Get Your Fix: Album Reviews by the CoolJunkie Staff

August 6, 2008 4:55 PM
by Marcos Colón [email]

Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
by: Marcos Colón

For the past four years it seems like Conor Oberst can’t help but to release something to the public every year. In 2005 he went as far as releasing two albums on the same day. Whether it’s working with Bright Eyes, or a solo project, the man seems eager to have everyone tuned in. With his new self-titled album, Oberst seems to revisit some of the same ideas and sounds that came along with Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga in 2007.

On Conor Oberst, the young Nebraska native decided to pack up and move to Mexico to record the album. Although Cassadaga was named after the spiritual medium town in Florida, Mexico seemed like a new experience and fresh breath of air for the songwriter and the move was probably to inspire some new sounds, but that hasn’t changed much. The tasteful and melodic folk-rock is back, but the songwriting seems to get better and better, shifting his focus a bit from personal experiences to observations of the setting around him.

On tracks like Get Well Cards and Sausalito Oberst brings back the salt and peppering of the country twang as well as the impressive acoustic play. The mood of the album shifts like the stock market. The opening track, Cape Canaveral, greets one with a foot tapping rhythm, while NYC-Gone, Gone shifts things into stomping folk rock, á la ‘Cotton Eye Joe.’

At times you can’t help but come across the thought that maybe Oberst is attempting to be the Dylan of our times. Clever wordplay, a collection of work from a young age, influence of folk and rock. There’s definitely no comparison to Dylan at this time, but only time will tell if his credit will build up. For now, Conor Oberst ranks up there with I’m Wide Awake and It’s Morning and Cassadaga. Definitely an album that should be given a chance.

David Guetta - Fuck Me I'm Famous International Vol. 2
by: Michael Maryanoff

From the first beat of Fuck Me I’m Famous to the fade-out of the last track, David Guetta takes you on a seat of your pants roller coaster ride through the latest chart-topping main room tunes. Someone who isn’t used to (or isn’t a fan of) David Guetta’s hard-hitting style might be put off by the sheer intensity of the album (which is as heavy as the title is crude), but as it progresses one is reminded that he didn’t get to be the number 10 DJ in the planet by turning a blind eye to unique and captivating tracks.

Sure, there are a lot of tracks on the album that are dripping with overly sentimental vocals and progressive house keyboard parts that sound like they are straight out of 2002, but Guetta has a talent for weeding out tracks that hold their own as peak-hour monsters yet still manage to do something interesting. A microcosm of the album is Joachim Garraud & David Guetta’s remix of The One. It begins as a hopelessly cheesy pop ballad but then transforms into a grimy electro house dance floor rocker. David Guetta will have you rolling your eyes one minute, only to grab your attention with groovy big-room tracks such as Laidback Luke’s genius take on Underworld’s Ring Road.

Fuck Me I’m Famous is undeniably mainstream and isn’t exactly breaking new ground in dance music, but at the same time Guetta didn’t just throw together a bunch of over-played Ibiza hits (a laudable feat for Pacha’s Thursday night resident). The sheer tempo and intensity of the album is bit taxing at times, but Fuck Me I’m Famous has the potential to be enjoyed by the entire gamut of dance music fans.

Brazilian Girls - New York City
by: chipi

World beat has come a long way since its birth in the San Fran Bay Area in the late 70's. Acts like the Talking Heads, Santana, Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon took it from the seedlings of cross-cultural collaboration into international big bucks music business. The Brazilian Girls have spent a while cultivating their own strand of universal pop. Looking beyond the initial deception (none of the group members is Brazilian and lead singer Sabina Sciubba is the only one not sporting a Y chromosome), the group has come clean about their home base with the title of their new album, New York City.

In a city where you can hear the music of practically every culture in the world converging on it's streets, it's no wonder a musical hodgepodge like Brazilian Girls would arise. Their debut self-titled album was mostly the result of jam sessions the group performed while playing a weekly gig in a New York club together. The group has retained this sense of improvisation on New York City, where the sometimes lilting sometimes screwball lyrical commentary spewed from Sciubba is slipped uncomfortably between the visceral instrumental releases on tracks like "Nouveau Americain", "Ricardo" and the opening track "St. Petersburg".

Another European city makes a cameo on the record with "Berlin", a track that resonates with Old World charms. At once trashy and steeped in musical history, "Berlin" brings us Sciubba chanting a la Marlene Dietrich, in a sing song, drunken melody that swings and sways with a big band feel, easily at home in a Parisian burlesque hall.

The albums quiet moments on tracks like "Strangeboy" and "Mano de Dios" venture into the realm of ambient music, with the taste of surreal that’s come to be expected from the group. There's a spooky overtone that’s accompanied by these selections, but the album still smacks of a lounge-y record nonetheless.

Rose Hill Drive - Moon Is The New Earth
by: Marcos Colón

In an age where the traditional genre’s of music are constantly being merged, tweaked and invented, it’s always nice to hear some conventional bands that bring back the good old days of rock and roll. Hailing from Boulder, Colorado, Rose Hill Drive is a trio made up of brothers Jacob and Daniel Sproul along with their high school friend Nathan Barnes. Looking more like characters in Dazed and Confused rather than conforming to the recent tight-ankle, indie, hipster, ‘I bought this at Urban’ trend, the bands look combined with their sound transport you to the good old days of real rock and roll; the days of Zeppelin, The Who and Cream. On their sophomore effort, Moon is the New Earth, Rose Hill Drive are set to bring back what’s been lacking as of late; real rock.

On their second album, the band comes out guns, or should I say guitars, a blazin’. Although they’re only a three-piece group, they pack a hell of a punch, primarily because of their song melody and song arrangements. On tracks like Altar Junkie and Sneak Out vicious riffs supplied by the soaring guitars combined with Jacob Daniel’s howl conjure up hints of Zeppelin, while Laughing in the Streets slows things down but still has the energy and power chorus to have arenas full of chants.

It’s extremely refreshing to hear and know that there’s still music out there that isn’t influenced by the tech wave of synth and electronic tools. As far as rock goes right now, it seems like Rose Hill Drive are the real revivalists since The Strokes broke out onto the scene in 2001. Although, they were labeled by Rolling Stone as a ‘band to watch in 2007,’ I’m going to go ahead and label them as a band to watch in 2008.