]> http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/editorial/albumreviews/0,,,00.html Most Recent Album Reviews on ARTISTdirect 86400 Wed, 14 May 2008 16:26:29 PST en-us http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,3715335,00.html#review Reprise begins with vast possibility. It opens on best friends Phillip (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik (Espen Klouman-Hoiner), a pair of twenty-something literary wunderkinds who are preparing to send their manuscripts off to the publishing gods. The moment is hopeful, filled with the allure of youthful prospects, fame, and personal validation—in broad terms, the potential for greatness. The film, which is wont to rapid temporal movements and frenetic editing that mirrors the frenzied speed of young life, quickly fast-forwards to months later, where Phillip has been published and attained cult status, Erik has not, and their relationship has all but ruptured. Mental illness afflicts Phillip, while Erik, on the other hand, must filter through feelings of inadequacy, pride, and rejection, and the two struggle to reconnect as their lives drift across the jarring plains of adult life. The film, directed by Joachim Trier, deals in dualisms: creative impulse versus business Wed, 14 May 2008 16:26:29 PST 4684669 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4594207,00.html#review Lately, the U.K. has been producing pint-sized singing powerhouses like nobody's business: Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash, Adele, and now Duffy. Is something in the water? Perhaps. Like Winehouse and Adele, Duffy channels the soulful sounds of the '60s, taking hints from acts like Bettye Swann, Etta James, and Candi Staton. But unlike Winehouse, who has her tales of addiction, and Allen who has her cheeky bits about pot-smoking brothers and window-shopping nanas, Duffy has neither drama nor shtick, just songs about plain old heartache and heartbreak. But like her feisty compatriots, Duffy makes it clear that she's not going quietly into the night. The Dusty Springfield look-alike doesn't resort to foul language like some of her fellow chanteuses, but manages to get her message across just as forcefully as her more boisterous counterparts; she's not going to let some guy push her around. Another difference between Duffy and her peers, all of whom attended the Wed, 14 May 2008 07:10:12 PST 4684541 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4615055,00.html#review Arm's Way finds Islands setting sail distinctly away from the indie-yelping that characterized their debut, Return to the Sea. The Montreal band spends most of their sophomore effort shifting gears between various styles, opening up with a string of songs featuring spaghetti western guitars and ominous lyrics. In the middle of the album, though, Islands turn to blissful ‘80s pop for inspiration, and in channeling The Cure and The Cars, they really hit their stride. "Kids Don't Know Shit" and "Life in Jail" are two of the album's best, and the latter features a classic Nick T. lyrical non-sequitur: "If you want to be a shark / you better learn to stay awake." Though Arm's Way is a resounding success when it's joyful, the album hits a high note with a darker song (in name and melody). "I Feel Evil Creeping In" is a slow, haunting expression of diary-only darkness, including the confession, "My blood is dirty / and I like it." Islands sound like a band who are willing to try Wed, 14 May 2008 07:04:58 PST 4684540 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4595092,00.html#review Let's go ahead and say you like Coldplay. You find their inoffensive take on Bends-era Brit pop rather charming, and why shouldn't you? It fixes you when you need a quick interjection of nice-guy music. But you have a darker side—namely, Depeche Mode, and have always wondered what the two would sound like as a super group. Look no further, because Kansas City (of all places) has yielded the answer in The Republic Tigers. Knowing these reference points, it's a bit weird to think that Keep Color was born from Americans minds; there are a few cultural reference points from the good ole US of A, such as the song "Air Guitar," a tongue and cheek tune about the odd subcultural rise of playing with the imaginary, but that said, the overarching '80s, synthy sound gives most of the album a very serious, brooding feel that's more fish 'n' chips than burgers and fries. Highlights include the futurist sound of "Feelin' The Future," a modest discussion about jet packs and hovercrafts, and Wed, 14 May 2008 07:04:09 PST 4684539 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,3294242,00.html#review There is a significant amount of schmaltz at the heart of Then She Found Me, the film adapted from Elinor Lipman's 1990 novel. The plot could easily have been lifted or borrowed from a Lifetime made-for-TV movie, but the careful direction of its star and director, Helen Hunt, in a decidedly unpretty, self-deprecating role as a woman in an ugly situation, keeps the film from collapsing under the schlocky weight of the source material. In the film, a plain Jane named April Epner – a quietly emotive, stringy-haired, Birkenstock-wearing Hunt – loses her adopted mother, her nebbish husband (played with maximum man-boy nerdiness by Matthew Broderick), and is found by her birth mother, a whirlwind talk show hostess brought to life by Bette Midler, who finds honesty and letting others talk more difficult than lying and jabber-jawing a million miles a minute. Whereas April is all real life and unfussy, her mother Bernice doesn't walk into a room; she fills it with her vivacity, some of it Tue, 13 May 2008 11:07:31 PST 4684405 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,3349506,00.html#review Rescue Dawn is not the first film for which Christian Bale has undergone a dramatic physical transformation. Twice over, he has chiseled and toned his way to an Adonis-worthy physique to play the Caped Crusader, and, antithetically, lost nearly seventy pounds for his role in The Machinist. Portraying a P.O.W. in director Werner Herzog’s latest fictional effort required that he tend toward the emaciated end of the weight spectrum, displaying, yet again, a level of dedication to his craft that few other actors aspire to, and one that many certainly cannot contend with. Those familiar with Herzog’s oeuvre may already know the story of Dieter Dengler, chronicled in the 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. With Rescue Dawn, Herzog gives Dengler’s harrowing tale the fictional treatment, transporting his actors to lush and menacing jungle environs to craft a narrative about survival, friendship, and hope. The road which led Dengler from his German roots to being shot down over Laos Tue, 13 May 2008 10:42:55 PST 4684401 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4615117,00.html#review It’s been six years since Richard Patrick last put out an album as Filter. With the space of time–and another band (Army Of Anyone) in the interim–it seems dubious to view Filter in the context of a continuum. In reality, though, taken together, Anthems For The Damned and 2002’s The Amalgamut are very much a microcosm of America’s changing mood in the Bush years. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, The Amalgamut was in its own way an optimistic celebration of American strength through diversity, individuality, and freedom (As Patrick himself explained it, “Remember that you’re all free, and that we’re all Amalgamuts”). This time around, his final lament is, “I’m starting to think that we’ll disappear,” before the album fades into a six minute ambient piece that–vaguely optimistic, but devoid of human presence–could almost be the calm after the apocalypse. Throughout, these Anthems are lyrically oblique enough that this could as easily be a 12-song commentary on Iraq or a series of Tue, 13 May 2008 09:56:19 PST 4684384 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4595266,00.html#review Throughout her career, longtime songstress (and sometime children's book author) Carly Simon certainly crafted "mom friendly" and woman-oriented soft rock. Her smoky voice, Everywoman lyrics and the sly, yet gentle, grooves she imbues into her music actively appeal to empowered divorcees, moms that spend their days bouncing toddlers on their laps and mature women that like to enjoy a cocktail after a long, hard day at the office. But This Kind of Love, Simon's first collection of original material in over eight years, isn't limited in its appeal. This Kind of Love is a just-in-time-for-summer platter, elevated by its airy acoustic guitars and lightly tropical, Latin-spiced percussion. It's a guilty pleasure for those of you who don't normally troll record stores looking for adult contemporary rock. This Kind of Love is mellow without ever drifting into melancholic turf, and that's all due to Miss Simon's relaxing, easy delivery. Her honeyed voice is distinct but never showy and she Tue, 13 May 2008 09:48:49 PST 4684383 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4677264,00.html#review Savvy pop fans have been pumping Robyn's self-titled album for years, even though it's just now [in late April 2008] finally seeing a proper U.S. release. The collection has held up very well; anyone approaching it freshly will be just as apt to be swept away as the people who discovered it upon its release in her native Sweden in 2005. Blending dance, disco, bubblegum, hip-hop and just about every other genre apt to be played at a club or house party, Robyn, seems likely to wind up as one of the enduring pop albums of the decade—a prediction that isn't so bold given how it's held up over these past several years. There are a few slight missteps (i.e. "Robotboy"), and the ballads are heartfelt but forgettable by comparison to the sugar rush that surrounds them. But there's much less filler than typical for pop albums (or any albums). Robyn offers a slew of tracks that feel like the big hit, each with its own flavor. There's the straightforward, lightly orchestral "Be Mon, 12 May 2008 07:34:55 PST 4684239 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4611067,00.html#review If R2D2, Luke Skywalker's and C3PO's trusty sidekick from Star Wars, made a techno record for toddlers, it would most definitely resemble Matmos's Supreme Balloon. This record sounds like an Atari video game that's overdosed on a corrosive concoction of crack, blips, beeps, bells, whistles and the kitchen sink. You name the noise, and chances are, Matmos have inserted it into their quirky, sometimes unlistenable mix. Supreme Balloon is a platter-piled high with experimental glitch hop, and it's made by real-life gay couple MC Schmidt and Drew Daniel, who spin an alternate universe with their studio tools. There's nothing organic about this release, giving it a bit of a cold, somewhat sterile vibe. However, the pair, who've been known to record everything from the reproductive tract of a cow to the pages of the Bible turning and then employ them in their kooky sonic stew, makes a concerted and valiant effort to keep some of the songs upbeat, infusing a child-like wonder and lightness Mon, 12 May 2008 06:39:22 PST 4684219 Album Review