Aural Fixations

SUPERGRASS
Life On Other Planets
(Island)
It's a popular theme with music critics and Anglophiles that the disparity betwixt the popularity of a British band at home and in the United States is way too uneven. For non-believers, though, it hardly seems worth the bother; who cares whether or not Boyzone (an Irish version of N'Sync or the Backstreet Boys) or the Stereophonics (a popular U.K. neo-classic rock trio) make noise over here for anyone other than a cult audience? In the year 2003, it's apparently difficult to remember that nearly 40 years ago a British wave of rock & roll pretty much revolutionized music. In the 60s the Beatles, the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and the Zombies took a distinctly American music that lay dormant on its own shores and rewrote the rule book, revitalizing the style and pretty much taking over the charts. (OK, the Kinks and the Zombies weren't exactly ubiquitous presences on the American charts, but when they hit, as with "You Really Got Me" and "Time of the Season" respectively, they hit big. Besides, both bands have proven as influential as their more popular cousins.) By the 70s, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin had invented heavy metal and conquered FM radio and the album charts, and U.K.-based arena rock bands like Deep Purple, Foghat, Thin Lizzy and Humble Pie were sharing headlining status with their American cohorts. And let's not forget Van Morrison's consistent popularity and David Bowie's reign as the king of eclectic rock throughout the 70s and into the 80s.

But somewhere along the line things changed. For some still-unexplained reason, U.K. rock fell off the American charts. Throughout the 80s and 90s it was more common to see hit singles from Swedish acts like Ace of Base and Roxette in the Billboard listings than something by an English artist. Sure, there was the odd run here and there by folks like Peter Gabriel and Oasis, and of course U2 became one of the biggest bands in the world, but overall the folks in Mother England and its environs couldn't get a toehold in the States. The rise (if that's even the right term) of the rock underground kept interest in artists like Echo & the Bunnymen, the Catherine Wheel, Robyn Hitchcock, XTC, Blur and many, many other quality bands alive in the colonies, ensuring the regular release of their records on these shores in a form other than pricey imports. But few of them ever scored the success here that they enjoyed at home. Even virtual superstars in the U.K. like Paul Weller and the Manic Street Preachers have never broken out of cult status in the U.S. What's the deal with that? (more)

Album reviews of new music by:

El Eco

Drummer/composer/bandleader Guillermo Mojechowicz adapts native melodies from Brazil, Uruguay and his native Argentina to the vocabulary of the blues and bebop. (more)

Fairburn Royals

No fuss, no muss, just well-written songs and sharp performances; this gem of a gimmick-free pop record is worth the search. (more)

Illegal Teenage Bikini

On I Am Not Job, Patrick Ogle mixes acoustic guitars, electronic textures and his trademark guttural vocals into a distinctive fusion of old and new, dark and light, mystery and clarity. (more)

The Izzys

The trio takes the tried 'n' true tools of rock out of the box—loud guitars, 4/4 rhythms, to-the-point tunes—and polishes 'em up on its debut EP Fast & Out of Control Wins the Race. (more)

Alison Krauss & Union Station

Considering the pristine recording quality, smart song selection and dead-on performances on this record, it serves not only as a concert recording but also as a de-facto best-of. (more)

Meanflower

There's some serious songcraft going on here; unfortunately, whether or not you'll give it a chance depends on your tolerance for this kind of laidback alt.country. (more)

sHeavy

Synchronized is a mature, varied hard rock album that flirts with a lot of 70s metal touchstones. (more)

And revisit the refreshed sounds of Should and Thirdimension.