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It's taken one year to get Richard Fearless and Steve Hellier's debut as Death in Vegas released domestically, and in those months Fearless has gone from stand-in to resident DJ at the Chemical Brothers' Heavenly Social club. So you know where this album's coming from. Left field, sure, but further from those cokey Brothers than you'd think. T
Jackson takes diverse issues and weaves them into a tight package punctuated with twisted sound effects and quirky interludes. The symbolism of rope as both social divider ("Velvet Rope") and sexual instrument ("Rope Burn") is a strong theme. But the most touching moments come with the passive/aggressive "What About," an ocean-washed love ballad that's transformed into a thunderous rock statement about domestic abuse, and "Together Again," a disco remembrance to those who've died of AIDS. 9.5/10 (Gerard Dee)
Mouse on Mars Autoditacker (Too Pure/Beggars Banquet/Koch) It's fitting that a couple of Germans should be furthering the motor-tik techno-pop of Kraftwerk in the electronica age. On the heels of Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner's co-production of Stereolab's latest comes their own third and most accessible album, serious in its post-rock surface tension but percolating playfully underneath. Still, this is more "techno" than "pop," more texture than tune, and less fun than a title like X-Flies might hint. 7/10 (Chris Yurkiw) With Stereolab Nov. 8 at Cabaret Ivy Apartment Life (Atlantic/Warner)
Ivy are today's easy-listening equivalent of some of those faux-alternative "scrunge" bands of a few years back: zero cred but mucho hooks (how is Scott Weiland, anyway?). But cred shouldn't matter in the world of pure pop artifice, so Ivy (two Yank-geeks, one real French singer!) pillage freely from Garbage, the Cardigans and Stereolab (one real French singer!). In a perfect world of pure pop artifice, radio would be all over this. 8/10 (Chris Yurkiw)
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Death in Vegas Dead Elvis (Concrete/BMG)
he Chemie obsession with guitars and breaks is there. But also evident is dub--the fun, rub-a-dub kind, not the boring chin-stroking sort--and electro mashed with something very shoot-'em-up western (ironist's trend of the year?!). Add evangelists, some dumb Memphis-isms and two hunky big beat hits ("Dirt," "Rocco"), and you've got a smasheroo that can keep the mildly decaying "eclectic" vogue alive for at least another coupla months. 8.5/10 (Mireille Silcott)
Janet Jackson The Velvet Rope (Virgin)