CD reviews
February 2nd, 2008, 4:47 am Hobbies And Interests
MISSION CONTROL
The Whigs
***When The Whigs came out of the college rock south with “Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip,” the first sound to smack listeners’ ears was a sunny organ riff straight out of the ’60s.”Mission Control,” meanwhile, opens with the gritty punk guitar and pummeling drums of “Like A Vibration” - markedly different from the debut for sure, but much more indicative of this Athens, Ga., trio’s loud, politely thrashing live shows.The stage-to-studio energy transfer is the ultimate triumph of “Mission Control.” Though no less melodic than its predecessor, The Whigs’ sophomore set ditches the ornamentation of “Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip” in favor of cranked-up amps.It’s an interesting choice considering the first album was recorded in a frat house and this one was cut in an actual studio with an actual budget - most young bands do it the other way around - but The Whigs wanted the guitar and drums front and center on “Mission Control.”Nowhere is it more evident than on first single “Right Hand on My Heart,” the sort of big-rawk anthem you’d expect from a bunch of southern boys, even if they’re more “Summer Babe” than “Sweet Home Alabama.”Chad DrydenORACULAR SPECTACULAR
MGMT
*** 1/2*Half the fun of listening to MGMT (pronounced “management”) is playing Guess the Influence. On its major-label debut “Oracular Spectacular,” the wildly creative Brooklyn duo spins sonic collages that span multiple genres and musical eras, and yet don’t feel forced.The fabulously glam “Time To Pretend” - sure to crack many critics’ best-of lists for 2008 - marries T. Rex vocals with the Flaming Lips’ kooky psychedelia, and a few Brady Bunch-geeky “yeah yeah yeahs” thrown in. “Weekend Wars” pastes Ween’s quirky vocal sense overtop Everlast’s acoustic hip-hop guitar progressions, and adds Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream” snarl and a trippy Beatles-esque calliope. “Kids,” an electro parody with sunny ’60s harmonies, captures what it’s like to be child (”‘You pick the insects off plants/No time to think of consequences”), while “4th Dimensional Transition” resurrects Syd Barrett’s leering acid-trip observations.As soon as your head begins to tire of the hallucinatory feel, MGMT tones it down with the folksy “Pieces Of What,” the gently poppy “Of Moons, Birds %26 Monsters” and the space-orbiting, Air-like “The Handshake.”"Oracular Spectacular” clocks in at just over 40 minutes, but feels much longer because every song is dense with thoughtful, unorthodox chord changes and wacked-out tangents that make a three-minute song feel epic, and the familiar sound fresh.Pod picks: “Time To Pretend,” “Weekend Wars,” “Kids.”Michael Hamersly
The Mars Volta
***The Mars Volta, led by a pair of feral space cats, takes its free-wheeling prog-rock fusion to trippy extremes on an album with a back story Stephen King would admire. Guitarist/composer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez found “The Soothsayer,” a Ouija-type board, at a curio shop in Jerusalem and gave it to singer/lyricist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The sometimes-inscrutable duo created “Bedlam “based on the dark saga of infidelity and murder that emerged from the device, which also allegedly jinxed the project with a variety of bad tidings, from a studio flood to an engineer’s departure for mental distress. When the messages turned threatening, Rodriguez buried the board in a secret location. The outcome? From wiggy sizzler “Ilyena “to riff monster “Wax Simulacra”, this volatile collection rocks and roars with tense, dense freakouts. The Latin shades unfortunately have faded, and excess tends to swamp melody, yet “Bedlam”, with its cranked-up funk and John Frusciante’s guitar blitzes, is one haunted madhouse worth committing to. Edna GundersenFIELD MANUAL
Chris Walla
** 1/2*The solo debut from Death Cab For Cutie guitarist Chris Walla made headlines when the hard drive containing rough drafts of the music was confiscated by U.S. Customs officials last October at the Canadian border.But Homeland Security need not worry. Though “Field Manual” has its politically tinged moments, the songs pose no threat to this great land. Which isn’t all good news, musically speaking, for fans accustomed to typical Death Cab quality.Walla’s vision is surprisingly eclectic: He channels Peter Gabriel’s odd harmonic sense on the eerie, atmospheric “Two Fifty,” then slips into Death Cab singer Ben Gibbard’s smooth, earnest tenor on the raw rocker “The Score. A Bird Is a Song” veers from Simon %26 Garfunkel-lush to a funereal dirge, while the tight, driving indie-pop of the awkwardly titled “Geometry %26c.” Calls to mind pioneers such as Built To Spill or Guided By Voices.And on the deceptively upbeat “Archer Vs. Light,” Walla calls out supporters of the war in Iraq: “I wanna see your ‘pro-life’ bear no exception, you grand old senator.”While little on “Field Manual” approaches the emotional complexity and melodic genius of Death Cab’s best work, Walla’s pleasant songs serve as a capable tide-us-over till the band’s next record.Michael HamerslyBRIGHTER THAN CREATION’S DARK
The Drive-By Truckers
*** 1/2*Even though principal Drive-By Truckers songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley lost their third wheel when Jason Isbell went solo, the DBT’s are still a three-songwriter band. That’s because Shonna Tucker, the band’s bass player and Isbell’s ex-wife, has stepped up and started singing and writing sharp and sorrowful songs, adding a welcome female perspective to Hood and Cooley’s winning character sketches of good-hearted recidivists and irredeemable ne’er-do-wells. Better still, Hood and (even more so) Cooley are on top of their games on the Muscle Shoals, Ala., band’s strongest album since 2004’s “The Dirty South.” Cooley contributes masterfully delineated, country-flavored thumbnails like “Bob,” “Lisa’s Birthday” and “Checkout Time In Vegas.” Hood rocks out and explores the cost of the Iraq war on “The Home Front” and pinpoints the damage done by “You and Your Crystal Meth,” while doing his best to hew to “The Righteous Path.”Dan DeLucaJUST A LITTLE LOVIN’
Shelby Lynne
*** 1/2*Shelby Lynne’s Dusty Springfield tribute album is understated and elegantly soulful, tastefully mellow, yet shot through with deep feeling. For nearly two decades now, Lynne has carried on a full-of-promise career that’s veered from country to swing to adult pop, hitting a high-water mark with 1999’s “I Am Shelby Lynne.” Here, she subtly reimagines such gems as Bacharach and David’s “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and Randy Newman’s “I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore” on her own quietly intimate terms. And though it contains just one original song - the masochistic meditation “Pretend” - this turns out to be as personal an album as Lynne’s ever made.Dan DeLuca
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