MUSIC
Section by Jeb D.
LADY KILLER
Cee-Lo Green
OK, so Harry Nilsson beat him to “Fuck You” by about thirty years; he’s still got enough musical imagination to dream of a world where Curtis Mayfield, Duran Duran, and Bill Withers are puttin’ the moves on a bevy of Bond babes. With the finger-snapping noir of “Bodies” the brassy, straightforward plea of “I Want You,” the confident Motown swing of “It’s OK” and “Satisfied,” and the revved-up Prince-meets-007 of “The Ladykiller Theme,” Lady Killer is a dizzying ride through a history of soul music that never actually was, and a modern peek at a version of hip-hop that doesn’t quite exist anywhere outside Green’s ears. He gets great mileage out of his guest stars: Belgium’s Selah Sue offers intense back-and-forth support on the yearning “Please,” and Philip Bailey is as creamy-smooth as you could hope on “Fool for You.” Green’s own vocals are brash and bold throughout; among other things, he gets more out of Band of Horses’ “No One’s Gonna Love You” than they put into it. And let’s not overlook some simple, but sharp, lyric writing: “The truth is inconvenient“? Say that again, dude. Honestly, after working through the fifteen tracks on this album a few times, I’m not sure that “Fuck You” isn’t actually the least interesting cut here. Up there with Aloe Blacc and Janelle Monae among the year’s best R&B releases.
MAYHEM
Imelda May
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The surface trappings are rockabilly: Bettie Page outfits, standup bass, and guitarist Darrell Higham (May’s husband), who fronted several of the 80’s British neo-quiff bands that emerged in the wake of the Stray Cats. But this Irish lass with the big bodhran and bigger voice isn’t beholden to a single genre: there’s more grit than whine in her singing (at times she recalls predecessors as diverse as Julie London and Pat Benatar), and Higham’s playing these days leans more toward crunch and slash than twang. The sharp songwriting incorporates tough R&B (“Eternity”), sultry torch (“Bury My Troubles,” “All For You”), a touch of country (“Proud and Humble”), and some straight-ahead pop, including the gorgeous “Kentish Town Waltz,” a reaffirmation of May and Higham’s love in the face of adversity, and a song that you could easily imagine having come from a collaboration between Chrissie Hynde and Shane MacGowan. That’s not to say that May and her boys can’t get real real gone when it suits them (“Psycho,” “Sneaky Freak,” and the high-energy cover of “Tainted Love”) but the expertly-deployed musical touches like jazz trumpet (“Inside Out”) and ska horns (“Mayhem”) are the kind of thing that separate original talents from genre revivalists. I don’t know that I like the idea of including the remix of her hit “Johnny Got A Boom Boom,” from last year’s Love Tattoo: it’s an insanely catchy song, but putting it on two albums in a row could give the mistaken impression of a one-trick pony. One other caveat: right now, even though it’s supposedly a domestic release for 11/9, Amazon is only showing the CD at the import price of $23, with no download option. I suspect that will change shortly.
BAD BOOKS
Bad Books
Manchester Orchestra meets Brand New for indie-folk fun. Kevin Devine and Andy Hull blend their (remarkably similar) voices in their own little mini-supergroup. The opener, “How This All Ends,” sets the tone: a precocious world-weariness that only occasionally tips over into cheap cynicism (“I Begged You Everything”). The sound is usually subdued, sometimes just the two singers and guitars, but when the Manchester Orchestra cranks it up behind them (“Baby Shoes,” “Please Move”), the album moves into more propulsive territory (the Beach Boys touches of “Holding Down The Laughter” are a nice surprise). Pick to click is the single, “You Wouldn’t Have To Ask,” driven by chiming guitars. Unfortunately, those few helpings of musical variety are spread too thinly around the album: neither Devine or Hull is a strong enough singer to compel attention without the full band textures, and constructing songs around lyrics like “The chemicals are coursing through our bloodstreams at incongruous rates” isn’t helping. We end on a little trip through the southwest, with the isolated, wide-open spaces of “Mesa, AZ” and “Texas,” which ratchet the uber-sensitivity meter all the way up to twee. Fans of the two singer/songwriters will want to check out their latest; others can probably give it a miss.
EL JUSTICIERO, CHA, CHA, CHA-A TRIBUTE TO OS MUTANTES
Various Artists
On the one hand, I love the fact that the bands performing this tribute to the veteran Brazilian psychedelic rockers are pretty much all new to me. On the other hand, what was once spontaneous (Os Mutantes came up with their name just as they were going onstage for an early performance) and revolutionary (Brazil in the 60’s and 70’s was not a comfortable time for anti-establisment drug-enhanced trippiness) feels a bit forced and sterile out of its original context: the very notion of a “tribute” album seems a little stuffy for a group whose outlook was so “in the moment,” and whose membership shifted so often and abruptly (and tragically: drug abuse and institutionalization were responsible for as many personnel changes as artistic differences). And, of course, my not knowing Portuguese doesn’t help with some of the songs (obviously something of an obstacle with the originals, too). There are some lovely high points, though: Rosal’s “Hey Boy” is light and seductive; Martin Buscaglia’s “Shaft”/”Superfly” arrangement make “Beso Exagerado” a canny look back at the musical scene of Os Mutante’s heyday as well as an irresistable dance track; and on “El Justiciero,” Omar Giammarco links the dangers that Os Mutantes faced from a repressive government with the today’s real-world politics. And, really, how many tribute albums stand on their own all that well in the first place? Their principal usefulness is getting the listener excited enough to seek out the originals, and El Justiciero, Cha, Cha, Cha does that. The fact that it also gets you excited to seek out other work from these performers (in addition to the ones I cited, I’m going to be looking for more from Cafe Tacviba, Fito Paez, Aterciopelados, and La Chicana) is a nice bonus.
Other Notable 11/9 Releases
Viva ELVIS- The Album. You know what I think Elvis would have said about Cirque Du Solieil remixing his music all to shit? He’d probably have said “What the hell kind of circus ain’t got no elephants?”
Various Artists, Q: Soul Bossa Nostra. Grand tour of Quincy Jones’ lengthy career as a writer, producer, arranger, and bandleader, with folks like Jennifer Hudson, Snoop Dogg, and Wyclef Jean crooning and cooing and rapping over newly-recorded versions of classics that Jones originally produced and/or co-wrote, from the theme to the TV series Ironside, to pop hits like “Give Me The Night” and “Strawberry Letter 23.” I just can’t get past the auto-tune that mars performances like T-Pain and Robin Thicke on “P.Y.T.”; Snoop Dogg’s “Get The Funk Out My Face” is disappointingly bland; and the attempt by Ludacris to reclaim “Soul Bossa Nova” (here retitled “Soul Bossa Nostra”) from Austin Powers falls pretty flat. But there’s a few listenable gems: T.I., B.o.B., Prince Charlez, and Mohombi have great fun with the theme to “Sanford And Son,” and not only is Amy Winehouse evidently still alive, she provides the album’s funniest moments with a sloppy-drunk turn on Leslie Gore’s “It’s My Party.”
Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd, An Introduction to Syd Barrett. You don’t have to persuaded that Barrett was a genius (I’m not) to be interested in learning why so many people think he was, so here’s the story, for the first time combining his early Pink Floyd stuff with material from his solo albums in one collection. David Gilmour has remixed several of the cuts, and even added some subtle new touches of bass and guitar, which actually works against the roughness that made The Madcap Laughs feel so intimate and raw. That’s a small complaint, though; having “Arnold Layne,” “See Emily Play,” “Terrapin” and “Here I Go” all on one album makes me wonder if I ought to rethink my position on his genius.
Jamiroquai, Rock Dust Light Star. You know all the feverish, dance-floor funk that you didn’t hear on the Quincy Jones tribute album? Look no further.
Kid Cudi, Man On The Moon 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager. Sharp, clever song cycle on the perils of getting what you wish for, set to a fascinating grab-bag of beats, sounds, and samples.
Gwar, Bloody Pit of Horror. Grrr. Arrrgh.
Cassandra Wilson, Silver Pony. The woman’s got a great voice, and her albums are always produced to the nines. But, really, this is Sade for people who think pop music is beneath them.
Joanne Shaw Taylor, Diamonds In The Dirt. Can a skinny blond girl from Birmingham pack up her Telecaster, move to Detroit, and rock the shit outta the blues? Um… yeah, actually.
Wyatt/ Atzmon/ Stephen, For the Ghosts Within. Talk about an artist with faith in the power of love and living: Robert Wyatt is the man who wound up in a wheelchair for life after a drunken fall off a hotel balcony, and came back singing “I’m A Believer.” The album is structured as a song cycle, incorporating a haunting blend of standards and originals, with Wyatt’s unique voice (think a less polished Antony Hegarty) backed by saxophonist/composer Gilad Atzmon and violinist/composer Ros Stephen.
Salome, Terminal. A metal band with no bassist needs to have a few tricks up its sleeve, and these folks certainly do. One of them involves a seventeen-minute tribute to Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. Neat.
Josh Groban, Illuminations. On the odd chance that anyone cares, this guy can really sing.
Dio, At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987. And so it begins…
Various Artists, Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn. Tributes to artists who are principally singers, not songwriters, can be even less focused than most, but the good ones produce a few gems you probably didn’t expect. This time out, it’s the White Stripes on “Rated X” and Paramore’s Hayley Willams on “You Ain’t Woman Enough.”
Cradle Of Filth, Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa. Says here that COF “have continually refused to bow to convention or to conform to prevalent trends and fads.” Well, sure, no one else out there is playing metal with dark themes of blood, death and sexual excess.
Helloween, 7 Sinners. “Are You Metal?” “Who is Mr. Madman?” These and other vital questions answered in metallic terms.
Each month, Amazon offers a collection of 100 new and catalog album downloads for just $5 each. This month’s selections include recent releases from Bruno Mars, Wolf Parade, and Ra Ra Riot, catalog favorites from Arcade Fire and Radiohead, and hits collections from Sinatra, Prince, and more.