Audioholic Media

»Album Reviews For Release Date: 11.10.09
by Joshua Krage

This week is evidently the week to release the live footage/tracks from that show you did in London that one time. And if you didn’t play a show in London, just throw together a Best Of from your latest set of albums. Don’t have a latest set of albums? Maybe on account of your band being broken up or your frontman being dead? I’m sure you’ve got some old vault material or an acoustic/choral arrangement or twelve to get a release ready before Holiday Shopping Season begins. All that being said, that’s most of what’s out this week, but there are a few bright spots, so here you go:

AC/DC- box set (with a deluxe edition contained in a working guitar amp. Seriously. \m/ )
Tori Amos – Midwinter Graces (Christmas)
Anthrax- CD/DVD

Asobi Seksu, Rewolf – I fell in love with this band after their Citrus album, which had a hefty helping of angular, blissful indie guitar reverb and Yuki Chikudate’s fragile, angelic vocals, so I was disappointed when they followed that album up with an LP full of colorless new-wave drone, but I still liked the overall sound so I stuck with them. This entry into their catalog is an acoustic rendering of some of their better stuff (with sadly no new songs), recorded at “London’s renowned Olympic Studios” (just before it closed its doors for good), and is a mixed bag of pristine joy and yawn-inducing meh. “Acoustic” means that James Hanna’s usually killer guitar work is inexcusably absent from their signature sound (replaced by monotonous strumming), and there’s no end of xylophone and toy piano fills which fail to replace the wonderfully orchestrated noise usually present on their songs. They even turned their best song (“Thursday”) into a cringe-worthy, mellowed-out waltz, proving either they weren’t paying attention or are clearly misguided as to what sounds good about them in general. There are a couple decent re-worked tracks worth checking out here, but for the most part this album is just a further slide down a bland, sleep-inducing hill.

The Cribs, Ignore the Ignorant – a little bit older, a little less jittery, and with the legendary Johnny Marr joining the ranks of the Jarman bros, this new album has a considerable amount of guitar punch in some gritty, tasteful ways. I kind of miss the youthful attention-deficit jangle of their last LP, but they still have a big, bright sound and Ryan (and Gary) Jarman’s throaty yowl is well-utilized on these well-crafted songs.

Dashboard Confessional
Ray Davies – Kinks Choral Collection
The Doors – Live in NY six-CD set
Flyleaf
Hawthorne Heights
Hollywood Undead
Jackson 5 – unreleased early masters
Kids Bop Kids – Beatles – all I’m saying is they better leave “Norwegian Wood” and “Do It In the Road” OFF this album
The Killers – Live From the Royal Albert Hall
Kings of Leon – Live at the 02 London DVD
MF Doom
Annie Moses Band
Jason Mraz – live
OST – 2012
Dolly Parton – Live in London
The Pixies – Minotaur – five CD, six DVD huuuge box set
Omar Rodriguez- Lopez (of The Mars Volta)
Sleep Whale
Snow Patrol- best of
Britney Spears- best of
The Starting Line

Switchfoot, Hello Hurricane – I don’t know how these fellas consistently come up with so many memorable melodies, but every album they’ve released since The Beautiful Letdown has been chock-full of singles (fast, slow, mid-tempo, off-tempo) with huge hooks and catchy choruses enough to make a convert of even the most casual listener. This new album continues that streak, from the anthemic opener “Needle and Haystack Life” to the start-stop rock crunch of first single “Mess of Me,” the impassioned plea of “Enough to Let Me Go” to the sprinting grandeur of the title track, every chorus is noteworthy and every lyric is well-considered with no throwaways in the bunch. And all of this AFTER frontman Jon Foreman just released four six-track EPs last year. It seems like God put this guy on earth solely to convey this amazing abundance of pop/rock goodness to the masses, and his voice is continually up to the challenge of singing these anthems in perfect form. I love this band and am happy to report this album will please any and all fans, as well as anyone looking for solid songcraft, musicianship, and lyrical skill.

Three 6 Mafia
The Tubes
Wale
Wyclef Jean

So yeah, kind of dry overall, but don’t give up hope because next week is the big pre-Thanksgiving push, with brand new albums dropping from the likes of Norah Jones, John Mayer, Kris Allen (AmIdol), Leona Lewis, Katy Perry (unplugged), OneRepublic, Stereophonics, and Them Crooked Vultures (who, if you haven’t heard, is Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, and John Paul Jones. Yes, THAT John Paul Jones). The horizon is amply bright, and I’ll see you there. Next week.

P.S. If you should wish to hear some of the high points of this week’s list, tune into my MySpace Page for a playlist. Enjoy.

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