Citizen Cope "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings" (RCA Records) Sounds like: a caffeinated version of Everlast.
B
With his slurred voice, pseudo-hip-hop beats and bluesy guitar, D.C. native Citizen Cope's sound works, surprisingly. Though it is an odd conundrum, the new album is catchy enough to be lasting, and soulful enough to hit the heart. Citizen Cope (who is Clarence Greenwood), a former DJ, uses guitar backed up by his driving beats for a truly eclectic sound. While his songs border on repetitive, his lyrics compensate with their originality. In the pessimistic "Bullet and a Target," he sings, "What you've done here is put yourself between a bullet and a target / and it won't be long before you're pulling yourself away." Touring with the likes of Carlos Santana and Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Citizen Cope has made a name for himself beyond the D.C. area through his live performances.
Though his combination of styles sounds a bit awkward at first, the album definitely deserves a chance. Crossing plenty of music boundaries, "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings" has something for everyone.
-SAM ROTH
Prince Po "The Slickness" (Lex Records) Sounds Like: Masta Ace meets the RZA of Wu-Tang.
C+
Prince Po has been on the hip-hop scene since the early '90s as a member of the group Organized Konfusion. After a short stint out of the game and watching the solo success of former partner in rhyme Pharaohe Monch, Prince Po delivers his debut effort "The Slickness."
The album features a who's who of the underground, with guest appearances from Raekwon the chef of the Wu-Tang Clan, the Alkoholics, MF Doom and production from Madlib, J-Zone and Danger Mouse (who is recognized for producing the Jay-Z "Gray Album remix").
Prince Po has a strong flow throughout the album but the music is muddled and scattered. There are a handful of standout cuts, such as the two Prince Po-produced tracks "Grown Ass Man" and "Be Easy," which features hard boom-bap beats as well as an incredibly jazzy track from Danger Mouse entitled, "Fall Back." The album's main flaw is that it attempts to crossover to many styles. This is especially seen on the two or three blatant attempts at making club music, which find Prince Po delivering his hard, thoughtful flows on bizarre electronic instrumentation. Very simply put, this album is not bad but it is also not very good.
- STEPHEN VOGEL
Oh No "The Disrupt" (Stones Throw) Sounds Like: Jay-Z meets Jaylib in the West Coast.
C
"I'm Here," the opening cut on Oh No's debut album "The Disrupt," says it all. Oh No has been steadily building a strong catalog of work as both a producer and emcee on the west coast underground for the past four or five years.
Oh No may be most recognized as younger brother of hip-hop producer Madlib, who has been responsible for Lootpack, Quasimoto, Yesterdays New Quintet, Dudley Perkins, Jaylib, Madvillian and a Blue Note remix album. In fact, Madlib did five of the 17 cuts on the album, with additional beats dropped by Kan Kick and Jay Dee.
For fans of the Jaylib collaboration, this will be more of the same. It has a weird jazzy style mixed hard programmed drums. Unfortunately, the sound quality of this album makes it sound much more like a commercial demo than a serious independent release.
- S.V.
Wolf Eyes "Burned Mind" (Sub-Pop) Sounds Like: Instead of recording a record, the band got into a horrible car wreck on the way to the studio and released the sound of that.
D
Wolf Eyes is a band that boasts having released LPs, cassettes, CD-Rs and 7s in only the most limited supply consistently for the past seven years and having an insane live show that had garnered them a spot on this past summer's ill-fortuned incarnation of Lollapalooza. However, what separates Wolf Eyes from the few other bands that can make the same claims of grassroots fan base growth is that those other bands are making music.
According to the band's press biography, the entity that is Wolf Eyes is part of the "quickly expanding American noise scene." After having properly labeled the band, one can begin to understand what to expect from "Burned Mind": about 40 minutes of static over a barrage of spooky and, at times, piercing and painful sounds, with the occasional incoherent chanting of a religious sacrifice ceremony. Vivid song titles help explain theme and perhaps what instruments were used in recordings such as "Black Vomit," "Urine Burn," "Ancient Delay" and "Rattlesnake Shake" (which actually rattles a little bit). In conclusion, unless one is part of this American noise scene, "Burned Mind" offers little more than a headache.
- MATT RAJPUT
Earlimart "Treble & Tremble" (Palm Pictures) Sounds like: Elliott Smith in band form.
B-
If Elliott Smith is the godfather of drugged and depressed indie rock, Earlimart is one of his disciples, creating nearly perfect reflections of Smith's moody songwriting circa 1997, when Smith was contributing to tracks to "Good Will Hunting." Indeed, numerous songs invoke the hollow bitterness of "Miss Misery," and the entire album reeks of Smith's tearful songcraft.
But Earlimart manages to shake off the immediate Smith comparisons on several songs, finding its own sense of barebones acoustic guitar and aching vocals, with the occasional addition of piano and strings. Singer Aaron Espinoza leads the album with his moody, hushed vocals that offer slightly more hope than Smith ever did. It is hard to believe this band was once making punked-out rock more along the lines of X than Smith on X, but the shift seems to suit them. Although "Treble & Tremble" belongs on Smith's altar as an offering to jaded songwriters everywhere, Espinoza and Earlimart manage to still offer the slightest glimmer of hope - their music the tiny ray of sunlight in an otherwise dark existence.
- EMILY ZEMLER
Spiderbait "Tonight Alright" (Interscope) Sounds like: a garage band with bad equipment.
D
The Australian trio Spiderbait makes their debut stateside with a less than stellar album in "Tonight Alright." From start to finish listeners are assaulted with synthesized guitar like a mosquito buzzing around their ears. The songs have the oversimplification expected from a garage band still trying to work out the kinks, not from a band making their major label release in the United States.
It seems that Spiderbait isn't even trying very hard. Their lyrics are something a three-year-old could have written, had he known curse words. There is absolutely no substance. The song "Fucken Awesome" just repeats over and over again "You're fucken awesome" about four times, followed by a variation of "I'm digging you now" four more times. The only redeeming quality on the album is their high-octane cover of "Black Betty." Spiderbait switches singers between drummer Mark Maher and guitarist Damian Whitty, but it doesn't do anything because neither can sing. Listeners would think bassist Janet English, as opposed to Whitty, took over singing duties for a few songs. When Whitty sings, he sounds like a girl and the songs come out like bad chick rock. Maybe there's a typo on their Web site.
- ALICIA KRAWITZ
Unearth "The Oncoming Storm" (Metal Blade Records) Sounds like: Killswitch Engage and In Flames if they were SIS students.
B+
With Ozzfest distancing itself from bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn, the void is being filled with metal acts like Unearth. Unearth shows the ferociously awesome soloing power of Sweden's In Flames, while continuing the tradition of the totally sweet breakdowns, rough yet intelligent vocals and lyrics made famous in New England's quickly growing metal scene.
This sound has been directly aided by the guiding hand of producer/Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewitz. The band defies the stereotype of "mad at my dad for leaving" or "we are really old and madly in anger with you" stereotypes that metal is associated with. Instead of these seemingly mandatory subjects, Unearth addresses the current political division of the United States and the world in general, our "black hearted" leaders, war and many other geopolitical issues that most bands don't address. For the most part the band is pretty pessimistic about our future, but listeners get the feeling that they are pointing things out to build awareness. To their credit, they do not use any curse words and instead choose other more creative words to express themselves. Although the fact that Unearth is a little rough around the edges, they are far more intelligent than one might think.
- JORGE DEL PINAL
Chronic Future "Lines In My Face" (Interscope Records) Sounds Like: 311 and Linkin Park jamming with Good Charlotte and Sum 41
B
Arizona's Chronic Future brings a unique blend of pop punk, rock and rap to make an unusually catchy record. The band also has a mature lyrical style that often has an underlying anti-war message. The band encourages listeners to make decisions for themselves, and not based on societal pressures on "Time and Time Again," rapping, "Don't erase part of you that's responsible for your will." The band encourages listeners to chase their dreams despite the difficulty they may encounter on "New York, N.Y.," singing "The dirt only ends when the pavement begins / This is your heart, your dream and you're your only friend, so go." The band also addresses interesting issues such as suicide and lack of variety on mainstream radio on "Line In My Face." Overall Chronic Future shows a lot of creativity and maturity that is vastly unheard of in pop punk or rap.
- J.D.P.
