Christina Aguilera
Lotus
(Sony)
Comfortably ensconced in her throne on The Voice, Christina Aguilera couldn?t help but lose some of her edge. But like the Roots? late-night gig on Jimmy Fallon, her day job has afforded her a certain creative freedom. She sounds less desperate on this fifth proper studio album. There are awkward moments, to be sure: ?Army of Me? is a self-conscious affirmation attempt; ?Let There Be Love? is a generic dance ditty; and ?Around the World? is a blatant Rihanna ripoff. But ?Your Body? works by keeping it simple, with Aguilera singing, ?It?s true what you heard / I?m a freak, I?m disturbed;? ?Sing For Me? is an effective torch song about not caring what anybody thinks; and ?Circles? is a raunchy flip of the bird to haters. Aguilera has always been at her best when she basks in her outsider status instead of trying to keep up with her pop tart competitors. Though she forgets that sometimes, here, she is saved by her unshakeable singing talent.
(Watch Christina Aguilera?s ?Your Body? music video.)
Rating: 3 out of 5
?T?Cha Dunlevy, Postmedia News
Crystal Castles
III
(Last Gang)
Toronto goth-dance duo Crystal Castles gets relatively poppy on its third album. While previous releases indulged the band?s punk leanings overtly, this one focuses more consistently around Alice Glass? frantic yet somehow soothing banshee wail. Comparisons could be drawn to Montreal dance darling Grimes in terms of lyrical inscrutability mixed with emotional resonance.? But Crystal Castles doesn?t linger in safe territory. Consider opener ?Plague?s? shouted aggression; ?Pale Flesh?s? desperately screamed verses; or ?Insulin?s? rave freakout, aided by producer Ethan Kath?s stroboscopic production. And yet much of this set feels inexplicably soothing. The soaring ?Kerosene? is imbued with whispered intimacy, while ?Affection? rides a hip-hop beat and filtered vocals to fuzzy-feeling bliss. And yet, as accessible as they get, Crystal Castles cant? shake their dark side. That dichotomy makes them ? like Sweden?s The Knife ? a bewitching musical entity.
Rating: 3.5 out of5
?T?Cha Dunlevy, Postmedia News
One Direction
Take Me Home
(Sony)
One Direction listening to the Clash?
Certainly someone in the big machine driving the success of the hugely popular boy band has heard ?Should I Stay or Should I Go.? The guitar riff from 1D?s ?Live While We?re Young,? the debut single and opening track from the new disc, changes those deathless Clash chords only nominally.
But it takes only a few lines for the guitar to be buried by the excessive production, at which point the actual sound of the recording joins the sterile and overcooked likes of so many pop chartbusters. This song, released in September, clearly knew where it was going: straight into the top reaches of the charts.
But no amount of computer-program tinkering by would-be Svengalis can wreck a cool song. The truth of the matter is that ?Live While We?re Young,? with its joyful abandon and irresistible melody, is an excellent pop record. And you don?t need to be in the group?s demographic of prepubescent girls to fall in love with it.
When the second track, ?Kiss You,? with its one-note guitar clank and handclaps, also conquers its manipulative production clich?s, you start to wonder whether you had the group all wrong.
But no. Sadly, the line between brilliant and really annoying remains, at times, a fine one.
The treacly ballad ?Little Things? ? one of two tracks written by the reliably sensitive and ever-grating Ed Sheeran ? strips the production down to just acoustic guitar, but the relief is soon cancelled out by the plain awfulness of the song.
Pretty soon, the songs, while remaining impressively catchy, begin to sound formulaic and contrived: puppy-love emotions with the sexual components carefully coded, arena-sized choruses with the mandatory harmonies and falsettos, the predictable dead-stop ending to most tracks and the singers trading off lines and wordless vocal hooks.
The slightly nauseating ?They Don?t Know About Us,? with its swelling refrains and vocal grandstanding, is the low point.
Give points to the One Direction team for ending Take Me Home with the haunting, slightly downbeat ?Summer Love,? which sounds like nothing else on the album. And while you?re at it, acknowledge that the producers and writers who came up with the 13 retirement plans on this disc know how to craft a chorus with a drive that won?t quit.
But catchy isn?t everything. There are days when you can?t get ?The Chipmunk Song? out of your head, either.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
?Bernard Perusse, Postmedia News
(For a different take on Take Me Home, check out canada.com?s track-by-track review of the new One Direction record.)
Green Day
?Dos!
(Warner Music)
Book-ended by gentle, stripped-down, ?50s-style songs with nothing but soaked-shirt rock ?n? roll in between, the second disc in Green Day?s trilogy-in-progress advances the project considerably.
?Uno!, the first of three new albums being released by the band in less than three months, was a workmanlike return to their juvenile 1994 breakout Dookie. But with its self-consciously adolescent lyrics and a lack of strong melodies, it sounded mostly like a lesser effort by any one of the band?s many pop-punk imitators.
Luckily, ?Dos! fixes everything, leaving doubts in the dust ? at least pending next month?s release of ?Tre!, which is expected to be more elaborate and arena-friendly.
What we have here is, essentially, a timeless rock album that sounds like above-average Green Day, while it simultaneously tips its hat to many of the forebears who made the group?s music possible. This is why, for example, you?ll find Billie Joe Armstrong playing a solo straight out of Chuck Berry on ?F? Time,? previously known as a song by the band?s side project Foxboro Hot Tubs.
You?ll also hear nods to, among others, the early Who (?Lazy Bones?), the Beatles (?Wild One?) and soul (?Makeout Party,? which sounds like Eddie Holland?s ?Leaving Here?). ?Lady Cobra? goes it all one better, sounding like Little Richard?s ?The Girl Can?t Help It? as played by Status Quo in more of a rush than usual.
Surprisingly, Armstrong?s guitar solos ? more like brief, excited outbursts of string-bending than actual solos, really ? provide some of the most exhilarating moments on an album that rarely lets the energy level drop. The goofy, vaguely eastern-sounding hook that drives Wow! That?s Loud is also one of his finest ? and most amusing ? moments.
No move here seems misguided. Even ?Lady Cobra?s? rapping in ?Nightlife? turns up in the right place with the right attitude.
?Dos! is a straight-up rock ?n? roll album. We had been warned. What we didn?t expect was a great one.
Rating: 4 out of 5
?Bernard Perusse, Postmedia News
Soundgarden
King Animal
(Universal Republic)
It?s probably fitting that King Animal, Seattle alt-rock legends Soundgarden?s first studio album in 16 years, opens with ?Been Away Too Long.? Yet, listening to King Animal, it sounds like very little has changed. Chris Cornell?s vocals soar as high as ever, while guitarist Kim Thayil?s fretwork remains just as intricate as it was on the monster cuts from Superunknown and Down On The Upside. The rhythmic backbone of bassist Ben Shepherd and drummer Matt Cameron is full of twisted subtleties. King Animal will immediately satisfy fans: ?Non-State Actor? is a huge Zeppelin-style stomper, ?Bones of Birds? swirls with moody psychedelia, while ?Black Saturday? is a jangly acoustic, hand drum-driven jam. If you blink, you?ll almost miss the horn blasts at the end of ?A Thousand Days Before,? while on ?Taree? the band almost sounds as if it?s taking Mastodon into the grunge realm. Ultimately, King Animal lacks a couple real killer singles, but it?s a solid rock record inside and out.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
?Francois Marchand, Postmedia News
Kendrick Lamar
Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City
(Aftermath/Interscope)
Kendrick Lamar?s second studio album will easily stand, along with Nas? Life Is Good, as one of the strongest rap releases of the year. Good Kid brews a twisted narrative, multiple voices (admittedly Lamar?s internal and external dialogues) and stylistic points of reference hinting at everything from ?70s funk to ?90s gangsta rap, not to mention a storytelling structure vaguely reminiscent (during the first few tracks, at least) of Prince Paul?s conceptual masterpiece A Prince Among Thieves. Good Kid is the vision of a Compton-bred boy?s big dreams and disillusions on his way to the top, but instead of relying solely on machismo, Lamar peppers the album with a fair amount of questioning. It?s the balance between the big, bombastic, tropes-heavy car-thumpers (?Swimming Pools?; ?Backseat Freestyle,? where Lamar compares his dream with that of Martin Luther King Jr.) and VIP section moping (?Poetic Justice,? featuring king of emo rap Drake, of course) that makes Good Kid a rap record with more depth than most.
Rating: 4 out of 5
?Francois Marchand, Postmedia News
Tiga
No Stop
(Different/PIAS)
Electro is a genre in constant flux, as evidenced by Montreal DJ hero Tiga?s latest mixtape. You?ll hear a spectrum of sounds over these 28 seamlessly spun tracks, from Kindness? opening pop hymn ?Swinging Party? to Adam Marshall?s techno-fied funk beatdown, ?Bass Tracking.? Tiga gives a taste of his own current fixations with the tongue-in cheek, Prince-styled gem ?Plush;? raunchy booty bass number ?Track City B?h;? and tribal vibed ?The Picture? (featuring a direct Prince nod). You?ll get lost in the rhythm of Romare?s ?The Blues [It Began In Africa];? and lifted by fellow Montrealer Jacques Greene?s soulful tech-house excursion ?Prism.? At the end of 70 action-packed minutes, you?ll want to start over at the beginning, as Tiga?s intuitive blend of dancefloor fun and sonic stimulation make for an intoxicating combo.
Rating: 4 out of 5
?T?Cha Dunlevy, Postmedia News
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