|
Josh
|
 |
« on: August 21, 2007, 09:12:47 AM » |
|
So it's music reviews you want, you say? Well, fat chance, bub; I've just renewed my vows to one Ms. Flannery O'Connor, and I'm bent on banging out a good chunk of my thesis before classes kick back into gear next week. But of course, writing about the music I love is never left completely out of the equation, and this week I'll be working on a couple of articles about Rush and Joe Henry. And I'm sure I'll also find some time to highlight a few other recommended recordings here over the next few days.
Until then... here's a sampling of a few recent releases that have landed on my desk:
The Weakerthans-- Reunion Tour (B+)
The most literate power-pop band in the world returns with another disc of rowdy, punk-flavored garage-rock. This one's their most eclectic and diverse offering yet, with the guitars being turned down on a few tracks for acoustic balladry, indie pop, and even a spoken-word piece. And they're still full of memorable stories-- there are tracks here about medical oddities, lease-ending parties, urban bus drivers, and celebrated hockey players. Best of all: Virtue the Cat makes a glorious return!
Suzanne Vega-- Beauty and Crime (B )
Vega's long-awaited return to music is a triumph of poetry and melody, boasting some of her most memorable and haunting songs. It's a loose tribute to the city of New York, and there's heart and compassion in all of these story-songs and character sketches. Musically, it's sophisticated, jazzy pop, and though it doesn't offer any new revelations or broadened horizons for the singer, and though the arrangements are sometimes too polished to be really gripping, it's nice to have her back, and with someone other than Mitchell Froom in the producer's chair.
Ezra Furman and the Harpoons-- Banging Down the Doors (A-)
Andy Whitman has been heralding this as 2007's finest recording, and holy cow... you're not ready. This guy's a singer-songwriter with a huge Dylan obsession, and most of these songs are performed acoustically, but mellow and sensitive it ain't; these are some of the rowdiest, wildest, most propulsive songs you'll hear all year, with the pitch-challenged Furman wailing away and spitting out lyrics like it's his last night on Earth. The songs are wonderfully weird and wildly imaginative, careening from one striking image to the next.
Fionn Regan-- The End of History (B )
He's Irish. He plays gentle, pastoral folk songs on his acoustic guitar, and his delivery is most assuredly not as reckless as Ezra Furman's. The Damien Rice comparisons write themselves, but this guy's the real deal; his voice is terrific, and he writes some beautiful and sophisticated songs that sometimes draw favorable comparisons to Richard Thompson or Ron Sexsmith.
Okkervill River-- The Stage Names (B+)
Will Sheff and his band of indie-rock populists (oxymoron?) return with an album that's grand, sweeping, tuneful, and melodic. There's a lot of drama here-- particularly on the closing track, an ellegy to the late poet John Berryman that ends in a bitterly comedic refrain of "Sloop John B"-- but there's also a lot of melody. The songs are clever without showing off or losing their pathos-- in fact, there's so much sadness here that it can be overwhelming. It adds up to a grim but exhilarating monument to failure and gloom, and one of the year's finer indie rock projects.
|
