Annbjørg Lien, Waltz with Me (Grappa, 2008); Unni Løvlid, Rite (Grappa, 2008); Vallkyrien Allstars (Grappa, 2007)

Like the other Scandinavian countries, Norway has an active folk music scene. Its folk musicians benefit from a number of record labels eager to promote and distribute music influenced in some ways by the nation's folk traditions. For example, Grappa includes among its list of acts some of the country's most renowned folk performers, and young performers just starting out. I recently had the opportunity to listen to three new Grappa releases, covering a broad range of performers and styles.

Norway's most distinctive folk instrument is the hardanger fiddle, a fiddle with many supporting strings underneath the main four to provide resonance. Mainstream listeners may have heard the hardanger fiddle in the Lord of the Rings movie series, where it was used to play the Rohan theme. Arguably the most famous of Norway's hardanger fiddle players is Annbjørg Lien, who recently was commissioned to compose a series of pieces for a performance in Telemark, a village steeped in the tradition of hardanger fiddle music. The results were recorded for an album titled Waltz with Me. Wanting a folk equivalent of a string quartet to perform the pieces, Lien recruited Swedish violist Mikael Marin of Väsen, American fiddler/guitarist Bruce Molsky, and Scottish cellist Christine Hanson. Lyrics were written for several of the pieces as well, with Kristen Bråten Berg and Bruce Molsky singing them. Like many of the performers in the genre of New Nordic Folk, Lien composes and arranges her music in ways that combine influences from a number of musical traditions beyond her own. On Waltz with Me, these outside influences include bluegrass, Celtic, Swedish fiddle music, and even some classical to provide a touch of stateliness to the proceedings. The music is obviously eclectic, but also highly personalized, and the performances are predictably first-rate.

Singer Unni Løvlid goes further back in time than the Norwegian fiddling traditions to derive her inspiration. Her musical style would qualify more as a combination of modern classical and New Age than folk, but her lyrics are structured after Medieval religious chants. Her album Rite reminds me a lot of an album I heard a few years back consisting of modernist interpretations of the songs of Hildegard von Bingen, the twelfth-century German abbess who added a feminine touch to the spiritual music of her day. Unfortunately the von Bingen album just wasn't all that interesting, and neither is Rite. Most of the songs just plod along with little sign of life, and the electronic touches generally distract from the music more than they enhance it. The only attention-grabbing point on the disc comes on the last track "Portrett," when a heavily distorted storm of synthesizers and strings breaks the calm. It may have been the one moment of catharsis on an otherwise somnolent recording, but even that doesn't save the song from an ineffectively discordant melody. Nor, alas, is it enough to salvage the album.

Vallkyrien Allstars are a trio of young Norwegian hardanger fiddle players. Like Annbjørg Lien, they use the musical traditions of their homeland as a springboard to explore all sorts of different styles. On their self-titled debut CD, they combine traditional Norwegian dances with rock, reggae, and cabaret to produce a wildly eclectic and fun record. Of the three discs I'm reviewing, this one manages to be not only the most directly reflective of Norwegian traditional music, but also the most adventurous. The star of the group is Tuva Livsdatter Syvertsen, whose potent vocals channel the ghosts of both Edith Piaf and Janis Joplin. But she, Ola Hillmen, and Erik Sollid are all excellent fiddlers, and the cast of backing musicians provides solid accompaniment as well. They're the kind of band that would go over phenomenally well at The Nordic Roots Festival, but with the Festival changing formats after this year, they unfortunately might never get the opportunity to show what they've got. (Annbjørg Lien will be bringing her quartet to this year's festival, however.)

Overall grades:
Annbjørg Lien B+
Unni Løvlid C-
Vallkyrien Allstars A-

reviewed by Scott

Reprinted with permission from The Green Man Review
Copyright 2008 The Green Man Review

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS cd

The New Zealand folk parody duo Bret and Jemaine spread their low-key humor across several musical genres on their self-titled album Flight of the Conchords. Combining music from their concerts and HBO television special, there are plenty of chuckles.

The key to the humor here is that the pair approach their songs in earnest, without realizing how ridiculous they sound. For example, "Think About It" strives for social consciousness, but is deflated by such lines as "A man is lying on the street, some punk has chopped off his head/ And I’m the only one who stops to see if he’s dead/ Turns out he’s dead." "Mutha'uckas" deleted the curses from the song, leading to some long and choppy silences. And "Business Time" is a Barry White-style song about gettin' it on -- except the woman's comments show how far from the great lover the singer actually is.

I can't help but compare the album to the HBO series of the same name. Alas, not all the songs from the show are on here (sorry to all the geeks who wanted "Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring") and I miss how on the series Bret and Jermaine would often spontaneously start singing and playing -- often to the confusion of the people around them. And while the songs are often cute, only a few are laugh-out-loud funny. Flight of the Conchords is an amusing album, not hysterical but quite enjoyable.

Overall grade: B

Reviewed by James Lynch

GOOD GIRL GONE BAD: RELOADED by Rihanna

Rihanna had quite a year in 2007: Her album Good Girl Gone Bad was a tremendous hit, the single "Umbrella" (with its repetitive chorus "Umbrella/ella/ella/ella/ay/ay/ay/ay") was considered by many critics to be the song of the year, and her music videos and concert performance demonstrated why Victoria's Secret named her the Sexiest Female Musician. To follow up this success, she rereleased her most recent album with three new songs. Since I never got the album originally, Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded is all new to me, so I don't feel cheated as if I had to repurchase the album for a few bonus materials. I do wish the album were better.

The bulk of Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded is a combination of sex and synthesizers. For the majority of the album, Rihanna is flirting or more direct, whether using sexual automobile imagery (in "Shut Up and Drive") or being substantially more straightforward: "Come up to my room you sexy little thing/ And let's play a game, I won't be a tease/I'll show you the room, my sexy little thing." There are are also plenty of "men are scum" songs, from the tune "Breaking Dishes" (where she destroys the man's stuff and "I ain't gonna stop until I see police lights") to the new song "Take a Bow" which offers sarcastic praise to her cheating man's performance of sorrow. Synthesizes abound through the music, sometimes coming close to drowning out the music and often giving the songs a mechanical feel.

Rihanna does have some good songs here, and she does occasionally shine. The song "Hate That I Love You" is a smooth, skillful ballad with Ne-Yo that captures the challenge of being drawn back to someone you want to leave. "Don't Stop the Music" is a fun, upbeat club song, and the Rihanna-Maroon 5 collaboration "If I Never See Your Face Again" is solid pop. If Rihanna would worry less about making radio-friendly music and allow her voice to stand out, she could make some really outstanding pop music. As it stands, Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded is a mediocre album with as many forgettable songs as good ones.

Overall Grade: C

Reviewed by James Lynch

Moving Cloud, "Welcome: Who Are You?"; Shooglenifty, Troots; Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, Welcome Here Again

Bands that play traditional Celtic music generally operate under a basic formula, mimicking what goes on in typical pub sessions. The melodies are played on fiddle, plus one or two additional lead instruments like a flute or an accordion, while the aggressive strumming of a guitar and/or a bouzouki provides the chordal accompaniment. This approach has generally worked well over the past thirty-five years or so. Still, bands or duos interested in recording albums or going on tour know that they have to distinguish themselves in order to get noticed. Sometimes this can mean adding instruments on, whether it's something simple like natural percussion from instruments like the bodhrán, or something more complex like electronics or rock amplification. It can also mean stripping things down, focusing on the clarity of the melody instead of maximizing the energy. I've had the opportunity to listen to new albums from several Celtic acts over the past few weeks, with each act bringing something different to the table.

The first album I listened to is called "Welcome: Who Are You?", from a band called Moving Cloud. Despite the unmistakably Irish flavor of their music, Moving Cloud actually hail from the unlikely country of Denmark. (Some of you might recall a Donegal-based band with the same name that released two albums on Green Linnet in the nineties. The members of the two bands were evidently so fond of the same particular reel that they both named themselves after it. While I imagine they'd appeal to the same audience, they are two different bands, from different places, with different personnel.) The primary distinguishing element of Moving Cloud's sound is the heavy reliance on percussion. Svend Kjeldsen has been banging on the bodhrán and other assorted instruments for the band since their inception, and is the only person to be part of every Moving Cloud lineup to date. He provides a steady backbeat and groove to most of the pieces on the album. He is assisted on a couple of tracks by step dancer Mette Løvschal, a relative newcomer to the group. They collaborate on a unique recitation called "Anahorish... My Place of Clear Water," the most intriguing track on the album. Filling out the band's sound are long-time members John Pilkington (vocals, guitar, bouzouki) and Klavs Vester (flutes and whistles), along with the band's newest member, fiddler Christopher Davis Maack.

Outside of "Anahorish," "Welcome: Who Are You?" contains the usual series of jigs, reels, and slow airs, with Pilkington throwing in a few songs for good measure. Moving Cloud deserve to get noticed in the crowd, though, partly because Kjeldsen makes the faster pieces more rhythmic, but also because the band as a whole plays with a healthy amount of energy and spirit. Now, I could understand it if somebody with a thousand or two Celtic albums might be more demanding than I am, but I actually hadn't listened to a whole lot of new Irish-style CD's in a while, and I found "Welcome: Who Are You?" to be a breath of fresh air.

Moving on to Scotland, I gave a few listens to the new album Troots by Shooglenifty. Shooglenifty have been playing together for over a decade, and have built their reputation by combining jigs and reels with rock instrumentation and electronics. They draw a lot of comparisons to Irish modern folk acts like Kíla and the Afro-Celt Sound System, but on this album, at least, I don't feel that they live up to those comparisons. They aren't nearly as creative or interesting with their arrangements, and without any significant vocals the album suffers from a lack of variety. They also lean a little too heavily on the drums and amps, to the point where not only do the actual tunes become almost secondary, but the individual performances and any sense of band chemistry get lost in the shuffle as well. They may play as well as Moving Cloud, for example, but they make it hard for the listener to notice sometimes.

A couple of years ago I was attending a concert by Liz Carroll and John Doyle with the woman I've since married, and I commented to her before the show that Carroll and Doyle were the best Irish fiddle/guitar duo I had seen perform. At which point, the person sitting next to us interjected, "In that case, you haven't seen Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill." Indeed I haven't, although after giving Hayes and Cahill a closer listen on some of their older recordings and more particularly on their new release Welcome Here Again, I've come to realize that comparing the two acts is actually very hard. The quality of playing is nearly equal (and equally brilliant), yet their approaches to Irish fiddle music couldn't be any more different. Where Carroll and Doyle rear back and fire, Hayes and Cahill strip everything down. They play with a disarming deliberateness of pace which, for listeners accustomed to the usual rowdiness of an Irish session, almost doesn't register at first listen. In other words, you'd better be prepared to give their music time to grow on you.

Happily, after several listens to Welcome Here Again I really started to get what Hayes and Cahill were doing. Hayes' fiddling emphasizes the clarity and beauty of the melody above everything else. No tunes are played at breakneck speed, with abrupt transitions into a different tune or dramatic changes in key. Intensity is built up slowly, if it is built up at all. What you do get, for the most part, is one lovingly played tune at a time. Cahill's accompaniment is correspondingly sparse, embracing the empty spaces and quiet moments. You won't hear all six strings vigorously strummed at once at any point on this recording. Cahill also frequently mimics a harp with his playing. While the approach is generally effective, it also makes me wonder what Hayes could do with the right harpist backing him up.

Welcome Here Again is calmly reflective from start to finish. I could see some people complaining that it is too calm, but I think less restless listeners will find that the album works beautifully as a whole.

Overall grades:
Moving Cloud B
Shooglenifty C
Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill A-

reviewed by Scott

Reprinted with permission from The Green Man Review
Copyright 2008 The Green Man Review

The Whigs, Mission Control (ATO Records, 2008)

The Whigs are an aggressive garage band from the musical hotbed of Athens, Georgia. Parker Gispert sings and plays guitar, Julian Dorio plays drums, and Tim Deaux is their new bassist. Their second album Mission Control was recorded last fall and released in January.

For better and for worse, The Whigs only seem to know how to play loud and hard. So if energy is what you're looking for, you'll find it in abundance here. Unfortunately there's little variety, and even loud bands need a consistent sense of musicality to make a strong album. Mission Control does boast a pair of solid rockers in "Right Hand on My Heart" and "Already Young," but the rest of the disc just didn't do anything for me. Too much of it struck me as loudness for its own sake, without enough melody or depth to make it interesting.

You only need one or two good songs to get noticed, though, so I could see The Whigs generating some buzz. But they're the kind of band where I'd recommend downloading a couple of specific songs over purchasing the whole album.

Overall grade: C+

reviewed by Scott

Dead Rock West, Honey and Salt (Populuxe, 2007)

Dead Rock West are a California-based quintet that specialize in straightforward, no-frills rock. Honey and Salt is their debut. The band's music revolves around the interplay between Frank Lee Drennen (vocals, guitars, main songwriter) and Cindy Wasserman (vocals). The lineup is completed by Phil Parlapiano (keyboards and mandolin), David J. Carpenter (bass), and Bryan Head (drums), although the session credits include several different lead guitarists as well.

The tone for the album is set by the solid opening track and single "Highway One," which is both a song about trying to reach an old lover and an ode to "driving way too fast" on the Pacific Coast Highway. Drennen and Wasserman take turns singing lead on the songs, and harmonize on the choruses. The tempos range from relaxed country to fast punk, with plenty of stops in between. Generally the louder songs made the biggest impression with me, especially "Pretty Disaster" and "Telephone." Like "Highway One," these are very suitable tunes to crank up while hitting the open highway. The more aggressive numbers might remind some listeners of X, a California band from the eighties with similarly dueling male and female vocalists. Dead Rock West acknowledges the influence by doing a souped up cover of "Burning House of Love."

All in all, Honey and Salt is an encouraging start for Dead Rock West, with a bunch of decent songs supporting a handful of very good ones. People looking for a good fix of basic guitar rock will like this album.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

Bo Diddley, 1928-2008

Rock music lost one of its most original showmen and a pioneer of the electric guitar when Bo Diddley passed away today at age 79. Actually named Ellas McDaniel, Diddley was born in McComb, Mississippi in 1928 and went up to Chicago to join the emergent blues scene there in the early fifties. He quickly made a name for himself for his energetic stage shows, his odd rectangular-shaped guitar, and the signature rhythm to which he played most of his songs. The "Bo Diddley beat," as it was called, propelled hits like "Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love?" and inspired many imitators over the years, from The Rolling Stones ("Not Fade Away") to U2 ("Desire") to even George Michael ("Faith"). While the hits dried up after the early sixties, he remained a revered guitarist and live performer. He did leave a mark on the early years of MTV, though, providing a memorable cameo as a contestant in an epic pool match with George Thorogood in Thorogood's video for "Bad to the Bone." Diddley also appeared in a legendary Nike commercial featuring the athlete Bo Jackson trying his hand at every sport conceivable.

Bo Diddley's primarily musical legacy comes from his live performances rather than his recorded output. I had the pleasure of seeing Bo Diddley perform on three separate occasions. He may not have been in his prime physically, but he still could put on quite a show. While I'd still recommend a greatest hits collection of his to anybody curious about early rock and roll, the records don't really do his live shows justice.

Bo Diddley's influence on the generations of performers and guitarists who have followed him is incalculable; just for starters, any performer who'd count The Rollling Stones as an influence owes something to Bo Diddley as well.

"Bo Diddley"

"Road Runner"

Mudcrutch (Reprise Records, 2008)

Mudcrutch was a band that formed in Gainesville, Florida in the early seventies. Fronted by singer/bassist Tom Petty, Mudcrutch based their sound on the later recordings of The Byrds, which combined traditional folk and country with hard-edged rock. In addition to Petty, the original band featured the dueling guitars of Mike Campbell and Tom Leadon, with drummer Randall Marsh completing the quartet. By the time the band headed to Los Angeles in 1974 to pursue a record deal, Leadon had been replaced by another guitarist and Benmont Tench had been added on keyboards. They released one single in 1975, but that was as much interest as they could generate. Mudcrutch quickly disintegrated, and the band members crawled their way back to Gainesville. Petty would not be deterred that easily, though. He traded in his bass for a jangly electric 12-string, formed a backing band called The Heartbreakers which included (and still does include) Campbell and Tench, and went back to L. A. to try his luck a second time. The rest, of course, is history.

You might think that the story of Mudcrutch would have ended there, and for thirty-two years you would have been right. But Petty has, on a number of occasions over the past twenty years, stepped at least a little bit away from The Heartbreakers as his whims have suited him. At some point last he year, he decided that he wanted to make the kind of album Mudcrutch would have made. The idea eventually morphed from making an album that sounded like Mudcrutch into having the album actually performed by Mudcrutch. Campbell and Tench were recruited easily enough, but I have to think that Leadon and Marsh were taken aback by the initial phone call.

The album, simply titled Mudcrutch, does have a bit of a throwback feel to it, starting with the traditional American folk standard "Shady Grove" and continuing with a combination of vintage classic rock with a few country songs thrown in for good measure. The album differs from a typical Petty album in several ways. There are several covers, most notably The Byrds' "Lover of the Bayou," and Petty lets both Leadon and Tench take a turn singing lead on the album. The double lead guitar sound on the band's harder rock songs also distinguishes Mudcrutch from what The Heartbreakers generally have done. The band even engages in an extended but subdued jam on the nine-minute song "Crystal River." The performances are strong throughout the record, and Leadon and Marsh hold their own very nicely with three much more experienced professional musicians.

Given those qualifications, Mudcrutch is still dominated by the singing and songwriting of Tom Petty. And that is a good thing, as this is the best Petty album since Wildflowers in 1994. The particularly strong track "Scare Easy" is an obvious single. A lot of Petty's albums are a little too uniformly mid-tempo rock, but this album has an excellent mix of harder and softer songs. In fact, the more energetic songs come across as a breath of fresh air, and Petty sound generally revitalized on this recording.

To say the least, it's very strange to see a band that had basically been a footnote in another band's history for over thirty years show up and make the debut album that never happened in 1975. But Tom Petty has some experience making strange ideas work. The combination of Petty being in fine form, Campbell and Tench providing their usually solid support, and Leadon and Marsh taking full advantage of their long-delayed big break makes Mudcrutch a solid album. Petty fans will have no difficulty getting into this, and people looking for something new in a classic rock vein will find plenty to like as well.

Overall grade: A-

reviewed by Scott

"Scare Easy"

"Lover of the Bayou"

The Old 97's -- Blame It On Gravity

Ready for some rock-country songs about heartbreak and being unlucky in love? Blame It On Grvaity, the Old 97's first fully new album in four years, has the band doing what they always do, which is also what they do best.

After the too-clever opening track "The Fool," Blame It On Gravity jumps into the losers in love formula that is the bread and butter of the Old 97's. Whether it's a mournful ode to being alone ("The Color of a Lonely Heart Is Blue") or a rough morning after ("yeah I got brains and I got brawn oh but not enough of either one to wanna go on"), these tunes are for someone who missed romance, by design or accident, and wails about it. For this, Rhett Miller's slightly awkward but passionate voice nails the mood perfectly. (The one non-romance song is "Here's to the Halcyon," in which a sea captain with a disreputable past is going down with the ship and bargaining with God. It's a funny piece, finding humor in the contrast between his promises and life: "I'll pore over my Bible and I'll pour out all my gin.")

Blame It On Gravity is an inconsistent album, with some killer tracks and others that fall flat. And while it's not uncommon for a band to tackle the same themes all the time, this album sometimes has music that's extremely similar to older song the Old 97's have done. But there's plenty here that lends itself to multiple listenings, and an average album by the Old 97's is still superior to most music that gets released!

Overall Grade: B

Reviewed by James Lynch

Mark Fry, Dreaming with Alice (Sunbeam Records, 2006 re-issue, originally released 1972)

About a month ago I reviewed Shooting the Moon, the second album by the intriguing English musician Mark Fry. Part of what makes Mark Fry so intriguing is that his sophomore effort followed a mere thirty-six years after his debut, Dreaming with Alice. Fry was studying art in Italy in 1972, and a friend set him up in a recoding studio in Rome to cut an album with a handful of musician friends whose names Fry has long since forgotten. The original LP never got released outside of Italy, but somehow the album's reputation spread by word of mouth, and for fans of psychedelic folk the album is considered a classic. Bootleg versions popped up all over the place, and copies of the original release have sold for over $2000 at auction. Fry, meanwhile, tried unsuccessfully to get a record deal back home in England, and has spent most of his life between traveling and making a living selling his paintings in France. While he had long stopped pursuing music professionally, he enthusiastically lent his support and participation when Sunbeam Records re-issued Dreaming with Alice in 2006. Thirty-four years after its recording, it was officially released outside of Italy for the very first time.

After listening to Dreaming with Alice, it's not hard to figure out why the album appeals so strongly to a specific group of music listeners. Fry's style on this recording evokes performers like Donovan and Syd Barrett, with all the hippie mysticism and other accessories (legal and otherwise) which that implies. But if you're into psychedelic music, especially with acoustic guitars, then you'll find much to like on Dreaming with Alice. The music is as dreamlike and trance-inducing as the album's title implies, but it is also quite melodic. The title song is unique in that its nine verses are not played together, but with one verse at a time prefacing each of the other tracks. The playing, considering it was done in an inferior studio (the soundproofing was so poor they couldn't use drums), is remarkably solid and tight as well. The highlight for me is a six-minute song called "The Witch," a steady, determined jam that makes as good a use of the sitar in a rock context as any song outside of "Norwegian Wood."

Dreaming with Alice probably won't please everybody. For reasons both good and bad, hippie music doesn't quite have universal appeal, or even as broad an audience it had when this album was made. But this album is an excellent example of its genre, worthy of the cult reputation it has garnered. As for Mark Fry, he has as remarkable a story as any singer I'm aware of, and his copious liner notes are as fascinating as the music is. I have no idea how often he goes back to Wonderland to visit Alice these days, but as long as he brings some good music back with him I'm OK with it.

Overall grade: A-

reviewed by Scott

Anna Ternheim, Halfway to Fivepoints (Decca, 2008)

A couple of months ago, Anna Ternheim released a self-titled EP which I reviewed very favorably here. The six songs on Anna Ternheim were gleaned from two full-length albums and a handful of EP's that have been available in her native Sweden and the rest of Europe for a while, but the EP was her debut American release. A full-length album and tour were promised for the spring, and Halfway to Fivepoints came out in late April. Most of the songs on Halfway to Fivepoints were also previously released in Europe, but a few tracks are new. But the album reflects the same remarkable songwriting ability that caused me to rate the EP so highly.

Everything I say about Anna Ternheim needs to come with the disclaimer that all her songs come from a very dark place. Ternheim's work follows in the footsteps of the early recordings of Sarah McLachlan and Beth Orton, in that she taps into emotional depths that most people would just as soon pretend aren't there. However, despite English not being her native language, Ternheim combines a stark lyrical directness with a great poetic sensibility, to a degree that McLachlan and Orton can't match. The subject matter of the lyrics is often quite intense, and Ternheim frequently sings from the perspective of characters who don't necessarily reflect herself or are even admirable. On "Bridges," for example, Ternheim takes on the role of the controlling person in a very unhealthy relationship. On "Such A Lonely Soul," the woman in the song contemplates how to keep her lover's wife in the dark about what's going on. "Why trouble her lonely soul, she doesn't have to know, why tell her, it would hurt her so," Ternheim sings with no small amount of irony. Even the happiest song on the album, "Today Is a Good Day," is about a break-up.

Musically, Ternheim and producer Andreas Dählback aim for a cross between folk and alternative. Ternheim generally sounds more in her element on the quieter material, both with her own compositions and with her cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Little Lies." Like her cover of "China Girl" on the EP, Ternheim sings "Little Lies" in her own distinct style, and the cover is both radically different from, and considerably more compelling than, the original. On the album's best track "No Subtle Men," Ternheim sings about continuing to turn suitors away even though she's not so young anymore, and the conflict of emotions that result. By contrast, the arrangements on the album's rock songs don't always do the lyrics justice. "To Be Gone," an otherwise strong song about teenage depression, felt too retrained to be, while the electric version of "Lovers Dream" sounds cluttered compared to the stunning orchestrated acoustic version the was released on the EP.

In fact, despite having twice as many songs as the EP, Halfway to Fivepoints isn't quite as good. The EP's two strongest songs, "I'll Follow You Tonight" and "My Secret," are both better than anything included here. I also didn't see the point of having two songs overlap on both releases, and I'm really sorry they didn't include the song "Better Be" that I've seen on YouTube. Having said all that, Halfway to Fivepoints is still a solid release, full of extremely well written but very challenging, unnerving songs that are both beautiful and brutal in their emotional impact.

Overall grade: A-

reviewed by Scott

The B-52s, "FUNPLEX"

It's been quite a while since the B-52s released an album, but they're back in party mode with Funplex. Original members Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider, Cindy Wilson and Keith Strickland have put together a solid, fun collection of party songs.

All the songs here are unapologetically light, often very silly, usually involve sex or sexual innuendo, and pretty catchy. "Funplex," the first single, is all about heartbreak at the mall. "Love in the Year 3000" wonders what future will bring for love and comes up with "Robots, Bootybots, Erotobots... in the spandex spiral vortex." In "Dancing Now" the cure for a broken heart is to keep dancing, and you can just guess what the "Deviant Ingredient" is.

All the songs on Funplex have a lot of energy, from the pounding percussion to soaring vocals. After a while, the songs have a similar sound and can blend together in the mind's ear after the album is done. Still, the B-52s clearly wanted to make an album that was just about fun, love, and sex with no deeper meanings or goals... and they succeeded at that. If you're having a party, want some fun songs to blast in the car, or just want to put your mind on hold and listen to something fun, pick up Funplex.

Moving Cloud, "Welcome: Who Are You?" (GO' Danish Folk Music, 2008)

The traditional music of Denmark is something of a melting pot, with influences not just from the Nordic countries but also from Celtic music as well. There has been enough cross-pollenation with Ireland for a session scene to take hold in Denmark, from which the band Moving Cloud emerged twenty years ago. Moving Cloud have been through a few changes in the intervening years, but their fine energetic sound makes them worthy of mention with the good Irish session-style bands from Ireland and elsewhere. (Please be advised that there was a Donegal-based band also named Moving Cloud -- the members of the two bands were evidently so fond of the same particular reel that they both named themselves after it -- that released two albums in the nineties. While I imagine they'd appeal to the same audience, they are two different bands, from different places, with different personnel.) Their newest album "Welcome: Who Are You?", produced by the venerable Dónal Lunny, came out in February.

The primary distinguishing element of Moving Cloud's sound is the heavy reliance on percussion. Svend Kjeldsen has been banging on the bodhrán and other assorted instruments for the band since their inception, and is the only person to be part of every Moving Cloud lineup to date. He provides a steady backbeat and groove to most of the pieces on the album. He is assisted on a couple of tracks by step dancer Mette Løvschal, a relative newcomer to the group. They collaborate on a unique recitation called "Anahorish... My Place of Clear Water," the most intriguing track on the album. Filling out the band's sound are long-time members John Pilkington (vocals, guitar, bouzouki) and Klavs Vester (flutes and whistles), along with the band's newest member, fiddler Christopher Davis Maack.

Outside of "Anahorish," "Welcome: Who Are You?" follows a tried and true pattern for albums of Irish session music. There are sets of jigs and reels, there are slower pieces, and Pilkington throws in a few songs for good measure. A lot of bands follow the same general approach, but Moving Cloud should still get noticed in the crowd because they play particularly well, with a healthy amount of energy and spirit. Now, I could understand it if somebody with a thousand or two Celtic albums might be more demanding than I am, but I actually haven't listened to a whole lot of new Irish-style CD's lately, and I found "Welcome: Who Are You?" to be a breath of fresh air.

Overall grade: B

reviewed by Scott

Reprinted with permission from The Green Man Review
Copyright 2008 The Green Man Review

The Ditty Bops, Summer Rains (The Green Witch Society, 2008)

The Ditty Bops, comprised of lovers Amanda Barrett (vocals, mandolin, ukulele) and Abby DeWald (vocals, guitar), are making an excellent musical career for themselves despite, or perhaps because of, their consistent defiance of expectations and any easy categorization. Their combination of century-old musical styles, quirky but clever lyrics, fiendishly catchy melodies, and gorgeous harmonies earned their second album Moon Over the Freeway the #1 spot on my top 10 albums of 2006. With their new effort Summer Rains, The Ditty Bops continue to move to the beat of their own drum, and they have another great assortment of songs to show for it.

While a bit more laid back than its predecessors, Summer Rains follows the same general approach to what The Ditty Bops have done in the past. Most of the top-notch supporting cast has returned, including co-producer/keyboardist Mitchell Froom, ace ragtime pianist Greg Rutledge, and drummer Pete Thomas from Elvis Costello's Attractions and Impostors. The one significant addition to the sessions for the new album is guest vocalist Jesca Hoop, who adds a third part to the harmonies on two songs. About half of Summer Rains consists of love songs written in the style of old (i.e., Jazz Age if not earlier) pop standards, but with the rest of the album Barrett and DeWald take on a number of different topics with their lyrics. "Skinny Bones" is a rousing celebration, in the spirit of the hot club jazz of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli, of being under-endowed. The bluesy "What Happened to the Radio" is pretty self-explanatory (although Pete Thomas has played on at least one better song covering the same topic). The Ditty Bops go country on "Because We Do," a sarcastic song about passively accepting things as they are. The folksy "I Feel from the Outside In" deals with being misunderstood, and "The Weeds Are Winning" is a satirical assessment of the rat race and the lifestyle that goes with it. And on the poignant closing song "Sugar and Spice," Barrett and DeWald wonder what little girls are really made of.

Having said that, the real strength of Summer Rains comes from The Ditty Bops' superior sense of song craftsmanship, even as their style generally evokes a distant past. All the songs are melodic and eminently singable (try not singing along to the chorus of "All Over You," and see how far you get), and feature Barrett and DeWald's trademark harmonies. It wouldn't be to hard to envision songs like "When's She Coming Home" or the deviously romantic single "I Stole Your Wishes" being popular hits from a bygone age, at least if you imagine they are being sung from a man's perspective. But that's the essence of The Ditty Bops' music -- they can be completely charming and boldly subversive at the same time.

In an idealized world where pop music actually required melody, catchiness, and clever lyrics, The Ditty Bops would be considered elite pop artists. As it stands, they're somewhere to the left of alternative. While I suppose that's too bad, their music is there for everybody who wants to hear it. And Summer Rains, like its two predecessors, is well worth hearing.

(The album is currently available, to the best of my knowledge, only on The Ditty Bops' website. You can purchase downloads of the songs, or buy the CD. The CD booklet comes with some pop-up art, although whether or not you think the extra pictures and artwork are worth the money will most likely ultimately depend on how highly you value frontal nudity on the inside of a CD booklet.)

Overall grade: A

reviewed by Scott

Habib Koité and Bamada, Afriki (Cumbancha, 2007)

Malian singer/guitarist Habib Koité is one of the most respected performers of Western African music. Together with his backing band Bamada, Koité has earned his reputation by combining superior musicianship with a strong sense of melody. While Koité and Bamada have built and maintained a sizable international following over the last few years with steady touring, Afriki is actually their first album in six years.

The best and worst thing that can be said of Afriki is that it's pretty much exactly what anybody familiar with Koité's music would expect it to be. Koité churns out his usual assortment of mellow guitar grooves, set to the traditional rhythms of his homeland. Yes it's a bit predictable, but Koité's playing remains superb, and the music is generally quite pleasant. The one track which deviates from Koité's basic formula is called "Nta Dima," in which Koité takes the concept of a horn section quite literally -- the "horns" used in the song are antelope horns. Their tone doesn't quite match the tone of the guitar, resulting in a slight dissonance that's a bit jarring at first, but after a few listens it became the most compelling track on the album for me.

Fans of Habib Koité and Bamada will find plenty to their liking on Afriki, which ably reinforces Koité's status as an elite guitarist and a solid all-around performer. People who like laid-back guitar music do not need to have a particular affinity for African music to enjoy the quality of this recording as well.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

Accelerate by R.E.M.

R.E.M. is back and rockin'! After the mediocre album Around the Sun, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills return in full force with volume, energy, and an album that is incredible: Accelerate.

The opening guitar riff of "Living Well is the Best Revenge" lets us know that we're in for a treat; and when Michael Stipe's singing joins in, everything comes together. The band remains political -- especially on "Until the Day is Done" -- but they cover a wide variety of topics, from teen angst ("Supernatural Superserious") to homesickness and nostalgia ("Houston") to just wanting to party ("I'm Gonna DJ"). They only slow down on "Houston" and "Sing for the Submarine"; the rest of the album comes at you like a rocket.

Accelerate doesn't replace Automatic for the People as my favorite R.E.M. album, but it is a thoroughly impressive, extremely consistent album. Pick it up and crank it up!

Overall grade: A

Reviewed by James Lynch

Mike Doughty, Golden Delicious (ATA Records, 2008)

New Yorker Mike Doughty first made a name for himself singing and playing guitar in the eccentric jazz/rock band Soul Coughing. That band broke up in 2000, after which Doughty spent several years getting his solo career off the ground. A couple of his homemade recordings eventually got the attention of Dave Matthews, who signed Doughty to his ATO label. The first result of this pairing was the solid 2005 album Haughty Melodic. Starting with the single "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well," Haughty Melodic was full of witty and insightful songs.

Regrettably, Doughty's new album Golden Delicious fails to approach the same standard. Doughty instead comes across as a tired songwriter fresh out of good ideas. The single "27 Jennifers" is decent enough, but it's actually a re-recording of an older song of Doughty's, and several songs on Haughty Melodic were better. Otherwise, too much of the album seems lyrically forced, at least in the few cases when the choruses have actual words and weren't borrowed wholesale from some place else. Doughty's singing style has always incorporated an improvised, sort of hip hop variant of scat singing. In the past this had a sort of quirky charm that worked for him in general, but on Golden Delicious it just sounds overused and clichéd. And while I agree with the sentiments of the politically charged opening song "Fort Hood," which deals with people's indifference to what's going on in Iraq, the appropriation of the chorus of "Let the Sunshine In" from the musical/movie Hair didn't strike me as being inspired as much as too cute by half. The only lyric that caught my attention comes on the song "Like a Luminous Girl," when he sings about meeting somebody at the station in Ronkonkoma. While I can't help wondering who he knows that lives out my way, the reference to my home town wasn't enough to keep Golden Delicious afloat for me.

I'd still strongly recommend Haughty Melodic to to people interested in Mike Doughty's music. Golden Delicious, by unfortunate contrast, just finds Doughty at a loss for inspiration.

Overall grade: C+

reviewed by Scott

De Novo Dahl, Move Every Muscle Make Every Sound (Roadrunner Records, 2008)

De Novo Dahl are a Nashville-based indie rock band featuring Joel J Dahl (vocals, guitar, lyrics), Keith Lowen (bass, vocals), Serai Zaffiro (vocals, omnichord), Joey Andrews (drums), and Matt Hungate (keyboards, vocals). While they specialize in sunny power pop, Dahllyrics have more depth than you might notice at first glance. Their third album Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound came out in March.

The opening song "Shout" is the obvious single. While there is some similarity in lyrical theme to the Tears for Fears song of the same title, this song is both more aggressive and catchier. The most intriguing song on the album, though, is the six-minute "Means to an End." Set to an edgy musical backdrop reminiscent of John Lennon, Dahl and Zaffiro trade verses while taking the roles of some sort of special agents in a surreal science fiction story. Otherwise De Novo Dahl do a fine job of mixing things up, from the bouncy pop of "Make Some Sense," to the more punkish "Be Your Man," to the disco of "Shakedown." There's even some sharp social commentary in the song "Marketplace": "We've built an empire of broken down homes. We laugh with our neighbors and say we've never felt so empty and alone." Listen closely for the church organ near the end of the song.

With Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound, De Novo Dahl have made a fine power pop recording that succeeds in being fun and catchy without being one-dimensional. I get the feeling that this a band that we'll hear more good things from in the future.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

Mozaik, Changing Trains (Compass Records, 2008)

Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny first played together nearly forty years ago in the influential Irish folk band Planxty. They've both kept busy with all sorts of musical projects over the years; Irvine has a solo carer and is a member of Patrick Street, I've rattled off Lunny's resumé in a previous post so I won't repeat it here, and both have participated in the periodic Planxty reunions. They share a keen interest in music from other parts of the world, though, and they founded the band Mozaik several years ago to team up musicians from different folk traditions and explore their common musical ground. In addition to Irvine (bouzouki, mandolin, vocals) and Lunny (bouzouki, guitar, vocals), the quintet also includes the American Bruce Molsky (fiddle, banjo, vocals), plus Dutchman Rens van der Zalm and Bulgarian Nikola Parov (both play too many instruments to mention). Their 2004 debut CD Live from the Powerhouse focused on pieces already in the repertoires of the individual members, but on the new CD Changing Trains, Mozaik work with new compositions and new arrangements of traditional songs and tunes.

Irvine owes much of his long and productive career to being a master of the autobiographical song, particularly when he intertweaves details of his own life with the evolution of his musical tastes. Changing Trains has a couple of excellent examples of Irvine's narrative style. The first is the opening song "O'Donoghue's," which recalls many long nights spent in a pub in Dublin that played a pivotal role in the revival of traditional Irish music that started in the early 1960's. Irvine was part of that scene, and in the course of the song he drops the names of members of The Dubliners and also Johnny Moynihan, with whom Irvine later played in a band called Sweeney's Men. As Irvine recounts, it was Moynihan who first brought the bouzouki from Eastern Europe to Ireland. It took Irvine and Lunny to make the instrument popular, though. The second example is "The Wind Blows Over the Danube," a song about the summer in the late sixties that Irvine spent in the Balkans exploring the music there. By the end of the summer he had visited many places and fallen in and out of love, and was left wondering where the time went.

The rest of Changing Trains shifts styles according to the different band members' specialties. Molsky contributes a pair of old American folk songs, and Lunny gives a very rare lead vocal on a Gaelic waltz called "Siún Ní Dhuibir." The instrumentals frequently mix styles from one part of the tune to the next. The Lunny composition "The Humours of Parov," for example, combines an Irish slip jig with a Bulgarian horo, both in 9/8 time. "The Pigfarm Suite" combines several polyrhythmic tunes, the first of which is stately and the second of which is more aggressive. Other tracks, like Irivine's adaptation of "The Ballad of Rennardine" and Molsky's arrangement of the Appalachian pieces "Train on the Island/Big Hoedown" are simpler and more self-explanatory, but still quite effective.

Despite the individual reputations of the five members, Mozaik clearly sound like a fully cohesive band starting to hit its best stride. While I liked Live from the Powerhouse, I think Changing Trains represents a clear step forward for the band. The songs are very good, and the playing hits