New Music

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This article was published 28/08/2010 (5839 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KATY PERRY / Teenage Dream (Capitol Records)

Katy Perry’s new CD is like a magical slot machine: Select any song and you’ll hear a hit.

Teenage Dream, the singer’s sophomore release, is a 12-track set that has many flavours: Thumping dance jams, groovy mid-tempo numbers and pop ballads that are subtle and soft — just like the cloud Perry’s nude body lays atop on the album cover.

Much of the credit for the hit factory goes to the album’s producers, which includes Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco, Max Martin, Stargate, Tricky and Greg Wells. They’re hit-makers who clearly saved their best material for Perry.

But another big reason for the album’s magic is Perry herself. She has a booming voice, and can out-sing pop tarts like Britney Spears and Ke$ha, whose vocals are usually whispery and weak. They usually fade into the background of the album’s beat. Perry’s vocals not only ride with the beat, they advance it.

Teenage Dream also explores the 25-year-old’s roller-coaster of emotions: She’s horny on the explosive Peacock, lost on Who Am I Living For? and mysterious on E.T. She builds you up on the pulsating and addictive Firework, but brings you down (well not you, but Travis McCoy) on Circle the Drain. On the latter tune, about McCoy’s drug addiction, a bitter Perry spits firebomb lyrics like: "Wanna be your lover, not your (expletive) mother."

Perry closes the album with Not Like the Movies, a slow, but sweet ode to her fiancé, actor-comedian Russell Brand. Picture perfect? Guess so. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö

 

— Mesfin Fekadu, The Associated Press

 

WOLF PARADE

Expo 86 (Sub Pop)

 

The latest full-length from Montreal indie rockers Wolf Parade possibly suffers from both spread-too-thin syndrome (songwriters Spencer Krug and Dan Boekner are also members of Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs, respectively) and too-many-cooks syndrome (both Krug and Boeckner contribute and it makes for a herky-jerky album).

Opener Cloud Shadow on the Mountain — a garage-psych number bolstered by pounding drums and ? and the Mysterions-style keyboards — is a fine showcase for vocalist Krug’s refined yelp. Palm Road trades in epic, pounding pop à la Arcade Fire — so much so, in fact, that Win Butler might have a case for collecting royalties (the album was produced by ex-Arcade Fire member Howard Bilerman).

The tracks, recorded live to tape, have an appealing sense of immediacy, but what starts off as driving, hook-laden rock starts to sound like mere bluster at the four-minute mark; for instance, the tangled guitars of In the Direction of the Moon are cool at first, white noise by the song’s end. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

— Jill Wilson

 

 

 

 

 

ALL DELIGHTED PEOPLE

Sufjan Stevens (Asthmatic Kitty)

 

Without warning, indie-folk star Sufjan Stevens released this new eight-song EP recently — offering digital downloads for $5 on sufjanstevens.bandcamp.com. It seems like a steal of deal — the "original version" of the title track alone clocks in at more than 11 minutes, a sprawling epic with a tempest of strings, a choir of angels, and lyrical references to Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sounds of Silence.

There’s also an eight-minute classic rock version, which sounds more like jangly desert rock with trumpets and a crescendo of squealing guitars, while the EP’s closer, Djohariah, is 17 minutes of eerie chants, guitar scribbles, deflated trumpets and desperately needs an editor. (Actually, the entire EP could use a trim.)

Stevens also proves he can still write shorter numbers, including Enchanting Ghost, a gentle piano lullaby, which reverberates with the pangs of a banjo and his aching voice. From the Mouth of Gabriel mixes a few bars of spacey electronics with lilting orchestral arrangements. "I’ll try to make things right," he ends the song, perhaps sensing he doesn’t always delight with his new EP.’Ö’Ö’Ö

 

— Sandra Sperounes, Edmonton Journal

 

GHOSTKEEPER

Ghostkeeper (Flemish Eye Records)

 

By the time you get to the third track (Don’t Come Knocking) on Ghostkeeper’s premier album you begin to realize that this is not your typical indie rock quartet.

Led by the obviously idiosyncratic Shane Ghostkeeper, the band toddles around the tracks on this album with the purposeful zeal of those special kinds of artists that realize theirs is not the typical row to hoe. Songs can start out simply enough, usually with Ghostkeeper’s implausible acoustic guitar riffing, but can and often do devolve into a kind of Pixies-meet-The Fall kookiness. They skronk, they do the herky-jerk and stutter through lyrics made to confuse.

Well, Well, Well opens with a heavy metal riff which then slowly charts it’s course into psych-rock wonderment all while maintaining a level of musical proficiency that is fairly staggering. Drummer Sarah Houle adds her wonderful vocals to a couple of tracks, making this a solid and varied listen and the band one to watch. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

— Jeff Monk

RA RA RIOT

The Orchard (Barsuk)

 

New York City’s Ra Ra Riot are still early enough in their career as a band to expect new ears to be turned in their direction. Of course that depends wholly on how you like your slender-as-a-feather pop delivered.

The group features a couple of strings players, which gives their sound something of a chamber pop edge in a way. The Orchard plays out wistfully, with a few of the more eloquent moments used for their near New Order meets, well, plenty of other shoe gazer-ish bands you could plug in here. And that in the end is the problem with this album.

Singer Wesley Miles sugarcoated, boyish croon is paper thin relegating it to something of an aural irritant by albums end. There is just nothing here that, even after manifold listens, stands out as anything more than just more of the same fruit from a different tree. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

— Monk

 

USHER

Versus (Jive)

 

It’s only been a few months since Usher released Raymond V. Raymond, but he’s back with another album — kind of.

Versus is a nine-song project that will be available as a single disc or part of a deluxe, rereleased version of Raymond V. Raymond. But Versus isn’t all new material. It has two songs you’ve already heard — his current hit, There Goes My Baby, which was on Raymond V. Raymond, and the remix to Somebody to Love, which features protege Justin Bieber and is on Bieber’s album.

So, with only seven new tracks, it’s more like an EP, and like Raymond V. Raymond, it’s another uneven effort from an artist talented enough to do better.

Songs like DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love, featuring Pitbull, will get you moving on the dance floor, but that has more to do with the standard club beat than Usher, who makes little impact on this song. Hot Tottie is another so-so track, despite the guest appearance of Jay-Z, who delivers a surprisingly uninspired verse; maybe he’s had one too many cameos of late.

Usher shines when he’s able to display his sterling voice, plus his signature sensuality and swagger. On the album’s best song, Lay You Down, he seduces with every note, every moan. And Love ‘Em All and Get in My Car feature Usher at his playboy best.

If we had more of these kind of songs, this would be a tight, must-get song collection; as is, you’re better off cherry-picking and creating your own, even shorter Usher EP. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

 

— Nekesa Mumbi Moody, The Associated Press

 

 

THE RECKONERS

…And the Sky Opened Up … (Indie)

 

The backstory of Vancouver based indie folk-pop duo The Reckoners reads a bit like a fairy tale. Ricardo Khayatte (vocals, guitar) and Christina Simpson (vocals) met at a cabin in the woods when invited out by a mutual friend for a ski weekend. The two hit it off and this EP is the fruit of that fateful meeting.

From the moment you hear Eye for an Eye one is immediately willingly enslaved by the plaintive beauty of these two voices. Whether it’s the stark mournfulness of the carefully crafted ballad Somethings, the catchy loping melody and honesty of Too Tough to Love, Timothy Tweedale’s haunting lap steel guitar on the country leaning Heartbreaker or the animated banjo-like guitar that propels The Wanderer, the exceptional musicianship and duo’s exquisite harmonies are treated respectfully with production that knows where to draw the line.

If there is one complaint, it’s that six songs barely whets one’s appetite. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

 

— Bruce Leperre

 

ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, VASILY PETRENKO

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 (Naxos)

 

The latest installment in Petrenko’s Shostakovich symphony cycle maintains the high standard set in his previous Naxos releases of Symphonies 11, 5 and 9. Again, the Liverpool players’ style and polish compare most favorably with the best orchestras that have recorded this challenging music.

The Eighth dates from 1943 and is not only among Shostakovich’s darkest works but his deepest but is a masterly essay of structure and technique where one feels the terror of the times on many levels. The finale culminates in a kind of peace that bears out what Shostakovich wrote on completion: "everything that is dark and gloomy will rot away, and the beautiful shall triumph.”

Petrenko’s splendidly recorded account smoothes out some of the rough edges you normally hear and a bit more ferocity wouldn’t hurt, but this is an excellent reading overall and at budget price warrants a strong recommendation. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö’Ö

 

— James Manishen