Jared
05-10-2005, 02:12 AM
new music releases in stores 5/10/05
Robert Plant & the Strange Sensation
Mighty Rearranger
Aranza/Sanctuary
The irrepressible Robert Plant and his fine band The Strange Sensation return to recording after a three-year hiatus with Mighty Rearranger, his most provocative album to date. On twelve new songs — all of them co-written with The Strange Sensation — Plant digs deep into his musical and cultural trick bag and comes up with a mysterious road map that landmarks his own history. Plant and friends unapologetically reference the singer's long tenure with Led Zeppelin, and indulge an ever-deepening investigation of the various musics emanating from the African desert. The result is a futuristic rock and roll album whose myths and texts come from the winding, labyrinthine legacy of the blues.
Weezer
Make Believe
Geffen
Weezer's Make Believe may not be exactly what long-time fans pining for a second Pinkerton want to hear, but the group's fifth album does boast Rivers Cuomo's most open, emotionally direct writing since that 1996 classic. The difference is, unlike the tense, noisy Pinkerton, Make Believe is big, polished, and positive — a shift in sound and aesthetic which may not please all fans, but does make for another strong Weezer album.
Bryan Adams
Room Service
Badman
Bryan Adams released his ninth studio album, Room Service, in September 2004 in the U.K. and his native Canada, but it took seven months for the disc to receive American release. Frankly, the delay didn't really matter -- not only did Adams' star lose its luster in the U.S. sometime after his 1993 hits collection, So Far So Good, but Room Service sounds like it could have been recorded in 1993. It's so far removed from any modern music, in either the adult contemporary or rock realms, that it sounds as if Adams unearthed a collection of punchy, polished pop/rock tunes and power ballads that he cut 15 years ago and released it as his new album.
David Allan Coe
For the Soul and for the Mind: Demos of 1971-1974
Coe Pop
For the Soul and for the Mind: Demos of 1971-1974 is an astonishing document. Basically, it is a found reel of David Allan Coe's earliest demos as a staff songwriter for the late Pete Drake's Window Music publishing company. This is hardcore country music, from ***** tonk ballads to drinking anthems to truck driving country tunes to story songs -- all written before Coe exposed his ""Long Haired Redneck"" persona. Sound quality varies a bit, but is mostly very good. Sometimes Coe is backed only by his guitar, at other times, by a small session band -- no matter what the setting, his work here shines.
MC5
Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology
Sanctuary
Given the huge glut of semi-authorized (and clearly unauthorized) MC5 material that has surfaced over the years (especially in the last decade), there's been a real need for someone to sort through the many live recordings circulating of the band and edit the cream into some sort of workable box set. Despite its title, Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology is not that collection; instead, this three-disc set simply repackages two previously available albums of lo-fi MC5 live recordings. There are some great moments here, especially when the band tears into classic R&B tunes (the versions of "Fire of Love" and "I Believe to My Soul" are brilliant), and it does feature a few otherwise unrecorded MC5 tunes, including two versions of the epochal "Black to Comm" and the mega-rare "Upper Egypt." But newbies are advised that the best place to hear the MC5 live these days is still 1969's sonic firestorm Kick Out the Jams.
Dave Matthews Band
Stand Up
RCA
Given the slew of live albums that clutter its discography, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the Dave Matthews Band hasn't cut all that many studio albums. Just five in ten years, in fact (2003's Some Devil was a solo side project by Matthews), and two of those were made in the aftermath of the unreleased 2000 Steve Lillywhite sessions -- a set of heavily bootlegged recordings that most serious DMB fans consider among the group's strongest work. Which makes 2005's Stand Up the first album of new material since 2001's Everyday album, ( Busted Stuff -- a de facto do over for the Lillywhite sessions that also functioned as a tidy apology for the Ballard debacle -- was essentially a holding pattern, since the songs were older than those on Everyday), and it finds the band right back where it was after Before These Crowded Streets: the guys don't know what the hell to do next. DMB decided to team up with a very different producer this time around -- Mark Batson, who made his bones with modern R&B and hip-hop records by the likes of India Arie, Joe, Beyoncé, and Seal. This doesn't result in an extreme makeover -- which, quite frankly, would have been more interesting -- but instead a gentle gloss on the band's sound that renders it sleek, muted, and rather lifeless. Too many of the cuts appear pieced together in the studio, never once capturing the energy of a band playing live. Not only does Stand Up fail to solve the central question of where does the Dave Matthews Band go next, it suggests that even though they are aware of the problem, they haven't really pondered what to do about it, or what it means for them in the long term.
Sloan
A Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005 [Bonus DVD]
Koch
A Sides Win, gathers the band's 15 singles, adding the new "Try to Make It" for good measure. While this doesn't contain all of Sloan's great songs -- the opening pair of "Penpals" and "I Hate My Generation" from 1994's Twice Removed aren't here, for instance -- it does contain all the major points, and when they're gathered together, they prove that Sloan has been a band that delivers consistently tuneful, tasteful, smart guitar pop.
Styx
Big Bang Theory
New Door
Like 2004's less than stellar Cyclorama, those looking for this to be the big Styx record that will catapult them back into the mainstream will be sorely disappointed in the contents of this record. It's not a CD of new material, rather it's a fourteen song collection of covers from some of the band's influences and all time rock favorites. Starting with a live recording of The Beatles' "I Am The Walrus", the band works its way through the great rock and roll songbook with safe, relative ease. Also included are The Who's "I Can See For Miles," The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer In The City," Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home," Jimi Hendrix's "Manic Depression," Jethro Tulls "Locomotive Breath" and Free's "Wishing Well."
Robert Plant & the Strange Sensation
Mighty Rearranger
Aranza/Sanctuary
The irrepressible Robert Plant and his fine band The Strange Sensation return to recording after a three-year hiatus with Mighty Rearranger, his most provocative album to date. On twelve new songs — all of them co-written with The Strange Sensation — Plant digs deep into his musical and cultural trick bag and comes up with a mysterious road map that landmarks his own history. Plant and friends unapologetically reference the singer's long tenure with Led Zeppelin, and indulge an ever-deepening investigation of the various musics emanating from the African desert. The result is a futuristic rock and roll album whose myths and texts come from the winding, labyrinthine legacy of the blues.
Weezer
Make Believe
Geffen
Weezer's Make Believe may not be exactly what long-time fans pining for a second Pinkerton want to hear, but the group's fifth album does boast Rivers Cuomo's most open, emotionally direct writing since that 1996 classic. The difference is, unlike the tense, noisy Pinkerton, Make Believe is big, polished, and positive — a shift in sound and aesthetic which may not please all fans, but does make for another strong Weezer album.
Bryan Adams
Room Service
Badman
Bryan Adams released his ninth studio album, Room Service, in September 2004 in the U.K. and his native Canada, but it took seven months for the disc to receive American release. Frankly, the delay didn't really matter -- not only did Adams' star lose its luster in the U.S. sometime after his 1993 hits collection, So Far So Good, but Room Service sounds like it could have been recorded in 1993. It's so far removed from any modern music, in either the adult contemporary or rock realms, that it sounds as if Adams unearthed a collection of punchy, polished pop/rock tunes and power ballads that he cut 15 years ago and released it as his new album.
David Allan Coe
For the Soul and for the Mind: Demos of 1971-1974
Coe Pop
For the Soul and for the Mind: Demos of 1971-1974 is an astonishing document. Basically, it is a found reel of David Allan Coe's earliest demos as a staff songwriter for the late Pete Drake's Window Music publishing company. This is hardcore country music, from ***** tonk ballads to drinking anthems to truck driving country tunes to story songs -- all written before Coe exposed his ""Long Haired Redneck"" persona. Sound quality varies a bit, but is mostly very good. Sometimes Coe is backed only by his guitar, at other times, by a small session band -- no matter what the setting, his work here shines.
MC5
Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology
Sanctuary
Given the huge glut of semi-authorized (and clearly unauthorized) MC5 material that has surfaced over the years (especially in the last decade), there's been a real need for someone to sort through the many live recordings circulating of the band and edit the cream into some sort of workable box set. Despite its title, Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology is not that collection; instead, this three-disc set simply repackages two previously available albums of lo-fi MC5 live recordings. There are some great moments here, especially when the band tears into classic R&B tunes (the versions of "Fire of Love" and "I Believe to My Soul" are brilliant), and it does feature a few otherwise unrecorded MC5 tunes, including two versions of the epochal "Black to Comm" and the mega-rare "Upper Egypt." But newbies are advised that the best place to hear the MC5 live these days is still 1969's sonic firestorm Kick Out the Jams.
Dave Matthews Band
Stand Up
RCA
Given the slew of live albums that clutter its discography, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the Dave Matthews Band hasn't cut all that many studio albums. Just five in ten years, in fact (2003's Some Devil was a solo side project by Matthews), and two of those were made in the aftermath of the unreleased 2000 Steve Lillywhite sessions -- a set of heavily bootlegged recordings that most serious DMB fans consider among the group's strongest work. Which makes 2005's Stand Up the first album of new material since 2001's Everyday album, ( Busted Stuff -- a de facto do over for the Lillywhite sessions that also functioned as a tidy apology for the Ballard debacle -- was essentially a holding pattern, since the songs were older than those on Everyday), and it finds the band right back where it was after Before These Crowded Streets: the guys don't know what the hell to do next. DMB decided to team up with a very different producer this time around -- Mark Batson, who made his bones with modern R&B and hip-hop records by the likes of India Arie, Joe, Beyoncé, and Seal. This doesn't result in an extreme makeover -- which, quite frankly, would have been more interesting -- but instead a gentle gloss on the band's sound that renders it sleek, muted, and rather lifeless. Too many of the cuts appear pieced together in the studio, never once capturing the energy of a band playing live. Not only does Stand Up fail to solve the central question of where does the Dave Matthews Band go next, it suggests that even though they are aware of the problem, they haven't really pondered what to do about it, or what it means for them in the long term.
Sloan
A Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005 [Bonus DVD]
Koch
A Sides Win, gathers the band's 15 singles, adding the new "Try to Make It" for good measure. While this doesn't contain all of Sloan's great songs -- the opening pair of "Penpals" and "I Hate My Generation" from 1994's Twice Removed aren't here, for instance -- it does contain all the major points, and when they're gathered together, they prove that Sloan has been a band that delivers consistently tuneful, tasteful, smart guitar pop.
Styx
Big Bang Theory
New Door
Like 2004's less than stellar Cyclorama, those looking for this to be the big Styx record that will catapult them back into the mainstream will be sorely disappointed in the contents of this record. It's not a CD of new material, rather it's a fourteen song collection of covers from some of the band's influences and all time rock favorites. Starting with a live recording of The Beatles' "I Am The Walrus", the band works its way through the great rock and roll songbook with safe, relative ease. Also included are The Who's "I Can See For Miles," The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer In The City," Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home," Jimi Hendrix's "Manic Depression," Jethro Tulls "Locomotive Breath" and Free's "Wishing Well."