Pop and Rock

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/07/2010 (5858 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse

Dark Night of the Soul (EMI)

This project of multi-instrumentalist/collaborator extraordinaire Brian Burton, a.k.a Danger Mouse, and tormented Southern songwriter Mark Linkous, a.k.a. Sparklehorse, was held up in legal limbo for years, so it’s unwise to read anything into the fact that both Linkous and album contributor Vic Chesnutt killed themselves mere months before its official release. However, the fact does add a layer of unconscious meaning to these dense, glitchy, often dark, pop tunes.

On collaborations with Julian Casablancas, Suzanne Vega and director David Lynch (who did the album art), the songs take on the style of the vocal guest, which makes for an inconsistent album. Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle does a woozy cabaret turn on the mutual-destruction love song Everytime I’m With You; Revenge, the Flaming Lips track, sounds like a Yoshimi outtake; while Angel’s Harp, the contribution from Black Francis, is just ugly.

Iggy Pop howls with feeling on the wild, raucous Pain, but all his proclamations of suffering pale in comparison to Chesnutt’s Grim Augury, which features the singer’s cracked warble intoning, “I told you you didn’t want to know what went on in my horrible dream.” It’s sad to think these two talented songwriters succumbed to their nightmares. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö

— Jill Wilson

Foxy Shazam

Foxy Shazam (Sire/Warner)

Subtlety is the last thing you would expect from a band called Foxy Shazam, and true to its name, the Cincinnati quintet delivers an over-the-top stew of theatrical glam that sounds like some four-headed love child of Meat Loaf, Queen, Cher and Hedwig.

The aptly named Bombs Away starts the album with a piano-based rocker that could have been released in 1977, followed by their manifesto Wanna-Be Angel, which finishes with a hand-clapping, crowd-baiting climax. Try it at home, kids. They continue in that bombastic vein throughout the 11 track disc, offering up a mini-rock opera on Bye Bye Symphony, throw out a fist banging, self-empowering anthem on Unstoppable and deliver more positive advice on Oh Lord.

By the end it’s almost exhausting, but never boring. Shazam! ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

— RW

The Real McKenzies

Shine Not Burn (Fat Wreck)

Back when England’s the Pogues combined the wild antics of punk rock with somewhat traditional Irish folk music to create Celtic Punk they could have hardly known what a musical ogre they had created.

All these years later Vancouver’s the Real McKenzies are still beating the same tired mule and this live album proves that you really had to be there, and be very intoxicated, as well. Leader Paul McKenzie is real all right — if you agree that being real means being, as he puts it, f–ked up on alcohol.

There is good energy here for sure but the out-of-tune bagpipes and constant between song badgering of cohort Bone Boland makes this sound like foaming frat boys on an ether bender. Its all in good fun and like a comedy album you only need to hear this once to get all the unnecessary jokes. ‘Ö’Ö1/2

— Jeff Monk

Little Hawk

Vigilance (Ojiji)

Troy Westwood is vigilant in his examination of aboriginal issues.

On his third album under his aboriginal name Little Hawk, the former Blue Bombers kicker/radio host/social services employee focuses on national and local concerns and affairs, dealing with the issue of murdered and missing women on Silent No More, residential school payments on $13,000 (with its memorable chorus, “now I can go on a shopping spree…Canada, I’ve still got the memories”), North End murders on Homicide Heights, the death of Matthew Dumas on I Love You Mom and the first appearance of Europeans in North America on Then They Came. The ballads and mid-tempo pop-rock and folk numbers feature strong vocal melodies by Westwood over acoustic and electric guitars, fiddle and some traditional drumming courtesy of producer Chris Burke-Gaffney, Arun Chaturvedi and Clint Dutiaume.

Many important issues are raised on the 13-track disc, but the most powerful moment occurs on Beautiful Me, an anthemic number about overcoming addiction and discovering true inner beauty. ‘Ö’Ö’Ö1/2

— RW

Korn

Korn III: Remember Who You Are (Roadrunner)

Apparently, Korn is returning to its blistering roots on its latest. Call me crazy, but I don’t recall the band really altering anything in its sonic template from the first de-tuned seven-string guitar power chord it played.

What you get here is the usual smashing bashing intros and then spoken/growled Jonathan Davis negative outlook on life lyrics. That said, Oildale (Leave Me Alone) is one of the band’s better tunes and a standout radio track, too. However, numbers such as Fear Is a Place To Live are laughable.

With the exception of a particularly clean mix and very up-front vocal tracking, it’s just another Korn kernel. Kinda nearing the crusty point. ‘Ö’Ö

—- Stuart Derdeyn, Vancouver Province