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It's Blitz!
Release Date: 2009-03-31
Sales rank: 139
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the New York City music scene floated in a surfaceless orbit of samplers, shoegazers, and delay pedals. The city's guitars lay choked by a digital fog, or else they lay dustily forgotten. Then, in 2002, an unbridled five-song EP by an unknown band brought noise, sex, passion, and mayhem back to the stage and to the stereo. The band's name evoked the kid who knows that whoever's in charge is full of s**t -- "yeah, yeah, yeah" -- but it also rang with the affirmation of pure rock and roll: F**k yeah! The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' first full-length album, Fever to Tell, was simultaneously filthy, infectious, sloppy, and brilliant. You could dance to it, and you could probably die to it. "Maps" was nominated for a Grammy, and the record went gold in the UK. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs spawned a new breed of power trio. They work together as a single organism, but each member maintains their own personality and contributes their own strengths. Think of them as a three-piece Earth, Wind, and Fire. On second thought, it's probably better if you didn't do that. Brian Chase's drumming couldn't be tighter or more precise, even as the band descends into the pitch-dark caves of noise he frequents in his free-jazz spare time--and one can hear rigor and experiment behind even his simplest, no-frills (or -fills) rhythms. Nick Zinner's guitar pushes back--hard--against Chase's formalism, grounding the group in rock and roll at its ballsiest, dirtiest, and most shredly. His soaring, sometimes grinding lines are wires connecting Chase's drums to the psychologically kaleidoscopic vocals of Karen O, who, as the New Yorker has noted, would have been a success "had she appeared with nothing more than a microphone and a pair of maracas." The band developed an itchy and unshakeable aversion to repeating itself. It would have been easy enough to record another spastic, live-sounding garage album after the success of Fever, but their next full-length, 2007's Show Your Bones, added acoustic guitar and more serious compositions that picked up on the direction suggested by a song like "Maps." Rolling Stone called the record a "textural triumph," and the group honed their legendary stage performance -- one cannot understand the Yeah Yeah Yeahs without seeing Karen O writhing and thriving onstage. A handful of great songs that didn't make it onto Bones became tour staples (and fan favorites), and the band sat down with the celebrated PiL/Slits/Gang of Four producer Nick Launay to record 2007's EP Is Is. Last year, the Yeahs shook their Etch A Sketch® clean to start work on a new record with producers Dave Sitek and Nick Launay. "We usually go into these things totally blind," Karen O said. "We have no idea what's going to happen when we sit down." This empty page feeling was helped by geography: they began writing the record in the middle of a snowstorm, in a hundred-year-old barn in rural Massachusetts. "You looked out the window and it was just pastures and pastures of snow-covered fields," she said. Zinner had brought along a synthesizer to work with during the writing session, not expecting it to end up on the album. "That was an old keyboard I bought on eBay," he said. "Literally, it was the first day we were setting up, plugging things in. Ten minutes later, we'd written that song 'Skeletons.'" The song--and the whole record--have a new feeling of space and atmosphere that's unusual for the band. "Obviously, synths have been in rock music forever," Zinner says. "But to us it feels new, which is all we really care about--that excitement." It's Blitz! signals both a glance backward and a step forward for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Zinner's vintage Arp--the same model used on records by The Cars, Joy Division, and Kraftwerk--contributes atmospheric washes ("Skeletons"), disco wiggles ("Dance till you're dead!" Karen sings on "Heads Will Roll"), and New Wave melodrama ("Soft Shock"). The first single, "Zero," combines all these elements to create a dance-floor anthem that sings directly to the listener. "We've got a death grip on the adolescent way of feeling things," O said. That's something I'll never be able to shake in the music I write. It's almost feels like a John Hughes 80s movie." But acknowledging the past in this way doesn't sound make for a nostalgic-sounding album. "I think there's a cool stability reflected in this record," Brian Chase says. "It reflects our transformation, and how we've developed as people." |
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Because of the Times
Release Date: 2007-04-03
Sales rank: 192
Third album from the rockin' American quartet whose previous albums (2003's Youth And Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak from '05) have earned them a large worldwide following. Consisting of three brothers and a cousin, the Kings Of Leon mix their own brand of Southern Rock with touches of Garage, Punk and Alternative swagger. RCA.Aha Shake Heartbreak may have blown open the doors of fame for Kings of Leon, but their third full-length album (named for a United Pentecostal Church ministers' conference) could well usher the Nashville foursome directly to rock and roll's zenith. There's hardly a change in plans for the three Followill brothers and their cousin, and that means producer Ethan Johns, a smorgasbord of musical influences, and a cacophonous ensemble of guitar, bass, and drums. A trio of relentless rockers--"My Party," "Camaro," and the sarcastic "Charmer"--are sure to pacify those familiar with the Kings' blueprint, yet there is ripening in the band's approach heard, in several of the record's 13 songs. Reverb guitar and vocals and a "woo woo" chorus add a sinister aspect to "Trunk," and "Knocked Up" features a laissez-faire Caleb Followill crooning "She don't care what her mama said/She's gonna have my baby." The seven-minute revelation of fatherhood that opens the album leads into the U2-influenced "McFearless," a reggae-splashed "Ragoo," and the rambling English blues of "Black Thumbnail." It's a rogue element that has always left every record fresh, and this time it has Kings of Leon teetering on the edge of rock renown. --Scott Holter |
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Aha Shake Heartbreak
Release Date: 2005-02-22
Sales rank: 610
Limited edition 2004 album from Kings Of Leon featuring the first single 'The Bucket'. Hand Me Down. Having released a debut album that you can safely say was well received (the NME described it as, 'one of the best debut albums of the last ten years'), Kings Of Leon have their work cut out to produce a suitable follow-up. Thankfully their sophomore effort, the strangely titled ‘A-Ha Shake Heartbreak’, is more than a match for its illustrious predecessor. Fast paced, lyrically shocking and, rather surprisingly, with added yodelling, ‘A Ha Shake Heartbreak’, is a shoe-in for one of the best albums of 2004.Nomadic Southern evangelist Leon Followill may take soap suds to the mouths of the kinfolk wunderkinds--his three sons and a nephew--in Tennessee quartet Kings of Leon, whose second album spins enough cuss phrases and sexual allusions to leave Dolly Parton flushed. But the peculiar 20-something longhairs also fuel up on a filthy shotgun bass and relentless guitar riffs, complementing the delightfully discordant drawl of vocalist Caleb Followill to whittle a 35-minute grab bag of garage rock, English blues, sixties psychedelia, London Calling-ska, spaced-out country waltzes and front-porch, red-state revelry. Without revising its 2003 debut Youth & Young Manhood, producer Ethan Johns (The Jayhawks, Ray LaMontagne) steers the band down a similar mischievous road, integrating poles-apart rhythms and techniques into an energized jumble of rotating tempos and lyrical bombshells. Putting faith in earth-shakers like "Velvet Snow" and "Pistol Of Fire," the wound down and pleasing "Milk" and its yodeling cousin "Day Old Blues," the Kings ultimately escape Preacher Leon’s retribution, rendering him speechless--save for a simple "amen." --Scott Holter |
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Youth & Young Manhood
Release Date: 2003-08-19
Sales rank: 1166
Already tagged with the unfortunate critical label of "southern-fried Strokes," the full-length debut by the brothers Followill (Nathan, Jared, Caleb) and cousin (Matthew Followill) may well have its roots in their itinerant evangelist father Leon blasting his sons with relentless doses of ‘70s rock as they traveled the South from one preaching gig to the next. But the way the Kings channel sources as disparate as Led Zeppelin's "That's the Way" into "Joe's Head" or the Who's "Circles" into their ""Molly's Chambers" seems almost subconscious; after a decade of bands trying to reinvent the rock wheel, it's refreshing to hear one content to gleefully pry it loose and send it spinning in their own peculiar directions. As with all the great ones, deconstructing the Kings' sound doesn't get you far: singer/guitarist Caleb perpetually seems to be rolling one too many syllables off a lazy, Southern tongue while his haystack-haired brothers and cousin chug maniacally along like some lost, recently re-tooled '60s garage-psych-rock legend. In the end there's not an ounce of the Strokes' latent pop culture self-consciousness in the Kings' intoxicating sonic haze--just the restless, often bittersweet noise of one of the most original bands to hail from Dixie since R.E.M. --Jerry McCulley |
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Santigold
Release Date: 2008-04-29
Sales rank: 531
"The future of music, today" - Rolling Stone 10 Artists To Watch. "Singing in a haunting, sensual wail...she adds a layer of softness to an unusual mix of synthesizers, dance hall rhythms, and percolating new wave" - NY Times. "Future-pop princess...next big thing" - Spin. "Santi White is Santogold...the collaborators and players may change, the sounds may shift, but at the center is one woman's indelible vision" - The Fader. SXSW / Coachella shows, 2007 tours with Bjork, M.I.A., songs featured in Entourage, Grey's Anatomy, Grand Theft Auto.Don't call Santi White an R&B artist: on her debut album Santogold, this former music biz A&R and pop songwriter for hire is challenging race stereotypes and playing fast and loose with genre, mashing up dub, punk, and electronics to make an energetic, anger-fuelled music that blurs the lines between the dancefloor and the moshpit. Comparisons to MIA hold some water, especially on the bullish "Creator" (it's worth noting that Santogold features production turns from sometime MIA collaborators Diplo and Switch). For the most part, though, Santogold's debut follows a quite different path. "L.E.S Artists" is stirring new-wave pop that builds to grand, tearful choruses reminiscent of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, while "You'll Find a Way" and "Say Aha" are propulsive ska-pop numbers that hark back to its creator's previous band, Bad Brains-influenced punks Stiffed. But it's not just skilful genre-skipping to recommend this record, though: White is the rare vocalist that can sound empowered and vulnerable within the space of the same song, and it's her force of character that places Santogold ahead of the pack. --Louis Pattison |
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Consolers Of The Lonely
Release Date: 2008-03-25
Sales rank: 1416
Consolers Of The Lonely follows The
Raconteurs 2006 debut album Broken
Boy Soldiers, which went Top 10, was
Grammy® nominated for Best Rock
Album, and spun off a #1 Modern Rock hit. Led by singer-songwriter-guitarists Jack White of The White Stripes and Brendan Benson, The Raconteurs
relocated to Nashville and moved to
Warner Bros. Fascinating, engaging, and rocking, Consolers Of The Lonely
fulfills the promise of the teaming of
two masters of power pop. |
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Attack and Release
Release Date: 2008-04-01
Sales rank: 2093
Limited Edition pressing of their 2008 album comes in double fold digipak packaging. On Attack and Release, Danger Mouse is more creative co- conspirator than traditional figure behind the boards. He doesn’t radically alter the duo ’s sound so much as coax out more of its inherent soulfulness, groove and bittersweet emotion. Two versions of 'Remember When' illustrate how the duo can swing easily from smoldering ballad to thrashing rocker. 'I’ m more pleased with the sound of this record than any one we’v e ever made,' says Carney, and Auerbach concurs: 'We never let it all go l ike we did for this one, anything was game. It was just fun to make, and that’s why I t hink it’s so successful.' V2.Of all the two-piece rock bands (Dresden Dolls, The White Stripes, The Kills, John & Jehn) out there making a royal racket, The Black Keys are by far the least affected by the last three decades of popular music, and evolution. Even more so than Jack & Meg. Which makes you check the album credits twice and then seek a second opinion--produced by celebrated uber-producer, superstar DJ and one half of Gnarls Barkley, the ubiquitous and really quite modern Danger Mouse?! No, your eyes do not deceive you, but thankfully neither do your ears. He may have brought a discipline and expensive sheen to Attack & Release, the riffing is buffed up real good, but this is essentially the same band that continues to live less of a life and more a Jimi Hendrix Experience. If there is a change it's that for the first time their foot is teased off the accelerator, with "Lies", "Remember When (Side A)" and "Oceans & Streams" loosening their shoulders and playing a more chilled brand of dusty sunset southern blues, adding in keys and new layers of texture (is that really a flute on "Same Old Thing"?!). There's still plenty of chance, on the massive Zeppelin-esque "Strange Times" and "Remember When (Side B)" for instance, to leave a boot mark though. More release than attack this time around, but the key still fits. --James Berry |
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Steppenwolf: All Time Greatest Hits
Release Date: 1999-11-23
Sales rank: 1635
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The Crow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Release Date: 1994-03-29
Sales rank: 1099
Based on the hit comic book about a man who returns from the dead to avenge his killers, the film adaptation of The Crow suffered a cruel irony when star Brandon Lee (son of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee) died during production after a bizarre onset accident. That event only deepened the film's aura of death and gothic unease, moods that are brilliantly underscored by this well-chosen collection of stark alt rock, dark metal, and industrial dirges. The opener, the Cure's typically angst-ridden "Burn," is about as sentimental as this album gets, bookended by Jane Siberry's wistful "It Can't Rain All the Time." Sandwiched in between is a virtual primer on powerful mid-1990s alt and industrial rock, from Nine Inch Nails hammering Joy Division's "Dead Souls" into its own image to the blistering snarl of Helmet, Pantera, and the Rollins Band. So-called pop-song scores often have a cheap afterthought feel to them; this one, a refreshingly integral part of the film itself, stands as a great album in its own right. --Jerry McCulley |
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Death Proof
Release Date: 2007-04-03
Sales rank: 1515
Directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez spent $53 million to pay loving tribute to the vintage hundred-thousand-dollar exploitation fare that inspired Grindhouse's two-movies-for-the-price-of-one thrill ride. Tarantino's half of the exercise (which also includes Robert Rodriguez's self-scored Planet Terror) features another effusive slice of the director's eclectic musical sensibility to underscore its manic tale of stuntman/psycho-killer Kurt Russell and his muscle-car-fueled exploits. Tarantino works from a familiar formula that variously mixes evocative, semi-obscure Italian film cues from Morricone and Dinaggio, contrasting slices of '60s catalog from the great Jack Nitzsche and Brit Invasion also-rans DDDBM&T and some '70s fodder from both ends of the Top 40 via Smith and T. Rex, also stirring in a savory mid-disc run of R&B that stretches from PG&E's upbeat read of "Stagger Lee" through more familiar fare from Joe Tex, Eddie Floyd, and the Coasters. The director also serves up a couple of those deliciously off-kilter obscurities that have come to be his musical trademark as a coda: Eddie Beram's thumping "Riot in Thunder Alley" and April March's infectious ditz-pop take on Serge Gainsbourg's loopy "Chick Habit." --Jerry McCulley |
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