Album Reviews

THE BEAUTY SHOP
Yr Money or Yr Life
(Mud/Parasol)
Beauty Shop singer John Hoeffleur sounds as if he's singing only because he has to. His low-key, deep drawl ambles out of his mouth like a cat getting out of the way of the feet of an approaching human—willing to move but making it clear by the speed at which he does so that he'd really rather not. This has nothing to do with laziness, mind you—Hoeffleur's haunted, introspective country rock songs are too well-crafted for that to be the case. Instead, it sounds as though he'd much rather be able to beam his songs directly into your brain, which would be much less trouble than singing and strumming a no-doubt battered acoustic guitar. After all, once the tunes are out in the open, they're subject to misinterpretation, so why should he put much effort into singing them? Bassist Ariane Pertala and drummer Casey Smith seem perfectly willing to follow Hoeffleur's relaxed tempos and bare-bones arrangements. This sounds like an exercise in laconic self-indulgence, but Yr Money or Yr Life is actually quite charming. This band's artless presentation isn't any less "take it or leave it" than that of someone more obnoxious and challenging, and there isn't a shred of dishonesty. The Beauty Shop gives world-weary a good name. Michael Toland

For fans of: the Handsome Family, Lee Hazlewood, Johnny Dowd

JIM GREER
The Big Thieves Jail the Little Thieves
(Fortune Records, PO Box 11302, Berkeley, CA 94712)
A versatile songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, California's Jim Greer presents what could almost be construed as an audio resume on his third album The Big Thieves Jail the Little Thieves. He can do fuzzy, mid-fi smart pop ("Perfect Trees," "Just a Young Man"), sensitive singer/songwriter crooning ("After It All Goes Down"), big loud rawk ("Own My Shadow") and electronic quirkiness ("Autumn Moon," "Tim Carter vs. the Grizzly"), all with the kind of seemingly effortless air that indicates a serious dedication to craft. Best of all, he can put all these things onto one record without having the finished product sound at all disjointed, as no matter what stylistic tweaks he gives a track, his strong sense of Beatles-meets-Todd Rundgren melody remains intact. Good stuff. Michael Toland

For fans of: Elliott Smith, Beck, Todd Rundgren

INGO STAR CRUISER
P.S. I Cuddle a Box
(Moshi Moshi)
More lo- to mid-fi indie psych pop—it seems you can't light up a bong anymore without one of these bands suddenly appearing on your doorstep and asking for a hit. Hailing from the UK, Ingo Star Cruiser, like most this ilk, seem to draw the lion's share of their inspiration from the Elephant 6 gang, specifically the junkyard trip-pop of Olivia Tremor Control. Unlike most their contemporaries, however, ISC has (a) a decent singer with an alluring falsetto, (b) a better sense of song structure and (c) a more playful sense of rhythm, compete with hip-hop beats and scratching on "Fooze, Too." That's still not quite enough to pull them all the way out of the mire, but with a swamp as crowded as this one, any effort is enough to raise at least their heads above the muck. Get them a bigger recording budget and a compatible producer and they may yet turn into contenders. Michael Toland

For fans of: Olivia Tremor Control, Sparklehorse, Beck

AMY RAY
Stag
(Daemon)
If you're an Indigo Girls fan and you expected Amy Ray (the soulful one who doesn't pen the pop hits) to do some sort of stripped-down, acoustic, confessional folkie record, you've got a surprise coming. She's so comfortable with the gnarly electric guitar in her hands on Stag it's almost hard to imagine her day job as an adult contemporary superstar. Backed by extraordinarily tuneful rock/pop, Ray explores personal and sexual politics less stridently than on Indigos albums, digging deeper into areas she usually avoids—her Georgia heritage comes through loud and clear in these songs without resorting to clichéd imagery to flaunt its charms. Her singing, too, is a revelation—she's never sung with such a balance of passion and control, whether on noisy power pop like "Lucystoners" and "Black Heart Today" or solo acoustic songs like the brooding "Lazyboy" and the rollicking "Johnny Rottentail." Despite the fact that it was recorded piecemeal with different sets of backup musicians, including the Rock*A*Teens, the Butchies (with whom she particularly excels on "Laramie" and the gorgeous "Measure of Me") and a one-off conglomerate of Joan Jett, Dusty Trails' Josephine Wiggs and Luscious Jackson drummer Kate Schellenbach, the album is wonderfully cohesive—even the acoustic stuff sounds of a piece with the rockers. This isn't the first album on which Ray has rocked out, but it's the most natural-sounding, due to her concrete-solid creative vision. Stag is the finest melding of intelligent words and hooky music she's ever created. Michael Toland

For fans of: Liz Phair, Bob Mould, Aimee Mann

TUGBOAT ANNIE
The Space Around You
(Big Top)
Let's get this out on the table right away: No matter what egotistical prose sneaks its way into the following review, this CD is a breath of fresh air, period. Good, simple pop like this makes it exceedingly difficult to remain jaded.

Buffalo, NY's Tugboat Annie crank out powerful, dynamic pop on The Space Around You, their fourth full-length effort since forming in '95. A quartet, their stock in trade is frontman Michael Bethmann's pop sensibilities, both as a singer and lyricist. He's a fine pop craftsman who adheres admirably to the "keep-it-simple, stupid" formula, wringing gems out of electric instruments and his sparkling voice.

It's nothing we haven't heard before, yet it's done so well that it weaves its way into your heart on first listen. Lines such as, "This is the expectation, this is its own reward" (from "More") ring with sticky pop hooks, emotional resonance and conviction. Yes, folks, this one jangles and bashes and layers vocals beautifully, and it's just plain glorious. "Stop" opens with the sort of hook the La's couldn't sustain beyond "There She Goes." "Helen of Troy" uses subtle dynamics, building from daydream verses to soaring choruses that get extra points for mentioning Charles Bukowski. "The Wishing Song" conjures memories of Cheap Trick all those years ago at Budokan. Can you hear the screams? Tugboat Annie could save pop music if the public had sense enough to let them. Brian Briscoe

For fans of: Oasis, Lustre, the Wannabes

TWIN PRINCESS
The Complete Recordings
(Hidden Agenda/Parasol)
A home-recording project consisting of singer Bootsy Holler and erstwhile Posie Ken Stringfellow, Twin Princess' sporadic output amounts only to the six songs collected here. Sort of a lo-fi answer to British dreampop, Twin Princess puts Stringfellow's gift for melody and Holler's airy voice to the service of queasy, guitar-fed pop songs stretched across a wire frame of noisy electronics. The result, for those who can get past the rather primitive production quality, is a fuzzy good time that lasts just long enough not to wear out its welcome. Highlights: the swirling "Seahorse Swim," the grooving "Deep Sleep" and a frazzled 'n' fried remake of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's "Somethin' Stupid." Michael Toland