This month, we review CDs from Otis Taylor, Air, Brides of Destruction, James Lavelle, DJ Icey, and Ben Kweller.
Artist: Otis Taylor
Title: Double V
Label: Telarc
Rating: 4
The blues. Yeah, yeah, it's fossil music, right? It's the foundation for rock but is it really relevant any more? If it's Otis Taylor, it damn well is. I had never heard Otis Taylor before this album, but man, this guy knows what he's doing. Favoring minimal arrangements and acoustic instruments (guitar, banjo, mandolin and the occasional cello) over your usual electric riffage, there's a definite folky vibe happening here, but folky like British murder ballads, not like A Mighty Wind. Check out "Plastic Spoon," with its lyrics about an elderly couple that has to eat dog food to afford prescription medicines. Elsewhere, there're snatches of West African styles ("Please Come Home Before It Rains"), almost trance-like blues ("Mandan Woman") and a cappellas ("Hurry Home"). All in all, a unique and vital take on the blues. --Douglas Adams
Artist: Air
Title: Talkie Walkie
Label: Astralwerks
Rating: 3
Too bad Air had to release Moon Safari before Talkie Walkie (TW), because it's going to be compared to the former's emotional heights. TW is a more adventurous album than Moon Safari, and more mature than 10,000 Hz Legend, the band's disastrous in-between release (not counting their soundtrack work). At its heart, TW is a pop French album (the band even enlisted Serge Gainsbourg collaborator Michel Colombier to arrange strings). Most songs have vocals provided by the duo, and rarely do they get too out there (although most are dusted with a little strangeness). "Biological" is uneasy at first, but gorgeous guitars arrive halfway through to save it. And "Surfing On A Rocket" is pure, glorious '60s pop run through an effects processor. The only drawback on the CD may be a lack of cohesion, made up for by its listenability. --Douglas Adams
Artist: Brides of Destruction
Title: Here Come the Brides
Label: Sanctuary
Rating: 1
What a strange culture we live in. We worship youth to such an extreme degree, yet our media icons are often older than dirt, and supernaturally ageless. Brides of Destruction, a "super group" of metal, features LA hair metal stalwarts Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue) and Tracii Guns (LA Guns) cranking out songs that would shame driver's ed students with its juvenile lyrics and Punk 101 riffs. OK, so lead singer London LeGrand (where do they get these names?) is, as the press release declares, twentysomething, but still, the 16-year-olds who work at my local Blockbuster have more on their minds than these guys. I suppose Hot Topic could give copies of Here Come The Brides away with every bottle of Manic Panic or something. Oh, and hey, The Stooges called, they want their three chords back. --Douglas Adams
Artist: James Lavelle
Title: Global Underground: Romania
Label: Global Underground
Rating: 3
The name is probably vaguely familiar, although you may not be able to pin down just where you've heard of James Lavelle. The man founded Mo' Wax Records and helped usher in the trip hop sound in the '90s. He's a member of Unkle, which used to feature DJ Shadow. He's also a DJ, and this is his second mix CD for the Global Underground series. Lavelle sticks to the breaks here, throwing in cuts from Meat Katie, Santos, and PFN, as well as a whole crateload of Unkle reworkings of other artists (check the Queens of the Stone Age remix for some serious genre mixing). Despite a few leftfield numbers, Lavelle plays it pretty safe, with many of the tracks sounding too alike to get the energy level up. The second disc sees him getting a little weirder with the track selection but this is far from essential. Primarily for fans of Unkle, I'd imagine. --Douglas Adams
Artist: DJ Icey
Title: For The Love Of The Beat
Label: System Recordings
Rating: 3
Florida's breakbeat DJ Icey has built his formidable reputation primarily through his ceaseless DJ gigs, so it's no surprise that For The Love Of The Beat, a mix album, is so solid. Although he hails from Florida, the state that has kept high-energy breakbeat alive for more than a decade now, Icey wisely steers away from the cheesier Florida stuff, highlighting a more varied broken beat selection instead. House producer Satoshie Tomiie turns in a broken remix of Interflow, Fatboy Slim appears in the guise of a remix of Playgroup's "Front 2 Back," and nu-skool heavyweights Aquasky Vs Masterblaster contribute their epic "Shadow Breaks." Sometimes hard, sometimes uplifting, and always funky, this mix CD is a great introduction to the world of breaks. It's also just a great mix, no matter what the genre. --Douglas Adams
Artist: Ben Kweller
Title: On My Way
Label: ATO/RCA Records
Rating: 4
Thank your lucky horseshoes that the talent of 22-year-old Texas prodigy Ben Kweller exists in the musical landscape. Following his delightful, quirky and acclaimed album, Sha Sha, Kweller's third solo record doesn't disappoint. On My Way showcases his knack for tight songwriting, infectious pop-rock melodies and charming ballads -- a knack that verges on the musical sensibilities of Ben Folds, Weezer and Pavement, yet is one that Kweller deftly wrangles as his own. Among others, he rocks out in "I Need You Back" and "Ann Disaster," while "Living Life" and "Different But The Same" reflect contemplative and visceral musings. On My Way reveals Kweller's innate musical aesthetic is expanding and maturing, and that he's clearly on his way to indie pop-rock greatness. --Ella Ngo