james - hey ma

The 10th LP release from this seven piece from Manchester, England is filled with the same passion and fervor for life that brought James to the forefront in their early nineties hey-day, however while their indie Brit pop rock is terribly attractive in its grandiose compositions and quirkiness, Hey Ma is grounded in mature sound and style undeniably mirrored by the current state of ongoing terror; melding melodic allurement with abrasion.

Hey Ma features the same classic James line up that recorded their break out album Laid and it's counterpart Wah Wah with Brian Eno. Continuing in the vein of those sessions, Lee Muddy Baker, who produced lead singer Tim Booth’s solo album Bone, assumes the helm as producer. Thankfully he encouraged the band to record in a jam session process to capture their best work. By recording these free style sessions the music morphs and evolves into cascading pop songs fueled by inspired spontaneity and trust. The result is a distinctly melodic collection that assumes their own identity cloaked by their thematic essence.

Tim Booth’s song writing is both delicate and furious. The pressured ache of the yearning “Oh My Heart” is a trial of strength, faith, and destiny (“No Control/Refugee/Just this life living me”). On the single “Waterfall” he rebukes himself over awakenings and the triviality of life’s diminishing trials. Then he tackles unsettlement, dealing with the incivility and senselessness of military action (“War is just about business”) expounded upon in the album’s title track and “72.” From there Booth risks to confront a deeper sense of insensitivity and isolation. On the heavy puzzlement of “Semaphore,” he’s distant, floating within a sea of helplessness and riddled with regret.

Yet amongst the outspoken lurk the subtle and sublime. Even present on the darker tracks, the guitar work is consistently bright with deep rhythm work that plummets and rises like a roller coaster. The empowering “Boom Boom” is a celebratory finish line anthem in committing to stay the course. However the standout track is the torturously gorgeous “Upside,” filled with wammy guitars that fluidly dissipate and dissolve into the chorus only to be met with a punch of punctuated trumpets and ivories. The energetic bellowed brass outtro raises the songs conclusion to a triumphant highlight. The lead bass “Of Monster & Heroes & Men” charters a course through a hopeful allegory of civilization and responsibility providing a sturdy foundation in allowing the improvisations to truly bloom brilliantly out from underneath the verse. On the track Booth sings, “We are the drivers, yet we feel driven.” One can’t help to not identify with the ownership and sense of place in which the individual is challenged to accept their stake of responsibility in the triumvirate title.

Subtle or abrasive, James implores the listener of Hey Ma to be conscious of their humanity. Expounding on the idea that for one to be alive is hard, yet to be alive and be aware is quite something more difficult.

Aaron Simms

http://www.wearejames.com/

Kolker - Antenna

Antennas is a solid blues driven album filled with maturity and heart by New York City’s The David Kolker Band. What is refreshing about this blues outfit is that it isn’t a traditional straight blues outfit but a band steeped in blues roots with the ability to expand over many genres – including the ability to trancend blues styles.

These influences range from Southern Blues (“Top of the World”), Chicago Blues (“Gilligan’s Island”), 90’s alternative rock (“Get’s You Down”) and even adult contemporary (“The Heartache”). Undoubtedly, the impetus for this diversity is celebrated in the guitar work and song writing of the band's namesake, David Kolker. The title track weaves with arching leads, accentuated with high harmonic pricks that feelingly tell of the unsettling frustration beneath the skin of the storyteller. On the inundated “How Many Times” his intro escalates with a melancholic 80’s Brit metal-like tweaking then this signature riff dissipates and weaves into Texas Flood-like colorations layered over jagged rhythm bursts reminicient of CSNY. This affinity for diversity couldn’t be executed with out the solid foundation of the thoughtful bass playing of Derek Layes, the smart snare and tom popping of Nikolaus Schuhbeck’s drum work, and Pete Keppler’s thematically accurate ivory work and percussion; particularly on evolving standouts “Top of the World” and “Happy Johnny.” Paul LeFebvre’s pedal steel playing is intuitive and infuses atmospheric moods of yearning and space, particularly significant on “Wave on the Water.”

Kolker’s vocals have an appealing warmth and calmness in the sense of a man wiser for having once been weary. His slightly raspy baritone showcases his ability to dwell in a ponderous calm while boiling underneath, characteristicly similiar of the control of Roger Waters (“Wave on the Water”). While on tracks such as “The Positive” and “Mean World” he exhibits a mature pain and heaviness in which John Mayer could take beneficial note. Lyrically Kolker’s many observations have a welcoming openness; sharing similar resonance with introspection and social outwardness of Adam Duritz from the Counting Crows, yet Kolker's conduit is more through his musical ability rather than atypical crooning. A skill he uses to his strength to best illustrate his everyman point of view.

Regardless of style, Antennas is a finite statement from The David Kolker Band in sending out an S.O.S. from the soul.

Aaron Simms

http://www.davidkolker.com/

STARK - Put it to Your Head

As it’s title implies, Stark’s Put it to Your Head is an album motivated by strong actions drawn from life taxing experiences, their effects, and possessing the individual will to over come them all and chalk it up to being, well, just life. It is the second release from this New York City rock trio, whose music and attitude is directly informed and reflective of it’s home.

What sets Stark apart from being your run-of-the-mill New York City bar band are their subtly layered style and the cohesive incorporation of that style. Their music is decidedly rock but not subjugated to blind genre predictability. The more intense guitar work of Josette infuses slight southern tinged blues riffs beside Lani Ford’s gritty punk bass rhythms (“18 Again,” “Disturbed”). While on the ditty “Dreams Come True” the entire band is able to successfully turn it down a notch via the foundation of Sweet Rob Endermann’s drumming; resulting in an indie slice of life piece that would could raise the jealousy of Liz Phair.

Vocally Ford has a clean, strong, and melodic alto with a slight vibrato that can draw you in as well as soar over you. Lyrically she is a straight shooter with an onus for tell-all honesty with little subtext that resonates simultaneously as both tough and tender. The yearning “Co-Dependant” depicts a star-crossed relationship with dichotomistic cravings. “This Day” is a tailor made rock anthem about discovering and owning up to ones own self-image. While the stand out “OH NO!” realistically captures the flood of emotions in that first instant of awareness of the inevitable.

The album closes with the acoustic “Butterfly,” a painful and personal “Dear John” letter that exhibits ugly strength and melancholic pathos out of its necessity for finality and moving on. A fitting end to an album full of life experiences from a city that could make anyone put a variety of things to their head and yet still have the will to live again.

Aaron Simms

http://www.starknyc.com/

Travis - Ode to J. Smith

Ode to J. Smith harnesses Travis’ knack for writing thoughtful and melodic pop rock and being able to implement that talent through larger sounding guitar and rhythm work; marrying the bold sound with delicate and ponderous songwriting.

Travis may have started out as a band whose mantra was proclaimed on their 1997 debut Good Feeling: “All I Want to Do is Rock,” but this quartet from Glasgow, Scotland has developed a following for their history of crossover UK indie pop hits such as “Side,” “My Eyes,” “Why Does it Always Rain on Me?” and “Writing to Reach You” which blend insightful and introspective lyrics with a winning mix of acoustic rock, banjo balladry, and Brit pop. Laying the groundwork for other successful UK counterparts such as Coldplay, Starsailor, Snow Patrol, and Keane.

On this, their sixth album, Travis ushers in a broader sound with more emphasis from their rock youth. Fuzz bass lead-in’s (“Get Up”), solitary guitar chords dropped in front of deeper tuned toms (the big chorused single “Something Anything”), and even a recorded choir (“J. Smith”) energize the songs to bring about a larger presence as well as fresh individuality. The other facit that make the songs so attractive on Ode to J. Smith is the thoughtful songwriting. Fran Healy’s lyrics have a natural contemplative deconstructiveness that caters to a broad appeal. He delves into the quandaries of making choices, ghosts of the fleeting past, the uncertain future, and the struggle to define relationships. On the opening track “Chinese Blues” Healy sings: “A million lonely people with their head in the sand/Trying to make some sense of what they don’t understand.” An exemplary highlight of one the universal applications of Travis’ ongoing struggle with life’s elemental mysteries. Most notably present in the appropriately titled “Song to Myself.”

In the spirit of exploring conflict through introversion, the album consists of many an ode to the hopes and fears of the people’s champion: Everyman, implied by the title J. Smith (being the most popular name found any city’s phonebook). These odes run the gamut of the human condition. From loyalty in “Friends,” to alarming fear in “Long Way Down,” and on to tender nostalgia in beautiful “When You Were Young.” Surprisingly, the album is absent of a traditional hidden track. But when you write “Something Anything” for Everyman, what’s left to hide?

Aaron Simms

www.travisonline.com

Your Vegas - A Town and Two Cities

A Town and Two Cities, the debut album from Your Vegas, is a cleanly pieced and polished collection of epic, en vogue, and radio friendly Brit pop rock. The songwriting is worldly, appealing, and personal, but the songs themselves come across as uninspired, predictable, and safe. Making one wonder if the band will stand out independently or fall into a rotation within a saturated genre?

The songs are successfully built around variations of the verse, chorus, verse format with such science it’s hard to gage any real sense of Your Vegas’ individuality. Undeniably, this talented quintet from Leeds, England has a knack for aching sing-a-long choruses and attractively packaged songs that are instantly likable. And it is enough to like the songs for being par. But there is a severe lack of dimension for the listener interested in hearing more than the latest variation on a pop rock song passed down from the last decade.

Again, there is no real fault in this. It’s simply a matter of individual taste. But there are recurring trademark symptoms of this formulaic music that is blatant and obvious. The pop rock format by rote superimposes the vocals with overt audibility to the forefront thereby diminishing the actual music to uneven accompaniment. Which benefits the war heavy “The Way the War Was won” and “Salvador.” There’s the choice of the melodic falsetto chorus; instituted on the apologetic “In My Head” which hooks the verses of the song into unmemorable fodder, weakening the song considerably. Then the mixing is distributed among the instrumentation so evenly one can’t help but feeling the dull edge of digital editing. Dullness in the vein that it robs the listener from feeling any punch that these attentively crafted songs could deliver. Instead the music comes off soulless, with just enough bells and whistles to make the songs shinny and attractive to market. Take “Troubled Times,” it begins with muted Buggles-like intro verse that flows into a preview chorus that feeds into the full band second verse…to the grandiose finale. The irony isn’t lost on the song’s theme of lamenting opportunities lost.

Listening to the album as a whole makes one wonder if the yearning and passion of earnest pop rock has become such a predictably pedestrian form that it will negate even its own immediate appeal. The question then changes from: “Is Your Vegas built to last or are they only for right now?” to “Is Your Vegas even for right now?”

Aaron Simms

http://www.yourvegasmusic.com/

U2 - No Line On The Horizon

No Line on the Horizon captures the essence and tone of U2’s greatest hits in all new material. It is a true culmination of their body of work. The album is amazing because it possesses familiar elements accumulated throughout their twelve-album history, as well as new elements of arrangement that augment and enhance their branded sound. No Line on the Horizon is a finite musical statement of where they have been and how it has informed them into making them who they are today.

A sonic wall opens the album with Achtung Baby like fervor on the title track. Immediately followed by appropriately titled “Magnificent,” highlighted by lead guitar chorus fills that hearken back to The Unforgettable Fire. The single “Get on Your Boots” has an infectious Escape Club-like groove that is could easily been found on their last offering How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. While “I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” is stuck in a moment of a contemplative action similarly found on All You Can’t Leave Behind.

However there are definite signs of where the band is heading toward in the future. “Fez- Being Born,” a meditation on the transformative state of traveling, is infused with an expansive combination of styles; opening with a fluid trance vibe that diminishes only to emerge with an “In God’s Country” rhythm attack “Stand Up Comedy” features Adam Clayton and Larry Mullin Jr. locked down in a funkadelic sass groove, giving freedom to Bono to scat on empowerment. While “Moment of Surrender” and “Unknown Caller” have subtle foundations of electronic percussive programming that amicably support The Edge’s superb chorus and reverb licks, delivering a timeless, yet progressive sound.

Thematically the album preaches the messages hope and the choice to love. With the recurring images of hills, mountains, land, sea they affirm our capacity to scale and overcome them anew (“…and again I’m reborn/ Every day I have to find the courage with arms out” (“Breathe”). Serving as a reminder that we all possess the will to surpass boundaries.

It is truly amazing that U2 is able to cover the spectrum of their progressive life as a band and maintain a definitive sound that is identifiably their own.

Aaron Simms

http://www.u2.com/

Robert Pollard - The Crawling Distance

Anything less that twenty tracks on an album by Robert Pollard is expectedly referred to as an EP. Given the prolific history of his hundred (not joking) previous incarnations derived from and including his former band Guided By Voices, one might scream foul play in seeing a mere ten tracks on his most recent LP release The Crawling Distance. Despite the quantity, it is an odd relief to feel reasonably fulfilled by mix of the liberties taken on his twenty second solo album (still not joking) and first of 2009.

The songs are all finely rooted in a mad scientist style of basement tape rock that has been Pollard’s way of recording ever since he was a teacher in Dayton, Ohio. Even so, going solo has allow Pollard a kind of reverse experimentalism (for him) with cleaner production and well-made song structures in using journeys instead of non linear jabs; initially flirted with on GBV’s Do The Collapse. Part of those structures may be due to the peculiar set up of production of his solo style. Pollard is credited for writing all the songs, yet in the process of fleshing them out the album could clearly have been labeled a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Todd Tobias, who plays bass, drums, guitar, keyboard, and produced the album.

The title of The Crawling Distance may be in reference to the fact that all but two songs clock in, around, or above three minutes; minor opuses given the standard history of Pollard’s knack for brevity and freedom of form. However on this solo work, Pollard neither strays far from normal time signatures, nor deviates far from traditional song framing. Most notably on the presence of a fair share of simple and breezy ballads (It’s Easy, No Island, Red Cross Vegas Night) whose arrangements effectually underscore and lift the songs to a level of a kind of sonic poetry; containing lyrics that encapsulate an air of cock-eyed wisdom from an outspoken uncle who speaks in mixed King Crimson-like mystic metaphors but does it in the attitude of The Who.

Happily, to offset the meter, there are shares of quirky delights that find resonance and fascinate the curiosity. “By Silence Be Destroyed” reeks of garage rock with an off the shoulder, blasé resignation. While the masculine anthem of “Cave Zone” is a tonally barbarous yelp for sanctuary both bold and fragile that's thematically worthy of Victor Hugo novel. Yet, it is the warm, empowering, and rather normal “The Butler Stands For All Of Us” that most effectively represents Pollard’s signature style, representative of the mood of GBV’s Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. The song includes the phrase: “It pays to know who you are/Cuz that’s who you are.” Not only knowing who he is, but being able to mine a career from writing, recording, and performing on his own terms, there isn’t a description more emblematically defining Robert Pollard than his own lyric.

Aaron Simms

http://www.robertpollard.net/

Mastodon - Crack the Skye

Crack the Skye is a wet dream for any classic rock station looking to bridge the gap in the hope of marrying their weathered, tried, and tired head banging faithful with the desperately hungry young offspring that scoffed at the guise of nu-metal while holding out for a second coming of the good old days. Long no more, Mastodon delivers a metal album that expands generations. The rhythm section trudges with a 70’s Sabbath-like weight, the lead guitar work is reminiscent of the best that the 90’s Seattle grunge had to offer in musicianship (Cantrell, Thayil), while the vocals have the multiplicity of the new century’s front men in using the committee approach (Brann Dailor (Drums), Bret Hinds (Lead Guitar), and Troy Sanders (Bass); sometimes in tandem even on the same track.

What is unique about Crack the Skye is that Mastodon succeeds in fusing physical sensation of the music with attempting to tell an arching mythological story without being perceived like dungeon masters that hate reality. The music comes across nothing short of brutal and fist pumping, while the lyrics are conceptual. They foretell of an outer worldly journey and even time travel, which is immediately evident from the Icarian opening track “Oblivion,” a remorseful tale of anticipation and dread of the possible opportunity of absolution after failure. The epic four part “The Czar” blends A Perfect Circle-like delicacy with ripping emotional leads a la Black Label Society that save the song from becoming dour. However the true journey piece of “The Last Baron” concludes the album in a thirteen minute hyper-aware ode to salvation.

This is the fourth offering from the Atlanta grown quartet (Bill Kelliher on guitar) and their first produced by Brendan O’Brien (Stone Temple Pilots, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam) who keeps the flow of the collected songs tight and allows the band to do what they do best: rock.

Aaron Simms

www.mastodonrocks.com