Proving a good CD is as much about the production team as the performer, ‘‘After the Storm,’’ is an uneven effort. When paired with the right collaborator, Monica makes the most of her first album in five years. Unfortunately, she also indulges in far too many rank-and-file wannabe-Beyonce duds. The albums best moments come courtesy of two songs co-written and produced by Missy Elliott, who also served as executive producer for the entire project. Magic flutes sampled from The Whispers ‘‘You Are Number One’’ give ‘‘So Gone’’ a pleasing retro feel.
Backed up by a falsetto chorus and another old-school sample, Monica is at her sassy best as she warns a cheating boyfriend not to come calling on ‘‘Knock Knock.’’ It’s too bad the whole album doesn’t sound like this. ‘‘U Should’ve Known Better,’’ which Monica co-wrote with producer Jermaine Dupri, is a ‘‘paint-by-numbers’’ effort, bringing nothing new to the table in sound or lyrics. Jerkins fares a bit better with the uptempo ‘‘Ain’t Gonna Cry No More.’’ But you can hear what is in essence the same song on Jerkins collaborations with other artists.
Excluding the disjointed ‘‘Get it Off,’’ nothing on ‘‘After the Storm’’ is out-and-out unlistenable. The best of the CD is soulful, imaginative and unique — that’s what makes the rest sound like so much pointless filler.
— Rachel Kipp, The Associated Press
Tricky
‘‘Vulnerable’’
Trip-hop artist Tricky’s seventh album, ‘‘Vulnerable,’’ oozes with understatement but offers songs so tough to latch onto that even his quasi-inventiveness can’t save it. ‘‘Vulnerable’’ appears really to be a showcase for whispering Italian songstress Constanza Francavila, who doesn’t sound Italian or sing very well, in all honesty. She’s on practically every track, breathily airing out vocals on key but lacking any punch or emotion. The best track is ‘‘Hollow,’’ a haunting ode to addictive love, thrown over a slow electronic beat with a nifty reverb effect. For all the visionary labels foisted upon Tricky, ‘‘Vulnerable’’ is genuinely weak.
Neither he nor Francavilla puts in enough energy to take the songs beyond low decibel lounge fodder. There are enough production tricks included to make the album interesting to other musicians, but Tricky gives the common listener nothing to cling to. You’ll hear some sounds you’ve never heard before, but most you’ll never want to hear again.
— Ron Harris, The Associated Press
Suzy Bogguss
‘‘Swing’’
Suzy Bogguss has collaborated with Texas swing maestro Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel on her latest album, ‘‘Swing.’’ Bogguss has a simple voice that suits this selection of inflected standards and originals perfectly. The album begins with Bogguss’s interpretation of Nat King Cole’s ‘‘Straighten Up and Fly Right’’ Her version is light, breezy and upbeat.
The singer also tackles Ellington’s ‘‘Do Nothing ‘‘Til You’ve Heard From Me’’ and the standards ‘‘Comes Love’’ and Sweetheart’’ with the same sophisticated touch. In addition to sharing production work on ‘‘Swing’’ with Bogguss, Benson provides some tasty guitar work thoughout the record. His bandmate Jason Roberts adds a flavorful fiddle on several tracks, including the uptempo ‘‘Jumpin into Spring’’, written by Nashville songwriters David Hungate and April Barrows, and Barrows’ ‘‘Burnin’’ the Toast,’’ a playful paean to marriage. On ‘‘Swing’’, Bogguss has extended herself beyond her usual oeuvre, and fortunately the material is
comfortably within her reach.
— Jim Collins, The Associated Press
Bleu
‘‘Redhead’’
Bleu McCauley, a Boston-based singer-songwriter, doesn’t offer introspective lyrics, wry social commentary or clever melodic hooks that one might hope for from an up-and-coming artist. Instead, his debut disc features banal, inane lyrics throughout. The twelve songs on ‘‘Redhead’’ are guitar-based. While there are a few occassions when it seems a riff may take off and buouy the song, it almost always deteriorates around a syrupy chorus.
‘‘I Won’t Go Hollywood’’, has a catchy enough guitar intro, but between the idiotic lyrics ( ‘‘Sell me out/Sell me in/Color me misunderstood/I won’t go Hollywood’’), and the nauseating melody on the chorus, it sounds like a poor imitation of Cheap Trick with none of the irony. The rest of the songs, with titles like ‘‘We’ll Do it All Again, ‘‘Could Be Worse,’’ ‘‘Watchin’ You Sleep,’’ ‘‘Somethin’s Gotta Give’’ and ‘‘You Know, I Know, You Know’’ are completely devoid of any originality both lyrically and musically. Even ‘‘Searchin’ for the Satellites,’’ despite a slightly interesting image suggested in the title, is as poorly written a pop song as one could possibly dread hearing.
— Jim Collins, The Associated Press
Ugly Duckling
‘‘Taste the Secret’’
Yikes! There hasn’t been a smarmy all-white rap crew this lame since Len. Ugly Duckling succeeds in producing the least necessary hip-hop release of the year. Here’s what you need to know in order to properly avoid Ugly Duckling: They’ve watched too much TV, they don’t appear have a street cred bone in their three bodies and they lean way too heavily on comical skits about a mythical fast-food joint that only sells meat products.
The only thing to take away from ‘‘Taste the Secret’’ is an occasional solid beat scheme. ‘‘Energy Drink’’ and ‘‘Daisy’’ — songs about an energy drink and a girl named Daisy, coincidentally enough — have a really polished break-beat style layered with sprinkles of retro-organ hits. ‘‘Taste the Secret’’ relies too heavily on 1960s and ’70s derivative sound samples.
It’s an accomplished feat to blend it all together — and without a curse word in sight — but it makes for comparatively thin listening when the world of hip-hop and rap has clearly gone in another direction. Here’s a final tip for Ugly Duckling: Comedy is a crutch.
— Ron Harris, The Associated Press
Various Artists
‘‘The Folk Years’’
At nearly $100, Time Life Music’s academic-style look at folk music and its impact on popular music is a bit pricey. But if quality and completeness are any indication, buyers will get their money’s worth — not just in the dozens of established and little-known examples of American folk music on the eight-disc set, but also in the background information, excellent liner notes and quick nuggets of info on the artists, the songs’ origins and more.
That’s a good element of this collection, because folk music is more than just twangy songs and attitude. Folk music is American poetry, set to music, that tells stirring stories and illuminates a time in the country’s history when upheaval was the order of the day. To wit, the collection provides a solid sampling of the music that drove American folk, from its early inception on AM radios in the 1930s to the FM force it became in the 1960s, spearheaded in part by Bob Dylan, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Arlo Guthrie and the New Christy Minstrels. Besides well-known stalwarts like The Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, and Judy Collins, there are some gems from performers that don’t normally wear the folk label, including the Beach Boys playing ‘‘Sloop John B’’ and Harry Belafonte singing ‘‘Banana Boat (Day-O).’’
— Matt Moore, The Associated Press
The Beach Boys
‘‘Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys’’
A greatest hits collection, ‘‘Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys,’’ offers both newcomers and longtime fans a chance to get acquainted (or reacquainted) with America’s greatest pop group through the many phases of their career. Early gems from their blue-striped shirt period start the collection. ‘‘I Get Around’’ surges with quick energy, guitar and drums rumble like a Camaro’s engine. ‘‘Surfer Girl’’ is a heartbreaker ballad with choral vocals like a plaintive high school glee club. The fun-and-sun tunes give way to more orchestrated songs. Brian Wilson, the group’s bassist and main songwriter, mixed instruments and voices in dense movements.
‘‘Good Vibrations’’ was the high point of this period, a small suite of shifting parts with choir vocals, pipe organ and the ghostly, wailing theremin. Popularity waned for The Beach Boys after this, but they still put out quality albums and singles, from Brian Wilson’s disturbed, introspective work of the late ’60s (‘‘Wild Honey’’) to the glassy hits of the ’80s (‘‘Kokomo’’). There’s a reason The Beach Boys get played every half hour on oldies radio — forty years on and they still sound creative and energetic.
— Mark Donahue, The Associated Press
Drive-By Truckers
‘‘Decoration Day’’
‘‘Rock ’n’ roll means well, but it can’t help telling young boys lies.’’ This is one of the sharpest lines from ‘‘Decoration Day,’’ the new album by Athens, Ga.’s Drive-By Truckers. But really these Southern boys are much more about truth served up with a side of sweet tea and a scoop of banana pudding. This is the follow-up to the acclaimed ‘‘Southern Rock Opera,’’ an ambitious and entertaining musical tale that incorporates the saga of Lynyrd Skynyrd in its larger view of the South. As good as that was, this one’s even better.
From the refusal to mourn of ‘‘When the Pin Hits the Shell’’ (‘‘Me and you, we liked our pills and whiskey. But you don’t want your head full of either one when the house gets quiet and dark’’) to the farmer fighting a losing battle with the bank in ‘‘Sink Hole,’’ there’s plenty of sadness and Southernness. You won’t find any of that ‘‘new rock’’ whining here. The characters in these songs don’t want your pity. The facts are sad enough without the ‘‘poor me’’ posturing. The music keeps all the death and misfortune at bay.
The raucous rave-up ‘‘Marry Me’’ is the spitting image of the Rolling Stones circa ‘‘Exile on Main Street.’’ In fact, much of ‘‘Decoration Day’’ rocks like nothing else being made these days. It’s not polished to a perfect sheen, but rock ’n’ roll isn’t supposed to be pristine. It’s supposed to be gritty, greasy and the gospel truth. ‘‘Decoration Day’’ is all that and more. Not only is it the best rock ’n’ roll collection to come out of Georgia this year, it’s one of the best albums of the year, period.
— Shane Harrison, Atlanta Journal Constitution
Aphex Twin
‘‘26 Mixes for Cash’’
Richard D. James, a.k.a. Aphex Twin, is one of those artists people either get or don’t. This two-CD collection of all the remixes James has done over the years makes a case for both sides. Most of these selections are stark and minimalist, but beneath James’ seemingly antagonistic approach to music are moments of great beauty. Those moments, which are frequent on this collection, are as intelligent as electronic music gets.
— Soren Baker, Los Angeles Times
O.A.R.
‘‘In Between Now and Then’’
Having built a strong, young following on the Eastern U.S. circuit before its jump to a major label, O.A.R. shadows two predecessors on that path: the Dave Matthews Band, though without the tricky rhythms and dreamlike lyrics, and Hootie & the Blowfish, though without the classic-soul grounding. O.A.R. downplays its reggae leanings after the opening ‘‘Dareh Meyod,’’ and singer Marc Roberge sounds very serious, but this is frat-party music at its core, light and trouble-free.
— Steve Hochman, Los Angeles Times
Death in Vegas
‘‘Scorpio Rising’’ (Sanctuary). 3 1/2 stars|
‘‘Scorpio Rising’’ moves this British duo to the top of the electronic world by taking a step back from that scene. Techno reigns on the instrumental tracks, but the album is a complete sonic journey, stopping in the realms of ’60s Brit rock (the title track, featuring Paul Weller) and folk (the wonderful ‘‘Killing Smile,’’ with Hope Sandoval). Liam Gallagher and Dot Allison also lend their vocals with equal aplomb.
— Steve Baltin, Los Angeles Times
Eddie Palmieri
‘‘Ritmo Caliente’’
There’s a moment in Eddie Palmieri’s new album where the veteran pianist recaps an extended new arrangement of the La Perfecta standard ‘‘Lzaro y su Micrfono’’ with a slightly dissonant but profoundly affecting solo. It concludes with a playful cowbell accent, after which majestic trombones burst into action, leading into an electrifying, relentlessly danceable groove. This brief passage of pure salsa magic illustrates the savoir-faire with which Palmieri commands the principles of Afro-Caribbean instrumental combustion.
His arrangements are almost perverse in their ingenuity, combining the cold eye of a calculating scientist with the visceral instinct of a self-taught prodigy. Joined by a superlative band that includes Nuyorican sonero Hermn Olivera, Palmieri looms in the current landscape of tropical music as the last of the larger-than-life giants. The bandleader’s previous album was a somewhat hesitant affair, resurrecting his ’60s days with La Perfecta, a group that was decades ahead of its time.
But ‘‘Ritmo Caliente’’ is much more than an exercise in nostalgia. From the funky Bach-meets-Africa experimentation of ‘‘Gigue’’ to the smoldering, bolero-con-strings lushness of ‘‘Tema Para Rene,’’ this is a volatile album that is firmly planted on contemporary ground while drawing from a torrid musical recipe that might never go out of style.
— Ernesto Lechner, Los Angeles Times
Grandaddy
‘‘Sumday’’
‘‘OK with my decay’’ doesn’t exactly rival the lyrics of ‘‘My Generation’’ or ‘‘Rust Never Sleeps’’ as rock anthem material, but it’s a breakthrough for Jason Lytle, the leader of this Modesto, Calif. band. It’s not an easily reached philosophy for him, though, and the struggle to embrace it is the essence of Grandaddy’s fourth album. The opening ‘‘Now It’s On’’ has him revved with purpose, but the next song, ‘‘I’m on Standby,’’ is an emotional retreat.
That forward-and-back dance continues through the album, right to ‘‘The Final Push to the Sum,’’ in which Lytle asks, ‘‘If my old life is done, then what have I become?’’ Still, acceptance is the key here — acceptance of the aging process and of life in their hometown. Much here is very much a love letter to Modesto, most explicitly ‘‘Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake,’’ which is sort of ‘‘Our Town’’ in just under four minutes.
That relatively settled feeling is also heard in the music, which for better or worse is more straightforward than on 2000’s buoyant ‘‘The Sophtware Slump.’’ Surprises and invention are lacking a bit, but the direct, confident pop rush is enticing.
