SOUNDCHECK: No Love Lost

The Thrills aren’t gone










MUSIC BOX



The Casual Dots


The Casual Dots

I greatly preferred the instrumental tracks, which reminded me of Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet. The rest, from Christina Bilotte of Slant 6, Kathi Wilcox of Bikini Kill and Steve Dore of Deep Lust, is uneven punk.



Lambchop


Aw C'mon; No, You C'mon

An amazing dual release by this big Nashville band whose singer, Kurt Wagner, has drawn comparisons to Tom Waits (vocally smoother) and Leonard Cohen (less beaten down). Beautiful sounds, like sinking into a beanbag chair that's been left out in a sunbeam.



Rachael Yamagata


EP

Breathy vocals and soft piano work make up most of the songs on this five-track release, but Yamagata manages to shake off the doldrums for the bouncier "Worn Me Down."



TV On The Radio


Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

Three men with a mission: to create the most annoying band on earth. I had to tear my headphones off more times than I can count. And I can count pretty high.



Candi Staton


Candi Staton

Staton might be best known today for her gospel singing, but she got her start singing soul for Alabama record label FAME, home to Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and others. The tracks, 26 in all, are a beautiful reminder of a time when black artists had concerns other than big jewelry and fancy rims.



Zeromancer


ZZYZX

A mix of electro-pop and industrial from Germany, where the media dubbed the band best new act in 2000. They can get surprisingly gentle and seductive in tunes like "Famous Last Words," and then kick it up to 11 in "Mosquito Coil."



The Everyothers


The Everyothers

Ziggy lives! Ziggy lives! Long live Ziggy!




Martin Stein


The Thrills (3.5 stars)


So Much for the City

Irish band The Thrills are obsessed with the West Coast. Their debut, So Much for the City, contains songs like "Santa Cruz," "Big Sur" and "Your Love Is Like Las Vegas," set to bouncy beats that suggest imagery of someone kicking up sand on a beach. Conor Deasy's high, Wayne Coyne-ish vocals only add to the happy-fool feel.


To shake the obvious Beach Boy comparisons, The Thrills, with help from Air and Beck producer Tony Hoffer, have added elements like organ reminiscent of Al Green and banjo straight from, well, an automated display at Disneyland. This is where the Thrills err at times. Their debut is a tribute to Americana, but one obviously delivered by gawking tourists.


The group can't help but show its European roots in the lavish production that is, at times, over the top. But when the lush orchestration blithely washes over a line such as, "Don't steal our sun," The Thrills shine like light breaking through gray clouds. At those moments, which are quite often on City, the Dublin band provides the sort of gleeful pop that West Coast bands oddly enough no longer generate.




Jayson Whitehead



Courtney Love (2 stars)


America's Sweetheart

Despite what you may have heard, America's Sweetheart isn't a total disaster. Still, the highlights are two and come early.


On opener "Mono," the best track here, Love shows that her ability to coil her personality around a hook remains intact, as she challenges Eminem, name-checks tracks by Damned and Black Flag, and best of all, uses the royal "we," howling that God provide her with "brilliant boys we want to f--k." That is followed by "But Julian, I'm a Little Bit Older Than You," a sonic tantrum on which Love focuses on one of those boys, the singer for the Strokes.


But, from there on, it is downhill, offering only underwritten, overproduced songs that are all bluff and attitude. As a personality, Love remains fascinating; even the acknowledgments on America's Sweetheart are a bundle of laughs. Take the backhanded thank-you to Sir Paul, which opens: "To Paul McCartney—I'm always the John but sometimes got to be the Paul …" Still, the question remains as to how many fans will be interested in a disc where the credits are more entertaining than the songs.




Richard Abowitz

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