Get Your Fix: Album Reviews by the CoolJunkie Staff

November 11, 2008 2:29 PM
by The CoolJunkie Staff

The Cure - 4:13 Dream
by: Marcos Colón

Let’s face it. Just like everything else in the world, other than Chuck Taylor’s, everyone’s favorite bands from long ago always evolve. Whether it’s Incubus, with their constant addition of instruments, or even the recent jump at national stardom that the Kings of Leon have recently made, there’s no band out there that’s had a consistent sound for over a decade. The same goes for everyone’s favorite original emo rockers, The Cure. The release of their recent 13th album, 4:13 Dream, is a bold statement that other than Robert Smith’s voice and make-up, their sound will never be the same again.

On 4:13 Dream, the pensive rockers are at it again as Smith croons [I can always feel it, Like destiny written in the stars], on The Perfect Boy, one of the few tracks on the album that actually conjure up memories of 1987’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Don’t expect any of the bouncy pop hits from the late 80s to surface, this album seems to sway back and forth from catchy hooks to dull ones. On tracks like The Only One, the true classic Robert Smith emerges with his plea for love and everything emotion. However, things get a bit drab when you get to Underneath the Stars, a slow-paced lazy riff driven six minute track that could make anyone want to move on to the next track.

Not to say that 4:13 Dream is a failure, I really don’t think there’s a Cure album out there that’s an utter mess, however, it doesn’t offer up anything new for listeners that are used to going out and listening to an open format DJ play Just Like a Dream or Boys Don’t Cry. Older loyal fans may not be drooling over this effort, but will be content. For those who’ve been hiding under a rock for the last two decades, start off with Seventeen Seconds and work your way up.

Click here to hear more from The Cure.

Larsen and Furious Jane - Zen Sucker
by: Damon Dewitt Boardman

Larsen & Furious Jane is a concept conceived in Denmark born in 2002. The band was formed out of a friendship between Torsten Larsen and Tore Johansen. The Danish boys put out two full-length albums and the release of their junior attempt, Zen Sucker, in the near future.

If you expected their last two efforts to be a harbinger of what’s to come, so sorry. Their new album, Zen Sucker, breaks away from the acoustic driven past, but that’s not to say that this record is easy to coin. The sound jumps around making it difficult to say what influenced them in the orchestration of the album. Though relatively somber in tone much like the style of the past, Zen Sucker feels like a darker and deeper sound.

The tracks on the album are short, only two break the four minute mark, but there isn’t a since of urgency felt to get somewhere, making the album ride pretty smoothly. But don’t assume a continuum of sound. There are short intermissions of music, which really throw some spice into the effort. Other than the oddly intermissions, a few songs that stick out like a sore thumb on an album that’s already very independent track to track are Vietnamese Pool Boy and Snakes in the Grass instruments were added and vocals adjusted. I see this album as a good idea. Meaning it’s a good idea if the sound of your first two attempts failed to leave a resonating taste in listeners mouths, create a buffet of songs for your third dinner party and see which sounds get eaten up. Hats off to the latest experimental emo effort of Larsen & Furious Jane. If Zen Sucker is a stepping-stone of things to come be on the look out for finely formatted fourth effort.

Click here to hear more from Larsen and Furious Jane.

John Digweed - Bedrock 10 Past Present and Future
by: Michael Maryanoff

To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the label and parties sharing the same name, John Digweed has released Bedrock 10 Past Present Future. It features some club stalwarts along with tracks that may be recognized as classics some time in the future. It will come in the form of a three CD set, consisting of two mixed CDs and one unmixed disc.

The sound of this album is very distinct. It’s rife with the progressive house sound that you’d expect from Bedrock and its slate of producers. It has quite a bit of classics and a lot of the tracks have an older feel to them, but the album manages to not to get lukewarm. Even though the sound of the album doesn’t vary that much from track to track, there’s filler, no cheesy vocal tracks or any pretentious techno. Some of the tracks do have a late 90’s/early 2000’s post-trance progressive house sound, but that is only fitting for an album that functions as a musical biopic for a record label that rose to fame in the wake of the progressive house movement. While tracks like Christian Smith’s Flyer Talk might bring you back to an almost century old sound, tracks like Guy J’s Lunar, will keep you in the present, without digressing too much from the core feel of the album.

Bedrock 10 is a very solid mix CD that displays Bedrock’s 10 year history without suffering from shameless self-promotion of new releases, or stale older tracks featured for nostalgia’s sake. This is essential for anyone who is fan of the Bedrock sound, or for anyone who just wants and enjoyable mix CD.

Click here to hear more from John Digweed.