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music (34 unread)

Rolling Stone Album Reviews

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  Various Artists - Amchitka

  Posted: March 4th, 2010, 1:03pm EST

  Artist: Various Artists Review: This two-CD set documents a 1970 Vancouver fundraiser that sent a boatload of protesters off to halt nuclear-bomb tests on Alaska's Amchitka Island — the first example of Greenpeace-style activism. The concert was sweet and stirring: Phil Ochs is in fine voice despite tape noise; ditto a 22-year-old James Taylor, showcasing his brand-new Sweet Baby James. But the night belonged to a giggly, incandescent Joni Mitchell, previewing songs from her future classic Blue. Choice moment: "Big... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Daniel Merriweather - Love & War

  Posted: March 1st, 2010, 12:58pm EST

  Artist: Daniel Merriweather Review: The debut from Aussie neosoul singer Daniel Merriweather overflows with good taste — and better intentions. Produced by Mark Ronson, Love & War is sharp and bright, full of limpid melodies, punchy brass arrangements and, in songs like "Change" (with rapping by Wale), beats that gesture to 1974 but feel thoroughly 2010. The problem is the transparent influence for Merriweather's earnest tenor: Stevie Wonder. Peak-period Wonder wasn't just a nice guy with a nice voice — he was a... Rating: 2.5 Stars

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  Len Price 3 - Pictures

  Posted: March 1st, 2010, 12:56pm EST

  Artist: Len Price 3 Review: Britain's Len Price 3 are the least nostalgic modern-garage band I know. The whiplash reverberations of the 1964 Kinks and '65 Who on the LP3's third album, Pictures — the metallic thwack and buzzing sustain of singer-guitarist Glenn Page's Rickenbacker; the fast martial step and chrome-glaze harmonies in "I Don't Believe You" and "Nothing Like You" — are authentically vicious. But so are the relationship distress and last straws the trio pack into the breathless dynamite of "After... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Shout Out Louds - Work

  Posted: March 1st, 2010, 12:55pm EST

  Artist: Shout Out Louds Review: Shout Out Louds are proud indie-rock neocons: 2007's Our Ill Wills ripped a melody from the Cure, a song title from the Smiths and vocal moves from Bright Eyes. The third album from the Stockholm quintet brilliantly works a classic indie look: airy, sleek, gingerly heroic guitar zone-outs about a love-starved dude's battle against emotional torpor. Singer-guitarist Adam Olenius evokes suicide attempts and binge drinking, the girls he can't win and the family he can't satisfy, as producer Phil Ek... Rating: 3 Stars

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  Allison Moorer - Crows

  Posted: March 1st, 2010, 12:52pm EST

  Artist: Allison Moorer Review: Like sister Shelby Lynne and husband Steve Earle, Allison Moorer drives her Nashville-born career all over the map. Here she unfurls dark emotions in uncharacteristic chamber-folk settings. "Easy in the Summertime" sketches childhood bliss with piano, strings and shadows; "Abalone Sky" is a hushed waltz. Moorer's handsome voice is remarkably twangless here. Also remarkable is that the most indelible of her goth-chick musings is the happiest-sounding: "The Broken Girl," all la-la-las and bouncy... Rating: 3 Stars

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  Danny Barnes - Pizza Box

  Posted: March 1st, 2010, 12:50pm EST

  Artist: Danny Barnes Review: Texas country rocker Danny Barnes likes to do wild things with his banjo — check out the explosive picking on his old band the Bad Livers' turbocharged hillbilly version of Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life." Barnes' seventh solo album, Pizza Box, is a collection of banjo-based songs set against big rock ("Road"), Memphis-style horns ("Sparta, TN"), barnstorming juke-joint blues ("Misty Swan") and even a shuffling, hip-hop-style beat ("Sleep"). Barnes is a clever lyricist with a punk-rock past who... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Buddy Holly - Not Fade Away: The Complete Studio Recordings And More

  Posted: March 1st, 2010, 12:45pm EST

  Artist: Buddy Holly Review: This six-cd set is the definitive account of Buddy Holly's life on record, from a crude tape of him at 13, yelping Hank Snow's "My Two-Timin' Woman," to demos of Holly's last great songs, "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" and "Learning the Game," made just before his death in 1959 at 22. The big middle of Not Fade Away is Holly's '56-'58 bloom in full, when he fused pop, Texas country and R&B drive in "Not Fade Away," "Rave On" and "That'll Be the Day." He didn't get to finish the job, but, in that... Rating: 5 Stars

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  Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

  Posted: March 1st, 2010, 11:46am EST

  Artist: Gorillaz Review: What happens when a cartoon rock group turns into the real thing? Twelve years ago, when Blur's Damon Albarn started Gorillaz, it just seemed like a typical English rock star's idea of a groovy side project — teaming with London comic-book artist Jamie Hewlett to create a fictional multi-media band. A lot of fans figured Albarn was burned out, both as a celebrity and a Brit-pop concept-flogger. But as a musician, he was just getting started. Three albums in, his cartoon act has ruled as a... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Massive Attack - Heligoland

  Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 12:28pm EST

  Artist: Massive Attack Review: Massive Attack have a gift for translating the ominous tartness of tripped-out electro music — Ecstasy's teeth-grinding paranoia rather than carefree euphoria. Seven years after their textured but less tuneful 100th Window, the Bristol duo return with a potent dose of their psychedelic boom-bap aided by guest vocalists Tunde Adebimpe, Damon Albarn, Hope Sandoval and Martina Topley-Bird. With dry drum rolls and mesmerizing, multitracked vocals by Adebimpe, "Pray for Rain" could be a TV on... Rating: 4 Stars

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  Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring

  Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 11:58am EST

  Artist: Los Campesinos! Review: On their second full-length album, this Welsh six-piece still sound like a shambling, sexually frustrated version of the Arcade Fire: Over scratched guitars and slashed violins, Gareth Campesinos! carps about salvation and orgasms — or lack thereof. "Who Fell Asleep In" finds him sexing up a cutie in a church, and on the blistering "Straight at the 101" he tells a lover, "We need less post-rock and more post-coital." Lacking many new moves, Romance doesn't feel as revelatory as Los... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Patty Griffin - Downtown Church

  Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 11:55am EST

  Artist: Patty Griffin Review: One of the better-kept secrets of American music, Patty Griffin is a songwriting champ who's been covered by acts from the Dixie Chicks to Solomon Burke. So while her voice is exquisite — a less burnished version of her pal Emmylou Harris' — it's still surprising to find her doing an LP of mainly covers. Recorded at the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville, the theme is celestial, opening with Hank Williams' "House Of Gold" and moving through traditional numbers like "If I Had... Rating: 3 Stars

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  Never Shout Never - What Is Love?

  Posted: February 16th, 2010, 11:59am EST

  Artist: Never Shout Never Review: Missouri kid Christofer Drew, 19, is a bona fide teen-pop phenomenon: His first album, What Is Love?, is light acoustic pop on which he shows melodic skills. But Drew took some bad lessons from emo and his dad's folk records: The vocals are often pained and piercing, and his manner can be gratingly precious — especially on "Can't Stand It," where he adopts an elfin voice to tell his puppy love, "Everything you do is superfucking cute." He should hold off on the cute — particularly... Rating: 2.5 Stars

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  Holly Miranda - The Magician’s Private Library

  Posted: February 16th, 2010, 11:57am EST

  Artist: Holly Miranda Review: The debut by Brooklyn singer-songwriter Holly Miranda was produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, an expert soundscaper but also a showboat with a tendency to bury songs beneath his extravagant sonics. Miranda has a bright, dexterous voice and writes smart songs about romantic strife and rapture. But too often here, she disappears under pretty keyboard textures and brass. Next time, Miranda should find a less brilliant producer — one who'll serve her songs, not swamp them. Rating: 3 Stars

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  Was (Not Was) - Pick of the Litter 1980-2010

  Posted: February 16th, 2010, 11:54am EST

  Artist: Was (Not Was) Review: Before he became superproducer to Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, Don Was (né Fagenson) helmed a satiric, mutant R&B outfit with jazz-loving pal David Was (né Weiss). Early-Eighties jams like the P-Funky "Out Come the Freaks" and the Ronald Reagan-sampling "Tell Me That I'm Dreaming" were avant-disco classics. Later, semihits threatened to make the group pop stars, but its taste for unmarketable weirdness (say, Leonard Cohen croaking about "Elvis' Rolls Royce") won out. Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Freeway - The Stimulus Package

  Posted: February 16th, 2010, 11:51am EST

  Artist: Freeway Review: The career of Philly rapper Freeway teaches a lesson about the value of patience. For a split second in 2003, the Jay-Z protégé was rap's It boy, but his booming voice and battle rhymes proved too gruff for hit radio. Now, in the chastened post-bling era, rugged songs like "Throw Your Hands Up" feel oddly au courant. The excellent beats by G Unit vet Jake One are full of smacking snare hits and soul samples. But the real music is Freeway's tricky rhyme schemes and his gravelly full-bore attack.... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Dave Matthews Band - Live In Las Vegas

  Posted: February 16th, 2010, 11:45am EST

  Artist: Dave Matthews Band Review: This nearly two-and-a-half-hour performance is another one of Dave Matthews' occasional double- acoustic-guitar shows with his old college-town buddy Tim Reynolds (their last album was 2007's Live at Radio City). The playing is impressive, and there are plenty of tender moments you won't see at full Matthews Band gigs. The best are simple, bluesy mourners like "Grace Is Gone." Having said that, these records are only of lasting interest to hardcore DMB heads — the rest of us can probably... Rating: 3 Stars

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  Butch Walker - I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart

  Posted: February 16th, 2010, 11:44am EST

  Artist: Butch Walker Review: "Temporary Title," "Stripped Down Version," "Pretty Melody" — Butch Walker's song titles make no bones: He's a studio rat who can churn 'em out. Walker has written and produced for artists ranging from Pete Yorn to Katy Perry; he's been everything from an acoustic balladeer to a debauched L.A. glam rocker. His latest packs it all in: grand ballads, punchy power pop, a smutty song about a girl who "likes hair bands." It sounds like it was recorded in 48 hours; you suspect Walker could make... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Johnny Cash - American VI: Ain't No Grave

  Posted: February 16th, 2010, 11:40am EST

  Artist: Johnny Cash Review: From 1993 until 2003, Rick Rubin and Johnny Cash produced a string of ingeniously simple music that set Cash's fathoms-deep baritone against a stark backdrop, turning him loose on grim, death-haunted Appalachian ballads, standards and rock songs of recent vintage. Seven years after Cash's death, those sessions are still producing great albums. The latest of the Rubin-Cash American Recordings, built out of songs recorded in the months before Cash's death, alters the formula only by being even... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Broken Bells - Broken Bells

  Posted: February 16th, 2010, 11:38am EST

  Artist: Broken Bells Review: Part Kanye West, part Brian Eno, producer-musician Brian Burton — a.k.a. Danger Mouse — has defined himself with his excellent taste in brilliant misfits. His biggest smash was Gnarls Barkley, with whom he turned oddball former Dirty South rapper Cee-Lo into a falsetto swinging soulman on the sublime "Crazy," triggering moving karaoke performances worldwide. He's helped blues-rock freaks the Black Keys find their groove; helped midcareer weirdo Beck locate his mojo on 2008's Modern... Rating: 4 Stars

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  Free Energy - Stuck on Nothing

  Posted: February 2nd, 2010, 2:52pm EST

  Artist: Free Energy Review: Free Energy have clearly watched Dazed and Confused many times. The Philly quintet futz with Seventies rock like gearheads restoring an old El Camino. Singer Paul Sprangers and guitarist Scott Wells used to be in Pavement-fan band Hockey Night, and they haven't ditched indie rock's deadpan tone or slanted structures in embracing Tom Petty and Thin Lizzy. It means their boogie breakouts come with lines like "Sky is electric/My skin don't feel right." Producer James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem gives... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack

  Posted: February 1st, 2010, 3:17pm EST

  Artist: The Soft Pack Review: These San Diego garage rockers got some heat for originally calling themselves the Muslims, but such risky judgment does not extend to their taste in used noise. The Soft Pack are revivalists who keep it interesting by messing around in the margins. "More or Less" and "Flammable" connect Feelies trance-strum to leather-jacket Sixties stomp, "Mexico" revives Lee Hazlewood as a surf-rock nomad, "Parasites" extends a two-minute guitar blitz into five minutes of zoned-out sprawl (and it's all the... Rating: 3 Stars

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  Nneka - Concrete Jungle

  Posted: February 1st, 2010, 3:15pm EST

  Artist: Nneka Review: "What is life without knowing that death comes?" asks the Nigerian-German singer-songwriter Nneka Egbuna in "Mind vs. Heart." If you're going to wax philosophical on a pop record, you better be able to back it up with gravitas and some great music. Luckily, Nneka has plenty of both. She has a husky, supple voice and is equally adept at blasting out guitar anthems ("Focus") and sauntering through neosoul rave-ups. She's clearly listened to Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu, but the production on Concre... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  The Flaming Lips - The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs With Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing Dark Side Of The Moon

  Posted: February 1st, 2010, 3:12pm EST

  Artist: The Flaming Lips Review: Just past midnight on January 1st, with confetti cannons exploding, the Flaming Lips launched into a raucous cover of Pink Floyd's 1973 bedroom-spliff warhorse, The Dark Side of the Moon. Sounds like it was fun — more so than this recorded version. There are some cool takes here: a dark, disco "On the Run," a Henry Rollins-assisted "Speak to Me/Breathe" that comes with a psychedelic guitar freakout. But nobody needed to hear Peaches yowling on "The Great Gig in the Sky," and Wayne Coyne... Rating: 2.5 Stars

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  Lady Antebellum - Need You Now

  Posted: February 1st, 2010, 3:12pm EST

  Artist: Lady Antebellum Review: Say this for Lady Antebellum: They're good at being bland. The follow-up to the Nashville trio's huge 2008 debut features sturdy choruses and fine harmonies by singers Hillary Scott and Charles Kelley. But the lyrical twists that mark the best Nashville product are nowhere to be found, and the high drama that they try for — "Something about us just don't work/But I can't walk away" — isn't earned. An exception is the title track, a tale of romantic obsession in which Scott and Kelley... Rating: 2 Stars

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  David Bowie - A Reality Tour

  Posted: February 1st, 2010, 3:10pm EST

  Artist: David Bowie Review: It's been seven years since the Thin White Duke's most recent studio LP — his longest hiatus to date — and he hasn't stepped onto a stage since 2006. This document of his last major tour is a reminder of what we're missing: In this 2003 Dublin concert, he runs wild through his songbook with his toughest live band ever, from undeniable crowd-killers ("Rebel Rebel") to cult faves ("Fantastic Voyage"). "The Loneliest Guy," an underrated ballad from Reality, takes on a whole new... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea

  Posted: February 1st, 2010, 3:09pm EST

  Artist: Corinne Bailey Rae Review: With a 2006 debut that showed off her fluttery, Billie Holiday-inflected wine-bar soul, Corinne Bailey Rae gave a boost to the U.K. export industry in women singer-songwriters, earning Grammy nods and an A-list career. Then her husband died of an overdose. Her latest is both reckoning and rebirth. "So young for death," she sings, smearing her girlish coo into gray-scale abstractions and deep emotions. Fragile arrangements — guitar, auto-harp, orchestra — suggest indie rock ("Are You... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Hot Chip - One Life Stand

  Posted: February 1st, 2010, 3:05pm EST

  Artist: Hot Chip Review: The best song on this U.K. electro-pop group's 2008 disc Made in the Dark was an ode to disco abandon called "Ready for the Floor." The best one here is a marriage proposal called "One Life Stand." Hot Chip's excellent fourth record shows how compatible those sentiments can be. Frontman Alexis Taylor, a new dad, hungers for commitment and ponders the big picture over sweeping songs that set searching Yaz-like synth melodies to elegiac house throb. The Chipsters lace their songs with references... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Sade - Soldier of Love

  Posted: February 1st, 2010, 3:04pm EST

  Artist: Sade Review: Sade has a lot in common with AC/DC. Both have spent long and glorious careers refining their signature sound, to the point where it's basically one song with different titles. They wait years between records, then deliver the same album they made last time — which means it's unimpeachably excellent. Neither gets caught doing anything stupid like trying a new hairstyle or making a Balearic dubstep record. They stick to their strengths. And they both sing about the tender emotions, from Sad... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Eels - End Times

  Posted: January 19th, 2010, 11:54am EST

  Artist: Eels Review: Eels mastermind Mark Everett split with his wife in 2005, but he's just gotten around to releasing his divorce album. He's a horribly strung-out love junkie on End Times, pining for his ex, talking to the bird on his porch and thinking the crazy homeless prophet on the corner is starting to make sense. Everett keeps these ballads and rockers short, spare and pretty; his sad reportage is straightforward to the point of being guileless. "I need a mother/It's really nothing new," he sings; familiar... Rating: 3 Stars

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  Hurricane Chris - Unleashed

  Posted: January 19th, 2010, 11:51am EST

  Artist: Hurricane Chris Review: Hurricane Chris, the baby-faced Louisiana rapper behind the 2007 novelty hit "A Bay Bay," is now fully 20 years old, and his second studio album is wall-to-wall hedonism: boasts about club conquests and squeaking bedsprings delivered in couplets like "Girl, I know you heard about how I be switching the position … Work it, work it, stick it, stick it." Chris has a syrupy drawl that luxuriates in long vowel sounds, and he brings goofy horndog charm to the hit "Halle Berry (She's Fine)." But... Rating: 2.5 Stars

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  Beach House - Teen Dream

  Posted: January 19th, 2010, 11:49am EST

  Artist: Beach House Review: The title's at least half-right. Buoyed by reverb-swathed guitars and the dusky torch singing of Victoria Legrand, Baltimore's Beach House have been the dream-pop duo to beat since 2006. They're more radiant than ever on their third disc, particularly on songs like "Zebra," with background chorales swooping over stately guitar plucking. The band is enraptured by the grandeur of Phil Spector and Brill Building teen pop, but there's no puppy love in the romantic fatalism on these songs ("You would... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Animal Collective - Campfire Songs

  Posted: January 19th, 2010, 11:48am EST

  Artist: Animal Collective Review: Animal Collective had a psychedelic-pop breakthrough in 2009 with Merriweather Post Pavilion, so it's interesting to hear their old stuff with enlightened ears. The five tracks on this 42-minute LP were conceived not as bonfire singalongs but as music that might mystically emanate from the crackling blaze itself. It works: The ambient bursts of acoustic-guitar sparks and echoey voices — recorded partly outdoors with birds, bugs and breeze joining in — conjure images of fire elves... Rating: 3 Stars

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  Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM

  Posted: January 19th, 2010, 11:44am EST

  Artist: Charlotte Gainsbourg Review: Actress Charlotte Gainsbourg may be the daughter of the ultimate Euro-glam couple, Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, but her Beck collaboration, IRM, is a tough-minded trip through some serious adult trauma: the 2007 cerebral hemorrhage that nearly killed her. Beck's keyboards echo the sound of an emergency-room brain scan. "IRM" is a stark hospital scene ("Following the X-ray eyes/From the cortex to the medulla"), and "Dandelion" explores melancholy with some French wit. As Gainsbourg sings,... Rating: 3.5 Stars

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  Lil Wayne - Rebirth

  Posted: January 19th, 2010, 11:39am EST

  Artist: Lil Wayne Review: "Rebirth" sounds like the first album that didn't come easily for Lil Wayne: He started working on it two years ago — an eternity for a guy who tosses off tracks in his hotel room between shows. If you have an Internet connection, you know that it's his rock & roll record — not such a crazy idea for this leather-clad Martian with serious rock-star appeal. The problem is that Wayne has very questionable taste in rock. He splutters and wails over tracks stuffed with aggro stomp and bla... Rating: 2.5 Stars

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