]> http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/editorial/albumreviews/0,,,00.html Most Recent Album Reviews on ARTISTdirect 86400 Fri, 09 May 2008 17:01:50 PST en-us http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,3755394,00.html#review Diane Lane’s career trajectory has hardly been one of linear progression or logical experimentation, especially in recent years. After the sensual critical success that was Unfaithful, her follow ups have included saccharine romantic comedies like Must Love Dogs and an antithetical turn in the George Reeves biopic Hollywoodland. With Untraceable, Lane dabbles in torture porn and techie thrills, playing FBI agent Jennifer Marsh, an adept cyber investigator who cracks down on identity theft perpetrators at night and plays devoted single mother by day. She performs her job with swift efficacy, tracking down petty transgressors and crime-savvy computer nerds faster than you can say “LAN party.” Her predictable daily routine receives a violent interruption in the form of www.killwithme.com, a website launched by a sadistic serial killer who streams live feed of his victims on the web. In a voyeuristic twist, the murderer lays blame on users for contributing to the deaths; the more people Fri, 09 May 2008 17:01:50 PST 4684187 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4549943,00.html#review If his goal was to make an album that feels as good as it sounds, mission accomplished for Tom Holkenborg. The one-man band/production team/live force most-widely recognized as Junkie XL has delivered an electro-charged colossus with Booming Back At You, a 12-track surge of high-octane breaks, turbo-charged beats and red hot, infectious energy. Highlighting an array of vocalists as diverse as the album's tracks, Lauren Rocket [of Fox TV's The Next Great American Band finalist Rocket] sexes up the full-body slam of "More" with a lascivious twist, Tommy Vext [formerly of extreme metal outfit Divine Heresy] punches through the hard-driving pulse of opening track "Booming Right At You," and Willoughby and Nicole Morier [Electrocute] lend a more refined and dignified dance air to "Not Enough." Big beats are broken up by Steve Aoki's terse vocal blasts on "1967 Poem," Electrocute reappears to propel the sultry vocal swagger of "Mad Pursuit," and Junkie takes it Fri, 09 May 2008 07:48:26 PST 4684061 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4602425,00.html#review While many bands that achieve success on terrestrial radio–like 10 Years—are often faceless, and indistinguishable, and can be interchanged without much thought, 10 Years manage to sidestep the rest of the like-sounding pack by grafting slightly progressive riffs with vocalist Jesse Hasek's talk-sing vocal style. The result on Division is a little bit Tool, a little bit A Perfect Circle, and a little bit of Staind. Division is radio friendly rock that’s got a melancholic, and yes, a bit of a mopey current coursing through every single one of its bleeding, supercharged veins. 10 Years easily switches gears, shifting from head-down yet raucous rock songs "Just Can't Win" to contemplative, acoustic ballads with introspective beating hearts, like "Focus," which was cowritten by Stone Temple Pilots guitarist, Dean DeLeo. 10 Years earns more than a few points for its bipolar personality, and their deft skill in swinging the musical pendulum back and forth several times during the Fri, 09 May 2008 07:40:52 PST 4684060 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4602204,00.html#review Everything is beach-y keen and totally waterproof on The Submarines' Honeysuckle Weeks. For a band with a submersible name, the married duo of John Dragonetti and Blake Hazzard certainly keep things light and buoyant throughout their second full offering. Recorded in the couple's garage cum studio in East Los Angeles, the new disc is a sparkly mix of SoCal indie pop just begging to score a Grey's Anatomy montage. Warm electronic flourishes, keyboards and cymbals meld with good old-fashioned strumming' to bore an easy, breezy 35-minute spectacle. The Submarines' first CD, Declare a New State, was an odd sort of collaboration; Dragonetti and Hazzard wrote separate parts of that record during a break-up. When they reunited, they put them together. Honeysuckle Weeks, in turn, becomes their first actual collaborative effort—and it avoids any of the achy, break-y heart sentiments they might once have felt. Charming jaunts like "You, Me, & the Bourgeoisie" and "Swimming Pool" are Fri, 09 May 2008 07:38:52 PST 4684059 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4594688,00.html#review Pre-release hype surrounding the new Def Leppard album promised everything from a return to Pyromania form, to a full-on country album. Fortunately, neither could be farther from the truth. Pound for pound, songs from The Sparkle Lounge is the strongest Def Leppard album since the triple-platinum Adrenalize in 1992, delivering a hard-rocking combination of the band’s dynamic pop sensibility, bustling choruses, and some of the best guitar work from any mainstream rock act this side of the new millennium. To their credit, Def Leppard don't try and reinvent the wheel in their Sparkle Lounge. Instead, they refine what it is they've always done best, without being afraid to admit that they've grown a little in the process. The album opens strong and doesn't let up, "Go" blistering with an invigorating crunch and melodic muscle that suits the band well, guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell ripping and grinding a path for the tracks that follow. The rumors of a country hue were no Fri, 09 May 2008 07:34:27 PST 4684058 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4611111,00.html#review Six studio albums deep into their career, Death Cab for Cutie have seemingly marked a turning point in their sound with Narrow Stairs. Lead singer and songwriter Benjamin Gibbard, also known for his well-received electro-pop side project The Postal Service, has declared the album a "curve ball," and on the surface, compared to the bulk of the band's released material, it is—at least to start. For instance, the eight-minute "I Will Possess Your Heart," which was leaked as a single to their MySpace page nearly a month prior to the album's release, boasts a four-minute intro and little in the way of Gibbard's trademarked saccharine melodies or rhythmic punch. Opener "Bixby Canyon Bridge" sports chugging, crunchy electric guitars and an extended bit of anthemic rocking out; however, once resplendently straightforward "No Sunlight" marks its entrance, the band seems ready to settle back into familiar territory, tossing off easy-going, verse/chorus indie rock. Still, the results are Thu, 08 May 2008 10:07:28 PST 4683961 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,3845768,00.html#review Speed Racer is the film equivalent of Space Mountain at Disneyland. It's fast, furious and fun for the whole family. Also like Space Mountain, it's a tripped-out roller coaster that never slows down. The film sets a new standard for computer generated special effects. Directed by The Matrix magicians, The Wachowski Brothers (Andy and Larry), the film is a visual assault. The racing some of the most vibrant and colorful CGI landscapes ever committed to film. Just watch the Mt. Fuji sequence or the final showdown at the end for proof. The Wachowski's definitely bring the classic cartoon to life in vibrant 21st century digital Technicolor. In addition, the plot works too, a rarity for a big budget sci-fi, action flick like this. The movie centers on the Racer Family, the only honest clan in the high speed racing game. There's Mom (Susan Sarandon), Pops (John Goodman), Spritle, Sparky and Chim Chim the Monkey, who steals his fair share of scenes. Then there's the film's namesake Thu, 08 May 2008 09:31:03 PST 4683958 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,4575080,00.html#review Nothing's sacred in great comedy. Everything becomes a target for a laugh. Enter Drawn Together, one of the most raucously funny animated shows ever to hit cable. Comedy Central hit a homerun with this reality show spoof, featuring the horniest cartoon characters ever committed to cell. The third and unfortunately final season, due out on DVD 5/13, happens to be the best. Take the episode completely butchering the Terminator, turning him into a bi-sexual maniac. Watch out for that cowboy vest at the end. The show's eight main characters are still hilariously irreverent, whether they're whoring themselves out or tormenting each other. It's a trip to the absurd and back, driven by Wooldoor, Toot, Ling-Ling, Foxxy, Xandir, Clara, Spanky, and Captain Hero. The real power of Drawn Together comes from its satirization of reality TV. As a nation, we're addicted to watching our "peers" interact in "normal" situations. However, The Real World and shows of that ilk have blown everything Wed, 07 May 2008 10:12:51 PST 4679819 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4641423,00.html#review Emmanuel Jal has got a quite a tale to tell. And he certainly tells it on his debut WARchild. In fact, the album plays out more like a feature film than anything else. In those terms, the WARchild's not unlike Captain Willard's journey down the river to Hell and back in Apocalypse Now. However, Emmanuel's found his redemption in music. WARchild isn't hip hop, reggae, world music or R&B. Rather, Emmanuel takes elements from each of those genres and creates something more akin to a didactic, campfire tale for Facebook Nation. Emannuel hasn't had it easy. Born in Sudan, he was recruited in the rebel army at the age of seven, and he fought in the country's bloody civil war. A British foreign aid worker rescued him after years of fighting, and gave him a new life that eventually led to his music career. Now, that's only the very first part of his life. Nevertheless, that provides enough fodder for an absolutely captivating story. Emmanuel goes one step further though. Wed, 07 May 2008 10:05:11 PST 4679818 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,4595192,00.html#review Mudcrutch offers more nostalgia for Tom Petty fans than it does detours for the iconic frontman of the Heartbreakers. The eponymous album is a collection of tracks dating back as far as the outfit's inception in Gainesville, FL, in 1970, as well as a few new nuggets written to round out the release, all recorded over a two-week stretch in August 2007. That said, they could just have easily been recorded more than a quarter-century ago, as the stripped-down, 14-track collection is chock full of country jingle and roots-rock jangle, offering a retro-fitted run through familiar territory to fans of Petty's illustrious career. Lead single "Scare Easy" and "The Wrong Thing to Do" wouldn't disappoint as Heartbreakers tracks. That's not to say the rest of the album couldn't make the stretch, but where "This is a Good Street" and "Bootleg Flyer" ramble right along in a headspace similar to that of The Allman Brothers and "Six Days on the Road" could feature Jerry Lee Lewis on the keys and Wed, 07 May 2008 07:14:10 PST 4679788 Album Review