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Rolling Stone Album Reviews
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From the latest releases to archived favorites, here's the final
word on all the music that matters, from the editors of Rolling Stone.
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Carolina Liar - Coming to Terms
Artist:
Carolina Liar
Review:
After leaving his native South Carolina in 2002, Carolina Liar
frontman Chad Wolf strummed his guitar in many L.A. coffeehouses
before being rescued from obscurity by an internship with
songwriter Diane Warren and a paid gig dancing in a Celine Dion
video. His story is a typical Hollywood fantasy — which might
be why four tracks from his band's New Wave-y rock debut have
already been featured on The Hills. Fusing the anthemic
elements of U2 and the Killers with the electro productio...
Rating:
3 Stars
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Islands - Arm's Way
Artist:
Islands
Review:
On their 2006 debut, this Montreal six-piece were like a pothead
carnival of bloopy synths, African rhythms and pop-culture
references. But on?Arm's Way, gifted singer-songwriter
Nick Thorburn broadens the band's quirk-pop into wonderfully
shambolic arena rock — for an arena of 5,000 people. Guitars
mingle with viola, clarinet and piano, hopping genres and tempos
with an Of Montreal-style theatricality. "Pieces of You" begins
with a gypsy bop, moves into a harmonic bridge worthy of...
Rating:
3 Stars
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Larry Norman - The Anthology
Artist:
Larry Norman
Review:
Most people who have heard of Larry Norman at all know him
primarily as a sixties Jesus Freak who pioneered today's
multi-billion dollar Contemporary Christian Music industry. But
Norman, who died in February at age sixty, was anything but a
middle-of-the-road musical sheep who followed a prescribed formula
of simplistic shout-outs to Jesus. He was an eccentric, psychedelic
music-loving, politically left-leaning hippie folksinger who also
loved the lord and wanted everybody else to love hi...
Rating:
4 Stars
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Old 97's - Blame It On Gravity
Artist:
Old 97's
Review:
Over the past 15 years, Old 97's have evolved from country-punk
yahoos into master-class rock & roll songwriters. For proof,
see their album opener, "The Fool," a speed-strummed joy ride that
tells the story of two doomed lovers in Day-Glo detail. "He came
from Phoenix in a borrowed VW Bug," sings frontman Rhett Miller,
already breathless; the girl he likens to "a drug/Hallucinogenic
with no hangover at all."
And yet, after some LPs focused more on popcraft than
adrenaline, there's...
Rating:
3.5 Stars
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Foxy Brown - Brooklyn's Don Diva
Artist:
Foxy Brown
Review:
Midway through her fourth album, Foxy Brown claims that her "piss
is clean" — a sensible thing to boast, since she's addressing
her parole officer. Recently released after eight months in prison,
the New York rapper spends much of Brooklyn's Don Diva
covering her pre-jail legal problems and pesky media coverage: On
"We Don't Surrender," she raps, "I got a 32-shot clip aimed at Page
Six." Despite the tabloid-worthy subject matter, a couple of
bangers are invigorating, with Foxy...
Rating:
2.5 Stars
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Various Artists - In The Name Of Love Africa Celebrates U2
Artist:
Various Artists
Review:
Bono deserves props for global stumping on Africa's behalf. So it's
good that this tribute is a rootsy thank-you, not a world-music
cheesefest. Guinea's Ba Cissoko reinvents "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
with kora-harp ripples, guitarist Vieux Farka Touré turns
"Bullet the Blue Sky" into a dusty Malian blues, and Cheikh
Lô makes "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" into a
chattering Afro-flamenco workout. Great songwriting makes
translation easier.
Rating:
3 Stars
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