Tim Brough's Black Leather Bookshelf

Baby, They Can Still Drive Your Car
3 Out of 5 Stars

"Red Velvet Car" is Heart trying to revert to the days of "Dog and Butterfly" and "Little Queen." There's plenty of songs here that hearken to the classic sound, but for the most part, don't hold up. Thankfully, they've abandoned the overproduced pomp of the Capitol years entirely.

Most likely culprit is aging; you can't work up that hormonal rush at 60 that you could at 20. And lordy, is "Dreamboat Annie" really almost 40 years old? Time has not taken their vocal prowess away, as Ann and Nancy still sound terrific. It's also not for lack of effort, as songs like "Sand" and "Safronia's Mark" could be from the 70's. Like so many bands still slugging it out after decades, "Red Velvet Car" bears the sweet smell of polished professionalism. I enjoy it, but there's nothing here that made me think Heart was pushing themselves.

Which leaves the review at three stars for average, with a little extra credit to Heart for at least trying to do something new. Consider the alternative ala Journey or Rod Stewart; reduced to albums of hackneyed classics or re-recording your own material. "Red Velvet Car" may not be a fully restored model, but it's also not a false re-creation.

Ray LaMontagne Finds his Groove
4 Out of 5 Stars

From the opening funk of "Repo Man" to the final jerky chord in "Devil's In The Jukebox," Ray LaMontagne's fourth major label studio release kicks into a pocket that only his first came close to. Now totally self-produced and with a full band, LaMontagne sounds better than ever.

There's a lot of Dylan and Van Morrison again, especially on the steel-guitar centered "New York City's Killing Me." The production is less reverb heavy than on "Gossip In The Grain," and he seems over the heartache that fueled "Til The Sun Turns Black." "Beg Steal or Borrow" refects these changes in its countrified arrangements and the look back at what he's done since. "Your old friends...now they just bore you," he laments. At the same time, it feels like is creativity has made a huge leap.

Is LaMontagne a changed man then? Leaving producer Johns behind might seem so, this album's more homogenized sound also says yes. While the grittier and snarling "Repo Man" is the poppiest thing here, the remaining album rests nicely in a folk-country vein, without any clinkers like "Gossip's" "Meg White." "God Willin'" is easily one of the year's best from an artist that just continues to impress. 

It takes a village to make a Suburb
4 Out of 5 Stars

Allegedly a song cycle that came together after various band members either visited or heard from the areas they grew up, "The Suburbs" is Arcade Fire's love-hate letter to nostalgia, decay and growth, growing up and the hazy nostalgia of being young in a small town. It's a pretty good series of songs, and more straight-forward than "Neon Bible."

There's also a decidedly folkier edge to the music this time around, especially in the title track and the epic "Sprawl II." However, there are still times when the dense rock that built the band's reputation. The punkish "Ready To Start" may be the most propulsive song AF has ever recorded, and the ever present Springsteen influence reigns over "City With No Children." The blend of songs is pretty incredible, as fairly soon afterward is the poppish lament of "Wasted Hours," reminiscent of The Band, and the most acerbic lyric of the whole album.

"The Suburbs" is a complex and rich album, yet Arcade Fire's most direct. When Wim sadly describes "kids and buses still waiting to be free," it cuts as hard as anything off "Funeral" ever did for me. I may find "Funeral" to remain their best album, but "The Suburbs" is maybe even more universal. One of the year's best.

Oh, the perils of Music Geekdom
4 Out of 5 Stars

I picked up "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life" after hearing author Steve Almond on some NPR show giving a hilarious interview about the lifespan of, in his words, a rock and rolling "drooling fanatic," and how one becomes one, lives as one, and eventually writes about being one. The salient points of the interview readily established him as a man roughly my age (likely younger) and his on-air self profile rang eerily close to my own musical maniacism. Indeed, he was a fellow traveller! I had to have this book.

Which makes it hard to recommend it to anyone but a middle aged fellow traveller. On a personal scale, I give it 5 stars, but for those for whom musical hero worship is utterly alien, "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life" is more a 3 star book, so I rate it 4 to split the difference. Almond's musical journey is intensely personal and oft-times extremely snarky (and even for a lefty like me, the constant Bush-slaps got in the way when they should have been edited away).

His snark occasionally turns back on himself, and that gives the book a few of its best moments. His exegesis on why Toto's "Africa" is genius is a riot, and the secret confession of being a Styx addict and loving "Paradise Theater" in spite of his older brother is almost worth the price of the book. On the other hand, Almond falls into the trap most rock writers fall into, and that is believing your favorite obscurity is Godhead.

In this case, the object of his desires is one Bob Schneider, a Texas singer songwriter. Almond takes this to an extreme, tracking the man down at his home and engaging him in a sadly painful dialogue, revealing another pitfall of artist worship, when your idols break your heart. Sadder still, they break your heart because you've jammed them into a corner that they can never work out of. I actually felt sorry for both Schneider and Almond by the end of the chapter. (And just as geekifically, I promptly went out and bought Schneider's "Lovely Creatures" after. Very Sneaky, Mr Almond.)

Which underlies the attraction and distraction of "Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life." Unless you're the kind of "DF" who would be naturally stoked to find out what Bob Schneider (or Joe Henry, Aimee Mann, Nil Lara and a series of other artists Almond is hot for) does to merit such magnificent praise in this book, you might wonder what the commotion is all about. Not me. Because as Almond himself accurately predicted, as soon as I saw the words "free CD" in the introduction, I put the book down and hit his website as fast as I could. Because I am that kind of person.

All the things they said
4 Out of 5 Stars

Simple Minds went through three distinct periods as a band, and on this two disc compilation, all get a fair shake. There was the early, experimental/arty phase, best represented here by "Themes for Great Cities." While they stayed virtually unknown in America in this period, they began running up a string of international hits.

Lead singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill soon began finding Simple Minds' own sound, and the albums began featuring tighter songwriting and playing. Starting with "New Gold Dream," Kerr's Christianity began to influence the lyrics to a greater degree, and the band became more boisterous. "Promised You A Miracle" made inroads on MTV and the song "Someone Somewhere in The Summertime" is terrific. Steve Lillywhite produced "Sparkle In The Rain" and treated Kerr's spiritual questing the the same sort of sonics he gave to U2, making "Up On The Catwalk" another breakout song.

Then came the Americanization. After Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol reportedly turned down "Don't You Forget About Me" (and Kerr himself initially passed on it), this single from "The Breakfast Club" broke away from the soundtrack and became a classic slice of 80's new-wave bombast, thanks to producer Keith Forsey. While the band wasn't all that receptive to this sound, "Once Upon a Time" used American producer Jimmy Iovine to bolster the sound to U2 arena levels and Kerr's vocals went for epic reach. "Alive and Kicking" and "Sanctify Yourself" became deserved hits, but this is probably the least representative of Simple Minds' overall sound.

Naturally, the band went into a creative slump after. The highly political "Street Fighting Years" pulled back on the sweeping sound, but also replaced it with histronic songs. "Belfast Child" was probably the highlight, yet why the cover of Peter Gabriel's "Biko" was done almost note for note is a mystery. And while "Real Life" yielded the minor hit "See The Lights," the band had pretty much fallen into formula. Of the later works, "She's a River" and "War Babies" hold their own the best. At two discs and 32 songs, this is probably all the Simple Minds you need.

 
Fire and Snow
4 Out of 5 Stars

Snow Patrol is now the leader of mope bands, and "A Hundred Million Suns" cements that position. They bring the melancholy on songs like "Crack The Shutters" and the grand finale "The Lightening Strike." They even pull out their toughest rocker to date, in "Take Back This City." It's a confident album, emotional without being overbearing.

Lead singer Gary Lightbody seems to be insistent that he stay anonymous, with his bandmates having equal footing. The stomp/clap of "The Golden Floor" or the propulsion of "Take Back The City" are as dependant on the band than his fronting capabilities. That doesn't mean he can't be extremely convincing, as his pleading vocal on "Take These Photos From My Hands" or the gentle call of the folksy "Lifeboats" show.

"A Hundred Million Suns" may not yet reach the heights of U2 or (at their best) Coldplay, but with the ever increasing rewards Snow Patrol offers with successive albums, they are still maturing as a band. This album keeps their momentum and turns up the heat.