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Band breaks out in Hives on new CD
Thursday, Jul 29, 2004 - 06:26:45 pm CDT
Rock
The Hives
"Tyrannosaurus Hives"
HHHH
The Hives have been flipping through their record collections again. Now the Swedish garage rockers want to be The Ramones, The Clash or maybe Iggy and the Stooges.
That's not a bad thing.But their attachment to late '70s punk sets them apart from the '60s imitators that account for most of today's garage band movement.
The Ramones' influence can be heard on the funny, fast-paced opener, "Abra Cadaver," and "Dead Quote Olympics."Echoes from The Clash can be heard on the ultra-fast reggae-tinged "A Little More for Little You," and "Walk Idiot Walk" comes right out of the school of Iggy.
Singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist delivers the record's put-downs, threats and other goofs in a strangling wail. I've listened to the record a half-dozen times and still can't make out exactly what he's saying in some places.That, however, is perfectly fine.The propulsiveness and general good feeling of the music overwhelms even the most vicious of lyrical cuts - and that has to be the idea behind the record.
With their matching jackets, string ties and Daddy Warbucks-style spats, The Hives create a visual spectacle rooted in the mid-'60s, when bands dressed sharp so as to not look like their audiences. And Almqvist does a mean Mick Jagger during the wild shows that have earned The Hives the label of the best live band in the world.
But there's no visuals to go along with "Tyrannosaurus Hives," just a jet engine blast of punk-based rock 'n' roll.
Some critics have labeled The Hives as a novelty act, not to be taken as seriously as, say, TheStrokes or The Vines. But if rock 'n' roll is supposed to be about having fun, The Hives are as good as they come.
- L. Kent Wolgamott
Lit
"Lit"
H
It's been a long five years since the release of "My Own Worst Enemy," Lit's ubiquitous '99 single that punctuated the free-wheeling Clinton years with lighthearted exclamation. In the context of "American Pie" and the Starr Report, singer A. Jay Popoff's drunken confessions rang true. Self-destruction, it seemed, was the scariest threat in town.
Things have clearly changed. That Lit hasn't, however, isn't the welcome reassurance it might seem. Rather, the band's latest self-titled effort rocks with the repetitive trappings of a one-dimensional pop-punk band trying to sell us all 3-D glasses.
On "Too Fast for a U-Turn," the group re-champions irresponsibility, careening into a one-night-stand with a monster riff and four sets of beer goggles. Popoff's tone is more apologetic on "Looks Like They Were Right," though he brags of his playboy antics as much as he bemoans them.
The de-clawed Elvis Costello approximation "Forever Begins Right Now" actually sounds fresh amid the power chords and big choruses - this summer's Sugar Ray jam that never was. More than eliciting nostalgia for Lit's music though, it romanticizes the carefree '90s, when such sweet mediocrity would be shrugged off with the decade's catch-all slogan (and accompanying hand gesture): "whatever."
- Kenneth Partridge
The Hartford Courant
Country
SheDaisy
"Sweet Right Here"
HHH
The three Osborn sisters who make up SheDaisy burst onto the scene in 1999 with a debut disc that notched four Top 10 singles, but their follow-up three years later never found much of an audience. The group makes a strong move past its sophomore slump with the more consistently enjoyable "Sweet Right Here," an assortment of catchy tunes that lean heavily on pop energy but remain firmly country at heart.
Not nearly so festooned with gimmicky production elements as its predecessor, the disc is full of shifty touches such as the swatches of fiddle and banjo that punctuate the buoyant pop country of "Passenger Seat." Lively assemblies, along the lines of "A Woman's Work," never overstep what their rapid-fire verses and soaring choruses can hold, and the collection's weakest moments come when it eschews florid arrangements and snappy lyrics for blander fare such as the cookie-cutter spare piano ballad "Without a Sound."
The lightly rendered "Come Home Soon" is a pleasant demonstration of the sisters' charming vocal harmonies in a restrained setting, but the group's strong suit is feisty frolics in the vein of the plucky, harmonica-laced "360 Degrees of You." For all the bits of lyrical sass that spark tunes such as the romp "5 4 3 2 Run," there is always a trace of harmless bubblegum in the group's music, but it rarely lacks for agreeable flavor.
- Thomas Kintner
The Hartford Courant
Joe Nichols
"Revelation"
HH½
Nichols' sophomore album is solidly stronger than his promising debut, "A Man With a Memory," although it's still not the musical revelation fans might have hoped it would be.
Working in the country tradition, Nichols uses a voice that's one big part clenched, throaty Merle Haggard and the other folksy, easygoing Alan Jackson, which makes it more of a challenge for him to establish an identity of his own. His song selection runs more hot than cold here, notably Harley Allen's self-affirming "If Nobody Believed in You," Bobby Braddock's spiritual title track (for which Nichols gives a nod to Waylon Jennings' 1972 version) and the closing number, Iris DeMent's powerful "No Time to Cry."
He balances such heavier moments with a chipper song he helped write, "What's a Guy Gotta Do," and the bouncy western swing tune "Don't Ruin It for the Rest of Us." Only occasionally does he let nostalgic sentimentalism creep into the mix ("The Shade," "I Wish That Wasn't All"), muting the impact of the more honestly felt material.
- Randy Lewis
Los Angeles Times
Jazz
Benny Golson
"Terminal 1"
HHH½
At 75, composer and saxophonist Benny Golson has accomplished much and now has become a quirky little subplot in a Steven Spielberg movie. The protagonist of "The Terminal," played by Tom Hanks, is trying to get Golson's autograph, the only one he lacks among the 57 players in Art Kane's classic photograph "Harlem 1958 Jazz Portrait."
Golson, a Philadelphia native with a cameo in Spielberg's film, remains well worth catching on this CD. This quintet recording with trumpeter Eddie Henderson, a fellow veteran of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, presents a warm and confident mainstream sound that makes it delightful to hang out with.
The session offers a helping of the tunes that made Golson's reputation, such as "Killer Joe" and "Blues March." But it's also an opportunity for the leader to wax lyrical on the lesser-known "Caribbean Drifting" and get all cozy on the gently paced "Cherry." Even the worked-over "Sweet Georgia Brown" projects a sophisticated feel.
Pianist Mike LeDonne contributes some gentle pizzazz, often in a supportive role, as bassist Buster Williams and drummer Carl Allen make pretty scenes for the horns.
- Karl Stark
Knight Ridder Newspapers
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