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Music Archives:
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| Highest Rated 2006
December 18, 2001
No Doubt: Rock Steady
Interscope, 2001
Rating: 2.0
A bold step forward from the muddle of Return of
Saturn for what that's worth. Gwen Stefani and cohorts finally achieve the
radio-, arena- and dance floor-friendly sound they've always strived for, but at
the cost of whatever soul the band once possessed. Tracks like "Hey, Baby" and
"Start the Fire" bristle with energy but are over-produced to a glassy-eyed
sheen.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
December 10, 2001
Limp Bizkit: New Old Songs
Interscope, 2001
Rating: 1.8
When guest rappers take the mic from Fred Durst, this
collection of Limp Bizkit remixes-reimaginings is more like it -- shows real
potential. But even the best efforts of some talented producers -- the Neptunes, Timbaland, even Butch Vig -- can't do much more than disguise the fundamentally
weak source material. When the results work, they sound nothing at all like Limp
Bizkit. Which should tell you all you need to know about Limp Bizkit.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
November 21, 2001
Creed: Weathered
Wind-Up, 2001
Rating: 3.5
Earnest and overblown, but with a difference. Where
past Creed efforts have stumbled over Scott Stapp's blowhard spirituality, Weathered
embraces his pomposity and wraps it in vaguely generic chord
structures that nonetheless resound with grungy crunch and by-the-numbers
uplift. The title track, "My Sacrifice" and "One Last Breath" are guilty
pleasures.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
November 21, 2001
Jim O'Rourke: Insignificance
Drag City, 2001
Rating: 4.0
"Don't believe a word I say." Thus begins Chicago
multi-instrumentalist/avant-everything provocateur Jim O'Rourke's latest
singer/songwriter noise experiment. The smart-alecky sarcasm underlying the
seven, expertly constructed art-pop tracks presented here threaten to undermine
the entire affair. Fortunately, O'Rourke's obvious talent and a backing band
that includes such respected, but outside the mainstream luminaries as Wilco's
Jeff Tweedy, Chicago Underground Trio cornetist Rob Mazurek, the distinctive
saxophone of avant-garde jazzman Ken Vandermark, Tim Barnes' percussion and Ken
Champion on piano and pedal steel helps ensure that Insignificance, at
least musically, will be anything but irrelevant. There are glimpses of 1999's
lighthearted, musically expansive Eureka (Drag City), with Burt
Bacharach-inflected tunes like the title track and "Memory Lane." The most
refreshing aspect of the album comes when O'Rourke lets down his
self-consciously smarmy guard (the brilliant, near-rocking,
vulnerability-behind-the-bravado "Therefore I Am," and the heartfelt,
confessional "Good Times"). On "Times," when O'Rouke sings, "I'd like to raise
the Titanic here/Take a walk/Down its molded streets/And feel right at home,"
it's hard not to believe the man, even if there is a contrary smirk lurking just
behind his microphone.
:::
Laurence Station
Top
November 12, 2001
Kid Rock: Cocky
Lava/Atlantic, 2001
Rating: 2.9
A classic case of success going to an artist's head.
The hunger that fueled Rock's breakthrough Devil Without A Cause is
absent here, and the complacency shows. The mix of classic country and
hard-edged hip-hop is still intriguing. But the boasts ("Forever," "You Never
Met a Motherf-ker Quite Like Me") are empty and secondhand, the attempts at
roadhouse soul ("What I Learned Out on the Road," "Picture," "Lonely Road of
Faith") pedestrian. Even if you don't like Kid Rock, you know he's capable of
better.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
November 10, 2001
Rob Zombie: The Sinister Urge
Geffen, 2001
Rating: 3.5
Zombie's patented techno-thrash anthems and B-movie
sensibilities are still in place, but nothing here comes close to the
transcendent dance-rock grind of "Living Dead Girl" from "Hellbilly Deluxe."
There are some moments here ("Iron Head," "Never Gonna Stop") to satiate the
metalhead faithful, but ultimately Urge is just empty calories.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
November 05, 2001
Sevendust: Animosity
TVT, 2001
Rating: 3.8
Sevendust's angry-young-man thrashings can get
tiresome in a hurry, but on its third album the Atlanta collective shows a
propensity for dense, layered atmospherics that elevates the proceedings above
mere rap-rock thuggery. Relies a bit too heavily on tired metallic clichés, and
listening straight through can be something of a grind. But on ballads like
"Follow" and "Crucified," vocalist Lajon Witherspoon's husky growl makes up for
muddy lyrical sentiments. Still a bit too staid, but shows promise for the
future.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
October 30, 2001
Kittie: Oracle
Artemis, 2001
Rating: 3.9
Kittie's one-note formula is something of a novelty:
hard-hitting Sabbath sludge and otherworldly banshee shrieks and guttural,
hellhound growls, all delivered by young girls gone bad. As novelties tend to
do, it stays put stylistically, but that's a faint criticism. Fun, rocking and
more than a little unsettling.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
October 20, 2001
Bush: Golden State
Atlantic, 2001
Rating: 2.5
The good news: Comes closer than the previous two
efforts to the sound and swagger of Sixteen Stone. The bad news: An
imitator, not an innovator. A solid and satisfying batch of songs, complete with
Gavin Rossdale's boilerplate turmoil, but falls into by-the-numbers formula.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
October 19, 2001
Lenny Kravitz: Lenny
Virgin, 2001
Rating: 3.5
A few token stabs at modernism, in the form of
half-baked electronica, don't do much to pull Lenny Kravitz out of classic-rock
Valhalla. Churning, singalong rockers ("Dig In," "Battlefield of Love") and Bic-approved
ballads ("Yesterday is Gone") don't tread any new ground, but that's not why you
buy Lenny Kravitz albums anyway, is it?
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
October 15, 2001
Incubus: Morning View
Sony/Epic, 2001
Rating: 0.0
The aural equivalent of nails on a blackboard. If
Shaking Through had a lower rating, this would get it. This writer has always
found Incubus off-putting, from singer Brandon Boyd's grating warble and
sensitive-boy lyrics (seriously in need of an editor) to the band's generic
progressions and the completely superfluous "scratching" of its turntablist.
Bland as week-old oatmeal, sappier than Yellowstone National Forest, Morning
View is offensive in its innocuousness. And did we mention wussy? Any band
with lyrics like "I dig my toes into the sand" should be beaten, hog-tied and
thrown out of the rock club on sheer principle.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
October 14, 2001
The Strokes: Is This It
RCA, 2001
Rating: 3.4
2001's great white hype, channeling classic New York
punk attitude (the Velvets, Television, Blondie) for modern audiences. Not even
remotely as ground-breaking as so many critics gushed, but solid and filled with
potential. Julian Casablancas is modern rock's answer to Justin Timberlake, all
pouty, passive-aggressive man-child sexuality. And hands-down, the band with the
best hairdos since At the Drive-In.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
October 13, 2001
The Shins: Oh, Inverted World
Sub Pop, 2001
Rating: 3.0
On the Shins' debut release, Oh, Inverted World, the Albuquerque, NM,
quartet willfully borrows from such notable influences as the Beach Boys, the
Byrds and Big Star. While the group's sound is unmistakably mined from the
mid-'60s/early '70s power pop era, the overall mood of World recalls the
Feelies' The Good Earth (Twin/Tone, 1986, now sadly out of print), in its
winsome longing and plaintive yearning for something better in life. "New
Slang," the best of the bunch, could have come from those Good Earth
sessions. Lead songwriter/guitarist James Mercer writes amusingly abstract
lyrics about mundane matters of infatuation and boredom. The first half of the
record is filled with a strong mix of pop-melancholia ("Caring Is Creepy," "One
By One All Day") and punchy declarations of outsider defiance ("Know Your
Onion!"). The second half loses steam quickly, however, and, despite the
polished (perhaps too polished) mix, leaves but a marginal impression. The Shins
are a talented band, with a time-proven sound. Here's hoping the group finds
something more meaningful (and consistent) to say on its follow-up.
:::
Laurence
Station
Top
October 12, 2001
Cannibal Ox: The Cold Vein
Definitive Jux, 2001
Rating: 3.9
The rap duo of Vast Aire and Vordul Megilah shine a harsh light on the world of
New York ghettoes on Cannibal Ox's combustible debut. Renowned producer EL-P nearly steals the show with edgily futuristic and decidedly
experimental beats that mesh well with the duo's lyrics, even while contrasting
sharply with the rappers' gritty urban landscapes. The apocalyptic opener,
"Iron Galaxy," is a hard-line statement of purpose regarding the prison-like
conditions faced by residents of the Bronx and Harlem's impoverished
neighborhoods. Similarly, the elegiac yet positive "Pigeon" offers hope for those
who have little faith left in a world dominated by rundown tenements and
gang-controlled streets. "A B-Boy's Alpha" traces a cycle of poverty and
connives ways of escaping the neighborhood by non-violent means. Cannibal Ox's
key achievement is the transposition of Greek and Norse mythology into the black
urban experience, as evidenced on key tracks "Battle for Asgard" and "The
F-Word," which, in its own way, works even better than Wu-Tang Clan's
intentionally kitschy integration of martial art motifs into its releases. Aire
and Megilah are undeniably verbose and have plenty to say, but unfortunately the
duo's debut lacks the kind of powerful hooks that stay in one's head after the
CD's finished spinning. Which is a shame, because what the two are saying,
regarding poverty, crime and urban decay, is definitely worth listening to.
:::
Laurence
Station
Top
October 12, 2001
Live: V
Radioactive, 2001
Rating: 3.8
Ed Kowalczyk's aggressive mysticism still grates, but
V counters it with the most self-assured rocking since Throwing Copper,
especially on "Simple Creed," the majestic "Flow" and the Middle-Eastern-tinged
"Forever May Not Be Long Enough." A healthy, if jarring, dose of hip-hop
attitude ("Deep Enough"), surprisingly enough, does more good than harm.
:::
Kevin
Forest Moreau
Top
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