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Kent Isola (RCA/BMG) Have the '90s not quietly been Sweden's decade for pop music? Ace of Base--and all those Hi-NRG groups? Björn Again--and ABBA getting into the alt-rock canon? "Cotton-Eyed Joe"--and the techno/square-dance fusion frenzy? Well, maybe not, and so Kent kicks in before it's all over, with some guitar-based shit. Unfortunately, where artifice and pillaging drive the above styles it doesn't work so well with rock, so all you wind up with here is a band that should've been called RadiOasishead. A coupla nice tunes, though. 6.5/10 (Chris Yurkiw) At the Spectrum with The Cardigans this Mon., Feb. 8 Various Pop Romantique (Emperor Norton/FAB)
Cesar Rosas Soul Disguise (Ryko/Outside)
Los Lobos' debut disc was called How Will the Lone Wolf Survive? Now that we hear frontman Rosas' solo outing, we gotta ask the same of him. Actually, he should do just fine, provided that he sticks to playing dirtbag roadhouses where neon Budweiser fixtures constitute elegant decor. If there is any soul on this dud, it's cleverly disguised as mediocre MOR blues rock. How do you say "forgettable" in Spanish? 5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
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Arling & Cameron All-in (Emperor Norton)
Here's a Dutch treat for you: the domestic debut of the founders of Amsterdam's Easy Tune sound/scene/label. "We don't do boy's beats," says Cameron, "we like to make the dancefloor comfortable for girls." Hence, those in search of thundering beats and car crash breaks, look elsewhere. This is dance-pop at its simplest, silliest and most satisfying. Even those occasional rockist fuzz guitars are tuned to the key of irony. The pair have contacts in Paris (where they've scored fashion shows), Frankfurt, L.A. and of course Tokyo; the Shibuya recyclo-kitsch thing is in full effect, right down to the imported Japanese babe vocals on some tracks. I'm gonna go with the airport theme of the jacket and classify this, and its contemporaries, as "stopover pop." 9/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
In which a parade of anglo alterna-hipsters interpret the retro French pop catalogue. Uncle Serge gets the most due, with four tracks covered. These include Heavenly's Blondie-zation of "Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges," which Gainsbourg wrote for France Gall, and a heartbreaking folk-hop version of "Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M'en Vais" by John Wesley Harding. There's also Sukia's moog-o-matic take on cheez-meister Francis Lai's "Zoooom!" as well as a French original by Apples in Stereo. The token Gauls are Air, bringing in a duet with the sweetheart of the Sorbonne, Francoise Hardy. Formidable! 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)