most convincing rock’n’roll scream recorded in recent memory, with the riffs to match, a thunderous rhythm section and a punchy three-piece horn section who rarely dare to solo. Lewis’s guitar playing is sloppy and raw; he’s not here to blow you away with his chops, he just wants to play like a wrecking ball.

He also wants to party, as he outlines on one of the most exciting singles of 2013 not made by Daft Punk. It’s titled, of course, “Come To My Party.” Note the emphasis on his own party—he doesn’t want to be a part of someone else’s idea of cool (“Oh, come on man / fuck that shit,” he taunts on “The Hipster”). And he’s not doing this for the little girls to understand; like Jon Spencer before him, he wants a full-grown woman: “I don’t want no young girl / I want one who’s 30 years old / knows what she wants!”

Black Joe Lewis plays rock’n’roll with his rules, on his terms, his way. It’s the right way. (Sept. 12)

Download: “Come to My Party,” “Dar Es Salaam,” “The Hipster”

Elvis Costello & the Roots – Wise Up Ghost (Universal)

These are not strange bedfellows. It makes perfect sense for the onslaught of verbosity that is Elvis Costello to team up with hip-hop’s greatest live band, the Roots. Both parties have an infinite musical curiosity outside their comfort zone. Costello has long needed a band to both kick his ass and allow his never-ending verses room to flow. “Just because you don’t speak the language, doesn’t mean you can’t understand,” he sings, and of course this is not a hip-hop album per se. And really, hasn’t he been rapping ever since “Pump It Up” and “Watching the Detectives”?

Both parties tone down their excesses to meet in the middle; even if Costello wasn’t involved, it’s also a fine Roots album—obviously with drummer ?uestlove at the forefront, with punctuation from a punchy horn section and textural keyboard flourishes colouring every groove. The band doesn’t just complement Costello: they push him to try new approaches with his vocals, and it actually works—not an easy thing to do with an old dog who’s been guilty of overextending his vocal palette in the past. “Wake me up with a slap or a kiss,” he sings; the Roots do both.

Costello has done his share of full-on collaborations throughout his career, but this is the only one that scores a direct hit: this has needed to happen for a long, long time. In fact, it’s only the second album he’s made in the past 22 years that’s worth listening to. (Sept. 19)

Download: “Walk Us Uptown,” “Sugar Won’t Work,” “Tripwire” 

Peter Gabriel – And I’ll Scratch Yours (RealWorld)

In the 1980s, Peter Gabriel, David Byrne and Paul Simon all brought African music to Western ears; the first two gained respect for setting up record labels to put out albums by their collaborators and inspirations, while Simon was seen as the mainstream sellout who broke the cultural boycott against South Africa.

Which is why it’s interesting that Gabriel covered Simon’s “The Boy in the Bubble” on his 2010 covers album, Scratch My Back, and why it’s even lovelier to hear the normally apolitical Paul Simon cover Gabriel’s “Biko,” a lament for a slain anti-apartheid activist. (Not that there’s any political risk in doing so, over 20 years after apartheid’s demise.)

Three years after this album’s promised arrival—Gabriel kept holding out for David Bowie, Neil Young and Radiohead to cough up their contributions, to no avail—the companion to Gabriel’s all-covers album arrives, containing considerably more interesting arrangements of Gabriel’s back catalogue than what the man himself did with solo-piano renditions of his favourite artists on that album.

That tone is set immediately by David Byrne’s spirited version of “I Don’t Remember,” which sounds more like a ditzy old man at a disco than the paranoid narrator in the original. Bon Iver delivers a lovely “Come Talk To Me.” The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt sets “Not One of Us” in a strange synth world populated by either munchkins or the cast of Freaks. Joseph Arthur strips “Shock the Monkey” down to what could be an outtake from the Daniel Lanois and Neil Young sessions. Arcade Fire phone in “Games Without Frontiers,” and Regina Spektor does a rote version of “Blood of Eden.” Lou Reed—why does anyone invite him to open his mouth anymore?—moans through the sludgiest version of “Solisbury Hill” you’d never care to imagine (in which he changes one line to read, “My friends would think I was a slut”).

The highlight, hands-down, is Randy Newman, who has a blast recasting “Big Time” for a New Orleans jazz piano setting, bringing to life the playful absurdity of the lyric, which was somewhat lost in the original. Finally, Feist and Timber Timbre inhabit “Don’t Give Up” (and flipping the genders on the Kate Bush duet), a song that seems almost impossible to remove from its original production and vocals.

Everyone else makes you want to go back and listen to Gabriel himself; Feist, Newman and Byrne transform the material completely. (Sept. 26)

Download: “I Don’t Remember” – David Byrne, “Big Time” – Randy Newman, “Don’t Give Up” – Feist and Timber Timbre

John Legend – Love in the Future (Sony)

Frank Ocean leave you scratching your head? The Weeknd bum you out? Fear not, as not all modern R&B is abstract, bleak and twisted. John Legend returns with his first album of original material in five years, to remind us that there are still some acts for grown-ups left in R&B. Never mind Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z’s tuxedo shtick; Legend is the real class act.

With production by Kanye West and some assists from Q-Tip, Rick Ross—and, um, Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers?—Legend puts some swagger into smoothed-out soul. Legend is a loverman without any irony or hidden malice; it’s near impossible to find someone this earnest and this squeaky clean who’s not a complete cheeseball (sorry, Usher).

If Legend’s gentlemanly manner seems retro, the music is not: he may be inspired by the likes of Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye and Roberta Flack, but Love in the Future is decidedly modern; having Kanye on board assures that outcome. “Made to Love” is a soaring, majestic track drenched in atmospherics, house music backing vocals and a raw, hand-clapping rhythm track.

It’s true Legend’s voice is a stunning instrument—but that’s almost a given for R&B royalty. His songwriting and lean arrangements are what really sells his sizzle, especially on the solo piano ballad “All of Me,” which surely has Coldplay’s Chris Martin weeping with envy, not to mention Adele, Elton John, Phil Collins and, I don’t know, Air Supply. If this instant classic doesn’t become a wedding-dance staple in the near future, then Legend might as well give up now. (Indeed, he wrote it for his new bride, at their Italian wedding, where Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones looked on.) (Sept. 26)

Download: “Made to Love,” “All of Me,” “Save the Night”

Janelle Monae – The Electric Lady (Universal)

Everyone loves Janelle Monae. What’s not to love? She has an astounding voice, great ambition, eclectic taste, she’s a snappy dresser and drop-dead gorgeous.

Except that her music sounds a step above mediocre Broadway musical territory (Rent comes to mind more than once). To be sure, there are some solid grooves here, like the one buried beneath the collaboration on the title track with Solange, but the soul of the material gets squeezed out by unnecessary layers of overproduction, and Monae’s overachieving, pitch-perfect vocals that render everything she does oddly sexless. Mind you, that worked for Whitney Houston, whose music was far less interesting, so it may well be the key to Monae’s success. Listening to her duet on “Primetime” with Miguel—an artist who manages to maintain his personality amidst big production—exemplifies the gap between them.

Thankfully, the one moment where she really lets loose is on the duet with Prince, who brings out the best in her while lighting off some guitar pyrotechnics in the background (which are more impressive than the ’80s bag of tricks attempted by her own guitarist on every other track). She also scores on the giddy “Dance Apocalyptic” (a worthy follow-up to her breakthrough single, “Tightrope”), and the ultra-cheese operatic ballad “Look Into My Eyes,” which evokes the least cool comparison possible: Barbra Streisand. 

If Monae is disappointing, it’s only because she promises so much. And so by the time The Electric Lady concludes with the limp cruise-ship reggae of “What an Experience,” your time would have been better spent listening to albums by any of her collaborators. (Sept. 19)

Download: “Dance Apocalyptic,” “Givin Em What They Love (featuring Prince),” “Look Into My Eyes”

The Sadies – Internal Sounds (Outside)

The hardest working band in Canada—and perhaps beyond—the Sadies maintain a relentless touring schedule on top of backing up numerous other artists in the studio. And in the first 10 years of their existence, they were incredibly prolific in the studio as well. Now guitarist/producer Dallas Good wants to slow down, and make every album matter. 2010’s Polaris-shortlisted Darker Circles was the first payoff, a sea change where the Sadies stepped up their game as songwriters and arrangers, not just a brilliant assembly of musicians.

Internal Sounds continues that path, brilliantly encapsulated in opening track “The First 5 Minutes.” Unfortunately, about half of Internal Sounds comprises variations on that song, to lesser effect. Only on the runaway-train groove of “Another Tomorrow Again” do they really pick up steam again; “Story 19” starts out as a psychedelic, mid-tempo country song before culminating in a “White Light/White Heat”-ish Velvet Underground climax; the acoustic “So Much Blood” is one of the most haunting songs the Sadies have ever recorded.

The real surprise is the appearance of Buffy Sainte-Marie on the closing “We Are Circling,” a three-minute drone with the refrain, “This is family … this is celebration … this is sacred.” That’s true anytime the Sadies are in a room together. (Sept. 26)

  

Download: “The First 5 Minutes,” “So Much Blood,” “We Are Circling”

December housecleaning

No interview today, but some reviews from the last month that have appeared in various publications.

Some other thoughts first:

The Liberal party held its leadership convention on the weekend, where Stephane Dion--who was tied for third place going in--leapfrogged over the main contenders to take the prize. He made climate change and environmental sustainability the key issue of his campaign, which is remarkable, considering that during the English-language leaders debate in January 2006 (the election that brought Conservative Stephen Harper to power in a minority government, in case my American readers are already lost) the environment wasn't even one of the ten topics of discussion.

What happened? Either this is the effect of new movie star Al Gore on the mainstream, or the new Liberal party establishment rallying around Dion and kingmaker Gerard Kennedy are ready to redefine the national discourse in ways that the old boys who got behind frontrunners Ignatieff and Rae are not.

Dion's speech to the convention was prefaced by an introduction from newly-elected MP Glen Pearson, who won a by-election in London, Ontario where Green Party leader Elizabeth May came in second--the Green's largest electoral standing in Canadian history. Pearson talked about how Dion ignited people in his riding when he came to speak, but also made a strange statement to the effect of: "When I debated my opponents, I could take on the Conservatives, no problem. I could take on the NDP, no problem. But [and this part I remember verbatim] I did not lay a finger on Elizabeth May!" Before he sounded too much like a defensive Catholic priest, he went on to point out that the Green Party platform and Dion's platform were extremely compatible, and that the environment was indeed the primary issue of the 21st century, etc.

How will this play out in a real election campaign? The Liberals have enough trouble splitting the left vote with the NDP--a party Dion attacked in his acceptance speech (ironically enough, in the same sentence he was praising leadership opponent and former NDP premier of Ontario Bob Rae). But how will this election play out if Dion's Liberals "refuse to lay a finger" on the Green Party? Is there already a coalition in the works?

Overheard: After ex-PM Jean Chretien's speech to the convention (his first partisan appearance since leaving office), whoever was DJing the event played Madonna's "Hung Up": a modern disco song based on a riff from the 70s (the last time the Liberals had an inspiring leader) with the lyric "Every little thing you say or do/ I'm hung up on you." Interesting selection, to say the least, scoring a speech by a former leader. But that doesn't beat playing The Cure's "Let's Go to Bed" a few minutes later to pump up the crowd awaiting the results of the final ballot: "I don't care if you don't/ and I don't feel it if you don't/ and I don't want it if you don't/ and I won't say it if you don't say it first." Wow, inspiring words to hear at a leadership convention. At least no one played INXS's "New Sensation," played ad nauseum at the Conservative convention that nominated Harper.

Best moment of political drama: I missed Kennedy's dramatic walk over to the Dion camp. But while waiting an excruciating 40 minutes past the expected announcement of the final ballot results (intended between 5 and 5.30PM, the Liberals deliberately stalled the announcement until 6PM to make the news hour), the CTV feed spent a good ten minutes focused on Michael Ignatieff sitting with his wife, his once-estranged brother and other supporters. Everyone obviously expected an announcement within seconds, so the commentators stopped their nattering. Instead, we got to watch an extremely uncomfortable man--one who was considered a shoo-in for the win, one who uprooted his international academic life to come home to Canada for this job, one who only a few hours ago looked like he could pull it off--sit and wait, in full glare of the spotlight, trying to look sanguine and aloof, even though he must have been told the results beforehand. It was a fascinating piece of candid political theatre, and kudos to the CTV team for running it without commentary... unlike the CBC, who spent most of that 40 minutes talking inexplicably about Trudeau and the '68 leadership convention.

Final thought before we get to some boring CD reviews: The fact that Dion is yet another Liberal leader from Quebec is considered his major electoral weakness, one preyed upon by most of the letter-writers in today's Globe and Mail. Yes, his English is shaky (shakier than Harper's French?) and his acceptance speech was less than inspiring (he fared much better on CBC call-in show Cross Country Checkup the next day). He's not a man for dog-and-pony shows. But if nothing else, this former academic--the first Liberal leader since Trudeau with no ties to Bay Street--is a man of ideas (much like policy wonk Harper), and it is his ideas on which he should be judged.

Geography still plays a huge role in post-Civil War America when it comes to presidential tickets and the north-south divide. But this country seems all too quick to bury a candidate's chances based on their home province, as if someone more than 300km away couldn't possibly understand the complexities of our regional specificities. It will be interesting to see what role Kennedy takes in all of this; as has been suggested, the two of them could form a Macdonald/Cartier alliance, playing to each linguistic constituency on their own turf and building a national team, not one based on one leader's centralized concentration of power.

Yes, my degree is in Canadian history and politics.

Here's some reviews from the last month, some from Eye Weekly in Toronto, and considerably more mainstream fare from the K-W Record.

From Eye's Record Guide, November 23, 2006
SWAN LAKE
Beast Moans
(Jagjaguwar)
three stars
The ghostly groans and beastly moans emanating from the depths of Swan Lake are likely to put off any fairweather fans of father bands Destroyer, Sunset Rubdown and Frog Eyes—wait a minute, do Frog Eyes have any fairweather fans? Here, Dan Bejar, Spencer Krug and Carey Mercer retreat into a murky fog where disintegrating keyboards drape themselves over acoustic guitars, and distant percussion colours the mirage of melodies that reward the patient. Traces of their day jobs are apparent, but the focus on texture here gives them a tabula rasa to start anew. Closing track “Shooting Rockets” may be more of a séance than a song, but otherwise they remain ever so slightly on this side of the spirit world. –Michael Barclay

THE SADIES
Tales From Rat Fink
(Outside)
four stars
Just in case you thought the Sadies couldn't make a record without a massive guest list or copious amounts of psychedelics, here they whip out 26 tightly wound instrumentals that take full advantage of their Morricone moments and summers of surf rock past. The Ron Mann documentary of the same name focuses on hot rod car designer Ed Roth, whose heyday was the 50s and early 60s; the Sadies' soundtrack doesn't sound a day older than '65, before the younger Good Brothers were even alive. In some ways, this sounds like a more mature update of 1998's Precious Moments. Now that they've released a career-defining live album and begun recording in the UK with Gary Louris, Rat Fink might even put a cap on that era. –Michael Barclay

FLASHLIGHT BROWN
Blue
(Union 2112/Warner)
Four stars
No, these venerable Toronto underdogs are not giving Joni Mitchell's masterpiece a 35th anniversary tribute. They are, however, doing the equally impossible by not only making a pop-punk album worthy of redeeming the entire tired genre, but surviving a huge major label clusterfuck in the process. On their first album of original material in five years, they're raging without any musical sign of resignation, even if singer Matt Hughes is "sick of all the loud music" and laments, "I want to feel like I did when the chaos was real." The healthy sense of self-deprecation is balanced by multiple killer hooks, making this much more than the mid-life crisis of a sardonic punk—perhaps even a totally unexpected career resurrection. –Michael
Barclay


ALUMINUM
s/t
(XL)
Three stars
File this next to Nouvelle Vague for cover projects that defy the novelty factor and showcase the ingenuity of reinvention. "Orchestral versions of White Stripes songs"— those five words pretty much sum up this classical rock album, and Richard Ashcroft is likely already scrounging it for sample material. Don't mistake this for muzak: arranger Joby Talbot works minor miracles with even the sketchiest of Jack White's songs, colouring the more repetitious choices ("Why Can't You Be Nicer to Me") with plenty of flourish, and wisely picking four tracks from the band's best collection De Stijl. Oh, and a gamelan and harp help "Hardest Button to Button" totally kick major ass. In case you think this is all ridiculous, wait for the accompanying ballet. I'm not even kidding. –Michael Barclay

from the K-W Record, a mainstream daily newspaper west of Toronto:

Nov 9

Charlotte Gainsbourg – 5.55 (Warner)
There's a new Sean Lennon album out that, more than anything, proves that talent is not genetic. And on the surface, this album by the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg might also prove that to be true—depending on your tolerance for cooing French romantics. Her voice is whisper thin and practically transparent; one has to wonder if she sings that way because she wants to—to suit the dreamy, weightless material—or, like Paris Hilton, if she has to.
But if nothing else, this progeny of French pop royalty has impeccable taste in collaborators. She handed over complete songwriting duties to her the band Air and Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, which turns out to be a brilliant move. Cocker shares her father's perverse sense of humour, which gives us a soothing song about a fiery plane crash, and an icy new wave song about the sexually intimate nature of surgery. Air set it all to music with their most captivating melodies since their classic debut album Moon Safari; if you lost track of them after that, you haven't missed much until now.
5.55 the album is much better than Gainsbourg herself; she's little more than a vehicle for the songs, but such is their hypnotic spell that it rarely matters.

John Legend – Once Again (Sony/BMG)
If I had a dollar for every time a new artist was touted as being the next Marvin Gaye, I'd be sharing stock tips with Jay-Z. For all the promises made by the neo-soul movement of the last ten years, much of it merely makes gestural nods to the spirit and sound while falling prey to all the usual pitfalls of modern R&B: second-rate material, showboating vocalists, and style over substance. Not here, however.
On his second album, John Legend establishes himself as much more than a Kanye West protégé, more than a sideman to Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys, more than an upstart with beginner's luck and three Grammys under his belt. Once Again is leaps and bounds ahead of his 2004 debut Get Lifted, with snappin' soul tunes and swoony, string-drenched ballads that stave off the syrup.
With the help of all-star producers Will.I.Am (Black-Eyed Peas), West, Craig Street (Cassandra Wilson) and Rafael Saadiq, it's the songwriting here that separates Legend from the countless others who only know how to wear the suits. He's also a perfect piano accompanist, whose arrangements help conjure apparitions of 70s soul and piano pop; the cover image of Legend playing a grand piano on a New York City street also helps.
Finally, and obviously, there's the voice, which is earnest without ever being cloying, and is convincing enough to make the featherweight lovers' lyrics sound deeper than they actually are.
If he keeps this up, he'll certainly have earned his stage name.

from K-W Record, November 30
Jerry Lee Lewis – Last Man Standing: The Duets (Shangri-La/Koch)
If he's the last man standing, why does he need all these other dudes propping him up? And no mistake, they are all dudes—not many women want to be left alone in a studio with Jerry Lee.
This comeback album was five years in the making, and it pairs up Jerry Lee with 21 other rock'n'roll legends, most of whom take vocal turns with him. It's undeniably invigorating to hear him rip through Led Zeppelin's Rock and Roll (with Jimmy Page on guitar), CCR's Travelin' Band (with John Fogerty), and Springsteen's Pink Cadillac (with the Boss man himself), all featuring the piano pyrotechnics we all want to hear. Most amusing is his "duet" with Little Richard on I Saw Her Standing There, which would be one for the history books if only Jerry Lee let his archrival near the piano—or even near the microphone for more than the occasional holler.
For the most part, however, he focuses on the country music that's been the focus of his last 30 years. Robbie Robertson's Twilight is a highlight (thankfully Robertson doesn't sing), as is That Kind of Fool with Keith Richards and Kris Kristofferson's The Pilgrim. The latter, about a "walking contradiction" and famously quoted in Taxi Driver, may well have been written about Jerry Lee himself.
While his voice is drenched in Sun Studio-style reverb for the rockers, the other tracks betray the fact that his 71-year old voice just isn't what it used to be, and neither are the voices of most of his equally aged duet partners, which just makes the whole affair sound like a bunch of non-descript old guys getting together with a shit-hot piano player.

from K-W Record, October 26

The Tragically Hip – World ContainerTM (Universal)
Maybe they felt their ass getting kicked by the next generation of CanRockers. Maybe they took a long hard look at their lacklustre recent work after issuing last year's box set and hits compilation. Maybe producer Bob Rock hooked them up with Metallica's therapist and
opened new doors of communication.
Who knows? Who cares? The short of it is that World ContainerTM sounds like The Tragically Hip are willing to put up a fight and resist the irrelevance that's been nipping at their heels for most of this decade. There were some definite steps out of their slump on 2004's In Between Evolution, but now they've gone back to the drawing board.
Gord Downie is no longer relying on guitar riffs to conjure his melodies for him, and ends up writing some of his poppiest melodies ever, especially the toy-piano-driven single In View. Guitarists Bobby Baker and Paul Langlois have finally realised that The Hip have long ceased to be a decent jam band, and have quit noodling themselves into the netherworld; here they sound tight and focused and exploring different textures to their playing. Bob Rock's production errs on the side of stadium-size drum sounds, yet he also leaves enough sonic space for every guitar track to ring out loud and clear. Downie's vocal performances sound like he's hungry again—or maybe he's overwhelmed by the oceanic setting of Rock's Hawaii studio, as aquatic themes dominate several songs here.
Fortunately, the album is front-loaded with future hits, like the surprising The Lonely End of the Rink, with its reggae-tinged verses adding an extra twist to standard rock chorus. (Maybe they took notes on how to pull off this tricky feat with subtlety when the Joel Plaskett Experience opened their last tour.)
World ContainerTM dips considerably in the second half, especially when Downie sounds like a grumpy grandpa shooing the whippersnappers off his lawn on The Kids Don't Get It. But he's rescued by the rousing Family Band, a shout-out to struggling young bands on their first tour ("what's gripping the city ain't hitting the town") set to an anthemic avalanche of guitars that may well have been borrowed from Broken Social Scene.
If this country's recent rock success stories threatened to unleash a classic Canadian cultural amnesia, one of our finest bands has finally returned to remind us why we once loved them so—fully, completely.


Greg Keelor – Aphrodite Rose (Warner)
To date, Greg Keelor's solo records away from Blue Rodeo have been either hushed lullabies or hazy psychedelia. This time out, he goes back to his favourite paisley-tinged country records of the 60s, with big Byrdsian harmonies, ringing Rickenbackers, pointed political lyrics, trippy jazz-folk, and back-to-the-garden spirituality ("wild flowers are proof enough of a higher power").
Recorded on his farm, it's all captured on a gloriously warm one-inch analog tape machine, which really does make a difference when it comes to capturing what made those 60s records sound so good—including plenty of hard panning into left and right speakers. Keelor sounds
completely comfortable playing all of the instruments himself, with occasional favours called in from the Sadies and Sarah McLachlan, but this isn't just a vanity experiment: he also conjures up his best set of songs in over five years.
At a time when a new generation is turning on to the psychedelic properties of folk music, Keelor kicks back and teaches us old school style.


Jim Cuddy Band – The Light That Guides You Home (Warner)
Keelor's lifelong partner in crime doesn't fare as well on his second solo album. Once again, despite the fact that employs most of Blue Rodeo as his backing band, Cuddy proves that he does his best work when egged on by the creative tension wrought by his partnership with Keelor. Any Blue Rodeo fan will find plenty of pleasantly recognizable signposts here, but only the honkytonkin' Oh Susanna duet Married Again, the pan-Canadian love letter Countrywide Soul, and the rocking Stagger In leave any impact. When faced with a total creative carte blanche, it's still baffling why anyone would put out a solo album that sounds almost exactly like their day job.

from K-W Record, Nov 2
Los Lobos – The Town and the City (Hollywood/Universal)
For fans who have followed them for the better part of their 27-year career, Los Lobos have been locked into a pattern of blowing us away on every second record—as recently as their 25th anniversary album The Ride, which boasted plenty of guest stars, reinvented older material, and a solid set of new songs.
But as this album illustrates, the lulls are getting lower, and there's very little on The Town and the City that suggests they're doing anything but phoning this in. The fact that it's comprised primarily of plodding mid-tempo songs isn't the problem, so much as the fact that the venerable masters sound as bored as we are. The only real life to be found here is found on Cesar Rosas's Latino numbers, though even those sound like leftovers from previous albums.
The only surprise to be found here is the fact that it's taken this long for their neighbour, the famed graphic novelist Jaime Hernandez, this long to illustrate one of their albums.

from Exclaim, December 2006
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
directed by Davis Guggenheim
This hit film was shocking to many North Americans, and buried deep in the movie is a funny little statistic that explains why. Al Gore describes how even though every peer-reviewed science journal unequivocally believes in global warming, mainstream media coverage continuously treats it like a questionable theroy—usually by soliciting opinions of scientists on the payroll of oil companies. Gore briefly compares them to the doctors trotted out in the 60s to defend cigarettes, but doesn't push the issue. And nor should he, lest the potential converts to his cause think he's one of those wacko conspiracy theorists that actually believes that Florida 2000 was an unfair fight. But the film's producers are happy to expand on that thought—and others—during their informative commentary, which acts as an excellent supplement to the information in the film itself. Director Guggenheim is less enlightening on the issues, but provides a textbook example of someone who doesn't consider themselves an environmentalist, yet was totally swayed by the strength of Gore's presentation on global warming. He also explains how hard it was to convince Gore to include glimpses into the former vice-president's own life struggles, which explains Gore's passion for delivering this message, while also breaking up the density of information and drawing the audience closer to its subject. Guggenheim laments at how hard it was to trim down Gore's two-hour lecture into less than 90 minutes to make an effective film. If that's true, why not include more extended scenes as DVD extras? Gore does appear in a featurette with a bare minimum of this material, as well as an update on some facts and case studies cited in the original film. Rest assured, there's no wasteful plastic packaging on this DVD: not only is it made from 100 post-consumer recycled material, but apparently it was powered by Native Energy. After hearing him talk the talk, it's good to know he's walking the walk. Also: short making-of featurette, Melissa Etheridge music video. (Paramount) –Michael Barclay
-end-