]> http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/editorial/albumreviews/0,,,00.html Most Recent Album Reviews on ARTISTdirect 86400 Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:06:44 PST en-us http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4791350,00.html While you're reading this review, Jay Reatard has probably just written a handful of songs. The twenty-seven year old scrappy punk rocker known for being incredibly prolific (really, that feels like an understatement) has spent the last few years releasing dozens and dozens of brilliantly catchy rock nuggets. This compilation—his first release for the indie label Matador Records—is thirteen songs short clocking in at a touch over thirty-minutes, and once again, it showcases Reatard's brilliant and consistent ability to be sugary sweet-accessible while maintaining a frenetic, off-the-cuff spirit. Incorporating shades of Husker Du, The Pixies, New Zealand indie rock, and classic garage rock bands of the '60s, the Memphis-based wunderkind boasts a policy of zero filler on this record, every song serving the sole purpose of kicking the door down and inspiring an instant mosh pit. "You Mean Nothing To Me" with its disarming background hiss is clap-a-long Buddy Holly armed with a Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:06:44 PST 4876720 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4619077,00.html Tender, touching and utterly serene indie rock led by absolutely angelic frontwoman/keyboardist Maria Sais de Sicilia is the order of the day on Lydia's latest, effort, Illuminate. Lydia isn't a girl; it's a band that employs the philosophy that slow and steady certainly wins the sonic race! Illuminate is contemplative, somewhat maudlin music of which the centerpiece is the gorgeous way de Sicilia trades creamy vocal harmonies with guitarist/vocalist Leighton Antelman. The duo comprises the heart of the band, and they complement one another perfectly throughout the dreamy compositions that make up the entirety of Illuminate. If you're looking for upbeat pop, then you can skip past Illuminate, since the music isn't exactly engineered for the sunniest of days. Rather, when it's gloomy and you want nothing more than a cup of tea and a scratch pad, Illuminate avails itself as the perfect accoutrement for such a pursuit. It's also best listened to when in solitude, since the record Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:05:34 PST 4876719 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4796919,00.html A lot of people missed the boat on 1973's Berlin, Lou Reed's heartwarming piece of rock theatre about a self-destructive couple burrowing into the depths of addiction and depression–all against the charming backdrop of a divided Berlin. Panned at the time of its release, the album would prove to have legs, and eventually secured a widely agreed-upon spot as one of Reed's pivotal albums. Berlin: Live At St. Ann's Warehouse is Reed's opportunity to say. "Told ya so!" Some have complained that the presence of a showy backing band (complete with choirs) and an adoring live audience dilutes the impact of the story, but while Berlin certainly had arthouse pretensions, it also had the sort of bombast that made it at least as natural a fit for the stage as it was for the screen. The story remains the same, the characters are the same–but Reed, of course, is different now. His signature delivery is still droll and detached, but at 66, he can no longer be mistaken for the young lovers Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:21:56 PST 4876560 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4812846,00.html Travis always seemed ready to break onto a bigger stage internationally, and 1999's The Man Who seemed like the album about to push them further. That album tempered its rock tendencies with a more sensitive leaning, and it was precisely that limper sound that audiences grabbed onto—but with Coldplay, a band which before rushing to superstardom was sometimes written off as a sub-par Travis clone. (Never mind that Travis was tagged, too, as a lifter of Radiohead's more straightforward moments.) So this new disc, Ode to J. Smith, finds the Scottish group turning back the clock to its mid-'90s output. For the first time since those more altogether rocking albums, bandleader Fran Healy and his boys wrote songs on electric guitar, and that instrument's immediacy presents itself, well, immediately on Ode to J. Smith. The track "J. Smith" opens bright and clear before a surprising choral interlude introduces some seriously muscular rock—Healy comes close to touching on Cobain yowls on this Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:12:54 PST 4876559 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4169231,00.html Shontelle must be the only R&B/pop singer who can rhyme the slang phrase "witchu" with "Jimmy Choo," which is the name of the high-end, shoe design house. But that's the kind of yin-yang album that Shontelligence is. This songbird has a better-than-average voice, and she uses it to address the everyday fashionista on "T-Shirt" as easily as she makes a pointed political statement on "Plastic People." While one might think that a pop record can't effectively address topical, social issues and extol the virtues of designer labels in one fell swoop, think again. Women today are dynamic and can have an appreciation for material things as well as a depth of mind. Shontelle was actually headed for law school with a report card full of straight A's before her music career took off, so she's certainly proving that theory to be true. Additionally, Shontelle's songs are as infectious as an STD on prom night, and she’ll hook you with any and all of the songs on Shontelligence. This Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:10:45 PST 4876558 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,3732091,00.html Quantum of Solace’s opening action sequence is every ADD-addled viewer’s fantasy. Edited in the style of an animated flipbook, Bond’s testosterone-fueled car recklessly snakes across the roads of an exotic European locale—under heavy fire, naturally. One jarring image after another is hurled in our faces: dirt kicked up by screeching tires, bullets flying, his Aston Martin emerging from a darkened tunnel, and ending with a welcome, climactic crash, crash, crash. If you emerge from this sensory beating in one piece, then you’ve overcome the most challenging facet of watching Quantum. Director Marc Forster leaves no room to breathe, so bring your emergency hyperventilation bag in preparation. If Quantum amounts to a pre-holiday filmic feast, then Forster has trimmed the fat from this foul, leaving only the essential meaty offal for you to chew on. Let me jettison the crude Thanksgiving metaphor and return to the matter at hand: violent sequences which propel forth this, the 22nd Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:29:23 PST 4876396 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4795220,00.html Staying true to its namesake, Deerhunter's 2007 breakthrough Cryptograms left frontman Bradford Cox difficult to decipher. Many of his idiosyncrasies seemed at odds with each other: his tender croon and onstage cross-dressing antics, the glimpses of endearingly catchy song craft that furtively appeared under the haze that obscured much of the album. The biggest puzzle Cryptograms left us with was, where Cox would lead us next? Would he unveil what lied under the tangles of experimentation or pull further beneath them? The answer comes in the form of this year's Microcastle, a collection of 12 tracks that unfalteringly surpass even the most auspicious potential Deerhunter's earlier output foreshadowed. Microcastle marks a major reversal in Deerhunter's basic approach to music. While their songs used to struggle to rise above their soundscapes, Cox's songwriting prowess now takes center stage. His craft thrives in the spotlight thanks to the band's maturing musical discretion. Each Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:28:09 PST 4876395 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4798009,00.html No matter how aggravating Pink is in her relationship with the tabloid press or how adolescent and ridiculous her lyrics are ("This used to be a funhouse/But now it's full of evil clowns"), she's always had an undeniably great voice and a strong grasp of melody, both of which are in evidence on most of her brand-new break-up album, Funhouse. A highly publicized and painful divorce has fueled her already aggressive emotions without leaving her bereft of humor, as on the opening track, "So What." That song combines a vintage video game tune with big, bold, Butch Walker-esque guitars in the service of self-aware self-affirmation. The title song isn't quite as successful, relying on a metaphor that's neither new nor all that apt, but "Please Don't Leave Me" finds a vein of real sadness that takes full advantage of the singer's raspy roar without letting her wallow in self-pity. Mostly, the record isn't too mopey, even on the ballads, of which there are both fewer than expected and more Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:27:16 PST 4872720 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4797687,00.html Suburban Pennsylvania isn't exactly known for being a country music hotbed or a watershed for the genre. Unless, of course, we're referring to Western Pennsylvania, which is often dubbed, "Pennsyltucky," for its mix of Midwestern and Southern attitudes and culture. Regardless, the fact that the eastern portion of the state and Philadelphia suburbs are far from "country" doesn't deter songbgird, Taylor Swift, a country singer with a huge voice who was discovered after belting out the national anthem at a Philadelphia 76ers basketball game. (Swift also sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" at one of this year's World Series games, as well, cementing her place as a Philly celeb!) Swift's latest, Fearless, is a pop album flecked with a countrified twang that certainly asserts itself as authentic. While Swift isn't taking tons of chances, as the title may suggest, she is carving out her place in the country music scene. The initial single "Love Story" is pretty and punches with the backing Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:42:31 PST 4872698 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4820555,00.html Never heard of Johann Johannsson? Well, here's a 30-second bio of the artist. He's Iceland's premier multi-instrumentalist and composer. He also fraternizes with members of the hipper-than-thou band Sigur Ros via the Kitchen Motors collective, so you know that this guy has cred by the bucketful. He also has the knack to make even the finest hairs that dot your spine to stand on end with his masterful, spectral compositions. The lushly orchestral Fordlandia is more like the score to a psychological thriller than it is an album you casually pop into your CD player. It's a collection of songs that tickles and stimulates all of the senses. There's a current of icy calmness that runs through all of Fordlandia's veins. Periods of relative quiet are punctuated by fuller arrangements and louder, resonating strings so much so that the six-minute-plus songs move like their own individual symphonies. "The Rocket Builder (Lo Pan!)" escalates into an unearthly and enigmatic song that can Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:38:38 PST 4872538 Album Review