Spring Break
New Vibrations
Issue date: 4/30/09
ARTIST: Art Brut
ALBUM: Art Brut vs. Satan
LABEL: Downtown
RELEASED: April 21, 2009
Art Brut's future may be a cause for worry. Their sophomore release, 2007's It's a Bit Complicated, saw the Brits oddly endangered by overproduction, sweet melodies and what seemed like a comatose effort on the part of bawdy lead man Eddie Argos, who had either stopped drinking or fallen dopedrunk for pop.
Art Brut vs. Satan may not be a leap in subject, but at least it smacks of a welcome return. Gone are many of Complicated's trumpets and frills. Argos, along with the music, seems to have woken up; each track is fast, talky, punk-driven and, as with the first album, confident of its charm. This tends to manifest in Argos's trademark slurred one-liners.
As from the beginning, the humor is key. The last album may have been Brut at their catchiest, but it failed to rope the breadth of humor present in Bang Bang Rock and Roll. This isn't to say Art Brut vs. Satan is fully hysterical. Its underwhelming single, "Alcoholics Unanimous," sends a lazy buzz of guitars under a lazier chorus with a call and response from the band. The album's closer, "Mysterious Bruises," comes slower - the guitars with half-joking gravity - but at over seven minutes, it gets a little overbearing.
The songs, while catchy and engaging, can suffer from a bit of quasi-punk redundancy. While the change in aesthetics brought the band closer to its old self, Bang Bang Rock and Roll still managed its energy with more diversity in composition and laughs. Nobody's trying to stretch the shadow of the first album, at least not consciously, but that's where the love originates- could they be resisted after promising "We're gonna write the song/that makes Israel and Palestine get along?"
The music world's enthusiasm for Art Brut may get its due nourishment from Art Brut vs. Satan. It's likely a good thing. Nobody's expecting an avant-garde opus, and a Christian detoxified Argos would defeat everything that makes them worth listening to. But the reality is that Art Brut may never match its initial charm. Hopefully, the band won't be the last to glimpse its novelty fleeing. If not, we aren't in for much else.
- Doug Ross
ARTIST: Metric
ALBUM: Fantasies
LABEL: .02 Records
RELEASED: April 19, 2009
Fantasies, Metric's latest studio album, may be just as catchy as some of the Canadian new wave indie-rock band's previous efforts, but sorely lacks their musical and lyrical complexities.
One of the better tracks on the album, "Help I'm Alive," keeps Joules Scott-Key's tight drumming in line with vocalist Emily Haines's electronically-enhanced falsetto. An additional clean bass line, courtesy of Josh Winstead and James Shaw's whining guitar riff, keeps the music fresh and dance-worthy, although frankly the nearly five-minute long track loses steam somewhere around its halfway point. Metric tends to cling to winding, repeated lyrics; "Help I'm Alive," however, is not quite remarkable enough to keep the listener intently interested.
Another strong track is "Gimme Sympathy," a four-minute tale about change and past mistakes. Haines keeps the mood sweet and poignant with softer vocals, while the synthesized background melody provides a more upbeat hipster-club sound.
Though a couple songs offer some of the same rampant musical rush found on earlier Metric albums, the rest of Fantasies is devoid of old tracks' energetic excitement. "Twilight Galaxy," the fourth track on the album, tries to provide a soft respite to its more fast-paced predecessors, but ends up dragging on from the very beginning.
Haines whispers her vocals in an attempt to invoke an element of sad romanticism in the listener, but fails quite spectacularly, making the synthesized chorus seem shrill and forced rather than melancholic. More importantly, the melody is too soft and the instrumentation too spread out, making the entire song feel tedious and generic.
"Stadium Love," the album's closing track, is another forced, uninteresting failure. Metric picks up the pace with hard-hitting guitar playing and manic drumming. However, odd backing vocals and Haines's repeated, shouted chorus rush the rest of the song, keeping the listener from enjoying the melody's frantic nature.
Earlier tracks, like Live It Out's "Monster Hospital" and Old World Underground's "Wet Blanket" featured the same energetic feel as "Stadium Love," but exciting lyrics and unique instrumentation prevented the listener from drowning in the vivacious vigor.
Metric has never been the most sophisticated or lyrically profound groups of its genre - it's often compared contemporary, fellow Canadian-based band Stars is generally considered the more complex and cohesive of the two - but earlier albums like 2001's Grow Up and Blow Away and Old World Underground meshed catchy soft-beat music and hooks with well thought-out lyrics that churned out some hits on indie radio stations.
The combination of Haines's commanding vocals, Shaw's electronically-enhanced guitar riffs, Winstead's bass playing and Scott-Key's unyielding drumwork has always led to enjoyable, dance-worthy music. Fantasies does offer some good tracks, but as a whole the album feels a little deflated, as if Metric's signature energy has been squeezed out. More importantly, nothing on the album seems like a progression from Metric's earlier efforts. Perhaps the next album will provide more pizzazz; it would be a shame for a band as great as Metric to lose its soul.
- Becca Fishbein
ARTIST: Booker T. Jones
ALBUM: Potato Hole
LABEL: Anti
RELEASED: April 21, 2009
Booker T. Jones was the organist and leader of Booker T. and the MGs, a talented soul instrumental band best known for the hit, "Green Onions." Dan Akroyd, in the character of Elwood Blues, once said that the band's music "can be equated with the great classical music around the world." What made the MGs special was not just the brilliance of their compositions or their individual talents as players (though each member was a stellar musician in his own right). Instead, the strength of the MGs lay in their fantastic interplay: their ability to listen and to speak to each other through their instruments.
When drummer Al Jackson Jr. was shot in 1971, the group disbanded. Periodically, the surviving three come together to play gigs, sometimes with a new drummer and sometimes as part of another musician's backing band. Their style influenced bands and performers as diverse as Isaac Hayes, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Beatles.
Booker T. Jones wrote most of his new album by himself and performed it with a Southern rock band called the Drive-By Truckers. The laid-back quality of the MGs sound is missing here for most of the tunes, but the interplay between instruments is as strong. The smooth sound of '60s R&B has been remade into something a little bit closer to country, but the soul and the rhythm have not been lost. The combination makes a band of its own with compositions that stand up beside, not against nor beneath the original works by the MGs.
The sound of the album could be compared to Pendulum by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Released soon after the Revival finished a tour with the MGs, Pendulum took their swamp-rock sound in a bluesier, more soul-like direction, with the songwriter John Fogerty incorporating keyboards and new techniques into the work.
Here, Jones arrives at about the same place from the opposite direction by throwing his lot in with the Drive-By Truckers. The Trucker's guitar is thicker than Steve Cropper's sparse guitar licks ever were, the drumming is less laid-back and more of a pushing force, and the bass acts as a counterbalance to the melody provided by the guitar picker and Jones's organ. The new grouping of musicians is different from the original MGs, like Vanilla Coke is different from Coca-Cola; it has a distinct and welcome taste, but not one meant to take the place of the original.
Warm optimism and a sense of musical playfulness to rival Bach's have not left Jones's fingertips, and his playing is in top form. Especially pleasant to hear are "Reunion Time," "Space City" and the wonderful cover of "Hey Ya," which leave the listener with the feeling of just having eaten comfort food but without the worry of calories.
The mesmerizing effects of the instruments, so vital in past pieces like "Melting Pot" by the original MGs, surface again on this album, and a song like "Get Behind The Mule" is almost capable of hypnotizing those who hear it. This album would be recommended for those who like music that is as soulful as it is pleasant on the ears.
- Alex Neville
ALBUM: Art Brut vs. Satan
LABEL: Downtown
RELEASED: April 21, 2009
Art Brut's future may be a cause for worry. Their sophomore release, 2007's It's a Bit Complicated, saw the Brits oddly endangered by overproduction, sweet melodies and what seemed like a comatose effort on the part of bawdy lead man Eddie Argos, who had either stopped drinking or fallen dopedrunk for pop.
Art Brut vs. Satan may not be a leap in subject, but at least it smacks of a welcome return. Gone are many of Complicated's trumpets and frills. Argos, along with the music, seems to have woken up; each track is fast, talky, punk-driven and, as with the first album, confident of its charm. This tends to manifest in Argos's trademark slurred one-liners.
As from the beginning, the humor is key. The last album may have been Brut at their catchiest, but it failed to rope the breadth of humor present in Bang Bang Rock and Roll. This isn't to say Art Brut vs. Satan is fully hysterical. Its underwhelming single, "Alcoholics Unanimous," sends a lazy buzz of guitars under a lazier chorus with a call and response from the band. The album's closer, "Mysterious Bruises," comes slower - the guitars with half-joking gravity - but at over seven minutes, it gets a little overbearing.
The songs, while catchy and engaging, can suffer from a bit of quasi-punk redundancy. While the change in aesthetics brought the band closer to its old self, Bang Bang Rock and Roll still managed its energy with more diversity in composition and laughs. Nobody's trying to stretch the shadow of the first album, at least not consciously, but that's where the love originates- could they be resisted after promising "We're gonna write the song/that makes Israel and Palestine get along?"
The music world's enthusiasm for Art Brut may get its due nourishment from Art Brut vs. Satan. It's likely a good thing. Nobody's expecting an avant-garde opus, and a Christian detoxified Argos would defeat everything that makes them worth listening to. But the reality is that Art Brut may never match its initial charm. Hopefully, the band won't be the last to glimpse its novelty fleeing. If not, we aren't in for much else.
- Doug Ross
ARTIST: Metric
ALBUM: Fantasies
LABEL: .02 Records
RELEASED: April 19, 2009
Fantasies, Metric's latest studio album, may be just as catchy as some of the Canadian new wave indie-rock band's previous efforts, but sorely lacks their musical and lyrical complexities.
One of the better tracks on the album, "Help I'm Alive," keeps Joules Scott-Key's tight drumming in line with vocalist Emily Haines's electronically-enhanced falsetto. An additional clean bass line, courtesy of Josh Winstead and James Shaw's whining guitar riff, keeps the music fresh and dance-worthy, although frankly the nearly five-minute long track loses steam somewhere around its halfway point. Metric tends to cling to winding, repeated lyrics; "Help I'm Alive," however, is not quite remarkable enough to keep the listener intently interested.
Another strong track is "Gimme Sympathy," a four-minute tale about change and past mistakes. Haines keeps the mood sweet and poignant with softer vocals, while the synthesized background melody provides a more upbeat hipster-club sound.
Though a couple songs offer some of the same rampant musical rush found on earlier Metric albums, the rest of Fantasies is devoid of old tracks' energetic excitement. "Twilight Galaxy," the fourth track on the album, tries to provide a soft respite to its more fast-paced predecessors, but ends up dragging on from the very beginning.
Haines whispers her vocals in an attempt to invoke an element of sad romanticism in the listener, but fails quite spectacularly, making the synthesized chorus seem shrill and forced rather than melancholic. More importantly, the melody is too soft and the instrumentation too spread out, making the entire song feel tedious and generic.
"Stadium Love," the album's closing track, is another forced, uninteresting failure. Metric picks up the pace with hard-hitting guitar playing and manic drumming. However, odd backing vocals and Haines's repeated, shouted chorus rush the rest of the song, keeping the listener from enjoying the melody's frantic nature.
Earlier tracks, like Live It Out's "Monster Hospital" and Old World Underground's "Wet Blanket" featured the same energetic feel as "Stadium Love," but exciting lyrics and unique instrumentation prevented the listener from drowning in the vivacious vigor.
Metric has never been the most sophisticated or lyrically profound groups of its genre - it's often compared contemporary, fellow Canadian-based band Stars is generally considered the more complex and cohesive of the two - but earlier albums like 2001's Grow Up and Blow Away and Old World Underground meshed catchy soft-beat music and hooks with well thought-out lyrics that churned out some hits on indie radio stations.
The combination of Haines's commanding vocals, Shaw's electronically-enhanced guitar riffs, Winstead's bass playing and Scott-Key's unyielding drumwork has always led to enjoyable, dance-worthy music. Fantasies does offer some good tracks, but as a whole the album feels a little deflated, as if Metric's signature energy has been squeezed out. More importantly, nothing on the album seems like a progression from Metric's earlier efforts. Perhaps the next album will provide more pizzazz; it would be a shame for a band as great as Metric to lose its soul.
- Becca Fishbein
ARTIST: Booker T. Jones
ALBUM: Potato Hole
LABEL: Anti
RELEASED: April 21, 2009
Booker T. Jones was the organist and leader of Booker T. and the MGs, a talented soul instrumental band best known for the hit, "Green Onions." Dan Akroyd, in the character of Elwood Blues, once said that the band's music "can be equated with the great classical music around the world." What made the MGs special was not just the brilliance of their compositions or their individual talents as players (though each member was a stellar musician in his own right). Instead, the strength of the MGs lay in their fantastic interplay: their ability to listen and to speak to each other through their instruments.
When drummer Al Jackson Jr. was shot in 1971, the group disbanded. Periodically, the surviving three come together to play gigs, sometimes with a new drummer and sometimes as part of another musician's backing band. Their style influenced bands and performers as diverse as Isaac Hayes, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Beatles.
Booker T. Jones wrote most of his new album by himself and performed it with a Southern rock band called the Drive-By Truckers. The laid-back quality of the MGs sound is missing here for most of the tunes, but the interplay between instruments is as strong. The smooth sound of '60s R&B has been remade into something a little bit closer to country, but the soul and the rhythm have not been lost. The combination makes a band of its own with compositions that stand up beside, not against nor beneath the original works by the MGs.
The sound of the album could be compared to Pendulum by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Released soon after the Revival finished a tour with the MGs, Pendulum took their swamp-rock sound in a bluesier, more soul-like direction, with the songwriter John Fogerty incorporating keyboards and new techniques into the work.
Here, Jones arrives at about the same place from the opposite direction by throwing his lot in with the Drive-By Truckers. The Trucker's guitar is thicker than Steve Cropper's sparse guitar licks ever were, the drumming is less laid-back and more of a pushing force, and the bass acts as a counterbalance to the melody provided by the guitar picker and Jones's organ. The new grouping of musicians is different from the original MGs, like Vanilla Coke is different from Coca-Cola; it has a distinct and welcome taste, but not one meant to take the place of the original.
Warm optimism and a sense of musical playfulness to rival Bach's have not left Jones's fingertips, and his playing is in top form. Especially pleasant to hear are "Reunion Time," "Space City" and the wonderful cover of "Hey Ya," which leave the listener with the feeling of just having eaten comfort food but without the worry of calories.
The mesmerizing effects of the instruments, so vital in past pieces like "Melting Pot" by the original MGs, surface again on this album, and a song like "Get Behind The Mule" is almost capable of hypnotizing those who hear it. This album would be recommended for those who like music that is as soulful as it is pleasant on the ears.
- Alex Neville
Be the first to comment on this story