Spring Break
Cd Reviews
Issue date: 2/1/07 Section: Out & About
'Hardwire Healing'
The Dexateens
Country rock and punk rock tend to go together about as well as oil and water, but The Dexateens still claim both as influences.
This album is a whole lot of the country part and not a whole lot of the punk, due in large part to the fact that it was coproduced in Athens with Drive by Truckers frontman Patterson Hood.
The guitar hooks an instrumentation of the more rocking tunes are very Truckers-esque, though the vocals are nowhere near as convincing as Hood's own gruff barks, leaving a distinct void for much of the record.
Two major standouts on this album are the ballads, all of which shine, and the winding texture variations brought about from the use of actual four-track home recordings in the studio which gives these tunes a very close to home and down to earth feel.
Be careful, here, though - while these lo-fi's have a distinctively Southern hospitality, they also walk a thin line of being timidly unconvincing when placed in between David Barbe's well engineered studio work.
Verdict: A good time for country rockers.
'Don't you Fake It'
Red Jump Suit Apparatus
Red Jump Suit Apparatus can be a very good pop-punk band, and the band is for many tracks on this album.
Equally obvious, though, is that it can be a horrible hardcore band - and it's on tracks with the overly compensating screaming vocals that serve little more than to ruin otherwise perfectly acceptable songs and hide where their true talent lies.
The album is a pretty run-of-the-mill release by the current standards of the music world, sticking closely to the proven Fall Out Boy success story - take fast drum beats, soaring male vocals (with maybe a touch of auto-tune) and crunchy power chords wrapped in a package of perfect production to feed to the teenage masses while they're still hungry. That's the story, love it or hate it.
"Cat and Mouse" is a standout track - a piano ballad with a striking vocal melody that halfway stands out for being good and halfway stands out simply for being one of very few gear shifts in this collection.
Verdict: Another album with the shelf life of a package of Oreos.
'Tidal'
Fiona Apple
When a then late-teenaged Fiona Apple exploded onto the scene in 1996, there probably aren't many who can say they saw it coming.
Apple was equal parts sex, innocence and power on this release - she could suck you in with seduction but gave constant reminders that she could, and would, knock you out.
A big part of Apple's explosion was the scandalous video for the sultry empowerment anthem, "Criminal." Apple broke all the rules - she was young, talented and not afraid to let the world know it.
"Criminal" was the backbone of the album, but don't overlook "Sleep to Dream" and "The First Taste" to fill your whole Fiona appetite.
Perhaps full appreciation for Apple's work didn't come until a few years later when we got to see Apple not only for everything she is but for everything she isn't (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera).
The best part? She's only gotten better with age.
- Alec Wooden
The Dexateens
Country rock and punk rock tend to go together about as well as oil and water, but The Dexateens still claim both as influences.
This album is a whole lot of the country part and not a whole lot of the punk, due in large part to the fact that it was coproduced in Athens with Drive by Truckers frontman Patterson Hood.
The guitar hooks an instrumentation of the more rocking tunes are very Truckers-esque, though the vocals are nowhere near as convincing as Hood's own gruff barks, leaving a distinct void for much of the record.
Two major standouts on this album are the ballads, all of which shine, and the winding texture variations brought about from the use of actual four-track home recordings in the studio which gives these tunes a very close to home and down to earth feel.
Be careful, here, though - while these lo-fi's have a distinctively Southern hospitality, they also walk a thin line of being timidly unconvincing when placed in between David Barbe's well engineered studio work.
Verdict: A good time for country rockers.
'Don't you Fake It'
Red Jump Suit Apparatus
Red Jump Suit Apparatus can be a very good pop-punk band, and the band is for many tracks on this album.
Equally obvious, though, is that it can be a horrible hardcore band - and it's on tracks with the overly compensating screaming vocals that serve little more than to ruin otherwise perfectly acceptable songs and hide where their true talent lies.
The album is a pretty run-of-the-mill release by the current standards of the music world, sticking closely to the proven Fall Out Boy success story - take fast drum beats, soaring male vocals (with maybe a touch of auto-tune) and crunchy power chords wrapped in a package of perfect production to feed to the teenage masses while they're still hungry. That's the story, love it or hate it.
"Cat and Mouse" is a standout track - a piano ballad with a striking vocal melody that halfway stands out for being good and halfway stands out simply for being one of very few gear shifts in this collection.
Verdict: Another album with the shelf life of a package of Oreos.
'Tidal'
Fiona Apple
When a then late-teenaged Fiona Apple exploded onto the scene in 1996, there probably aren't many who can say they saw it coming.
Apple was equal parts sex, innocence and power on this release - she could suck you in with seduction but gave constant reminders that she could, and would, knock you out.
A big part of Apple's explosion was the scandalous video for the sultry empowerment anthem, "Criminal." Apple broke all the rules - she was young, talented and not afraid to let the world know it.
"Criminal" was the backbone of the album, but don't overlook "Sleep to Dream" and "The First Taste" to fill your whole Fiona appetite.
Perhaps full appreciation for Apple's work didn't come until a few years later when we got to see Apple not only for everything she is but for everything she isn't (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera).
The best part? She's only gotten better with age.
- Alec Wooden
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