FLAMING LIPS
Zaireeka
Warner Bros. Records
Reviewed by
Troy Carpenter
Patience required for listening to four-disc set
Oct. 28 was a monumental day in rock and roll. It marked the release of the Flaming Lips' new album concept, the 4-CD Zaireeka.
The concept, created by singer Wayne Coyne, is four recordings of the same album - eight tracks in the same order with the same length. The catch is that they're not the same sounds.
Each CD contains different parts to each of the tracks - on "(track 1)," for instance, the drum and bass are on CD 1, the piano and voice on CD 2 and rising and descending vocal melodies on CDs 3 and 4. But there is no rhyme or reason for the distribution of sounds from track to track. The extensive liner notes advise that the CDs can be simultaneously listened to in any combination, with the full effect realized by all four.
Zaireeka grew out of Coyne's experiments with multiple sound sources, beginning with a parking lot full of cars with tape decks. Somewhere along the way, Coyne learned the key to the album concept: CD players will not play in synch with each other. Thus, each listen to an album like Zaireeka should result in different sonic possibilities.
Ambitious yet impractical, this is an album that takes a lot of work to listen to. Even if you can get four CD players together, you also need friends to help push the play buttons at the same time. But this partly contributes to the longevity of the album. You can't wear it out if you can't play it too often. Also, many tracks are listenable on individual CDs. You just have to search through the "news about the songs" section of the booklet to find out which tracks you want to hear.
The songs themselves are obviously not your average, everyday songs. Don't go looking for the sequel to "She Don't Use Jelly" (the Lips' 1994 alternative pop hit) here. Augmenting the guitar/bass/drums format the band used to work with are pianos, horns, distorted screams, computer-game blip, and many other unidentifiable noises. "How Will We Know (Futuristic Crashendos)" is laden with extremely high and low frequencies and accompanied with a warning that the sounds "can cause a person to become disoriented, confused or nauseated." I kept my hands on my ears during the whole song but at the same time wanted to congratulate the band for having the gall to put that kind of thing on disc.
That's basically the feeling that permeates the whole album. But there are sub par moments, and there are some that are really deserving of praise. The album closer, "The Big Ol' Bug is The New Baby Now," evolves into a vocals-up chorus with orchestral beauty when listened to on all four discs.
"The March Of The Rotten Vegetables" is a monstrosity of a drum solo, with clashing, angular bits of distorted percussion coming from alternating sides of your room. And "A Machine in India" is a 10-minute epic paean to menstruation (or specifically, the "other world" that Coyne's girlfriend enters during her monthly cycle, according to the album booklet).
Sounds like a lot to handle, doesn't it?
Well, it is, but that's OK. At a list price only a couple bucks more than any other CD, you really do get more creativity than you pay for. The biggest thing is, alongside any electronic needs, Zaireeka requires patience. But think of it as the first foray into a new type of media. Did the first band to press a CD master the method? No, and likewise, the Flaming Lips haven't necessarily produced the best multiple sound source album, just the first. As musical pioneers, they should be commended for Zaireeka and hopefully someday, they or someone else will top it.
LAIKA<
Sounds of the Satellites
Sire/Too Pure
Reviewed by
Johnathen Cohen
On Sounds Of The Satellites, Laika's genre-defying sonic wash bubbles with an other-worldly beauty at once alien and hallucinogenic.
The duo of American Margaret Fiedler (ex-Moonshake) and English producer Guy Fixsen (of My Bloody Valentine's landmark Loveless) have fashioned music to soundtrack the most innate of ponderances, transforming reality into a psychedelic landscape slick with ethereal vocals, pulsating rhythms and breathtaking, dark melodies.
Utilizing computers in nearly every aspect of production, Laika grooves like no other, occasionally referencing trip-hop, rock and electronica throughout the nearly 80-minute Sounds but never falling prey to cliched songwriting.
Fiedler's sensual phrasings kick the more groove-oriented, danceable tracks such as the vibe-tinged "Blood Bones (Moody Mix)" and the made-for-raving "Bedbugs" into high gear, while lending a tortured, confessional quality to the disorienting "Poor Gal" and sublime, tumbling opener "Prairie Dog." If I could pull the nerves from my skin, I would, she intones here over sampled drums and an orgasmic bass line.
The seven-minute "Breather" stands out as the most complete song on Sounds, conveying the longing that accompanies long-buried memories of lost loves in whispered lines such as dead dreams dropping off the heart/like leaves in a dry season. Quivering keyboards tingle like a lover's touch and tribal rhythms permeate like post-coital satiation.
"Spooky Rhodes" floats into more atmospheric stratas, its confounding synthesizer textures equal to the mind-boggling riddles of time and space. There are things I can't explain, Fiedler accurately laments.
Laika appeals to and appeases the most aching of human desires, coloring one's world with soundscapes that radiate an obfuscating beauty far ahead of music as most know it.
JAY-Z
In My Lifetime, Vol. I
Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam
Reviewed by
Martin Tsai
Last year, Jay-Z charmed audiences with his savvy debut album Reasonable Doubt and established himself as one of the finest rappers around via his irresistible confidence in rhymes and rhythm. Jay-Z is one of those rappers who can repeatedly tell the same story in every track without getting boring by boasting stellar production.
But the hardcore rapper's first attempt at mainstream acceptance is a mixed bag. Most tracks on In My Lifetime Vol. 1 are dynamic and vibrant, but some of the more commercial efforts sound impossibly lackluster. Most notably, Teddy Riley's production "The City is Mine" stupefies Jay-Z's razor-sharp edge.
Ski and Big Jaz, who served as the primary producers on the last album, are forced to take a backseat here, even though their offerings are the album's best tracks. Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs' Bad Boy crew takes command of the album and delivers robust, danceable Bad Boy flavors.
The first single "(Always Be My) Sunshine" reunites Jay-Z and Foxy Brown after two previous collaborations. Sampling from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis while highlighting Babyface's vocals on the hooks, this track is ingenious and addictive and should be domineering the charts in no time. Jay-Z should be happy to see that, but what about the fans who enjoyed his previous hardcore works?
MOGWAI
Young Team
Jetset Records
Reviewed by
Paul Foreman
On the surface, Mogwai appears no different than the rest of the progressive rock instrumental nonsense sprouting all around minuscule record labels these days. In other words, it is composed of four ugly men who can't really sing and have become quite adept at incorporating harmonics into their songs for lack of a better gimmick.
Yet Mogwai is truly a breath of fresh air, for it has joined the likes of Bowery Electric, Trans Am and Rachel's as one of the few bands that can indeed make instrumental music worthy of being acknowledged.
And Mogwai, unlike the others, combines hypnotic grooves with rock. But it's not just rock - it's white noise and loads of it, either roaring in the background as it does in "Summer" or hammering away at the listener's ears mercilessly.
During "With Portfolio," which begins as an alluring piano ballad, a panned cornucopia of noise creates the feeling that the sound is traveling back and forth through the listener's brain to each ear.
"R U Still In 2 It" could be the sequel to the "Twin Peaks" theme. Moreover, it's the first and only song on the album to feature vocals. Surprisingly, the Mogs aren't screaming, as many indie instrumentalists do when using their voices. In fact, their Scottish voices are quite soft, almost at a hum, and there's even a melody.
For a band that horribly describes itself as an MC5 for the '90s, Mogwai is an entirely palatable instrumental treat brooding with noise, maintaining a groove and balancing between flute/piano subtleties and smokestack lightening rock.
OASIS
Stand By Me
Creation/Epic
Reviewed by
Johnathan Cohen
Oasis songwriter/guitarist Noel Gallagher has always threatened to make an album that sounded nothing like the pounding rock of his band's first three records; the how-did-we-get-here splendor of Definitely Maybe, the chart-busting (What's The Story) Morning Glory? and sprawling but repetitive Be Here Now
The only question is when, if ever, will any musical evolution become apparent in Oasis' music. Judging from the three B-sides that accompany the new "Stand By Me" single, available on import through Creation Records, good ole' rock and roll and Oasis may be stuck together indefinitely.
"Stand By Me" is a lighter-waving show-stopper of the highest order, marrying the minor-key chorus of "Slide Away" to the charm of "Don't Look Back In Anger." But in the chorus, we find the first of many appearances of a stock rhythmic cliche that Gallagher beats to death throughout Be Here Now, stacking four chords in a three-beat measure.
Many an Oasis fan will claim that the band's b-sides are just as good, and in some cases better, than its album tracks. This hypothesis doesn't quite hold up on the single's three B-sides.
"(I Got) The Fever" demonstrates why it was left off Be Here Now, towing the line between Beatles rip-off (one lyric is also nicked from a Phil Collins song!) and any number of songs Oasis have already recorded. For any other band, this could be a single by itself. But Oasis can write better songs than this.
"My Sister Lover" epitomizes the evolution of lead singer Liam Gallagher via intricate and extended vocal melodies that no longer sound like afterthoughts in the songwriting process. Ignore the ridiculous lyrics (The lord I know don't got no faith in me, namely) and you'll enjoy this focused, driving number. But "Going Nowhere" does just that, a Noel-sung ballad that includes the presence of an overly theatrical string and horn section.
Are Oasis just treading water? Or does the band really plan to deviate from the course that has found it as one of the most popular groups in the world? Calling John Lennon....
MORRISSEY
SRoy's Keen
Island UK
Reviewed by
Johnathan Cohen
Morrissey's recent Maladjusted album, while not his strongest effort, has at least provided the impetus for a two-month U.S. tour, the artist's first extended visit here in almost five years.
As Morrissey himself would tell you, the best things come to those wait. This in-progress tour and new single for "Roy's Keen," out now via import on Island UK, are proof. "Roy's Keen" is one of the best tracks on Maladjusted, spotlighting a smiling, clumsy window washer amid rough, minor-key riffing by guitarists Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer. With typical pointed wit and I-can't-have-you frustration, Morrissey sings Roy is a star and I am a satellite/but that's all right.
B-sides have been a Morrissey forte since his first solo single in 1988, and the artist has compiled enough of these sonic treats to fill two discs worth of music. Indeed, "Lost" is one of the most beautiful, complete songs Morrissey has ever penned. His voice has never sounded better, offering diary-style observations like everybody's lost/but they're pretending they're not. Strings and looped synth lines amplify, rather than hinder, the singer's laments.
"The Edges Are No Longer Parallel" happens to sound exactly like Maladjusted "Wide To Receive" save for a slightly altered tempo and chorus. Acoustic strumming gives way to a rousing, electric guitar-slathered finish where Morrissey repeatedly proclaims My only mistake is that I'm hoping.
Here's hoping that there's more music like this to be tapped from Morrissey's downtrodden repertoire.