Blur's self-titled fifth album finds the London quartet boldly stepping away from the Britpop scene it helped form and lead in the early '90s. The result, however, is a mixed bag; some songs are just as good as (if not better than) the band's earlier hits, like "Girls and Boys" and "Country House," while other new songs are sadly muddled and poor.
Since the September 1995 release of its UK No. 1 album, "The Great Escape," which included numerous crisp, melodic sing-a-long tunes, Blur has eschewed such Britpop-characterizing sounds and drawn inspiration from a strange source, American "slacker rock," namely Pavement and Beck. Such influences abound on "Blur," yet the results are hit-or-miss.
The album commences with "Beetlebum," a slow-moving, so-so song, but a rather weak choice for the first single. The aptly titled "Song 2" follows, a 2:01 dirge that begins with a drumbeat similar to the Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" before it adds a Pixies-like guitar riff and crooning singer Damon Albarn.
After that up-tempo number, Blur slows things down for "Country Sad Ballad Man," a song that never really gains momentum. The next two songs, "M.O.R." and "On Your Own," however, are quite brilliant. The former is an energetic tune with the band - Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James, and drummer Dave Rowntree- synchronizing perfectly on the chorus, while the latter has a catchy, sing-song quality.
"Theme From Retro" is, frankly, an awful song, a failed result of calliope meeting distorted guitar, but the following "You're So Great" is awesome, with Graham Coxon passionately singing lead vocals (for the first time in Blur's oeuvre) over sweet acoustic guitar strummings.
"Death Of A Party" is an eerily cool song, and "Chinese Bombs" has a feel not unlike Blur's nearly-punk "Bank Holiday," off 1994's stellar "Parklife." Things are appearing quite rosy after "Look Inside America," which is simply a great song (with decidedly pro-Yank lyrics). While I disagree with Albarn's "Drink Pepsi / It's good for energy" lyric, the song warmly urges Brits to "Look inside America / She's alright / She's alright." The song also includes a pretty little string interlude and a likely barb toward Oasis, as Albarn sings about the U.S., "I'm not trying to make her mine," while Liam and Noel Gallagher possess a "We're-gonna-conquer-you-whether-you-like-it-or-not" attitude.
The album ends in mediocre fashion, with the longest - and arguably worst - song, "Essex Dogs." On the plus side, it is something you have never heard before on any of the first four Blur albums. On the down side, "Essex Dogs" is neither tuneful nor danceable, two of the strengths of earlier Blur material.
Blur's creatively titled fifth album is worthwhile to investigate, but quite inconsistent. A handful of songs are fabulous, but too many sonic experiments fail to reach the same level of quality from earlier albums.
-Aaron Rennie
Blur's fifth album offers a mixed bag.
In spite of its suspect name, "Pop," U2's 10th full-length album, is anything but. Leading the way in the electronic trip-hop musical trend, the album is danceable, grooveable and almost as surrealistic as the band's last effort, "Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1."
The slow, steady bass in many of "Pop"'s songs cause your body to groove instantly - an important feeling to evoke since U2 is launching a whirlwind world tour this spring.
The most notable and stylistically distinct pieces are also, by no coincidence, the first two singles, "Discothèque" and "Staring at the Sun." These two don't sum up the rest of the album, however. While "Discotheque" is disco, don't let the band's trendy '70s garb at their press conference in New York's K-mart last month fool you.
Yes, "Discothèque" should be a favorite at the clubs. And the haunting "Staring at the Sun" comes close to the most soul-stirring ballad on the album. But the real news here is the indescribable new technological sounds, in keeping with the band's love of exploiting society's addiction to the cyberworld. The album's released singles will feature the true dance pieces, remixed by Howie B, with b-sides from "Passengers" and other works.
From the deceivingly seductive "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" to the explosive "Miami," to the spiritual "Wake Up Dead Man," trip-hop has manifested itself in a variety of ways. Credit The Edge, that master of electrical sound, and drummer/percussionist Larry Mullen Jr., who seems to have spawned followers of his "loops" instrumentation.
U2's history of social and religious consciousness is also present on the album, in the namedropping and commentary of "The Playboy Mansion" and the softly questioning "If God Will Send His Angels" among others. Bono and The Edge's amazing voices and inspired lyrics, while becoming less-easily interpreted, still have the same philosophical underpinnings.
"Pop" seems like a natural extension of the band's work since the similar "Achtung Baby," continuing a thoughtful mockery of commercialism, Andy Warhol-style. Perhaps the band has finally arrived where 1993's less-well-received "Zooropa" fell short.
- Elan A. Stavros
Bono Castro and the rest of the the U2 gang look as alternative as ever.
Through their musical recordings in the '70s, David Bowie and Brian Eno brought about a new era in music by utilizing the influences of avant-garde and world music to expand the sphere of rock 'n' roll. In doing so, they not only revolutionized the rock genre into something of more significance than the "Happy Day" spritzer it was often used as, but they also re-routed the direction of popular music. They gave contemporary music a soul and a feeling it seems to have never had outside of gospel and a few Motown hits.
Philip Glass has taken six tracks from the original Bowie/Eno "Heroes" composition and combined them with music of his own to create a rather beautiful musical accompaniment to dance performed by American choreographer Twyla Tharp's dance company.
While his "symphonization" of Bowie's and Eno's original works sometimes seems to drag on a bit too much in a vain attempt to extend the songs into the six- to eight-minute time frame many symphonic compositions fit stereotypically, Glass has succeeded quite well in bringing out the feel of the original "Heroes" sound while simultaneously pushing the music into another level of emotionalism.
The sounds of "Abdulmajid" fit beautifully with the song's name as it causes the listener to envision him self camel-back riding along the Saharan sands. And while Glass' booming baritone/timid flute attempt to create a sense of dread falls fairly flat in "Sense of Doubt," the fluttering sounds of "V2 Schneider" are right on target in bringing musical excitement and expectation to the fore.
Perhaps what is most exciting about Glass' work is that it reminds us that in America today, there are still those who have dedicated themselves to the symphony. And at a point when few American composers (with the exception of maybe John Williams) seem to be even well known, let alone highly regarded or respected, perhaps there's no time like the present to make some corrections.
- Eugene Bowen
For those not familiar with Pavement, "Brighten the Corners" is the band's fourth studio album, offering guitar-driven indie-rock imbued with classic rock riffs and plenty of killer pop hooks, all subverted by frontman Stephen Malkmus' gleefully sardonic wordplay. For Pavement followers who felt that 1994's "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain," was the band's greatest achievement and that 1995's "Wowee Zowee" was a misstep, "Brighten the Corners" will bring the boys back into your good graces. It is Pavement's most cohesive, concise and focused album to date.
Echoes of "Crooked Rain"'s sing-along hits like "Cut Your Hair" and "Gold Soundz" can be heard right off the bat - the album's first three tracks, "Stereo," "Shady Lane" and "Transport is Arranged" are all instantly hummable. Throughout the album, a quieter pace and greater emphasis on simplicity and catchiness is evident.
Unfortunately, this cuts both ways: The songs are more accessible, but along the way something has been lost, an intangible quality whose absence keeps this record from being truly great. Pavement is often at its best when it is at its most raucous, when its songs get all wound up with energy, attitude and emotion and threaten to careen completely out of control. Those moments of controlled chaos are less frequent here; only "Embassy Row" and the current single, "Stereo," really threaten to explode with speed and emotion in this way.
While the energy may be reined in a bit, Malkmus' lyrics are as irreverent as ever. Like Robyn Hitchcock, you can practically hear him cocking an ironic eyebrow as he sings lines like, "One of us is a cigar stand and one of us is a lovely blue incandescent guillotine." And while there's plenty of the delightfully cryptic side of Malkmus, there is also from time to time a more revealing glimpse at the man behind this twisted mask, as in this lyric from "Transport is Arranged": "A voice coach taught me to sing / he couldn't teach me to love." In fact, love songs (or anti-love songs, as the case may be) abound.
Musically, the band's playing here is much more self-assured than on past releases; the band itself is much more clearly a unit. In fact, the "Corners" sessions were the first time Pavement had ever recorded an entire album with all five members in the studio at once and playing on every track. The fact that the songs on the album were rehearsed prior to being recorded is another first for Pavement. A good part of these changes in structure and organization can probably be attributed to the presence in the studio of Mitch Easter (producer of R.E.M.'s "Murmur" and countless other albums).
Highlights of the album, besides the previously mentioned tracks, include "We Are Underused," "Blue Hawaiian" and "Starlings of the Slipstream." Honorable mention goes to "Date With IKEA," one of guitarist Scott Kannberg's two songs on the album. Also listen for the addition of a new wrinkle to the Pavement sound: Just as they added pedal steel to the mix for "Wowee Zowee," here they use congas and other percussion that create a new rhythmic feel.
Overall, "Brighten the Corners" is a fine effort from a band that has inspired a thousand imitators and generated a thousand controversies. While die-hard Pavement fans may wish that the new record had a little more of a consequences-be-damned willingness to rock out, this is definitely an excellent and entertaining album.
- Anders Smith-Lindall
We are Pavement. Hear us whine.