pop rock

Hawk

payal — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Mark Lanegan—hey, I know that name.
You sure do. Mark Lanegan fronted Screaming Trees, one of the better bands to come out of the early '90s Seattle grunge scene. They never gained the attention or commercial success of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or Nirvana, and their minor success was propelled mostly by “Nearly Lost You,” a track from the soundtrack for how-very-zeitgeisty film Singles. After grunge was discarded in favor of nu-metal, gangsta rap, boy bands, and factory pop, Mark Lanegan didn't remain with his old band churning out increasingly bad records or touring on nostalgia value. He joined Queens of the Stone Age, made music with Greg Dulli (of the Afghan Whigs) as the Twilight Singers and the Gutter Twins, and has released well-received solo records.

Isobel Campbell—that sounds pretty familiar, too.
Well, it should. Isobel Campbell was a member of indie darlings Belle and Sebastian from their inception in 1996 until her departure in 2002, as cellist, keyboardist, and backing vocals. She released two records under the name The Gentle Waves and has collaborated with Mark Lanegan for three albums, which is considered her breakout.

It's an odd pairing—the twee Scottish lass and the aging, rough-singing American troubadour, sounding here for all the world like a low-living Leonard Cohen. Campbell, who is credited with most of the songwriting and all of the producing and arranging, mostly sings backup or harmonizes with Lanegan throughout the record. She has a fine, serviceable, and lovely voice whose femininity works well with Lanegan's bluesy-grungy growl. Most of the record is a quiet hum, including a nice cover of Townes Van Zandt's “No Place To Fall,” but a New Orleans-style jazz/blues number (“Get Behind Me”) placed directly at track six cuts through the lull with all the subtlety of a brass band at an Ash Wednesday service.

Hawk is slightly uneven, but I don't find that to be a fault. It's a little piece of obscure southern-style Americana, with its jazz/blues/alt-country/gospel influences, and Isobel Campbell's voice is mellifluous enough to pass for any number of American female pop-rock singers pre-1980. I was fond of this record and it grew better and better with repeated spins.

Written by: Natalie Ballard, February 26th 2011

Red Velvet Car

caitlin — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

By Heart

Legacy Records

I've often wondered what happened to Heart. Did they break up? Did they retire from the music business? Sometimes I saw them pop up in the news, but they would dart out of sight as quickly as they had come. I was both happy and surprised to hear them speak up during the last presidential election. However, there was no new music until now.

In a sea of male rock ballad performers, Heart always stood out in plain sight. Known for their straightforward lyrics and soaring vocals, the sisters' songs have always been memorable. Even those of us mostly unfamiliar with their material know bits from "Barracuda," "Crazy On You," and "Magic Man." Thankfully, Heart didn't quit making music. Red Velvet Car is Ann and Nancy's first album after six long years. It is a solid rock album, with a dark grittiness that is understandable and welcome. After withstanding decades of the music industry and life's challenges, I would only hope that experienced musicians would come out with their teeth bared. From the album's photos and liner notes, the sisters glare confidently outward, plush red vehicles that are more than capable of running us down.

The songs do not have the memorable, poppy catchiness of their past work. However, they make up for it with sincerity and soul. "Safronia's Mark" grabs the heart and doesn't let go ("How can she fly/ with a broken wing?"). The title track "Red Velvet Car" soars and swipes ("I'm comin' for you! I'm comin' for you!"). The earthy choice of sounds and instruments on the album is very different for them. Songs such as "Death Valley" intentionally spin into cowgirl territory.

All in all, don't come into this album looking for the grace and whimsy of Dreamboat Annie. Instead, open your mind to an antique limousine with its engine on fire.

Written by: Jacquie Piasta, December 4th 2010

Game Night

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

By Corrin Campbell

Corrin Campbell is a Wisconsin native who enlisted in the US Army shortly after graduating high school. A combat-vet and former member of the 1st Calvary Division, Campbell trained at the Armed Forces School of Music in Norfolk, Virginia, before beginning her career with the Army Materiel Command Band. As a US Army trained bassist, Campbell has performed for troops around the world before joining forces with her current band, The Election, to create and perform original music. Unfortunately, Campbell’s biography is more interesting than her music.

Game Night is fourteen tracks of high energy, rock complete with grating guitar, wrenching vocals and the occasional pop-infused number. Campbell has drawn comparisons to Heart, a band she is said to idolize, and while the similarity is apparent, so is the irrelevance. Pioneers of female fronted bands, backed by aggressive, guitar driven rock, Heart was at the height of their career in the late seventies and into the eighties. Their last commercially successful album was 1987’s Bad Animals and the current generation is likely more familiar with Fergie’s cover of “Barracuda” than Heart’s original recording.

The Wilson sisters also feature as inspirations, but Campbell’s efforts are way more imitation than influence. Though some might view this as nostalgic, it is more aptly described as dated. Game Night would be more accessible if Campbell had succeeded in breathing new life into a sound she finds inspiring, rather than attempting to re-create it.

Laden with pastiche notwithstanding, Campbell is clearly invested in her craft, utilizing her songwriting to explore her experiences over the years. As she states on her website, “These songs are my attempts to be true through the trials of life and find a healthier way to get through these personal complications.” In a world full of man-made pop idols, Campbell deserves recognition for creating music she loves, with people she respects and on her own terms.

Written by: Alicia Sowisdral, August 23rd 2010

Heatwave

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:10:00 +0000

By Total Babe

So TM Records

I have recently felt there is a shortage of high quality up-and-coming bands, especially bands with strong female leads. The band Total Babe is starting to change my mind. After listening to their new six-song release, Heatwave, I did a quick Internet search and was shocked to find out that they are a trio of teenagers! Clara Salyer, Jordan Gatesmith, and Lizzie Carolan are already getting rave reviews and one of their songs is being used in a German commercial. This isn’t bad for teens from Minnesota.

A great test of music is if you find yourself humming it a few hours after listening to the album. This is exactly what I found myself doing at work. Some songs are very light and fit neatly in the pop genre, but they don’t sound like the next Britney or Miley. I think a better comparison of the vocals and sound would be Liz Phair, charming and sweet, but with an edge. Total Babe seems to be a good solution to a humdrum morning.

Adding another complex element to the music is Carolan’s violin. It makes you almost melt into the melodies and gives it a more mature sound. If I were to choose a favorite track, it would have to be “Shape Up,” with its upbeat whistling featured throughout the song. I generally prefer lyric, heavy music, yet this song, which features little in terms of words, still draws me in with its toe-tapping rhythm.

These musicians are in high school and even their MySpace page boasts that they are “kids.” However, the arrangements by these talented youngsters work to produce some great music and I would not be surprised to hear about them for years. Hopefully they will inspire other potential girl musicians yet to come.

Written by: Andrea Hance, December 2nd 2009

Clara Bellino

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:05:00 +0000

By Embarcadero Love

“I’ve got one foot in the grave
one foot on a banana peel
you can call me brave
_but I know the deal”

Those are the first four lines of the song “Game Up—Bigger Pickle” on Clare Bellino’s latest release Embarcadero Love. After listening to the album a number of times now, I find it to be like a box of chocolates—you don’t know what experience you’re going to have each time you listen, but the end result is always a delight.

Bellino’s music has been described as a cross between Suzanne Vega and David Bowie, but her sound still has its own unique quality. Bellino, who was born and raised in Paris, France and studied classical music in the Conservatory for ten years, creates music that defies genres and boundaries. There is a feeling of past, present and future in Bellino’s music; latin, jazz, pop, and rock rhythms infuse her songs with a fresh and engaging vibe.

“Tout Est Fini,” the first song on the album is sung entirely in French. While I don’t understand the lyrics, it has a catchy, rhythmic beat and the second half of the song has a chanteuse like quality to it. Listening to it, I can almost imagine myself sitting in a postwar Paris nightclub.

Bellino’s voice has a childlike quality to it, but don’t let that lull you into a state of peaceful oblivion. Her lyrics can be humorous, haunting, lyrical and surprising, but never cliché. In “Peaceful Solution,” Bellino sings “give me the heart to make peace every day, let me be part of the solution, let me be a peaceful solution, let me be a peaceful solution.” The more I listen to this CD, the more I like it, and that’s all I need to know.

Written by: Gita Tewari, October 1st 2009

Love Will Find You

admin — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:56:00 +0000

By Findlay Brown

This is Music Ltd.

Findlay Brown is not an artist who tries to hide his musical influences. Laced throughout Brown's new release Love Will Find You, listeners will find a litany of musical inspiration from Bruce Springsteen to Elvis Presley.

The album opens with what is probably its best overall track, which shares it's name with the album's title. "Love Will Find You" is a sprawling landscape of reverb and sixties pop that sounds as if it were recorded at Phil Spector's beloved Gold Star Studios during its heyday. Brown's use of distant stacked background vocals and ample horn and string sections give way to moments of quiet melodic abandon which give the listener an opportunity to sample Brown's own stellar vocal performance.

On "Everybody Needs Love," Brown is able to fully explore his vocal range with a performance reminiscent of Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely." Brown's ability to draw in the listener with soft vocal vibrato and infectious hooks would make Orbison proud. "That's Right" is a catchy, raucous rockabilly sojourn brimming with twang and gusto, as well as some intriguing chord changes and vocal harmonies in the hook. As the album progresses Brown continues to borrow progressively more from Orbison—almost to the point of mimicry—on tracks like "Teardrops in the Rain," and culminating in the album's swan song, "I Had a Dream."

In Brown's defense, if the only criticism I can think of is that he sounds too much like Orbison, that must mean that he has put together a pretty good collection of songs. Although Love Will Find You may not be making many people's list for the top ten albums of 2009, it is still a very enjoyable and rewarding listen, and is highly recommended for anyone who has a soft spot for infectious hooks, brilliant melodies and that world-famous wall of sound.

Written by: Steve Sousa, June 20th 2009

Sea Sew

admin — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:58:00 +0000

By Lisa Hannigan

ATO Records

Ah, the curse of cuteness. Lisa Hannigan must know it better than many. Her voice is as prettily breathy as Norah Jones', as warm and comforting as a teddy bear under an electronic blanket, and as sweet as the spun sugar she sings of in "Pistachio." Her voice, in short, is the essence of what one might call "feminine." Hannigan played and sang with Damien Rice for six years; you may also know her duet "Some Surprise" with Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol. Here, on her first solo album, she proves she can more than hold her own—in the bashful way a butterfly might.

This album is at its finest when the lyrics and music are as cuddly and subtle as the vocals are. Songs like "Splishy Splashy," "Pistachio," and "Lillie" exemplify this best. "I Don't Know," my favorite pick of the album, is a "list song" par excellence, enumerating all that the singer does not yet know about a potential paramour, but would like to: "I don't know if you write letters/or panic on the phone." The lyrics are endearing in their simplicity and the character is so appealing in her uncertainty. The listener has to love this woman because she's so sweet and adorable. You can practically see her toying with her hair and staring at her feet like a teenager. An accompanying horn section, violin, and background vocals add pleasant depth to the song, which otherwise might prove too cotton-candy-fluffy for most audiences.

Yet for a listener who identifies as a feminist, such tracks feel like guilty pleasures. Shouldn't I expect more self-assertion from female artists? Or at least want them to transcend a pretty-girl vision of femininity? Never fear. Other songs, like “Keep it All” and “Courting Blues” on Sea Sew are darker and more intense. The latter begins with mournful, sawing strings, yet the vocals come in as gently as on the precious "Splishy Splashy." What is going on here? The melody and ambiguous lyrics ("Don't you be afraid tonight/Your father will not know") evoke something ineffably disquieting and seductively sinister, which is something you might expect from Rufus Wainwright or The Phantom of the Opera. We suddenly realize that the possession of a sweet singing voice can no more define Lisa Hannigan than the possession of a vagina or mammary glands.

And yet, I keep listening to the album for the pretty songs. When Sea Sew embraces its sweetness instead of fighting against it, the album truly displays how very lovely and powerful it can be.

Written by: Charlotte Malerich, May 7th 2009

Seconds from Sunrise

admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:03:00 +0000

By Soundside

Mystery Sound Records

Soundside is a group of four high school friends from Long Island. They’ve had mild success on the east coast since they teamed up in 2004. Seconds from Sunrise is their third full-length album and it appears that they are continuing on the track of commercial success.

Overall, Soundside has mastered harmonious vocals by belting out melodious pop songs that all tend to blend together for anyone who’s not of fan of the genre. Having already had some radio air time, it’s easy to see how they would fit into a set-list quite nicely between music like Nickelback and Better Than Ezra.

However, one aspect of their music that makes them stand out from the rest of these other alt-rock groups is their extension into the Latin market. The Spanish traces on Seconds from Sunrise can be heard in their synchronized melodies. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too long to see how they take their music in that direction because their first bilingual album is set to come out soon. It will be interesting to hear how their new path will progress their sounds stylistically and drive possible variations into their otherwise generic tunes. One can see from [Seconds from Sunrise](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MG3EKY?ie=UTF8&tag=feminrevie-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001MG3EKY) that Soundside has the ability to write pleasing pop songs that range from the more drum and bass tracks like “Driving on Empty” to the piano accompanied ballad “Right to Your Insides” isn’t lacking in style. Unfortunately, at this time, they’re not really doing anything we haven’t heard from other bands many times before. This group seems fated for stadium-sized shows or doomed to be a forgettable opening act. Sometimes luck has more value than talent in the music industry.

Written by: Sara Custer, April 14th 2009

Common Reaction

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:30:00 +0000

By Uh Huh Her

Nettwerk Records

Long story short, I was hanging around in the student center at school where a flat screen television soundlessly flashed images of MTVu. Since I had largely stopped watching MTV more than a decade ago, I was pretty much ignoring it. That is, until I saw a grainy black and white cartoon of an obviously lovesick man trailing a raven-haired beauty down the street. Intrigued, I resolved to listen to the song at home and made note of the band's name—Uh Huh Her.

I had never heard of the group before, and Los Angeles-based Uh Huh Her is a long way off from household name status. Named after PJ Harvey's 2004 album and comprised of Camila Grey and Leisha Hailey of The L Word fame, the duo hooked up just last summer. They released their first full length album, Common Reaction, in August of this year.

Common Reaction isn’t remarkable in the sense that it radically reinterprets electropop. Like much modern electronic music, this album fuses punkish guitars and baselines with piano and strings, then overlays those instruments with synthesized buzzing and whirring. What sucked me in were the reedy yet ethereal vocals of the two women as they sang of love, lust, and righteously angry heartbreak. Uh Huh Her—who alternately channel Shirley Manson, Saffron of Republica, and various '80s rocker girls—chant deliciously ambiguous lyrics throughout. (Exactly what do they mean by “won’t you pay if you wanna go down” and “I want to hurt you easy?”) My absolute favorite tracks on Common Reaction are “Explode” (which was the song in the video I mentioned earlier) and “Dance With Me.” The sugary crooning of the plaintive lyrics and the somewhat ominous droning of the synthesizer makes “Explode” a make out song extraordinaire. This single had my fingers hovering over the “repeat” button for hours. “Dance With Me” had me wanting to do just that; the throbbing base and driving guitar are perfect for drunkenly (or maybe even soberly) boogying away. I found several other singles to be satisfying as well. “I See Red” featured an interesting juxtaposition of a jaunty, pop-rock beat and introspective lyrics about an emotionally unavailable partner. “Say So” is an upbeat rock song about the redemptive power of new love.

The lyrics on the other tracks are a bit clichéd, but so what? Not everyone can be "deep"... nor should they be. A certain number of mindlessly fun albums need to be released each year, just to keep us sane. Uh Huh Her's Common Reaction definitely fits the bill in that regard. Listen to a few of the tracks or view some of their videos on [their MySpace page](http://www.myspace.com/uhhuhhermusic" target="_blank).

Written by: Ebony Edwards-Ellis, December 1st 2008