Saturday, December 6, 2003

MUSIC ZONE
Kylie Minogue — Body Language (EMI) ***
Saurav & Gaurav

Kylie’s ninth album is a worthy successor to 2001's smash hit Fever, a highly danceable collection of electro-pop tracks. Body Language finds Kylie partying like it's 1987 all over again. Although this is not a hardcore disco album, Kylie has kept it primarily upbeat. Karen Poole (Alisha's Attic) contributes three tunes, including the very Mary Jane Girls styled, lazy trumpet highlighted, Chocolate. Secret is low down dirty funky, but ripe for an even tastier single remix. Deliciously groovy.

With several full-length albums under their collective belt, The Ataris made their presence felt after five years of hard work. After enjoying remarkable success independently, California pop-punk quartet The Ataris make their major label debut with So Long, Astoria. The album kicks off in amazing style with the awesome So Long, Astoria.

A homage to the 80s’ culture (a recurring theme on this album) and containing references to The Goonies, the song is driven, persuasive and hummable beyond belief. Radio No.2 calls for fans of the punk genre to stand up and fight and turn off their radios in protest against the stations that play the same songs over and over. The band members thrash away happily on their instruments as they hope for a revolution. Beautiful Mistake, the album's lone relationship song, boasts the album's best guitar solo and its most piercing line: "Don't wanna fall asleep alone / But do I wanna wake up with you". The album's darkest side, however, comes in the form of Unopened Letter, which deals with the death of a friend. The idea of covering 's The Boys of Summer as a punk anthem has promise and the well-handled track takes the album to a new high. The Ataris have perhaps invented a new genre with this album – lounge-punk – as the pace remains fast for the most part.

For music lovers, Christmas can be a time of discomfort, as you would be expected to listen to your parents’ old chestnut Christmas tunes over and over again. Christmas Remixed comes up with this brilliant idea of spinning the old classics to a new effect that’s funky and joyful. The result as you might expect, is a complete blast. The highlights of the compilation include It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year by Andy Williams, Happy Holidays by Bing Crosby, Joy To The World by The Cathedral Brass, Jingle Bells by Dean Martin, Merry Christmas Baby by Charles Brown and Baby, It’s Cold Outside performed by Louis Armstrong and Velma Middleton. So if you wake up this Christmas morning and your stocking’s empty, you know what can still bring a smile to your face.

It's been five years since Deep Purple released their last studio album Abandon but the journey has been good for the veteran band. Bananas is perhaps their best studio CD since 1984's Perfect Strangers. The production of Michael Bradford is simply more spread out, giving Purple a wingspan that they have not enjoyed in a long time. Bananas is the first album not to feature founder member Jon Lord, who decided he was simply too old for the band's endless touring. His replacement on the keyboards is longtime member of the hard rock sessions, Don Airey, veteran of many bands, including Rainbow, Blizzard of Ozz and The Gary Moore band. Silver Tongue chimes in with the first arguably classic moment, pumping away underneath a contrite Gillan and sent into the stratophere with the arching keyboards that cuts the sky with razor sharp melodrama. I've Got Your Number does quite a bit in six minutes, enjoying several changes, all of which make sense and retain enough energy to give over to the next. Morse's style is more jazzy, bluesy, country...basically, more American. Bananas is very different with it's 7/8 beat. Razzle Dazzle picks up the pace again, and the rest of the album is a tour de force of the Purple-machinery working impressively. The bittersweet instrumental song Contact Lost was inspired by the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia. It was written by guitarist Steve Morse. Incidentally, Kalpana Chawla was a big fan of Deep Purple. She traded e-mails with the band for several days while in space. Chawla took two CDs of the band on board Columbia: 1972’s landmark album Machine Head and 1996's Purpendicular. Bananas is a well-crafted record with loads of musical variety and spice, and proves that you can age gracefully.