Neo-soul, retro-rock, rap-metal, teen-pop and more — this week’s top releases are brought to you by the hyphen.
Corinne Bailey Rae
The Sea
Neo-Soul
***1/2
Four years after her starmaking debut — and two years after the tragic death of her husband — Bailey Rae returns with her sophomore CD. Naturally, there are cuts that find her exploring the depths of her grief. But there are also tracks that find her working through it and moving forward, adding bigger arrangements, funkier rhythms and sharper edges to her mellow neo-soul.
Download: Are You Here, The Blackest Lily
The Hot Rats
Turn Ons
Covers
****
They’re named after a Frank Zappa LP. Their lineup includes two members of Brit-rockers Supergrass. And their raucous Nigel Godrich-produced CD takes its cues from Bowie’s cover disc Pin Ups, with the lads crashing, slashing and bashing out scrappy revamps of chestnuts and nuggets by everyone from The Doors and Velvets to Beastie Boys and, yes, Bowie. What is not to love?
Download: (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!), Love is the Drug
Lil Wayne
Rebirth
Rap-Rock
**
Assuming the stars finally align, rap king (and future inmate) Wayne’s much-delayed (and leaked) rock album finally arrives this week. Was it worth the wait and fuss? Well, yes and no; while hearing a foul-mouthed Wayne babble, burble and bellow aimlessly over grinding guitars and slogging arena-rock beats is interesting, it’s also something you likely won’t want to repeat.
Download: Prom Queen, Drop the World (feat. Eminem)
Rob Zombie
Hellbilly Deluxe 2
Horror-Metal
***
Zombie spends more time making movies than music these days. Maybe that’s why his first CD in four years is billed as a sequel to his 1998 hit for no good reason. And why these Alice Cooper horror-metal tales of women, werewolves and werewolf women include moody textures more suited to a soundtrack. As for the rest: It’s as predictable as a slasher flick. And just as fun.
Download: Sick Bubble-Gum, What?
Nick Jonas & The Administration
Who I Am
Pop-Rock
***
Apparently, the youngest JoBro wants to grow up to be president (seriously). But in the meantime, he’ll settle for being Prince. Aided by several members of New Power Generation, the teen-pop singer-guitarist channels his inner purpleness on this solo effort, switching between sizzling wah-wah-pedal funk-rock and soulful electric-piano balladry. Original? No. But listenable.
Download: Conspiracy Theory, Last Time Around
Martha and The Muffins
Delicate
Pop-Rock
***
Echo Beach may be far away in time, but Martha Johnson and Mark Gane are back in the here and now. And on their first studio effort in 18 years, the married one-hit wonders from Toronto strike a balance between style and substance, wrapping Johnson’s restrained crooning in Gane’s lush art-pop sonics. They may be out of fashion and a trifle uncool, but that’s hardly news.
Download: Sailing Through the Light, Don’t Say Anything
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DOWN/STREAM
Hope for Haiti Now
Various Artists
Haitian donation option 1: All the performances from last week’s star-studded U.S. telethon — beginning with Alicia Keys’ Send Me an Angel and ending with Wyclef Jean’s Rivers of Babylon — are now available on iTunes, along with the studio version of Jay-Z, Bono, The Edge and Rihanna’s Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour). The price tag is just 99¢ a pop, or $7.99 for the entire set.
www.itunes.ca
Download to Donate for Haiti
Various Artists
Haitian donation option 2: Linkin Park, Slash, Kenna, Peter Gabriel, Alanis Morissette, Lupe Fiasco, Hoobastank, All-American Rejects, Enrique Iglesias and Dave Matthews Band offer previously unreleased cuts — from brand-new studio cuts and covers to live tunes and remixes — to this online fundraiser CD. The music is free, but as the website reminds you: Don’t forget to donate.
www.musicforrelief.org
Songs for Haiti
Various Artists
Haitian donation option 3: In exchange for a donation — or an assurance that you’ve given to a charity of your choice — the folks at Paste magazine will let you access a massive vault of some 250 songs donated by an indie-centric roster of artists such as Andrew Bird, Robert Pollard, Robyn Hitchcock, Ben Folds, Passion Pit, Josh Ritter, Bruce Cockburn, Bob Mould and scores more.
www.pastemagazine.com
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CDs
Tindersticks
Falling Down a Mountain
Alt-Soul
****
Tindersticks are not here for the party. They’re here for the aftermath — the wreckage, the loneliness, the regret. The criminally overlooked British ouftit’s eighth disc is another gorgeously glum soundtrack to late-night blues, with singer Stuart Staples mumbling and moaning about love and luck gone wrong over jazzy soul that burns as slowly as their name suggests. Superb.
Download: Falling Down a Mountain, Black Smoke
Shining
Blackjazz
Jazz-Metal
****1/2
Some folks embrace the brainiac mathletics of prog. Others prefer the skull-grinding mayhem of nü-metal. Still others choose the speedy hypercomplexity of be-bop. Now, thanks to the head-spinning, jaw-dropping fusion of the aptly titled fifth CD from this avant-fusion Norwegian quintet, they all have something to love equally. And everyone else has something to fear.
Download: Fisheye, 21st Century Schizoid Man
Midlake
The Courage of Others
Folk-Rock
***1/2
If you go into the woods today ... don’t be surprised to find these Texans gathered in a clearing, providing the music for a pagan fertility rite. The quintet’s third CD is a throwback to the hazy ’60s Brit-folk of Pentangle and Fairport Convention, with dusky vocals and contemplative lyrics floating atop lulling tempos and intricately layered guitar arpeggios. Cue the wood nymphs!
Download: Winter Dies, The Horn
Four Tet
There is Love in You
Electronica
***
Four Tet’s fifth full-length is also something of a first. As titles like Angel Echoes, Love Cry and Sing suggest, these nine cuts find Kieran Hebden incorporating voices into his music. Coupled with his low-impact grooves and hypnotically circular synth sequences, the subtle and haunting vocal samples and loops inject a much-needed human element into these blissful creations.
Download: Love Cry, Sing
Creature With the Atom Brain
Transylvania
Psych-Rock
***1/2
Any band named after a Roky Erickson tune is OK by me. And so much the better when it includes dudes from Belgian stoners Millionaire, along with VIPs like Mark Lagegan and Chris Goss of QOTSA. Given all that, it’s no surprise this sophomore CD (issued overseas in 2009) packs a potent dose of narcotic groove-rock flecked with hazy vocals and dark psychedelia. Don’t bogart it.
Download: Transylvania, Lonely Light
Taking Dawn
Time to Burn
Metal
**
“You gotta fight ’em with your rock!” proclaim these Sin City metalheads. And based on this debut disc, the best way to fight ’em — whoever they are — is to pretend it’s still 1987 and you’re a sleaze-rock band opening for Cinderella on the Sunset Strip. In their way, Taking Dawn are almost as funny as metal parodists Steel Panther. Trouble is they don’t seem to be in on the joke.
Download: Time to Burn, So Loud
Eloy
Visionary
Prog
***
Attention prog fans, hippie diehards and old stoners of all stripes: Eloy are back. Four decades after their inception and 11 years after their last CD, singer-guitarist Frank Bornemann and co. return with a new batch of ’70s-style prog, complete with headnodding space-rock beats, whistling Moog synths and lyrics about auras and mystic energy. Like Pink Floyd jamming with Yes.
Download: The Secret, The Challenge
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DVDs
Elbow & The BBC Concert Orchestra
The Seldom Seen Kid Live at Abbey Road
Brit-Rock
***1/2
Mancunian heroes Elbow snagged the 2008 Mercury prize for their ambitious CD The Seldom Seen Kid. Sadly, their Radiohead-meets-Coldplay sound still hasn’t resonated on these shores. Filmed at Abbey Road studios, this lush performance of the entire album — with the band backed by a BBC orchestra — won’t change that. But it will give fans a peek at this seldom-seen band.
Manu Chao
Baionarena
Ska-Punk
***1/2
Manu Chao gives fans their money’s worth. The French singer-guitarist and his band Radio Bemba — who specialize in a polyglot combo platter of reggae, ska, punk, Latin and gypsy music — blast through more than 30 tunes over the course of a high-energy 140-minute performance in a Bayonne stadium. Still not enough? There’s a half-hour tour doc, videos and photos. Phew.
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GARAGE BAND
CrunchBerry
Toronto, Ont.
www.myspace.com/crunchberrymusic
Naming your band after a sugary breakfast cereal seems like a bad idea — especially when, judging by the pictures on your MySpace page, you’re a bunch of middle-aged shlubs who might be better off with some All-Bran (if you catch my drift). But even I have to admit it makes sense in this case: Tongue-in-cheek tracks like One-Hit Wonder, Boyband Boyfriend and 18 4Ever channel both the adolescent irreverence and the sugar-buzz energy of classic Cheap Trick power-pop. Not quite Grrrrrrreat! But pretty tasty nonetheless.
VERDICT: “Not all tricks are for kids.”
HH1/2
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UPCOMING
Feb.9
Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice
HIM
One Life Stand
Hot Chip
Heligoland
Massive Attack
Live in Las Vegas
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds
Crows
Allison Moorer
Soldier of Love
Sade
Live in London
The Pretenders
Feb. 16
Scratch My Back
Peter Gabriel
The R.E.D. Album
Game
Peace & Love
Juliana Hatfield
