Quick N' Dirty Reviews

Spoon/ Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Britt Daniel is a talented guy. When he’s not killing time producing records for well-regarded bands like I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness or scoring films like Stranger Than Fiction, Daniel is the leader of one of the most overlooked bands in rock, Spoon. It would be difficult to find another act whose track record is as consistently solid as Spoon’s, particularly when talking about their past two records. We can now officially include their latest, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, on that list of successes as well. While the entire record may not take your breath away, there isn’t a weak link to be found either. Sticking with the classic rock-ish vibe of their previous album, Gimme Fiction, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga finds Spoon alternating between comfortably worn-in rockers like “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb,” “Finer Feelings,” and “My Little Japanese Cigarette Case” and funkier numbers, including a sly cover of The Natural History’s “Don’t You Evah,” “RHTHM & Soul” (which borrows the bass line from Elastica’s “Connection”), and the dub-influenced “Eddie’s Ragga.” As good as all of those tracks are (and make no mistake – they’re damn good) they’re topped by Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’s two centerpieces, “The Ghost Of You Lingers” and lead single “The Underdog.” “The Ghost Of You Lingers” is a perfectly titled sonic experimentation that sees a combination of dissonant piano and ethereal vocals evoke the titular ghost, which appears in the form of an EVP-like effect towards the end of the track. Very trippy and very impressive. As upbeat as “The Ghost Of You Lingers” is atmospheric, “The Underdog” is Spoon at its best. Hot producer Jon Brion’s fingerprints are smeared all over “The Underdog” as handclaps, horns, bells, whistles… shit, everything you can think of back Daniel as he warns, “You have no fear of the underdog/ That’s why you will not survive.” It’s fitting as, in so many ways, Spoon is one of the biggest underdogs in the music industry today. Despite heaps of critical acclaim, they’re never really mentioned in conversation as one of the decade’s best bands event though they have the credentials to back such a claim. That may change as Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is a fun, incredibly well-crafted record that should go a long way towards raising Spoon’s profile to the lofty heights that it deserves.

Dirty Rating: 93/100

Spoon On MySpace Music
Spoon's Official Site


Ryan Adams/ Easy Tiger
Ryan Adams is so prolific that he records albums almost as regularly as most people take a dump. Well, as regularly as guys do, anyway… not girls. We like to pretend that they don’t do that. Wow – I’ve gotten horribly off track. Where was I? Oh, yeah… Ryan Adams. His ninth official full-length, Easy Tiger, is his first in almost 18 months, which is an eternity in Ryan Adams time. This is after al a guy who released three original albums in 2005 alone for Christ’s sake – and one of those was a double album. As someone who’s released a ton – and we mean a TON – of stuff in his career, it’s naturally hard for Adams to break new ground because, even as a fairly eclectic artist, he’s covered a lot of sounds already. He has managed to straddle the line between country and rock so often in his career that you could almost place his albums on a sliding scale with 2005’s Jacksonville City Nights representing the most country portion and 2003’s Rock N’ Roll representing the rock end. Easy Tiger falls somewhere in the middle of this scale and, if this record was recorded by anyone else, you’d be impressed by its scope but for Adams it plays as almost a collection of songs you feel like you’ve heard before. Every track could have fit seamlessly into his earlier work save for the brevity and straightforwardness, which is a bit of a change. The album’s best songs, “Two,” “Everybody Knows,” and “Rip Off,” unsurprisingly sound like the ‘70’s California pop of his masterpiece, Gold, while the heaviest rocker on the record, “Halloweenhead,” obviously could have fit into the Rock N’ Roll collection. Fortunately for fans of the melancholy Love Is Hell, Adams includes the plaintive and introspective “Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.,” but unfortunately for those who find straight-up country a bit too much to swallow, “Tears Of Gold,” “Pearls On A String,” and “These Girls” are exactly what you heard (and probably dismissed) on Jacksonville City Nights. The album’s one true moment of inventiveness is almost enough to allow you to look past the familiarity of everything else. “The Sun Also Sets” is perhaps the first fusion of glam and country, but as odd as that pairing sounds it comes off extremely well. Although most of Easy Tiger treads on already worn ground, the well is not entirely bone dry. It works as a great introduction for those unfamiliar with Adams’s past work but for longtime fans, Easy Tiger leaves you wishing that it was a little bit fresher.

Dirty Rating: 74/100

Ryan Adams On MySpace Music
Ryan Adams's Official Site


Maria Taylor/ Lynn Teeter Flower
When you think of Saddle Creek Records, one act usually comes to mind – Bright Eyes AKA Conor Oberst. Really, that’s sad because there are so many noteworthy acts on the label that you begin to wonder how Oberst can surround himself with such talented artists and still have his work come out smelling like donkey balls. But I digress… one of these unheralded Saddle Creek standouts is Maria Taylor. After initially gaining recognition as one-half of the now-defunct Azure Ray, Taylor has released back-to-back records that demonstrated her potential as a solo artist. Lynn Teeter Flower, her second outing, serves as a furthering of Taylor’s pleasantly smoky late night sound. Taken as a singer/songwriter album, it’s laden with more hooks than one usually sees on the average offering from that genre. Although its quality does fall off noticeably during the second half of the record, opener “A Good Start” proves to be prophetic as it kicks the album off with an almost hip-hop drum beat and a healthy dose of synthesizers, leading into the beautiful and starkly country tinged “Clean Getaway.” Lyrically, Taylor is average at best but her voice melds perfectly with her instrumentation, due in large part to the production decision to record Taylor’s vocals in a distant, atmospheric manner. “No Stars” (also aided by its stunningly lilting guitar) and “Lost Time” benefit greatly from this choice, while “Small Part Of Me” sounds so much like former labelmate Jenny Lewis that it would have been right at home on Lewis’s 2006 outing Rabbit Fur Coat. On the downside, Taylor also experiments with beat-oriented hip-hop on “Irish Goodbye” to mixed results, and there are a handful of forgettable tracks but there’s definitely enough here to warrant a recommendation. As a more talented alternative to the Brandi Carliles and KT Tunstalls of the world, Maria Taylor bears watching.

Dirty Rating: 76/100

Maria Taylor On MySpace Music
Maria Taylor's Official Site