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Artist: PJ Harvey Album: White Chalk Label: Island
PJ Harvey has abandoned her savage guitar and taken up tinkering on the piano. Her music, with its intensely raw discordant harmonies and taut, brutal melodies was always emotionally draining, however she has relented in her fighting spirit. There's still pain constricting her throat, but she is weary of persistently succumbing to the anger, of allowing it to throttle her. What remains on White Chalk is the haunted shell of a woman.
The songs have the cloistered, maddening feel of being amidst the damp, gloomy moors and sound like they were written during feverish delusions spent wandering through the halls of the family's dilapidated country estate. Throughout the album, Harvey adopts a ghostly falsetto that alternates between a distractingly high register and the plaintive murmurings of a distressed child.
Isolation, turmoil and despair are palpable as Harvey wails about being possessed by ghosts, being tortured by lovers and about grappling with troubled childhood memories with each chillingly gentle and fragile plunk of the piano keys, as on the opening track "The Devil," the embarrassingly desperate "The Piano" and in the false, unfulfilling hopefulness of "Silence." The wonderful "White Chalk" is an eerie ballad to Harvey's ancestors, in which she uses images of chalk hills to evoke images of piled up skeleton bones.
On White Chalk, Harvey is a woman crushed under the weight of her demons and the barren futility of life, methodically, and almost appreciatively, filling her pockets with rocks. Her quivering wail at the end of "The Mountain" is a dubious release that is perhaps a cruel, liberating descent into the unforgiving, cold depths of madness.
- Priya Hora
Artist: Radiohead Album: In Rainbows Label: Self-Released
Blah blah Radiohead is revolutionary, you can name your price on their music blah. I intend to review this album based solely on content, barring any "groundbreaking" context this newest work may represent. Hubbub aside, what does this band bring to the table?
In Rainbows showcases nothing really unexpected from the British rock group, but that's not to demean the album in any way. Whatever amateurish style that was presented on the album's Web site in no way transfers over to the songs within. From the rich mix of ambient flow and splashy rhythm guitar of opener "15 Step" to the simply composed and elegantly executed closer "Videotape" one can be sure that Radiohead took themselves quite seriously in this self-produced endeavor.
We get a little bit of everything In Rainbows, the whole spectrum, all of the colors on the band's palate. Second track "Bodysnatchers" seems to reminisce over the "Pablo Honey" days with fuzzy guitar and a sort of raw energy atypical of recent Radiohead. The utterly gorgeous number "Weird Fish/Arpeggi" hearkens back to "Kid A" with its steadily and intricately building glowing pulse that so may have come to love from the band. Thom Yorke's voice emanates pristinely from every track as per usual, singing with a ghostly beauty that fits the rest of the group like a damn cozy glove.
This being said, again, there's nothing really surprising coming from this album. To me, the message is one of a solid consistency in the band's work. Radiohead fans will continue to gush over the band, casual listeners will remain interested in a select few songs spanning the group's albums, and still others will unfortunately fail to see the stunning marvels that Radiohead manages to churn out with ease.
- Travis Bauer
Artist: Neil Young Album: Chrome Dreams II Label: Reprise
Neil Young has always been a rugged individual. Whether it's driving from Canada to L.A. in an ancient hearse, feasting on tequila and hamburgers during the Tonight's the Night sessions or experimenting with technological advances for his Trans album, ol' Neil is still on that musical mission. Having released more than 50 albums, Young may seem somewhat of an enigmatic character. Whatever the case may be, the old man is essentially soulful and always surging with life and wisdom, as his new album Chrome Dreams II communicates.
"Spirit Road" is an explosive tune reminiscent of "Love to Burn" from his 1990 album Ragged Glory, with the same driving eight-beat rhythm, characteristically droning guitar riffs and warning lyrics of the wiles of the world and the safety in following the "spirit road" within oneself. We see that Young hasn't lost his sense of humor with wonderfully muddy, parody-tune "Dirty Old Man," about an over-the-hill lost soul who frequents bars and never learns. "The Way" is a comforting song in three where Young, accompanied by children's voices, instructs you in getting back to "where you belong." "The Believer" is as carefree and delightful as "Walk On" was for On the Beach.
As always with Young, there's more to the picture than meets the eye. Chrome Dreams II delves into Young's thought processes - the more you listen, the more you pick up on. Shakey's voice is ageless and his Gibson, "Ole Black," sounds as good as ever. Chrome Dreams II is a definite must-have.
- Michal Durham
Artist: Alter Bridge Album: Blackbird Label: Universal Republic
Alter Bridge is, in theory, a recipe for disaster. Creed was dismantled in 2004 and drummer Scott Phillips and guitarist Mark Tremonti formed Alter Bridge, enlisting original Creed bassist Brian Marshall and ex-Mayfield Four vocalist Myles Kennedy. Their self-titled debut was, in a nutshell, Creed 2.0, recycling the sound Scott Stapp made famous, but employing fewer radio conventions and leaning towards a more hard rock sound.
So, with that in mind, consider this: users on mikeportnoy.com - the official site of the drummer for progressive metal giants Dream Theater - are singing the praises of Alter Bridge's new record Blackbird. Progressive rock fans are known for dismissing anything remotely mainstream, so what gives?
The answer is simple: Tremonti has some powerful chops. Music fans have always known this, but failed to recognize it. If you listen to a Creed song and somehow find a way to ignore Stapp's goat-inflected mix of Cornell, Vedder and Staley and simply focus on the music, it's evident. He's a damn good guitarist. Unfortunately, he refuses to make the most of his talent.
Kennedy is a different front man from Stapp, but that doesn't make him good. Instead of Stapp's guttural bass, Kennedy employs high-register wailing that might actually be worse. The drums and bass are nothing to write home about either, so it's up to Tremonti to save the band and the album. He doesn't.
There are some interesting tunes on the new album: "Come To Life" boasts a great solo, and the crunchy riffs on "Coming Home" are definitely rocking, but, overall, it's still a typical hard rock record. The choruses are generic, the introductions cliché (Tremonti still finds it necessary to open with a melodic phrase that eventually explodes into distortion) and the lyrics are vague muses on spirituality and humanity.
Aside from "Rise Today", the record is disappointing, not so much because it sounds typical - that was to be expected considering three-fourths of the lineup - but because it looks like Mark Tremonti is content to waste his career in a band that's not good enough for him. As for why the prog fans like him? Beats the hell out of me.
- Robert Rich
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver Album: Everybody's Brother Label: Compadre Records
Among living country artists, no voice stands out as readily and impressively as that of outlaw country troubadour Billy Joe Shaver. Expand the playing field to include dead country artists, and the list wouldn't be much larger - Shaver's raspy, earthy, profoundly human voice rivals even Johnny Cash's for resonance and power.
What a pity, then, that Shaver's latest, Everybody's Brother, the release of which he celebrated with an in-store performance at Waterloo Records last week, buries Shaver's astonishing voice under layers of production and instrumentation.
Now comfortably into his fourth decade of recording, Shaver performs with all the ease, grace and good humility of a man who's been through the wringer a time or two. A blend of new material and Shaver standards, Everybody's Brother is a family album of sorts, uniting Shaver in largely solid duets with a variety of other country artists, from Kris Kristofferson to Marty Stuart. Rich with reflections on love, loss and spirituality, it's a thoughtful album that never loses its honky tonk charm or falls too far into pretension.
Unfortunately, while Shaver may be as genuine and as talented as ever, the album's production fails to live up to its heart. After the arguably misguided 2005 outing of The Real Deal, this is Shaver's second release to shift entirely too much of the focus off of the honky tonk hero and onto a completely superfluous array of guest stars.
Compounding this problem is the heavy production that unwisely "sweetens" Shaver's naturally harsh voice and incorporates often-overbearing instrumentation. Even on Shaver's duet with Johnny Cash - a previously unreleased take on "You Just Can't Beat Jesus Christ" recorded in 1970 - the various layers of studio production interfere entirely too much with two men whose talents are impossible to improve upon.
Ultimately, Everybody's Brother's gravest sin is simply not letting Billy Joe Shaver be Billy Joe Shaver. When the centerpiece of your album can captivate listeners with his voice alone, constant duets and studio trickery are both wholly unnecessary. While it still holds plenty of charms for country fans and Shaver devotees, Everybody's Brother is far less than an essential buy even for devoted outlaw country fans. Those seeking the real Shaver experience - as all with the slightest interest in solid old-school country should - would be better off with last month's Storyteller, a live album that captures Shaver in a more nakedly honest, and infinitely more intriguing, light.
- Patrick Caldwell
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