Album Reviews

JOE ALGERI
The Stockholm Years
(Rhythm Barrel/Parasol)
Joe Algeri led the Australian power pop band Jack & the Beanstalk before moving to Sweden, where he released one excellent solo album (Sings Everything Under the Sun) before his screen went dark. He was obviously busy, though, as this collection spans the last half-dozen years or so. Few songwriters are as adept at beautifully melodic folk-rockin' pop as Algeri; the disk overflows with cut after masterful cut of heartfelt tunesmithery. It's a testament to Algeri's considerable powers that originals "London Girl" and "Come on Down" are as wonderful as his covers of Gene Clark ("Full Circle") and Lee Hazlewood ("Sugar Town"). Brilliant. Michael Toland

TERRY ANDERSON AND THE OLYMPIC ASS-KICKIN TEAM
Terry Anderson and the Olympic Ass-Kickin Team
(Doublenaught)
Terry Anderson has knocked around the New South music scene for 20 years, as drummer for the Woods, the Backsliders and others, not to mention the writer of the Georgia Satellites' "Battleship Chains" and Dan Baird's "I Love You Period." This is his fourth solo album, and it's a killer. Southern-fried roots rock, butt-thumping country, lip-locking hooks and a good-natured sense of humor make the Olympic Ass-Kickin Team the best goodtime rock & roll band since Rockpile, whose Dave Edmunds seems to be a guiding spirit here. A reoccurring theme of the joys and perils of alcohol adds a bittersweet aftertaste, but overall, this is pure fun. Michael Toland [buy it]

ANTHRAX
Alive 2
(Sanctuary)
I wasn't aware that Anthrax had put out an Alive 1. Anyway, this album represents the concert reunion of the band's most successful lineup, with bassist Frank Bello, lead guitarist Danny Spitz and singer Joey Belladonna back in town for a run through the metal pioneers' 80s material. Nearly everything you'd expect is here: "Caught in a Mosh," "I am the Law," "In My World," "Efilnickufesin (N.F.L.)." I'm a little disappointed that "Keep It in the Family" didn't make the cut, but there's always Alive 3. Michael Toland [buy it]

BOBBY BARE
The Moon Was Blue
(Dualtone)
The Moon Was Blue is Bobby Bare's first record in a couple of decades and it sounds as if time stopped for Bare during this period. The tunes are good, but some sound dated. There's a pretty good cover of "Everybody's Talkin'" and Bare's retro-country sound makes the song bleed with emotion. That's the highlight of this otherwise overly-gloomy disc. Lance Looper [buy it]

BUCHO
Omit the Harsh
(DiG)
The R&B on the charts may be the product of computer programming and egomania, but old-fashioned soul music lives on in the underground. Joining Cody Chesnutt and Thaddeus Hogarth is Bucho, a Sacremento ensemble led by singer/guitarist/songwriter Gerald Pease. Omit the Harsh floats silkily on a warm cloud of 70s-styled soul and funk, with sultry melodies and the kind of rhythms that make you want to dance your honey into the bedroom. Horns, electric piano and acoustic guitar engage in erotic acts with Pease's soulful croon; the band adds a delicious Afro-Cuban groove to "Hard Headed Woman." Danceable and fuckable in equal measure (and aren't those activities two sides of the same coin anyway?), Bucho gets everyone's groove on. Michael Toland [buy it]

CALIFORNIA ORANGES
Souvenirs
(Darla)
Made up of Sacramento indie rock vets, California Oranges puts it members' expertise to use on a dozen tracks of fizzy pop. Sweet melodies shake hands firmly with an energy-spewing attack, topped by winsome singing and an openhearted approach. "Good Luck Charm," "Knives on the Table" and "Tonight" are what emo should sound like: unvarnished emotion and strong melody, minus histrionics and bombast. Cool. Michael Toland [buy it]

JOHNNY CASH
The Complete Sun Recordings, 1955-1958
(Time Life)
Johnny Cash's years at Sun have been collected before; diehards probably have all this music, though it may be scattered over several albums. But for those of us who have one measly piece of vinyl with a dozen tunes on it, this is a revelation. Sure, it's got the hits: "I Walk the Line," "Hey, Porter," "Big River," "Cry, Cry, Cry," "Get Rhythm," "Wreck of the Old 97," "Ballad of a Teenage Queen," "Oh, Lonesome Me," the original version of "Folsom Prison Blues," etc. But there are plenty of gems sprats like me haven't heard: "Home of the Blues," "You're the Nearest Thing to Heaven," "Luther Played the Boogie," "I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow," "Leave That Junk Alone," the bizarrely comic "You're My Baby (Little Woolly Booger)" and much, much more. It's amazing, timeless stuff, much of it outtakes and false (but not incomplete) starts, as if we're sitting in the studio with him. "We never played any kind of songs that would drive anybody wild," Cash sings in "Luther Played the Boogie," but this set presents evidence to the contrary. Michael Toland [buy it]

THE CHRYSLER
"Failures and Sparks"
(Flora & Fauna/IdiotWind/Galaxy Gramophone)
Like the Kings of Convenience after too much bourbon and Hank Williams records, Sweden's Chrysler wallow in low volume and enough melancholy to drown an ecstatic walrus. Listen to "Along the Freefall," in which a jaunty, minor-key Simon & Garfunkel melody is buoyed with lyrics like "And the towers that we built/And all our feelings except the guilt/Are blown away by the very thought of never-ending." The music's soothing textures and the conversational singing take some of the sting out of the downbeat libretto, but not too much. Topflight mope folk, though the album could've been shorter. Michael Toland [buy it]

JASON DANIELLO
Everything Good!
(Jason Daniello)
Kind of like Austin's Moonlight Towers, New Mexico singer/songwriter Jason Daniello aligns himself with no particular stylistic fetish outside of melody and heart on Everything Good! Pop, folk and rock intermingle freely as Daniello works out his love and loneliness, his warm thoughts and vocals the center of every arrangement. "Elizabeth Anne," "What You Can" and "Everything Good" boast quite the fetching tunes, and Daniello makes it sound soulful and easy. The title of this one's got it just about right. Michael Toland [buy it]

DIANA DARBY
The Magdelene Laundries
(Delmore)
Time to resurrect the old cliché: Diana Darby's third album is her best yet. Performed solo, focusing on her fragile voice, basic guitar lines and melancholy (but far from hopeless) tunes, The Magdelene Laundries evokes an atmosphere of intense introspection. Even when Darby directs the verbiage outward, as on "I'm Wishing You Bluebirds," she sounds like she's talking to herself. Her melodic strengths and general good taste ensure that the effect is mesmerizing rather than off-putting. The Magdelene Laundries is an outpouring of raw, naked emotion, and it's a beautiful thing to behold. Michael Toland [buy it]

DEEP PURPLE
Rapture of the Deep
(Eagle)
It's amazing that Deep Purple, a band approaching its (gulp) 40th anniversary, sounds perfectly happy to still be slamming it out—no punching of the clock here. That said, there's little on Rapture of the Deep that will replace "Highway Star" on classic rock playlists. Steve Morse and Don Airey aren't the riffsmiths that former Purples Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord were, apparently; while evident effort was put into these songs, none of them catch the ear or stick in the brain like the old warhorses. Oh well, at least these old vets are trying to do something other than rest on their laurels. Michael Toland [buy it]

DEMON FUZZ
Afreaka!
(Castle/Sanctuary)
Demon Fuzz enlivened London clubs in the early 70s with its mix of funk, jazz, psychedelia, Afro-Cuban experiments and Middle Eastern tonalities. Despite its distinctive sound and the wave of British black rock groups popular at the time, the band was only able to make one record. Afreaka! isn't nearly as wacked-out as the group's name and oddly disturbing cover art, but it's still a strong album, with long, flowing tracks full of melody, groove and soul. This reissue adds three non-album tracks that originally comprised a concurrent maxi-single, including a smoldering take on Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell On You." Michael Toland [buy it]

DIAMOND NIGHTS
Popsicle
(Kemado)
The glib method of describing Diamond Nights would be to call it America's answer to the Darkness. That's selling the NYC quartet short, however. The two groups might draw from the same arena glam pool, but the Nights try to expand the form, with quirky song structures that reveal a healthy background in postpunk skronk. Plus Nights shows little interest in either parody or over-the-top theatrics, preferring to let the melodies and performances speak for themselves. It never hurts that the hooks hit hard and frontdude Morgan Whaley pushes his emulation of the much-missed Phil Lynott for all it's worth. Michael Toland [buy it]