»Album Reviews For Release Date: 07.14.09
by Joshua Krage

There are some big news makers dropping new LPs this week, particularly for fans who hear most of their new music on the overhead speakers during pro wrestling matches and monster truck rallies. We’ve got’em here, along with all the releases that’ll be coloring your summer to come:

Adelitas Way
August Burns Red
Beastie Boys – Ill Communication remastered (Oh my god, it’s a mirage! I’m tellin’ y’all…)
Billy Talent
Bleu
David Bowie – VH1 Storytellers

Care Bears On Fire, Get Over It – it’s bratty, guitar-driven tween-punk for the Disney crowd, but they hooked me with their “Barbie Eat a Sandwich” song, and they remind me a lot of J-Pop girl rock, so I can’t complain about them too much, especially with a great band name like that.

The Dandy Warhols

Daughtry, Leave This Town – yes, his sophomore release stays true to the Hinderback sound at every turn (I mean EVERY turn), but of all the modern butt-rockers on the market, I actually like Chris Daughtry’s voice, and he gives his bandmates a level field. If you liked his debut, this’ll be a well-fueled, beer-chuggin’ sequel for you.

The Dead Weather, Horehound – I have thoroughly enjoyed every musical offering from Jack White so far throughout his career. This super-ish-group, however, is the first creative project on which the Stripeman doesn’t take the spotlight (despite the fact that every headline about them has his name bigger than the band name), instead manning the drum kit and handling backing vox. This does not detract, however, and the music is trademark raw, bone-crunching psychedelic blues-rock, the kind for which Mr. Gillis is known and solely capable of producing. I’m not a huge fan of Alison Mosshart’s vocals (here or in The Kills, her daytime band), but they do the job, and Pat Keeler and Dean Fertita unleash this band’s melodic gunfighter-style bare-bones melodies with full barrels of dynamics and sticks of reverb dynamite. It’s undeniable, even with JW on the skins and the rushed story of the band, this album is highly worth checking out.

Chico DeBarge
Devildriver
Eskimo Joe
David Garza
Joe
Judas Priest – live
The Katinas – live in San Diego
Keane – live DVD

Crosby Loggins, Time to Move – well-pedigreed LA singer-songwriter gets the big time label treatment for his sophomore LP, produced by Top 40 go-to man John Alagia and with collaborations from Brett Dennen, Kara DioGuardi, and John Mayer to name a few. Slightly mellow overall due to his soothing croon and not too bad for a second album, just surprisingly low-key for a major label debut with big name production and top-shelf creative teamwork.

The Most Serene Republic, …and the Ever Expanding Universe – ambitious and expansive Toronto band ups the ante and tries it as a mini-chamber music ensemble, augmenting their authentic Canadian hipster status by pushing the arrangement envelope a bit. For fans of anyone in the Broken Social Scene collective (obviously), or of adventurous pop music in general.

OST – 500 Days of Summer – a not-too-sugary ’80s Brit-pop lovefest soundtracking a not-too-sugary ’00s Zooey Deschanel/Joseph Gordon-Levitt love loss, with lots of Smiths (2 hits, 1 cover by She & Him) and an ace mellowed-out cover of Pixies‘ “Here Comes Your Man” by the delightful Meaghan Smith. (another Smith!)

Project 86
Ed Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Sick Puppies
The Surrogate
Twista

That’s all I got in me right now. I’m typing this from the studio after filling in at work the day after a weekend full of gigs, the last of which was in a Santa Cruz vineyard! As you can imagine, my motivation for working is a bit low…

—–

To view past reviews, visit our archives.