Ambivalence Avenue = Warp FTW

Don't let anyone try to tell you that music labels are dying. It's simply not true. The correct declaration should be that dumb (i.e. large) music labels are dying, but smart ones are thriving. Just because the business model changed doesn't mean it's impossible to succeed. The smart labels, like Merge and Stones Throw, are the ones who keep growing, steadily adding high quality music to their artist rosters. Perhaps the best of the crop is London-based Warp Records.

Already home to legends like Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards of Canada, and LFO, Warp has more recently given us Grizzly Bear, Gang Gang Dance, Flying Lotus, and Jamie Lidell. One of the lesser known of the bunch is England's Bibio (aka Stephen Wilkinson), whose forth album is one of the best I've heard this year.

To say Ambivalence Avenue is 'atmospheric' (it is) would be an inadequate description on so many levels. Yes, the music tends to borrow from elements in nature, but those are used merely as a canvas for Bibo to splatter his more complex and detailed colors. Sometimes the result is along the lines of post-modern space Hip Hop, such as the the J. Dilla-esque "Fire Ant", or the plodding hypnosis of "Sugarette". Still, at other time it takes the form of Summertime pop (the title track, "All the Flowers") and Electro-Folk ("The Palm of Your Wave", "Haikuesque").

There's layers and layers of live instruments, samples, sequencers, programming, and studio trickery found in every song, yet none of it ever sounds indulgent. Every little bleep, scratch, strum, beat, and echo has it's purpose and the result is usually more than the sum of its parts. This album demands you immerse yourself inside it's fantasy world in order to respect the intricacy of how it was created. Two minutes into the title track, I was giddy in my eagerness to oblige.

Bibio - "Jealous of Roses" (from Ambivalence Avenue)


Bibio - "Fire Ant" (from Ambivalence Avenue)
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Is Chinese Democracy the Heaven's Gate of our Generation?

When Guns N' Roses began recording the follow-up to the immensely successful Use Your Illusion double album they were the most successful band on the planet. Fast forward 15 years later and we find GNR in a much different place. Axl Rose's megalomania managed to alienate all his original bandmates to the point that most of them never want to speak to him again, while the past 15 years has seen a revolving door of additions and departures from the band that it's difficult to keep track of any members besides Axl. Of course, Axl probably prefers things this way since it forces fans to view GNR as his own personal creative vehicle, with all of its successes and praise being attributed to himself. So, after all these years is the release of Chinese Democracy the moment of vindication that Rose was hoping for? The short answer is a resounding no, but (as always with Axl Rose) the explanation deserves more detail than one measly word.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was never a Guns N' Roses fan. I don't say this as a way to argue that GNR was never any good to begin with, because I actually like some of their old stuff ("Estranged" and "Yesterdays" for example), but rather as a way of arguing that they were terribly overrated musically. Their music was nothing more than hard rock/metal-ish energy merged with blues influences and sappy power ballads. Nothing more and nothing less. There's nothing wrong with this formula, and it works very well at times, but let's not make it sound like GNR were the Led Zeppelin of the 1990's, that's all I'm saying.

So why the hell am I reviewing an album from a band I don't particularly like to begin with? For one, the story of how Chinese Democracy was made (15 years, $13 million, numerous producers and band members, and countless delays) is infinitely more compelling than the music itself. Axl Rose has managed to be such a polarizing figure that it's easy to dismiss this album as a giant flop before hearing one song, but what if it actually ended up being the masterpiece that he wanted it to be? I just had to know where all that time, effort and money went, so I downloaded a copy and did my best to keep an open mind through the entire album.

It's very hard to understand what the hell Axl Rose was trying to accomplish in all of these songs. Frequently the arrangements are so convoluted and overwrought that they collapse under their own weight, while at other times there are brief moments when everything sounds focused and the results are (somewhat) gratifying. It sounds as if all these years gave Axl a bunch of songs that never sounded "complete" in his mind, so he kept tweaking the arrangements, adding more ingredients to the recipe until he finally could make everything "work". Yet, his idea of what "works" is usually sprawling, meandering and formulaic.

The title track and "Shackler's Revenge" sound more like songs you would unlock on Rock Band after beating the game on expert mode (the latter is actually found on Rock Band 2, coincidentally). Too much guitar masturbation and overproduced vocal effects to be taken seriously. While other songs are just downright cheesy ("This I Love") or virtually unlistenable ("Sorry", "Madagascar") due to some truly laughable choices made by Rose (sampling movie dialog and MLK speaches is sooooo 1995).

Not everything is a train wreck though. "Street of Dreams", while not my cup of tea, sounds like Queen covering U2's "Walk On" and should have no problem finding a home on commercial radio. The fast-moving "Scraped" could be confused for an outtake from Appetite for Destruction because of how much it sounds like vintage GNR. And "Raid n' The Bedouins" is the type of straightforward rock song that is missing at other parts of the album.

Of course these brief moments of triumph are few and far between amidst the sea of guitars, vocal overdubs, hair metal keyboards, and forced string arrangements. So many of these elements were employed on Use Your Illusion (itself a trying ordeal to complete) to varying degrees of success that maybe Axl thought Chinese Democracy was his chance to finally get it right. As if Illusion would've been a better album had Axl been given more control and more time to fully realize his vision. Well, he got the time, control and resources to make whatever he wanted and the result is not any better.

After listening to Chinese Democracy several times I kept thinking that it bore a stunning resemblance to Michael Cimino's 1980 film Heaven's Gate. Like Axl Rose, Cimino was known as a tortured artistic genius with a large ego and an equally large temper who never compromised his art for anything. Sometimes this can lead to great success (see The Deer Hunter and Use Your Illusion I & II), but other times it can lead to complete disaster (see Heaven's Gate). In Cimino's case, his track record of frequently clashing with studios, running productions way over budget, and his overwrought meandering artistic vision led to his rapid demise and nearly bankrupted United Artists in the process.

While it is yet to be seen if Chinese Democracy will produce such catastrophic results for Axl Rose, I believe it's release does mark the end of the CD era. As the music business changes to accommodate how listeners consume and share music, the album release as a grand singular event is gone forever. People don't need to rush into stores or wait in line at midnight anymore. Furthermore, bands can't get away with releasing a collection of 10-14 songs and then not giving their fans anything else for several years. We all can carry thousands of songs in our pockets, so our tastes grow stale much quicker than they used to. I'm not so sure Axl Rose realized this when he spent so much time agonizing over every minute detail of this album. Some people may have waited patiently for Chinese Democracy to finally be released, but nobody will stick around if he makes everyone wait this long. And like his kindred spirit Cimino, Rose may find himself exiled from the business before we even get to that point.

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It's Official, TV On The Radio Are One Of The Best Bands In The World

If I were to make a list of my most anticipated albums of the year, perhaps only Portishead's Third would have placed higher on that list than TV on the Radio's Dear Science. After the triumph that was Return to Cookie Mountain, two major questions trailed the band on the follow-up; could they top it and are they capable of appealing to a wider audience in the process? After listening to Dear Science several times in the last few days I think the answer to both questions is a resounding yes.

Thematically the songwriting of Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe explores the difficulties of navigating and interpreting a world wrought with despair and uncertainty. In some instances these ideas are realized in the form of confrontation ("Red Dress", "DLZ"), while at others the emotions flow from bleakness ("Crying") to hope ("Shout Me Out") to full-on exuberance ("Golden Age"). TV on the Radio are definitely maladjusted to the current political and social realities of the times, and the gamut of emotions exhibited on this album lend themselves to various forms of creative expression.

Musically Dear Science isn't nearly as much of a whirlwind of noise and layers upon layers of production as Return to Cookie Mountain. Producer/guitarist Dave Sitek manages to compartmentalize the band's art rock tendencies (of which there are many) into more accessible bursts of experimentation. If Return to Cookie Mountain was a series of cluster bombs to the senses, then Dear Science is a sonic cruise missile (forgive me for the war metaphor). As a result, many of the rhythms and melodies on this album are the most accessible the band has made to date, with some producing (dare I say it?) brief flirtations with pop music.

Opening track "Halfway Home" is perhaps one of the three best songs the band has ever done. Sitek's buzzing guitar drone swims along a wave of syncopated hand claps and drums while Adebimpe sings the infectiously catchy and simple lyric "ba ba ba ba ba bum, ba ba ba ba bum" before the fireworks finally go off in the last third of the song.

After the smoke clears we are treated to the wonderfully melancholy "Crying", which is the closest thing to pop as you're ever going to get with this band. Sitek effectively blends funk guitar, avant jazz horns (courtesy of Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra channeling their inner John Zorn), and 8-bit synths into a seamless pop groove that only a handful of artists could pull off.

"Golden Age" finds TVOR giving a not-so-subtle nod of recognition to Prince with its funk-pop backdrop and falsetto verses, yet mixes it with strings, horns and electronic noise to create a hodgepodge of sounds that doesn't sound nearly as convoluted as my description may indicate. While on "Family Tree" the bands strips everything down and manages to pull off the delicate balancing act of the rock ballad. Unsurprisingly they nail their first foray into this territory, whereas a band like Block Party still fails to get it right after numerous attempts.

Perhaps the heaviest groove on the entire album is the mashup of bass, bongos and cymbal rush found on "DLZ." The tension manages to build throughout as sampled electronic gizmos, guitar noise and vocals are layered on top of each other until the song reaches a boiling point and then suddenly sheds it weight at the end.

Two years ago I wondered if TV on the Radio could possibly top Return to Cookie Mountain. Now, I'm wondering if the ceiling for this band is even viewable from my vantage point. The way they mix together artistic indulgences and pop hooks on Dear Science is perhaps the most difficult thing to pull off in rock music, yet it never manages to sound labored. The future is bright for this band and I couldn't be more excited to stick around to see how it all unfolds.

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The Masters Returneth

David Byrne and Brian Eno are musical geniuses. This cannot be argued. Eno has his fingerprints all over some of the most influential musical creations ever created (Roxy Music, the invention of Ambient, No Wave, the Berlin Trilogy with David Bowie, producing U2's best albums, and so much more), while Byrne fronted one of the five best bands of the 1980's (Talking Heads), popularized the incorporation of international influences into pop music, ventured into successful solo projects in photography, art, and film, wile also running a successful record label. While both artists crossed paths numerous time, it was a collaboration in 1981 that produced one of their most memorable works.

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts may not be their most popular composition. Certainly it isn't their most accessible, but it's hard to deny its immense influence. When I discovered this album in an indie record store in Ventura, CA I knew nothing about it, but I saw the names of these two and decided there's no way is can't be good. After giving it one spin on my record player I knew this was unlike anything I've ever heard before (or since). And when the news broke a few months ago that Eno and Byrne would record again, I was obviously giddy with glee.

Now let's be clear, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is nothing like My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. It's far less ambitious, yet that doesn't mean it isn't a great album.

While Ghosts was the result of direct studio collaboration between two men at the peak of their musical experimentation, ETHWHA was conceived via less personal means. The idea for the album was borne out of necessity more than anything else. When Eno mentioned that he had many songs in need of vocals, Byrne became the obvious choice to fill in the gaps. From there the two began to exchange tracks back and forth, with almost no time spent in the same room together. The result is a melodic album of "electronic gospel" (their term) that is a compelling interpretation of pop music.

I'll confess, I love David Byrne's voice. He's perfectly suited for pop music because of both his range and ability to harmonize with virtually any genre. On this record the best moments come when Byrne floats away on top of lazy rhythms to let his voice do all the heavy lifting ("My Big Nurse", "The River").

At other times the full force of the dynamic duo produces wonderful moments of beautiful pop exuberance. On "Life is Long" Eno provides a festive mixture of deep syncopated bass, digitized drums, dreamy keyboards (seriously, is there a better keyboard player alive?), and understated horns to give Byrne one of the poppiest melodies he's had in years. Of course, he knocks it out of the park and the resemblance to Little Creatures era Talking Heads is downright scary. While "Strange Overtones" shines thanks to Eno's synth-heavy kaleidoscope of colors and Byrne's bright falsetto.

Not every song on ETHWHT is a winner, but the moments of greatness are too good to make this anything less than an enjoyable record. Thankfully, the duo made it easy for fans to decide for themselves by making the entire thing available via an embeddable widget. Enjoy!

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Broken Social Scene Will Not Rest Until Every Member Has Their Own Solo Album

Broken Social Scene are so damn likable that they actually influence my opinion of Canada as a whole. Nobody has as much fun making music and very few bands work as hard as they do. Between recording excellent proper BSS albums, the 19 members that comprise the collective spend their time recording and collaborating with many different bands like Do Make Say Think, Apostle of Hustle, Metric, Feist, Raising The Fawn, Stars, Junior Blue, Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, and many more. Basically, there's never a time when at least 3-4 of those bands have a new album out, which makes the members of Broken Social Scene the hardest working Canadians in show business (my apologies to Alex Trebeck ).

In recent times the Broken Social Scene brand has branched out into solo projects. Last year they released the first of these projects, titled (appropriately) Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew, Spirit If. . ., and it ended up being one of the more enjoyable releases of the year. This time around BSS is back to support the first 'solo' effort from founding member Brendan Canning.

Something For All Of Us is a befitting title, as there are many faces to the moods found on this collection of songs. As one would expect from any BSS-affiliated effort, there are moments of beautiful chaotic energy ("Hit the Wall", "Possible Grenade") tempered by more deliberate snippets of melodic balladry ("Snowballs and Icicles", "Been At It So Long"). While at other times Brendan drives the ship towards more groovy pastures ("Love Is New").

Whatever the vibe being showcased, the real star is always the carefree rhythmic dynamic of the Broken Social Scene sound. I can't overstate how refreshing it is to hear a group of musicians who obviously relish playing with each other. Their enthusiasm for making music for music's sake is both entertaining and admirable. I can't wait to see how that spirit manifests itself next weekend when they headline the Sunset Junction Street Fair.

Update: The audio player links work for me in Safari and Opera, but not in Firefox or Internet Explorer. I have no idea if this is a problem only for me, or if it relates to the browser. Please leave a comment if you are having problems listening to the songs.

Broken Social Scene Presents: Brendan Canning - "Hit The Wall" (from Something For All Of Us)

Broken Social Scene Presents: Brendan Canning - "Love Is New" (from Something For All Of Us)


Broken Social Scene Presents: Brendan Canning - "Snowballs and Icicles" (from Something For All Of Us)

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Beck Hansen and the Curse of Greatness

Anytime Beck releases a new album many people can't help but take notice. When your first two albums achieve almost universal critical praise and massive commercial success, there's a level of instant street cred that comes with it and almost never fades. So, in that respect, it will never be hard for him to attract the attention of a wide audience anytime he wants. Most musicians wish they had this 'problem'.

Although most of that attention comes with high expectations. Odelay set the bar pretty damn high and many keep expecting Beck to recapture that magic again and again. While his subsequent albums have seen him interpret various genres and influences quite successfully (Mutations, Midnite Vultures, and Sea Change come to mind), none of them have breached the canon of transcendent greatness that Odelay did 12 years ago. In light of this fact, I am left asking the same question I always ask myself whenever it seems like great things are expected of a particular artist. Is this really his fault or is it ours?

It is probably a fair assumption to think Beck never intended to make Odelay the landmark album that it became. Such things tend to happen organically and almost always fail whenever they are attempted by design. So, why are so many people disappointed whenever one of his albums doesn't measure up to that standard?

This week Beck released his eighth studio album, Modern Guilt, and it also falls short of the Odelay standard. But here's the funny thing about greatness, much of it depends on context and in many cases the context matters more than the content. Odelay is no different since its impact on pop music is greatly measured by the fact that nobody had ever heard anything like it before. Without this context, would it really have garnered as much praise as it did?

Probably not. So rather than setup Modern Guilt for almost certain failure before you even hear it for yourself, I will share my thoughts based completely on the music included on the album without making an unfair comparison to Beck's earlier work.

Much of the early buzz about Modern Guilt stemmed from the producer credit. When word got out that Danger Mouse would be collaborating on the album, many expected that it would be a return to the cut-and-paste aesthetic of Beck's earlier work. As it turns out, this isn't what happened at all. Most of Modern Guilt explores dark themes and atmospherics, which shouldn't be a surprise if you are a fan of either artist's work (consider the aforementioned Sea Change and the melancholic production vibe of The Good, The Bad and The Queen as exhibits A and B).

The music is heavy on echoes, syncopated drum loops and chunky guitars, creating a rhythmic foundation that suits Beck's self-doubt and paranoia perfectly. On the title track we hear a very different person than the one who used to sing about "two turntables and a microphone", instead it sounds as if he resents that person altogether ("Modern guilt I'm under lock and key/It's not what I've changed/Turning into convention"). The theme is extrapolated further on "Youthless" where a stuttering guitar rhythm sets the stage for Beck to lament the misplaced idealism of his generation's youth as he sings of turning "emotion into noise" and "trying to re-animate something that you can't understand."

Perhaps it is no coincidence that Danger Mouse's penchant for incorporating 60's psychedelia ("Replica"), surf rock ("Profanity Prayers") and British invasion pop hooks ("Gamma Ray") works so well layered on top of Beck's lyrical delivery. The juxtaposition of these sounds with themes of lost promise and hardened cynicism seem like a tacit admission that Beck's generation failed to change the world and instead ended up making it worse (as the bleak global warming imagery on "Orphans" suggests).

On the closing track "Volcano" Beck seems to leave a glimmer of hope for him and his peers: "I don't know where I've been, but I know where I'm Going/To that volcano/I don't want to fall in though/Just want to warm my bones for a while." While the jury is still out on his generation, I think it's safe to say he's got more than a while before he needs to think about jumping in.

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Am I Seriously The Only Person Who Thinks Lil Wayne Is Horribly Overrated?

Lil Wayne is on top of the hip hop world right now. His street cred is through the roof thanks to his appearances on several high profile mixtapes, the critics love him, and his new album Tha Carter III just became the first album in three years to sell over one million copies in its first week. In the post-CD era, you've got to admit that's a mighty impressive feat. So, why can't I understand what all the damn fuss is about?

Let me start this off by making it clear that I'm not one of those people who hates on music just because it is popular. There was a time when I was one of those people, but I outgrew such petty behavior years ago. If something is good, then just admit it and who gives a shit if it is popular? What I don't have patience for is when people who listen to very little hip hop have the gall to tell the rest of us that someone is "the greatest rapper alive" (a title that Mr. Wayne gave himself, but others, like those at Pitchfork, have agreed with) when they are obviously unqualified to make such pronouncements.

Now, I can't tell you who the "greatest rapper alive" is, but I am smart enough not to make such a subjective statement because I don't feel like I am up on the hip hop game enough to have a good answer. What I do know is that most of the people who are on the Lil-Wayne-is-King bandwagon listen to even less hip hop than I do. But you don't always have to be an uber hip hop head to recognize that you're listening to some next level shit, so I decided to give Tha Carter III a proper listen before passing judgment.

I gotta say, after listening to this album a few times I still don't get it. How is it that people are fawning over this guy? I know Lil Wayne is known for his stream-of-consciousness style of stringing together non-sequiturs and nonsensical metaphors, but throughout most of this record he sounds as if he is making up the rhymes as he goes along. Now, Jay-Z and Biggie are famous for not writing down their lyrics, but you know they have most of that stuff laid out in their head before they grabbed the mic (presumably, Wayne does too), yet it sounds like Wayne doesn't even bother with that much planning before the words flow from his mouth. On the album's opener "3 Peat" both the beat (straight out of the gangster 101 starter kit) and the rhymes sound just plain lazy. I think I counted 10 different instances where he manages to rhyme consecutive lines with the same word.

On "Got Money", we hear him using a paint-by-numbers approach that blatantly apes everything you hear on Hot 97 and 106 & Park. This is what the most 'prolific' MC in hip hop is supposed to sound like? Even being paired with Jay-Z doesn't manage to bring out the best in either artist, with Hova sounding as if he phoned in his verses (a problem that has plagued him on his more recent output) just so he can latch on to Wayne's shooting star. Then there's the Kanye-produced "Let the Beat Build" where Wayne manages to fumble away the perfect beat for his rambling style. More than any other track, this one begs for him to lift his self-imposed ban on editing his own material.

Now, they aren't all stinkers. "Dr. Carter" makes good use of a David Axelrod sample (even if he's six years late to pick up on the trend) to compliment his delayed delivery. Another highlight is "Nothin' On Me", where he teams up with his buddy Juelz Santana and Fabolous to create a subwoofer-friendly gangster anthem. In each of these cases it sounds as if more careful planning went into crafting both the lyrics and the beats, which I wish was more prevalent throughout the rest of the record.

Perhaps that's my biggest issue with Lil Wayne. So many people love him for his take-it-or-leave-it first draft approach to rapping, while I always end up thinking that his music could stand to benefit from a little (or, in many cases) refinement. Hip hop is way too hard of a game to get everything right the first time and if you are going to attempt to pull something like that off then you better be a once in a generation talent. Unfortunately, Lil Wayne isn't nearly that good to it consistently.

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Portishead's Third Pisses All Over the Grave of Trip Hop. Thank God

As readers of this blog know, Coachella is a mere two days away (btw, if any readers are planning to attend, drop me a line) and that means the return of Portishead to US shores is imminent. It's been 10 years since the Bristol trio have performed in America and even longer (11 years) since the release of their last album. Needless to say, I'm brimming with anticipation for their performance on Saturday and the long overdue release of Third. With that said, I couldn't help myself, so I decide to fish out an advance copy via the torrent sites (don't worry, I am SO buying this album when it's released April 29th).

So how has the long layover treated the band? For one, any attempts to still classify them as 'trip hop' (a term they detest) should be met with laughter. Much of the rhythms on Third owe more to Brian Eno and Kraftwerk than they do to any hip hop artists. On album opener "Silence" a fierce marching drum beat combines with deep pulsating synth notes, haunting strings and Beth Gibbons' trademark melancholy to build a momentum that you think is leading to a big payoff, but instead just ends abruptly. At first I thought there was something wrong with the leaked copy of the album I had downloaded, but alas the ending is intentional and quite fitting. I think what Portishead is trying to tell us here is that this story doesn't start where the last one began, so take a quick time out and wrap your head around that concept before we proceed any further.

At this point my interest is sufficiently piqued. From there the slow droner "Hunter" acts a segue way to the album's more ambitious songs. One that standouts is "The Rip," a track that begins as a ballad with strummed guitar and Gibbons' beautiful desperate-sounding vocal, but eventually gives way to a catchy analog synth rhythm that's straight out of the Cluster or Harmonia Krautrock playbook.

Later on Portishead delves into noisy electronic experimentation on "Plastic" and "We Carry On", two songs that effectively carpetbomb trip hop back into extinction. The former is characterized by a start/stop percussion layered on top of a swirling drum machine that bears a resemblance to a propeller, while the later uses muted drums and a ritualistic synth beat (seriously, it sounds like it should be playing during a virgin sacrifice) as the backdrop for some good ol' fashioned guitar noise. Basically, it's the greatest song ever.

After the brief interlude "Deep Water", which pairs Gibbons' vocal with nothing but a mandolin (and is the closest we get to a 'happy' song), more noise comes our way in the form of "Machine Gun" (which has been discussed before) and "Magic Doors", which uses what sounds like an accordion fed through bagpipes, cowbell and a hesitating snare beat to create a dizzying sound that propels Gibbons' wail to wonderful heights.

Perhaps only one track, "Small", is reminiscent of the 'trip hop' sound of Portishead's past, but even here the beat is so deliberately slow that your attention ends up being focused more on the repetitive organ and the guitar reverb than anything else. This is not a coincidence as Portishead seems to go out of their way to draw a line in the sand between Third and their previous work. Everything here still sounds like Portishead, but the band asks us to take off our rose-colored glasses (actually, gray probably is a more apt color) and replace them with something much darker. Since the band manages to pull of this off so superbly, I have no problem obliging.

Listen to a special in-studio performance of songs from Third on Current TV's website.

>>>Continue reading "Portishead's Third Pisses All Over the Grave of Trip Hop. Thank God"

REM Releases New Album. Gives All The Haters the Finger

The day REM signed an $80 million contract with Warner Bros. was a watershed moment for the music business. At the time REM's star was so bright, having just completed a hugely successful world in support of their commercial and critical landmark album Monster, that signing them to the largest recording contract in history didn't seem like much of a risk. Of course, what Warner Bros. didn't anticipate was the band's departure from radio-friendly rock music towards slower, more introspective pop ballads and flirtations with soft electronic melodies.

This led to a series of albums in the late 90's and early 00's that failed to resonate with everyone except the most loyal REM fans (still, a sizeable audience, but not enough for Warner Bros. to come close to recouping their sizeable investment). Of course, this era also coincided with the mass adoption of CD burning technology and, eventually, the paradigm shift of music file sharing, which I'm sure played more than a small role in the band's declining music sales. So, by the time 2004's Around the Sun was released, REM was showing signs of creative fatigue and Warner was figuring out how to best cut their losses.

Their days as chart toppers most likely behind them for good, REM at least proves on Accelerate that there's still plenty of gas left in the tank (no pun intended). Here they sound more focus and hungry than they have in years. The songs are loud, fast and direct, (9 of the 11 tracks clock in under 4 minutes) giving the album a sound that showcases the band's exceptional chemistry. The addition of touring drummer Bill Rieflin (ex-Ministry) and second guitarist Scott McCaughey into the recording process no doubt had a lot to do with the creative direction Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills chose to take.

Songs like "Hollow Man", "Man-Sized Wreath" and "Supernatural Superserious" are indicative of the energy the band displays at their live shows. The last three albums didn't make that logical connection, leaving many outside observers wondering if the band was on its last legs. Of course, such talk was silly and ignored the fact that these guys can still bring the goods were it matters most, the stage. By crafting songs that leverage the power of the tried and true drums, bass and guitar combination, REM proves they are still capable of catching lighting in a bottle in the studio too.

>>>Continue reading "REM Releases New Album. Gives All The Haters the Finger"

Bruce Springsteen is as Old as Your Dad, But Like 10 Times Cooler

It's pretty easy to dismiss an aging rock star. Rock music is primarily the dominion of young musicians whose creativity is born out of rebellion or a sense of urgency (or sometimes both), two things which are hard to sell when you are in your mid-50's and have more money than you ever dreamed. Which is precisely why bands like The Eagles, Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones look so goofy as they trot out for tour after contrived tour of the same greatest hits. These artists have all the fame and money they could ever want, yet they keep profiting off a nostalgia for a time when the creative well wasn't dry. I wish they would just retire and leave the spotlight to the few remaining peers who still have something left in the tank.

After listening to Magic, the latest album from 58 year old Bruce Springsteen, I think it is safe to say that, while he is in the same age group as those aforementioned 'dinosaurs', he still has plenty of creative juice left. On his 14th studio album The Boss reconnects with The E Street Band for the first time since 2002's The Rising, and the results are very satisfying. While The Rising was an album full of big themes (9/11 and its emotional aftermath) and grandiose rock anthems, Magic doesn't aim for such lofty ambition, instead what it does (quite wonderfully, I might add) is something much simpler; recapture a rhythm and blues sound that is the backbone of American Rock music, but rarely heard in today's mainstream Rock artists.

There are so many gems that utilize the strengths of the E Street Band, but none of them sound forced or derivative of a time when their talents were sharper because you can hardly tells these dudes are all middle aged. Of course, Clarence Clemons is given ample time to shine on the saxophone ("You'll be Comin' Down", "Livin' in the Future") and Max Weinberg proves he can keep a driving backbeat with the best of them ("Last to Die", "Radio Nowhere). But the glue that keeps everything together is still The Boss and on several occasions he employs many of his signature talents to create music that is vintage Bruce. There's the working class hero ("Long Walk Home"), the conflicted American ("Last to Die) and the eternal optimist ("Livin' in the Future"), all of which are beautifully supported by the wall of sound that is The E Street Band.

While Magic may not be as dark and foreboding as Devils and Dust, or as introspective as The Seeger Sessions, it is a powerful album of fairly straightforward Rock songs at a time when it seems as though many (including those who helped define that genre) have forgotten how to make that kind of music anymore. Thank God there's an old timer like Bruce who's around to show the rest of us how it's done. >>>Continue reading "Bruce Springsteen is as Old as Your Dad, But Like 10 Times Cooler"