2008-2009 CD Review Archives
Please find below an archive of CD reviews from 2008-2009. All other news has been purged.
7/23/2009
Award winning singer-songwriter-guitarist, Jackie Carlyle has made a positive change in her life and is finding solace in creating music with an ethereal glow and a modern-pop compass. Stepping away from the traditional sounding folk and alternative country prototypes which were the blueprints for her albums Into The Light and Souls In The Breeze, Carlyle has found her stride in welding a synth pop-wand with an ambient folk-sheen in her new songs, “The Friendship” and “The Sound Of Angles Singing.” Collaborating with composer/arranger Alexsey Zahkarenko, Carlyle’s songs show her mettle for making inspirational material, and her desire to experiment with various sonic textures like glistening chime-like embers and undulating vibrations which produce a trance-like effect that holds the listener in a spellbinding grip. The music moves with a smooth eloquence that bodes well with Carlyle’s vocals, and engulfs her in an angelic lighting.
Carlyle’s interest in songwriting can be pinpointed to Paul Simon. She recalls, “I remember when I was very young, the first time I heard the first few lines to the Paul Simon song, “Hello Darkness, my old friend, I ‘ve come to talk with you again.” She shares, “I felt for the first time in my life that I wasn’t alone on this earth, that there was someone else who understood, and so I took the poetry that I had under my bed and began to feel some pride in what I did. And I wrote, and wrote, all night long. Sometimes, because I wanted to make other people feel the way Paul Simon had made me feel…not alone.”
Carlyle shows Simon’s knack for grabbing audiences by their heartstrings with lyrics like “No one I know gets a free pass / Or sails through life on a sea of glass / No one's an island anymore / We all need a ride from shore to shore / So won't you think of me like you think of a ship / The friend who sails you home from every trip / When you are lost and all alone / I am the Friendship that sails you home” from her song "The Friendship."
Jackie Carlyle has written numerous songs, and many have received special recognition.. Her song “You Are My Anchor” made the record charts in
Jackie Carlyle has always been an inspirational artist, but her new material is pointing her towards a New Age and embracing modern pop in a way that makes her a forerunner of the genre. It’s a change for the better.
4/23/2009 3:37:00 AM
Triumph And Parade
Album: Carve Your Own Path
Label: Self-Released
Release Date: May 12, 2009
Website: www.myspace.com/triumphandparade
Pop-punk is relatable to a James Bond movie, just when audiences think that the last flix was as good as it is going to get, a new one comes out with even more modern gadgets and awesome stunts. That can be said for what Triumph And Parade have done on their forthcoming release, Carve Your Own Path. The rock quartet from Chicago keeps to a regiment that has equal parts of pop-punk’s traditional prototypes reflective of Cartel stacked with copious shares of themselves.
The fomenting shreds of guitarists Scott Stewart and Mitch Frazier build into raging flourishes in tracks like “Poor Planning” and “Unfamiliar” as lead vocalist Mike Frazier tugs on the reins that link to the billowing strikes of drummer Rich Shell. The band takes the album into shimmering power rock ballads in “Location, Location” and “Don’t Blink” with well-tailored fluctuations and climaxes embossed in sweet elevating lines. The album is a garden of pop-punk delights with inflaming guitar surges moving bumper to bumper with the molten drum thrusts. The band displays their hard rock chops on “Jagged Edges,” and their proclivity to deliver intensity in their sonic vibrations in “You Call That Mercy” with a vocal swagger reminiscent of All Time Low’s lead singer Alex Gaskarth. Triumph And Parade’s mix up their chord progressions, sometimes belting them out and sometimes crafting melodic slopes that glide with a silky resonance like in “Furthest Thing From Orbiting.”
Triumph And Parade show that they have mastered the reins of pop-punk slopes, and have the impetus to develop their arsenal further. Their upcoming release, Carve Your Own Path will easily draw comparisons to their pop-punk brethren, and assist the genre in changing with the times similarly to the way that every new James Bond flix keeps Ian Fleming’s iconic character moving forward to reflect present day conditions.
4/22/2009 4:38:00 AM-----BODY:
Join Pilot Speed for an exclusive listening party for thier forthcoming album "Wooden Bones" out April 28th! Listen here: http://pilotspeed.net/quicktime/index.asp?Referral=cs
Sign up for the Pilot Speed e-news and you get a free MP3 of "Ain't No Life", an advance track off the new album. Right now, this is the only place this song is available - http://pilotspeedmp3.notlong.com/
4/18/2009 3:44:00 AM-----BODY:
Pilot Speed
Album: Wooden Bones
Label: Wind-Up Records
Release Date: April 21, 2009
Website:
Pilot Speed’s latest release, Wooden Bones is artfully woven in serried chord progressions reminiscent of Keane’s symphonic rock domes and scintillating coils liken to MGMT. Chord movements mushroom into massive soundscapes bulging at the seams, and decelerating to calming brooks in steady breaths through “Bluff” and “Light You Up.” The tracks have a romantic glow reflective of post-new wave artisans like Blue October and the UK’s Ben’s Brother. The ruffles in the guitar vibrations of Chris Greenough illuminate lead vocalist Todd Clark’s words in neon-hued fires along “Where Does It Begin,” and the dragging beats of bassist Ruby Bumrah and drummer Bill Keeley have a ghostly stride along “What Is Real, What Is Doubt” as orchestral strings hover delicately over the inclines of ambient enshrouded landscapes.
Produced by Dennis Herring (Modest Mouse, The Hives, Throwing Muses, Elvis Costello & The Imposters), Wooden Bones delves into the more evolved needs of human nature like rising above defeat and staying on higher ground. Tracks like “Totally I Feel Sure” and “Midnight Fires” are staked in celestial sounding effects and pixie-like twitching with slight interruptions of trembling guitar distortions in “Midnight Fires” which offer a contrast to the blankets of seraphic tones. The title track is thick in stretches of ambient-dusters emblematic of the UK’s Doves, while “Open Arms” has a more serene feel with lightly trellised guitar spins with a varnish of dulcet keyboards.
Pilot Speed modulate their tracks using melodic compounds that feel good and spiral into elevating raptures that excite the senses from the gentle wails of the piano keys in “Bluff” to the whirlwind flusters of “Light You Up.” The climate of Pilot Speed’s songs is comfortable embodying dulcet waves and ambient gales. The band straddles the line of art-pop and melodic rock with a focus to engage the listener‘s higher senses, making a world where no one feels defeated or inclined to wallow in despair.
4/18/2009 3:29:00 AM-----BODY:
Azure
Album: When She Smiles
Label: Azure Music
Release Date: November 11, 2008
Website: www.azuremusic.nl
Soft alfresco-jazz instrumentalists driven by a gentle touch waft in the air of Azure’s latest release, When She Smiles from the band’s own label, Azure Music. With sprinkles of riveting piano keys from Pierre-Francois Blanchard cajoling tingly sensations to arise in the pieces, and jetting across a bounty of flouncy cinders from guitarist Rogier Schneemann as bassist Eric Heijnsdijk and drummer Antonio Pisano whip up boughs of ambient ripples, When She Smiles never misses a chance to rejoice with luster that’s rapacious. Produced by Azure and Lauren Jurrius, the album takes jazz into the depths of romanticism and classical chamber music dens, creating an attractive alfresco ambience that appeals to the finer senses.
The frippery is elegant and the mood is relaxing with tracks like “RnP” and “B-Y-You” sensitively attired in caressing piano keys and high flying guitar chords. The soft country flutter of “Inmost” contrasts the laser shooting fires that spark “By Heart,” and the tenderly knotted lines that balustrade the title track are reflective of an ocean breeze fondling the sands of a beachfront. The contemplative mood of “Ballade Pour Une Paquerette” is flowered in delicate curls, and the anxious stroking of the piano keys in “A Mon Amour” denote a sense of impatient waiting, though the lush swoons and elevating pirouettes that adorn “Berceuse Pour Maelise” create a soothing emollient for the listener’s ears.
Based in The Netherlands, Azure are well attuned to the fragrant bouquets of jazz and classical music, and their instrumentals are drenched in these gardens of splendor. It is music that let’s you be alone with your thoughts and discover what arouses your passions and what causes you to take flight from the world around you. When She Smiles is an album that allows you to go into yourself, and coax places in you to come alive.
4/16/2009 1:04:00 AM-----BODY:
Manchester Orchestra
Album: Mean Everything To Nothing
Label: Favorite Gentlemen/Canvasback Music/Columbia Records
Release Date: April 21, 2009
Website:
Mean Everything To Nothing, the second album from Atlanta, Georgia's Manchester Orchestra, has the primal energy and inner turmoil of Nirvana‘s In Utero tethered to a social consciousness reminiscent of The Decemberists The Crane Wife. There is agony and yearning expressed in Manchester Orchestra’s songs wrapped around a desire to open the floodgates that hold back feelings of hurt. Frontman and lyricist, Andy Hull tells on the band‘s website, "There is nothing fake about this record… There's not one fake sound on it. We recorded it live because we wanted it to sound like a band, and I think it does: live and loud!"
The first half of the album is a brooding tale of teenage angst, delving into the confusion and disillusionment of growing up and becoming an adult, driven by the raw rock gusts intensifying and releasing along “Shake It Out“ and “I‘ve Got Friends.” Robert McDowell’s guitar work creates beefy swells liken to Black Sabbath as the keyboards of Chris Freeman thicken the surging masses, and drummer Jeremiah Edmonds and bassist Jonathan Corley dig into the howling tides. The second half of the album is about redemption and an overall re-evaluation of the self. It's about Hull beginning to realize in his own words "that things are not ok, I am not ok, and there's a beauty in that -- a calming, a forgiveness," he reflects.
The chunky distortions in McDowell’s guitar riffs create piercing intervals and boulder-size ridges lining “In My Teeth,” while the soul-inspired rock blasts engraved along “100 Dollars” make slots for Hull’s fomenting vocals to erupt. Hull’s vocals reduce to a mild simmer along the buttery folk-rock flakes of “I Can Feel A Hot One,” a track which was featured on an episode of “Gossip Girl” before transforming his voice into an anthematic frenzy in “My Friend Marcus.” The fuzzy guitar vibrations along the title track are modulated to heighten through the chorus and withdraw through the verses, creating undulating waves and dynamic currents, which are a signature move of Manchester Orchestra‘s songs.
Mean Everything To Nothing is released on Favorite Gentleman Recordings, the indie label which Hull and Edmond founded in 2004 as a way to stay in control of their music. The album follows the band’s debut release, I’m Like A Virgin Losing A Child. Produced by Joe Chiccarelli (The Shins, My Morning Jacket, The Raconteurs) in conjunction with longtime friend and producer Dan Hannon and the band, Mean Everything To Nothing is the next stage in Manchester Orchestra’s growth, finding inner peace through the tension and strife that life doles out, and accepting the wounds that come with it.
4/13/2009 10:59:00 PM-----BODY:
Join singer-songwriter, Leerone for a live performance accompanied by a string quartet and a chance to chat with her on the web radio program, Raw Rhythms streaming at TheStream.TV on Monday, April 13, 2009 from 8pm - 9pm Pacific Standard Time (Los Angeles) and 11pm Eastern Standard Time (New York). The stream can be viewed here:
http://www.thestream.tv/series.php?s=44Raw Rhythms is produced and hosted by Katie Scanion and Megan Marlow, and executive producer Brian Gramo, the owner of The Stream. The web radio program provides a place for fans to interact with the guest artist/band through questions and comments that are fielded through a live chatroom feed which can be found here: http://www.blogtv.com/People/thestreamdottv
And instant messages which can be sent to the show directly from: thestreamdottv (This works for AOL/MSN/Yahoo/ICQ) So please do send a message!! The show will be available on demand the following morning at www.thestream.tv
Raw Rhythms with guest artist, Leerone airing live on Monday, April 13, 2009 from 8-9pm PST or 11pm EST
More information can be found here: http://www.leerone.com/gallery/events_pres.php
Raw Rhythms on TheStream.TV can be found here: http://www.thestream.tv/series.php?s=44
Alternative Live Chat Room Feed: http://www.justin.tv/thestreamdottv
4/13/2009 5:38:00 AM-----BODY:
Twilight Soundtrack
Label: Chop Shop/Atlantic Records
Release Date: November 4, 2008
Music Supervisor: Alexandra Patsavas
The soundtrack for the teen flix, Twilight, proves to be quite different from the film’s Gothic complexion used by the film’s director, Catherine Hardwicke, or the intense characterization which writer, Stephenie Meyer kindles in her novel. Twilight is an adaptation of Meyer’s first book in a 4-part series from her vampire-themed saga, but the soundtrack really stands on its own separate from the film with songs by Paramore, Linkin Park, Mutemath, and one campfire-folk tune from actor, Rob Pattinson who plays the mysterious “Edward Cullen” in the film. Music Supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas whose credits include soundtracks for The O.C., Grey’s Anatomy, and Gossip Girl, was in charge of this project and really diced up the mix with songs that had shades of electro-pop, dark wave-punk, and acoustic-rock.
Opening with Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole,” the soundtrack sets the stage for a techno-club romp which rolls into catchy numbers like Paramore’s fiery pop-punk fused “Decode,” and The Black Ghosts smooth electro-pop glides swiveling sensually across “Full Moon.” Linkin Park’s “Leave Out All The Rest” powers the album with a metallic radiance, and the club-inspired crackling of Mutemath’s “Spotlight” has a electro-flared ruffling that resembles Kasabian’s chic style. Perry Farrell’s theme song, “Go All The Way” is electrifying, and the sonic malaise crafted by Collective Soul in “Tremble For My Beloved” is treated with inflaming riffs. Blue Foundation’s “Eyes On Fire” is filament by buttery vocal strokes, and Iron & Wine’s smooth doo-wop style harmonies along “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” encloses the listener in floating sensations. Paramore has a second track on the album, the mid-tempo rocker “I Caught Myself,” and the rustic smoke-rings of Pattinson’s “Never Think” burn at a lumbering crawl. The soundtrack concludes with Carter Burwell’s instrumental suite “Bella’s Lullaby” which, in the movie, is the song that the pre-eminent vampire, “Edward Cullen” composes on the piano for his wife-to-be, “Isabelle Swan.” Burwell puts in many more orchestral curls and fragrant silhouettes than a simple piano ballad would suggest, but the piece definitely gives the listener a sense of forbidden love and undying affection, which are the main themes underlining Meyer‘s Twilight Saga.
With true Patsavas passion, the soundtrack brings attention to promising artists like The Black Ghosts and the Blue Foundation whose songs really hit the spot on this disc. The album is heavily skewed towards club-inspired dance tracks, but there are a few moments of lo-fi acoustics that provide room for introspection like Iron & Wine’s tune and Pattinson’s number. The soundtrack can stand alone as a separate piece from the film, though the songs do work in conjunction with the scenes from the film. Meyer’s saga has three more books to be adapted into motion pictures, so this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
4/12/2009 2:48:00 AM-----BODY:
The Boy Least Likely To
Album: The Law Of The Playground
Label: +1 Records
Release Date: April 14, 2009
Website: www.theboyleastlikelyto.co.uk
England’s duo of Jof Owen and Peter Hobbs, who make up The Boy Least Likely To, took their maiden voyage into the port of pop stardom in 2006 with the release of their debut album, The Best Party Ever. Now, they are up for a second jaunt with the release of their sophomore effort, The Law Of The Playground.
Using a paint set filled with homespun folk, rollicking country and sunny-pop hues, The Law Of The Playground delivers a folk-pop fare that re-enforces the band‘s unwavering enthusiasm, generating festive marching band romps and catchy sing-along tunes. Tracks like “Saddle Up” and “A Balloon On A Broken String” are harnessed in sandcastles of twittering pop grains and beads of jolly beats. The music is seamed in toy-like incantations with a duck-like waddle and claves of xylophone chimes. It’s kiddie music made for adults who don’t want to grow jaded.
The cheerful strokes of “When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade” have an infectious trotting, and the light-footed canter of “Whiskers” is layered in vivacious acoustics and spiraling tendrils of chiming sounds. Songs like “Stringing Up Conkers” and “Every Goliath Has Its David” are pop anthems for those who feel insecure about themselves, and numbers like “I Keep Myself To Myself” and “The Boy With Two Hearts” are brushed in feathery clusters and coated in sunny pop mists.
The music has a polished sound possessing a sunny bouquet of rustic pastels trimmed in rows of soft ripples and bubbly rhythmic patterns. The band takes no big risks on their sophomore record, but it strengthens their hold as the makers of jangly-pop for adults.
4/10/2009 6:26:00 AM-----BODY:
Jason Aldean
Album: Wide Open
Label: Broken Bow Records
Release Date: April 7, 2009
Website:
They say that the third try is the charm, and this is certainly true for country singer-songwriter Jason Aldean, whose third album, Wide Open treads on Saving Abel’s rugged southern rock turf with shavings of Rascal Flatts-vibed country-pop and Taylor Swift’s soft picturesque ballads. Produced by Michael Knox, Wide Open features several tracks that Aldean co-wrote with a group of songwriters that gained his trust and friendship like Neil Thrasher, Wendell Mobley, David Lee Murphy, and Jim Collins. The tracks share a recurring theme about small town folks chasing after their big city dreams. It’s a theme that has been a driving force in Aldean’s own life having been born and raised in the rural town of Macon, Georgia and breaking into country music’s own equivalent to Las Vegas, the big city lights of Nashville, Tennessee.
Aldean’s lyrical themes balance the menial tasks of everyday life with dreams that hang in the window, desiring to be more than a cog on a spinning wheel but the mechanism that motors the wheel to go forward. His tunes are musket by smooth country acoustics barreled by the fiddle and pedal steel guitar and heated by the rawness of rampant pounding in the rhythm section. Aldean cradles the words with his tongue like they are his to hold, and the heartland country flange in the guitar riffs bulk up the melodies with a rustic flavoring in tracks like “This I Gotta See” and the hearty rays of the pedal steel in “She’s Country.” The intonations can be rugged like in “She’s Country” or buttery smooth like in “Don’t Give Up On Me,” or right in the middle like in “Keep The Girl.” The power rock riffs that sediment “Crazy Town” are ribbed in country-flexed fiddles, and move into wispy tendrils and light flouncing beats gartering “On My Highway.” The picturesque vibe of the track is calming and vibrate with a gentle canter along “Big Green Tractor,” which Aldean calls “a country boy’s chariot for his lady.”
Jason Aldean is a modern day Glen Campbell, the forerunner of country-pop through the ‘70s, and Wide Open strengthens Aldean’s hold on this position. Once a child of rural America, now a pivotal figure in the global marketplace of country-pop, Jason Aldean is a part of that mechanism that is motoring the wheel of country music to go forward, and showing that dreams can become a reality.
4/8/2009 7:05:00 AM-----BODY:
Album: Kingdom Of Rust
Label: Astralwerks
Release Date: April 7, 2008
Website: www.doves.net
The new millennium witnessed a nu-shoegaze phenomena emerging in the UK with the Doves album Some Cities in 2005. The trio are on the verge of another upswing with the release of their album Kingdom Of Rust from Astralwerks Records. Fronted by lead singer/bass guitarist Jimi Goodwin, the Doves take Radiohead’s space-rock fossils into exciting terrain filament by frothy dance-club beats helmed by drummer Andy Williams, and sparkling synth textures emanating from Jez Williams guitar effects spindling a likeness to Duran Duran circa 1981 to ’84.
Tracks like “The Outsiders” and “House Of Mirrors“ have a hardcore Manchester club-rock rustling with industrial-fringed whipping, while songs like “Jetstream” and “Winter Hill” are bathe in glittering synth effects that sparkle like sonic diamonds reflective of the quintessential shoegazers from Manchester, Joy Division. The melodic crystals of the title track, “Spellbound” and “Birds Flew Backwards” have hooks with a soft country flange as the melodies are basked in shadowy silhouettes and glistening guitar tendrils which mutate into a magnetic field of ambient-encrusted spirals. The heavy bass beats of “Compulsion” are addictive, and the wavy soundscapes catcombing “Lifelines” create a blissful labyrinth of elevating flames and scintillating cascades.
Once again, The UK’s Doves do everything right, at least for fans of shoegaze-pop and club-based rock. Fans of the band should be pleasantly satisfied by Kingdom Of Rust, and new recruits attracted to the band’s ambient sound should be forthcoming. Kingdom Of Rust is like the band’s previous album, Some Cities, with just a bit more of the trio unveiled.
4/3/2009 8:17:00 PM-----BODY:
Nickelback
Album: Dark Horse
Label: Roadrunner Records
Release Date: November 2008
Website: www.nickelback.com
After honing themselves as the good guys of metal rock through the late ‘90s when post-grunge bands like Creed and Tantric were beginning to falter, Nickelback survived the shift into the new millennium and even thrived through its first decade. The band’s latest release, Dark Horse is proof of their endurance. Returning with long-time collaborator Joey Moi for Dark Horse, and produced by Mutt Lange (Shania Twain, The Corrs, Bryan Adams, AC/DC), the album has crunchy guitar rock flusters liken to Hinder with the melodic rock magnetism of The Goo Goo Dolls and a country rock luster emblematic of Saving Abel.
The deep throaty register of lead singer Chad Kroeger gives these songs an identifiable mark as the rest of the band lathers the songs in a palatable hard rock frosting with Chad’s brother Mike Kroeger on bass guitar and Daniel Adair on drums, lining these numbers with crashing booms that send shivers up and down the spinal column, and guitarist Ryan Peake invading the tracks with a salvo of exploding ruptures and rapidly vaunting slingshots. The power rock rip-chords set off along “Shakin’ Hands,” “S.E.X.” and “Something In Your Mouth” are seamed with salivating lyrics that are typical of boys locker room banter, and not just those in high school. But Nickelback really made a name for themselves in mainstream radio with melodic rock anthems in the past like “Photograph” and “How You Remind Me,” and Dark Horse is replete with songs like these including “Gotta Be Somebody,” “I’d Come For You,” and the reflecting pools of shimmering guitar chords that accentuate the romantic side of Kroeger’s vocals in “Never Gonna Be Alone.”
The band knows when to power their songs with untamed adrenaline and macho-muscled lust, and when to avail themselves to the finer senses of romantic love. The band also shows signs of incorporating overtones of country rock into their songs like in “If Today Was Your Last Day” and “This Afternoon,” which agrees with their Vancouver-based heritage.
Some folks may feel that Nickelback have simply re-constituted the hard rock riffage and guitar shreds of AC/DC or Hinder on Dark Horse, but no matter how much Nickelback sounds like these other bands, their music always distinguishes them from the rest of the flock. Now in the middle of their second decade of existence, Nickelback have done more than any of their peers from the post-grunge era thought could be mastered, and Nickelback seem just as excited about hard rock motored riffs today as they were when they first formed in the mid-’90s.
8/4/2008 10:40:00 PM-----BODY:
David Buchbinder
Album: Odessa/Havana
Label: Tzadik Records
Release Date: November 20, 2007
Website: www.davidbuchbinder.ca
Trumpet/flugelhorn player David Buchbinder and classical jazz pianist Hilario Duran show that the union of Klezmer/Sephardic jazz and Latin music is a marriage that beams with joy for musicians and audiences alike. The duo’s latest collaboration Odessa/Havana, which is produced by the band’s bass player Roberto Occhipinti, crafts a fusion of traditional music from North Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East making Odessa/Havana into an expressive form of cultural arts. The album is much more than an academic study of cultural music, the songs move audiences through customary Jewish dance patterns, emotive laments and soulful phrasing juxtaposed by lines of Afro-Cuban rhythms and Latin jazz wonderment. The song “Cadiz” is emblematic of a beautiful Jewish-influenced melody, and “Rumba Judia” pulls out all the stops on the excitement that Cuban jazz stirs. The compilation is made up of compositions written by Buchbinder and some written by Duran, and then there is one track “Colaboracion” which is written by both that creates an epicenter of charming nightclub jazz revelry. Taking its name from the seaport of Odessa located along the Black Sea in the Ukraine and the Cuban city of Havana, Odessa Havana has figuratively brought together these two homesteads and made the album a virtual metropolis.
- Susan Frances, 2008
8/4/2008 10:39:00 PM-----BODY:
Ben's Brother
Album: Beta Male Fairytales
Label: Virgin Records
Release Date: December 4, 2007
Genre: Pop/Rock
Website: www.bensbrother.com
One of England's newest bands to emerge from its pop/rock homestead is the quintet Ben's Brother whose latest full-length album Beta Male Fairytales is cot with softley brushed vocal strokes by lead singer Jamie Hartman and nicely wreathe melodic kilts made by keyboardist Kiris Houston, guitarist Tim Vanderkuil, bassist Dan McKinna, and drummer Dave Hatte. Produced by Martin Terefe (KT Tunstall, Tristan Prettyman), Beta Male Fairytales embodies new classic rock and blue-eyed soul with the gentle sensibilities of Michael McDonald and the esthetics trappings of Lifehouse. The melodic patterns have curvaceous cuffs bottlenecked in breakdowns, buildups, and spots of harmonica solos performed by Hartman. The segments are beautifully sutured and caramelize with Hartman's vocals to a solid stock. Chord progressions curl loosely and move evenly with complete control placed in the band's hands. Tracks like "Beauty Queen," "Find Me An Angel," and "Home" have melodic hooks that instantly connect with the listener. The song "Kiss Me Again," dubbed the "stuttering song," is penetrating both sonically and lyrically piping with emotion in verses like: "I feel so unsexy / So maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut / At least until you kiss me / So Kiss me again / Coz only you can stop the st-st-st-stuttering." The songs mechanisms have sleek rivulets, polished transitions, a cruising momentum, and a light hammering in the rhythms like the pitter-patter of a beating heart as the lyrics tell what happens when two people decide to mate. The album has the appeal of John Mayer's music and makes you want to say, "That was nice," when it is done. Like Mayer's albums, Ben's Brother's records never loses it touch to elevate one's mood. Its gravitational pull is perennial."
- Susan Frances, 2008
8/4/2008 10:39:00 PM-----BODY:
Your Vegas
Album: A Town And Two Cities
Label: Universal Republic Records
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Website: www.yourvegasmusic.com
Great Britain has a reputation for being infallible when it comes to bringing the world impressive rock bands, and the country has done it once again with Your Vegas. Though Your Vegas recorded their debut full-length album A Town And Two Cities in New York City and take their name from the American casino world of Las Vegas, the band members are from the countryside of Leeds, England. Their debut effort is dreamy with full-body arrangements that resound at the level of early U2 and the chilling sonic imagery of The Killers. There is a modern new wave vibe in their songs that radiate of astonishing synth-textured flames and stylish melodic splashes. Produced by David Bendeth, A Town And Two Cities is capable of consuming whole cities in the way that early Duran Duran managed through the ‘80s. Your Vegas creates a big sound while maintaining elevated lines and striking melodic sensibilities. From the beginning, the band hooks in their audience with cascading riffs and gentle tumbling rhythms through “It Makes My Heart Break” and “In My Head.” The melodic transitions are skillfully handled with care bearing a likeness to the Editors. But where the Editors show a predilection for dark shadows, Your Vegas veer towards the light heralding optimism in their ethers with a reminiscence to Scotland’s Big Country. The heavy heart of “The Way The War Was Won” has a rugged pounding, and the sonic luster of “Salvador” is aurally mystifying. Though the songs have a monogamous consistency, the album is never boring. It is like being surrounded in a field of honeysuckles. Their beauty alone enthralls the listeners so completely that they don’t crave for a wider variety.
Susan Frances, 2008
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