KT Tunstall
Eye to the Telescope (3 stars)
There's an odd disconnect between the KT Tunstall who's been lavishly praised in the press and was nominated for Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize, and the one who shows up on the Scottish singer-songwriter's debut album, Eye to the Telescope. It's not that Tunstall has gotten a big head from the positive press or that she seems like a different person in print than on record; it's just that the brilliant, original music described by so many critics doesn't appear to be present on Telescope. It's not a bad album—it's clean, well-produced folk-pop, perfectly at home on the radio beside Sarah McLachlan and Michelle Branch—but it's certainly not a masterpiece.
The mid-tempo, softer songs are blander and more generic, and tend to run together over the course of 12 tracks. Tunstall is at her best when she's energetic and lively, as on "Suddenly I See" and lead single "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree." She also does a good job walking the fine line of putting occasional quirks into what is essentially straightforward pop music. It's good pop music, too, but not much more than that.
Destroyer
Destroyer's Rubies (4 stars)
Call Dan Bejar the George Harrison or Lee Ranaldo of the New Pornographers. Whenever Canada's indie-pop supergroup gathers to record, Bejar squeezes in just two or three tunes, coming off as something of an outsider in a band he once helped put together.
As longtime fans of the Vancouver native know well, however, Bejar has a far more accommodating outlet for his vast songwriting talents: Destroyer, the six-piece outfit he built during the 1990s and has fronted since.
Seventh album Destroyer's Rubies finds Bejar taking full advantage of that leadership position, spreading his composer's wings as never before. That growth is evident from the outset, as opening track "Rubies" makes a series of sharp melodic turns over a spacious running time just under 10 minutes.
Tunes like "European Oils" and "3000 Flowers" are catchy but not sugary, leaving an impression without hammering home their hooks. Mostly, though, Bejar's famously labyrinthine-yet-lucid lyrics win the day, fashioning grand tales of epic events ("The sun sets at the speed of light, so I thought I also might leave this port of woe on tall ships made of snow invading the sun"), and painting vivid portraits of odd characters who, no doubt, would enjoy the sprawling, singular style of one Dan Bejar.
Satoshi Tomiie
3D (4 stars)
UK's Renaissance kicks off 2006 with a series of three-disc compilations, the first being from New York's Satoshi Tomiie. Titled Club, Studio and Home, each disc focuses on key aspects of his catalog and the eponymous themes, what you'd imagine him spinning or listening to in those environments.
Club is a current recording of his live sets reconfigured for home listening, a mix of synth-heavy progressive house, opening with Spirit Catcher's "Polysquasher." From that mild start, the disc gracefully builds up to Cass & Mangan's "I Love Your Shoes" but never crosses the techno line.
Studio gives Tomiie a chance to show off his production skills. It's here where the set offers up seven exclusive remixes. Acoustic piano on the first tracks gives way to house in another smooth series, ending with world-music accents.
On Home, Tomiie reaches into the worlds of jazz and R&B. On "Solea," he blends Miles Davis' work from Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain. He proves his chops again, taking on James Brown's jammy "Give It Up or Turn It Loose." Mixing musical giants like Davis and Brown takes balls, and Tomiie is up to the task.