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Saturday, April 5, 2007 |
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Saturday, April 5, 2007 |
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Best track: Charity Case Worst track: Whatever Rating: *** Donna Regina — More (KT)
Best track: Heart Oh Heart Worst track: L`E0 `D2u Je Suis Rating: ** Dave Gahan — Hourglass (Mute)
Best track: Miracles Worst track: Use You Rating: **
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Brian "Danger Mouse"
Burton and Thomas "Cee-Lo" Callaway have been collaborators since the
chart-topper Crazy earned them overnight stardom two years back. The Odd
Couple echoes that format, once again transporting the listener to a refreshing
universe where the old school meets the computer age, where Al Green
intermingles with Portishead. The lead track Charity Case is a perfect
example of how these two styles merge. to form the haunting, complex World of
Gnarls. The opening song starts with a sputtering movie reel, a sound that
continues faintly in-between songs and comes to the fore again to close the
album. Where Crazy was a smooth, futuristic funk song, Run takes
an old-school soul tack with bursts of brass punctuating busy double-speed
percussion. The 1960s’ pop-flavored Surprise wraps, while the
choral/tribal Open Book drills into the depths of a tortured soul. Who’s
Gonna Save My Soul, while sung under control, is arguably Cee-Lo’s most
powerful song to date. At the lyrical and vocal climax ("Still my
hunger turns to greed, 'cause what about what I need?/And oh, who's gonna save
my soul now?"), he creates a sense of power by changing the melody and
making subtle inflections in his voice. The lyrics of a majority of the
material here seem culled from a session with a psychiatrist — but in lieu of
medicine, music is the cure.`A0
The German duo Regina Janssen
and G`FCnther Janssen's tenth release, More, with its melancholic avant-pop, is
a fitting description of Donna Regina's sound, but it is also an album that in
many places leaves listeners scratching their collective head, not knowing what
to do with it. It lacks consistency but may be, in the iPod Age, consistency
has become somewhat of an unnecessary luxury. As the group’s vocal centre,
Janssen's beautiful voice stands strong, and guitarist G`FCnther Janssen
clearly knows what he's doing. Together the pair creates very warm mood music
that is simultaneously playful and airy. Dream On stands out for its
jazzy cocktail sound mixed with a refined Saint Etienne influence but Heart
Oh Heart remains the headliner of the album. In the fleeting pop gem Good
Morning Day, a Beatlesque piano chord progression is illuminated with her
soft plea "Come on dear day, lets try to start anew". More is
anchored by such moments, in which delivery achieves as much with intonation as
with content.
As the man who has lent voice
to Martin Gore's brilliant melodies and lyrics for the past two decades, Dave
Gahan needs little introduction. A couple of years back, during a lengthy lull
in the Depeche Mode machine, Gahan elected to venture into solo territory, a
foray resulting in the very disappointing Paper Monsters. The second album
released under his name is Hourglass, and it might just be the record to
dispel the looming shadow of Gore hanging over Gahan's career. Kingdom makes
it apparent that Gahan is making an effort to step away from the Depeche Mode
sound, even if the results may not be what he wanted them to be. Elsewhere on
the album, A Little Lie is a personal favourite — it again echoes
Gahan's full band. The swaggering macho stance Gahan perfected right around Personal
Jesus is also evident in the highlights Use You and Deeper and
Deeper. The other tracks worth listening to include Miracles, Insoluble,
21 Days and Endless.
With all its members in
their fifties, the group continues to rely on the way Kate Pierson and the
returned Cindy Wilson intertwine their voices into a brass-laden, spunky
chorus and serve as counterpoint to the almost sneering bark of the
gleefully flamboyant Fred Schneider. Funplex's songs are just as
jubilant as they were on Cosmic Thing and Good Stuff, with
bits of dark surf guitar, outer space, travel themes and kitsch culture
bleeding through the high-gloss electro-pop. Reminiscent of the band’s
past, and probably self-consciously alluding to it, are lyrics like,
"Sky-high hive, you wind me tight / Sky-high hive in the
ultraviolet night." Eyes moves from a dark, claustrophobic verse
to an expansive disco-tinged refrain, triggered by Strickland's crisp,
echoed guitar. Deviant Ingredient brings some exotica along and Hot
Corner sneaks a dark guitar rumble under the verses with an ebullient
Cindy Wilson/Kate Pierson chorus. The band's performance is as energetic
as ever and with songs like Eyes Wide Open, Hot Corner and Juliet
of the Spirits, and the title track bringing warm reminders of Good
Stuff, Roam and Summer of Love, the B-52s are still
adding fine material to their portfolio.
