APRIL CD SPINS

 

by  Staff

 

 

JACI VELASQUEZ

Beauty Has Grace

(Word/Curb Records)

 

Beauty Has Grace is a triumph by Jaci Velasquez. This album takes the “God is great” theme of most overly cheerful, pop Christian music and takes it to a much deeper level. Infused with a Brit pop/rock sound, Jaci’s raw yet gentle vocals soar over lyrics about losing faith, yourself, and coming back to God’s grace.

  

Beauty Has Grace showcases a rarity in Christian music – having doubt. Tracks such as “Lay It Down” and “Supernatural” deal with the issues of doubting faith in desperate times and not having all the answers.

   

Another great song is “Reason To Believe” which describes our need to find something bigger than ourselves.

   

          This album is a combination of driving rock rhythms and mellow piano melodies with one resounding theme- love. Beauty Has Grace is a very inspirational album full of positive yet realistic songs of God’s grace and love.

 

– Sarah G. Lounges

 

 

 

FALL OUT BOY

From Under The Cork Tree

(Fueled By Ramen/Island)

 

…Finally, it’s here! 

  

From Under the Cork Tree, the widely-anticipated album from Wilmette’s pop-punk gods, Fall Out Boy, has only been on the Billboard listings for a few weeks, but has already placed in the chart’s top ten. 

   

Take this exceptional album, add a few press appearances and a headlining stint on this summer’s Vans’ Warped Tour, and you’ve got music’s latest “Big Thing”. 

   

The signature sound embedded in the band’s groundbreaking album, Take This To Your Grave, transitions smoothly into From Under the Cork Tree. 

   

Hardcore Fall Out Boy fans won’t be disappointed or alienated by any surprises or bizarre style changes. 

   

It’s not that the guys played it safe; more that they took a formula that already worked well and added better production value and more mature lyrics and themes to the mix. The same catchy hooks are still in place, the album just contains more heart than their prior release. 

   

From Under the Cork Tree marks the band’s major label debut on Island Records. 

   

Produced, mixed and recorded by production guru Neal Avron, (New Found Glory, Yellowcard) the album is the essence of what pop-punk should be: so full of power, you’ll want to pogo around your living room. 

    

Vocalist Patrick Stumph is the icing on the cake- unlike so many front men in the same musical genre, Stumph can actually sing – and do it well!  His distinctive vocal sound gives the band added musical credibility and truly sets this band apart from their peers. 

    

While Fall Out Boy tends to be lumped into the pop-punk category, From Under The Cork Tree throws a bit of a curveball at pop-punk fans. The elements of heavy, almost melodic rock really provide an added perk to the album and separates Fall Out Boy from the Simple Plans and Good Charlottes of the pop-punk world.

    

          Track-wise, this is an album that is solid from front to back.  From the catchy opening tune, “Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued”, to the slightly lower-key “XO”, the album is pure musical bliss.  

   

And while we can’t forget about the infectious single, “Sugar We’re Goin Down”, we shouldn’t ignore other album gems like the upbeat, slightly campy “Dance, Dance” and the my latest favorite song to croon while I’m driving, “Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner”. 

    

If for nothing else, check out the album for the sheer ingenuity of its track titles.  If titles like “I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me” and “A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More ‘Touch Me’” aren’t compelling enough to make you drop twelve bucks on the album, you’re probably listening to Barry Manilow and just wouldn’t understand the Fall Out Boy phenomenon anyway.  Overall 10/10!

 

– Corine Jurgerson

 

 

 

THE EELS

Blinking Lights And Other Revelations

(Vagrant Records)

 

Mark Everett is a personal hero of mine.  He pretty much constructs song after song in his basement, has a few friends come by to help supplement the atmosphere with their own contributions and puts out some of the most beautifully orchestrated, bipolar rock operas ever imagined. 

    

1998’s Electro-Shock Blues is up there with In Utero as being a record that not only influenced and inspired my own songwriting palette, but served as a remedy for my own rock hard times. 

     

          Although his previous record Shootenanny wasn’t as memorable as everything that preceded, the eels’ newest (double) album, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations is another look into self-involved examinations of both epiphany and mystification.

   

But even when E is at his most downtrodden, there is unrepentant joy encompassing.  Mark Everett (the sole member of the band) delicately combines enthrallment with mortality alongside quaint introspection into the intrinsic promises of secular life.  He’s seen the good, the bad, the ugly and is inspired every morning to look out at the world with a fine-tooth comb in his back pocket. 

   

The guy has been through some heavy stuff especially during the making of Electro-Shock Blues when his sister committed suicide and his mother passed away around the same time, but he manages to infuse optimism and acceptance into the direst-sounding ballad.  This is a guy that can go to a club and rock out, or sit on a dune and observe nature at its most overwhelmingly beautiful and most of his songs share the same characteristics.  But he keeps his sense of humor in tact, apparent in a track like “Restraining Order Blues.”

    

Blinking Lights... could be his best record since Electro-Shock Blues if only it was a single disc (which I know is an age-old argument for most double records but the instrumentals are far too plentiful and don’t really add a lot of spark). 

   

His songs sound uncontaminated as if he wrote the song WHILE being completely immersed inside a fractured emotional state; much like a method actor would do in order to become a particular character.  Everett lives inside these songs like a memory that refuses to fade with the illusion of time.  But he’s never sounded as accepting of his insecurities while fully realizing that the past has only made him stronger. 

  

“Old Shit/New Shit” is a prime example.  “The psychic pain of living in this world/It’s overwhelming me again and again/I’m tired of the old shit let the new shit begin.”  He’s conscious of the pain that might accompany falling head over heels in love but he’s willing to task the risk. 

   

          E saved the best for last however with “Things The Grandchildren Should Know,” one of the most illuminating, candid and unabashedly beautiful songs ever recorded.  It’s constructed like a letter to the future, making his offspring aware of his neurotic, agoraphobic tendencies, to prepare them for the possibility but also to let them know that he’s learned to live with them and will manage just fine. And that goes for the entire record. 

   

Dub this existential rock if you will, but Blinking Lights... should serve as an archetype for all rock bands not only to make great pop-rock songs, but in order to better understand why we’re here and why we feel so lost. 

   

And yet a record like this reaffirms reassurance that through love and acceptance, we can be found again and again.

 

– James E. Laczkowski

 

 

 

ETHAN DANIEL DAVIDSON

Free Ethan Daniel Davidson 5

(Times Beach Records)

 

 “It’s a gasoline world and I’m a real live wire. I need you like a house on fire.”

   

It is lines like these that prove than Ethan Daniel Davidson is truly a great lyrist. He proves this on his bands latest release, Free The Ethan Daniel Davidson 5.

   

This CD is very intriguing. Ethan has a great band backing him. The compositions really enhance the delivery of each song. Musically, it is hard to pin down a true sound for this band.

 

Obviously, their roots are country, but from track to track they go from satirical pop, alternative blues to some good ol’, let’s boot scoot boogie down to the local roadhouse, country.

 

You can hear all these influences on “I Need You Like A House On Fire”, “I Can’t Drink You Pretty”, “No Gods, No Masters” and lastly “A German Woman, An Irish Junkie, Their Three Year Old Daughter”.

 

I see the reflection of Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter within this disc as well s a more intelligent Pure Prairie League.

 

There’s a small Grateful Dead-ish ring to the band’s sound. However, the delivery is more direct and minus the improvisational jazz influence.

   

This all just proves that borrowing is always okay as long as you make it your own.

         

          Without trying to be cliché, Ethan’s songs are like postcards; they allow us to view the world he travels so often through his eyes. I suggest that you pick this CD up and add it to your collection.

   

For more info on this band go to www.timesbeachrecords.com

 

 

– Mr. Sid

 

 

 

AIMEE MANN

The Forgotten Arm

(SuperEgo Records)

 

 

          Halfway through Aimee Mann’s latest, The Forgotten Arm, she sings about going through the motions.  Unfortunately this is a pertinent statement regarding the record in its entirety. 

   

As an avid Mann fan, I have adored every single solo effort from the former ‘Til Tuesday songstress, including her fear and self-loathing lo-fi basement record, Lost In Space, which many found to be too dawdling and painfully crestfallen.  (“It’s Not” is one of the best twenty songs of the past decade or so in my opinion). 

   

It’s similar to the knee-jerk reaction that Matthew Sweet must’ve had after making the depressing Altered Beast which didn’t settle well with critics or fans, so he crafted the upbeat pop record 100% Fun. 

   

The best that can be said about Forgotten Arm is that she externalizes a bit more instead of vanishing inside her own emotional complexities. 

   

This time, it’s all about two other people enduring the trials and tribulations.  The concept behind Aimee Mann’s fifth solo album revolves around a former boxer that returns from Vietnam addicted to smack, and both he and his softhearted girlfriend undergo painful rehab and a daunting period of adjustment. 

    

          It’s satisfactory to hear Mann breaking outward with a story to tell, but this is not her Million Dollar Baby.  There is very little to latch onto and chord structures come out sounding weary and rather ordinary even by her standards. 

    

The tempos stay sullenly mid-tempo and there is not one iota of tear-jerking catharsis as during the many moments of her best effort, Bachelor No. 2. 

   

The blurred narrative does remain consistent and the delicately restrained sing-along story-songs of The Forgotten Arm allow for Mann to branch out conceptually but the melodies rarely stick like they once did. 

   

          Singer and producer Joe Henry fashion a more undemanding light-pop album with very little dynamic grandeur to help build a larger scope for her characters.  It’s more of a studio record than Lost In Space, but there’s very little evidence of experimentation.

   

This strict, clear-cut tactic demonstrates that Mann's country-tinged songs can be quite lethargic and monotonous; something I never felt before listening to previous records.

  

However, “That’s How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart” does recall her desolate, inhibited ballads of the immaculate Magnolia contributions, while “I Can’t Get My Head Around It” is a pleasant, unsullied, brisk example of levelheaded pop built around a pulsating bass.  But she seems emotionally detached from the proceedings, which was never a problem before. 

    

Overall it’s more of a been-there, done-that record for Mann, only infusing anticipation for what’s around the bend. 

    

It’s kind of a drag to listen to Mann settle for “good enough” instead of “better”, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hold out hope for the next enterprise.

 

– James E. Laczkowski

 

 

 

SLAVEMACHINE

Disfigured Consciosness

(Reality Entertainment)

 

Not too long ago there was a formula for success. It was heroin, flannel and being a musician/poet/junkie. Ah, Seattle in the ‘90s.

   

The, now retro, sounds of grunge punched me in the face as I listened to Disfigured Consciousness, which is the latest release from Slavemachine.

   

This CD is filled with dark lyrics and hard-driving power chords that crunch when you bite into them.

   

In my opinion, this band is very talented and has promise. The double vocals work very well together as they float over the body of the music which has a spine made of hard guitar riffs, pounding bass and crashing beats along with some shades of down tuning.

  

“Another Way To Die”, “Shamed” and “Crazy” are my favorite tracks on this disc. However, it has been said that every diamond has at least one flaw. Well, unfortunately Slavemachine has one that a blind person could see.

   

          As a band, you sometimes try to duplicate or build off your influences to form your own sound. Sometimes a band works so hard to duplicate the sound of their key influence, that they just become a clone of that band.

   

Slavemachine is very talented, but they lack originality and it becomes obvious that Alice in Chains is their main influence.

   

          This band has two options.

  

The first option would be changing their name to Dirt and becoming an Alice in Chains tribute band. There is no shame in that and it would actually be a great draw.

   

The second option; take time off to work out the kinks and come back as a kick ass, truly original band.

   

I don’t want to rip on this band, just offering some constructive criticism.

 

For more info, go to: www.slavemachine.com

 

– Mr. Sid

 

 

 

WEEZER

Make Believe

(Geffen)

 

During one of Make Believe’s better, catchier tracks, “This Is Such A Pity,” lead singer Rivers Cuomo asks, “How did things get so bad?”

    

That’s precisely what I was thinking while listening to the duration of Weezer’s latest.   

   

Their debut Blue Album has a special place in my heart and of course the follow-up, Pinkerton, has been cited as one of the archetypes for the now scalded emo sound.  That record was a painful listen, because Rivers sounded as if he was drunkenly honest (or honestly drunk) when composing each track and the lack of glossy production was a benefit. 

    

But those bouts of captivating candor seem to have been chucked in favor of prolonging commercial appeal.  Now Rivers and crew sound artificial and bored. I can openly admit that I have a penchant for songwriters who wear their heart on their forehead, but there’s a fine between being cloyingly Hallmark hokey and achingly sincere. 

     

          Make Believe unfortunately falls into the former category, veering more in the category of boy band than stadium rock ensemble.  

   

First single “Beverly Hills” even has the audacity to rip-off its central chord structure from their first hit “Undone (The Sweater Song)” even if it’s tuned down a half step.  The song itself much like “Hash Pipe”, favors dumbed down shout-outs and comes out sounding like something that resembles ‘80s radio pop. 

   

          Too much of Make Believe is casually unremarkable and phlegmatic when Weezer are usually the exact opposite.

   

Even the sense of humor is missing.  They just slap together a few chords; hook, line, sinker and they’ve got a song.  There’s nothing relevant or memorable behind the tired style, labored mid-tempo beats and all.

   

          Cuomo has penned a batch of songs that are painfully mediocre. “We Are All On Drugs” is more Nyquil than ecstasy while “Pardon Me” – an apology to everyone Rivers has wronged is just unembellished and lifeless.  

   

The earlier records contained a genuine sense of dynamics and a lack of posturing with occasional interruptions and insanely memorable hooks that were often copious within the same song. But sadly, that magic has dissipated for something more conventional and trite.  

   

          After the CD ended, I could only cry out – “Say it ain’t so!”

 

– James E. Laczkowski

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