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Volume 27, Issue 13, November 04, 2004

Audio Files

album reviews

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
(Anti- Records, 2004)

Nick Cave is quite the renaissance man. As he's built his reputation as an icon of the underground music scene over the last 30 years or so, he's also found time to become a published author, a soundtrack composer and movie actor. Now this post-punk icon has tackled one of music's great pretensions, the double album.

The problem with double albums, of course, is that most bands' ambition outstrips their execution. Stretching barely enough ideas for one album into two is asking for trouble. The result is almost always stuffed with filler and overdone.

Of course, Cave isn't most bands. He's been recording music for a long time and his catalog is well regarded among both critics and fans. This effort should be a welcome addition to that body of work. It's full of the familiar dark balladry, raucous blues-fueled riffs and gospel tinges that have marked his work over the years. In other words, no radical departures here. As usual, he is accompanied by his backing band the Bad Seeds.

Each disk has a pretty distinct mood, with the first, Abattoir Blues, housing the rowdy rock and roll tracks and the second, The Lyre Of Orpheus, full of slower, more contemplative work.

Both disks manage to maintain a consistent feel while featuring enough variations in dynamics and mood to keep it from getting tedious. Most of the tracks are quite good and it manages to escape the typical double album trap of drowning in its own pretentious filler and half-baked ideas. Is it overdone? Maybe slightly, but Cave is approaching the status of living legend, so it's easy to overlook.

Besides, Cave seems to think anything worth overdoing is worth overdoing in style. Each disk has its own name, the lyric booklet is printed on heavy stock and the whole thing is packaged in a lovely cloth case with photos of flowers. It's a beautiful package and the kind of effort that convinces download junkies to actually shell out the cash to own the album.

Whether you're a fan of Cave going back to his days with The Birthday Party or have never heard a lick of his music, this is an album that's easy to recommend. It's full of solid songwriting, skilled musicianship and experimental flourishes, all wrapped in a package more appealing than an M&M's candy shell.

- Cory Casciato

Har Mar Superstar
The Handler
(Record, 2004)

Har Mar Superstar is a sleazy, cheesy, Stevie wannabe. Sean Tillman returns as his chubby, disco-loving, skin-showing, porn star-looking persona, Har Mar Superstar, offering a third serving of his sweat, blood and bodily fluids.

The Handler mixes his dance floor anthems with soul, disco, and an indie sensibility underscored by a sexual thrust. The sleaze is sometimes delivered with a sly wink; other times it's just overwrought and transparent.

Top-notch production skills are evident and some of the hooks are "catchy as crabs." "Body Request" and "Back the Camel Up" prove to be the most user-friendly among the songs.

Stevie Wonder deserves a debt of gratitude for his influence on the structure and aesthetic of "Alone Again (Naturally)," "Sugar Pie"-right down to the harmonica-and the album's straight-up ballad, "O."

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs lend welcome support on two of the best songs. Karen O lends a duet and vocal utterances to "Cut Me Up," while Nick Zinner's guitar and bass provide the pop-and-lock groove on "As (Seasons)."

Har Mar needs to drop the shtick, round up a crack band of musicians, and celebrate his influences with the killer soul album he's capable of. The Handler ultimately feels like a trite and soulless one-night stand.

- Chip Boehm

Son, Ambulance
Key
(Saddle Creek, 2004)

Finding songs that are well written is somewhat of a challenge, but Key, the newest full-length from Son, Ambulance, makes the quest for good music a little bit easier.

Emerging from Omaha, Joe Knapp has lent his hometown, lonely songwriter-style lyrics to a soft, instrumentally mature sound.

After their debut split with Bright Eyes, Oh Holy Fools, released in 2001, followed by Euphemystic, also 2001, Key is the perfect addition to their growing list of awe-inspiring songs.

Son, Ambulance's indie-rock, folk-pop sound mixes the sentimentality and innovation of The Weakerthans with the classic piano sound of Billy Joel. Each song is an outpouring of soul, reassuring the listener that it is okay to feel real emotions, individuality requires taking some chances, and that true art still exists.

Even to the most cynical punk rocker, Knapp is able to shed a glimmer of hope and light through his music to what can often be a very heartless art form.

This is the perfect album to bust out some old photo albums, warm up some chai tea, and light a few candles to.

- Sarah Conway

Chris Thile
Deceiver
(Sugarhill, 2004)

Chris Thile's musical virtuosity is impressive, indeed. On his new album, Deceiver, Thile is featured not only as mandolin player, a role he plays to widespread acclaim in the bluegrass band Nickel Creek, but as a self-contained one-man-band. Over the course of the album's ten tracks, Thile plays over 25 instruments, including electric guitar, violin, viola, cello, bouzouki, various bass instruments, drums, piano, and more. For all his expertise at switching instruments, Thile seems to lack fluency in songwriting. The compositions benefit from the diverse instrumentation and Thile's voice exudes a certain petulant appeal, but overall the album lacks an underlying hook. The opening song, "The Wrong Idea," rambles and fumbles despite the expert ability of the musician, never seeming to find its stride. Similarly, "The Believer" relies on an ill-defined structure and lyrics that are more concerned with rhyme than substance.

The best parts of the album revolve around Thile's primary instrument, the mandolin. "Jessamyr's Reel," an instrumental unencumbered by multiple tracks, eloquently highlights Thile's strength as an innovator on an instrument largely ignored in pop music. "I'm Nowhere and You're Everything" revels more in the overdubs that mark the rest of the album, but here the mandolin remains the central element.

Thile's instrumental fluency is remarkable, but he remains his most affecting when he keeps his mandolin in the forefront. Unfortunately, there aren't enough of these more direct moments and the album ultimately gets bogged down by its lofty goals.

- Adam Goldstein

The Music
Welcome to the North
(Capitol, 2004)

Shortly after the release of their debut EP, You Might as Well Try and Fuck Me, British music magazine NME called The Music, "potentially the most important band since Oasis."

Unfortunately, the band's second full-length album Welcome to the North lives up to that prediction.

The Music's second effort at a full-length CD is much more forgettable than important, just like Oasis' second album, What's the Story, Morning Glory.

Another similarity between the two is the way that The Music's sound is strongly reminiscent of many other bands. If sounding exactly like numerous other acts is their goal, they have accomplished it well.

At times, they sound just like Jane's Addiction, other times they try way too hard to be The Beatles. A few of the other groups this British pop quartet rips off on their "much anticipated" second album are The Mars Volta, The Shins and Nirvana

The band simply tries too hard to change genres from song to song. The problem is that every song reminds the listener of one they have heard before, never a good quality in an original composition.

Devoted new school British rock revival fans might find a way to enjoy this album, but those who can tell an original act from yet another lame knock off should just stick to Radiohead.

- Adam Brown

pick of the litter

At its best moments, Ben Harper's new album There Will Be a Light, featuring the Blind Boys of Alabama, skillfully blends old gospel and new pop.

The most inspiring tracks effectively combine choral resonance with sleek studio effects to forge a sound that's both familiar and fresh.

Its less inspired moments, however, miss the mark in this unlikely fusion, fumbling somewhere between the spiritually stirring and the superficially emotive.

Throughout the album, the Blind Boys of Alabama provide a hauntingly beautiful and poignant vocal template to Harper's lead.

On tracks like "Satisfied Mind" and "Mother Pray," the sound of Harper and the Blind Boys comes together to deliver a profound effect.

Indeed, the legendary gospel septet contributes a degree of unalloyed emotion in their delivery that hearkens back to such blues and gospel pioneers as Blind Willie Johnson, Mahalia Jackson and The Soul Stirrers.

It is a sound so rooted in the history of American pop music, and so specific to the first half of the century, it can seem somewhat incongruous with Harper's more polished sound.

"Church On Time" and "Where Could I Go," for example, fail in fully integrating their distinct sounds. Instead, it is a hybrid that is more pop than gospel, more flash than faith.

Despite these occasional shortfalls, the album remains a noble experiment in fusing old and new. More significantly, it is a touching tribute to the gospel sound, a genre borne of faith that helped to forever define American popular music.

- Adam Goldstein