Album Reviews

TINA ANGOTTI
Mirror
(Tina Angotti)
Singer/songwriter Tina Angotti is more of a pop artist than a folk singer—a good thing in a field crowded with WGWGs (white girls with guitars). It helps that her big brother is Chicago pop genius Phil Angotti, who produced and plays on Mirror. Though Phil adds appropriately tasteful instrumentation as needed, the foundation is always Tina's supple voice and nimble guitar picking, allowing the spotlight to fall on unpretentious, melodic tunes like "Walk Away," "It's Alright" and "My Imagination." Michael Toland [buy it]

AVOID ONE THING
Chopstick Bridge
(SideOneDummy)
Led by ex-Mighty Mighty Bosstones bassist Joe Gittleman, Avoid One Thing has more in common with fellow Bosstone expatriate Nate Albert's Kickovers than the parent band, as the ska is jettisoned in favor of straightforward melodic punk and power pop. Sharing the frontperson responsibilities with guitarist Amy Griffin, Gittleman barks tight, tuneful confections like "A Lot Like This" and "About You" that won't change the pop/punk world, but do brighten it up. Michael Toland [buy it]

BINGO
the cicada and other stories
(Cravedog)
The last time I heard Bingo (AKA Kevin Richey), he was blazing a singularly unique East Indian Americana trail, with banjos, sitars and psychedelia sharing space comfortably. On his third record, he sticks to more conventional country ballads, straightforward and heartfelt. I find myself wishing for more eccentricity (though the Middle Eastern drone returns on the final track "Candlelight"), but he's a good singer and songwriter, and it's impossible to deny jewels like "The Cicada," "Proud Eagle" and the mournful "God, What Am I Doing Here." Michael Toland [buy it]

BLACK 47
New York Town
(Gadfly)
I want to like Celtic rock act Black 47, I really do, but leader Larry Kirwan really has only one note—ain't it great being an Irishman in New York?—and it went sour a long time ago. He's toned down the melodrama, thank the gods, but he still doesn't know when to end a song. The guest singers (including Rosanne Cash) don't help and his continued attempts to combine hip-hop with Irish folk rock are just gruesome. Longtime fans will appreciate New York Town but the rest of us will live quite happily without it. Michael Toland [buy it]

BLUES IMAGE
Open
(Sundazed)
Blues Image is a footnote in late 60s/early 70s rock, notable mainly for the Latin tinge given its blues rock by percussionist Joe Lala. Open, the band's second album, contains the hit "Ride Captain Ride," and how you feel about that song (personally, I prefer the opener "Love is the Answer") will probably determine how much you want this perfectly listenable but unspectacular reissue. Michael Toland [buy it]

THE BREAKUP SOCIETY
James at 35
(Get Hip)
Sixties pop melodies meet 70s guitar muscle on the latest record from former Frampton Brothers singer Ed Masley's Breakup Society. (Note the two pop culture personages namechecked herein: "Robin Zander" and "The New Ronnie Spector.") In other words, power pop. Masley uses songs like "She's Using Words Like Hurt Again," "I Could Put You Behind Me" and "Introduction to Girls" to narrate a romantic life that would give Woody Allen the heebie-jeebies, but his friendly hooks and personable singing soothe the heart's aches and pains. Michael Toland [buy it]

BILL CUNLIFFE/GARY FOSTER QUARTET
It's About Love
(Torii)
It's About Love is right, as pianist Cunliffe and saxist Foster caress the romantic melodies of composer Reed Kotler to the tune(s) of "I've Been Thinking of You Lately," "Love is in the Air" and "Thoughts of You." It's the kind of jazz that might make you nauseous in the wrong context, but when the lights are low, the champagne is chilling and you've got your arm around your baby's waist as you spin around the dance floor, it's probably close to perfect. Michael Toland [buy it]

THE DEFECTORS
Turn Me On!
(Bad Afro)
I thought the whole garage rock thing (and I'm talking about Nuggets clones, not White Stripes rip-offs) would have dug itself into the ground by now, but, along with the Cynics, Denmark's Defectors prove me wrong. The band has the attitude and energy down, of course, but it also proves on "Come On Down," "It's Gonna Take Some Time" and "Brought Up as a Dog" that it can write real songs as well. Plus "Sleepwalking" shows an experimental bent that will serve the band well in future. Michael Toland

DRESDEN 45
Paradise Lost (Expanded)
(Arclight)
This disk collects everything the Houston hardcore quartet threw up from '87-93, including its self-released Paradise Lost LP and every track from its many 7-inches. Dresden 45 was a powerhouse, but one with a brain, smart enough to use actual dynamics to vary its unceasing attack, as well as leaven the raging storm with metallic leads, a stab at what would later be called stoner rock ("High on Gasoline") and an homage to rap ("Southern California 2"). The band had its shit down, dawg—burners like "Guilty of Birth," "Jarvik 7" and the eponymous theme song would start a mosh pit in a nursery school. Michael Toland

ENSOPH
Opus Dementiae
(Cruz Del Sur)
Melodic progressive black metal with dynamic grooves, electronic accents, grand piano solos, operatic female counterpoints and song titles like "White Lamb Seducer (40 Days & 40 Nights)" and "Jaldabaoth at the Spring of Time." Oh yeah, and the occasional recorder solo. (That's what's been missing from extreme metal all this time!) This Italian quartet seems less evil than simply deranged, a quality that's always a plus in this line of work. It wouldn't hurt 'em to smile once in a while, though. Michael Toland

HEARSE
Armageddon, Mon Amour
(Karmageddon Media/Candlelight)
With a name like Hearse, you wouldn't expect this Swedish crew to play hearts 'n' flowers folk music, wouldja? Sure enough, the trio blasts out an almost overpoweringly brutal blend of death and black metal with an overt debt to vintage Celtic Frost. Somehow, shrapnel bombs like "In Love and War," "Turncoat" and "Tools" manage to keep a bit of melody in their slippery grasps, though no one—and I mean no one—will ever mistake this for Deep Purple, despite the Hammond organ solo in "Play Without Rules." Michael Toland [buy it]

IN FLAMES
Soundtrack to Your Escape
(Nuclear Blast)
In Flames is one of the few extreme metal bands to successfully incorporate the jackhammer steel of nü-metal into its melodic death metal base, and its latest album may be the pinnacle of its creative arc. From the furious pounding of "Like You Better Dead" to the majestic atmosphere of "The Quiet Life," from the Gothic swoon of "Evil in a Closet" to the joint-shifting grooves of "Dial 595-ESCAPE," the Swedish quintet runs the gamut of contemporary metal without an iota of self-consciousness, with each stylistic quirk was just another arrow in the quiver. Michael Toland [buy it]

JACKASS
It's Just the Night
(Big Daddy/BYO)
"Darlin', you put the cunt in country/And baby I want it back," declares this rowdy bunch of cowpunk wiseacres, but don't let that fool you into thinking they don't give a shit about C&W tradition. Despite pisstakes like "Country," "Fuck O'Dear" and the titular cover, tunes like "Losin' Ground" and "When You Go" own up to emotions besides sardonic contempt, and the quartet stomps the two-step like the Old 97's after too many six-packs. Michael Toland [buy it]