It's necessary to be wary of the UK music press. If one were to take seriously each time the "next big thing" or "album of the year" is heralded, the number of tragically trendy and instantaneously outdated albums in one's record collection would increase exponentially.
The heart monitor surging into flatline that opens "Country Mile," the first track on the latest release from Clinic, is suitable for the much-anticipated follow-up to 2002's "Walking With Thee". The time between albums, despite being only two years, was surrounded by rumors, album title changes and general intrigue as to what some of indie rock's favorite Liverpool natives would try next; the hype built up steadily until the ultimate release of "Winchester Cathedral." While the result is thankfully hardly the death of Clinic's career, "Winchester" does flatline to the extent that the album is missing much of the vigor that defined Clinic's previous endeavors.
It would be easy to attribute the hype over Charlize Theron's performance in "Monster" to the same phenomenon that allowed Nicole Kidman to win Best Actress at last year's Academy Awards by, well, a nose.
Four words: Album of the year. If you count the 2003 British release date, the above sentence certainly applies to Elbow's sophomore effort, "Cast of Thousands." If we insist on being technical and sticking to last week's U.S release date, it still seems unlikely that the album will become unseated from the top three or so in the months to come. Simply stated, this album is stunning.
Isobel Campbell's debut solo album isn't about the music, per se. Instead of drawing the listener into each respective composition, "Amorino," a jazz-driven collection of songs enhanced by a full orchestra, focuses more on conjuring a mood and creating a meandering ambiance than absorbing the listener into pesky details. There's really no escaping the fact that the label branded on Campbell's former band, Belle & Sebastian, will continue to haunt Campbell: twee.
Both good and bad kinds of density exist in music. While the mind-numbly inane density in, say, Jessica Simpson's lyrics maintain prevalence, a rarer, powerful form of density also exists -- one that results from layer upon layer of sound, embellishments over embellishments, so thick that the music is nearly solid, and constantly shifts in aural focus.
The annual Virginia Film Festival, sponsored by U.Va's College of Arts and Sciences, returns this Thursday to Charlottesville.
What always distinguished the Stereophonics from their British contemporaries is, to quote their own "Mr. Writer," their tendency to "tell it like it is," at least lyrically.
Without Brian Molko, for better or worse, Placebo would be nothing. Once the 90s answer to the androgyny of new wave, it's probably safe to say that Molko is now more notable for his make-up than his music.
The last line of the first song on Bishop Allen's debut album is "my charm school made me ready for today." For the purposes of this article, "today" is last Friday, when the band played Tokyo Rose, and "Charm School" is in fact the title of their debut album.
