Audio files
By Times staff writers
Published October 26, 2005
Jamie Cullum: Catching Tales (Verve Forecast/Universal/Candid) Look at cute Jamie Cullum on the cover of his second CD, Catching Tales. Slather a bunch of eye liner on him and he'd look like Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong.
That's not such an off-the-wall connection given that Cullum's first CD, last year's Twentysomething, was loftily talked about in some circles like he was the Armstrong of his age group, voicing its frustrations and fears, hopes, dreams and disappointments. (The Twentysomething cover even had Cullum in a leather jacket and black jeans looking like he was jumping on a piano. Rage on, dude.)
If only his tool of expression wasn't smooth, jazzy pop and his big issues beer, trying to be a sensitive male and typical 20-something, navel-gazing angst.
Which is not to say Cullum doesn't have talent. He has a nice voice and a knack for arranging that can take songs in interesting directions, particularly standards (I Only Have Eyes for You, I'm Glad There Is You, Our Day Will Come). Using the (low-hanging) benchmark for record-deal worthiness today, he deserves one more than almost anyone who has stood on an American Idol stage. Anywhere.
But Cullum originals such as London Skies have nothing to make them stand out. And overall, there's little to differentiate the finished product to the average listener from anything that any other jazz-pop-standards crooner does these days. (Test: Play "Name That Singer" with your friends by having them listen to cuts from Cullum and Idol alumnus John Stevens back to back. Winner gets a Michael Buble CD.) B-
- SHARON FINK, Times staff writer
Blackalicious: The Craft (Anti/Epitaph) San Francisco hip-hop duo Blackalicious has been one of the brighter lights to emerge from the California underground rap scene. Gift of Gab is a fearsome emcee, holding forth on society, the state of hip-hop and his own inner life with incisive, witty rhymes and awesome flow. Backing him is DJ/producer Chief Xcel, who works the boards to construct eclectic soundscapes that draw from jazz, rock and P-Funk with gleeful abandon.
Even at their most madly inventive, Gab and X have always kept their productions accessible. Nonetheless, it's a bit of a shock to hear the two lurch so unabashedly toward the mainstream on their latest CD, The Craft. The elements that made their previous work so appealing are still present, but now they share time with cuts that could generate serious radio play.
Album opener World of Vibrations gets things started with a catchy keyboard figure that the Cowsills would have appreciated, then abruptly shifts gears halfway through, with jazz/soul singer Ledisi emoting over a heavy funk groove.
Other highlights include Automatique, a bewitching collaboration with Floetry; Side to Side, a hilarious account of a strange encounter at a bar; and My Pen and Pad, a clear-eyed statement of purpose by Gab.
Most startling is Powers, a pop-rock number that wouldn't sound out of place on a Pink album. That song and a few other pop-oriented tracks stick out like a couple of Ford Explorers in a showroom full of Mini Coopers. But The Craft pulls up short of becoming an all-out play for commercial acceptance and should please current Blackalicious fans even as it reaches out to new ones. B+
LOUIS HAU, Times staff writer
Dolly Parton: Those Were The Days (Sugar Hill) With its title ringing with nostalgia, country legend and wig aficionado Dolly Parton has crafted a folksy little covers album of her favorite songs from the '60s and '70s, mostly of the folkie variety, and with no conceptual underpinning other than simple appreciation of the songs.
Parton claims no political designs or grand statement of purpose, but simply expresses her fandom for artists who include Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Joni Mitchell. She has even netted an impressive roster of guest musicians (Norah Jones, Lee Ann Womack and Tommy James, for instance) to sing and join the party. But despite Parton's best intentions and the disc's star power, Those Were The Days contributes little to these songs' legacies.
If Parton truly loved Joni Mitchell, she would never have reimagined the languorous, lovely Both Sides Now as a revved-up, banjo-led barnburner. Mitchell, with her now deep, throaty rasp, could offer a more stirring rendition a capella.
Other song choices are just as suspect. Nobody should ever, ever cover Tommy James & the Shondells' 1960s schlockfest Crimson and Clover. In her distressing rendition, Parton maintains the tremolo waves of guitar but pastes rootsy strings over the traditional arrangement, and it's simply jarring. And, as a final insult, Parton outfits John Lennon's Imagine in a rolling, histrionic arrangement. Not only does she overemote, but Parton rhapsodizes in an improvised bit, "imagine a world/ a world without sorrow / imagine a world, a bright tomorrow."
In better news, her bluegrass version of Blowin' In the Wind achieves a sturdy gait, and Parton's twittering vocals actually coax beautiful intimacy out of Where Have All the Flowers Gone, led by fiddle and strummy guitar. C
BRIAN ORLOFF, Times correspondent
Disturbed: Ten Thousand Fists (Reprise) David Draiman's distinctive, raspy growl and yowl send shivers in his unforgettable live performances and early hits such as Stupify and Down With the Sickness.
Somehow, he manages to forget that for much of Disturbed's latest release, which could be likened to amped-up Journey, or maybe elevator music for hard rock enthusiasts.
A group with the name Disturbed should offer up rock that's, well, more disturbing, discordant, atonal, rough around the edges. Going to the studio is not a good thing for this band - it smoothes away the grit, creating a sound that's eerily easy to listen to (if you don't mind crunchy guitars).
Even the lyrics are fairly run-of-the-mill, as far as the gloomy rock scene goes. Lots of concerns about healing inside after all this pain, dreams dashed by confusion, yada yada.
Then there's this slavish remake of Land of Confusion, which wasn't so great when Genesis did it (except for those cool political puppets in the video). It sounds like . . . Genesis. Now that's disturbed. C-
JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK, Times staff writer