Get Your Fix: Album Reviews by the CoolJunkie Staff

February 2, 2009 1:11 PM
by The CoolJunkie Staff

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Working On A Dream
by: Marcos Colón

If you start your album off with an 8-minute track, then you’ve got balls thinking that the listener will sit through the whole thing without skipping ahead to take a peek at the rest of the songs. But when you’re Bruce Springsteen, you can take chances like that knowing that the next button won’t be pressed until the end of the song. Getting together with one of the greatest bands of all time, the legendary E Street gang, The Boss has put together what can be described as his best work since Born to Run. The Americana sentiments and power anthems are all back, making this release for Bruce and band more special than ever.

From the start, Working On A Dream doesn’t fall short of showing off their the extent of their musical experience, and Springsteen gets into the meat and potatoes from the opening track, Outlaw Pete, the life story of a cowboy from beginning to end, and a track that keeps you wanting more and more. Another highly touted track, and one that knabbed Springsteen a Golden Globe, The Wrestler, follows the story of a man who hasn’t figured out that people sometimes turn away from love and the things that strengthen and nurture their lives.

Working On A Dream should be an album that everyone owns. It may not be regarded as one of the best works of today, but tomorrow is a sure bet that it will. Even if you’re not too acquainted with Bruce Springsteen, this may be the best album to turn to after you give Born to Run a listen.

Click here to hear more from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Nickel Eye - The Time of the Assasins
by: Marcos Colón

First it was Albert, then it was Fabrizio, but did anyone expect Nikolai to be next in line? Personally, we always thought the order would go something like this; Julian, Albert, Nick, Fab….then Nikolai! With his debut solo record, The Strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture storms onto the scene in the form of Nickel Eye, a four-piece band with Fraiture taking the lead vocals, electric bass and even the harmonica. And yes, the guy can actually sing. His pipes are reminiscent of Julian circa Is This It. Surprisingly and thankfully, this album doesn’t mimic the style and even much of the sound of what you’d expect from a Stroke.

On The Time of The Assassins, the genre seems to lean in and out of categories ranging from folk and pop-rock to even ska. The album’s opener, (Intro) Every Time), kicks things off with a groovy bassline you’d expect out of Jaco, only to be followed up by a pleasant strumming and the echo of Fraiture’s voice. On Dying Star, an uptempo post-punk track features one side of the albums sound, while Brandy of the Damned highlights the mellow melody driven side. Special guests, and close friends of The Strokes, like Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Regina Spektor lend a hand on the album and each add respectively unique touches.

The Time of The Assassins is nothing less than stellar and what you’d expect out of a Stroke. Listening to the album is like a short journey with bumps, bruises and surprises that all amount to a great time when you look back on it all. It’s a great listen on the first try and definitely beats Albert Hammond Jr.’s first solo record, yet ties with Fab’s first try with Little Joy.

Click here to hear more from Nickel Eye.

The Whip - X Marks Destination
by: Pete Tremblay

Close your eyes for a second (figuratively, so that you can actually follow along… take a few breaks if you need too for affect). Now, come with me. We are in Manchester England. It smells like shit, it’s cold, it’s raining and all of the local pubs are being closed; in fact it’s more likely that Morrissey will go straight and rejoin the Smiths than it is to get a pint anywhere. Are you frustrated yet? Now as we walk down the road, we pass the members New Order (from the 80’s of course feathered hair and all) having a conversation with Paul Oakenfold and The Stone Roses. No sooner do you do a double take at this dodgy situation than all of them begin to play music together and start dancing like it’s a Franz Ferdinand warehouse party in 2004. Essentially this collaboration and feeling, (although somewhat watered down from the rain) is what The Whip’s debut album seems to be going for and with varying levels of success and achievement.

The Whip, a four-piece hailing from Manchester, has successfully crafted X Marks Destination, their debut album that intermittently combines elements of new wave, electro clash, Brit rock, and trance, expressed through a combination of live instruments and electronics into an ass-shaking shoe-gazing dance experience. Repetitive in nature and with very little differentiation between chorus and verse aside from differences in synth line melodies, The Whip invokes an escapist dance party that you can wear jeans and a t-shirt to while throwing back some cheap beer. Lyrically, Bruce Carter, The Whip’s front man and lead songwriter, repetitively embodies the doldrums of everyday life in the city from black outs to muggings, while juxtaposing the message with some of the catchiest, dance laden straight forward beats since Voyage Into Trance was released in the 90’s.

The singles are by far the strongest tracks on the album sharing similarities between Depeche Mode, Sister Siam, and New Order, Blackout, while still flavoring the tracks with cutting bass lines and driving guitar melodies separating the quartet far enough apart from their mentors to be original. All in all this record is a splendid soundtrack to Thursday night at the discothèque without much prep time.

Click here to hear more from The Whip.