MUSIC BOX |
Redman couldn't have been more prescient when he predicted a hip-hop holocaust six years ago. These days rap is everywhere: used to sell everything from liquor and baby dolls to movies and Big Macs; and everybody (even Australians) and their mamas (Eminem's matriarch) are forming labels, putting out music, and sometimes, mucking up the culture. Here are some folks that get it right. Mostly.
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Avril Lavigne (1 star)
Under My Skin
Dear kids of America:
Why are you tricked into buying this garbage? Why are you fooled into believing that a girl who includes more than a dozen photos of herself (not including the pull-out poster) with her disc isn't all about being a manufactured image?
At least with the Matrix producing her last time, there was a sense of fun about catchy songs like "Complicated." But predictably, like Alanis before her, this time out, Avril Lavigne has to prove she is her own woman and nobody's product. So, this TV dinner of a rock star has decided to present herself as a home cooked meal.
Unfortunately, Lavigne works best as a slick package. A weak singer, she phrases each line with studied indifference, as if she is saying that ultimate of teenage tropes: "Whatever."
The undeniable truth of Under My Skin is that Lavigne would have done better to stick to the surface and not penetrate her epidermal, because when she looks deep into her own soul, she discovers nothing but a bland sense of adolescent angst. The best song here, "He Wasn't," sounds like an adequate Ramones out-take. But kids, I beg you, please ignore this and listen to the new Patti Smith disc instead. Be warned though, it doesn't come with a poster.
Bad Religion (2.5 stars)
The Empire Strikes First
Bad Religion should be riding high just about now. They've been playing politically charged punk rock and speaking out against war and corporate greed—backed by fast three-chord riffs—for more than two decades. With the war in Iraq and the release of compilations like Rock Against Bush, punk rockers are more active than ever, and younger bands rightly look up to Bad Religion for guidance.
On their twelfth album, The Empire Strikes First, BR lash out at all the familiar targets, backed by their familiar sound. And that's the problem: It's all so familiar that most of it lacks power. Sure, the current political climate adds some urgency to lines like "But even ten million souls marching in February couldn't stop the worst" (from the title track), but many of the songs are easily interchangeable with the band's earlier work.
The title track sports a riff reminiscent of mid-90s hit "21st Century (Digital Boy)," and the catchy "Los Angeles is Burning" and an appearance by alt-rapper Sage Francis aside, most of the album is impassioned but forgettable. Take your money and donate it to MoveOn.org instead.