|
Garmarna Vengeance (NorthSide/Outside) Remember how, in Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal, Max Von Sydow kept Death at bay by challenging him to a game of chess? Well, if they'd opted for a few rounds of Doom instead, this woulda been the soundtrack. Swedish techno-medieval plague pop, lutes and loops and lyrics about honour, betrayal and bombastic, blood-soaked, old-tyme revenge. Revenge! Heads hacked off, hearts gouged out, babes torn from mothers' bellies! Funny how singer Emma Härdelin sounds like a Scandinavian angel when she's waxing archaic about this stuff. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
The Hellacopters Grande Rock (Sub Pop/Warner)
OO-Soul The Solid Sounds of the 8-Piece Brotherhood (Ubiquity/Fusion III)
Chanté Moore This Moment Is Mine (MCA/Universal)
Randy Newman Bad Love (DreamWorks/Universal) Yeah, trenchant singer-songwriter Randy Newman is a fat old guy now, but he knows it--just like he knows he hasn't lost his edge. His piano puts him more in the tradition of Tin Pan Alley, so he doesn't worry about being like the 50-something rock star in "I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It)." And while his musical (as in Broadway) style reminds us that he's been doing theatre and film music for a decade, the apparent centrality of the lyrics here can disguise some killer melodies. Bad love, as usual, makes for pretty good music. 7.5/10 (Chris Yurkiw)
|
Finally, the first full-length follow-up to the amazing Payin' the Dues CD. Grande Rock finds these Swedes hitting their stride. Right from the get-go, rock's Great White Hope refuse to play it safe with tired old Motor City riffage, and actually dig into some southern-fried boogie and arena rock lead guitar trade-offs. With slowed-down tempos and more guitar solos than your average Nuge record, this is guaranteed to alienate most punk rockers, but the Hellacopters have moved on to better ground. 9/10 (Johnson Cummins)
With song titles like "Journey to the Chocolate Planet" and "Super Agent Steve," it's no wonder this Long Beach outfit has that sound that makes me cringe. Leftovers, throwbacks and just plain finished sounds of stomach acid jazz have made OO-Soul prime candidates for the "Best Coaster of the Summer Award." I want to meet people who enjoy this kind of jazz-funk so I can save them from a very sorry fate. Solid sounds, my big toe. 6/10 (Scott C)
On her third album, sexy soul siren Chanté Moore attempts to break out of her jazzy R&B balladeer image. To a degree, she succeeds, hitting Chaka's "You Got the Love" as "I Got the Love," and successfully flipping the Rodney Jerkins-produced "If I Gave Love." Her forté, though, remains the ballad, as witnessed by exquisite first single "Chanté's Got a Man." The song is a refreshing change from the nigga-bitch wars pervasive in so much urban music. 7.5/10 (Gerard Dee)