Shudder to Think 50,000 BC (Epic/Sony)Shudder to Think dive into uncharted waters as usual but this time around they should have dipped a foot in first. Their prog-rock sound of 1994's Pony Express Record gets taken down a couple of notches in favour of a flat '70s radio sound. It's not all bad: there's something to be said for punk rock Genesis. But at its worst 50,000 BC sounds like Bread through a Marshall stack. And no one needs to hear that. 6/10 (Johnson Cummins) DJ Muggs Presents...The Soul Assassins Chapter 1 (Columbia)With KRS-One, the Rza and Mobb Deep on board, one would assume the rest would be easy. Somehow, however, Muggs just doesn't go where he could have. Instead, unnecessary risk is avoided by creating beats that each artist is already too familiar with. Nonetheless, Dr. Dre and B Real's "Puppet Master" and Goodie Mob's supreme lyrical cut, "Decisions, Decisions" will keep heads ringin'. 7.5/10 (John Turner) L7 The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum (Slash/WEA)Always on the more metallic side of the chick-rock spectrum, L7's raunch is best spewed through clenched teeth. And though Beauty Process packs plenty of that tight-jawed ferocity, too much bad chord melodrama and not enough big bass banging turns the crude to corny. 6.5/10 (Ilana Kronick) Gert Wilden & Orchestra I Told You Not to Cry (Crippled Dick Hot Wax/Cargo)
I Told You Not to Cry is one of the best things to come down the acid lounge pipe since Vampyros Lesbos or The Sound Gallery. Composer Gert Wilson proves himself a talented composer, ultilizing the smoking gun sounds of Henry Mancini and John Barry while sticking in traces of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West. Through masterful mimicry, Wilden is a chameleon in a class all his own. 8/10 (Johnson Cummins)
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