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While a Beck fan, who has worked with Charlotte in the past; and also a fan of Gainsbourg as an actress; this will be my first foray in to her music. Although I'm not generally the biggest fan of indie-electronic music led by women, my curiosity got the better of me. (I did just watch Melancholia...)
The Depeche Mode influence is obvious. There is an effort here to bring the dark dance vibe. The addition of Beck, I'm going to assume, adds the additional flavor of something more fun; something more funk. Without him, I'll bet that Charlotte would just have chosen straight-ahead dance beats to carry her songs forward. And that may have been enough for many people. But I appreciate the playful poppiness of "Terrible Angels" and echo-y drums of "All The Rain".
Outside of Beck, Charlotte's performance is largely unnoticeable. Her voice is monotoned in the upper register and muddled by enough echo to make her cloudy/smokey... veiled. Her personality does not come through. Maybe I'm being prejudiced against a singer/not-songwriter, but lines as interesting as "into the eye of a needle you can fly like a mosquito and turn into a million different people" should be able to be sold without too much effort. This becomes especially evident in a couple of non-Beck tracks, "Anna" and "Out Of Touch", which seem electronically lifeless.
The standout, though, is a tremendously written track by Conor O'Brien, aka Villagers, who I am a big fan of. I can hear his voice when Charlotte sings his "Memoir" as if it were her own. If Beck's not going to carry you with jams, she should have been doing this with the rest of the tracks. Something more organic. The album comes with a live disc which shows a much more dynamic performer playing livelier indie-pop tunes. Decent, but not what I'm basing this review on. (2.5 of 5 stars)
I do have to hand to the Keys on one standpoint. They have gotten out a product by themselves or a side-project virtually every year of their existence. Plus, they are consistenly good. Amped-up garage blues is a tried and true format and they haven't run it aground quite yet. I do see, however, a pattern of sameness in the last couple of releases. I do not blame the common element of producer Danger Mouse for this, as he seems to be the one who has pushed their sonic boundaries beyond their two-man limitations. It's more of a songwriting stagnancy that I see. As if Dan were leaning on the production to compensate for playing virtually the same riffs. It all sounds great, but will it always sound great? This will weigh on me as we proceed with their newest.
From my calculations, it appears that there were three new-material studio releasess today. A Trey Songz EP of American R&B; Hot Chelle Rae, which is sugary sweet bullshit to make Maroon 5 look like Led Zeppelin. And this... black metal.
A collection of droning minor chords and growling muted vocals. Each song is named "Epitome", as to make you aware that this is one story. And it starts with "Epitome VII" which makes you understand that this is a continuation of their last album, which ended at "The Fall: Chapter VI".
First of all, horrible production. And I'm not saying this because of the vocals; because I'm sure that this is what they were going for. But the drums sound like pitter-pat on tupperware. The drummer is clearly doing some damage, especially on double bass. But it sounds like shit. The guitar as well has, not a good buzzsaw sound; but a childish tinny buzzsaw sound.
The riffs themselves are not bad. "VII" suffers from reminding the listener too closely to Manson's "Sweet Dreams", but "VIII" has value- as a riff. Altogether, I don't know who this music is for. Where value is put on droning on so long that there is seemingly no end. Where vocal is so purposefully muddled to the point of subliminal "Head On" informercials underwater. This all makes "IX" - the drumless, vocalless, 2-minute guitar ballad my favorite. (.5 of 5 stars)
I am not in the habit of using this space to cover previously tread ground. Greatest hits, live records, reissues, songs that have been released before. But this week saw a lack of any new album released that I'm going to have any thoughtful response too. So, I chose the new live, acoustic release by Chris Cornell. It helps that I love Cornell. It also helps that I got the record for free for buying a concert ticket. Win-win. (Unless it sucks)
The album opens with what I considered the only saving grace from his Timbaland-produced Scream album. Then, it was a blues-ballad hidden-track called "Two Drink Minimum" - now inexplicably called "As Hope and Promise Fade". We also lose, for some reason, the John Mayer co-writing credit. This is the kind of song that serves much better in an acoustic format, ditching the uptown high-class studio buzz of 90's-Eric Clapton-style "blues" for something a little grittier.
More quality versions exist with the Audioslave covers. Because, even with the excitement of a Tom Morello et. al. performance, the songs chosen from their catalog here are amoung the more placid and mid-tempo. So we're not really losing that much and we get to focus on the dynamic voice/lyrics of Cornell.
That's not always true. I'm going to side with the original releases on some of these tracks. "Can't Change Me" for example, gained a lot from the arrangement of Alain Johannes. The Songbook version is certainly good; but we are missing a key element. Same goes for the Temple Of The Dog tracks. Maybe I'm just romanticizing my childhood; but I'm going to side of those sessions- which I consider still to be magical.
Cornell's set, taken from several shows, run the gamut across his career. Pretty evenly spread between his solo career and his various bands. Rounding out the record are a cover of Lennon's "Imagine" and a new acoustic-studio track called "The Keeper". Mellow, but still inspiring despite a lack of any vocal gymnastics. Cornell provides an interesting setlist of career-spanning tunes and delivers them effectively. The recordings are good and Cornell's voice is still in top form. (3.5 of 5 stars)
The opening track to this album is a great introduction for anyone. A firm declaration of not only blackness, but a blackness that doesn't often get rapped about, much less portrayed anywhere. A ghetto-less existence in middle-class white schools with parents who work hard together to bring a better life to their kids. That opener, "Outside", also includes a decidedly anti-soul gospellish hook. It defines the indie rap flow he'll be going for in the rest of the record/career. Even later on, he declares himself, "the only black dude at the Sufjan concert".
Later on, the beats and loops get more traditional hip-hop, but the lyrics never let up. Glover's a comedy actor/writer of course, so you would expect straight-up jokes or simple dick-joke Mickey Avalon style bullshit. But no. While Gambino's rhymes have a distinct sense of humor, it really just runs the quality MC route. Sometimes boastful, sometimes introspective. To give a list of accomplished examples would be futile here- there's simply far too many of them. "Kids" for example, has one of the best lines.
"There any breakage in that Trojan?"
She see what she wanna see
So I make her take Plan B in front of me
Women talk shit on men like all day
But it's Pete Wentz, goes both ways
The whole song, dealing the with ego flip following the female influx once a man becomes successful, is as clever as "Golddigger". But CG delivers it mournful and angry, as if he's lost something more pure by winning what he fought for. It's not the party jam of Kanye's ilk, but just as satisfying. Especially for a baller like this writer.
CG is sure to have a hit with "Heartbeat" which I cringed when I fist put on due to it's typical radio-beat and Usher-stlye club-sexy hook. But then the sexual politics of a broken-up couple who still cling to their physical whims are story-told in the lyrics and I was sold. "I'm a ghost and you know this. That's why we broke up in the first place."
When we get to the end, Donald is telling a story; a poem, almost; about this whole "Camp" idea. It's written for one woman, or girl- more to the point, a rememberance of one of those important declarations. The story is wistful, childish, romantic, dark and lonely. And it's a perfect ending to a great record. (4 of 5 stars)
A side project of Deerhunter's Brandon Cox. Apparently, the guy's a little off-kilter in the headdome. But I wouldn't pretend that this music paints the picture of an earless Van Gogh.
He's a dreamy pop guy in his day job and he doesn't stray from that too far off hours. The first two tracks especially are bland as they are pretty. Sunny indie-pop. After that we see a certain amount of texture. Some electronic programming that plinkos through your ear's sky rather than riffage that you can either dance, mosh or jam to. I'm not trying to be hippie-dippy on purpose, but for god's sake- he's got a song called "Modern Aquatic Nightsongs". He's asking for a little mocking.
But those texture moments are few and far between. For the most part, he seems to be fixated on one sentence fragment that he somehow think deserves two chords and additional musicians. "Everywhere I look, my angel is broken..." Now say that say five times, add on some "oohs" and "ahhs" and that's the gist. I'm sure it will fit somewhere neatly at your next... I don't know... pottery art class. But you'll forget about it when you leave. (1.5 of 5 stars)
"Frustration is my lexicon of hate."
Metallica plays behind Lou Reed at one concert; he asks them to do a record with him; they say yes. The result, even before I get started, is getting a buttload of shitty reviews. I have to quote one of the best lines I saw, by Chuck Klosterman: "If the Red Hot Chili Peppers acoustically covered the 12 worst Primus songs for Starbucks, it would still be (slightly) better than this."
This is okay, I'm saying to myself. I assume Metallica fans were the first responders here, being Napster-loving downloaders. And those guys are not the most open-minded of art-lovers. They freak out at the slightest of production-style changes. They're not going to understand a guy reciting poetry of over riffy jams with no chorus or lyrical melody to speak of.
So, while I'm still a big enough fan of Metallica, I was going to put on my Lou Reed fan-hat for this, because the view will probably be better. He really started this whole thing off, writing the basic tracks, while Metallica heavied-up the arrangements.
And for the most part... I'm okay with the collaboration. Metallica is as heavy if not heavier than they have been in years. Particularly on "Mistress Dread", which is an unrelenting thrash concrete wall. The harshest part is the vocal stylings of a rambling of a bum on the street waltzing Mathilda. Granted, I DO believe that Lou is more important than that, but his style is of course, one of a particular taste. And I'm actually happier than he's got a good, heavy band behind him. Otherwise, the 11+ minute repetition of "Why do I cheat on me?" would have been more unbearable than it otherwise is.
It's not all that repetitive though. I mean hell, the opening line is "I would cut my arms and tits off when I think of Boris Karloff." That's... interesting. And later on, "to be dry and spermless like a girl"... And I'm not ashamed to admit that it's all a little abstract. Based on a 19th century playwright, Lulu is definitely a desirable girl who gets shit on. And surely learns to do a lot of shitting on. And then there's apparently a Jack The Ripper element. It's way dark and hateful, which adds a good flavor.
There's a lot of quieter, feedback-laden passages where Lou tests our patience. The aforementioned "Cheat On Me" and "Little Dog" where we're comforted in knowing "as long as you can raise that little doggy face to a cold-hearted pussy, you could have a taste."
But there are good spots. The first four tracks in particular are strong, heavy, lyrically interesting and vocally strong (as strong as a near-70 year old bitter guy can drum up). It's an odd collaboration to be sure, but a kid today could just as easily have thrown out "I wish that I could kill you, but I do love your eyes." and it wouldn't seem as pure as someone with a lifetime of asshole women in his memory. "The one who rejects you is winning." I might have pushed it to 4 stars, had they removed the drone feedback and the "Cheat On Me" track. But, as it stands, (3.5 of 5 stars)
While a Beck fan, who has worked with Charlotte in the past; and also a fan of Gainsbourg as an actress; this will be my first foray in to her music. Although I'm not generally the biggest fan of indie-electronic music led by women, my curiosity got the better of me. (I did just watch Melancholia...)
