New Music from 10/26/2010 - Bryan Ferry and FuzZ

Bryan Ferry Olympia - The former Roxy Music frontman and iconic glamrock vocalist releases his first album on one of my favorite record labels, Astralwerks.  This is Ferry's third album this decade which I found somewhat surprising not realizing that he was still active in the recording industry.  Olympia features contributions from Scissor Sisters, Groove Armada, Flea, Pink Floyd's David Gilmore,  Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, and some of Ferry's former Roxy Music cohorts (Brian Eno, Andy Mackey, etc.).  Most of the songs are new but the Groove Armada collaboration is available on GA's album from earlier this year, albeit the song is mixed differently on the two albums, and there are two cover songs: Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" and Traffic's "No Face, No Name, No Number."  And finally, yes, that is Kate Moss' upside-down mug staring at you on the cover to the left.  For a man that was famous for dating supermodels (Jerry Hall and Amanda Lear) and putting those supermodels on the covers of his albums back in the day, one can't help but wonder how Kate Moss made it to the front of this album... 

Olympia opens with "You Can Dance" which has an art rock/prog rock feel to it with hard riffing electric guitars and vocals sung in a glam rock tenor.  Despite the obvious energy Ferry brings to the song, I found it boring and derivative of stuff he and similar artists were doing over two decades ago.  However the second song on the album, "Alphaville," still has noticeable nods to Ferry's musical past but manages to sound much more contemporary with some really spiffy Carlos Santana-like guitar rhythms to help modernize (rather than be a derivative of) Ferry's song style.  Ferry's still more than credible singing voice is also nimbly on display on this track with his raspy singing tenor acting as a nice counterbalance to the melody.  "Heartache by Numbers" is the collaboration with Scissor Sisters and features a harder synth sound.  Unfortunately, I found the jaunty melody with the choir-like chorus singing an odd match that made it very difficult to get into the song.  "Me Oh My" is a slower tempo ballad that wisely introduces some piano to help enhance the sullen mood of the track.  "Shameless," the Groove Armada collaboration, has a much slower and lighter beat than the version given to us on their album so it's definitely not as danceable to, but that's pretty much would we expect given the differences in these two artists.  "Song to the Siren" is an interesting ballad that is both introspective and reluctantly hopeful at the same time that I really enjoyed and wouldn't be surprised to find on a Rom-Com soundtrack in the near future. 

This being the debut Bryan Ferry album on a record label I very much respect and enjoy, I wanted very much to like this album.  Unfortunately, the album just doesn't do enough to draw in the listener.  Don't get me wrong, there are some cool things about it: the production on the album is absolutely top-notch, Bryan Ferry's singing voice has not deteriorated badly at all, and there are some absolutely terrific collaborators working on this album.  But the track layout is completely off at the beginning of the album with the first couple of songs doing their best to not get you interested or excited about what you're going to hear.  Also, a lot of the songs sound like they were stolen from some of Morrissey's more recent albums at least in terms of style and song construction.  It's only on a few songs do we get something original and something worth spending our time on.

Score:  5.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Alphaville"

 FuzZ Sparkle Vision - This SoCal electronica band releases what, according to Spinner mag, frontman David Streit calls a "wall of sound."  I actually haven't been able to find a hard copy of this album to purchase yet but you can buy the digital version on Amazon and other online retailers so that is what this review is based off of.  FuzZ is currently touring in California and a few other states and I've heard his live shows are very fun although I cannot speak from first-hand experience. 

Sparkle Vision is a purely electronic techno album with no singing or vocal samples on any of the tracks.  To further describe the album, I would say the genres of electronic music this recalls is predominantly breakbeat and chiptune, with some definite psych/Goa influences throughout the album.  Like many electronic music albums, there is no clear delineation between tracks as there is a sound bridge of some type from song to song for the entire album.  "Marshmallow Bazooka," the second track on the album, begins with a more down-tempo beat but slowly builds a slower psytrance feel.  The haunting keyboard work forms a nice cross-rhythm with the electronic samples and beats, especially during the first half of the track.  "Let's Play Deathball!!!" exhibits a very weird syncopation at the beginning of the track that by the time it starts to incorporate the beeps and other electronic sounds you expect to hear in a chiptune song it makes it very hard to get into the song.  "Pterodactyl" has a trance-like beat to open the song that makes the song much more accessible from the opening beat so that by the time the band starts to expand the song it has already captured the attention of the listener.

Overall, I actually thought Sparkle Vision was a pretty decent electronica album.  The track layout seemed logical and well thought out.  Not every song is a winner but there's enough good stuff where I was never bored by the album.  FuzZ even reuses melodies and beats in some non-consecutive songs to help bring about a more complete album composition by referencing earlier material from the disc.  The one major problem I did have with the album was the length in time.  The total time of it was less than 25 minutes long so that, in my opinion, seems more like an EP than a full length album.

Score:  6.5/10 (it would have gotten another point if the album were 10-15 minutes longer because 25 minutes does not cut it for a full length album)
Song(s) to Sample:  "Marshmallow Bazooka"

New Music from 10/19/2010 - Liz Phair and Violens

Liz Phair Funstyle -  Grammy Award winner alternative singer/songwriter Liz Phair returns with her first album in five years.  After changing record labels since her last release, Phair, according to a recent Wall Street Journal interview, gives us a more personal album that she thinks is the reason she was released from her contract by her old record label.  I should also mention the CD comes bundled with a second disc with never commercially released songs from her Girlysound Tapes era, which is basically Phair's earliest music foray prior to originally signing with Matador Records in the early 90's, that I will not be reviewing. 

The album begins with the very unique "Smoke" which opens with very random vocal samples over a simple electro funk beat and then integrates a high soprano female crooning, dog barking (or simulated dog barking), plus alt-rock and country influenced rhythms by the time the chorus arrives.  It's a weird hodgepodge of styles that works on some levels if you like your music on the eclectic side but it will not be everyone's cup of tea.  If that wasn't original enough for you, the second song on the album, "Bollywood," is an even more unique offering.  It features a jangly Bollywood-style beat and music which on its own would be weird for a Liz Phair song but to top it off she sings the song in the style of rap.  Yes, for better or worse, Liz Phair not only raps on this album but she lays down her rap over a Filmi style song. (Sorry, I took two Indian Film classes when I was getting my Film Studies minor so I know a wee bit about the Bollywood style so bear with me.)  I actually found the song kinda entertaining in terms of the blending of two styles that Phair obviously is not normally associated with although the song is far from a perfect marriage of the two styles. Most of the other songs fit better in the alt-rock singer/songwriter style we expect from Phair.  This is not to say that the rest of the songs are all in the same style but rather they don't venture as far from what we expect from a Liz Phair album. "You Should Know Me" and "Miss September" have a mellower, more acoustic sounding flavor to them; "And He Slayed" and "Oh Bangladesh" have a harder rocking style with the acoustic guitars being replaced feedback generating electric guitars; while "Bang! Bang!" and "Beat Is Up" were influenced by various electronica styles (downtempo and Latin electronica, respectively). 

It's a pretty good album overall although I don't know if it was worth the five year wait.  The various styles she manages to incorporate make the album an interesting listen and the album layout and production were very solid.  Unfortunately, there weren't any real standout songs on the album so it's probably not a disc I will revisit often.  Also, I'm personally curious to see how people not as familiar with Filmi music like "Bollywood" because the song is not as accessible as, say, Wyclef Jean's "Hollywood Meets Bollywood," which also blended rap with Bollywood style music, from Wyclef's Carnival II album. 

Score: 7/10

Song(s) to Sample: "Miss September" and "Bollywood" (because you know you want to hear Liz Phair rap)

Violens Amoral (Import version) - This three person New York band releases its first full-length album although they do have an EP that was released in the US in 2008.  Their MySpace page describes the band's genre as "indie" but I will go one step further to say their music from this album release is part jangle pop, part indielectronica, with some post-punk revival sprinkled in.  Unfortunately, a debut album plus no wikipedia page means not many facts I can give you in this section so let's skip to the review.

The first three songs on this album are superb.  The album opens with "The Dawn of Your Happiness is Rising" whose opening bass line plus the ensuing drum beats and guitar riffs sound like an extremely enjoyable modern day version of a The The song.  Even the vocal performance is sung in a style similar to Matt Johnson, frontman for The The.  That track is followed by "Full Collision" which has a guitar opening and general melody reminiscent of something The Kooks would give us which then evolves into a true power pop song.  The third song that opens the album, "Acid Reign," has a New Wave synthpop feel full of rocking synthesized tones and more airy vocals.  "It Couldn't Be Perceived" has a very 80's New Wave feel to it but the hooks aren't as catchy as the earlier songs and it didn't have the same energy.  They even have one song, "Violent Sensation Descends," which sounds like cross between a The Shins and a The Turtles song.  One thing that is impressive over the entire album is the singing as the band members (all three are credited with vocals on the album) are more than credibly able to warble the various vocal styles from the sub-genres of indie music the band presents to us. 

Overall, Amoral is a very impressive debut album.  The first three songs can all be categorized as "indie" songs but the sub-genres of indie music they recall are completely different and yet the band manages to do all three extremely well.   The rest of the album is mostly good although I didn't find any songs as catchy as the first three.

Score:  8/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "Acid Reign" and "Full Collision"

New Music from 10/12/2010 - Badly Drawn Boy, Less Than Jake, Care Bears on Fire, and Hot Panda

Badly Drawn Boy It's What I'm Thinking - British singer/songwriter Damon Gough, a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy, releases his seventh studio album (not counting things like the About A Boy soundtrack which he entirely scored and wrote songs for).  Curiously, Twisted Nerve Records (the record label Gough co-founded with Andy Votel) is not the label releasing this album. I'm not sure why that is but let's see if releasing the album on a different label changes the style of music Badly Drawn Boy gives to us. 

The music presented to us is still distinctly Badly Drawn Boy with its richly layered but subtle indie, predominantly acoustic, music tones.  The album starts on a very somber note with the first track, "In Safe Hands."  It has a haunting melody but the slow tempo and airy, distant vocals make it an odd opening song that doesn't do much to draw the listener in.  The second song, "The Order of Things," does a better job of attracting the attention of the listener with more intimate vocals but the melody and overall tone still seems overly sullen.  Things start to pick up slightly from this point of the album though with "Too Many Miracles'" lusher opening with horns supplementing the usual acoustic guitar and keyboards.  "What Tomorrow Brings" opens with a very beautiful piano melody and then incorporates violins during the bridge and chorus to help compliment Gough's subtle, restrained vocal work.  Near the end of the album, "This Electric" was one of the songs I found most pleasing with its wide ranging use of instruments and downtempo vocal style. 

Being on a new record label does not alter the style of music Badly Drawn Boy gives us.  It's a more somber release in total than some of his more recent works but he doesn't venture from his typical songwriting style much which should please longtime fans.  As an album, I thought the track layout was a questionable one as the beginning of the album doesn't help itself out by doing too little to grab the attention of the listener.  However, once you get past those first couple of tracks, you will find a much more accessible album when Gough's ability to create  pleasing and catchy melodies and hooks from incorporating many different instruments and singing styles is on greater display.

Score: 7.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Too Many Miracles" and "This Electric"

Care Bears on Fire Girls Like it Loud (EP) - Normally I try to review full releases and not EPs but I figured an all-female trio pop punk band from Brooklyn with an awesome band name like that deserves a listen.  If you have kids (or just like kiddie TV), you might have seen Care Bears on Fire on an episode of Nickelodeon's True Jackson, VP that also guest starred Justin Bieber.  I've never seen the show but I do know it stars the girl from the very clever movie Akeelah and the Bee so it can't be completely horrible.  But enough about kiddie TV shows, let's get to the five tracks on this EP.

The disc opens with "What I Could Be" which nimbly displays the band's peppy and palatable pop punk sound.  Right off the bat the infectious sound draws you right into the song and the quick paced nature of the two female vocal leads only help to enhance the feel of the song.  "Red Lights" is a more standard pop song with less complex hooks but a catchy chorus that prevents the song from sounding generic.  This is counterbalanced with the next songs, "ATM" and "Ask Me How I Am" which tone down the pop for a more traditional speedy punk tempos and hard rocking chord changes.  The album ends interestingly enough with a punk cover of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule the World."  Not surprisingly, the song is sped up with a faster punk tempo but I found the quick but relatively monotone vocal work to be the most interesting part of the cover as it contrasted well with the emotion in the original version, although the punk-like screaming of the chorus was a bit too obvious. 

Care Bears on Fire give us a very interesting EP that gives us a good example of their NY kid-core sound.  The EP has a very polished punk vibe while still managing to incorporate pop hooks and melodies in most of their songs without ever sounding too bubblegum pop-y like a lot of youth oriented bands today or too vulgar like the more hardcore punk bands.  You can see why media outlets as opposite Nickelodeon and Spin Magazine have featured Care Bears on Fire at various times over the past few years.  Their sound has the ability to appeal to a wide spectrum of listener tastes and, even more impressively, across a wide spectrum of listener ages. 

Score: 6.5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "What I Could Be"

Hot Panda How Come I'm Dead? - The Canadian band named after an Edmonton Chinese restaurant release their sophomore album.  I thought their first album, Volcano... Bloody Volcano, had some definite bright spots although it wouldn't be what I would call a complete album.  I would describe their music as indie rock with some noise rock or post-punk revival skewings.  I wouldn't quite call them indie punk though as I tend to think of that as more punk music with indie influences.

"Pools" is the first song on the album that exhibits some of the charm and magic that was glimpsed on their first release.  The lyrics, sung in a light punk style, contrasts very effectively with the jangly, almost dream pop-like, melody to create a charming song.  The band does manage to vary its sound to a greater degree on this album.  "Shoot Your Horse" pays homage to country music although there are only minimal parts of the song that actually gains their roots from country music.  While songs like "Clever Fox" and "Poor Little Ambulance" use a slower tempo style than what the band typically exhibits.  They don't forgo their punk influences either as songs like "Mindlessnesslessness" and "1995" will show you. 

Again, Hot Panda gives us an album with a few bright spots but an overall inconsistent album.  I probably liked more of the songs on this release than the tracks from their first album but the band hasn't grown much between releases as their style hasn't really evolved from what they gave us before.  That would be fine if what they gave us before was really awesome but that would not be the case as far as Hot Panda is concerned.  Again they give us some potential but eventually they will have to turn that potential into a quality album before they are able to gain a larger following.  I still love the origin of the band's name though.

Score:  6/10
Song(s) to Sample:   "Pools"

A preview of Less Than Jake's TV/EP  - I won't give a full review of the ska/punk band's new EP because the 16 track disc lasts only about thirteen minutes long but I love cover songs so much that I thought the disc should get a mention.

Basically, this EP is a re-imagining of TV theme songs and songs from television commercials in the ska/punk style the band is known for.  Song choices range from about the 1970's through modern times with the greatest emphasis on stuff from today and stuff from the 80's and 90's when most of the band was growing up.   The song choice is an eclectic mix with some obvious choices ("Theme from Diff'rent Strokes" which was originally written by Alan Thicke, believe it or not) and some not-so-obvious choices (the song from the FreeCreditReport.com commercials--wtf?!?!).  Because the EP doesn't actually list the songs covered (each track is just labeled "Channel 1," "Channel 2," etcetera, all the way through to "Channel 16") let me give you the songs as I have been able to identify them:

1. iCarly theme 
2. song from Hungry Hungry Hippos commercials
3. Animaniacs theme
4. song from McDonald's Big Mac commercials
5. Diff'rent Strokes theme
6. Malcolm in the Middle theme ("Boss of Me" originally a They Might Be Giants song)
7. song from Pac-Man Cereal commercials
8. Scooby-Doo theme
9. song from Kit-Kat commercials
10. Spongebob Squarepants theme
11. That 70's Show theme
12. song from Oscar Meyer Wiener commercials
13. Married With Children theme ("Love and Marriage" originally popularized by Frank Sinatra)
14. song from Toys R' Us commercials
15. Laverne & Shirley theme
16. song from FreeCreditReport.com commercials

I haven't been able to verify this list yet so forgive me if there is a mistake but my knowledge of pop culture is pretty good so I'm pretty sure the track titles are accurate.  As these are punk covers of the above songs, most, if not all, of the songs are actually quicker than the original versions so you know why this disk lasts only thirteen minutes.  The best comparison I can make for this EP is if you are familiar with and like punk band No Use For a Name's Leche con Carne album and the mishmash of 80's covers they do at the end of that album then this disc is for you. 

Score:  N/A
Song(s) to Sample: "That 70's Show theme" and "Malcolm in the Middle theme"

New Music from 10/5/2010 - Fran Healy, Bored To Death Soundtrack, and Tim Kasher

Fran Healy Wreckorder - The Travis frontman and Scottish musician releases his first solo album and first work since Travis' 2007 album  Ode to J. Smith.  Although the rest of Travis is not backing him on this album, Healy does reach out to some friends from the music industry to help him out on this album.  Most notably, singer/songwriter Neko Case provides vocals on "Sing Me To Sleep" and music legend Paul McCartney plays bass (using his legendary 1963 Hofner even!) on "As It Comes."  This might just be me, but I think it's pretty cool to have a Beatle on your album that is being released four days before what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday!

The good news for Travis fans is that he doesn't wander too far from the style of music he gave us with Travis so fans of their previous albums will find something they like on this album.  The album opens with "In the Morning" which reminds me of a subdued Travis song that starts off with gentle piano playing and slowly adds more instruments like guitar, drums, bass and even a strings section to help provide a more lush, complex sound than I was expecting as the song builds to its climax.  "Fly In The Ointment" has a very pleasing blues/rock feel to it and the way he sings the lyrics is reminds me of how Mark Everett (Eels) would approach a song.  "As It Comes" is a clever song with very downtempo feel that has a chorus whose tenor is both haunting and memorable and, of course, the bass work by McCartney would help improve any song.  Unfortunately, not all the songs can match the quality of these though.  "Sing Me To Sleep," which features a duet with Neko Case, is surprisingly dull and monotonous with extremely boring backing drumming and a harmony that sounds like it is from an adult contemporary country song rather than a pop or rock song despite the pleasing vocal performances.

Some good songs pepper the middle of the album but overall there is nothing great about the album.  A friend of mine that was a one-time huge Travis fan said the music was much darker than what she was looking for.  I can't disagree with that statement as there is a general gloominess to most of the songs.  For example, a song titled "Holiday" could go many ways but instead of being an uplifting song about having a vacation, the song seems to be about one person telling another things aren't going well and they need to take a holiday.  While "Rocking Chair" is written from the perspective of man at the end of his life reminiscing about the past with references to dead icons like Richard Nixon and Fred Astaire.  Not necessarily the most cheery stuff even given the usual jaunty melodies on the songs.

Score: 6.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Fly In The Ointment" and "As It Comes"

Various Artists Bored To Death The Soundtrack - A soundtrack to the very good HBO show is released.  The album features songs used on the show and sound clips of dialogue from the show.  For those unfamiliar with the show, Jason Schwartzman stars as a writer/part-time private investigator whose detective skills have more in common with Inspector Clouseau than Sherlock Holmes.  Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis co-star as Schwartzman's pot-smoking publisher and best friend, respectively.  Even though I haven't seen every episode, the show generally features an eclectic mix of mostly indie music and Schwartzman's less than stellar detective work leads to some hilarious situations and dialogue.

The album starts appropriately enough with the enchanting theme song from the show.  The song is performed by Coconut Records, which happens to be Schwartzman's band and his voice is easily recognized in the performance.  In total on the album, there are 15 songs (other than two by Dan Auberach, each song is by a different artist) and a dozen dialogue clips taken directly from the show that run between two and 20 seconds.  Some of the songs you'll probably be already familiar with (Lykke Li's "Little Bit" and TV on the Radio's "Halfway Home") and some will probably be new to you (Kaiser Cartel's "Inside Out" and Salad Days' "Young Marble Giants").  As far as I could determine, there are no songs that were new or exclusive to this album.  Most of the songs have a lounge vibe to them, in the more modern definition of the term, with a few throwbacks to stuff from the 60's and 70's.  The one exception is the very electronic house-sounding "Dirty Robot" by Arling & Cameron. 

As far as the music on the album, I'd probably give the songs and the song selections a five out of 10.  Like many soundtracks, there are songs you only hear very briefly on the show simply because of things like the director enjoys how the chorus of a song sounds in one 30 second scene.  Unfortunately, taken out of context and without the visual cues to enhance the experience, the full versions of the songs lose some of the oomph they were able to conjure during the show.  The witty dialogue clips were the highlight of the disc for me.  The dialogue on the show can be so funny that, even taken out of context of the episode, the lines will still make you laugh (the quick 7-second "I Want A Colonic" dialogue blurb between Schwartzman and Danson's characters nearly had me shooting hot chocolate out of my noise when I first heard it).  The music is a so-so collection of modern lounge-type songs but it's not an album you could have going during a dinner party because of the very funny and sometimes ribald dialogue bits interspersed in the album.  And the brevity of the dialogue clips, despite the humor, prevents it from bringing up the overall score of the album more than a point.

Score: 6/10
Song(s) to Sample:  (Since you can find all the songs elsewhere, instead let me give you the Dialogue Clips to Sample)  "I Want A Colonic" and "Stockholm Syndrome"

Tim Kasher The Game of Monogamy - Since I reviewed the new album by the frontman of Travis above, I thought it only fair to review the new album by the frontman of Cursive, Tim Kasher.  Wikipedia describes Cursive's music as post-hardcore and that description would definitely fit most of their early work but their more recent stuff would fall in somewhere between indie rock and sadcore as a lot of the punk influences are no longer as prevalent in their music.

The album opens with "Monogamy Overture" which a true overture in the classical sense with a full orchestra and no lyrics.  It's an interesting opening and it tells you you're going to get a real album an not a mishmash of songs thrown together.  The second song, "A Grown Man," is more of the indie style you would expect from Kasher.  The repetitive chorus and awkward spots of singing without any backing music (more like spoken word poetry than actual "singing") make the song hard to like though.  However the next song, "I'm Afraid I'm Gonna Die Here," is an absolute delight.  A ska-like horns section opens the song which segues to a really cool verse with peppy hand clapping and a minimal but catchy melody and then the song journeys on interestingly from there.  The rest of the songs are a mixed bag but I did like what Kasher did in laying out the album and telling a story through the songs.

The music given to us a more in the style of Andrew Bird or Jason Mraz than you would find on a Cursive album.  There are some enjoyable songs ("There Must Be Something I Lost" and the hilarious "Bad, Bad Dreams" which is about feeling the need to visit a priest after fantasizing about possibly underage women) and some I wasn't a fan of ("Strays" and "Surprise, Surprise") but the album is put together well both in terms of giving the listener an overall story and of taking the listener on a journey.  Kasher ends up giving us a very solid album that I ended up liking more as the journey unfolded.  It's not as great as, say, a Pink Floyd album in that regard but it's a more than respectable attempt in the vein of something like Arcade Fire would give us.

Score:  7.5/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "I'm Afraid I'm Gonna Die Here" and "Cold Love"