Evolve
Ani Difranco
Righteous Babe Records
As outspoken as she is prolific, Ani Difranco’s fifteenth album
in thirteen years reaffirms her poetry as political commentary and
her music as crisp and catchy. With her five-piece band and trumpet
trio, Evolve feels more jazzy and refined than her traditional solo
albums.
Tracks such as “o my my” with its playful piano and bass
line competition, and “shrug” with its wailing clarinet
over a restrained piano, showcase Difranco’s adept arrangement
skills not obvious in her usual solo guitar pieces.
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“serpentine”
starts off with a three-minute solo guitar jam by
Difranco and runs another seven with political speech.
She says, “Conjugate liberty/into
libertarian/and medicate it/associate it/with
deregulation/we won’t even know we’re slaves/on
a corporate plantation.”
And, as the owner of her own record label, in
“serpentine” Difranco even takes on the music
industry. “The music industry mafia is pimping
girl power/sniping off sharpshooter singles from their
Styrofoam towers.” Difranco is self-written,
self-produced, self-mixed. Sing on, righteous babe.
– Jessica Chapman
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So
Long, Astoria
The Ataris
Columbia
As post-punk rock bands
scramble like roaches to major labels, the chances of
original sounds and ideas making it intact has become
fifty-fifty. But when the sound does remain honest and
whole, as it does on the Ataris wonderful major debut So
Long, Astoria, the point of moving to a major is
clear: a better product and a wider audience.
The Ataris are the quintessential punk-pop type band in a
category with radio darlings Jimmy Eat World and The
Used. Their songs are as catchy and, moreover, as
poignant as their counterparts. The title track kills out
of the gate, a blistering ode to what it means to be in a
rock band.
The relatively straight road that is So Long, Astoria
has its political stops along the way as well. “The
Hero Dies in This One” gives Astoria, the city, a
spotlight, so the listener can see the destruction that
takes place in a town when factories and plants dry up
and move south. “Radio #2” tells the listener
to take back the airwaves from corporate dominance,
something The Ataris now fill at certain stations.
Ironic? No matter. When you have released one of the best
albums of the year, one ironic slip-up is allowed. –
Ron Knox
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The
Lost and Found 2nd Ed.
Rasputina
Instinct Records
Bands have been playing covers since before
the saying “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
took hold with mixed results. While remixes and digitally sampled
tracks of everything from Metalica licks to audio from old Star
Trek episodes are woven into crappy pop or hip-hop songs and
flung across the airwaves like something a monkey might throw at the
zoo, the formula for a good cover has changed little: take a good
song and play it differently. That’s it.
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While Rasputina, the
self-described “psuedo-classical positive goth”
cello band does just that on The Lost and Found 2nd
Ed., something here still smells a little simian.
While a bunch of cellos playing Fogerty’s “Bad
Moon Rising” or Gilmore’s “Wish You Were
Here” sounds like, well, a bunch of cellos,
there’s little else to catch the ears. A marvelously
creepy version of the childhood classic “This Little
Piggy” almost makes up for an otherwise boring
hodge-podge of already over-used covers, but with just
seven tracks, at least three of the little piggys might
be left out in the cold. – Brandon Whitehead
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The Art of Losing
American Hi-Fi
Island Def Jam Music GroupThe Art of Losing proves to be an
encore to American Hi-Fi’s 2001 self-titled debut.
Stylistically and lyrically, the material between the two
albums could easily be interspersed between the two
albums with no one the wiser.
The subdued yet energetic introduction of “Save
Me,” the fourth track on the album, proved to be a
nice change from the guitar-heavy rock and drumming
styles of the first three songs. The next three tracks
are similar to the first three, but the heartfelt
“This Is The Sound” makes up for it and more
with its sweet lyrics and lighter-in-the-air waving back
and forth feeling. Best for a laugh is “The Breakup
Song,” which whines, “I’m counting on
UFOs to beam me up; I just don’t know how long I can
take this shit.”
Also of note, the CD acts as a key unlocking their
official album website, giving fans access to the music
video of The Art of Losing and exclusive scenes
from the making of the video. Although the video
representation of the song was interesting to see, the
band’s website is not the most user-friendly. –
Jessica Chapman
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