Divine Fits
A Thing Called Divine Fits
(Universal)
If news of the sudden demise of Canadian husband-wife, synth-punk duo Handsome Furs wasn?t shocking enough, Dan Boeckner?s subsequent announcement caught most indie-rock fans off-guard earlier this year.
The lanky singer/guitarist, also formerly of Wolf Parade, decided to merge with two of his friends to create a new group ? Divine Fits.
Not just any old friends, mind you. Indie-rock royalty Britt Daniel, frontman of Spoon, contributes vocals, guitars and some of the band?s songs, while punk drummer Sam Brown, of New Bomb Turks, keeps time.
?I just wanted to be in a band where I didn?t write all of the songs and didn?t sing all of the songs, but I still wanted to write some of the songs and sing some of the songs,? Daniel tells austin360.com, a website from his Texas hometown.
He ended up writing four tracks on A Thing Called Divine Fits, while Boeckner wrote four, starting with the opener, ?My Love Is Real,? an icy, jittery synth-pop tune which sounds like it should be on a Handsome Furs album.
That?s the problem with A Thing Called Divine Fits ? Boeckner, Daniel and Brown rarely ever feel like they?re creating new sounds or challenging themselves as songwriters and musicians.
Daniel?s songs might feel a bit faster and synthier than usual, but that?s not enough to set them apart from his previous output. In fact, if you heard ?Flaggin? A Ride,? with its antsy riffs and jerky rhythms, or ?Like Ice Cream,? a rootsy, groovy number, you?d be tempted to think they were new Spoon tunes.
If you don?t care how or under what name Daniel or Boeckner release their songs, then you?ll probably think this 11-song debut is divine. If you want more than just a rehash, then you?ll be happy to hear two of your favourite bands/frontmen on one album, but disappointed with their lack of sonic explorations.
Then again, maybe some of us expect too much. Maybe it?s not so easy for the three to come with something entirely free of their past. Their one collaboration as a trio, ?Would That Not Be Nice,? peppered with shakers, funky bass notes and Daniel?s raspy vocals, sounds like another one of Spoon?s ragged and syncopated songs.
Only ?Neapolitans,? a tiptoeing, electro-rock haze written by Daniel, sounds like a step in a new direction, while ?Baby Gets Worse? feels like a true collaboration, as both vocalists add their pipes to the sproingy tune. ?My heart was beating in in and outta time / She can really get me gone,? sings Boeckner, who gets credit for writing the song.
Why the Handsome Furs are gone is still shrouded in darkness ? with fans speculating the worst. (Did Boeckner possibly break up with his wife, Alexei Perry?) If it?s any consolation, the defunct duo?s last album, Sound Kapital, is one of the 10 finalists for this year?s Polaris Music Prize, awarded Sept. 24 in Toronto.
Rating: 3 out of 5
?Sandra Sperounes, Postmedia News
(For more on Divine Fits, read our canada.com interview with the band.)
2 Chainz
Based on a T.R.U. Story
(Def Jam)
There?s no lack of hip-hop heavyweights on Based on a T.R.U. Story, the debut album from 2 Chainz. If you want a snapshot of the album, just scan down to track eight: ?I Luv Dem Strippers (feat. Nicki Minaj).? Yes, it?s as trite as it sounds. There is a simple litmus test for enjoyment of this album. The fifth track, ?Birthday Song,? has a great beat and a solid verse from Kanye West. Take the lyrics out of the equation and there?s not much to dislike about it. But if the line ?all I want for my birthday is a big booty ho? makes you visibly cringe or triggers the reflex to reach for the ?remove disc? button then you might want to give this one a pass. I?ve listened to this album more than I expected to ? ?listenable? is about the highest accolade it deserves ? but we all have a line regarding insipid lyrics. If it doesn?t cross it, Based on a T.R.U. Story is bound to at least flirt with your line or, if 2 Chainz has his way, do much, much worse things to it.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
?Stuart Thomson, Postmedia News
Alanis Morissette
Havoc and Bright Lights
(Universal)
Conventional wisdom holds that domestic contentment is the enemy of great songs. Important and resonant records, some say, come from conflict, internal or external.
There are those who say, however, that love songs are the backbone of all memorable popular music and wonder where this whole conflict rule comes from.
On her first album in four years, Alanis Morissette, two years married and the mother of one-year-old Ever, skirts the issue. Songs like the soaring synth-pop thank-you note ?Empathy? and the love ballad ?Til You? ? the latter written for her husband, rapper Mario ?MC Souleye? Treadway ? ooze with homebody happiness.
Others, like the percussive pop-cultural indictment ?Celebrity? and the psychedelic, Eastern-flavoured ?Lens,? which confronts religious and political conflict, keep a jaundiced eye on the world outside Morissette?s living room, where the album was recorded so she could have Ever nearby throughout the process.
Either way, however, Havoc and Bright Lights ultimately falls a bit short of delivering the great-songs part of the equation.
The first half offers the possibility that this might be a truly superior pop album. The opening track, ?Guardian,? shows Morissette easily retaining her crown as Queen of the Big Soaring Chorus. The sweet, bubbling keyboard backing in the verses collides with slicked-up ?Sweet Jane? guitar chords on the refrain, and it?s all just too hard to resist.
The winning combo illustrates the respective contributions of co-producers Guy Sigsworth, who brings the synth textures, and Joe Chiccarelli, who has worked with the Strokes and the White Stripes and knows his way around power chords.
While the next few songs keep the momentum going ? the lumbering beat of the anti-misogyny challenge ?Woman Down? recalls David Bowie?s ?Fashion,? and it really works ? the disc seems to run out of steam at about the halfway mark. By the time the unexceptional rockers ?Spiral? and ?Numb? turn up, the rush of harmonies that introduce the hooks have become ? as they always do ? an irritating formula. To make matters worse, the melodies fall by the wayside at about the same time.
?Edge of Evolution? closes the album with musings about the evolution of consciousness. Its main virtue is that it?s a shorter time investment than reading an Eckhart Tolle book. But as Morissette sings ?We?re ready to push envelopes into full-blown consciousness? in one of the album?s less memorable refrains, it?s only too clear that, musically at least, no envelopes have been pushed at all.
Rating: 3 out of 5
?Bernard Perusse, Postmedia News
(For more on Alanis Morissette, read our canada.com interview on the making of Havoc and Bright Lights.)
Iggy Pop
Apr?s
(Thousand Mile Inc.)
In a million years, was it really foreseeable that one of rock n? roll?s most unrepentant exhibitionists, self-mutilators and all-round garage-band icons would eventually record a faithful, irony-free version of the Beatles? ?Michelle?? Yes, the Ig has returned in crooner mode, following up his 2009 album of French chansons, Pr?liminaires, with a fairly similar late-night disc ? half of it in la langue de Moli?re, with Pop gleefully embracing the language and not rolling his ?r?s. In his deep bass rumble, the 65-year-old singer offers marvelous interpretations of classics written not only by the likes of Gainsbourg, Piaf and Brassens, but also by Yoko Ono, Nilsson and Cole Porter. At a concise 28 minutes, Apr?s takes its leave just as you?re getting comfortable, leaving you wanting much, much more.
Rating: 4 out of 5
?Bernard Perusse, Postmedia News
Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
Lawless Soundtrack
(Sony)
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis ? colleagues in the Bad Seeds, Grinderman and soundtracking ? have specialized in scores saturated with dusty, desolate elegies (The Proposition; The Road; The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). The setting of Lawless (whose screenplay was written by Cave) ? Prohibition-era Virginia ? would seem to lend itself to the same treatment, but the soundtrack features a blue-chip singers? circle, mostly backed by Cave and Ellis? ad-hoc band, the Bootleggers. Vocalists and songs make repeat appearances: Mark Lanegan?s leather-bound baritone leads an irresistible hard-strumming cover of Link Wray?s country-blues barnburner ?Fire and Brimstone,? which is reprised in a very mortal performance by Ralph Stanley, whose craggy take on the Cave/Ellis composition ?Fire in the Blood? is contrasted with two serene readings of the same by Emmylou Harris. The recurring guests and material add to the cohesion of a soundtrack with a vibrant sense of time and place. By turns raucous and sombre, authentic and revisionist (the Velvet Underground?s ?White Light/White Heat? is convincingly transported to the 1930s by Stanley), the album hardly needs a film to justify its existence.
Rating: 4 out of 5
?Jordan Zivitz, Postmedia News
Swans
The Seers
(Young God Records)
The Seer?s intensity could be measured by statistics alone: two hours in length, three songs that clock in at more than 19 minutes each. But numbers mean nothing when you?re confronted with the mind-altering zenith of Michael Gira?s obsession with transcendental tidal waves of sound. From ?Lunacy?s? witchy chant, to the exhilarating explosion and contraction of the 32-minute title track, to the infinite choral and cello drones dominating ?A Piece of the Sky,? to ?The Apostate?s? monumental raging groove, The Seer is uncompromising, towering, cathartic ? trance music that doesn?t pacify, but elates and exhausts. Rather than come off as stunt casting, the extensive guest list ? including former Swans vocalist Jarboe and Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Karen O (who sings the atypically tranquil ?Song for a Warrior?) ? reinforces the impression that while Gira will always be Swans? formidable conductor, this is the most collaborative work of his career.
Rating: 5 out of 5
(Full disclosure: Swans raised funds for the recording of The Seer with the sale of a limited-edition live release, which was available in various price structures and with various extras. I paid for an option that came with, among other things, an executive-producer credit on the album.)
?Jordan Zivitz, Postmedia News
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