Album Review - Viva La Vida, Coldplay

YYYY Excellent!

Whenever a band brings Brian Eno in to work on an album that means that the album is labeled as the bands “experimental” album. That is not necessarily a bad thing, having Eno onboard is like knowing you have reached a certain pinnacle in your career. On their new album, Viva La Vida, Coldplay has reached that place. From the instrumental opener, Life In Technicolor, played on a Persian santur, you know you are in for something a little different. While some bands try too quickly to make their Sgt. Pepper’s (can anyone say The Killers), it is a real trick to grow as a band while still holding on to what made people love you in the first place, and this is the genius of Coldplay. On each record they have created a new lushness to their sound, and the evolution from their first guitar centered album to this one is definable and subtle. If there is a constant from one album to the next it is Chris Martin’s lyrics. They move the listener somewhere between despair and redemption and are vague enough, and personal enough to be universal. Throughout the music is superbly composed with each sound, note, and riff intricately thought through and perfectly placed. Cemeteries of London is a classic English ghost story of the struggle between the spirit world and the living - each searching for their God - with the guitar taking on the voice of the specter and a well placed vocal break taking the role of God. Lost! explores the perils of never ceasing to reach for a brass ring in spite of adversity and consequences. Yes! is a somewhat obvious song about temptation with violin punctuations that seems to enhance the confusion of the temptation. (It is also a song that half way through its listed 7:07 tracking time becomes a different unlisted song, putting the annoying hidden track in the middle of the album instead of the end where it usually winds up) Viva La Vida and Violet Hill are the two overt political songs on the album. Viva La Vida criticizes the arrogance of power and the consequences of its abuse, and Violet Hill the inevitable fall from grace that comes from mixing religion and war. The final track Death and all of his friends ends itself where the album begins, with the out-tro music looping back into the opening of the first track. I’m not sure if this is a deliberate statement or not, but what it reminds me of is the Ouroboros, an ancient symbol of a snake that eats its own tail to sustain its life. The Ouroboros represents an eternal cycle of renewal, symbolizing the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, the cyclic Nature of the Universe: creation out of destruction, life out of death.

Album Review - Mudcrutch

YYY 1/2 A Good Album

Tom Petty is a superstar. As a superstar you get to do some really amazing things, such as play halftime at the super bowl, make an album that is a scathing criticism of the record industry, and can call some of rocks biggest royalties your friends. Something else you can do as superstar is re-form your old band and make your first album 33 years after the band broke up. Mudcrutch was Petty's pre-Heartbreakers band and were well know in Gainsville Florida in the early 70's. Long before we had alt-country and southern rock became a parody of itself, there was an emerging sound called country rock and Mudcrutch was a prime example of the genre. The band is made up of Petty, fellow Heartbreaker Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench (who was not an original member of Mudcrutch), drummer Randall Marsh and guitarist Tom Leadon. If that name sounds familiar to you it is because Leadon's brother, Bernie Leadon, was a founding member of the country rock bands the Eagles and Flying Burrito Brothers. Next to the Byrds and Gram Parsons, Bernie Leadon is responsible for helping to put country rock on the musical map. Mudcrutch went west, recorded one song that never caught on, Petty and Campbell stayed in California and formed the Heartbreakers and Leadon and Marsh returned home, and the rest is history. The songs are top notch and even more impressive is they recorded this album in just two weeks with no overdubs. The album is lose and free, feeling a bit like the Wilbury's first record. Each instrument is clear and defined, with no one standing above the rest. Most of the songs are written by Petty, there are a few covers, a couple of traditional arrangements, one each from Tench and Leadon. Some of these songs are so southern that you forget that Petty is in the band. He's been out of Florida for so long that all that southern mud had long since been scrapped off his boots, but here he has managed to find that old pair of comfortable boots he has long since forgotten about. The opening track is a great arraignment of the bluegrass tune Shady Grove sung by Leadon; guitars and voices are harmonious and perfectly twangy. Six Days on the Road is the perfect life as a trucker song and sounds like it could have been on the Southern Accents album. Chrystal River is slow and deliberate, with a long extended melodic break in the middle that feels like it is taking us though a slow tour of a swampy river in Florida. In that fine tradition of southern rock Bootleg Flyer has some great duel guitar leads by Leadon and Campbell, avoiding the bloated self- indulgent guitar solo that became a staple of, and the thing that killed, southern rock. House of Stone is a perfect album closer, you can almost see Mudcrutch closing out the show in whatever roadhouse they're booked in with this song. I half expect to hear Petty say, "Thank you and good night" at the end. Petty has been around for so long you wonder when he's going to start repeating himself and with the exception of his last record Highway Companion he has somehow managed to avoid that. Usually what happens is when a side project comes up the weaker songs show up on that record, but when you're a superstar, you can do what you want and break all the rules...again.

Album Review - Gnarls Barkley, Odd Couple

YYY 1/2 A Good Album

Sometimes NOT listening to radio is a saving grace. While the rest of the world was being force-fed Crazy from Gnarls Barkley’s 2006 album St. Elsewhere, by avoiding the airways I am lucky enough to say that I still love that song and album. The songs on that first album were full of energy and fun and even on a track that discusses a mental defect, I came out of listening to it feeling happy. On their new album, Odd Couple, Gnarls is pretty much more of the same except for one big thing: the lyrics are darker, much more introspective and soulful. On this record, the music and vocals combine the classic soul that you might hear on the Stax or Atlantic label into a new soul sound really showcasing the fusion of old R&B and new hipster R&B. The music on Odd Couple can best be described as nouvelle cuisine: A modern style of cooking that emphasizes the use of the finest and freshest ingredients simply and imaginatively prepared. Gnarls is made up producer/musician extraordinaire, Danger Mouse (Brian Burton), and vocalist Cee-Lo Green (Thomas Callaway). DM has a flair for fusing together sounds, he came to fame by mixing Jay-Z’s Black album and the Beatles White album into the illegal internet sensation Gray album, but it is with Gnarls that his talent shines. To me, modern R&B/soul "music" has become over-produced and formulaic, and not since the days Stax folding has any of the music on soul records had any...soul! What DM manages to do is make the music interesting again. The album kicks off with Charity Case, the combination of Danger Mouse’s uplifting music and Cee-Lo’s more subdued and soul searching lyrics. On many of these songs I feel sorry for Cee-Lo; the introspective Who’s Gonna Save My Soul really sets a sad tone that flows throughout the record. On Blind Mary (a tune about marrying a blind woman so she won’t be able to see how ugly he is), his self-deprecation, while sad, channels his heartbreak, and at the same time the music has you out of your seat. Are Gnarls Barkley the saviors of soul music? Probably not, but this dynamic duo knows how to make a very listenable record, and while I’m not really sure what heartbreak Cee-Lo has experienced, whatever it is was can best be summed up with a line from a line A Little Better “The circumstance put soul in me.” Indeed it did.

Album Review - The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely

YYYY Love It

Some big name reviewer (Anthony DeCurtis, I think) once jokingly said, “I’m a music critic, so therefore I must love everything Jack White does.” I guess I could be called a music critic as well because I too, love everything Jack White does. I love the White Stripes, I love the Loretta Lynn Album he produced, I love the songs he did on the soundtrack from Cold Mountain, and I love The Raconteurs. This band came to life out of a mutual admiration between White and his friend and songwriter Brendan Benson; and along with Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence put together a band that channels some of the sound and energy of the Stooges and the storytelling of Hank Williams into something more then just a passing fancy side-project for White. Most of this album is bigger sounding and harder then their first record, with all but one track credited to White and Benson. There are songs that feel like they could be tracks off a White Stripes album, but being a Stripes fan I’m okay with that. However, it’s the songs that don’t sound like the Stripes that really grab me. You Don’t Understand Me, opens simply on a piano and crescendos into a classic rock song; Old Enough has some nice fiddle work and vocals that could easily be found on a CSN&Y album; the reggae-ish mariachi of The Switch and the Spur is vivid both musically and lyrically; Benson's vocals on Many Shades of Black are powerful and moving. However, the true high point is the last track, Carolina Drama. A perfectly penned tale of murder which has the feel of a modern day biblical parable, if it were a movie it would star a young Robert Blake. Throughout this album you never get the sense that this band showcases one person over the other, but rather reflects a true collaborative effort of four very talented musicians.

Album Review - REM, Accelerate

YYYYY Excellent

Which REM do you prefer? Pre- Green? Post-Green? Post Bill Berry? Well no matter, because whichever version you preferred you will most likely really like this record. When was the last time you cranked up a REM album and rocked out? Some might say Monster, some Document, some might even say Pageant, it does not matter because they rock out on this record better then they have probably ever done. The album bolts us out of the starting gate with Living Well Is The Best Revenge, and continues give us a run for our money through Supernatural Superserious, and past Accelerate. Even when they slow us down a bit with Until the Day is Done the energy and flow of the album continues to move us along. The music is mostly old school guitars, bass, and drums with Stipe’s vocals upfront and present. His lyrics are accessible and defiant - but not with the impertinence of youth - with the wisdom, knowledge and experience that comes with age. On this album, I feel like REM has lifted me up and passed me along like I’m crowd surfing; giving me a great ride, and then finally on the last hit of the last note of the last song, drops me to the ground in such a way that I want to get back up and be passed around again.

Album Review - Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, Raising Sand

YYYYY Excellent

2007 was a great year for Gene Clark. Who is Gene Clark you ask. He was one of the main song writers for the Byrds, and covers of his songs show up on two of 2007’s best albums. Chris and Rich Robinson cover “Polly” on their acoustic Brothers of a Feather album, and “Polly Come Home" and "Through the Morning, Through the Night" show up on what is probably the best record of 2007, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss amazing album Raising Sand. Allison Krauss’s sweet angelic voice has certainly been a fixture in most of our CD players since the O Brother soundtrack, and we all know Robert Plant’s growl, but who would have thought such a pair would work so well together. The album is made up entirely of some of the best cover tunes that you have never heard, songs penned by Townes van Zandt, Sam Phillips, Rowland Salley, the Everly Brothers, Tom Waits, Allen Toussaint, Mel Tillis, A.D. Watson, Milt Campbell and the beautifully subtle Please Read the Letter That I Wrote credited to Michael Lee, Charlie Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Masterfully produced by T-Bone Burnett, each song is uniquely theirs; there is nothing forced or unnatural. The way he works to weave their voices together can only be described as flawless. Plant and Krauss fit together so well on this record that you just might think its Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. The best example is the album closer, Your Long Journey, a song that could easily have wound up on the soundtrack for Cold Mountain. The surprises here don’t come from Krauss; you’ll hear no Immigrant Song yowling from Plant on this record. If you’re looking for Zeppelin, the closest you may find is on the Townes van Zandt tune, Nothin’, where guitars and violins raise and swell and recede again exposing Plant’s subdued mournful voice. In fact on listening, for Plant's songs you tend to be reminded of the songs in Zeppelin’s catalogue that are…well, acoustic (yes they do exist!).

Album Review Punch Brothers, Punch

YYY Good Album

Going off and trying something new is always a risky venture. When someone leaves a popular group, we expect two things from them. One, we expect that they will continue sounding exactly like they sounded in the old group and two, we hate them if they do not sound exactly like they sounded in their old group. Chris Thile was one third of the super popular pop bluegrass group Nickel Creek, and their youth and love for pop music and bluegrass (if you have ever seen them do a bluegrass version Britney Spears in their live show you know exactly what I am talking about), helped usher in a revival of American roots music. Now personally, I like my bluegrass songs to be about two/three minutes of pickin’ and grinnin’ tops and then move on to the next song for more of the same. In his new group, the Punch Brothers, Thile continues to play bluegrass, but this time he takes on loftier music styles than pop; he is now playing classical bluegrass; Gershwin meets Bill Monroe. If you are looking for a Nickel Creek sound alike you might be disappointed. Not to say this record is disappointing, all the songs are well written, arranged and played by the “brothers” who are some of the most talented and sought after players in bluegrass. The record starts off with Punch Bowl, giving us exactly what we looking for, a three minutes pop bluegrass song. After that, he jumps into part one of The Blind Leaving the Blind, a four part movement of songs ranging anywhere from eight to twelve minutes long and almost no pickin’ and grinnin’. Here the talent of the musicians comes out and the ambitiousness of the compositions takes over. I think that he is intentionally trying to take us away from the Chris who wrote songs and introduce us to the Chris who is the composer. However, in these lengthy movements his lyrics seem to be incomplete and get lost in the arrangements and I get the sense that perhaps he is waiting for the other two singers to come into the studio to record their parts. So kudos to Chris for branching out, but you’ll have to forgive me, I think I need a bit more time. Until then, I think I’ll be a fickle fan, now, who wants to hear Foggy Mountain Breakdown?