Album Reviews

SEAN CROGHAN
From Burnt Orange to Midnight Blue
(In Music We Trust)
When good punk rockers go bad, they turn into wimpy-ass singer/songwriters, right? They lose their edges, get all sensitive, forget their roots, become just like everybody else, or so goes the mantra. In the case of Sean Croghan, former frontman of Northwest icons Crackerbash and Jr. High, it's dead wrong. On his debut solo album, Croghan is just as tough and uncompromising as he was fronting a screaming rock band, and it has nothing to do with the distorted guitars running through these songs like capillaries. The best punk rock is all about intelligent, skillful venting of emotion, and Croghan demonstrates on the nine songs found here that he's a master of that. While it would be hubris to call these tunes confessional, at the same time the raw emotions behind them can't be denied. Not that this is a whiner's album; there's pain in these tunes ("Gweneveire," "Tom R.," "Fridays Face in Sundays Suit") but there's hope as well ("Little Miss Whiplash," "It's Gonna Be Alright"). Sometimes he seethes and moans ("Space Room," "John McConnell's Ghost") but he also cuts loose ("Cupid's Credit Card"), and the sense of release is palpable. Croghan makes the most of his limited voice, singing with little finesse but absolutely no artifice. From Burnt Orange to Midnight Blue is a journey across the colorwheel of pure soul. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Varnaline, Built to Spill, Dashboard Confessional

GREG OSBY
Symbols of Light (A Solution)
(Blue Note)
Anyone who follows the Ken Burns/Wynton Marsalis party line that jazz lost its sense of innovation in the mid-60s isn't listening. Plenty of young turks (young being a relative term in the jazz world, usually meaning under 50) and old vets alike continually push the envelope of their chosen field, creating fresh, exciting and original music. Case in point: alto saxist/composer Greg Osby. He's played nearly every variation on jazz extant for employers like Jack DeJohnette, Muhal Richard Abrams and Andrew Hill. He's performed post-bop, big band, eclectic fusion and boundary-stretching avant improvisation, and he brings elements of all his influences to the table in his solo career. Symbols of Light (A Solution) finds Osby and his band (featuring up-and-coming ivory tinkler Jason Moran) augmented for the first time by a string quartet. Rather than use it to sweeten or soften his approach, Osby puts it to work as an improvising unit in its own right, the strings acting almost as a horn section or a second keyboard. Though Osby engages his horn in spirited solos and fluid licks, he truly shines as a writer and arranger, formulating moving ballads ("This is Bliss," Johnny Mathis' "Wild is the Wind") and exciting faster tunes (the atmospheric "The Keep," "3 For Civility") that deftly manipulate his musicians' talents. Symbols of Light (A Solution) is the kind of jewel that reveals new facets with each close examination, thus ensuring a long, healthy shelf life. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: John Coltrane, Andrew Hill, Wayne Shorter

GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS
Mobilize
(Zoë/Rounder)
With his second solo album Mobilize, former Grant Lee Buffalo frontman Grant-Lee Phillips finally produces the pop album of his dreams. He first attempted it on GLB's final album Jubilee, which didn't quite hit the mark. Here, however, the melodies are the most straightforward and catchy of his career, with shimmering guitars and percolating electronics (Phillips and co-producer/programmer Carmen Rizzo are the only performers) that give the tunes a silky R&B vibe. Naturally the focus is on his soulful vocals, which for the most part avoid the bombast he manipulated so adeptly in GLB. There's little of his ex-band's folktale symbolism or sociological depth here—the hooks in anthems like "See America," "Spring Released" and "Love's a Mystery" practically slap you in the face, and ballads like "Sleepless Lake" don't insinuate themselves so much as burrow into your consciousness. That's just fine, as these are the kinds of songs meant to stick after a couple of listens, and they never outstay their welcome. Mobilize is singer/songwriter pop as it should be made. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: David Gray, eels, Mark Eitzel's The Invisible Man

GONZALO RUBALCABA
Supernova
(Blue Note)
Supernova, Gonzalo Rubalcaba's seventh CD, showcases his prodigiously nimble fingerwork in a trio format. Rubalcaba has crafted a collection of nine songs, including six originals, in which his Cuban roots show but don't show off. The approach is a mostly subdued affair, from the title track's tricky syncopation to finale "Oren," with its busybody tempo and optimistic bent. The trio exercises almost telepathic intuition when executing its various syncopated flourishes. Here and there are touches of Latin percussion, with "The Hard One" showing perhaps the clearest tangible influence of a Cuban style (son). "Alma Mia," a reworking of the Mexican standard, is a sparse rumination, and though not the most complex piece on the album, it is perhaps the heart of it. Rubalcaba only stumbles when he stoops to augmenting his grandfather Jacobo Rubalcaba's Cuban standard "El Cadete Constitucional" with an extended synthesizer solo. Supernova is beautifully recorded and performed, but no microchip in any plastic music box holds a sound indigenous to this soundscape. Brian Briscoe [buy it]

For fans of: Keith Jarrett, Ruben Gonzalez, Vince Guaraldi

SUGARCULT
Start Static
(Ultimatum)
Sugarcult kicks ass.

Need more? Okay. Santa Barbara, CA's Sugarcult dives headfirst into hooky power pop, wearing inspirations from Cheap Trick to a million bands Cheap Trick inspired upon their mod sleeves. "You're the One" opens, and it's a chunky amphetamine ride, with an addictive backbeat and bonus vocal harmonies (fortified!). Vocalist Tim Pagnotta has a fine bark for this sort of stuff, a limber and edgy instrument that can handle a melody and a snarl. The band, rounded out by Marko 72 on guitar, Airin on bass, and drummer Ben Davis (didn't he and Tim get the nickname memo?) lock into hangfire riffs forged from three great chords and some jangly business. "Saying Goodbye" could be a smash breakout single. Or "Stuck in America." Or almost any song on this CD.

The last power pop CD this streamlined and catchy to cross this desk was Lustre's eponymous debut. Here's hoping Sugarcult stick around a while longer. Brian Briscoe [buy it]

For fans of: American Hi-Fi, Lustre, Foo Fighters