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The latest rock album by The White Stripes comprises of many lyrical and musical levels that promise to give anyone interested hours of thoughtful consideration. Although Icky Thump may not be for everyone the album is an excellent example of fun, funky, and often eclectic hard rock.
Icky Thump is successful as a hard rock album with political charge. Interestingly, the album also doesn’t take itself too seriously with songs like the fun Rag & Bone which Pack Rat Magazine elects to be the new Indy Anthem for upcycling. The song is part conversational and part musical riff, Jack speaks “…things you don’t want / I can use them / Meg can use them / We can do something with them / We’ll make something out of them / Make some money out of them at least.” With two or three songs being conversational, it will be interesting to see how the band will perform them live. Just a side tip, for those of you love song junkies out there, check out 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues to hear Jack’s torrent of love troubles. Another featured love song, A Martyr For My Love For You, is great little song bound to have girls dressed in black, pushing black hair from eyes, shouting out Jack’s name. Or maybe it will be the redheaded girl he keeps mentioning? read more »
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The new release by Bright Eyes is a full dinner plate. Cassadaga documents a collection of songs that address the uncertain times that face many of us who will inherit a world falling apart. Tracks on Cassadaga either provide fragments of narrative moments or reflective considerations. Each track is flushed with a sense that lead singer Coner Oberst is trying to sort out choices made around him, and the passage of time in a world where “all reality twists” ("Soul Singer In A Session Band").
Cassadaga has a country folk sound that sometimes tips a hat to singer and song writer influences from a time past. The disconcerting “No One Would Riot for Less” is a love song on the level of the great Leonard Cohen, and also a folksy political commentary that would make Bob Dylan proud. Oberst’s reflections on today’s world are grim but he looks for comfort in the one he loves, and sings with tenderness, “From the madness of the governments / To the vengeance of the sea / Everything is eclipsed / By the shape of destiny/ So love me now/ Hell is coming”. read more »
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The Sheffield England blokes that make up the Arctic Monkeys have a new album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, and there is a little bit for everyone. Alex Turner writes lyrics that possibly steamroll through the emotions of relationships in a complicated city life. His vocals are fluid and changing for each song. They move with the pace of the music: gentle in “Only Ones Who Know” and jolting for the urgent “The Bad Thing”.
For those looking for something a bit heavier, they may enjoy the sound and lyrics of “This House is a Circus”. Turner shouts: “This house is a circus, berserk as fuck / We tend to see that as a perk though. Look / What it's done to your friends their memories are pretend / And the last thing they want is for the feeling to end” read more »
