SOUNDCHECK

Bright Eyes


Cassadaga

(4 stars)

What is it with Conor Oberst and swoony intro tracks built around real-life recordings of a couple in a car (Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground), a plane-crash narrative (I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning) or himself sleeping (Digital Ash in a Digital Urn)? The practice is as much a calling card as his easily-bruised song characters and refusal to play Clear Channel-owned venues, but that doesn't stop most listeners from letting the intrinsic meaning absorb exactly once, then skipping ahead with each subsequent listen.

A series of clairaudients (spiritual mediums) muse over Cassadaga's psychedelic-leaning first cut, and as always, it's no accident. Having reluctantly come to terms with living inside his own skin, his hometown of Omaha and his adopted crashpad of New York City over the course of six previous albums, the Bright Eyes mastermind now sets out to find himself within the country; specifically within its multitude of belief systems. Encompassing a Christian God, Mother Nature, all-consuming romance, the mysteries of the pyramids, tea leaves, drugs and more, the goal is a Great American Road Trip in search of capital-A Answers.

Cassadaga is Bright Eyes' most expansive album to date, and the most eclectic. While not the most infectious (that'd be Lifted), it's certainly the most mature. Strings, horns, mountain twang, dancehall swing, pop singalong and indie earnestness abound. Wavering optimism pervades. Though Oberst doesn't necessarily achieve spiritual clarity, his journey provides inspiration enough to stop digging in his heels and take several significant forward strides. Next stop, the world.

Shadows Fall


Threads of Life

(4 stars)

The good news is that the jump to a major label has done nothing to dull the ferocity of Shadows Fall, the premier band of the new wave of American heavy metal. The even better news is that Threads of Life, the band's fifth album and Atlantic Records debut, is nearly as good as their landmark 2002 effort The Art of Balance, and a worthy companion to recent breakthroughs from peers Trivium and Killswitch Engage.

Just because Shadows Fall is still as intense as ever doesn't mean Threads lacks variety or nuance, though, as is easily heard in the contrast between the lightning-fast old-school thrash of "Failure of the Devout" and the expansive, even sometimes pretty power ballad "Another Hero Lost," both of which fit perfectly within the band's established sound while expanding it at the same time.

The rest of the songs include anthem-worthy tunes like "Venomous" and "Final Call" that blow any of our current arena rock right out of the water. There isn't quite the shock of the new that accompanied the early salvos from Shadows and their ilk—combining hardcore, death metal, thrash and old-fashioned power metal—but what's replaced it is something better: The unmistakable sense that this bold, exciting music has the sustainability to be the true future of heavy metal.

Blonde Redhead


23

(4 stars)

Bands built around co-lead singers typically tend toward one of two extremes: Either the vocal duality injects an element of compelling contrast, or the coupled voices butt stylistic heads, sounding as if two acts briefly shared a lease on studio space.

23, the latest LP from Manhattan-based indie vets Blonde Redhead, successfully navigates the former route, forging the distinct sensibilities of its female (Kazu Makino) and male (Amedeo Pace) singers into a powerhouse that plays like much more than the simple sum of its two principal parts.

The Italian- and Japanese-transplanted threesome's experimental origins officially dead and buried on album No. 7, 23 shifts seamlessly between Makino's ethereal, Lush-meets-MBV shoegazing ("23," "Heroine") and Pace's moody, Radioheady alt-rockers ("SW," "Publisher"), never leaving the listener wondering "which sound do I like better?" as it spins.

The disc's only negative—and it's a relatively minor one—concerns its structure. Rather than lead off with three Makino tracks, go to Pace for three of the next four and close with another three from Makino, Blonde Redhead might have intertwined its songs a bit more discreetly. Regardless, that's hardly enough to thwart a major effort from a band with a singular musical vision, and voice.

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult


The Filthiest Show in Town

(4 stars)

America is having a renewed love affair with B-movies: between the last year's worth of hype surrounding Snakes on a Plane and the current publicity maelstrom of Grindhouse, it seems this country is all about camp and circumstance.

So should it really come as a surprise that the genre's music is enjoying regeneration as well? My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult—that veteran industrial band with a stage show of lunatics and lasers—is back. But this time they've stepped out of the peep-show theater and into the lizard lounge downtown.

TKK is still rocking the deep horn riffs and heavy wails; their synths remain unapologetic, and the instruments play pre-sets. But TKK no longer provides musical backdrop for a subculture; this time, they're starting their own.

The opener "Cadillac Square" finds an unexpected melding of pop-industrial and hip-hop, as if Pop Will Eat Itself met the Beasties while trolling for hookers. Upon bedding said hooker, TKK channels Tricky with the rasp-rap soliloquy "Jet Set Sex." But it isn't until "High Class Taboo"—which recalls humor rockers Mr. Bungle—that hilarity of hookerdom emerges.

Yes, this album has the elements of a great B-movie: It's fun and dizzying, electric and engaging; the stock characters are sexy and deplorable; and closer "Covergirl Blues" provides climactic chase from lounge to club to musical victory for MLWTTKK.

Redman


Red Gone Wild

(3 1/2 stars)

If we are to be serious with ourselves, just for a moment, then we can here state that Redman whoops ass, and a lot of it, just about every time he touches a mic, or sets foot in a studio. For we all know that, starting with his debut 15 years ago—Whut? Thee Album—all the way through his ventures with Def Squad and Method Man, Reggie Noble has produced nothing but raw, dirty, and absolutely stellar hip-hop music.

Which is why I was stupefied when the first half-dozen songs on new album Red Gone Wild sucked. But just before I was to rally us together to call for the Funk Doctor Spot's retirement, if only to preserve his legacy from any further tarnishing, he returned to form, with the 17 hard-hitting tracks that follow, creating a groove so deep and sustained that there seemed to be no separation between the songs, just like there seems to be no hiccup among his six solo albums thus far, all first-rate stuff.

In short, it's yet another fine effort by the Man himself. Just as we expected.