Artist: Beirut Album: The Flying Club Cup Label: Ba Da Bing
On March 7, 1936, Adolf Hitler tested the Allies by sending troops back into the Rhineland in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I. The silent response from Paris and London was the beginning of the policy of appeasement that would eventually lead to World War II. Crossing the Rhine is a statement - one that Beirut's leading man Zach Condon made with similarly little fanfare.
Their debut Gulag Orkestar distinguished itself in its seamless recall of an Eastern European vacation most aren't brave enough to go on. Though its song titles cite Western locales, the shuffling rhythms, lamenting accordions and horns and Condon's wailing voice echo from the slopes of the Carpathian Mountains and the shores of the Little Danube. The album's best songs evoke the image of a band of somber, gluttonous, mustachioed Romanians playing to an empty tavern. Its worst venture perilously close to the regions of kitsch - seeming to imitate a style too unfamiliar to be known by anyone who hasn't been raised with and by it.
The crying siren of The Flying Club Cup's prelude, "A Call to Arms," is a mature declaration of gravitas the first indication that Beirut has moved from the tavern to the cafe. Their bright-eyed wandering days are over, but the change in tone doesn't rift with the lighthearted gleam in the leisurely melodies of "A Sunday Smile" or elsewhere, which never belies the decidedly darker content of the songs.
While Beirut effectively evokes another land (in part due to the Vincent Moon-directed "Concert a Emporter" videos) as they did in Gulag, the immersion is much more profound - all Parisian cobblestone, decadence, and cynicism. The distinct sound Condon and company create is undoubtedly sincere, seeming effortless instead of affected. The instrumentation is clear, huge, always appropriate and always subservient to Condon's elegant moan.
While the band successfully defends its title as the most dirgeful, they spend more time claiming new territory - at times refined, understated and jazzy, at others prominent, emotive and orchestral. "Cherbourg" embodies both styles. A solemn piano melody accompanies Condon until a mandolin joins it, Condon begs off and the horns and harpsichord sweep in. "Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route)" bounces along a bucolic dirt road, buoyed by a sauntering combination of percussions and piano chords. Dramatic strings flesh out the track in the vacuum left by Condon's absence.
The best tracks are wedged into the middle of the album. An accordion melody shifts back and forth to establish the paranoia of "The Penalty" until a military drum line and Condon propel the song forward. The morose ballad gracefully shifts into a choral ode accompanied by tambourines and strings, which again assume the prominent space left by Condon's voice.
After the plaintive "Forks and Knives (La Fete)," chic strings begin "In the Mausoleum." Condon joins an accordion before the drums and horns pull us along Montmatre. Condon takes over, singing, "I turned my life over and over again," before a pizzicato violin passage accompanies accordion.
While Beirut has established a reputation for evoking European soil, "The Flying Club Cup" is a conscious and balanced statement of artistic maturity - somehow both urbanely Parisian and sincerely Provencal. Condon has now undoubtedly muscled his way into the exclusive canon of great American expatriate artists led by figures like Hemingway and Eliot.
- Robert Weeks
Artist: The Gougers Album: A Long Day for the Weathervane Label: Lone Star Music
You've got to love dual lead singers, especially when the two voices are as different as those of Jamie Wilson and Shane Walker, the driving engines behind the Texas-based Gougers. Wilson's nasal tone and twangy articulation and Walker's understated and subtle tenor provide the kind of variation that's rarely heard in the world of Americana. The strength of their voices and exquisitely picturesque lyrics lend themselves to sonic diversity that switches genre at the drop of a hat. Indeed, their latest release, A Long Day for the Weathervane is as hard to categorize as it is easy to spin. The only category that it neatly falls into is "mellow," the overriding aesthetic of all 11 tracks is one of being laid back.
The tempos never exceed moderate and allow plenty of room for vocal interplay and interesting arrangements that include old-time acoustic timbres, swirling guitar and very tasty organ work by Rami Jaffe. Lyrically, the duo prefers pictures to narratives and paints vivid portraits, especially on "Everybody Knows," "It'll Get Better" and "Riding in a Lincoln Continental with Sylvia Plath," Walker's ode to loneliness in a bar, which, apart from possessing an incredibly witty title, brings being drunk and alone in a bar into new territory. Between the vocals, the song writing and the musicianship, this album is loaded.
- Justin Patch
Artist: Skeletonwitch Album: Beyond the Permafrost Label: Prosthetic
Thrash metal has seen a significant artistic revival in the new millennium. Along with Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust, Skeletonwitch are spearheading this new movement. While Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust opt for punkier approaches to their thrash, Skeletonwitch aim for a more Maiden-esque approach. They incorporate melody much more than the average Slayer clone, much like California legends Heathen. The vocals are also distinctive in that they are more suited for death metal, but fit in perfectly well with the Athens, Ga., band's brutal thrash.
Beyond the Permafrost is the band's debut for Prosthetic Records, who helped Lamb of God ascend into the metal mainstream. Permafrost surpasses the band's previous debut, At One With the Shadows, on production alone. On that release, the bass was too high and the vocals were too low.
Now, in addition to a slight gloss and volume boost, the instruments are distinctive, but none overpower one another. The improved production allows the songs, while still remaining thrash to the core, to take on an epic grandeur. Some of the tracks, such as "Soul Thrashing Black Sorcery" and "Remains of the Defeated," pay honor to the harsh solo passages of melodic death metal.
The band also has a fondness for incorporating tremolo passages, giving many of the songs a Darkthrone-like evilness. Chance Garnett's vocals have an old-school In Flames flavor to them, with a hint of some of Mikael Akerfeldt's low range. Permafrost is composed tighter than its predecessor, thereby making its lethal assault more focused. It's also only six minutes longer than the debut, yet Permafrost feels much more like a fulfilling album rather than a too-long EP.
Skeletonwitch has improved leaps and bounds above its debut to craft an album that proves once and for all that thrash metal never was, and never will be dead. Some old farts may scream rip-off, and some elitists may point out that the band shares its hometown with REM, but they're missing out on what's rattling today's metal youth.
- Andy O'Connor
Artist: LeAnn Rimes Album: Family Label: Curb
In 1996, LeAnn Rimes released her debut album, Blue, to unprecedented praise. At the age of 13, Rimes brought back a clear pure country sound that caused many to consider her this generation's Patsy Cline. After more than 10 years and 37 million albums sold, Rimes has ventured into every genre imaginable: country, bluegrass, Christian and even pop. Now Rimes is showing what she's got with Family, a soulful bluegrass album that showcases both range and style.
Rimes starts fast out of the gate with back-to-back hits, "Family" and "Nothing Better to Do." Both tracks contain a unique sound, both instrumentally and vocally, that really sets her apart from her counterparts. Although the sound is a lot like that of her last album, This Woman, it is still so off-beat from what everyone else is doing that you can't help but sit up and pay attention. Her voice demands your concentration, and these first two tracks really set the stage for what is to come.
As we continue through the album it is hard to pick out a central theme to the music. Every song is so different in tempo, style and delivery that you start to get the feeling that this album is all about the voice. Showcasing her range and tracks like "Doesn't Everybody" and "Pretty Things," and her diversity in style in "One Day Too Long," Rimes has set out to make a statement: She can sing anything thrown her way.
I have to admit that I am completely shocked at the outcome of the album as a whole. It seems like only a few years ago that Rimes was fading from the limelight of country music, but, with her last release being so popular. new air was breathed into her lungs, and I am happy to say that she has taken full advantage of her newfound success. Family is a great country/bluegrass album containing unique sound and a whole lot of energy. I can only hope that other artists will sit up and listen to Rimes and begin to push borders with their music.
- Stephen Davis
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