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More of the past from the Futureheads
The Futureheads, "News and Tributes" (Vagrant/Star Time) ***
The Futureheads' new album begins with the low din of drums, as if some maniac is pounding away down a long hallway.
Cue a power chord, some cockney lyrics and then an anthemic chorus.
"News and Tributes" is not much of a departure from the band's 2004 self-titled debut. You won't find much atmospherics or distortion. There are no grandiose guitar solos or blips and bloops from an overzealous producer.
What you get is a collection of tight songs that fall somewhere between the jagged edges of post-punk and the buoyancy of pop.
"Yes/No" opens with a typical Futureheads' bang and is soon followed by the unbelievably catchy "Fallout." But then, can a song with wave after wave of hand claps be anything less?
The music once again takes a comfortable back seat to the quartet's usual four-part harmonies in almost every song.
But that's not a knock. Barry Hyde and Ross Millard still play a great combo of guitars that provide just enough space for a tight melody without losing it. Check out bonus track "We Cannot Lose" as the perfect example.
Not everything has to be fast and furious. "Thursday" is a ballad with such a heavy emphasis on background harmonies that you wonder if they're standing on a street corner somewhere in 1950s America. "You should feel like it's all OK. But every day now feels like a Thursday."
-- Scott Fallon, Staff Writer
Busta Rhymes, "The Big Bang" (Aftermath/Interscope) ***
You know Busta? The big mouth that roared? The rapid rapper on the apocalyptic trip with the hair as dreaded as his lyrics?
Of course you do. Busta's had that shtick for 10 years; the ragga, the woo-hah.
Busta's still loud and still loves the toasting of his Jamaican upbringing. But Rhymes has shorn his locks, his old, lame label ("This ain't J Records" he coughs on the G-Funky "Get You Some") and joined forces with Dr. Dre for a lean, dirty vibe (lots of Dre's signature piano) and a cheerier outlook.
This doesn't mean Busta's turned pop-hop, a la Chris Brown, even if "I Love My Bitch" is pretty chipper. It's just that a ruminative Busta sees both sides of the barbed-wire fence ("In the Ghetto") while utilizing the rawest noise ("New York S-") and the subtlest shadings (the insistently pulsating "Touch It").
Besides, how happy is Busta when Bang's bangingest -- "Legend of the Fall Offs" -- features a funereal groove and a nasty karmic finale?
Woo-haa.
-- A.D. Amorosi, The Philadelphia Inquirer
AFI, "decemberunderground" (Interscope) ***
Neither as heavily cleaving as "Art of Drowning" nor as darkly decaying as "All Hallows," San Fran's goth-core AFI has moved toward a shamed inevitability since going major-label. With longer, more complex songs and occasional whooshes of falsetto from vocalist Davey Havok, "decemberunderground" sounds like Rush circa its New-Wave '80s, only harder, poppier.
Sure, AFI and vaguely dismal lyricist Havok still paint it black through the crotchety crack of "Affliction" and "Kill Caustic."
Even if the glum electro "Love Like Winter" is no picnic, AFI shades its onyx anthem "Miss Murder" with hints of gray and shards of glam that stomp until the sun comes out.
Yet, there are these leaping strings and hoop-jumping vocals and rhythms through "Prelude 12/21" (doesn't that sound like a Rush title?). And "The Interview" is nothing if not a grand, sweeping (albeit tight and crunchy) suite. And AFI's epic ballad, "Endlessly, She Said" feels like a finale. Which it is.
That's all good. But still -- Geddy Lee, take me away.
-- A.D. Amorosi
For more CD reviews, see The Mix on Monday.
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