MUSIC REVIEWS
by MIRROR MUSIC
March 31, 2011
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
TRUE WIDOW
A.H.A.T.H.H.A.F.T.C.T.T.C.O.T.E.
(Kemado)
Among the recent surge of slow-core bands, most have merely plundered Codeine’s catalogue and slowed down their copies of MBV’s Loveless. Thankfully, this Dallas trio know how to let it ooze out like the greats from 20 years ago, but really bring something new to the table. Gone is the downtrodden doom and dense shoegazing as True Widow forge their own unique sound, forgetting about destinations and just taking in the scenery—at a snail’s pace. My vote for this being a serious contender for the record of the year is in. 9/10 Trial Track: “Night Witches” (Johnson Cummins)
BRITNEY SPEARS
Femme Fatale
(Jive/Sony)
Old enough to be Rebecca Black’s mother, Spears has become the Weekend at Bernie’s of pop tartdom: a listless, flabby corpse biennially re-animated by starving music execs desperate for a quick buck, her clumsy teetering to disposable dubstep just enough to convince people she’s still alive. The best producers and songwriters in the pop game are mostly using Brit’s career like a cash-for-Eurotrash economic stimulus program. 4/10 Trial Track: “How I Roll” (Erik Leijon)
THE RAVEONETTES
Raven in the Grave
(Vice)
Reverting to the downcast rock ’n’ roll balladry of Lust Lust Lust, with ’80s percussion and synthetic strings in place of an avalanche of distortion, the Raveonettes break away from the girl-group pop arc of In and Out of Control. Though they’re more yin/yang than bipolar (there are a few frothy highs here, just as there was dirge and darkness on In and Out), this record finds the Danish act in a low, albeit a beautiful one. 8/10 Trial Track: “War in Heaven” (Lorraine Carpenter) With Tamaryn at la Tulipe, Fri., April 1, 8 p.m., $23
CODE PIE
Love Meets Rage
(Flagless/ Indiecater)
This impressive local chamber rock band tries on different styles for size on their third album, including sinking orchestral melodrama, underwater surf, sunrise soundscapes, head-bobbing pop, brawling rock ’n’ roll, back-porch sing-alongs and falsetto soul parties. But this eclecticism would be worthless without their subtly wondrous melodies and a hardy sonic force that could blast through basement floorboards. 8/10 Trial Track: “Morning After” (Lorraine Carpenter) Album launch with Nightwood at Casa del Popolo, Sun., April 3, 8 p.m., PWYC
THE DEATH SET
Michel Poiccard
(Counter/Outside)
As “I Miss You Beau Velasco” and posthumous soundbites make poignantly clear, the passing of the Death Set’s co-founder in 2009 weighs on the return wrought by the remaining band (with Spank Rock’s XXXchange at the board). Not so heavily, though, that Johnny Siera and co. can’t repeatedly reignite the chip-charged bubble-core blitzkrieg that made their ’08 debut Worldwide such a nail-bomb. The elegiac touches add heft, in fact, to the slaphappy, hormonal hyperactivity. 8/10 Trial Track: “Yo David Chase! You P.O.V. Shot Me in the Head” feat. Diplo (Rupert Bottenberg)
RAEKWON
Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang
(Ice H20/EMI)
No man is an island, and Rae has never had to rep his Staten home alone. On solo excursion number five, the Chef takes it past the ghetto confines of Wu country to pay homage to the borough that made him an MC before joining the group that made him a legend. The RZA’s absence from production duties (quite on purpose, by all accounts) opens the door to Oh No, Khalil, Scram Jones, Alchemist and many more, and while of course several Shaolin regulars feature prominently, guests like Nas, Black Thought and Estelle prevent Raekwon, in incredibly fine form here, from getting stranded offshore. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Chop Chop Ninja” feat. Inspectah Deck & Estelle (Darcy MacDonald)
WIZ KHALIFA
Rolling Papers
(Rostrum/ Warner)
Seriously, weren’t there any tough older heads to kick this kid’s ass back to the church choir before he graduated junior high last year, or whenever that was? Uninspired, uninteresting, unnecessary and unnerving to know that so many young cats think this fool is doing anything new. Pot obviously does make the user lazy, as Khalifa doesn’t even attempt to get off a couch covered in orange juice stains and kush burns. If the expression “don’t believe the hype” means nothing to you, you’re probably already calling this a classic. 2/10 Trial Track: “Black and Yellow” (Darcy MacDonald)
MOVITS!
Ut Ur Min Skalle
(Slimstyle)
When you have leftover meat and potatoes in Sweden, you fry everything on a pan, top it with a fried egg and call it pyttipanna. Hailing from Northern Sweden, the trio Movits! have their own recipe for re-purposing yesterday’s Gypsy swing, hip hop (rapping in their native tongue) and jazz, creating a dish sure to satisfy off-season Jazz Festers in the mood for something new but made with familiar ingredients. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Sammy Davis Jr.” (Erik Leijon) With the Breezes at Il Motore, Tues., April 5, 9 p.m., $10
JENNIFER HUDSON
I Remember Me
(Arista/Sony)
J-Hud may have lost weight, but her voice is as big as ever. And her sophomore effort boasts sturdier production than her self-titled 2008 debut. “Still Here” most certainly references the three family members she lost tragically, but mainly this is a triumphant set, where tracks like “I Got This” and her Weight Watchers anthem “Feeling Good” celebrate a brand new day. 8.5/10 Trial Track: “Why Is It So Hard” (Gerard Dee)
WEASEL WALTER/MARY HALVORSON/PETER EVANS
Electric Fruit
(Thirsty Ear)
In this improvised setting, all styles from rock to jazz get turned inside out and squeezed into a frantic but tightly controlled fury. Halvorson, on guitar, generates rapid-fire clean atonal lines with frequent pitch-bend pedal squiggles, while trumpeter Evans’s arpeggios circle and attack with filtered white-noise blasts and Walter’s drums crash and burn in fits and starts. What might have been just another day at the improv fair is rendered exceptional by the close listening and warp-speed reactions on display here. 9/10 Trial Track: “The Pseudocarp Walks Among Us” (Lawrence Joseph)
RAMACHANDRA BORCAR
Jaloux
(Semprini)
A crisp, clever, Criterion-quality film score from Montrealer Borcar for the new thriller from Patrick Demers, whose ’04 architectural doc Regular or Super Borcar suited up with smart jazz. This time, the composer/producer explores the moody, striking thriller soundtracks of the ’50s—Herrmann, most obviously—and honours the genre by investing his with his characteristic wit and wiles. 7.5/10 Trial Track: “Se débarrasser du corps” (Rupert Bottenberg)
MINI REVIEWS
ATHENA HOLMES As Easy as It Seems (independent) The Montreal songstress speaks on the truths, fictions and the constructs we create with these to fit our own stories, with a three-song EP that will appeal to anyone’s acoustic sensibility. 9 (DM)
BUZZOV*EN Revelation: Sick Again (Hydra Head) A perfect blend of seething hatred, dizzying dementia, crippling crustcore and devastating doom. 9 (JC)
TRIGGER EFFECT Versitis Maximus (Turbo Machine/Indica) Self-released last year but now officially out on a label. More than just a great live punk band on record, this album stands on its own. 8 (EL)
L’XTRMST.ZEN “ZiggyZa ZiggyZi” (Also) Poirier’s digital-singles-only label debuts with a pumped-up club jam of wacky classic Québécois folk ditty “La ziguezon.” This’ll put some poils on yer menton! 7.5 (RB)
DURAN DURAN All You Need Is Now (S-Curve) Clearly the product of the same meat grinder that their greatest hits slithered out of, this will be comfort food for fans, but tasted better topped with David Lynch’s signature surreal sauce, dished during last week’s live webcast. 7 (LC)
ADAM LAMBERT Glam Nation Live (RCA/Sony) American Idol gay-blade comes alive to kill his own material and classics by the likes of Johnny Cash and T-Rex. 5 (LC)
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