U2: The Unforgettable Fire – Deluxe Edition
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Best considered as a warm-up for U2’s next album, the classic The Joshua Tree, 1984’s The Unforgettable Fire finds the quartet retreating from the overt commerciality of War and, with the help of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, gradually shifting to a more ambient sound. The Eno-Lanois production team would later be the key that pushed U2 toward experimental waters. Although that approach is apparent on a bonus disc of B-sides, non-album rarities, live tracks and extended remixes, songs such as “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and “Bad” still aim for the stadium back rows. An accompanying DVD includes all the album’s videos as well as the band’s performance at Live Aid. A half-hour documentary shows the group and its producers laboriously recording “Pride” with all the repetition, second-guessing and sheer boredom of piecing together the song, practically guaranteeing you’ll never want to hear it again. (Mercury/UME) 4 out of 5 stars
(Photo Courtesy Mercury/UME)
Before there was grunge, there was Bleach, Nirvana’s harsh, ‘89 debut that dragged punk’s contemptuous sneer through the mud to churn out one damn fine album. Bleach isn’t the voice of a generation that came two years later with Nevermind, but it’s an infinitely better record. “Blew,” “School,” “Love Buzz,” “Negative Creep” — they’re all raw classics that were too visceral for the masses. Cobain’s half-baked yowls still sound like they’re going to fall apart every time he opens his mouth, and the remastered job makes the album’s highs higher and lows lower. It’s a dirty album, and the production needed to be touched-up. A booklet of photos and a live show from the era are nice add-ons, but it ain’t the bells and whistles that matter here. The songs themselves make Bleach a ramshackle work of perfection. (Sub Pop) 5 stars out of 5
The second full-length from U.K. duo Fuck Buttons is an impressive shift toward accessible melodies without sacrificing the experimental grit of their ‘08 debut, Street Horrrsing. As such, it’s inappropriate to call Fuck Buttons a noise group, per se. Sure, they shun the verses, choruses and whatever else goes into what most people call songs. But the drifting rhythms and crystalline sounds in “Surf Solar” and “Space Mountain” lay out a blueprint for the group’s restrained ears. There’s nothing harsh about the album’s modernist industrial and math rock structures. Even as the buzz and mutant cut-ups on “Rough Steez” morph into obtuse beats, there’s a soothing quality to the clutter that reaches in through your brain, grabs ahold of your guts and tugs you along ever so subtly. (ATP Records) 4 stars out of 5
The most popular male duo in music history (easily besting Simon & Garfunkel and the Everly Brothers, at least in terms of sales) Daryl Hall and John Oates get the belated yet extremely comprehensive box set tribute they deserve. There have been plenty of other blue-eyed soul men, but none have tapped into the zeitgeist with as much pure pop savvy as H&O. They effortlessly captured the smooth soul of their Philly hometown and even though over the years (this set starts with material recorded back in 1966) the twosome dabbled in folk, harder-edged rock, and schlocky ’80s synth-heavy rock, they kept the R&B current bubbling underneath the other trappings. Four discs, packed with 74 tracks — including 16 previously unreleased rarities, about half of them live — and a glossy 60-page book with track-specific information, details Hall & Oates’ crossover appeal, longevity and somewhat unexpected resurgence in recent years. (RCA/Sony Legacy) 5 stars out of 5
The final Isle of Wight festival produced some of rock’s greatest moments, but exposed the dark side of the peace and love generation. At 2 a.m., folk singer Leonard Cohen walked on stage and faced a riot, as the beleaguered audience ripped and roared following one of Jimi Hendrix’s last, incendiary performances of his career. Somehow, Cohen’s monotone storytelling brought a vast chunk of the raging 600,000 back to earth, and he proceeded to deliver one of the most mesmerizing concerts of the decade. Backed by what was basically a country western band including banjo player Elkin Fowler and fiddler Charlie Daniels (yes, that Charlie Daniels), Cohen’s dark poetry intertwined with the vastness of the night and hypnotized the masses. The event, filmed by Murray Lerner, is almost 40 years old. In a stark visual comparison to the recently released Live in London 2008 DVD, 1970’s Cohen is scraggly, unkempt, but just as enigmatic and committed to his words. Ageless, indeed. (Sony Legacy) 4 stars out of 5
When Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye and every other half-cocked rock critic on the planet has weighed in on the Velvet Underground, what’s left to discuss? Not much. That’s why Chicago Sun-Times pop critic Jim DeRogatis lets the pictures do the talking in this friggin’ gorgeous collection of photos, fliers and album art that captures the Velvets in all of their glorious vanity. A brusque 1975 interview with Sterling Morrison is the most revealing component. Otherwise, the coffeetable book has to be the greatest visual history ever produced on the band. What’s more, it isn’t overwrought with pointless hero worship like the kind that guides so many other books that broach the Velvet Underground. DeRogatis’ Walk on the Wildside shows Reed, Cale, Morrison, Tucker, Nico, Warhol and the rest of the hangers-on in the good, raw and ugly. (Voyageur Press) 4 stars out of 5
The members of Music Go Music must want you to believe they’re Scandinavian fairies living in the mountains, with only synthesizers and pixie sticks to sustain them. Why else would they give themselves pseudonyms like Gala Bell, Kamer Maza and TORG, and play the airiest, most sugary-sweet dance pop imaginable on their debut, Expressions? The group is actually composed of members of Los Angeles indie-rock outfit Bodies of Water, and this project sees them indulging their love of ’80s electro, cheesy love stories and “whoa whoa whoa” sing-alongs. It’s all as much fun as it sounds, and track highlights like “Love, Violent Love,” “Explorers of the Heart” and “Light of Love” offer enough low-commitment escapist melodies to power a Matthew McConaughey movie. The only difference is that, while you can probably wait for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past to get to cable, you’d be wise to give Expressions a spin post-haste. (Secretly Canadian) 4 stars out of 5
Much like ’07’s North Star Deserter, Vic Chesnutt’s At the Cut finds Athens’ grim folkie still soaring beyond the devices of a traditional singer/songwriter. Many of the players who made North Star Deserter so bold and beautiful, including members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and former Fugazi vocalist/guitarist Guy Picciotto, have returned. But whereas North Star crystallized Chesnutt’s stark visions into swirls of strings, rhythms and dissonance, here the expansive sound feels natural. “Coward” opens with epic drama, and Picciotto’s guitar adds terse immediacy to “Phillip Guston,” while “Granny” wilts with somber remembrance. Riding these peaks and valleys is emotionally exhausting, but if you’re a fan you already know the kind of pain you’re in for. At the Cut doesn’t hold North Star’s surprises, but it’s a stunning companion album. (Constellation Records) 4 stars out of 5
Tealights’ six-song debut is a sweeping marriage of laptop textures and bold strings sculpting dramatic moods that are very pretty but brittle. Take Us By Sea is the backbone of a musical vernacular driven by dark romanticism set adrift in modern classical and experimental arrangements. Like Claude Debussy on a date with Björk, surrealism and impressionism mingle in the dramatic male/female wailing in “Wait.” The lingering string melodies heard over front lady Nancy Shim’s cool voice provide the weeping heart of the CD. The grand finale “No Sound to Hear” layers a procession of live and electronic instruments alongside a reluctant new age croon in a short, delicate burst of chaos. With so much swelling emotion, these songs err on being too precious for rock ‘n’ roll ears. But the accomplished musicianship and elegant bent of Take Us By Sea will melt the hardest of hearts. (self-released) 4 stars out of 5
Bradford Cox has declared that Logos is an “extroverted” album that isn’t about him, but I couldn’t disagree more. The second solo full-length from Deerhunter’s leader is the inward journey of a world-weary voice dealing with the natural order of the universe — all awash in soft-focus, pop tones. Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) of Animal Collective lends his voice and sampling blueprints to “Walkabout,” and Stereolab’s angelic voice Laetitia Sadier drives “Quick Canal.” These couplings feel like vacations from the Id, Ego, Superego clash commencing beneath the happy exteriors of “Sheila” and “Logos.” Each is bound by fairytale bliss and distress under gorgeous façades. With repeated listens, Logos reveals greater staying power than its predecessor, and though it’s not the catchiest or the most unpredictable album Cox has made, it’s the strongest one so far under the Atlas Sound moniker. (Kranky) 4 stars out of 5
With another Madvillainy CD in the works and MF Doom’s collaboration with Ghostface in the final stages (according to Nature Sounds owner Devin Horwitz), Doom fans might feel less than fulfilled by his new collection Unexpected Guests. It contains rarities, vinyl-only singles and remixes but not a single new song, after all, and some of these tracks — such as “Da Supafriendz” with Vast Aire — have probably been heard on a half-dozen other albums. Still, like pizza, sex and Coen brothers’ movies, even when a Doom album is bad, it’s good. Thus, the largely rehashed Unexpected Guests is still a winner. “Fly That Not” with Talib Kweli, for example, is as hot as the first 50 times you heard it. Throughout, Doom’s gags, double entendres and stream of consciousness rhymes satisfy without ever being, uh, unexpected. (Gold Dust) 3 stars out of 5
Some of the gifts we receive from our parents are intangible, and when Johnny Cash gave his daughter Rosanne the list in 1973, he gave her much more than just the names of 100 country songs he felt she needed to know. In essence, Johnny was shaping his daughter’s musical vision and creating a strong foundation for what became a highly successful and acclaimed career. Thirty-eight years later, she finally acknowledges his gift. On The List, Cash and her husband, John Leventhal, deliver a dozen of these songs — a broad but representative sample of the finest in country music. Her voice has never sounded better, while Leventhal’s amazing guitar work and production give each song a golden polish. And with guests such as Bruce Springsteen (”Sea of Heartbreak”) and Elvis Costello (”Heartaches by the Number”), each song stands as a classic. Some gifts truly last forever. (Manhattan Records) 5 stars out of 5
There’s a summery quietude to Real Estate’s “Fake Blues” b/w “Pool Swimmers” single that could be described as haunting if both songs weren’t imbued with such warmth and nostalgia. The reverb-drenched pop number “Fake Blues” builds on the simple interplay of rolling drums, lazy guitars and a voice that embodies a sweet croon and innocence. “Pool Swimmers” follows suit with just as much slow jangle and charm. Like primitive descendants of the Sundays, Cocteau Twins or Mazzy Star, the genius of Real Estate’s songs lies not in any quantifiable skill or adept playing, but in how their soft-focus arrangements coalesce into mildly noisy, totally captivating clouds of melody and atmosphere. (Woodsist) 4 stars out of 5
Brown Bag AllStars aren’t so much a supergroup as a collective of hip-hop supergeeks who work at Manhattan record store Fat Beats. Fortunately their talents as MCs and producers are as great as their passion for record collecting, which makes their debut project, The Brown Tape, 10 tons of fun. A digital reissue of their first mixtape (which they sold in the shop last year), the work’s golden-era influence is obvious through its generous use of cuts, scratches, samples and relentlessly goofy punch lines. “I’m Soul Khan/You know me/I only drink breast milk and Old E,” raps Soul Khan on “Get Up,” an album highlight along with “The City Never Sleeps” and “Undeniable (Audible Doctor Remix).” Mostly devoid of politics, whining about the industry, or current hip-hop production gimmicks, The Brown Tape is a throwback rap album of the best kind — the kind that doesn’t take itself too seriously. (Coalmine Records) 4 stars out of 5