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 Buck 65
Situation (Warner)
Dropping the mercurial drift of 2005’s Secret House Against the World, Nova Scotia’s Richard “Buck 65” Terfry zooms back in on his raspy raps and hardscrabble hip hop here. Skratch Bastid’s production ably serves Terfry’s free-associative, B-movie fever dreams of hipsters, hustlers, heroes and hard-luck cases. It’s an eloquent exploded view of atomic-age society’s frayed fringes, anchored in the portentous year 1957. Loosely, though—the appropriately titled “Dang,” for instance, charts the shockwaves in the half-century since over a sweet reassembling of the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Let There Be Drums.” The special edition’s DVD includes a so-so art film, Buck ’n’ Bastid jawing about the record, and a fun bit with a bunch of Terfry’s crappy keepsakes. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Bran Van 3000
Rose (Big Fat Truck/Select)
Like some kind of promiscuous pop casanova, Bran Van 3000 returns with an album steeped in variety and passing fancies. Dipping into soul, rock, reggae, hip hop, dance, pop and even folk, Bran Van’s selections succeed at leaving no stone unturned, with almost every song sonically sound and produced with care. Having said that, we’ll see if this blitz formula takes this ragtag bunch of Montrealers and their lofty, fun-filled musical ideals back to the realm of radio, like they’ve demonstrated with past releases. Let’s hope the remixes offer an even wider range of tastes and the same genre jumping that has made BV3 a hit at home and an international success, two times over. 7.5/10 (Scott C)
 David Gahan
Hourglass (EMI)
With this long-overdue second album in his solo career, Depeche Mode vocalist David Gahan finally makes the album fans have been waiting for. Unlike his first solo foray, Paper Monsters, Hourglass explores the strength and fragility in being a self-abusive icon. Writing his own lyrics and music also gives Gahan his own wings, dark and haggard as they may be. What’s better is that this is a visceral album, full of the fire and passion missing in the past few DM albums. With standouts such as “Deeper + Deeper,” “21 Days” and “Insoluble,” Gahan shows that he can deliver the goods on his own. 8/10 (Lateef Martin)
Ween
La Cucaracha (Rounder)
Ween are well known for throwing curveballs, but on this new one, they give their past a bit of a nod and just pitch heat over the plate. “Friends,” the title track from their recent EP, receives a kitschy Pet Shop Boys revamp, and an unexpected return to their Nashville sound rears its head on the Roger Miller-inspired hoedown “Learnin’ to Love.” But on the long jam of “Woman and Man,” they continue to break new ground.
La Cucaracha, probably their most effervescent release to date, sees Ween’s palette of styles still expanding, proof they still have plenty of great records ahead of them. 7.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
Starvin Hungry
Cold Burns (Signed by Force/Fusion III)
Trigger Effect
Dare to Ride the Heliocraft
(Signed by Force/Fusion III)
For the impossible task of translating the raucous punk rock show to disc, locals Starvin Hungry and Trigger Effect have taken different paths. The former’s sophomore disc has the same intentionally grating lo-fi production we’ve seen from the White Stripes and Hives, but it makes more sense here (since a clean production would have exposed how many of the riffs come from the Cars). The latter is a 20-minute splurge of bloodcurdling vocals and quick, awkward transitions. If the idea was to convey the impression they were smashing bottles of Wild Turkey over their foreheads, then mission accomplished. Neither reinvents the wheel, but Starvin gets the slight nod for delving into blues and post-punk. Both groups proudly flex their pop muscles and penchants for catchy refrains, while retaining the sense of danger and detached coolness every punk band needs. Starvin 7.5/10, Trigger 7/10 (Erik Leijon) Starvin Hungry join Parlour, Dead Doll Dancers at Lickety Split zine launch at Zoobizarre, Sat., Nov. 3, 9 p.m., $6; Trigger Effect join Grimskunk, Sainte Catherines at Club Soda tonight, Thurs., Nov. 1, 7 p.m., $15, all ages
 Serj Tankian
Elect the Dead (Reprise/Warner)
Without System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian’s rock-star posturing, horrible lyrics and atrocious singing, a solo Tankian is catapulted into mission mode and lets his voice soar back into the realm of the uncanny. Leaving little room for levity, Elect the Dead zeroes in on all the political, social, economic and environmental strife caused by the U.S. government and the “unthinking majority” that lets it happen. Tankian’s music writhes in the shadow of SOAD, but only in flashes as he branches out into his own flavour, adding quieter and slower songs. 8.5/10 (Lateef Martin)
 Band of Horses
Cease to Begin (Sub Pop/Outside)
Mount Pleasant could be an utter shithole for all I know, but it sounds like an appropriate home for Band of Horses, who recently relocated to the South Carolina town from Seattle, WA. Their large-scale, leisurely sound is a crowd-pleasing melting pot of gauzy rock guitars, heart-wrenching melodies and strains of roots music (from country to soul) with haunting lyrics and ethereal alto vocals to match. It’s simultaneously accessible pop, with its echoes of widescreen ’80s ballads, and acutely melancholic indie material, recalling their labelmates the Shins and Iron & Wine. 7.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter) With the Drones, Tyler Ramsey at la Tulipe, Thurs., Nov. 8, 8 p.m., $20
 Jens Lekman
Night Falls Over Kortedala
(Secretly Canadian)
Oh, Jens. So wry, so droll, so casual with the low-key chamber pop. Mr. Lekman’s place in the Swedish canon is closer to the likes of the Cardigans and Kent (even ABBA, given the fresh disco infusions here) than Soundtrack of Our Lives (too weighty), the Hives (too rock star) or Peter Björn and John (too modern). With his second LP, featuring the vocal talents of Frida Hyvonen and El Perro del Mar, Lekman is content to lounge comfortably in the world of heartbreak, turtleneck sweaters and drive-in bingo. It’s an acquired taste most palatable for connoisseurs of Belle and Sebastian, Scott Walker and Morrissey mistaking a chocolate bar for a pan flute (YouTube, “November Spawned a Monster”). 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
 Malicious
Music Starts With M (OdoubleF)
Mr. Malish has already demonstrated his dedication to making sure that hip hop heads in Canada and beyond will know his name before all is said and done. With more recognition and visibility across the country than any other Quebec MC at the moment, Malicious finally drops his strategically timed LP. Malish has no problem with the club bangers, as songs like “Yuk,” “Heavy MTL” and “Harder” with Mikey Dangerous attest, and songs like “Walk Alone” and “Hip Hop” show a more pensive side, but I’d like to see him experiment more with his flow. A double-time track like “Ballout” leaves me wanting this MTL talent to do more to set himself apart from the pack. 7/10 (Scott C)
 J. Holiday
Back of My Lac (EMI)
Holiday might seem quite the ladies’ man, courtesy of lead single “Bed” and the equally seductive follow-up “Suffocate,” but one listen to his debut and it’s clear that his real love is weed. No less than four tracks make at least passing reference to reefer, and not since Rick James’s “Mary Jane” has an R&B song celebrated pot as completely as “Laa Laa.” While he does fall into the same old gangsta posturing during tracks like “Come Here” and “Pimp in Me,” he convincingly conjures memories of another solid James track, “Ghetto Life,” with the vividly descriptive “Ghetto.” Seems that when the smoke clears, Holiday can be quite the wordsmith as well. 7/10 (Gerard Dee)
 Toots and the Maytals
Light Your Light (Fantasy/Universal)
As if segueing directly from 2004’s collab-o-ramic comeback True Love, Jamaican pop potentate Frederick “Toots” Hibbert—the cat who coined the word “reggae”—opens his follow-up with a pair of duets, with blues-rock phenomenon Derek Trucks and, again, Bonnie Raitt. Echoes of those flavours subtly accent a set rooted in the sounds of ’60s Kingston—note the ska classic “Guns of Navarone,” a sweet toast to Studio One’s late “Coxsone” Dodd. Though Light Your Light lacks the verve of its predecessor, Hibbert’s voice is still rich and golden, and his songwriting pen ever deft. 7/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
 Lee Konitz-Ohad Talmor Big Band
Portology (Omnitone)
Walter Lang-Lee Konitz
Ashiya (Pirouet)
Sixty-one years after his recording debut with Claude Thornhill, Konitz, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, continues to add to his long list of recordings (the latest Lord Discography lists 446 sessions under his name, 224 of them as a leader). These two present him in very different settings—the former, done in 2006, has him joining Portugal’s Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, directed by Talmor, in a dozen originals including “Sound Lee,” while the latter teams Konitz’s alto with German pianist Lang, a musician he worked with in a duo setting in Germany in 2005, two years prior to this studio recording done in Munich this July. Again, it’s a program of originals, most of them written by Lang. Both 9.5/10 (Len Dobbin)
Mini CD Reviews
Ella Fitzgerald Live at Mister Kelly’s (Verve) Two CDs, 26 tracks, by one great singer, recorded in Chicago in 1958 with Lou Levy, Max Bennett and Gus Johnson, released here for the first time. The question is, why the long wait? 9 (LD)
Various Control OST (Warner) A fine sampler of Joy Division, their musical influences and Manchester peers, with New Order’s bittersweet film score. The Killers’ cover of “Shadowplay,” however, is sacrilege. 8.5 (LC)
Frank N Dank & Young RJ FDR (Classic Material) Detroit fools Frank N Dank know how to get ’em hype, and Young RJ laces them with the goodness on this six-track EP. 8 (SC)
Vivek Shraya If We’re Not Talking (independent) TO electro pop dude rocks, glitters, just wants to be friends. 8 (LC)
Ninjaman Monsters of Dancehall (Greensleeves) Ninjaman rules, but the VP Reggae Anthology comp gives a much better sense of how the Don Gorgon can murder dem. 7 (EM)
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals Follow the Lights (Lost Highway) Warning: This seven-song EP is reserved for diehards only. 7 (JC)
Skye Sweetnam Sound Soldier (EMI) This noisy and
cluttered pop record is sooooooooo 2003. 2 (EL)
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