Music
Section By Jeb D.
TIN CAN TRUST
Los Lobos
Following a decade or so where their expert playing was somewhat undermined by indifferent songwriting, it seems as though last year’s Disney songs collection lit a fire under these hombres, reminding them that strong musical construction can put across an idea more effectively than even the tastiest jam. Tin Can Trust is their most vital-sounding album since Colossal Head. Keeping it tight helps: eleven tracks (including a couple of trad arrangements and a Grateful Dead cover) leaves no room for filler. David Hidalgo remains one of the most scandalously neglected performers in rock music, combining an aching, soaring tenor voice (“The Lady and the Rose”) with blistering guitar chops (“Do The Murray”). Meanwhile, Cesar Rosas rocks the bilingual blues, and drummer Louie Perez’ lyrical observations of life in the barrio remain as keen as ever.
THE SUBURBS
Arcade Fire
Given the parade of indie heavyweights that have dropped new albums already this year (The Hold Steady, Broken Social Scene, The National, Band of Horses, etc.), Arcade Fire was going to have to deliver something special to retain their position of primacy on college radio stations across the continent. Mostly, they do… but it’s not exactly the knockout blow to any pretenders to their throne. The Suburbs features the usual swelling melodies, frenetic instrumentation and anguished, yelping vocals: maybe too much so this time out. I like the relaxed tone of the opening title track, but even at its best, the rest of the album sometimes feels as though it’s straining to rock out with an unwarranted urgency: “Meet me down by the river,” Butler shrieks on “Modern Man” against a madly-strumming guitar, only to undercut it by off-handedly concluding that “it don’t matter which river, they all go somewhere.” Like just about every track on the album, the melody will lodge instantly in your brain, but it could have got there just as well with about half the effort. If anything, this album sort of feels like the opposite of the compactness of the new Los Lobos release: a double album with 17 tracks, three of them extensions/revisits of other songs, can drag a bit here and there. Still, it ends strongly, from the guitar slashes that kick off “Deep Blue” through two iterations of “Sprawl,” and finally “Suburbs (Continued)” which does its Joycean bit to return us to its source. I don’t know that The Suburbs has any more to teach me about its subject than, say, “Pleasant Valley Sunday” did, but its combination of spacious textures and passionate playing produce an album that might not be quite as rich and rewarding as its two predecessors, but with a nostalgic warmth of its own.
KING OF THE BEACH
Wavves
Rhapsody’s been streaming this album for a month, but according to Amazon it just comes out this week on disk. It’s remarkably dynamic for a piece of lo-fi lapcore: it helps that Williams uses a band this time, and his straight-faced approach usually pays off with a lyrical or melodic twist you didn’t see coming (though he’s not the poet of the mundane he imagines himself to be: songs like “Baseball Cards” and “Mickey Mouse” don’t really have a point of view, or even much of a point). But celebrating self-loathing with mad studio hijinks like you were Brian Wilson’s bastard son is a neat trick.
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Squeeze
WTF album of the week: Difford and Tillbrook recruit occasional bassist John Bentley, and Tillbrook’s touring band, to re-record 14 of their best-known songs. The idea, as the title implies, is to make them sound as close to the original as possible; it’s not only weird, it’s doubly redundant since Difford already re-cut a bunch of these on a solo album a few years back; I mean, it’s amusing to listen to… but they do expect you to pay for it. There is some precedent for it: a lot of the great rock and R&B singers of the 50’s and 60’s used to re-record their old hits in hopes of getting some of the dough that the record company kept the first time around. On the other hand, Eddie Floyd and Roy Orbison probably needed the money; these guys don’t.
OTHER NOTEWORTHY 8/3 RELEASES
Dr. John, Tribal. As reliable as the Mississippi, and nearly as old, Dr. John whips up his latest: the crew includes Allen Toussaint, The Lower 911, and Derek Trucks. No pop standards this time out: just the good Doctor’s patented soul and blues gumbo, spiced with post-Katrina and BP outrage, and highlighted by Trucks’ searing slide on “Manoovas.”
Buckcherry, All Night Long. The title cut isn’t the only piece of amazing inspiration on this album (really– “All Night Long”? Where do they come up with these ideas?): I mean, there’s also “It’s A Party” and “I Want You” just to show off their range. Look, I’ll bet there’s at least a couple AC/DC albums you don’t own yet. That’s a hint.
The Black Crowes, Croweology. It was fun when these guys were doing vintage 70’s blues rock twenty years out of time, so I suppose it’s only appropriate that they’re jumping on the “Unplugged” bandwagon a decade after everyone else.
Gaelic Storm, Cabbage. Given that Shane MacGowan has pretty much retired the drunken Irish sod as subject matter, these boyos wisely step outside the tradition, drawing both musical and topical influences from Jamaica, Africa, and… Simon and Garfunkel? (if I’m not mistaken, there’s even a Phil Jupitus callout). It’s good, lively fun… but a little less reliance on drunken Irish sods wouldn’t hurt.
Katie Meula, The House. Meula’s family fled the USSR ahead of the civil war in Georgia, and wound up in the peaceful environs of… Belfast. I guess she must find it pleasant, since her breathy pop is so smooth and slick it makes Duffy sound like Kate Bush. I have to admit, though that “With God on the drums, and the Devil on the bass” is a bit of imagery that Ms. Bush wouldn’t scorn.
Autolux, Transit Transit. I sort of liked “Audience No. 2” when it was released as a single earlier this year, but I’ll admit I’d hoped for a bit more variety from the resultant album. Not really bad: shoegazing marches on. But like a lot of their peers, Autolux’ focus on atmosphere and effect can leave the listener feeling a bit shortchanged in the hook department.
Gov’t Mule, Mulennium. The only thing better than a live album that features both a cover of “21st Century Schizoid Man”, and a guest appearance by Little Milton would be if that was one of the songs he played on. Missed opportunity there, fellas.