SOUND: Still the Greatest

Silent League’s disc is a simple plesasure










MUSIC BOX



Cinderella


In Concert

What a pathetic album. Recorded neither recently nor in their '80s heyday, with thin, tinny production, and an audience of about a dozen, from the sounds of it. And a drum solo! Please.




Josh Bell



A Flock of Seagulls


I Ran: The Best Of

I expected this to have a few guilty pleasures. But none were to be found in these rip-off remakes of the band's meager few hits from the '80s. Whoever released this disc is the one who should be feeling guilty.



Monty Alexander


Rocksteady

Prolific pianist Monty Alexander is about the only person around mixing jazz and reggae. His success with this unlikely combination has made him one of my favorites. Rocksteady features guitar playing by Caribbean legend Ernest Ranglin, whose session work covers Jimmy Cliff to the Wailers. Check this one out.



Keoki


Kill the DJ

Listening to this horrible mash-up of '80s songs, many in '90s cover versions, you quickly agree that Kill the DJ is not a bad plan.



Kim Fowley


Adventures in Dreamland

Provocateur, hipster and charlatan, Kim Fowley, the poor man's Malcolm McLaren, is the fellow who delivered The Runaways to an uninterested nation. Sadly, songs like "Ballad of Phil Spector" are not really worth playing twice.




Richard Abowitz



Eszter Balint


Mud

The girl from Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise is all grown up now. She wants to be a countrified Tom Waits, but I loved her more as Eva. The songs are twangy, the tempo, jarring.



Various


Freq.Beats

A two-disc compilation of some of the hottest recent club tunes. For each one that had me wishing for a Red Bull and vodka, the next would have me chair dancing. (Did I mention I get laughed at a lot at work?) A necessity for house parties or starting your own ultralounge.




Martin Stein


Guns N' Roses (4 stars)


Greatest Hits


It nearly brings a tear to my eye to listen to this disc. It's not a tear of pain, nor is it a tear of joy; it's a tear of regret, as the band represented here has come together lately only to file a lawsuit against this very release. Front-man Axl Rose has spent nearly a decade working on the next Guns N' Roses disc. Other key members are off on various side and solo projects, but Rose, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan did all manage to agree that they didn't want Geffen Records releasing this collection.


Ostensibly, it's because they had no say in the mix or track selection, but it might just as well be that all the great music on here will remind people of how all their subsequent projects pale by comparison. All of the band's biggest songs, from the raw fire of "Welcome to the Jungle" to the operatic grandeur of "November Rain," are represented, as well as a couple from the 1993 covers album, The Spaghetti Incident?, and a version of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," the last song Rose, Slash and McKagan recorded together.


If the package skews a little to the safe side, and features nothing new nor particularly notable, it still serves as a pointed reminder of, and perfect introduction to, one of the greatest rock bands of all time, and no lawsuit can change that.




Josh Bell



The Silent League (4 stars)


The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused


Some of the best, most complex art is about simple pleasures, and The Silent League's new release is a perfect example. It's blissful, elaborate chamber pop, with lyrics celebrating the wonders of nature, art, conversations and other people's fame.


To create The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused, singer-songwriter-ringleader Justin Russo, once part of the sprawling art-rock collective Mercury Rev, has recruited an all-star group of collaborators including Interpol's Sam Fogarino, Mercury Rev's Grasshopper and Grand Mal's Bill Whitten. The result is a disc of careless whispers and hopeful moping resembling both Pablo Honey-era Radiohead and what Grandaddy might sound like if Grandaddy lived in a city where it can be hard to stop and relax.


There may never be another Mercury Rev record, but the legacy lives on with former members collaborating on a wide variety of acts.


There's Wounded Knees, which sounds like pre-Nirvana indie and sometimes includes Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis; Grand Mal, specializing in grimy classic rock; and Hopewell, another Russo project. These bands are damn good, but the Silent League trump them all with this disc.


There are songs here that are perfect lullabies, and there are also boisterous melodies as exuberant as the Polyphonic Spree. Whether you feel like murmuring or screaming, this is an indispensable disc.




Andy Wang



Andy Narell (0.5 star)


The Passage


The steel-drum whiz composes "music for steel orchestra." Invites guest stars like Michael Brecker and Hugh Masekela. Will fill Caribbean elevators for the foreseeable future. Utterly irrelevant.




Scott Dickensheets

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