Get Your Fix: Album Reviews by the CoolJunkie Staff

July 16, 2008 5:33 PM
by Marcos Colón [email]

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
by: Marcos Colón

Everyone’s favorite Brooklyn storytellers are back. After what seemed to be a long two years since the release of their highly touted Boys and Girls in America, The Hold Steady are back with their fourth effort Stay Positive. Still packing the same heavy riffs and a lyric book with enough promise to become a novel, this release seems like it will garner them the respect and mass appeal that they’ve deserved all along.

Just like their other albums, be prepared for a barrage of tales and instrumental beauty. The album’s opener, Constructive Summer, is a fueled up ode to different scenarios and descriptions of what the boys actually enjoy, as lead singer Craig Finn hollers, “Me and my friends we like/Double whisky coke no ice.” Other tracks like Sequestered in Memphis and Stay Positive have Tad Kubler delivering electrically jolting riffs to sing-along choruses. On One for the Cutters and Both Crosses the boys slow things down and deliver emotionally punching storylines of grief, “She saw all the footage before it got out/And she saw all the bodies, she saw all the blood.]

The Hold Steady may very well be one of the leading American bands that rouse up the audience, a characteristic that’s blamed on their catchy hooks and songwriting. Finn’s lyrical abilities may have been influenced by his respect and admiration for hip-hop, an uncommon trait among rock and roll frontmen. Think of a modern day Billy Joel, backed by instrumental geniuses. On Stay Positive, The Hold Steady strike gold yet again.

Beck - Modern Guilt
by: chipi

I guess every Rock-N-Roll-er grows a little older. For a guy that tours with his own live puppet show - Beck has built himself up over the years as one of the few acts to resist the middle of the road route. His latest effort Modern Guilt isn't necessarily a safe (i.e boring) move on the musicians part, but certainly doesn't bring anything new to the table.

Co-produced with Danger Mouse of The Grey Album and Gnarls Barkley fame, Modern Guilt finds the 38 year old rocker basking in the psychedelic mod 60s style rock he loves so dearly. It could be said that in his ripening age, Beck is turning the focus in this album to a more spiritual tone, referencing the existence of an omnipotent creator more closely than ever in the past.

As ever, Beck wraps his sociological, cultural and spiritual criticisms up in candy-colored arrangements. Beck is joined by another awesome musical weirdo, Cat Power's Chan Marshall for "Walls" - a song about living in a time of War and the CD's opening track "Orphans". Her minimalistic style is outweighed by Danger Mouse's beats and Beck's heavy lyrics and vocals, but her wailing cries are a comfort to the anti-folk kids at large.
While Modern Guilt stands well against Beck's musically daunting past, it certainly doesn't hint at what we have to look forward to from him in the future - unless that happens to be more of the same.

Wild Sweet Orange - We Have Cause To Be Uneasy
by: Marcos Colón

There’s always something special about rock bands from the south. The storytelling, the sweet calming effect that the melodies carry and the seemingly gritty truth that lies behind it all. Hailing from Birmingham, Alabama Wild Sweet Orange’s debut album We Have Cause To Be Uneasy, is the perfect collection of carefully crafted tracks.

Taking two years to complete their first effort, it shows that the quartet have nit-picked at their sound and their wordplay. Singer/songwriter Preston Lovingwood’s angelic croon is heard from the start of Ten Dead Dogs to Land of No Return. Working with producer Lynn Bridges in Austin shows, as the sound shows hints of Spoon and You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, bands who Bridges has worked with. The jingle jangle riffs supplied by Taylor Shaw perfectly complement Chip Kilpatrick’s steady and rumbling percussion. Not to say that this is your typical lame slow and steady southern rock outfit. On tracks like Tilt, a surprising explosion of sound greats the ear as Lovingwood screams, “And I feel what I’ve done/Means I’ve lost what I’ve won.”

Don’t be fooled by the name, Wild Sweet Orange is definitely not as lame as their band’s name…sorry guys. Although these tracks will definitely be heard on some sort of primetime TV program first, they should also be given a chance in the IPod.

Steve Lawler - Viva Toronto
by: Michael Maryanoff

Viva Toronto, the latest installment of Lawler's “Viva” mix series, was recorded at Guverment in Toronto (the number eight club on the planet, according to DJ Magazine) and is divided in to two discs: Inside (which is recorded in the main room) and outside (which is recorded on the outside terrace). The two sets have much different appeal. Inside is full of wonderful big-room techno, whereas Outside is full of mellower night-capping minimal.

What makes this album so endearing is Lawler’s penchant for sucking the listener in. Lawler’s mixing is so flawless that he’ll leave you wondering when the next track is going to start only to discover that you are already five songs in. On Inside he takes you all the way from the melodic and subdued Give it a Go to the constantly peaking Total Departure before you realize that you’ve been listening for almost an hour. The album is strictly techno, but he opts out of playing cheesy big room synth-heavy stuff, while managing to shy away from sparse and pretentious click-and-beep minimal. It runs a comfortable middle ground between being niche and mass appeal, but is definitely made for the avid techno listener. Hardcore tech heads will love Outside, but those on the fence about techno might find it to be a bit boring. Lawler can really create a mood, and he does so with such tracks as Cle’s downtempo yet groovy Nomads and Sie’s hauntingly robotic Sublimes.

Lawler’s ability to raise one’s heart beat without ever running the risk of overkill is what makes Viva Toronto such an enjoyable album. If you are a techno fan, you may very well fall in love with Viva Toronto, but if you are just getting in to techno, this might not be the best jumping off point.