By admin on Aug 31, 2011 in ALBUM REVIEWS
Music Reviews – Issue 73
[1] Beirut – The Rip Tide
Beirut gets all the pussy, all the “I crocheted this sweater myself and live with my parents at age 30” pussy. That’s theirs. In order to fully appreciate The Rip Tide I called all my exes to say that they were right about everything and then proceeded to punch myself in the dick. I’ve never gotten this band. They just seem like a bunch of try-hards whose output is middle of the road at best. One gets a sense that Beirut intended to make a powerful slow burner of an album which gains throughout. In actuality they’ve done little more than produce boring tracks that seem more at home at Urban Outfitters as contemporary muzak than on your stereo. Maybe I just don’t get it, maybe I’m being too critical, or maybe Beirut is just bland boring pablum-fed pseudo folk that cries out to be glossed over and forgotten.
- Dr. Ian Super
[2] Brilliant Colors - Again and Again
The thing about shoegazy jangle pop that most of the contemporary, revisionist bands don’t understand is that the shoegaze part didn’t develop because of detached, hipster snark. It was that the music was so beautiful that it needed no personality. The sound was strident and the unintentional persona was a pinwheeling blend of coy and fey. Luckily, record label Slumberland understands this perfectly, mostly because they were doing it originally, and have kept it up for over two decades. Brilliant Colors’ new album is another strike in the win column for Slumberland. Although the songs on Again And Again sit happily on the jangly side of shoegaze, the music still hits you like a blast of lemonade from a busted fire hydrant. Standout track “Value Lines” gets its point across in two and a half minutes, and no song on the album is longer than four and three quarters. Now if they could only spell their name properly with a “u” in “colours”, we could all sleep comfortably.
- Trevor Risk
[3] Jessica - Join Us
Have you ever wondered what a Whitney Houston comeback album would sound like; an album where her people decided she should appeal to a hipper demographic, so they hired a bunch of electroclash producers and told them to make disco? This is basically the Jessica 6 album. Jessica 6 formed after the three members met putting together Hercules and Love Affair’s live show. At first they were called Deep Red but changed their name to Jessica 6 after a character from Logan’s Run. “White Horse”, one of the lead singles from their inaugural effort See the Light, sounds like an upbeat Deborah Cox record. “Prisoner of Love” which features Antony is the only real standout track. This album should have been amazing but falls well short. Off key singing and too many synths does not equate to pleasurable listening. It’s like someone in the studio was standing at the gear rack and turning the knob on the meh filter to 11.
- Zia Hirji
[4] They Might Be Giants – Join Us
When you make an episode of Tiny Toons with Warner Bros., write and/or perform the theme songs for Malcolm In The Middle and The Daily Show, and cover “Tubthumping” with the entire Onion AV Club staff, it’s easy to pile up the “joke act” reputation around you like bails of hay. To the completely uninitiated though, They Might Be Giants sound like the finest band Brooklyn has to offer. In fact, the second track on new album Join Us sounds like what the Strokes latest offering should sound like if they hadn’t run out of gas. I know that statement will angry up the blood of both camps, but… whatever. Suck it.
- Trevor Risk
