The Sound Lounge

Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping

2009-01-18T18:19:00.001+11:00

If you didn’t know anything about Of Montreal, Skeletal Lamping’s packaging in a seemingly never-ending fold-out of technicolour hippy psychedelia would give you a good clue of the musical trip you are about to embark on. One of the most eccentric bands of the Elephant 6 movement (which includes The Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel); Of Montreal’s albums have been called everything from “frustratingly inconsistent” to “fantastically surprising” but what’s true for everyone is that it’s unlikely that you’ll be ever bored or be able to predict their next move. Skeletal Lamping is named after brutal animal hunting practice and although this album is not about that the band makes lyrical and stylistic parallels with the content and its spotlight exploration of human sexuality. To do this leader of the group, Kevin Barnes, a married white guy, takes on his alter-ego as a black transsexual named Georgie Fruit. I’m sure we all saw that coming.

Skeletal Lamping is overflowing with musical detours and unexpected corner-turns within the framework (I use that term very loosely) of party-friendly surrealist pop. Sounding like an indie version of Prince performing in a rainbow-coloured disco held in a wind-tunnel with Panda Bear and Hunky Dory-era David Bowie, it’s softcore, pumping, reverb-laden, hardcore and rather brilliant fun. It’s also multi-textured and endlessly surprising, like how they drop in a gentle piano piece (Touched Something’s Hollow) followed immediately by the uptempo An Eluardian Instance complete with Beach Boys harmonies and cabaret trumpets.

With Of Montreal’s patchwork musical styles it’s often hard to know where one song ends and the next one begins and Skeletal Lamping is a bit like a multi-album opus on one CD as they fearlessly do whatever the hell they want to. But, at its core, it is infectious pop music that keeps you coming back for more. It would probably take about 100 listens to approach fluency in this fragmented phantasm of a musical language, but here’s some better advice – set your brain to shuffle and enjoy.

Wayne Davidson

Sia – Some People Have Real Problems

2008-12-07T08:39:00.002+11:00

You’d never guess it from the pre-school cover design and bizarre booklet photos but Australian ex-pat Sia Furler‘s latest album is a sophisticated and soulful affair. Best known for the track Breathe Me which so perfectly propelled the finale to Six Feet Under into television iconography, Some People… is Sia’s third proper solo album. Bridging soul and dreaded coffee klatch adult-contemporary, Some People… comes out somewhere to the indie-left of middle of the road.

In possession of an arresting voice that’s both gutsy, bluesy and yet capable of soft tenderness , she sings at a dramatic level that would make Rufus Wainwright question if he was putting enough effort in. Unfortunately the track sequencing could stand some adjustment as early on it places a number of similar ballads bordering on the soporific (Little Black Sandals and Lentil) and mellow M.O.R. (Day Too Soon and You Have Been Loved) - styles which become old very quickly and would benefit from redistribution. However, things pick up significantly with the welcome arrival of The Girl You Lost To Cocaine and its punchy energetic chorus. Academia’s flighty melody and guest vocals from Beck Hansen add a bit of quirkiness to the mix, as does the plucky Playground, but the latter half of Some People… benefits from being a changing musical landscape which also incorporates some great pop moments (Electric Bird), atmospheric pop (Beautiful Calm Driving), and some ballads Ms Beehive would be proud of (Soon We’ll Be Found and the soulful Death By Chocolate). But best of all is her cover of The Kinks I Go To Sleep (made famous by the Pretenders) which is nothing short of breath-taking. Some People… also comes with a hidden track of the single (and Youtube phenomenon), Buttons. Not an out and out success but certainly more hit than miss from a fascinating artist.

Wayne Davidson

Beth Rowley –Little Dreamer

2008-11-09T08:41:00.002+11:00

At the moment it seems you can’t take a step out of the front door without tripping on another ‘60s styled album from a British female soul singer. We’ve had Adele, Duffy, Amy, Sharleen, and now it’s Beth Rowley’s turn.

From the start of Little Dreamer it’s apparent this is classy operation and despite her young age Rowley steers a smooth and mature sounding ship. Her take on the standard Nobody’s Fault But Mine, complete with a grand arrangement and lavish backing vocals, is impressive. It's the same again with the soulful, if a tad unadventurous, Sweet Hours which sounds readymade to soundtrack Sunday brunch. Although she doesn’t manage to completely sell the emotional depth of the Winehouse-y love gone wrong of You Never Called Me Tonight, it’s still a set highlight. Also good, if a little unexciting, are her pop moments such as the sunshine swing-pop of So Sublime, unsurprisingly lifted as a single, the reggae-lite of the Bob Dylan cover I Shall Be Released, and Oh My Life which has a charming girl group swing to it.

But overall Little Dreamer is a reasonably pedestrian album, not bad, but far from great, and sadly gets dragged down by an M.O.R. dullness which manages to overshadow what is good. Despite her fine vocal performance the Willie Nelson track Angel Flying Too Close To the Ground, a duet with Duke Special, it is painfully dull, and the gospel of When The Rains Come sounds straight out of church (which may appeal to some listeners, but I’ll pass thanks). More of the same is Almost Persuaded and Beautiful Tomorrow which I’m happy to leave as memories.

Quality control can’t be argued in this collection of soul, jazz, country & blues, and Rowley (tour singer for Ronan Keating and Enrique Inglesias) has an undeniable set of strong bluesy pipes, however it’s a voice that lacks distinction and unfortunately so does Little Dreamer.

Wayne Davidson

Pop Levi Sings Never Never Love

2008-11-09T08:39:00.004+11:00

Like The Last Shadow Puppets channelling of an authentic ‘60s sound, Pop Levi is also summoning the ghosts of pop charts past on Pop Levi Sings Never Never Love. “Recorded in my Hollywood kimono, just for you” (always nice to know) the sometimes Ladytron cohort melds a slightly insane mix of ‘70’s glam rock, electro, dub & and ‘80s pop with some contagious melodies and a super-crisp Chinn & Chappman-esque production (by Levi himself). As eccentric as Julian Cope or Sebastian Tellier, Levi's sound recalls, at least as a starting point, T-Rex, Supertramp, Devo, even a little Rupert Hine and David Essex; but his mini-masterpieces are too complex to confine to a short list of possible influences.

On the stomping opener Wannamama he’s Iggy Pop meets Marc Bolan, and although that track doesn’t feature one of his greatest melodies, he more than makes up for it across the album - so much so, that you may find yourself cursing him for locking annoyingly catchy hooks in your head including the stuttering title track and the painfully tender Semi-Babe; I even found myself giving it up to the initially irritating nursery chant of the dubby Call The Operator. His skill at reinventing past, often-neglected, musical styles is masterful. The bewilderingly odd Mai’s Space, although fantastic, may not seem much more innovative than what (Noosha) Fox did in 1975 - it’s a kind of reworking of Imagine Me, Imagine You. But heard in a contemporary context such an unfashionable caprice seems positively trailblazing. There’s an endless amount of highlights to discover like the bizarrely beautiful Love You Straight, the fiery glam of both Dita Dimoné and Fire on Your Feet. Also great is Calling Me Down, which is like Wings-era Paul McCartney, and the glam-tastic OTT drama of Fountain of Lies. Even better, this aural phantasmagoria is one that reveals itself more and more on repeated visits.

Apart from space left for “notes” and lyrics provided in both English and Japanese in the CD booklet he includes a small essay which includes shout outs to “runaway trains”, “mythica Ithaca”, “sweetlips”, “my Christmas present” and “Auntie Mum and the bunny rabbit” - which is all quite logical in the bonkers universe of the terrific Never Never Love. Bless you and your kimono, Pop Levi.

Wayne Davidson

Carla Bruni – Carla Bruni (AKA Comme Si De Rien N'était)

2008-10-05T08:50:00.005+11:00

Singer, songwriter, former model, fashionista, saucepot and First Lady to French President Nicolas Sarkozy; Carla Bruni seems to be doing it all, and if not, certainly doing most of it. This self-penned album (except for two covers and two songs co-written with Michel Houellebecq and Julien Clerc) is her third and was briefly a #1 seller in France (although not as succesful as her first 2) where it was released under the title of Comme Si De Rien N'était (trans: As If Nothing Had Happened). Musically Bruni sits somewhere between Françoise Hardy’s soft acoustic folk-pop, the emotive chanson of Jacques Brel and a Serge Gainsbourg-like balladry (and on a side note, it’s great to hear that she is giving all her royalties to charity).

Blessed with a voice like molasses, Bruni’s husky tones breathe sultry Gallic cabaret into everything she sings. Things start out strong with a continental sub-Beatles-styled waltz Ma Jeunesse (My Youth) but unfortunately she soon sets the switches to autopilot with the country-lite La Possibilité D'une Île (The Possibility of an Island) and threatens to send you to sleep with an abundance of M.O.R. chanson including Salut Marin (Hello Seaman),Déranger Les Pierres (To Disturb the Stones) and the 1950’s schtick of Je Suis Une Enfant (I'm a Child) which just drags. However, things pick up with L’Amoureuse (The Woman in Love – now we all know what Kiki Dee was on about…), the swinging jazz-lite of Tu Es Ma Came (You’re My Drug), the lively Le Temps Perdu (Wasted Time) – also, chiefly due to its simplicity, her version of the 50’s ballad You Belong To Me is an utter delight. Although much of this album languishes in E-Z territory, the slightly avant-garde closer Il Vecchio E Il Bambino (The Old Man and the Boy) hints at a more outré musical direction that is worth pursuing. This album sounds just like you might expect it to and that’s the main problem as it lacks any sort of uniqueness. A linking with a more adventurous arranger, Bertrand Burgalat for example, could be the missing piece to lift Bruni’s music out of the ordinaire.

Wayne Davidson

Katy Perry – One of the Boys

2008-09-15T08:48:00.002+10:00

Fulfilling her role as this year’s rebellious It-Girl, Katy Perry’s persona is one of teen-contempt, wrapped up in 50’s cheesecake fashions with a line of mall pop/rock and a bi-curious twist to add some publicity paprika. It’s marketing genius which has successfully propelled her to the top of the charts but there seems to be little of substance under all this gloss.

The over-produced One Of The Boys is as bland as they come but like it or not you’d have to live in a cave to have not encountered the swaggering dullness of I Kissed a Girl on some level. This is hardly ground-breaking stuff, Jill Sobule did a much better song of the same name and theme back in 1995, and despite its potential to be a message of sexual emancipation (like Sobule’s song was) there’s an uneasy whiff of Ralph magazine bi-sploitation as she sings “Us girls are so magical, soft skin, red lips, so kissable… You’re my experimental game”; and IKAG seems to exist for titillation rather than any other reason. She’s doing it for the boys again on the title track where her sexual politics, possibly the result of her strict religious upbringing, are shown as conservative and old-fashioned as she relates the tale of her make over from ladette to lady; not for herself, not because she wants to, but so the boys will take notice of her.

After that shameless mess we get to UR So Gay where Perry sees no problem with using homophobia to emasculate her ex-boyfriend. In her world, heterosexuality equates to masculinity and heaven help any man who dares have emotions. Clearly, calling him gay is the worst possible insult she can think of. It’s ridiculously naïve to claim, as she has in interviews, that this attempt at humour won’t be offensive (to men, gay and straight alike).

It’s likely that Perry sees herself as rebellious and powerful, possibly funny, but instead just looks pathetically out of step with the times. “When I’m Rich You’ll Be My Bitch” is the name of her publishing company, which perfectly sums up the revenge-filled tone of this collection of immature teen-angst bad hair days.

Wayne Davidson

Stereolab – Chemical Chords

2008-09-07T08:47:00.002+10:00

A new Stereolab album is always cause for celebration around these parts and with Chemical Chords the band has made one of their most pop-friendly and accessible records to date. This is a tight motorik set, there’s no 18 minute sound scapes here (the longest track clocking in at a smidge over 5 minutes) and for the first time all the songs are born out of drum loops. For the uninitiated, Stereolab are headed Record Fair haunting types whose encyclopaedic appreciation of outré sounds result in the avant-garde / yé-yé / moog / retro-futuristic lounge melding best known as “Stereolab”.

Stand out tracks are many and include Three Women, easily one of their best pop songs, complete with 70’s swinging London brass and a dreamy girl-group vocal from Laetetia Sadier. There’s the stop-start chamber-pop and sensual chord changes of the title track; Pop Molecule takes the band into a fuzz-tastic 70’s rock orchestration and Cellulose Sunshine sounds like what one imagines baroque bubblegum music should, all sun-soaked with chiming harpsichords. There’s fun to be had with the jaunty Neon Beanbag and the rollicking Valley Hi!; Fractal Dream of a Thing (can I just say – titles!) has a butter smooth funk vibe that could slot comfortably into the Emperor Tomato Ketchup era of the band, and Self Portrait with Electric Brain positively swings. In addition, Sean O’Hagan’s striking brass and string arrangements are his most accomplished to date.

‘Lab leader Tim Gane has said that the mixing time was severely reduced (just a few days, rather than the several weeks he expected), and unfortunately it sometimes shows with a few songs sounding a bit rushed (a few end awkwardly, and suddenly). There’s more 4/4 song structure than in the past which is a little unadventurous considering their back catalogue, and there’s perhaps a rare error of judgement with the music hall sparkle of Daisy Click Clack. But having said, that this is still a great record, and better still, there’s at least 16 more tracks left over from the CC sessions that we can no doubt expect to surface on a bevy of collectible multi-format limited edition releases.

Wayne Davidson

Sharleen Spiteri – Melody

2008-08-10T08:46:00.003+10:00

Getting back to the 60’s seems to be the flavour of the moment. With recent success stories such as Amy Winehouse, Duffy and The Last Shadow Puppets all turning their hand to a distinctly retro sound. Now it’s ex-Texas vocalist Sharleen Spiteri’s turn in a move that somehow seems more heart-felt than band wagon jumping. Spiteri has of course dabbled in this style before, but it’s with a tangible sense of emancipation that this solo album is allowing her free rein to create a more complete canvas of retro-fied pop music.

Spiteri’s Melody bounces out of the PYE Hi-Fi with two of its strongest tracks – the Sandie Shaw-alike opener It Was You, swiftly followed by the single-worthy All the Times I Cried, a melding of Dusty Springfield in ballad mode and The Shangri-Las Out In the Streets; it’s very good. You’ll love the tres Serge Gainsbourg styled title track (which is so stylised that Spiteri gives the late maestro a co-writing credit). Laying on the tambourines and violins helps to propel the bittersweet pop of Stop I Don’t Love You Anymore, the Motown-ery of Don’t Keep Me Waiting and Where Did It Go Wrong - all nicely poptastic in a melancholy, very personal-sounding way. As a side note, this isn’t surprising as Spiteri co-wrote all but one track, and word has it that Melody is primarily written about the break up of her 10-year relationship with magazine editor Ashley Heath.

At a short-ish 37 minute running-time it’s unfortunate that a few tracks are less than killer. I Wonder is only a few inches away from dreaded Celine Dion territory, You Let Me Down is dull and I’m Gonna Haunt You is like some of Nancy Sintara’s ill-advised forays into country music; but these quibbles aside, the lion’s share of Melody is a fine thing. You can almost see the end titles of the movie as the epic Daytripping takes us to our last stop, the delicate Francoise – a pop-lite chanson nod to Mademoiselle Hardy.

Wayne Davidson

Four compilations

2008-07-20T08:44:00.002+10:00

Future Pop
(EMI)
Quite a lot of good stuff here, all tailor-made for the 21st Century retro-futurist about town. It’s a mixed bag of left-field electro/dance music which is mostly the sort of sound which should please the modern alterna-pop fan. A double CD set featuring Hot Chip, Ladytron (the excellent Destroy Everything You Touch), Chromeo, the disco-fied Tracey Thorn, The Sugababes, Roisin Murphy, New Young Pony Club, Moby, Tiga etc… There’s also a special bunch of goodness from pop-tastic Sweden with the likes of Annie, Jenny Wilson, The Knife (a dance remix of Heartbeats) and Robyn’s finest moment (so far), “With Every Heartbeat”. I could do without Justin Timberlake and Kylie, but mostly Future Pop delivers a fine package, although there’s an inescapable irony that much of this “Future” pop music references a distinctly 80’s sound.

So Fresh: The #1 Hits
(Sony BMG)
Avril, Pink, Anthony Callea, Guy Sebastian, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys – ok, you know the territory, it’s radio-friendly all the way in this ultra-commercial 2 CD set. But having said that, listening through this bunch it does make me wonder how some of these were hits in the first place – the bizarre Lonely by Akon, for example. The transient nature of fashion in pop is never far from the surface with inclusions from Aqua (Doctor Jones) and The Pussycat Dolls who already sound a bit like last week’s milkshake. The rare brilliance stands out a mile with Britney Spear’s pop blast of Toxic and the dated, but still ravishing Tatu belting out the dramedy of All the Things She Said. So Fresh, is So Not my bag, but if you’re hosting a tween birthday party, this could be the ideal soundtrack.

Eurovision Song Contest Belgrade 2008
(CMC/ EMI)
We got a 3 night Euro-spectacular from Belgrade this year which had the expected mix of ballads, ritz, titz and oddballs that fans have come to expect (read that – “demand”) from the Eurovision Song Contest (which I prefer to think of as our Grand Final). There were less of the novelty entries this year although Estonia and Spain had a good crack at it, along with Ireland’s jaw-droppingly awful MC Turkey puppet thing – answers on a postcard… Still, you get a bunch of top pop from the Ukraine, Iceland (they just never let us down) and the right-side-of-quirky French entrant by cult pop star Sebastien Tellier. There’s also a ripper (Pokuŝaj) from Bosnia & Herzegovina which sounds like an amateur dramatic society doing a musical about Britpop (check it out and tell me I’m wrong). As for the winner? Russia – nil points I’m afraid.

Jools Holland – Best of Friends
(Rhino / Warner)
This is a rather lavish package for fairly unexciting content. Best of Friends comes with a CD and DVD to showcase a collection of standards (I Put A Spell On You, Georgia On My Mind etc…) featuring a roster of international stars and overseen by UK jazz maestro Jools Holland. The style is a primarily rock/soul (think “The Commitments”) and capably performed but mostly lacks much spark. Vocal contributions come from Sting, Mica Paris, Bono, Norah Jones, Shane McGowan and Tom Jones, to name a few. The best tracks are Chrissie Hynde’s Out of This World and Suggs whimsical Oranges and Lemons Again, but mostly this album is just polished and professional and dullsville. I’d love to tell you about the DVD but it wouldn’t play in any player I put it in, however it lists a behind the scenes documentary, interview and a few videos as included.

Wayne Davidson

Ladytron – Velocifero

2008-06-09T08:43:00.002+10:00

Once tagged with the kiss-of-death “Electroclash” label, Ladytron have proved survivors outliving any expectations of ephemeral success and also creating their own unique pop galaxy along the way. 2005’s Witching Hour was a stylistic turning point for the band that took their music into new more expansive realms – a style made from 360 degree sound, ghostly vocals, motorik beats, and 80’s synthesizers coupled with their arresting visual presence. Pleasingly on Velocifero the ‘Trons don’t seem to be taking a big stylistic leap but are content to refine and develop their art with another superb collection of electro pop.

We’re dropped straight into a familiar world of big beats, Numan-esque synthesizers and Mira Aroya’s Bulgarian school mistress vocals on Black Cat before the band commences their first assault on the gothic dance floors with the swaggering single, Ghosts. Sounding like a female version of Placebo going glam this is one of many tracks tailor-made for the alterna-disco in their particular slanted style such as They Gave You A Heart, They Gave You A Name and Tomorrow which sounds a little like Spooky-era Lush. Airborne and eerie vocals abound on Season of Illusions and on the delirious The Lovers with its crystalline melody coming out of the layers of dense electro pop sensurround. A strong sense of movement is apparent throughout, aided by locomotive rhythms as on the Giorgio Moroder-ish Deep Blue and the chugging alterna-rock of Burning Up.

A change of pace comes with the tender Kletva, sounding like a piece of experimental Czechoslovakian pop from the 60’s; other surprises include the burst-out chorus of I’m Not Scared, and there’s Predict The Day which starts with little more than drums, vocals and whistling and builds into a robust pop song, Velocifero wraps up with Versus, an epic but gentle pop masterpiece uncharacteristically including male vocals and in an expansive style worthy of Ennio Morricone. It’s a blissful end to this exciting and heady pop trip.

Wayne Davidson

The Royal We – The Royal We

2008-05-11T18:05:00.003+10:00

With a C-86 aesthetic, 3 pairs of black plastic glasses between the 6 band members and possibly an anorak or two The Royal We are adorable Glaswegian art college popstars brimming with an armoury of pop-punk tunes. Their sound is like a melding of early Rough Trade and Olympia’s K Records with touches of The Undertones, Chia Pet, Bis and The Slits thrown in.

Cranking out 8 songs in less than 20 minutes there’s no risk of this CD outstaying it’s welcome, however there’s also little chance of the band also doing that as they broke up shortly after (or possibly before) releasing it. So it’s fortuitous that, adding to their legendary live status, this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it collection is actually quite excellent. A record that sounds like it was made by people who love Belle & Sebastian (singer Roxanne Clifford is a B&S cover star), make fanzines, are magnetically drawn to collecting lapel badges and think the Television Personalities were never really given their due. There’s a D.I.Y. energy a la Huggy Bear to the energetic French Legality, the infectious single All The Rage and indeed most of their brief output. That Ain’t My Sweet Love captures the textured punk energy of The Raincoats and Three Is a Crowd does a great take on the feminist pop sound of Delta 5. This review could be giving the impression that The Royal We are stuck in some sort of 80’s indie timewarp, and well, they are, but this is more than duplication, as they use the spirit of that sound and make it their own.

There’s more catchy pop fun with the summer girl group sound of Willy and their eyebrow-raising cover of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game is stripped of his crooning longing instead replacing it with a rough pop anger – the result is nothing short of brilliant and up there with The Slits revolutionary cover of Heard It Through the Grapevine or Chia Pet’s take on Don’t You Want Me. As both debut and swansong this CD is a pretty fantastic pop legacy to leave.

Wayne Davidson

Funplex – The B-52’s

2008-04-20T18:08:00.001+10:00

Sixteen years is much too long a break between albums for any band, but especially an international treasure like The B-52’s. Apart from two new tracks on 1998’s greatest hits compilation, Time Capsule, and a spectacular guest vocal for Junior Senior there hasn’t been a lot of output from chez B’s since their last proper album, 1992’s Good Stuff. Despite the extended hiatus Funplex is superb a return-to-form with a new collection of maverick pop as only they can do it. Even better, Cindy Wilson is now back on board after taking time out to raise her family.

The B’s manifesto is clear from the get-go with Pump, the dynamic opener, and first call-to-party. All the distinctive elements of their sound are here – Keith Strickland’s 60’s surf guitar, Fred Schnieder’s sideshow bark and the otherworldly harmonies of Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson (and really people, is there a more amazing sound than these two singing together?). “I’m your daytime waitress here’s your stupid 7-Up” sings Cindy on the title track, a hilarious critique of mall culture (“I’m at the mall on a diet pill!”), and as good a single as they’ve ever written. The girls take over the sensational Juliet Of The Spirits which is as gorgeous and iridescent as its Fellini namesake, and the meditative and catchy electropop of Eyes Wide Open is another infectious highlight. The B’s let fly with the off-beat pop themes they’re famous for; a 3am wait at a bus stop turns into a shimmy party in Hot Corner; Deviant Ingredient comes equipped with the bizarre “Pink Helicopter Sequence” musical break and the album is filled with the sorts of lyrics that only they could get away with (“Chandalabras in a wonder bra”, “Barefootin’ – and kahootin’ with a wild crowd” etc…), and it all works, but uncontrolled they can come up with the odd clunker as they may have with the somewhat silly Love in the Year 3000 (‘Bootybots’ anyone?). One small misstep aside, Funplex is full of growers that lock on repeated plays such as the exhilarating Dancing Now. The B-52’s have returned with a solid collection of party-starters that not only serve to add to their unique legacy but begs the question – why did it take so long?

Wayne Davidson

Le Loup - The Throne Of The Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly

2008-03-02T18:17:00.001+11:00

Amongst other things on their MySpace page, Washington D.C.’s Le Loup describes themselves as “paranoid full and fragile floating and feral and futile” and “self-indulgent orgastic decadent flowery delicate saturnine intricate bombast explosions”. This mess of words makes some sort of illogical sense when listening to their lengthily-titled CD. The literary overload continues to the cover which contains the title and the album’s entire lyrical content, only viewable if you’re in possession of a magnifying glass or bionic eyesight. So it comes as a surprise that much of their music is a quiet, folky affair, albeit replete with indie choirs and reverb, but with a lot of breathing space retained.

There’s two main styles in Le Loup’s inventory, the urban folk style as on the opener, Canto I, with its plucked banjo loop, typewriter percussion and hushed choral vocals and the a-lot-like Sufjan Stevens, To The Stars! To the Night! (the Stevens influence is an unavoidable comparison, and one that must haunt the band). The other is a lo-fi electro-funk as in Outside of This Car, The End Of The World! which introduces a tinny drum machine, chanting melody and some Stereolab-y backing vocals – which all up strangely reminds me of early Shriekback. A similar approach is applied to We Are Gods! We Are Wolves! which jogs along to a sequenced looping melody and tapping rhythms before the choirs bursts out like a ray of light. There’s the Broadcast in feedback of Look To The West and a few brief ambient tracks (Storm), which sounds like one and the spooky (Howl).

The short album wraps up with I Had a Dream which has more campsite banjos and chanting that sound like a sober version of The Pogues. In a twist typical to the album the track ends in a feedback haze and several minutes of birdsong. The good is that there’s something haunting, other-worldly and special about Le Loup, the bad is an uncomfortable feeling that this art is a bit precious and impenetrable.

Wayne Davidson

So Frenchy So Chic 2008

2008-03-02T17:58:00.003+11:00

Bonjour! It’s that time again, the French Film Festival is upon us, and so is the latest in the annual series of “unofficial” soundtracks. SFSC 2008 is not only another great 2-CD extravaganza, but also an excellent way to discover a range of established and upcoming French artists.

With an overall mood of alt-lounge there’s a variety of styles included, starting with the most obvious, the chanson [breathy French vocals, a bit of jazz, cabaret maybe a Gitane or two]. There’s the gentle J'Aime Bien by Bertrand Betsch, the Jacques Brel-ish Ridan (J'En Peux Plus) and the wispy soufflé Le Temps De Dire Ouf by Staël. Cabaret queens include alterna-diva Brigitte Fontaine and her apache dance-worthy La Métro and the superb The Songs That We Sing by Charlotte Gainsbourg (worth the price of the CD for this one alone). Then there’s music hall tracks such as Pascal Parisot’s rinky tink Les Filles and Jean Corti who merrily oompahs his way through the theme to Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle.

Latin flavours the mood on Daphné’s sexy cha cha Musicamor, the lovely pop-lite samba of Ours (Quand Nina Est Saôule) and Benjamin Biolay even heads to Mexico in his Gainsbourg meets Mariachi number Dans La Merco Benz. Country music gets a look in on Cocoon’s On My Way and in the silly honky tonk of Le Maximum Kouette’s Fuck Me Tender. La nouvelle vague (new wave) is represented by, well, Nouvelle Vague and their ambient take on Fade To Grey, $Olal (Philippe Cohen Solal of Gotan Project), Encore with Mick Est Tout Seul (sort of Plastic Bertrand meets Falco) and the knockout vampire-savage Sing Sing by Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle (that’s Emmanuelle Seigner, AKA Mrs. Roman Polanski).

I wasn’t blown away by Keren Ann’s stodgy It Ain’t No Crime and the tangled experimentalism of Louise Vertigo, but it’s good they’re here. Also quirky, but more appealing, is Olivia Ruiz with her Joanna Newsom-like crazy chamber-pop, La Femme Chocolat, especially when it briefly stops mid-song like someone turned off the turntable power. SFSC 2008 is certainly the best in the series so far and indicative that the well of fantastic French alterna-pop is far from dry.

Wayne Davidson

Goldfrapp – Seventh Tree

2008-02-24T18:11:00.001+11:00

Seventh Tree might prove something of a surprise after Black Cherry and Supernature, two albums primarily comprised of Goldfrapp’s delicious glitter pop; and although this has more in common with their debut, Felt Mountain, it’s a very different entity to anything that’s come before. Where that album was Morricone cinematic, Seventh Tree is ethereal, psychedelic, acoustic and electronic folk music that sounds like the soundtrack to a pagan ritual performed at Stonehenge. It’s also a well-timed chameleon act, having led the pack, especially some A-List one-name artists, with their modern disco sound and seen it reduced to imitation.

Seventh Tree sees Goldfrapp expanding on themes and feelings touched on in their previous work and design, such as animals, nature and mythology. Along with it Alison Goldfrapp has ditched the glam disco-clobber in favour of a buccaneer meets Wicker Man chic that befits this new musical incarnation. The woodland Kate Bush-iness permeates the tracks as Goldfrapp and musical partner Will Gregory introduce strings, guitars, woodwinds and electronics with a calm rural spaciousness that sounds almost organic. But despite the change in style there are also those intangible elements common to their music and the exacting quality control that make this unrecognisable as anything but a Goldfrapp record.

Seventh Tree launches with the pastoral Clowns where, true to form, the elegant sweeping music disguises a wicked lyric that berates the use of breast implants (“Only clowns would play with those balloons. Wha’d ya wanna look like Barbie for?”). A similar approach is applied to the bubblegum perkiness of Happiness where the Lemon Pipers style psychedlia and Royal Court fanfare of backing vocals smokescreens the lyrical message of New Age con artists.

The euphoric first single A&E is, truly, like the first breath of spring but with an intrguing lyrical story set incongruously in a hospital emergency ward. With Goldfrapp’s dulcet Bobbie Gentry-esque vocals and the way they play off to the lavish ebb and flow of sound make this one of their best singles. There’s more heady sunshine folk on the mellotron-driven madrigal Little Bird and the sunset anthem, Road To Somewhere. A comfortable change of pace occurs with the saucy Cologne Cerrone Houdini (title!) which is pure 70’s Euro-softcore, and the Blondie-in-the-Mystery-Mobile pop stomper Caravan Girl, before a sense of completeness is achieved with the sweeping Monster Love sending us delicately off into the horizon.

Seventh Tree could be the musical equivalent of rolling around in autumn leaves in fairytale woodland. It’s a beautiful and radiant album and another where the trailblazing Goldfrapp can show us what a wonderful and exciting place pop music can be.

Wayne Davidson

k.d. lang – Watershed

2008-02-10T18:13:00.001+11:00

k.d. lang’s first album of self-penned material is an expansive and gorgeously languid affair. With one foot back in her country roots and the other planted in her unique style the self-produced Watershed marks another highlight in what’s already been a most remarkable career. Without wanting to write too much into the title, Watershed does sound like an album made by artist who has reached a turning point - it’s reflective and questioning, yet contented and self-assured with a relaxed determination and clarity of vision. An album touch point is 1992’s Ingénue, to which this does sound like some sort of sequel, albeit an older, wiser sister. On these new tracks lang takes the pace and breathing space afforded songs like Save Me and Tears of Love’s Recall and expands it across the 11 tracks.

With elements of jazz, country, Latin and easy-listening there’s no chart-bound singles here, and there doesn’t need to be. lang’s handsome production and arrangements make for a classy and timeless experience and her velvety and comforting voice is in great shape with the precision and intimacy fans would expect. Some of the many highlights include the glossy Sunday which is an E-Z masterpiece of gentle jazz with an unexpected mid-song break into jazz-vocals, and the hypnotic Close Your Eyes, a sweeping lullaby of strings and twilight calm. Equally dreamy is the sparkling Je Fais La Planche with doorbell vibes, acoustic guitar and lang’s honeyed vocals, there’s also the graceful Thread which skilfully merges a complex arrangement of lang’s intimate vocals, soaring strings and acoustic backing. There’s the chic and whimsical Coming Home, the end-of-the-movie seductive ambience of Shadow and the Frame and the hop-a-long western sunset ride of I Dream of Spring which, incidentally, is partially about Melbourne.

The elegant and intimate Watershed offers a great deal for the listener but doesn’t immediately lay itself bare - there’s a depth and complexity that only seems to reveal upon what will no doubt be frequent revisits.

Wayne Davidson

Various Artists - Fever Italia

2007-11-12T18:54:00.001+11:00

The Italian Film Festival recently finished in Melbourne, but the spirit of Italy lives on in this “unofficial soundtrack”. With cover art of a lovely ragazza on her Vespa in Rome, probably on her way to get a espresso or some gelati (don’t mind if I do) you could imagine that this album, a relaxed mostly contemporary selection with a few vintage pieces thrown into the mix, is exactly the sort of soundtrack music she might well be enjoying.

Pino Marino gets the groove started with the smooth dreamscape strum and strings of Lo Strozzino before Giorgio Conte’s swinging double bass on Cannelloni (ok, now I’m really hungry) heats up the nightclub. Then it’s back to the 50’s with the first of two appearances of Fellini soundtrack maestro Nino Rota - the carnival atmosphere of his Lo Struscio is every bit as magical as Amarcord, the film it was composed for. The mood changes to acoustic with the spoken Seminatori Di Grano from Gianmaria Testa, then it’s the indie acoustics of Kunstler’s Lo So before Patrizia Laquidara sexes up proceedings with the gorgeous alt-lounge groove of Le Cose.

Popular 50’s actor/singer Fred Buscaglione drops us back half a century with coffee house swing and a bit of brass on Juke Box before Radio Cuba’s unpredictable cabaret turn of Stanco. Sounding like the 50’s but recorded in 2002 is Tu Vuo’ Fa’ L’Americano by the (German) jazz ensemble Quadro Nuevo then we go from acoustic to eclectic with Roy Paci’s smoothly weird Senza Di Te. Also left of centre is the culty alterna-diva Cristina Donà whose Il Mondo sounds like a meeting of Nina Hagen and Brigitte Fontaine with sedatives slipped in their coffee. Giorgio Conte pops up again with some scat-jazz on Balla Con Me and keeping it in the family his brother Paolo then drops in (and sounds slightly drunk) on the upbeat Via Con Me before Nino Rota pulls down the curtain with the Christmassy soundtrack to Fellini’s 8½. Fever Italia is a well-chosen fantasy mix of dreamy jazz and pop custom-made to provide a soothing soundtrack for relaxed weekends.

Wayne Davidson

St. Vincent – Marry Me

2007-10-10T18:45:00.001+10:00

St. Vincent’s rather spectacular debut is like a melding of Kate Bush, Beth Orton, Laura Nyro, Feist and Bjork. If you like the sound of that, you’ll love this, packed, as it is, with elegantly adventurous songs. St. Vincent is the musical name of Annie Clark, a precociously talented 24 year old multi-instrumentalist from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Clark’s impressive CV features time with The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, but her solo work is no spin-off, Clark offers something very much her own – a style that’s an original and eccentric, but never grating, assemblage of enchanting easy listening, pop, parlour music, choral, jazz, indie, prog and experimental.

There’s a seemingly endless array of surprises to uncover – angelic choirs that burst out of the ether, clouds of sound that appear and vanish, gentle percussion and guitars, soft piano, and some very clever musical architecture that holds it all together. The opener, Now Now, sets us up well for what’s in store with its dynamic kiddy choir and soaring musical carousel before it all ends in a cacophonous swirl. Think Kate Bush circa Hounds of Love and you’re someway there. Jesus Saves, I Spend delivers with something akin to easy-orchestral-meets-rock-opera, Your Lips Are Red is like Throwing Muses playing tribute to chamber music and Sonic Youth in equal measures and Paris is Burning is like a fusion of Bjork and Moloko. Delivery is playful and the often witty lyrics are sometimes killer - like on the title track, sort of a contemporary Wedding Bell Blues, where she implores “C’mon John, we’ll do what Mary and Joseph did, without the kid.” On Apocalypse Song she’s a one-woman Free Design and the solo piano piece We Put a Pearl in the Ground has the dusty ambience of Virginia Astley, Human Racing feels like Joni Mitchell crossing paths with Astrud Gilberto and the jazzy What Me Worry, waves us off with a wink and her manifesto of independence.

Marry Me is a ravishing album that offers more on each listen and achieves the precious feat of sounding both modern and timeless.

Wayne Davidson

The Dragons – BFI

2007-10-10T18:40:00.001+10:00

This previously unreleased album by the Dragon brothers, Doug, Daryl and Dennis (their parents clearly had a fondness for the letter ‘D’) was a chance discovery, 37 years after it was recorded, by obsessive music collector Strictly Kev/DJ Food upon hearing their track Food For My Soul on a privately pressed surf movie soundtrack album. BFI is the result of nocturnal recording sessions in LA’s Sunwest Studios in the 60’s, The Dragon’s record company at the time chose not to release it and it was basically forgotten - until now. All three Dragon brothers meanwhile continued their musical careers which apart from all being part of the Beach Boys touring band, most famously found Daryl Dragon becoming the first half of the internationally successful, The Captain and Tennille. So, fast-forward to 2007 and The Dragons’ soul-rock spaced-out masterpiece BFI is finally available.

BFI could compete with many of the greats of the psychedelic 60's and although rooted very much in that time their pop/soul/rock also sounds surprisingly contemporary, especially when heard with a band such as Stereolab in mind. The opener, Cosmosis, could have been lifted from their album The First of The Microbe Hunters and the space-pop of Sandman with its squelchy keyboards is also rather ‘Lab-by. Food For My Soul (the track that started it all) is a weed-fuelled hippy mantra with an imagined phantasmagorical light-show while Amplified Emotion is an organ-driven ballad that’s a little ecclesiastical and like, well, trippy. Bongs could be at risk of being knocked over when dancing to the groovy closer, Your Way Too and you’ll love the phased Library music sound of Sunset Scenery. The wild 60’s experimentation of Mercy Call should win fans with an unconventional gospel-folk sound however I could live without the Randy Newman-esque Pop’s Bag. Still, BFI ends on a high (pun intended, natch) with the part classical/part cosmic and all experimental Big Mike Requiem a sensational epic hymn from the outer-cosmos with so many twists your head will spin. More. Love peace and mung beans, it’s all here in this groovy symphony baby. Enjoy.

Wayne Davidson

Various - So Frenchy So Chic

2007-07-29T18:51:00.001+10:00

About this time last year we were treated to the first So Frenchy So Chic. Well, the “unofficial soundtrack to The French Film Festival” is back, this time as a double disc to again tempt you with all things Francais. Perhaps not quite as diverse sounding a collection as its predecessor SFSC still covers a huge range of styles that include jazz, lounge, hip hop, world, chanson and lullaby.

Françoiz Breut starts off Disc One with La Certitude that expertly melds rock, indie and chamber pop into an attractively spooky package. Beaucoup Plus Que Moi by Cvantez speaks an Astrud Gilberto kind of language and there’s Camille’s Ta Douleur that mixes soft 60’s pop and electronics. Jerome Attai’s track is all it needs to be with little more than piano and spoken word, Albin De La Simone and Têtes Raides are both jolly in a not too annoying way, although the same can’t be said for Les Voisines by Renan Luce. Good taste suggests I ignore Spleen’s Bitches on the Ground, although it is quite nice sounding and Les Hommes Peuvent Etre by Autour De Lucie is beautiful in a way that’s difficult to put into words.

Disc Two starts off with some jazz in the form of Sanseverino, there’s also Coralie Clement who sounds uncannily like Japan’s Kahimi Karie and Keren Ann (also on SFSC1) returns with the stunning Que N’ai-Je? on loan from her lovely album Nolita. Rubin Steiner’s Que Bonita Es la Vida is (er, Spanish? but) quietly addictive, however less successful are Saïan Supa Crew’s rap La Patte, and the cabaret stylings of Babylon Circus which could easily send me running from the room. Hugo’s Fouille Toi uncomfortably manages to be both incredibly MOR and somehow quite interesting and the collection draws to a close with the Bjork-level madness of Ice Girl by Emilie Simon which is either audacious genius or sheer lunacy.

This is another good, and rarely less than interesting, collection but I can’t help thinking a single disc trimmed of le ballast would have been even better. For a visual treat make sure you catch the companion TV show which is replaying on SBS from this week.

Wayne Davidson

Le Pop 4 – Various Artists

2007-07-29T18:49:00.001+10:00

You could be forgiven for thinking that all French compilations are dreamy lounge affairs drenched with orchestras, soft percussion, mountains of reverb and sexy vocals. But that’s because most of them are! And if that’s the way it is; then colour me Francophile. Le Pop 4 is another wonderful sugar-coated dessert of café-friendly Sunday brunch music that will again have you pledging allegiance to the French flag and giving you a strangely immediate urge for brioche.

From the get-go it’s high-drama merged with strings and class as Pierre LaPointe’s Qu'en Est-il De La Chance? sets the tone of what’s to come. It’s followed by the Claudine Longet-esque Austine who needs little more than an acoustic guitar but the magic is sent into the stratosphere when her track Rhume unleashes the strings and percussion.

Vincent Delerm sounds a little like fab French oddball M after a chamomile tea to sedate his kookier elements; Delerm’s Sepia Plein Les Doigts rolls along like a sports car on a coastal road. Augmented by tender female vocals Holden make music that sounds like an Ennio Morricone soundtrack to a thunderstorm; Madrid (also on the 2007 So Frenchy So Chic compilation) is brilliant in a way that’s hard to fully understand. Eddy LA Gooatsh contributes the breezy L'amour Et L'eau Fraiche and it’s more nirvana, this time with steel guitars, samba rhythms, gentle female backing vocals and tingling chimes. Nouvelle Vague vocalist, Melanie Pain, sets the tavern ablaze with La Cigarette, and the ghosts of French music past spring to life so brilliantly under the spell of the (always superb) Barabara Carlotti.

However, Les Tcheques by Mathieu Boogaerts is only quaint and minimal if a little inconsequential as is Jeanne Cherhal’s Voila; again, nice but no letter home. Domique A and Thierry Stremler’s tracks are also harder to love than most of what’s available here; I prefer Pascal Parisot’s Le Naturel which makes a lot of a quirky mix of elements including a tinny drum machine, off-key brass and soft pitchy vocals – nice. The Lowery organ drum machine also gets an airing on Pascal Colomb’s Toute Ressemblance, which is a little bit Brel, a little bit Gainsbourg and like pretty much everything else here, a whole lot smooth.

Wayne Davidson

Marc Almond – Stardom Road

2007-07-01T18:55:00.001+10:00

Marc Almond is back. With a career that started in the early 80’s and tragically almost ended in 2004 in a near-fatal motorcycle crash Almond announces his return in appropriate style with I Have Lived (an incredibly apt title, if you need proof, check out his 1999 autobiography Tainted Life). It’s been a long three years to recovery, and Stardom Road is remarkable simply in as much that it exists, as thankfully still does Marc Almond. Bar one this is an album of cover versions, songs that have inspired his career and it’s, as you may expect, a classy affair of garish orchestras, show tunes, cocktail piano, lounge ballads and those delirious OTT moments of melodrama de gutter as only Marc Almond can do them.

Cover versions have often served Almond well (or more likely vice-versa) from the as-good-as-Cher version of A Woman’s Story to his contemporary reworking of The Days of Pearly Spencer and million-seller, Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart. As Marc & the Mambas there’s his masterful take on Lou Reed’s Caroline Says, a full solo album of excellent Jacques Brel songs, John Barry’s James Bond anthem You Only Live Twice, the playful Bronski Beat disco duet of I Feel Love and of course the most famous cover (although less knew the Gloria Jones original) – Tainted Love. Almond injects his individual magic into these projects and the same is certainly true on Stardom Road as he gives the full Almond treatment to songs made famous by Charles Aznavour, Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, Frank Sinatra. Stand out tracks are the rousing Bedsitter Images (even the title seems bespoke), the swirling fantasia of the title track, the disco-lite of Kitsch and the only Almond penned original, Redeem Me (Beauty Will Redeem The World).

Guest vocalists include Antony (of “& The Johnsons”) Hegarty making one of his increasingly frequent guest appearances on the cocktail-ambient The Ballad of A Sad Young Man. There’s also Saint Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell bringing her trademark purr, somewhat less successfully, to I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten (which as a duet and the way it’s presented doesn’t compare to the Dusty Springfield original). Most of Stardom Road has an appealing grandiose lustre but there are a few disappointing tracks such as Dream Lover where the Twin Peaks-y treatment can’t disguise what is fundamentally a pretty ordinary song. Strangers In the Night is also lacking despite the interest of Almond endowing it with a gay subtext, it still just sounds like it belongs on oldies radio; however, conversely, James Last’s Happy Heart seems to work exactly because it’s so incredibly M.O.R.; go figure… All up though, Stardom Road is a majestic, dramatic and immaculate album that fits this diva and British national treasure like a (lame) glove. Welcome back Marc.

Wayne Davidson

Zulya and The Children of the Underground – 3 Nights

2007-06-24T18:57:00.001+10:00

A native of Tatarstan-Udmurtia region of Central Russia but living in Australia since the early 90’s singer, musician and song-writer Zulya Kamalova is something of an undiscovered treasure. 3 Nights is sung in Russian, Tatar and a little in English, making it unconventional from the get-go, but is music that is set to cross cultures through its beauty and warmth. Center stage is Zulya’s warm, pure voice that is powerful and vulnerable in equal measure.

Her music seems to sit somewhere between a Kurt Weill-ish euro-cabaret/jazz and lullabies constructed to tear your heart out. Accordions with waltz timing get frequent airings throughout the album but Zulya keeps the pace changing landing us into other, often even more surprising, territory such as the oompah of Clocks and the Russian reggae (Is there such a thing? There is now) of Princess.

There are many highlights on this record; prefaced by the brief music box of Nevalyashka is The Night Is Dark, a sort of chamber music lullaby that feels like it could grind the planet to a halt with sheer force of beauty. Hear how She Grows is a knock-out (one of the numerous written or co-written by Kamalova) with its fascinating hard-to-pin-down rhythm, vocal spirals and music somewhere between lounge and a folk dance. White Wind Tango makes me feel like wearing a beret and drinking absinthe and The Wolf and the Moon may make you want to dance on the nearest café table. There’s the (also Weill-ish) swirling carousel cabaret of Love Hunter (with castanets!) and the traditional but kooky We Twelve Girls propelled by mouth harp percussion. The previously mentioned Princess sounds like Marlene swanning around on uppers and includes the Morrissey-wishes-he-thought-of-it lyric “I have fallen in love with you for reasons I invented myself”.

This is a very personal sounding album but also feels at times like being present in nightclub and at others in a sort of crepuscular netherworld. The lullaby, The Night Is Long, seems a prefect way to end this excellent collection with Zulya’s warm sweeping vocals enticing us to slumber.

Wayne Davidson

Feist – The Reminder

2007-05-20T19:00:00.001+10:00

In Peaches’ recent RAGE hosting she selected (Leslie) Feist’s cover of the Bee Gee’s Inside & Out. I was unfamiliar with her work (I’ve since ascertained they worked, possibly lived together depending on who you believe) but loved the contemporary unfashionability of the cover and her no frills take on the song. The Reminder features this same air of unfashionable brilliance; filled with tales of love and longing and incorporating elements of folk, soul, gospel, lounge, easy-listening, ambience and country - an odd mix but one she not only makes work, but makes very much her own. Now, don’t believe the claim that she’s Norah Jones for the indie set; and this is much more than hotel lobby music, The Reminder is instead a mellow and richly textured, yet restrained, work where the spaces say as much as the music.

Her use of unconventional melodies that highlight her warm slightly off-kilter voice and the frequent stylistic shifts can be hard to get a handle on at first, but that’s just part of what makes this album so special. The single My Moon My Man easily positions itself as a contender for best pop single of the year with its sexy strutting rhythm, elegantly dissonant harmonies and a chorus that will stick in your head (but pleasantly - oh, and the video is superb). She twists easy-listening styles to her advantage across a number of songs such as Honey Honey (no, not the ABBA song) and the meditative The Water.

There’s the lively summery I Feel It All and the sparse country touch of The Park but the showstoppers lie mid-album with the 70’s soul of The Limit To Your Love followed by 1234’s playful country complete with trumpets and honky tonk piano. It’s not all great though, less successful is the opener I’m Sorry (partially due to the positioning) and the happy-clapping gospel of Sealion (a cover of Nina Simone’s See Line Woman) which sounds a little like (much as I love them) Moloko unsuccessfully trying to soundtrack a barn dance. But even still, The Reminder comes across as completely heartfelt in a way that other singers can only dream of – you will believe every word she sings. The final song, the theatrical ballad How My Heart Behaves ends the album on another high with its panoramic calm, dreamy vocals and yet another killer chorus. An album to fall in love with, and possibly to.

Wayne Davidson

Sir – The Brando Room

2007-04-29T19:03:00.001+10:00

Described as “a disposable pop record for people who don’t ever throw anything away” The Brando Room is a concept album and “a sleazy foray into the world of over 28’s nightclubs, polyester shirts and waking up alone”. Since releasing their last album (2003’s Trapped in a World of Make Believe) a lot has happened in the world of Sir, not the least being the devastating personal and professional break-up of the band. This event clearly engulfs this intimate release. Opener When You Pray drops you straight into Sir’s dark world with funeral Lowery organ and the half-spoken/half-sung vocals of Jesse Jackson Shepherd. Cards are on the table from the outset as Jackson pleads that “no one ever holds a grudge in heaven” and “when I see you there I hope we can be friends”. It’s desperate and raw and positively heart-breaking.

The beautiful Men Who Lie follows and is the parallel universe single in this collection with its gentle but driving rhythm and soft pop sound almost disguising the nihilistic lyrics (the other alt-top ten track is the shiny The Doll That Cries Real Tears with its Mazzy Star meets Leonard Cohen ambience). The vocals and musical contribution of (ex-band member and Shepherd’s ex-partner) Elizabeth Downey are missed but does appear free Shepherd to experiment more with collaborators. Shepherd provides vocals on all but one track (John Walsh performs the disconcerting closer I Know) and other collaborators include Seth Rees on guitar and Paddy Mann (Grand Salvo) and Cara L. Beltrame (both on backing vocals) adding to the general feeling of disquiet.

Sir has always specialized in a minimal down tempo haunted pop/folk that, at its roots, is certainly more creepy than catchy. On that front little has changed; the music is still cinematic & dreamy with a strong sense of unease. The familiar sounds are here, the church organs, the lonesome guitars and vintage dusty ambience although there seems to be the occasional ray of light shining on the casket with more melody wrapped up in the overwhelming sadness. Add to that the painfully raw emotion and some truly bizarre sleeve photos and the unnerving world of Sir continues for your uneasy listening.

Wayne Davidson

Frida Hyvőnen – Until Death Comes

2007-04-15T21:34:00.001+10:00

Frida Hyvőnen is an artist that I would have thought to have limited appeal, however I understand she’s a phenomenon in her native Sweden, so who knows? Although the stark and excellent cover art suggests a musical risk-taker, her minimal orchestration (piano and voice basically) and samey songs offer precious little to get excited about.

Until Death Comes starts off reasonably well with the jolly-sounding I Drive My Friend, and it’s here we’re introduced to the basic style that we are to become very familiar with over the course of the album. That is, Hyvőnen’s vocals, somewhere between Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos and Mary Hopkin and a plonking piano (or ‘vamped’ as they used to charmingly call it). For this track it’s turned into sunshine-in-a-song as it is for the follow up Djuna!, but the style is also applied to slower tracks such as the super-short Valerie and the darker Today, Tuesday; both of which are basically a minor key take on the Hyvőnen formula. Until Death Comes only seems to spring to life mid-way through with the one truly excellent song - Come Another Night, a bundle of Spectorish 60’s pop, drums (!) and brass flourishes (!!). It’s the moment when the potential of this artist is suddenly apparent. Unfortunately this is to be a musical oasis as we move onto the underwhelming N.Y., more of the same with The Modern and the album’s closer the sub Tori-ish Straight Thin Line which again fails to offer anything special.

Although a decent songwriter (and I believe a superb live performer) Hyvőnen’s restrictive and bland arrangements are working against her. Lyrics also are generally ordinary or have an air of teen angst about them, but when she does deliver a lyrical knockout (such as in Once I Was a Serene Child) her strengths are again brought into focus. Two albums on and we might be seeing something interesting here but at this stage the best that can be said about Until Death Comes is that it shows potential.

Wayne Davidson

Tracey Thorn - Out of the Woods

2007-04-09T21:32:00.001+10:00

It’s a quarter of a century since the last/first Tracey Thorn solo album A Distant Shore which came at the end of her time in The Marine Girls and the start of Everything But The Girl. So what to expect from Tracey Thorn in 2007? Well, there are few surprises here, but the question is - would you want there to be? Thorn’s taste and commitment to quality takes you by the hand for what might be best described as an adult-modern listening experience. And there’s that voice; the voice that could bring depth and resonance to a Steps song.

OOTW starts off with the sun-drenched sounds of the Margo Guryan-ish Here It Comes Again. Thorn sounds great, as she does on the 80‘s styled domestic drama A-Z. Then things get patchy. Her unmistakable vocals are occasionally lost in the mix or the song seems to simply make her phone it in (check the nice but unremarkable Pet Shop Boy-sy single It’s All True). Hands Up To The Ceiling is like the bed-sit music of the 18 year old Tracey but doesn’t sit at all comfortably here and Falling off the Log is almost Sade. More successful is the chic (or Chic?) Get Around To It with an 80’s funk-disco sound al la Talking Heads’ Remain in Light. By Piccadilly Station I Sat Down and Wept with it’s literary title nod to Elizabeth Smart seems to end before it starts, but is one of the few moments where she sounds truly present in the song, another is Easy where Thorn sounds great but the music’s aspirations to Massive Attack fall wide of the mark. Grand Canyon suggests Thorn feeling she has to offer something to please those who have come here looking for a song that sounds like Missing.

It’s sad that the material rarely lives up to the promise of the vocalist and that most of the songs don’t take flight or even seem to gel across the album. The Eurythmics-like Raise the Roof ends this strange set as one of the stronger moments. But as a collection from an established artist with a lengthy and often genius musical legacy this album is much too safe. However, I’d still listen to her sing her shopping list.

Wayne Davidson

Amy Winehouse – Back To Black

2007-03-04T21:30:00.001+11:00

If I wasn’t already in love with Amy Winehouse after hearing this excellent album, her performance at this year’s BRIT Awards (where she also picked up the British Female Solo Artist award) would have done it. Looking amazing in a red chica Latina frock (actually she changed outfits three times during the awards!), with fantastic sailor-style tattoos and bat-wing mascara, tottering around in her sling-backs and sounding sassy-as-all-hell belting out the song Rehab. Backed with a 50’s style band and Tarantino-cool backing-singers; all the while readjusting her messy bad-girl bouffant. What’s not to love?

Rehab is also the opening song from Back To Black as she slings it to her former management, “They tried to make me go to Rehab I said no, no no” in her incredible and soulful Etta James meets Ronnie Spector voice. It’s truly one of those all too rare stop-you-in-your-tracks musical moments. The sound of this record is gorgeous. The music reflects this earthiness and honesty with its modern take on the emotional drama of the girl group sound (it is even dedicated to the Shangri-las and “for anyone who falls in love every day”.). Back To Black is packed with smart lyrics that are revealing and honest. Winehouse has been a fixture in the UK tabloids with reports of sudden weight-loss, manic depression, drunken behaviour (some of it on British TV shows) and cuts and scars on her arms. Well known for her blunt talk Winehouse seems to be hiding nothing here.

You need more reasons to run out and by this? She’s Aretha on Just Friends, she’s a collision between The Ronettes and The Supremes on the soaring Back To Black, she’s been approached to sing the theme to the next Bond movie, she’s as cool as Debbie Harry and I love how she uses the word ‘fuckery’ to describe her dishonest boyfriend’s behaviour. And exactly how a 22 year old singer from Britain can end up sounding like a middle-aged black jazz/soul singer is anyone’s guess. But above everything this knockout album will make you listen.

Wayne Davidson

So Frenchy So Chic [2007]

2007-02-25T21:27:00.001+11:00

The third in the SFSC series this is nothing less than you might expect if you’ve been following it thus far. If not, let me catch you up. This is the ‘unofficial soundtrack to the 2007 French Film Festival’ and as it says on the CD “the love continues”.

Things get off to a strong start right from track one as we’re dropped into a fantasyland of acoustic guitars, electric pianos and the gentle euro-coo of Barbara Carlotti. Then it’s the country-fied whisper-swing of Austine, spooky cabaret styling of Emily Loizeaua and the Gainsbourg-esque Babx. Tere's more country in the form of Rose who merrily twangs her way through La Liste, Dum Dum are Betty- Blue-sexy, Dorval’s Celle Que Vous Croyez is super-fine sounding like France Gall on downers in a 1960’s nightclub but Madrid by Holden steals the disc with its mix of John Barry, Morricone and trip-hop (I know, it’s hardly new - but it’s good). Less exciting are Cryz with the twee Mélimélopée, and the MOR Léo (Pour Oublier Je Dors).

Disc Two also starts with the best, in this case, Émilie Simon, so wonderful on SFSC 2006 and she does it again with the gentle rock of Fleur de Saison. Hard to follow, but the slightly experimental Zimpala (Le Pays d'Alice) does well with their mix of squishy keyboards, carnival music and little-girl vocals and soon there's Diving With Andy’s sublime Andrew - violins and treacle smoth vocals, nice. Ah, here’s one we all know – Nouvelle Vague have a bash at the Bauhaus songbook with Bela Lugosi’s Dead and surprise us by keeping it heavily goth rather than a Sergio Mendes reinvention. I’m sure I must have waxed lyrical about the genius that is (Philippe) Katerine, but if you don’t believe me, one listen of Etres Humains should erase any doubt. And so to the flops… Ranchid Taha’s Ecoute Moi Camarade is going to be a challenge to those wanting anything approaching a regular tempo (and at nearly 7 mins it goes on a bit), Anis is too Piaf/Brel for my tastes and the less said about Ramon Luce and Aaron the better.

Much like the 2006 version, there’s one disc too many, but carefully programmed on your listening device, this should be a wonderful thing.

Wayne Davidson

Lee Hazlewood – Cake or Death

2007-02-18T21:23:00.001+11:00

Barton Lee Hazelwood’s 90’s renaissance brought this cult anti-star back from his self-imposed Scandinavian hermitage. Following re-releases of pivotal albums from his back catalogue and several new albums unfortunately this will be the last in that lengthy (20 plus) line as sadly Hazelwood has been diagnosed with terminal renal cancer. Although, never one to do anything by halves, Cake or Death is as philosophical, eccentric, entertaining and poignant as anything he's ever released.

There’s no mistaking his distinctive baritone voice along with the Hazelwood trademark Spaghetti Western mariachi trumpets, Bavarian oompah, soft blues and Duane Eddy guitars (literally, Eddy plays on the album). Hazelwood’s epic songs and messages as powerful as ever especially on Baghdad Knights (about the Iraq War) as he sings "Sometimes we fight, sometimes we run, it's just like playing football, with a gun". There’s guest vocalists aplenty including Ann-Kristin Hedmark (“Scandinavia’s number one jazz singer”), Bela B (from German punk band Die Ärzte) and Lula (um… no idea). The guests flesh out the Hazlewood trademark sound and (disapointingly) one guest, Tommy Parsons, takes lead vocal on She’s Gonna Break Some Hearts Tonight.

It’s also a shame that Nancy Sinatra doesn’t appear, however 2004’s Nancy & Lee 3 should adequately scratch that itch. Hazelwood basically invented Sinatra with the tough-gal anthem These Boots Are Made for Walking and excitingly he covers it here, reinvented as smoky blues. He also covers his superb Some Velvet Morning but with his eight-year-old granddaughter, Phaedra (really) in the Sinatra role. Don’t get too excited though, it’s a version only a proud Grandfather could love. For everyone else it’s the stuff that hidden bonus tracks are made of. Also missable is the cornball of Fred Freud, but as Hazelwood fans know, you need indulge his flights of fancy. But despite the odd misstep this is a stunner and you’d have to be made of wood not to be floored by T.O.M. (The Old Man) which ends the album and his music career. With quintessential Hazelwood poignancy the great Maverick intones "Have you seen the old man? He's ready to go."

Wayne Davidson

Late Night Tales Nouvelle Vague

2007-02-11T21:21:00.001+11:00

Following on from compilations by Air, Four Tet, Zero 7 and others, the Late Night Tales series has persuaded French New Wave samba-stylists Nouvelle Vague to offer a glimpse into their home stereo play list. And if you’re expecting an album of gentle Latin rhythms well you’re in for a surprise. NV’s entry in the LNT series is a mix of ambient, easy listening, indie and even a little spoken word.
We start with The Special AKA’s reggae-lite Girlfriend before NV’s own ‘exclusive cover version’ of Come On Eileen (not their strongest work, it must be said). The music of The Pale Fountains (Unless) and 80’s electro goths / short-lived Bahaus side-project Tones on Tail (Moment of Fear) both demand re-examination based on the strength of the tracks included here. There’s a great mix of vocal styles on offer from the ‘naïve’ stylists such as Nouvelle Vague singer Cammile Dalmais (here singing as Les Petroleuses) and Norwegian singer-songwriter Anja Garbarek; the epic vocals of Glen Campbell and Charlie Rich and the butter-smooth Peggy Lee and Julie London.

A cool breeze blows through the Music of Os Mutantes, Isabelle Antena and Brazilian bossa ingenue Cibelle, while Kim Deal & Tanya Donnelly under the guise of This Mortal Coil could make time stand still with the ravishing You & Your Sister. The Charlie Rich track San Francisco is a Lonely Town surprised me with it’s Walker Brothers majesty and although the mid-point Eno-esque ambience of Gavan Bryars’ The Vespertine Park does slow the collection down perhaps a little too much, I’m going to think of it an as intermission. Proceedings pick up again with the glambient David Sylvian before an unexpected segue into the avant-guard pop of the Art Bears’ Freedom and Peggy Lee’s You’re My Thrill. Also unmissable are the tracks from Avril and jazz diva Shirley Horn. This deeply moody collection is nothing if not eclectic and possibly a voyage of discovery for many listeners. If you’re looking for something that’s adventurous yet comforting, alien yet strangely familiar, this top notch collection will do you well. Stunning.

Wayne Davidson

Voila – Belinda Carlisle

2007-02-04T21:18:00.001+11:00

Now, this is comes as a surprise; erstwhile Go-Go’s lead singer, one minute splashing about in a fountain, later turned International pop diva now reinvented as French chanteuse. And voila! Voila is the result, an eleven track homage to some of the greatest French singers and songwriters of the past century.

It’s probably hard to go wrong with songs written by Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf, Françoise Hardy and by and large she doesn’t. Carlisle’s vocals are reminiscent of the great pop mademoiselles, the aforementioned Hardy & Piaf but also Brigitte Bardot, Sylvie Vartan and others. Naturellement, Volia is sung entirely in French and it shows that she took great pains to perfect her perfect pronunciation and delivery.

Voila, by design, demands a slightly adventurous listener; however there may be a little too much stylistic variety on this album for a fully satisfying listening experience end-to-end as Carlisle plunders everything from the emotional warble of Piaf to the go-go pop of Bardot. The high-drama of Brel’s Ne Me Quitte Pas (If You Go Away) is of course O.T.T. (and Carlisle gives it her all, and then some). It’s classy, but doesn’t add much in the re-telling – and do we really need another version? Personally I prefer it when she kicks off her shoes and has a little fun - like on the brilliant Bardot/Gainsbourg tracks. Bonnie & Clyde is gorgeous and innovative, and although the tick-tock pop of Contact is faithful to the point of reproduction, it’s also wonderfully retro-futuristic, yé -yé and magnificently weird. There’s La Vie En Rose, Edith Piaf by way of Grace Jones’ disco-fied version (= camp and catchy) and Voila waves us adieu with the breathy 1950’s sounding Merci Cherie and the fiery Jezebel.

Suffice to say, this is a radical departure from Carlisle’s back catalogue of FM-friendly pop and unlike her chart stormer Runaway Horses, I doubt you’ll be hearing her take on Avec Le Temps on the Safeway PA system anytime soon. Voila isn’t a complete success but it’s enjoyable with glimpses of brilliance. However, best of all is seeing an artist who has had mega-chart success releasing such a wild card. It won’t sell, Carlisle knows this, but she’s clearly doing exactly what she wants to do.

Wayne Davidson

Guillemots – Through the Windowpane

2006-12-03T21:16:00.001+11:00

First up – go to their website www.guillemots.com, you’ll thank me, I promise. OK, on with the review… Saddled with the kiss-of-death title of the “Next Big Thing” by the UK music press expectations are high for Guillemot’s Through Your Windowpane. Their sound is not unlike the ornate baroque excesses of The Smashing Pumpkins or The Arcade Fire but that just a starting point. They mess with time signatures, chord structures, orchestrations and ultimately with our expectations (wonderfully). Their range of orchestration includes flugelhorn, saw and “voice clicking”. The music of Guillemots promises to be an intriguing prospect and the result is a terrific and disorientating experience.

Trains To Brazil (an iTunes Single of the Week) is all Adam Ant warrior drums backed indie guitars and then the chorus erupts into Tom Jones trumpets and a Theremin. Annie, Let’s Not Wait is joyous alterna-pop where the ‘Mots weave in unexpected keyboard lines, an epic chorus melody leading to a girl group style choir chiming in with a rousing “Annie! Annie!”. The quirkily brilliant title track is a pop drama that almost seems to breathe - I’m reminded of The Associates; Fyfe Dangerfield’s vocal roller coasting, the background sound-effect mist and enveloping audio euphoria.

Apart from big chorus heart-stoppers, the ‘Mots slow it down on the elegant If The World Ends, the orchestral opener Little Bear and the uncharacteristically minimal Blue Would Still Be Blue. They handle these with great skill, but Blue Will Be Blue’s whiny vocal work is a lowlight for me. However, this is eclipsed with We’re Here which is a gorgeous piece of pop which might just take you up to the clouds, round the world and gently back to Earth.

It takes time to get a handle on this album but there’s undoubtedly something interesting happening in this clunky wonderland of avant pop. It’s big, it’s cluttered, it’s Pulp circa Separations (after way too much red cordial), it’s colourful, it’s eccentric, it’s quite possibly almost alive, but most of all, it soars.

Wayne Davidson

Home Video – No Certain Night or Morning

2006-11-26T21:14:00.001+11:00

I’ve come over all reflective and nostalgic and it’s all the fault of Home Video’s No Certain Night or Morning. Resting, perhaps reclining, somewhere between the 80’s shoe-gaze of the Pale Saints and the noughties bedsit tinkering of the Postal Service, Home Video have created a sound that’s meditative, atmospheric and strangely familiar – that’s a good thing by the way. After meeting in school, David Gross a classically trained pianist and Collin Ruffino a trip hop and spook-rock fan got together to create their home cooked indie brew. Like a warm coffee on a ghost train at dusk, or something… There’s lots of gentle electro, even when they rock out, and songs in minor keys with Mute generation plinky-plonk keyboards and drum machines with soft-eighties sounding vocals that stumble around the echo chamber.

Apart from the upbeat underwater rock of That You Might and the restrained powerhouse Confessions (of a Time Traveler) it’s mostly smooth sailing on the Motorik twilight with Home Video’s dreamy college radio anthems, gentle showroom dummy vocals and vintage keyboards. But this album is more than a very long slow dance at a Goth nightclub, HV tread an interesting line between familiarity and innovation, the former winning out slightly over the latter. It’s hard not to draw comparisons, both specific (Confessions (of a Time Traveler) is sooo Modern English) and general (every 80’s doomy-gloomy electro band on an indie label) – but this is not to criticize the work, merely to place it.

There’s the sequenced calm of We, New Order on Quaaludes with Superluminal and a possible kinship with the modern day retro-synth revivalists Solvent and Lowfish in their use of electronics. The production seems to curb any chance of their misty twilight being unleashed into a storm and this might be the key to what makes this record work so well – restraint, claustrophobia, confinement. If you’ve spent any time with 80’s independent electronic artists, figuratively speaking, then you’ve heard much of this style before, but in Home Video’s hands this new wave universe is nonetheless beautifully reborn, comfortable and immensely likeable. Home Video is on tour in December.

Wayne Davidson

TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain

2006-07-09T21:12:00.001+10:00

The first thing that hits you about TV On The Radio’s second album Return to Cookie Mountain is how incredibly dense it is. This is vast music that is not so much to be listened to as enveloped in. Right from the opener, I Was a Lover, you’re immersed in this unique artistic world of samples, beats, Tunde Adebimpe’ and Kyp Malone’s astonishing part-falsetto vocal styles, punk, soul, trip-hop, gospel, rock and their forest of grooves. I Was Your Lover is also sad, a lumbering rockslide of sadness echoed through guitars that sound like distant traffic and snatches of disembodied orchestra.

It’s a hard task finding comparisons for music as wild as this, but think of the Beach Boys on drugs in a spook house with expansive cinemascopic production; or something. Their fractured geography of sound could have been a calamitous mess but is given focus and cohesion by the production that reined in their myriad of styles. A Method and Tonight have a creepily abstracted doo-wop sound, Let the Devil In sounds like a trippy tribal chant, Blues From Down Here is demented swing and Dirtywhirl starts out like easy jazz and ends up a textured hurricane funfair of eroticism. Guests include label mate Katrina Ford (from Celebration) on the wildly addictive Wolf Like Me and their most famous celebrity fan, David Bowie, who adds vocals to the extraordinary Province. It’s easy to see why Bowie might champion the band as the track sounds like a contemporary take of the music he was making a few decades ago.

TV on the Radio produce a sound that’s experimental, innovative, yet powerful and loaded with tunes. Initial spins may be off-putting to some due to the dense avant-garde music maze that seems to cross-fade between different types of music; then add to that the mutli-layered passionate vocals and it’s a delirious brew. But Return to Cookie Mountain also has the stuff to stop you in your tracks; think My Bloody Valentine with Loveless or Massive Attack with Blue Lines. Darkly kaleidoscopic, completely unique, impossibly strange and yet an oddly comforting experience – 2006 could well be their year.

Wayne Davidson

Herb Alpert: Whipped Cream and Other Delights – Rewhipped

2006-07-02T21:08:00.001+10:00

Although his Tijuana style pop sold the sort of units enjoyed by Gnarls Barkly today, probably the most memorable aspect of Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights was the part-sexy, part-icky sleeve art with a model (Delores Erickson) sitting in a pile of whipped cream. This cover has gone on to become some sort of design classic, but I doubt we’ll see anyone recreating it; unless Dannii’s new single tanks.

Re-Whipped takes the 1965 original album (which incidentally spent 8 weeks at #1 in 1965) and promises “tasty new remixes” from the likes of Thievery Corporation, Ozomatti, Dust Brothers and others who know their was around a post modern lounge experience. All twelve tracks from the original album get a full makeover; with the claim it’s the first time a complete album has been remixed in this way. I’m not sure about that, but they’ve even remixed the cover, with the whipped cream outfit trimmed down to a bikini (and Guess model Bree Condon).

The 60’s mega-hits Whipped Cream (Ozomati remix) and A Taste of Honey (Dust Brothers remix) get a contemporary workout that should please purists while making the songs bookstore-friendly for today’s easy-listeners. Other highlights include Medeski Martin & Wood’s El Garbanzo, Thievery Corporation’s dreamy reworking of Lemon Tree and Ozomati’s Love Potion #9 which gets twisted into something barely recognizable and even has vocals where there were none originally. The visionary contributors bring a lot to the project, but Alpert was also involved with recording new trumpet parts for some of the tracks, proving the master still has it.

There’s been a few 60’s hit makers thrust back into the CD shelves of late with a little help or hindrance, from modern artists. But whereas fellow A&M artist Sergio Mendes got sidelined by Will.I.Am’s ego on Timeless, Re-whipped gets the balance right with mixers who not only understand the music, but are intent on making Alpert the focus. Re-Whipped retains Alpert’s trademark mariachi sound but smoothes it out to a seductive and groove with new perspective and freshness making this a huge success. In 1965 this was the music the hipsters were listening to, in 2006, it still is.

Wayne Davidson

The Dixie Chicks – Taking The Long Way

2006-06-18T21:04:00.001+10:00

The last few years have been, to say the least, rocky for The Dixie Chicks finding them the pariahs of the many in the Country music community. This came about after Chick Natalie Maines pissed off Bush supporters in 2003 with a throwaway comment on the eve of the Iraq War about being ashamed the US President comes from Texas. The reaction to the comment was overblown and ludicrous with the band subject to death threats, public criticism from other country artists (most famously and shamefully by Toby Keith who even performed before a backdrop depicting Maines with Saddam Hussein), being removed from radio playlists and that old favourite, CD burnings (akin to The Beatles after that little comment in the 60’s about being more popular than Jesus).

The Dixie Chicks are now tackling the issue head-on with their latest album Taking The Long Way. The shadow of “The Incident”, as the band calls it, hangs heavily over the album; there’s a general sense of melancholy and some specific lyrical references on tracks such as the orchestral Not Ready To Make Nice.

Musically, the album is polished, if rather bland with stand outs such as the tender Silent House (co-written by Neil Finn and somehow not destroyed by the addition of banjo), Easy Silence and the gentle gospel closer I Hope. For the first time, all tracks are written by The Dixie Chicks and there are also co-contributions from Sheryl Crow, Linda Perry and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chilli Peppers). Given their recent history The Dixie Chicks seem a far more interesting prospect on the surface to those (myself included) who’d never found them especially fascinating in the past. Their Bush-wacking alienated a large part of their core audience, which is obviously not business savvy but suggests the move was heartfelt with perhaps an unconscious desire to rid themselves of the more conservative portion of their fanbase. However, despite their anger and the strong personal flavour of this album it doesn’t live up to the promise of this emancipation. Taking the Long Road might be therapy for the Dixies but is generally dull for the listener and ironically, quite a conservative sounding album.

Wayne Davidson

Ronnie Spector - The Last of the Rock Stars

2006-06-05T17:50:00.001+10:00

The name Ronnie Spector comes with a wonderful legacy of the much-loved and distinctive 60’s tough-chick pop of the Ronettes. Unfortunately it also comes tainted by the dark shadow of her years with her then husband/producer Phil Spector and his insane jealousy and control over her life. Back in 2006 as survivor not victim, Ronnie’s free of that control, but the ghosts live on in clear view on her latest album The Last of the Rock Stars.

Ronnie Spector’s only contemporary is herself, she sounds like no one else, unfortunately though, some of this album seems content to place her right back in satin dresses and B-52’s hair-dos. Never Gonna Be Your Baby is the Ronettes rock-style and Ode to L.A. is almost a literal reworking of Be My Baby right down to the rhythm pattern and the signature wuh-oh-ohs. These are not bad songs but placing Spector uncomfortably against her past simply serves to remind of how good the 60’s songs were.

Thankfully the sound-alikes end there and Spector branches into other styles of music such as the country rock of Johnny Thunders’ You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory (which seems personally poignant) and even jazz with the closer Out in the Cold Again. Spector’s stable of music heavyweights also includes the late Joey Ramone, Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Keith Richards and Patti Smith making a cameo appearance on the haunting country track There is an End. Girl From The Ghetto (which she was, Ms Lopez…) stands out as a kiss-off to her former husband who is currently standing trial for murder. Ronnie sings “I hope your hell is filled with magazines and every page has a picture of me” and dryly changes the lyric from ‘hell’ to ‘cell’ in the final verse.

The Last of the Rock Stars is unsensational and does show a lack of musical direction, but nevertheless,it's great to have Spector back and sounding as passionate and amazing as ever.

Wayne Davidson

Sergio Mendes - Timeless

2006-06-04T21:00:00.001+10:00

For the benefit of those who’ve never thumbed through vinyl records at an Op/Thrift shop, Sergio Mendes (with Brasil ’66) was a 60’s exotica super-maestro who melded pop with the sounds of Brazil creating something now categorized under the term “Lounge”. Mendes has been missing in action for some time now, but he’s back, sans Brasil ’66 and under the influence of Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas. Timeless is the result, an attempt to update Mendes for the noughties (and a Santana-ish return to the charts probably wouldn’t hurt…). Included is a bevy of famous cameos such as Justin Timberlake, John Legend and India.Aire (and how many albums can boast Stevie Wonder on harmonica?).

The over punctuated Will.I.Am pulls out all the stops placing an often incompatible mix of rap and B.E.P. audio trickery in the mix. The result is sort of Hip Hop Eye for the 60’s Guy but seems to end up forgetting just whose album this is meant to be. The first single, That Heat, demonstrates all that’s right, and wrong, with this record. The orchestration shimmers with Mendes’ warm piano and the silk-smooth vocals of Erykah Badu, there’s even a clever sample from Mendes’ 60’s track Slow Hot Wind. But then Will.I.Am’s painful cartoon rap and unnecessary inducements to ‘par-tay’ stomp in like a verbal Godzilla destroying everything in the vicinity.

And it doesn’t end there; he successfully destroys about half of the tracks due to formulaic and misplaced rapping. The album only works when the songs are simple; just the way Mendes’ records always were. Please Baby Don’t with vocals by John Legend, Berimbau/Consolacao with vocals by (Mendes’ wife) Gracinha Leporace are great examples of how good this record should have been. India.Aire also appears on one of the better tracks (Timeless) and there are some suave instrumentals towards the end. A few Mendes covers are attempted, but don’t work. Mais Que Nada is one, but pointlessly pales to the original version and Jill Scott’s tender Billie Holiday-esque vocal feature on the cover of Let Me is mighty fine but unfortunately another casualty due to pairing with more of Will.I.Am’s MC clutter. Sir, move away from the mike. This album might adequately satisfy Black Eyed Peas devotees but sadly both Mendes and his fans have been duped.

Wayne Da.Vid.Son

k.d. lang - Reintarnation

2006-05-28T20:55:00.001+10:00

This CD, loving compiled by the artist herself, collects the best of her Country history in one very fine package. This is pre-Ingénue k.d., pre-Out k.d. and back to the days of brush cuts, campy country swing, geek glasses and, er, skirts.

lang’s criteria for inclusion on Reintarnation were the songs that were strong live numbers and those that lead to the conception of her monumental 1989 album Absolute Torch & Twang. The latter album is well represented with 7 of its 12 tracks included, but this compilation also draws on material from Shadowland (1988), Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (1993), A Truly Western Experience (1984) and Angel with a Lariat (1987).

The lang faithful will likely possess most of the material on this CD, but extra treats exist in the form of a rare early single, Friday Dance Promenade, and the unreleased demo Changed My Mind. However, even if you have all her records this faithfully remixed (but not changed) and sonically tidied compilation will remain a very desirable, and great sounding, item.

The revealing liner notes talk of her early influences such as Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones and, somewhat unexpectedly, Kate Bush; as well as the country/punk crossover of The Roches and Jonathan Richman, mixed with country artists from the past. Even the cover art playfully hints at this with its Elvis-by-way-of-The-Clash design. But by far, her greatest hero remains Patsy Cline whose ghost seems to hover over every track.

In this context it's easy to see how lang’s style developed from her early indie/country pastiche to the crooner we know today. Angel with a Lariat, Big Boned Gal and Don’t Be a Lemming Polka have all the right elements to break you out in an impromptu kitchen hoedown, but when Pullin’ Back The Reins and Trail of Broken Hearts kick in it’s clear this is the musical turning point to the magnificent body of work which was to come.

Wayne Davidson

Various - Hamper: A Candle Records Compilation

2006-05-06T17:13:00.001+10:00

Hamper is the 100th release on the Melbourne-based Candle Records label; in itself, quite an achievement for an indie label and alone deserves recognition. Featuring 20 new songs from 10 Candle bands Hamper follows on from the likewise humble and minimally titled compilations Banter, Clippings and Feast. Based on what appears on Hamper it seems fair to say that the overall sound of the Candle label is a little bit folk, a little bit pop, marginally twee and celebrates a certain kind of bed-sit student indie-pop that’s been resident since the 80’s and seems to never really go away.

If that’s your bag, you’ll be all over this record but I can’t help feeling that many of the artists appear somewhat trapped by the indie/cutie aesthetic and are making music that not only seems deliberately designed as flawed and homespun and also, ironically, quite MOR despite the indie cred. Most of what’s on here has been done before and it’s hard to find anything with much wow factor. Influences can also be too obvious – The Lucksmiths’ Anyone’s Guess sounds much too much like the Go-Betweens and despite its charms Athony Atkinson’s Residential Change sounds sub-Morrissey. Both are flattering comparisons of course, but unless you’re Bjorn Again sounding too much like another artist’s work is usually the wrong answer. The Guild League are way too folky for me and artists such as Darren Hanlon, and the allegedy humourous Rob Clarkson aim low and don’t achieve a real lot.

When things work well, it’s a different story. Jodi Phillis (ex-The Clouds) shows what’s always made her work so special with her complex meodies and fresh sound and Ruck Rover have some good pop hooks that remind of (rather than imitate) bands I haven’t thought about for 15 years (The Corn Dollies, The Haywains etc…). Tim Oxley’s bucolic tale In The Country is borderline effective/irritating with a great tune but also featuring animal impersonations and there’s also something (good) to be said for The Small Knives dreamy Misery Loves Company.

Although Hamper scores low on innovation there’s obvioulsy a market for this and the people that purchased the other 99 releases may well find it irrestiably charming.

Wayne Davidson

Hugh Cornwell – Beyond Elysian Fields

2006-04-05T18:08:00.001+10:00

The Stranglers punctuated the pop landscape with some interesting music, most well-known of course is the waltz-tempo chamber pop of Golden Brown. If you were born after the day all the 80’s fingerless gloves were dumped in charity bins you might know it as the song with the harpsichords that Guy Ritchie used in Snatch.

For me The Stranglers seemed at best a rather hit and miss prospect, preferring their occasional lounge moments (European Female, Strange Little Girl) and other people’s covers of their songs to the music they were releasing (Hazel O’Connor did a superb version of Hangin’ Around). Anyway, a potential episode of Bands Reunited notwithstanding that’s more or less long behind ex-lead singer Hugh Cornwell who left the band over 15 years ago.

Beyond Elysian Fields is the latest in a number of Hugh Cornwell solo albums and it must be said is pretty underwhelming. It’s not that it’s a bad album, although some of it simply grates, especially lyrically, it’s just that it’s all very familiar, too familiar and strangely more like other people’s music than Cornwell’s. The opener Land of a Thousand Kisses is Hugh in Dave Graney mode with pop guitars and chainsaw bass moments for emphasis. This is followed by Cadiz which sounds like a song Robbie Williams forgot to record (and don’t we wish he’d forget to record so many more). Likewise Do Right Bayou is like a Lou Reed impersonation and 24/7, a tribute to Bob Dylan (“24/7 it’s got to be the greatest job…just being Bob”, oh my…) again comes with a vague impersonation to further illustrate the theme. The Story of Harry Power will even try the patience of his biggest fans as Cornwell relates the story of Ned Kelly (for some reason) with an embarrassing wannabe Lee Hazlewood shtick.

There’s a whole heap more nothing in the form of Mr. Big, Picked Up By the Wind and I Don’t Mind before the 6 minute opus Henry Moore sees us out. The addition of a toy piano and a brighter than usual chorus adds some interest, but really, by this stage who’s going to be listening that all that closely.

Wayne Davidson

Lindsay Lohan – A Little More Personal (RAW)

2006-03-29T17:52:00.001+11:00

Run while there’s still time, it’s another actor who thinks we just don’t get enough of her talent in films and feels the need to multi-task by dabbling into the world of music. In case you don’t watch E!, Lindsay Lohan has a lot of emotional baggage mostly aimed at her absentee father, a central message which hangs over this manufactured car crash of an album like a dark cloud. The message is hammered in with the opener Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father) and in this context even the lyrics to her shocking cover version of Cheap Trick’s (already shocking) I Want You To Want Me becomes yet another personalised message to Dad.

Lin-Lo’s soul-searching rapidly moves past self-confessional to self-indulgence which is a shame, done properly this could have been an aspect of this album that might have made it work. However, A Little More Personal (RAW) ends up a bit like her diary, first edited by her agent and then set to a commercially calculated dirge of bland Avril mall-punk.

This is a record with a litany of problems; fundamentally, the material is dull, not just dull sounding but simply lacking any imagination or spark. In addition, Lohan’s voice is not strong and consequently so overproduced that ‘auto tune’ should get a credit on the record. As the album progresses it becomes clear that every song is pitched at the same monotonous musical level. Devoid of hooks or even semi-decent tunes, managing to listen through the whole album should come with a merit badge. Those who do will get a small reward towards the end in the form of Who Loves You, the only track to try and clear the album’s ghosts of routine 80’s rock for something resembling a pop song and even sporting a real live melody. But it’s too little, too late.

To be charitable, recognition is probably in order for at least having some form of artistic vision, albeit a dull one, but all said this assembly line album is a lifeless experience.

Wayne Davidson

Various - So Frenchy So Chic

2006-03-22T18:50:00.001+11:00

About this time last year we were treated to the first So Frenchy So Chic. Well, the “unofficial soundtrack to The French Film Festival” is back, this time as a double disc to again tempt you with all things Francais. Perhaps not quite as diverse sounding a collection as its predecessor SFSC still covers a huge range of styles that include jazz, lounge, hip hop, world, chanson and lullaby.

Françoiz Breut starts off Disc One with La Certitude that expertly melds rock, indie and chamber pop into an attractively spooky package. Beaucoup Plus Que Moi by Cvantez speaks an Astrud Gilberto kind of language and there’s Camille’s Ta Douleur which mixes soft 60’s pop and electronics. Jerome Attai’s track is all it needs to be with little more than piano and spoken word, Albin De La Simone and Têtes Raides are both jolly in a not too annoying way, although the same can’t be said for Les Voisines by Renan Luce. Good taste suggests I ignore Spleen’s Bitches on the Ground, although it is quite nice sounding and Les Hommes Peuvent Etre by Autour De Lucie is beautiful in a way that’s difficult to put into words.

Disc Two starts off with some jazz in the form of Sanseverino, there’s also Coralie Clement who sounds uncannily like Japan’s Kahimi Karie and Keren Ann (also on SFSC1) returns with the stunning Que N’ai-Je? on loan from her lovely album Nolita. Rubin Steiner’s Que Bonita Es la Vida is (er, Spanish? but) quietly addictive, however less successful are Saïan Supa Crew’s rap La Patte, and the cabaret stylings of Babylon Circus which could easily send me running from the room. Hugo’s Fouille Toi uncomfortably manages to be both incredibly MOR and somehow quite interesting and the collection draws to a close with the Bjork-level madness of Ice Girl by Emilie Simon which is either audacious genius or sheer lunacy.

This is another good and rarely less than interesting collection but I can’t help thinking a single disc trimmed of le ballast would have been even better. For a visual treat make sure you catch the companion TV show which is replaying on SBS from this week.

Wayne Davidson

Charlotte Church - Tissues & Issues

2006-03-15T18:03:00.001+11:00

The first words sung on Tissues and Issues are “I like the sound of your belt dropping”. Seems Charlotte Church isn’t mamas’ little girl no more, and she doesn’t seem to care who knows it - she’s dumping the hymns of nanna’s favourite angel for a highway to Hell! WelI, sort of…

Tissues & Issues gets off to a strong start with the funky and slightly S&M I Love It When You Call My Name. Apart from the above lyrics she cranks up the raunch-o-meter a few more stops with “I like the sound of your shirt ripping” and, prepare yourself, “I like the sound of your hand slapping, your whip cracking, this could be painful”. You might need a Bex and a lie down, but Church won’t let you. She keeps the hits coming; Crazy Chick stands out with a great 60’s-by-the-Spice Girls pop sound, Moodswings (To Come at Me Like That) is all US West Coast pop, Show A Little Faith takes a softer soul groove with incredible backing vocals and four times the tunes that should be allowed in a pop song, Let‘s Be Alone is Euro-tastic with it’s synthesizer sound effects and a weird vocal treatment, Fool No More is torch-y in a Sam Brown way and Casualty of Love starts off terribly but improves as it goes all Variety Italian Style part-way through.

I could do without the syrupy ballads like Finding My Own Way, Even God and, Easy Way Out which are all pretty, if ordinary. By far the strangest item is the sweet Confessional Song that ends the album with some personal revelations about Church from her smoking to her emotional needs. It's a strange but interesting addition.

Tissues & Issues marks a huge turning point in Church’s career. It’s a brave move to step away from her lucrative childhood career and legion of fans that would no doubt rather keep her as an eternal 12 year old in high buttoned shirts; but Church knows it’s time to move on, what’s more, she seems to know exactly where she wants to go.

Wayne Davidson

Girls Aloud – Chemistry

2006-03-08T18:08:00.001+11:00

Relatively unknown in Australia, Girls Aloud (basically the British version of Bardot) have endured years of critical slagging in the UK that seems to be usually dumped on reality show pop bands. So it must be a sweet victory indeed that Chemistry is not only their third album but that it’s a romping success to boot. Girls Aloud (which I’ve only just realised is a pun…) have also recently become the only other girl group to match the Spice Girls record of ten consecutive top 10 singles in the UK. Which again begs the question – why haven’t they also been huge in Australia?

Biology is the first Australian single off the album, it’s a strange mix of swanky seventies pop that bursts into a high energy chorus; a bit like three different songs super glued together, and it’s only the start of the fun stuff. These pop-tarts know a good tune when they hear it and Xenomania deliver hooks that just won’t quit. The musical Bullet Train that is Wild Horses (“…couldn’t take me back to you”) begins like a school glee club that merges into a fantastic blend of rock and dance and The Show couldn’t fail to impress with its sassy rapid-fire lyrics (“sitting ‘round the kitchen in my underwear”) and its techno shimmy.

There’s the bouncy and strangely familiar sounding Watch Me Go, Long Hot Summer, and the Sarah Cracknell-ish ballad See The Day (a D Cee Lee cover). Swinging London Town is brilliantly executed with the techno pace dropping away mid-song into pop ambience and It’s Magic, is just that. The track listing differs slightly to the UK release and the Australian version of the album ends with a reassuringly warm cover of The Pretenders I’ll Stand by You.

There’s the odd misstep – the All-Saints-y Whole Lotta History is just dull in a way some people seem to like (but it still was a top ten single in Britain) and Models wouldn’t have made a Sonia album, but apart from that it’s 14 carat shiny pop stuff all the way. Go on, dump your cred, hit the dance floor and enjoy, Chemistry is a sensation.

Wayne Davidson

Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat

2006-02-14T18:45:00.001+11:00

Jenny Lewis from the Los Angeles quartet Rilo Kiley has stepped out on her own with a collection of country-folk enchantment that is sure to win her a legion of fans. Accompanying her on this journey are the enigmatic Watson Twins (Chandra & Leigh) who embellish Lewis’s clear-as-crystal vocals with their gorgeous harmonies that are best described as ‘other-worldly’. Lewis also draws on a stable of indie stars from Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Maroon 5’s James Valentine.

Rabbit Fur Coat sports a magnificent sleeve photograph that serves as a perfect visual insight to the classy affair within. Modelled on ‘white soul classics’, in particular the stunning Laura Nyro/Labelle collaboration Gonna Take A Miracle (1972) this lofty goal is skilfully achieved with tracks such as the luminous Rise Up With Fists!!, The Changing Sky and Melt Your Heart.

The pace is smooth, the songs sound spectacular, dare I say magical, and the album is only briefly brought down by the somewhat stilted title track mid-way through. Much has been made of the cover of The Travelling Wilbury’s Handle With Care, but this for me this is one of the weak points on the album. Although a good choice of song the unnecessary introduction of male vocalists somehow taints the otherwise pure female vision of this album. The disappointment is short-lived though as more aces reside in Lewis’s scalloped sleeve with the majestic Born Secular that again takes this record into orbit.

Sporting all the requisite country musical touches - steel and acoustic guitars, wire drums and electric piano, Lewis’s collection of country/folk/gospel songs make this an effortlessly enjoyable record, although a small leaning to country music is probably necessary. Whether the charms of Rabbit Fur Coat will last over time or if this is just a giddy summer fling only time will tell, but my inner Criswell thinks this one has legs. Either way ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your first favourite album of 2006.

Wayne Davidson

Celebration - Celebration

2006-01-11T18:40:00.001+11:00

It’s difficult to know where to place Celebration, 4AD’s latest signing, with their frantic and bewildering jagged art-rock. Although given their label it seems strangely appropriate that their sound, as indefinable as it is, is like a compendium of many of the 4AD roster that’s gone before. There are chunks of Throwing Muses, The Pixies, His Name Is Alive, The Wolfgang Press, and even the primitivism of Dead Can Dance all seemingly meshed together and spat out in a sort of cacophonous and visceral blast. But I’m getting ahead of myself – the back-story...

Baltimorean couple Katrina Ford (vocals & percussion) and her husband Sean Antanaitis (plays everything it seems except the drums) previously existed as the outfits Jaks, Lovelife and Birdland. Teaming up with David Bergander (drums) it appears they’ve now hit on the formula to best showcase their energetic and frantic style. Celebration is a stark and somewhat tuneless affair and their abrasive and often unattractive sound features a cornucopia of instruments, most prominently spooky matinee organs and muscular driving drums. Apart from the 4AD roster they are also reminiscent of the German punk rockers Malaria, Pulp (circa Separations, especially on the track War) and the relentless energy of the entire recorded output of The Dog Faced Hermans.

Katrina Ford’s untamed and genderless sounding vocals have been compared to everyone from Siouxsie Sioux (although Sioux is more baritone) and Nina Hagen (Hagen tends to sound even more creepy than Ford’s borderline insanity), however for me it’s Lora Logic from the Essential Logic days that she sounds the most like (especially on the very E.L.-like track China). Ford seems to have range, although mostly she just employs shouting and warbling as she whips herself in a vocal Tarantella-like frenzy that although impressive does grow tiresome over the course of the album. Also, her voice is the deal-breaker, if you don’t care for her you won’t want to stay the distance.

Celebration (the album) is quite euphoric in its way and the band seems to be losing themselves in the energy of the music, which may be the ultimate goal. I found a whole album far too much but if you like their style you might well be swept away.

Wayne Davidson

Sebastien Tellier – Politics

2005-12-07T10:21:00.001+11:00

If you heard the 2005 compilation So Frenchy So Chic you’d be familiar with Sebastien Tellier’s best known composition La Ritournelle. It’s a brooding love song that was described by the New Musical Express as “Basically Unfinished Sympathy Part II”. It features on Politics and although the NME’s comparison to Massive Attack might be a tad generous it is a great track. It also sets the musical bar high. But does Politics live up to the promise? Sadly, no.

Tellier serves up an often uncomfortable mix of pop, cabaret and stage musical laced with a 1960’s glee club sensibility that mostly works, however the biggest problems are a number of indigestible tracks towards the end of the record that manage to sabotage everything good about this album - a mini-album might have been a better idea.

Things start off well and perplexingly enough with Bye-Bye which introduces us to Tellier’s vaguely Bob Downe-ish vocals, his fine female choirs and strange sing-song style before launching into the breezy 60’s theatrical pop of League Chicanos. There’s the minor key delights of Broadway – the ideal prelude to La Ritournelle smooth strings, piano and gentle locomotive rhythm.

Standing out like Fido’s proverbial testicles this majesty is followed by Benny, featuring the first of Tellier’s misguided comedic cabaret vocals and despite the nice Free-Design-ish chorus sounds like a song from a high school musical performance. Slow Lynch follows - a gentle orchestral piece that would have been a better coda to La Ritournelle and then the lounge styling of Mauer (also only lead female vocal on the album). The album rounds out with an electronic instrumental, and the dreadful Ketchup vs. Genocide which sounds like a demo by a Bauhaus tribute band.

The worst is yet to come though with album’s closer Zombi – which attempts to meld thrash and bad 80’s rock. All in all it’s not just that Politics seems to suffer from a sort of musical bi-polar disorder that makes it so hard to take as a whole; it’s also that Tellier shows he’s capable of transcendental art, but wastes his time and ours on a lot of B-grade filler.

Wayne Davidson

Acid House Kings - Sing Along With...

2005-10-31T10:39:00.001+11:00

Ah, Sweden - the gift that keeps giving. As if it wasn’t enough to bestow the world with The Cardigans, flat-pack furniture, the adjustable wrench and the fabbest four of them all (do I really need to name them? Shame on you), the list of delights continues with the sweet musical charm that is Acid House Kings.

With their family-portrait-meets-knitting-pattern album sleeve and strangely inappropriate name (that conjures up images of a dance act) Acid House Kings are in fact melodic summery guitar-pop confection. Their music is nothing groundbreaking and frankly, you’ve heard it all before. There’s nothing remotely challenging or fussy about their 12 songs in 36 mins pop style, but somewhere in their simplicity and familiarity lies the absolute genius of their music.

Sharing a musical kinship with indie labels such as Sarah and Parasol and pop acts such as Belle & Sebastian, Saint Etienne or Birdie, it comes as little surprise to find they feature members of the Euro pop groups Red Sleeping Beauty and Club 8. Sing Along With Acid House Kings is most successful when they showcase the honeyed vocals of Julia Lannerheim but the milquetoast vocals of Niklas Angergård also have an anaemic charm that grows on you. Stand out tracks are 7 Days which will surely tempt the use the CD track repeat button, My Heart Is a Stone with a swinging rhythm and unexpected stuttering pauses and Tomorrow is Forever - disco-lite featuring Niklas and Julia’s call-and-response vocals and yet another knock-out chorus.

This is note-perfect indie-bubblegum that defies you not to love it by the third spin. Initial quantities of the album come with a bonus DVD of exclusive videos made by the band (mostly in their living rooms it seems, would you expect anything else?) and karaoke versions of all the songs. Uncomplicated, clean-cut, utterly unpretentious and entirely lovable, Acid House Kings are set to soundtrack Summer trips to the beach, afternoons dozing in the garden or at the very least to calm your nerves and sing a long to while putting together that Leksvik coffee table or Billy bookshelf.

Wayne Davidson

Oliver Mann - Oliver Mann Sings

2005-10-26T18:34:00.001+10:00

Sounding like it could have landed from outer space (or an artist’s studio in Düsseldorf) Oliver Mann Sings is so different, so very much of its own universe it’s astonishing and wonderful, to discover this came out of Australia, better still, Melbourne. Oliver Mann Sings is a cinematic midsummer night’s dream-scape that gently melds folk, opera and a little pantomime. Sounds clumsy, possibly terrible, but on the whole it works on its own rather eccentric terms.

The title is also surely no accident; Mann possesses a rich and arresting voice that I can only imagine is shown to half its potential in these recordings (it must be amazing live). Vocally the comparisons to Antony and The Johnsons will be inevitable but Mann’s variant singing styles also remind of Paul Robeson and the ghost of the beloved German pop/opera diva Klaus Nomi. To pull together this cornucopia of styles there are waltz-tempo numbers that sound like sea shanties (Herringbone Blues), minstrel style tracks such as the seven and a half minute opus Shoe of Leather, and even a vaguely poppy number A Burning Fire. I adore the minimalist opener, A Book, which sounds like a Gregorian chant and segues so beautifully into the ravishing Oberon.

Less successful however is the spoken word & sound affect track Singing Box that sounds a little strange-for-the-sake-of-it. Another low point is (the unfortunately titled) Ms. Yooo (and not just because it’s a bad pun). Both detract somewhat from the overall mood and style of the album. The album also seems to end rather suddenly.

As you can probably tell this is a love it or hate I prospect. You’ll either be deliriously enraptured by Mann’s wunderkammer of peculiarities or you’ll be rushing for something with a pop tune and reliable rhythm. This isn’t quite my cup of Darjeeling; I like what he’s doing, but feel there’s something missing. Perhaps if Mann was to focus less on the weirder melodramas and more on the magnificent beauty of his songs this would be an all-round more satisfying release. But having said that, it’s also likely this could be the start of a very impressive body of work to come.

Wayne Davidson

Saint Etienne – Tales From Turnpike House

2005-08-17T18:25:00.001+10:00

Over their fifteen year career, and having amassed a back catalogue that’s like the Eurovision we should have (rather than the one we get), Saint Etienne are again proving how exceptional they are. At risk of putting you off in the first paragraph, Tales from Turnpike House is a ‘concept’ album which over twelve songs describes the daily lives of the residents of a fictitious housing estate. Sounds naff? It’s not, and you’ll probably want to move in by the end of the record.

A career defining album of sorts that also seems to be ushering in summer a few months early TFTH can’t help but impress with its classy ballads and breezy disco. And once again, they make it all sound so incredibly effortless. It’s all here – harmonies, harpsichords and house-beats mix with nylon-stringed guitars, Bacharach–worthy melodies and that tasteful Saint Etienne infectiousness that just grabs you tighter with each listen.

The album opens with the 60’s Free Design-ish pop of Sun In The Morning (there’s even woodwinds!) and the day closes with the a capella lullaby Goodnight. Track 2, Milk Bottle Symphony, introduces us to some of the residents that turn up in the later songs. There’s A Good Thing and Stars Above Us, which will have to be singles at some stage, surely, but also sound a lot like they may have fallen off Sarah Cracknell’s solo pop masterpiece Lipslide. Relocate also stands out due to the addition of 1970’s pop sensation David Essex and his call and response vocals with Sarah Cracknell about the pros and cons of moving to the country. But these are only random selections; this is an album full of highlights.

Track 10, the instrumental The Birdman of EC1 appears to commence the “twilight” of the album, moving us gently into Teenage Winter which magnificently balances a Pulp-ish spoken word verse against an unbelievably dreamy chorus. Ending with Goodnight, Tales From Turnpike House tempts the listener to recommence the daily cycle at track one; a choice many will find hard to resist.

Wayne Davidson

Holiday in Dirt – Stan Ridgway DVD

2005-07-20T18:22:00.001+10:00

Ex-Wall of Voodoo driving force Stan Ridgway is a raconteur, film fan and all round crazy guy whose low-rent tales are comprised of country, folk, exotica and film noir loan themselves perfectly to visuals. Holiday In Dirt is the DVD version of the 2002 album (a compilation of unreleased tracks spanning the last few decades). Ridgway assembled a cast of filmmakers to each make a clip for a song from the album. The budget was a paltry $500 each, but all had complete artistic freedom to create whatever they wanted however Ridgway also specified he was not to appear in any of the films.

The result is, as you might imagine, a mixed bag both in terms of quality and entertainment value and falls somewhere between art films and standard music videos. Rick Fuller (who has directed for Wilco and Barenaked Ladies) takes on Beloved Movie Star with a taste of old Hollywood (possibly the most literal of the clips). David Moe’s Fellini-esque fashion parade for Brand New Special and Unique (how Kath & Kim) is also a showstopper. There’s a few recurring motifs in the clips such as creepy ventriloquist dummies (is there any other sort?) - especially in the disturbing clip, and weird cover version of Behind Closed Doors. The other recurring image is, er, baked beans (ok, so it’s a nod to the Mexican Radio clip and Ridgway’s emergence from a pot of refried beans). In a truly odd turn, Jim Ludkte, best known for his work with The Residents, somehow seems to even make Ridgway sound like the eyeballed ones.

Also included are four bonus videos, two are alternative clips for tracks from the album and the other two are videos from Ridgway’s Black Diamond album. Of these, Phil Harder’s (video maker for Matchbox 20 & Incubus) early cinema/Guy Maddin style video for Beloved Movie Star Redux is one of the best on the entire disc. Apparently there’s an Easter Egg of his 1995 short film The Drywall Incident but I was never attentive in orienteering so I haven’t found it as yet. Overall, this is for Ridgway fans only but stands out as an example of what can be achieved on a shoe string budget.

Wayne Davidson

Hanne Hukkleberg - Little Things

2005-07-13T18:18:00.001+10:00

Hanne Hukkleberg is Norwegian singer/songwriter who has crafted a stunningly original debut album in the form of Little Things. Hukkleberg is more than just a great name that you want to say out aloud, she has a style that’s almost impossible to describe with elements of folk, jazz, bucolic pop, and impossibly, Dixieland, merged together in way that makes you believe these disparate elements somehow belong together. Like a starlit journey into a children's book kind of music hall Hukkleberg takes the listener places they never imagined they would ever go, or that they even knew existed.

In this incredibly textured and rich work Hukkleberg's spooky doll voice is pushed centre stage holding court with her eclectic compositions. Instruments include of a mix of usually neglected acoustic and percussion (Hawaiian guitar, flute, glockenspeil, castanets) and electronic elements. Then there's the even less conventional sounds such as whistling, milk bottles, bicycle spokes and water - none of which seem out of place in this sparse and twinkling universe of nursery rhymes for gothic Lolitas. Mixing so many different and let’s face it, often undesirable elements (Dixieland? I rest my case) could have been a hideous mess, but it the alleged two years of painstaking arrangement shows and what’s more, it works really well. Hukkleberg does far more than simply pull all this exotica together - Little Things simply glistens.

To draw comparisons, the obvious is a certain Icelandic princess - which is a grand compliment in itself - but fans of Japanese singers such as Chara and whisper queen Kahimi Karie might also detect a kinship (and her backing vocals are pure Stereolab). There’s also a smidge of Mūm in her style, but Hukkleberg creates a world that is even more delicate, more stellar and more unreal. In this musically oversaturated world I can’t say this very often, but I guarantee you’re never heard anything quite like it. If there’s a single on this record it would have to be the seemingly shambolic and quaintly jazzy True Love, however singling out tracks is somewhat pointless, this is a collection that needs to be heard as a whole. Actually, this is a collection that needs to be heard full stop. A gem.

Wayne Davidson

Geri Halliwell – Passion

2005-07-06T18:14:00.001+10:00

Seeming more and more like a celebrity leftover every year it’s hard to understand why Geri Halliwell is persevering with a solo musical career that has never been worth the effort or money invested in it. In a recent interview she described this album as way of connecting with her fans (who are these people?) and how it means so much to her to use her celebrity to help people. This is all well and good and I don’t question her motivations, but she then goes on to say how she expects it to be slagged by critics, doubts it will be successful and joked about having to sell it from the boot of her car (her PR people must be thrilled). Well, after having experienced Geri's Passion, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her and the hatchback down at the Preston Market.

Passion is ironically a passion-less experience comprised of bland ballads, ordinary pop songs, Hallmark greeting card sentiment an loads of new age blah blah. The title track and album’s opener, a breathy 50’s style jazz number unfortunately only serves to highlight Halliwell’s lack of vocal ability. The album ends in a similar cocktail campy vampy way and in between is a bland terrain of Euro-disco (Superstar & Love Never Loved Me), Dannii-ish disco (Ride It) and dull pop (Don’t Get Any Better - says it all really…). There’s Always Tomorrow is tolerable, and Desire has something going for it but only because it sounds like music to strip to.

Despite an overall lack of ideas it does occasionally rise to that Halliwell level of tackiness some people seem to like. However any glimpse of of anything remotely appealing is completely annihilated by the soul destroying Mariah Scarey-ish Loving Me Back to Life and her tribute to the motivational author Susan Jeffers, Feel The Fear, which is just horrible. Truly, it's the pits.

Passion is, most faltally, a pointless record. If, as she professes, she genuinely wants to use her celebrity to improve the world, then this should be the last album and her fame devoted to helping charities instead. In a non-singing way, preferably.

Wayne Davidson

The Emergency – The Spectrum Deadly

2005-07-06T18:10:00.001+10:00

The Emergency is a local act who loves analogue synthesizers and 80’s Euro new wave. Their rollcall of influences include 80’s electro obscurities such as Palais Schaumbug (a mix of lounge & Die Neue Deutch Welle; lots of shouted vocals about architecture), Der Plan (the German version of The Residents) and Mathematiques Modernes (smooth French lounge, disco, pop & chanson). However, they don’t actually sound like any of these bands. For my money their closest musical connections are the artists on Mute Records circa 1979, and the 80’s Danish goth-electro outfit, Minny Pops.

The Emergency makes a cold and atmospheric electronic sound that is cinematic in a lo-fi way that imagines horror movies and a Roland synthesizer kind of sci-fi music. They sound authentically of the early 80’s with all male vocals that are dark & brooding in a gothic style somewhere between the Sisters of Mercy and Gary Numan. The TR 505 drum machines tick away against the Juno synthesizer’s sequenced beats and droning organs. The Emergency is cold and controlled music that, at its roots, is also simple electro-pop. Magic.

Scanning through the tracks: Can’t Stop should be a single, The Devil Always Wins is brooding and marvellous (like Fad Gadget at his most nihilistic), Rocks and Sand is like a mix of The Normal & The Silicon Teens and How Many Curses? could be a great lost John Foxx song. I could go on all day, there are many highlights in this collection.

The Emergency is mining a great, and contemporarily little heard, musical vein. The only suggestion I have for them, and it’s the same problem I always had with Minny Pops and others of the new android generation, is that there is a certain amount of sameness over the course of the record. If they can find a way to overcome this (perhaps alternating with some female vocals, maybe some instrumentals) it would add some diversity to their sound. But it’s a minor complaint and having said that, The Spectrum Deadly is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year. These robots deserve your support.

Wayne Davidson

Guy Blackman - Guy Blackman In Japan

2005-06-15T18:19:00.001+10:00

[Chapter Music]

In the early 80’s the Olympia W.A. band Beat Happening toured Japan and recorded a mini-album of songs in their hotel room - Three Tree Breakfast was the result which was released on the K label. Local lad Guy Blackman has also taken this concept of the ultimate travel souvenir to a new level returning to Australia after an extended stay in Japan with something more than a snow globe and slides. Guy Blackman in Japan is a musical document of his stay with an impromptu recording session in February 2004 with friends from Japanese bands such as Tenniscoats, Andersens, Kinutapan and Pervenche.

The CD cover warns of the ‘rough’ recordings, though the quality (which is fine incidentally) is ideal for the wistful songs (and sounds comparatively like a Trevor Horn production next to Beat Happening’s recording). The first five tracks are the result of this recording session and have charm that inhabits similar terrain to The Pastels, a more organised Shaggs, or a low(er)-fi Raincoats (circa Odyshape). Tracks 6-8 are live recordings that differ in as much as they were recorded at a venue in front of an audience; however were it not for the applause you’d be hard pressed to notice.

The whole album has an appealing fumble-footed confidence in its laconic, slightly discordant indie sound. The songs are fragile and raw and you’d have to be made of wood if Older didn’t rip your heart right out. A great document of his stay and illustrated with sleeve photographs also suggest the time in Japan was a fantastic experience (in addition Chapter Music have also released the Songs for Nao compilation that features Guy’s guest performers and other Japanese artists he encountered on this trip).

Although quite short, clocking in at just less than 21 minutes, it’s pleasing to know that a full solo album is on the way later this year.

Wayne Davidson

Stan Ridgway – Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads & Fugutive Songs

2005-06-15T18:14:00.001+10:00

[RedFLY Records]

Stan Ridgway was the driving force behind the majestic original incarnation of Wall of Voodoo. He of the pinched voice, facial squints and tics and the Colonel Sanders bow-tie armed with tales of low-rent domesticity, Mexican radio, classic cinema and the old, old west all merged with an alternative art-school sensibility. Unfortunately Wall of Voodoo surrendered to the rock ’n’ roll c-word, ‘compromise’, and lost their identity becoming big-haired MTV stadium rockers (a move about as unlikely as Kylie reinventing herself as Death Metal). There’s even a song about it on this album. Rigway left prior to the band’s metamorphosis and, unlike his former band mates, took artistic control of his career with an individual blend of pop music influenced by film noir and country.

Several solo albums on, Snakebite… continues in this tradition, albeit perhaps more folk/country, yet just as cinematic (he even divides the album into three ‘acts’). His spaghetti western musical world of outlaws is created with steel guitar, wire brushed drums and lonesome harmonica refrains placed just so and as an evocation of that spirit it is perfect. It takes little effort to envisage the good, the bad and the ugly, the seedy motels, driving all night and fugitives hitching a ride in cargo trains. But sadly it doesn’t hold your interest. Unfortunately Snakebite… is let down by surprisingly conventional sounding songs that just don’t stick. Especially plain are Your Rockin’ Chair, Wake Up Sally (The Cops Are Here) and That Big 5-0.

Better songs are the pretty, if overlong Our Manhattan Moment, the lyrically cliché ridden (a problem for Ridgway) Classic Hollywood Ending and the opener Into The Sun. Snakebite… makes me long for the inventiveness of the original Wall of Voodoo and Ridgway’s attempt at country noir just pales when compared to artists who do this style so much better, Dave Graney’s The Devil Drives for example. Snakebite… is a disappointing album from an artist who is capable of far more memorable and creative work, Ridgway seems to have lost his edge.

Wayne Davidson

Sinéad O’Connor – Collaborations

2005-06-01T17:59:00.001+10:00

As the no-nonsense album title suggests, Collaborations is just that, Sinéad O’Connor’s musical collaborations, a roll call that includes music heavyweights such as U2, Massive Attack, Peter Gabriel and Moby. With songs from the years 1986 to 2003 Collaborations is reasonably cohesive despite the nearly 20 year time span, the mix of artists and the various musical styles which include dub, electronic, folk and rock.

A general feeling of melancholy hangs over the whole collection, due in no small part to O’Connor’s rich and mellow voice which also blends so well with the assortment of sounds and the vocalists. In particular the collaborations with Matt Johnson from The The (Kingdom of Rain) and Bono (I’m Not Your Baby), although best of all is hearing her with Terry Hall (The Specials/Fun Boy Three/The Colourfield) particularly on the comical Eurovision parody All Kinds of Everything (a moment of levity in the collection, a twee butterflies-and-all-things-lovely number which has also been parodied by French and Saunders).

Although having co-written only 3 of the 17 tracks and working in other people’s musical environments, O’Connor’s vocals still create a strong presence that makes many of the tracks seem to belong completely to her. Being a compilation it’s likely some songs won’t appeal, for me it’s Peter Gabriel’s Blood of Eden and Damien Dempsey’s It’s All Good (the most recent of the songs here). Highlights, however, include the excellent work with Massive Attack (Special Cases), Moby (Harbour), Asian Dub Foundation (1’000 Mirrors) and Afro Celt Sound System (Release) to name a few.

In some ways the appearance of this album could be seen as a stop gap to O’Connor’s current self-imposed two-year musical exile (which ends in 2005) but it’s also just a great idea and will no doubt be welcomed by those seeking her guest vocal and collaborative efforts. This is essentially only for hardcore O’Connor fans, but even the casual listener should enjoy the general hazy dreaminess of it all, although just why it’s been packaged in the dreariest sleeve artwork of 2005 is anyone’s guess.

Wayne Davidson

Racine – Number One

2005-05-11T18:12:00.001+10:00

After the demise of Transvision Vamp, lead singer and sardonic showpony Wendy James seemingly dropped out of sight. There was a solo album in 1993, the fabulously awful Now Ain’t The Time For Your Tears which is such a train wreck it should have been played to every Spice Girl as a cautionary measure before they even considered solo albums. Even having Elvis Costello as the chief song writer it proved that things can still go decidedly tits up. Still, it’s been a long time since that rather wonderful disaster (by the way, do buy it if you ever see it) and god knows where Wendy’s been all these years, but she’s back and reinvented as Racine.

Number One is nothing like what you might expect. Gone are the tongue-poking brat anthems like Baby I Don’t Care and the embarrassing baby doll sexiness of I Want Your Love, in short the aspirations of being a Woolworths version of Blondie have, thankfully, vanished. Instead Racine is a more mellow experience that sounds surprisingly like a bedroom recording, almost a demo. Her voice is softer and she’s singing, rather than rasping, and within her range for a change. She sounds good.

Musically, and this is where is gets really weird, it seems to be placed somewhere between the teen pop of Blast Off Country Style and the j-pop cuteness of Shonen Knife, or perhaps a really, really indie version of Gwen Stefani’s recent Shibuya ditties, but even then comparing the two is like comparing Joan Jett and Claudine Longet. If there was to be a single it’d be the poppy That’s the Breaks Junior, Blonde Mink Mini has a girls-in-the-garage 60’s feel, Heavy Metal Dude is best described as ‘pretty’, and the whole affair has a rather sweet and under-produced sing-song quality to it. Minimal, meditative and unassuming are not words I expected to use in this review, but they’re apt. Her lyrics come across like pop culture free-form poetry and have a nice simplicity to them, there’s a clear influence of her adopted home of New York and she still suffers from the flash trash Warholisms, but all in all, it’s playful and fun in a non-self conscious way. Take for example this excerpt from the reggae-lite W.13th “Cab to the curb to the club base thunder lucky strikes Puerto Rican sensi say English white girl she come from London keep the pressure low let the bad times blow…” and so it goes.

Number One is hard record to recommend but it’s also a pleasant surprise. The style explored is a far better and braver idea than trying to recapture her former style and image, even better; she seems to have left it way behind her. Will the real Wendy James please stand up? With Racine maybe she has.

Wayne Davidson

Ben Human – “The Out of Towner”

2005-05-04T18:08:00.001+10:00

[Unique / Creative Vibes]

It is, of course, the future we should have had. Travelators, jet packs, and unreal 1960’s design all wrapped up in a modernist futuristic world. Ben Addison knows this and his entire music career thus far has been about reminding us - first with the O.T.T. Pop Art explosion of Boys Wonder, then the polonecked jazz of Corduroy and now as the space meets spy meets everything in-between, Ben Human.

A mix of cocktail, lounge and club with a veneer of 60’s spy music, The Out of Towner IS all those things, but this sophisticated and complex album is an awful lot more. Skilfully mixing funk, electro, music of different decades (60’s & 70’s mostly), spoken word, soundtrack music, samples & beats The Out of Towner uses it’s links to the past to meld a completely contemporary experience. It’s also completely cohesive despite being so many things at once.

Take the 70’s funk of Take Me To Las Vegas and Talk Is Cheap, the danced-up Kraftwerkian Angry Computer and the spooky keyboards, computer chatter and smooth chilled rhythms of Downtown Brown. There’s Capirahna, all trumpets, drum and bass, The Werewolf Break (these titles!) which is chunky electro-funk and the amusing In Control with club beats and a vocal sample of a woman ordering around her helpless suitor (think Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!). Daddy’s Back is fantastic 70’s Library music reinvented for modern pads and The Ben Identity could have been the grooved-up theme to Department S or another 60’s ITC spy show.

Everything has a hard-to-pin-down recognisability. The only exception for me was the title track which seems to be the theme to Police Woman remodelled Ben Human style.

Interspersed amongst the tracks are short vocal sound grabs which add even more dimensions to this otherwise completely instrumental album. Oh, did I mention that? Fully instrumental and completely engaging, a hard trick to pull off, but The Out of Towner does it.

As good as, possibly better than, anything Lemon Jelly have done, expect to hear snatches of this on TV documentaries for years to come. Go retro and embrace the future!

Wayne Davidson

Fischerspooner – Odyssey

2005-04-27T18:02:00.001+10:00

[Capitol / EMI]

Trends come and go; Fischerspooner need hardly be reminded of that. Quicker than you can say “avant garde performance art futurist revivalists” they went from poster boy to whipping boy of the three and a half week Electroclash trend. Added to that there was the outrageous cash advance for their first album that financially devastated their record company and the opinion held by many that a rather fab 20 piece performance troupe did not necessarily translate so well to the 2D CD medium. So all in all, a second Fischerspooner album was looking about as likely as Gigli 2 – but here they are, and to their credit Odyssey is good, very good.

Being a fan, one of the few it seems, of #1, their first album, I’m crazy as Kansas in August that their individual synthpop futurism has been cleverly reinvented keeping their individual style but blended with echoes of Pet Shop Boys meets mid-period Depeche Mode. Lizzy Yoder’s all to brief backing vocals again create a needed contrast to Casey Spooner’s elegant calm and there’s oceans of Warren Fischer’s electro swirl wrapped around the multiple hooklines.

Odyssey has instant appeal, opening with the muscular pop of Just Let Go, all glammed up with rock guitars, the obligatory synth squiggles and a motorik bass line that could drive you to the shops and back. Other highlights include the sparkling A Kick In the Head and the electro-funky (and Susan Sontag penned) We Need A War. Serial song-writing royalty cheque collector Linda Perry makes an appearance on the catchy Happy both as co-writer and backing vocalist and Never Win presents a uniform strut that sounds like a reinvented Another Brick in the Wall. The terrain smoothes as the album draws to an end further showcasing the band’s competency. The twinkling Ritz 107 sounds like ambient Beatles crossed with Duran Duran’s The Chauffeur, We Are As One has a quiet floating charm and the closer, a cover of The Boredoms O, is psychedelic, prog rock, both cosmic and wonderfully eccentric. Moving on from the baggage of the past can’t have been easy, but they have and Odyssey is a less provocative but more user-friendly pop trip that delivers the quality and longevity needed to last beyond the curtain call.

Wayne Davidson

Various Artists - So Frenchy So Chic

2005-04-02T18:49:00.001+10:00

[Filter/SBS/Shock]

Francophiles, this one's for you. The unofficial soundtrack to The French Film Festival is every bit as francais and every bit as stylish as the title suggests but it's also incredibly varied. With musical content that can only be perceived as “French” it includes elements of jazz, lounge, swing, hip hop, world and lullaby. There are also a lot of accordions.

The opening track by Helena starts things off on a high. Née Dans La Nature pitches a smoky vocal delivered over a gentle country ballad and, frankly, a whole album of just this would be perfect, but there's so much more to love here. Keren Ann provides a fairytale, Disney-esque, lullaby called End of May complete with children's chorus and a music box backdrop. M (no, not the Pop Muzik guy) swings in with Qui De Nous Deux and Fabienne Del Sol ye-ye's her way into your heart with a mini dress (I expect) and a 60's go-go pop stomper Laisser Tomber Les Filles.

A little more on the experimental side are General Electric with their industrial-light sound of Tu M'Intrigues that includes whispering vocals, jazz piano and house beats. Some old friends turn up; in Je M'Appelle Jane Jane Birkin teams up with Mickey 3D in a Serge Gainsbourg call-and-response duet (which seems only fair considering she was there with Gainsbourg in the 60’s) and Paris Combo do the voodoo they do do so well on the loungey Baguee. Les Hurlements De Léo evokes Jacques Brel with Poêmes and there are also French-North African tracks with Plantation by Kana and the catchy La Guerre by Java. Rounding out the collection is the simple ballad of Les Yeux Noir (Petite) and the lo-fi casio charm of Les Abeilles by Jérémie Kisling. Our final destination has dreamy strings and a cool, cool breeze on La Ritournelle by Sebastien Tellier which has 'classic' written all over it.

It's a delight to uncover something so eclectic and interesting. The liner notes are peppered with words like 'escapism' and 'journey' and present the album as a soundtrack to "a movie we want to live". And you know what, they're absolutely right.

Wayne Davidson

Dsico – You Fight Like A Girl

2005-03-23T18:53:00.001+11:00

[Spasticated Records]

On the surface You Fight Like a Girl is a pretty unappetising prospect. Starting with the album title, then there’s the band name (Dsico? Cut up ‘Disco’? Probably, ho hum…), this is underlined with the irritating tag-line ‘That No-Talent Hack’ and not forgetting the hideous cover art, an illustration of a Little Bo-Peep character with a man’s face super-imposed (likely to be Luke Collison, AKA Dsico). So, bad name, bad album title, self-mocking tag-line, ugly artwork. It all smacks of the never endearing concept of a ‘joke-band’. Then there’s the music, a lo-fi blend of 80’s sounds, corny synthesizer effects and Collison’s abrasive singing voice which only a mother could love. Yet, despite all these unappealing aspects, this album has a greater surprise in store, it’s pretty good!

Collison uses his limitations to make this project far better than you would expect. He knows his way around a pop tune and what he lacks in polish he more than makes up for in sheer commitment to his sound (which is reminiscent of (early) Machinations, The Fester Brothers, Kevin Dunn, Art Interface and a smidge of those 90’s pop cornballs New Waver. All in all not so much a ‘Who’s Who’ of musical history as a ‘Who?’). I admire the way he mines forgotten elements of 80’s music for his sound with squiggly synths, comical electro percussion and especially his use of backing vocals that are endearingly dated and all the better for it.

Despite sounding like he’s being strangled most of the time his vocals work adequately in a John Foxx/Pete Shelley kind of way, especially in tracks such as When You Gonna Love Me and Hungover Again, but when he does actually sing (well, talk/sing, as in the untitled hidden track that finishes the record) it’s almost, um, pretty. One of the best tracks though is the instrumental, the Human League-ish Rescue, and that sentence should tell you something.

You Fight Like a Girl sounds like, and probably was, recorded at a share house in Newtown in between pizza and beer but if you’ve a space in your heart for lower end synth pop, cheesy drum machines, simple pop tunes and a bargain basement kind of electro-retro it might just rock your world.

Wayne Davidson

I Am X - Kiss + Swallow

2005-03-09T18:44:00.002+11:00

[Shock]

The eighties were great weren’t they? All that robot dancing and gelled hair. But while we can look back with affection or a fond amusement there’s a lot of stuff from that period I’m more than happy to leave back there, such as guys with synthesizers, a truckload of angst, pained voices and not a great deal of ideas. Imagine my joy when a whole album of that just surfaced in the form of I AM X with Kiss & Swallow.

This solo project of Chris Corner (half of the trip hop combo The Sneaker Pimps) seems to want to create a little distance from the genre he is known for, and the album’s opener Sailor does just that as it plods along in a nice dark synth-pop way. However, from there it all starts to fall apart as the tracks become increasingly similar and bland. Corner’s pained voice sings of pain, violence, dirt, suicide, waste, resurrection, sex, blood, hurt… well, you get the picture and although some might find solace in his brooding I just found it just grated over the course of the album. His aim seems directed at the perve-pop of Depeche Mode or the seedy glamour of Soft Cell, but wide of the mark he comes off more like a whiny Damon Alborn venting brutal teen angst.

Kiss + Swallow was not recorded in 1983 but it sounds like it, the 80’s influence is undeniable, but where a band like Ladytron is able to magpie their way through the 80’s, pick out the best ideas and turn them into something fresh and decidedly their own, Corner seems happy to dwell in a dreary retro gothic nowheresville with little that’s appealing and little spark. A few tracks rise above the pack, You Stick It In Me (despite the title) and Skin Vision are energetic and, incidentally, probably the right music for robot dancing and gelled hair.

But I’ve spent enough time with this pale imitation; I prefer bohemian squalor with glamour and tunes, I’m off to listen to Soft Cell’s The Art of Falling Apart.

Wayne Davidson

The Thievery Corporation - The Cosmic Game

2005-02-16T18:39:00.001+11:00

[Eighteenth Street Lounge / Shock]

With their elegant graphics, smooth cocktail allure and Wallpaper* Magazine sophistication The Thievery Corporation promises, and delivers, contemporary and stylish listening. However, as was the case with their previous album, The Mirror Conspiracy, The Cosmic Game shows it takes more than elegance to create a great record.

Things do start off well, maybe a bit too well, with the stunning opener Marching The Hate Machine. Featuring The Flaming Lips against the T.C.s production mastery results in a heady combo and the results are spacey, spooky and quite magical. Unfortunately this magnificently strong start sets the bar at a height The Cosmic Game is unable to reach again.

The Thievery Corporation is undoubtedly a class act but musically they seem to be stuck in a formula of downtempo grooves, fat bass, atmospheric reverb, exotic vocals and a touch of World Music (usually Reggae, Indian or Latin) and/or a little dub thrown in. Although a gentle and pleasant listening experience, this album seems too content to languish in the background lest it draw attention to itself. Even the addition of guest vocalists such as Perry Farrell and David Byrne adds little in the way of excitement. After a great start and a pedestrian middle it does start to take off again towards the end with two interesting instrumentals (Holographic Universe and Doors of Perception) followed by The Supreme Illusion (one of the Indian styled tracks complete with disembodied Bollywood divas floating in and out). The Time We Lost Our Way (featuring Lou Lou) has a sweet indie-pop charm and Air should be asking for royalties for the album's atmospheric closer A Gentle Dissolve which would have sat comfortably on their Premiers Symptomes collection.

The Thievery Corporations seem to be their best when they side-step the recognisable technique they appear to have trapped themselves in. When they emulate the Italian cine citta sound for example (Holographic Universe) or simply try something new (Marching The Hate Machine), the results speak for themselves. It's all done very well; it sounds gorgeous, smooth and oh-so-vogue, but for the most part lacks the spark and imagination that could have taken the album into orbit. This too-much-of-a-good-thing approach is likely to leave the listener blissed-out if a little underwhelmed.

Wayne Davidson

Bent - Ariels

2005-02-16T18:34:00.001+11:00

[Open]

For their third album there appears to have been some major changes to England's Bent camp. For starters, the cover design of orange sunflowers is a million miles away from their previous two albums - Programmed to Love (2000) and The Everlasting Blink (2003) - which had covers you wouldn't pick up if they were the last CDs in the shop (E.B's eyeball in a cocktail onion jar especially). However, design matters aside, the changes from the Bent crew don't stop there. For Ariels they have morphed their erstwhile subterranean world of claustrophobic ambience and seemingly recorded-under-water electro-lounge into something more conventional, and dare I say it - commercial (well, alt-commercial…).

Bent has crafted a luxurious album that has a surprisingly warm and comforting feel about it replacing the previous sense of unease and half-awake consciousness. Ariels clears the nightmares of the past and makes way for a nonetheless dreamy, but somehow less unsettling 'Back To Mine' type of experience. Making more use of acoustic, and less of electronic instruments also adds to the verdant quality, as do the layers of reverb, harps and other additions.

But by far the biggest change, and what makes this album special, is the greater emphasis on vocals and melody as Bent work magic with their variety of guest singers. No longer scrambled in the mix, they move them centre stage, adding even more texture and depth to an already rich musical experience. Kathy Heath returns to lend her sensual voice to tracks such as the dreamy Now I Must Remember and Sunday 29th. Sian Evans of Kosheen is possessed by the spirit of Billie Ray Martin on I Can't Believe It's Over and sounds nothing short of divine on the ravishing Sunday Boy. Rachel Foster seems to be impersonating Enya on (the otherwise also very Enya-ish) Sing Me, but turns in a preferable breathy pop sound on the steel guitars meets chopsticks foot-tapper Comin' Back (the first single).

As a chapter in Bent's evolution this move into more mainstream dream-pop sees Bent retaining much of their uniqueness, yet making it more accessible. And like all of their albums, it's a grower.

Wayne Davidson

Rufus Wainwright - Want Two

2004-12-22T18:31:00.001+11:00

[Geffen]

Rufus Wainwright seemed destined to be one of pop's oddities. The gay child of famous musical parents (Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle) Want Two is evidence he is forging his own path with a fierce individuality and his difficult-to-classify music. This is clear right from his androgynous appearance on the ornate album sleeve that looks like it leapt from a Stevie Nicks' 1973 Tarot Card "Baroque Edition".

There's no doubt Wainwright does little by the book and that the concerns of contemporary fashion play no part in his style. The album opens with the epic Agnus Dei, with Wainwright cast as the diva atop a mountain. It fuses the majesty of Dead Can Dance with opera and is even sung in Latin. Then the style completely changes with the irresistible radio-pop of The One You Love propelled by a pulsing guitar and a gorgeous angelic choir. Peach Trees is languid country smoothed with steel guitars and a melody worthy of kd lang, Hometown Waltz is just that, a folk waltz, Crumb By Crumb swings like an anemic Frank Sinatra, Little Sister is chamber music, and so it goes…

Although the styles change constantly they are grounded in a similar mood by a lavish piano and strings theatricality, Wainwright's world-weary vocals, and a fragility that underscores every song. Another constant is the entertaining lyrics. With narratives of savage wit and a droll black humour Wainwright positions himself in league with those other modern day Cole Porters, Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields) and Momus (both his most direct musical contemporaries).

Despite the frequent achievements his experiments are not always successful, sometimes the melodrama wears a little thin and at 9 minutes Old Whore's Diet is way too long. All in all though, Want Two is a brave, weird and daring record that is bound to inspire as many devoted fans of this strange pop creature as it will leave others scratching their heads in confusion. Comes with a bonus DVD featuring a live performance at San Francisco's Fillmore Theatre.

Wayne Davidson

Despina Vandi - Gia

2004-12-22T18:17:00.001+11:00

Central Station Records

'Tis the season to be cheesy and Despina Vandi is here to lay it on with a trowel. With the air of a gender illusionist this Greek tigress pulls out every trick in the book to infect you to her blend of exotically tinged dance fever and syrupy ballads.

Starting with a bang the title track Lambadas its way out of the stereo like a missile fired directly at Eurovision and it's so damn catchy I can't imagine it could be anything but a hit. There's more bouncy pop fun to be had with Opa Opa and even a Ricky Martin-ish guest vocalist on the pouty Come Along Now (or possibly they use technology that could make anybody sound like Ricky Martin). Vandi's disco style is catchy and fun and trimmed with styles from Europop to the Middle East (sometimes musically reminiscent of the late Ofra Haza). Yet, having achieved this, Anavis Fotis and Deste Mou Ta Matia do nothing but annoy with a hip-shaking gypsy style that is so strongly associated with Shakira that one wonders why Vandi would bother adopting it.

After proving her disco credentials she reveals her softer side by slowing the pace for about half of the album - unfortunately it's mostly in a painfully ordinary way. From the super-bland C'est La Vie (Simera) with it's Hallmark greeting card sentiment and predictable melody to Thelo Na Se Do which is just Eurovision-by-numbers. Ola Odigoun Se Esena repeats the pattern but as it's in another language you can imagine it's Shakespeare and not yet another dreary I-love-you-but-you-don't-love-me lyrical whine. Ela is a pretty, if unexciting ballad, she seems to channel Nana Mouskiouri on Lathos Anthropos, and the album should have ended before subjecting the listeners to the final track Thimisou.

It's not all bad though, Vandi soars above her apparent low-standards with the luscious I Believe It (Olo Lipis) with its dark string-laden pop sound. More in this style would be most welcome. All said, there's not a lot to recommend here unless you like your music predictable and with any trace of originality completely exorcised. Back to the studio with you Ms Vandi.

Wayne Davidson

Sigmatropic - Sixteen Haiku & Other Stories

2004-12-08T18:14:00.001+11:00

[Rogue / Inertia]

In 2002 Akis Boyatzis (founder of Sigmatropic) released an album that put music to the Haiku poetry of Nobel Prize winning Greek laureate George Seferis. Now he is taking this work to an international audience by re-releasing Sixteen Haiku & Other Stories with newly recorded English vocals supplied by a collection of renowned alternative artists.

Amongst the talent roster are Robert Wyatt, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Edith Frost and Mark Eitzel. Stylistically the album spans everything from pop, world, ambient, acoustic and rock-lite. It's also littered throughout with unexpected twists that keep the music from being easily classified although the over-riding mood is cinematic, dramatic as well as meditative.

Sigmatropic balance a combination of electronic and traditional instruments, beats and rich arrangements that create a surprisingly cohesive landscape despite so many styles being employed. Due to this it helps, rather than hinders having so many vocalists and vocal styles on hand. From the smooth Euro sound of Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier (Haiku One) to The Walkabouts Carla Torgerson (Haiku Five & Haiku Six) with her sparkling pop vocal. Robert Wyatt (Introduction 'On Stage') is, as usual; spooky as is Edith Frost on Haiku 8. Lee Renaldo speaks one his tracks (Haiku Twelve) like a man possessed but also delivers one of the softest and most beautiful songs (Haiku Sixteen). Pinkie Maclure's Warm Water is divine and Chan Marshall (of Cat Power) manages to keep it together long enough to deliver another one of the best tracks (Haiku 10) which also features one of the kookiest lyrics; "I am raising now a dead butterfly with no make-up". The lyrics, being Haiku poetry, are naturally brief, as are many of the songs although along with the sixteen Haikus this album also features five longer works.

Limited quantities include a bonus disc which features two remixes and three of the Haikus recorded by different vocalists. All in all this is an intoxicating and brew and those not put off by the artiness of the project are likely to discover a unique and fine album.

Wayne Davidson

Various Artists - Ursadelica [compiled by Ursula 1000]

2004-12-01T18:01:00.001+11:00

[Eighteenth Street Lounge / Shock]

After a four-year wait the go-go-licious Ursula 1000 is back with a brand new DJ set compilation that comes with a dedicated mission - to get your booty on the dance floor. The brainchild of jet-setting DJ Alex Gimeno, Ursula 1000's Ursadelica is a groovy mod concoction of retro freak beats, psychedelic frug, jazzy breaks, smooth lounge, giddy boogaloo, Latin steppers, hip displacing go-go and, well, you get the picture.

Comprising of a cocktail 20 of Gimeno's club favourites the relentless upbeat vibe serves as the long-awaited follow up album to Ursula 1000's last DJ set collection in 2001, the also fine, All Systems are Go Go. On Ursadelica the uptempo beats and cool grooves segue superbly from one track to the next and the selections and style should delight lounge lizards everywhere.

With content so uniformly fun it makes it a task to pick favourites, but some highlights are the delicious Latin pop of Dr. Rubberfunk's Bossa for the Devil (a re-working of Old Devil Moon) and the Dimitri-esque Won't You Join Me For A Drink by Lemon. The Bees demand you exercise your dancing skills with the hot frug-a-thon that is Chicken Payback and Frank De Jojo's Come Home Baby sounds a lot like Julie London mixed over a warm electro soul backing - de-lovely.

Then you can space-out to the disembodied sexy astro funk of Hal 9000 featuring Sylvie Marks with Bay Bay Bay while In the Sky by Morston and Malente creates a cool electro jam a la synthesizer pioneers Perry & Kingsley and Gaijin A Go Go with Tempura Mental is sushi-sweet J-Pop. For me, being a lover of all things tiki, I'm also powerless to resist the exotica charms of the set closer, Don Tiki's The Other Side of the Moon. From the lurid pink headphone clutching sleeve to the retro-ecstasy on the CD Ursadelica is the must-have party collection of 2004.

Wayne Davidson

Inga Liljeström - Elk

2004-12-01T17:53:00.001+11:00

[Groovescooter Records / Creative Vibes]

You may not have heard of Australian singer/composer/arranger Inga Liljeström but you have probably heard her vocals on Gerling's Dust Me Selecta. She has also worked with other Australian dance acts but when it comes to her own music, it couldn't be further away from that style. Welcome to Elk.

Right from the sticker on the album cover you are advised of comparisons to Björk, Portishead, Lamb, and Goldfrapp and these are not unfounded, however, I also detect a kinship with Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan and Moloko (at least vocally). If this isn't enough, the record company press release suggests further musical benchmarks (Marianne Faithful, Dead Can Dance, David Lynch film scores) and although there are reminiscent elements at work here they are simply doorways in to her music which demonstrates vast talent and originality.

The music on Elk consists of impressive and complex arrangements, rich with dark orchestral flourishes that suggest film composers such as Ennio Morricone, Angelo Badalamenti and Bernard Herrmann (it comes as little surprise to learn that Liljeström is also a film composer). Although her style is cinematic and opulent it is also beautifully restrained. Orchestras swell and drop away completely, fragmented beats are mixed in as needed and as quickly torn out of the mix. She organically melds the orchestral elements with her less-is-more approach making for engaging listening. The complexities of the music are fascinating and deserve an instrumental companion album.

It takes a while to warm to the breathy intensity of Liljeström's voice yet it suits the delirious soundtrack perfectly. She cleverly balances the drama of tracks such as Phoenix (the first single) and Knotted (should be the second single) against minimal acoustic songs such as 29 Poisons and All of This. Elk is an intriguing and impressive work that grows with every listen, Liljeström a talent to watch. There is a remix album on the way and a visit to her website (www.ingaliljestrom.com ) is recommended.

Wayne Davidson

Alison Moyet - Voice

2004-11-24T17:56:00.001+11:00

[Sanctuary / BMG]

As one of the best voices if the 80's pop scene, the prospect of Alison Moyet performing great songs by famous composers such as Elvis Costello, Michel Legrand and Gershwin (Ira & George) is an enticing one. In her liner notes Moyet relates her goal for this project was to present the songs in a clear and disciplined manner in order to further her musicianship and "To find new ways of singing". Moyet certainly achieves this goal and at the same time reinforces her position as one of the U.K.'s leading vocalists.

Her candid and revealing liner notes provide not only entertainment but also a commentary for each track that is helpful in allowing the listener to participate more closely in this musical journey. Her notes for Jacques Brel's Je Crois Entrendre Encore reveal, in her unpretentious way, her concerns regarding what she perceives as her vocal weaknesses "I avoid long legato phrasing. Big loud sounds are easy to make. It's the sustained, controlled passages that bugger me". She advises that What Are You Doing The Rest of your Life was "a git to sing" and documents the enormous importance of Elvis Costello's music to her, revealing for Almost Blue "This song makes me want to sing".

Voice is a classy affair. Producer Anne Dudley provides elegant arrangements that are gentle, beautiful and note perfect. But, unfortunately this approach is also the main problem. The treatments border on being MOR easy listening, which is fine if that's what you're looking for but many listeners may be expecting something more daring. But having said that, her treatment of Bye Bye Blackbird as a lament is refreshing and her dreamy execution of The Man I Love is a stand out. Voice is beautiful and an effortless album to absorb but there's little here to get excited about.

Wayne Davidson

Nancy Sinatra - Nancy Sinatra

2004-10-20T16:55:00.001+10:00

[Sanctuary / BMG]

The story goes like this. Nancy Sinatra - 60's pop icon (now in her 60's) meets Morrissey, a long time fan of her work. Fast friends (and later neighbours) she is keen to record one of his tracks - Bengali in Platforms of all things - he wisely steers her away from that idea and instead provides her with his stunning Let Me Kiss You (from his You Are The Quarry album) and brokers her a record deal. Meanwhile, Nancy's daughter, AJ Azzarto has been trying to get her mother to record contemporary material since Sinatra posed nude for Playboy in 1995, recruits a bevy of famous fans to contribute to her mother's new album. Fans that include, amongst others, Jarvis Cocker, Thurston Moore, Bono & Jon Spencer (the fandom seems to be mutual as Sinatra has said that there is no one on this album that was not already in her record collection).

The result is a collection of songs that keep the essence of Sinatra's 60's sound but placed it in a modern context. The clean production fuses with the unique style to create something familiar yet fresh. Nancy's voice is immediately as arresting and unconventional as it was in the days of These Boots Are Made For Walkin'.

Nancy Sinatra opens with the excellent Burnin' Down The Spark (written by Joey Burns of Calexico) and the stage is set with a Lee Hazlewood/Billy Strange-styled western mini-epic complete with Mariachi trumpets, pedal steel guitar. The album is bursting with great country and rock pop songs. There's also ballads (Morrissey's contribution Let Me Kiss You is even more stunning with Sinatra at the mike) and even a Vegas cabaret track originally written for her father by Bono & The Edge (Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot Of Sad). Momma's Boy places Sinatra in the context of a Sonic Youth song (the only track that probably doesn't make the most of her voice, and she sounds like she's impersonating Kim Gordon for reasons best known to her). Jarvis Cocker's tracks give Sinatra some feisty lyrics as she demolishes a cad to a friend ("he can kiss you where the sun don't shine" and how he'll run after "some skinny bitch" in "hot pants").

Nancy Sinatra sounds less of a comeback and more of a revival, in this short review space I can hardly do it justice (and I could write for days about Sinatra's career and influence on modern artists - Robbie Williams for example). Suffice to say that Nancy Sinatra gives us back a great artist in a context that makes her totally relevant and more powerful than ever. The temptation is strong to create a wishlist of artists she should work with on the next album, apparently she has already been in touch with Billy Idol! Bring on The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merrit, Dave Graney, how about Nancy singing the song that ripped off her work, Milennium (there's irony…). Nancy Sinatra is superb.

Wayne Davidson

Various Artists - Café Del Sol: Atmospheres

2004-10-13T17:57:00.000+10:00

[Sun & Moon / Creative Vibes 2004]

The Café Del Sol is a real café in Ibiza that serves "sun-ripened wine", provides "music from sunny places all over the world" and was "born to bring more sun into our lives". Which sounds like a pretty ok manifesto in theory, but does lead one to wonder why they would therefore release this lifeless compilation to achieve that goal.

If the High School poetry competition title ("Atmospheres") and the hippy watercolour cover weren't enough to warn you, the karmic void within is telegraphed from the song titles such as Circles of Reflection, Translucence, Mind Maze, Realm of Enlightenment and Reviviscence. There's little point in mentioning the obscure artists (Chestnut Cesar or Cattle Gris anyone?) and it's completely fair to say that every track sounds the same. As a cousin compilation to the generally better Café Del Mar series it will no doubt be positioned in the retailers' Chill section but Café Del Sol belongs squarely in New Age. This anaesthetising collection comprises of bland new age twaddle with electric pianos and pan flutes punctuated with sound effects of crashing waves and birds tweeting. If that sounds like it's terrible, it's only because it is.

The Café Del Sol message of positivity has the spirit knocked out of it by the relentless tedium of the whole. As you have probably perceived, it bored the Thai fisherman pants off me but perhaps in the environment of the actual Café Del Sol this soporific collection might work better. But I doubt it. This is music for the undemanding listener desiring a soundtrack for meditation practice. This is music for the waiting room at a holistic dentistry.

Wayne Davidson

Various Artists - The Trip created by Saint Etienne

2004-09-29T17:38:00.000+10:00

[Family Recordings]

Saint Etienne have quietly been creating albums of glorious and distinctive pop music for over a decade now and on this, their debut mix CD, they're plundering their record collections and musical inspirations to give us 48 songs of total bliss.

Disc 1 is mostly 70's soul/disco with the likes of Esther Williams, The Supremes (70's style, sans Miss Ross), The Isley Brothers, Nancy Priddy (Christina Applegate's mother, irrelevant but interesting…), even The Mamas and The Papas (the excellent Shooting Star) and heaps more. There's also some instrumental wonderment from Ennio Morricone, Lalo Schifrin and the 70's vintage Serge Gainsbourg (a euro-nasty entitled Cannabis). It’s great how the Et's can always be trusted to steer away from the expected tracks from the well-known performers, as well as championing the lesser-known artists, and there's an armada of them here (Kiss Inc, Ernie Bush to name a few).

Disc 2 is musically less immediate than disc 1 and a decidedly softer experience of 60's bubblegum, psychedelic and easy. It includes the Latin calm of The Sandpipers, the marvelous (and completely ignored) Poppy Family (imagine Karen Carpenter's voice against 60's sitar love-in music), Dusty Springfield (I Start Counting, one of her finest), Spanky & Our Gang, Scott Walker, John Barry the list goes on. I'd never heard Roger Nicholls, Michaelangelo, The Left Banke and Queen Anne's Lace before, I am completely won over.

The Trip is a fine addition to their previous re-release CDs that have included The Dolly Mixture and 1960's Brit girls (the Am I Dreaming compilations on rpm), not to mention the contemporary artists included on their short-lived but excellent label Ice Rink. There's months of stuff to discover here and comes with the risk of spending a fortune to track down albums by many of the artists, but this is a trip well worth taking.

Wayne Davidson

Camera Obscura - Under Achievers Please Take Note

2004-09-15T13:51:00.001+10:00

[Popfrenzy Records]

Just when you thought the days of anorak-wearing jangle pop were over Camera Obscura appear to carry the torch for the, I imagine, dwindling 2004 indiepop/twee community. Although risking being stuck in something of a time warp they're here to tempt you with this collection of gentle acoustic sounds and quaintly off-key vocals. If the names The Field Mice, Talulah Gosh, Heavenly and Sarah Records mean anything to you, then you will have a pretty good idea of what's going on here although the band don't generally offer up the great pop songs their predecessors did.

Although the album title is probably a joke, unfortunately it proves quite accurate for most of the time they provide bog standard jangle pop fare. Tracks such as Suspended from Class, Knee Deep at the NPL (National Pop League, you had to ask…) and the so-fey-it-hurts Books Written for Girls are sweet if a little bland. They also turn their hands to a 1950's style on A Sister's Social Agony and Teenager with varied success.

The obvious stand out track is Number One Son and it shows what the band is capable of. It has a great pop tune and a more imaginative backing track that incorporates strings and brass. Also pleasing are Let Me Go Home which makes good use of percussion and backing vocals and I wouldn't turn off the radio if Teenager or Before You Cry came on.

Oddly, two of the best tracks are relegated to the bonus songs on the Australian version of the CD. San Francisco Song is a fine Latin-styled piece (even sung in Spanish). It's unexpected, but a style that works terrifically for the band. There's also Amigo Mio, which would have done the band Heavenly proud.

I was hoping to like this more than I did, but if you've spent any time listening to indie-pop then there's really not too many surprises here and you have probably heard this style done better. However if you're new to this sound you might find more in its charms than I did.

Wayne Davidson

Tanya Donelly - Whisky Tango Ghosts

2004-08-18T15:54:00.001+10:00

[4AD]

Cast your mind back to 1992. Tanya Donelly was freed from the constraints of Throwing Muses and starts her own outfit, Belly, who burst onto the indie scene with their album Star. It's magnificent, an unclassifiable blend of rock, pop, country, psychedelica and dreamlike-ballads. Tanya looks set to rule the world, but she doesn't. Belly's follow up (King) fails to ignite the way that the previous album did, the band break up. A quick foray in The Breeders notwithstanding Tanya commences a solo career. Two solo albums on, both largely ignored, here we are with Whiskey Tango Ghost, and the good news is it's her best album since Star.

But don't get too excited about reliving your college days just yet, this album is a thousand miles down the road from the music she was making in the early 1990s. There's nothing remotely like Gepetto or Dusted. For a start, she has chosen an alterna-country style for this album that will no doubt prove a challenge for many listeners. It's 5 songs in (the excellent Butterfly Thing) before we hear anything resembling percussion. Donelly has presented these haunted songs stripped bare, tender and fragile.

The warm intimacy of the instruments is beautifully captured and it makes them sound as if they are in the room with you. To compliment the minimal arrangements Donelly's voice is presented as clear and arresting and deservedly given centre stage. She's never sounded better. The esoteric style might not show a lot to latch on to with initial listens but, more satisfyingly, the album slowly reveals itself over time to be an absorbing and complex work. The trademark Donelly hooks are there, but lie hidden amongst the flowing and intimate, often hypnotic, style. It's a meditative album and might be the antidote to a hectic life, as appreciation requires the listener to slow down to its languid pace and plaintive style.

Lyrically, Whiskey Tango Ghosts seems more intimate and personal than previous works. The recurring themes are the supernatural and human relationships, the latter presented universally, but based upon her relationship with husband Dean Fisher (who also contributes drums, bass, guitars, and percussion, Fisher also co-wrote some of the tracks with Donelly). Marking a new chapter in Donelly's life and work, Whiskey Tango Ghosts isn't an easy ride, but there's much to uncover here for those who are willing.

Wayne Davidson

Emma - Free Me

2004-08-11T16:46:00.001+10:00

[Universal]

It seems so many chart artists seem to go with the current fashion, so it's refreshing to find someone brave enough to take a chance. Emma Bunton, AKA Baby Spice, now just 'Emma' is doing just that with this contemporary and sophisticated pastiche of 1960's Swinging London, Bossa Nova and bubblegum music - and the result is great.

Free Me matches Emma's honeyed vocals against equally lush orchestral arrangements, Latin cocktail rhythms and excellent pop songs evocative of Trent and Hatch, Antonio Carlos Jobim and James Barry. She channels the spirit of 60's Brit girls such as Sandie Shaw and Cilla Black, evokes the lounge calm of Astrud Gilberto and even mixes in the charm of Motown and early 70's easy listening. I'm sensing we're seeing an artist more in control of her output than in the past (the album title alone seems to suggest this, also, Emma has co-written all but one track on the album).

Maybe is the stand-out track with an infectious melody and it's lush Georgie Fame rhythms. The natural extension of the song is the brilliant campy film clip with it's late 60's Vogue fashions and crazy choreography. I only wish there was a Movin' With Nancy (Sinatra) style TV special to accompany the whole album. There's touches of James Bond (Free Me and No Sign of Life), pop anthems (I'll Be There) and musical hooks at every turn (Tomorrow, 'Breathing). The solitary cover (and current UK single) is Crickets Sing for Annamaria (originally by Latin maestro Marcus Valle). Although perhaps more obviously suited to, say, Bebel Gilberto, Emma pulls it off magnificently. Lay All Your Love On Me co-penned by Cathy Dennis (Kylie/Britney hit machine) is more cute than the chart-blazer I was expecting, but excellent nonetheless. Who the Hell Are You reminds a little of Emma's Spice Girls past (and not just because of the title) and Amazing isn't, it's the song they should have left off the album.

I doubt this album will age the way that the records of many of her contemporaries will. Even her Spice sisters, I mean, will you be listening to Geri Halliwell's Scream If You Want to Go Faster five years from now? Are you listening to it now? Who's Geri Haliwell?

After a strong start and solid centre it does lose a little steam towards the end but overall 'Free Me' is a brilliant example of sorts the things a pop album should be. Fun, catchy, dreamy. Kylie might like to take notes.

Wayne Davidson

The Thievery Corporation - The Outernational Sound

2004-07-28T17:16:00.001+10:00

[Eighteenth St Lounge]

For several years The Thievery Corporation have quietly made their mark as purveyors of smooth-as-melted-chocolate grooves. With albums tailor-made to soundtrack cafés or specialist book stores you could be forgiven for feeling under-dressed, or perhaps under-furnished, whilst listening to them (one probably needs 1960's Swiss modern furniture to fully appreciate their world). This Various Artist compilation is a trip through soul, dub, grooves and, er, reggae, all mixed, remixed and filtered through the Thievery sound lounge.

Proceedings start out rather fun with the 70's easy sound of David Snell's International Flight (a track that appeared on the second Sound Gallery compilation) followed by The Gimmicks 1971 Sergio Mendes-ish track Ye-Me-Le (Mendes also recorded this). The decades start to blur with Thunderball's contemporary take on 60's easy and then we hit a groovy oil patch with suave, somewhat similar, sounds from the likes of Crazy Penis and Block 16.

There's some 70's (either sounding, or really 70's) funk from the likes of Breakestra and Antonio Carlos Jobim (which came as a bit of a surprise, not the bossa style he is generally known for). Interestingly it's often hard to tell which tracks are three decades old and which are contemporary as they meld seamlessly. 18th St Lounge label-mates The Karminsky Experience get a look in with their groovy Marrakech via Cambden sound (and can I just take this opportunity to mention their album The Power of Suggestion is very fine). The pace turns to sitars with The Alan Lorber Orchestra and Indian Vibes before Alan Moorhouse (70's British library music composer) lands us squarely in the world of Suzi Wong with the corny Expo in Tokyo. Following are some cool psycho-grooves from The Bobby Hughes Experience before rounding out the collection with some reggae/dub from The Thievery Corporation and Delroy Wilson (the latter I'll admit made me want to rush for the track advance button).

The Outernational Sound is billed as a 'DJ Set', which might be another way of preparing you for something that may not be too heavy on musical hooks. This is very much the music for a cocktail party, relaxing at home, doing the domestics or even writing album reviews (irony...).

The Outernational Sound is very smooth, polished, and basically very charming, but could benefit from a little more bite in the selection. The shiny silver packaging is truly dazzling, the music contained, unfortunately a little less so.

Wayne Davidson