Quick N' Dirty Reviews

Interpol/ Our Love To Admire
Bold statement time – Interpol’s debut, Turn On The Bright Lights, is one of the best records of all time. It’s certainly one of the two or three best albums of the decade and measures up fairly against any of the classics. It’s just THAT good. Unfortunately, this kind of success can ultimately end up serving as a double-edged sword because it’s all but impossible for a band to release a follow-up to a debut of that quality and not have it come across as a little disappointing. 2004’s Antics, while a reasonably solid second record, just didn’t come anywhere close to the brilliance of their debut and left many (including myself) wondering if Interpol was going to go down in history as a one-album wonder, destined to suffer at the hands of their initial genius. After hearing their latest, Our Love To Admire (their first album on Capitol Records after leaving Matador) they’ve shown that they just might have a little of the old magic left. Our Love To Admire is a return to the darker landscapes of their debut that still incorporates some of the more (relatively speaking) upbeat aspects of Antics, but to a much more successful result. In fact, this record sounds almost like what their sophomore outing should have been. The record is book-ended in darkness as “Pioneer To The Falls” serves as a foreboding opener that sets the tone for the rest of the album, while “The Lighthouse” is a darker than midnight closer that’s a total chiller. In between, highlights are plentiful and include first single “The Heinrich Maneuver,” a track that is even better within the context of the album than it is as a stand-alone single while incorporating surf-style guitars in its chorus for the first time on an Interpol record; the impressively layered and spectacularly titled “No I In Threesome;” the gloomy and captivating “Pace Is The Trick;” and perhaps the album’s standout, “Rest My Chemistry,” which is charming and bleak at the same time as singer Paul Banks confesses, “I haven’t slept in three days/ I’ve bathed in nothing but sweat” while aided by some phenomenal guitarwork. There is a downside among all of the hope that’s present on the record, however. It is a little troubling that Interpol does not seem to be exhibiting as much growth as one would like to see from a band on their third record, but much like Vince Vaughn perfecting one character in his films, Interpol has perfected this dark sound like no other band today so a lack of growth isn’t the worst thing in the world – for now. As expectations for Our Love To Admire were considerably lower following Antics, it would have been even more satisfying had the record been as utterly exceptional as their debut but in the end, it’s a more than fitting addition to Interpol’s growing legacy.

Dirty Rating: 91/100

Interpol On MySpace Music
Interpol's Official Site


The Smashing Pumpkins/ Zeitgeist
This may have been one of the most ill-advised albums of recent memory. Billy Corgan – still a gaping asshole, by the way – feeling less and less relevant as the days pass by, decides that he “wants (his) band back.” And how does he decide to announce that he wants his band back? Not by picking up the phone and calling his former bandmates, mind you, but by taking out full page fucking ads in two Chicago newspapers. And he apparently doesn’t really want “his band” back since founding members James Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky weren’t invited, but more accurately he wants the Smashing Pumpkins name back for marketing purposes since both his post-Pumpkins band Zwan and his own solo project totally stiffed both critically and in the marketplace. By resurrecting a bastardized version of the Pumpkins he’d basically be pissing on the memory of one of the seminal rock bands of our time. Disaster, right? Surprisingly… not as much as you’d think. Zeitgeist, their sixth proper studio album, isn’t quite the soulless pile of garbage that one would expect. Now, close to half of the record is bad – there’s no getting around that. “Bring The Light” sounds like something that wasn’t even good enough to make the Zwan album, “Starz” is laughable both for its content as well as the spelling of its title and is a personification of Corgan at his worst, and “For God And Country” and “Pomp And Circumstance” close Zeitgeist with a pathetic whimper. That being said, there’s some shockingly good work amongst the rancid crap. “That’s The Way (My Love Is)” is probably the best hope for a radio hit here as it recalls some of the few highlights of MACHINA/the machines of god; first single “Tarantula” (save for the hair metal-ish guitar riffs towards the end of the track) works better as part of the whole than it does on its own as a single, and “7 Shades Of Black” and “(Come On) Let’s Go!” stand out in their own ways. The one track that provides the most hope, however, is the nine-minute “United States.” Although it is self-indulgent at times, it’s still the strongest track that Zeitgeist has to offer and is better than any of its similarly pretentious predecessors on previous records (namely “For Martha” on Adore and “Glass And The Ghost Children” on MACHINA/the machines of god). Summoning Black Sabbath at points, “United States” is a palatable appetizer of the capability of The Smashing Pumpkins, version 2.0. It feels in many ways like a turning of the corner, helping Zeitgeist feel like less of a cash-in on past glory, along with providing the slightest bit of promise for any future Pumpkins recordings.

Dirty Rating: 59/100

The Smashing Pumpkins On MySpace Music
The Smashing Pumpkins' Official Site


The Good, The Bad, & The Queen/ The Good, The Bad, & The Queen
Take the singer from Blur, the guitarist from The Verve, the bass player from The Clash, and a legendary Afrobeat drummer and what do you get? A music fan’s cream dream, right? Uh, no – one of 2007’s biggest disappointments, actually. While The Good, The Bad, & The Queen possesses all of the elements for rousing success, it proves to be much less than the sum of its parts. With a star-studded lineup like this, one could argue that the project was set up for failure from the beginning due to massive expectations that come from its members’ pedigrees and its own comparisons to Blur’s legendary Parklife. While “Herculean” is no doubt a strong lead single with its drum-n-bass-y backbeat and “Whale Song” sounds like a tasty leftover from Gorillaz’s Demon Days sessions, the rest of the album falls disappointingly flat. Pity, because this really should have been a contenduh.

Dirty Rating: 63/100

The Good, The Bad, & The Queen On MySpace Music
The Good, The Bad, & The Queen's Official Site


Blonde Redhead/ 23
According to some, 23 is a departure for Blonde Redhead from the New York art rock sound of previous releases to a more atmospheric, dream pop approach crossed with light electronica. Some have decried this left turn but since this record serves as my introduction to the band, I can’t speak to the validity of that opinion but I know what I like, and I like this. Alternating between sounding like The Sundays and Frou Frou, Blonde Redhead packs 23 with breathy, trippy vocals that make you feel like you’re spinning in a haze (“23”), floating on a cloud (“Dr. Strangeluv”), or being washed in chugging, Cure-like guitar lines and moderate electronic beats (“Silently”). While they do have a tendency to get too bland (“Publisher”) or too cutesy (“Heroine”), 23 is an enchanting record that breathes new life into the dream pop genre – one that has laid dormant for far too long. If this is what departure sounds like, I say screw the old sound.

Dirty Rating: 79/100

Blonde Redhead On MySpace Music
Blonde Redhead's Official Site