R.E.M. Lacks Direction On New CD

R.E.M. definitely isn’t my favorite band of all time, but if I had to pick one group that epitomized my taste in music, it would be these particular Hall of Famers. They’ve just never released anything I haven’t liked. From Murmur to Out Of Time and everything around and in between, the Georgians have woven through countless genres and produced dozens of incredible tracks. Naturally, I’ve been eagerly awaiting their new album, but news on the general direction has been scarce.

According to Billboard, the disc is roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the way finished, paving the way for a 2008 release. Mike Mills was recently asked for more details about the project, but in typical R.E.M. fashion, he revealed almost nothing. Later this year, the acclaimed threesome will drop their long awaited live CD/DVD R.E.M. Live; so, expect the anticipation to be at a near frenzy by the time their fourteenth album of new material is released.

Bo Diddley Suffers Heart Attack

The terms originator and pioneer are incredibly overused by today’s media. A band’s importance is often grossly exaggerated, but in the case of Bo Diddley, every piece of praise heaped upon the songwriter is completely deserved. His infamous ‘Bo Diddley’ riff perfectly melded Blues with Rock N Roll, setting the stage for an uncountable number of future musicians. Sadly, Bo has been in poor health the last few years, and his condition seems to be deteriorating.

According to Music-News, the seventy-eight year old suffered a heart attack last week during a visit to the doctor. He was quickly given emergency surgery and moved from intensive to cardiac care. We here at Cinema Blend send out our deepest thoughts to the singer’s family along with his millions of fans effected by these recent health problems.

Bo Diddley’s music has been covered by everyone from The Who to Aerosmith to Creedence Clearwater Revival. He’s opened concerts for The Clash and even appeared in the Dan Akroyd classic Trading Places.

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CD Review: Our Love To Admire

The boys from Interpol are in a dangerous spot. While their two albums have been almost incredulously well received, neither is very different from the other; beyond that, they’re wrapping up a successful North American tour, but they’re apparently disappointing live.

As they release their third album on July 10--hopefully something different from their first two--we think to ourselves, “If this isn’t good, they might just be finished.”

And then we hear Our Love To Admire and remember, “Oh yeah, these guys are good musicians.”

“Babe it's time we gave something new a try,” frontman Paul Banks sings on “No I in Threesome,” coincidentally addressing the exact worries of Interpol fans everywhere. Though for almost the entirety of the album, upon first listen, it doesn’t sound like they’re giving anything new a try. Our Love To Admire starts off as something creepier than what we’re used to, but nothing is really that different.

As the tracks drone on--and they do drone, although it’s about as pleasant as droning can sound--it becomes evident that Interpol’s sound has changed, but only a bit, and very subtly; the musicians are more in control with an overall slower sound. They’ve also taken a few steps to invite closer examination: By emphasizing percussion more than echoing guitars, they’ve developed a deeper, more textured album than we’ve heard from them before.

And then we listen to tracks like “The Heinrich Maneuver” and remember that they’re still capable of fun songs, too, despite their generally slower sound. We hear “Mammoth” and are taken a bit aback--is this the same lead singer? He’s practically whispering at first, until he belts out lines like “Just spare me the suspense/ Now it's enough with this fucking incense,” and things really start to vary up as they show off the tightness of their sound as perfectly as they can.

It’s not until the final track--an almost experimental, radically different song, the likes of which we’ve never heard before--that something clicks. “This space is set to break/ It's just too safe for me outside tonight/ And I want that/ I face the storms at the time/ From the lighthouse”; The vocals sound distant, almost haunted as ambient noise fades in and out each second. Its subject matter is depressing and isolated.

This is not the Interpol we’ve heard before; this sounds like atmospheric post-rock, like Godspeed You Black Emperor or Explosions in the Sky. And as the track finishes, it forces us to reconsider, to take a step back and listen to the album again, perhaps a bit closer: Does the band really sound the same?

source: cinemablend.com

CD Review: Favourite Worst Nightmare

It would be a natural impulse to dislike the Arctic Monkeys on principle. Their debut, last year's Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, sold 360,000 copies its first week in England, based on one single, some Internet demos, and a deafening buzz. It became their country's fastest-selling debut CD, making them ''one of the most important British bands of all time,'' to quote one U.K. music writer — a breed known for using hyperbole the way Emeril does garlic.

So dismissing them as another overhyped British act would be understandable — but also wrongheaded, at least if you love loud, fast, witty rock songs. And while their second set, Favourite Worst Nightmare, may not be as revelatory as the first, it's nearly as good, and suggests they may eventually live up to the most impassioned accolades. Still, they have some convincing to do Stateside: Despite ranking high on numerous 2006 best-of lists, Whatever's first-year-plus sales haven't even matched that first week in England.

Nightmare's lead single, ''Brianstorm'' — an oblique dis (or tribute?) to a ladies' man — may not be the best transatlantic come-on lyrically, but it's a musical thrill ride that seems engineered for coke-fired dance-clubbers, with its high-speed high hat, fuzzed-out bass line, explosive heavy-metal opening, and spectacular false ending. No doubt these lads, ranging in age from 20 to 21, can play their riffs, which are steeped (sometimes excessively) in those of grizzled '00s vets like the Strokes and the Vines, with a few older echoes.

But their lyrics set them apart, with verses that can stand alongside those by Stephen Sondheim, Nas, and Dylan Thomas on Wikipedia's internal rhyme page. ''Now the shaggers perform and the daggers are drawn,'' frontman Alex Turner slurs on ''Balaclava.'' The Monkeys grew up on hip-hop, and while they're not rap-rockers, they know how playful poetics and regional flavor can be more pleasurable than mass-market lingua franca.

Whatever shone with details about working-class youth culture in the group's hometown of Sheffield. Nightmare is less culturally specific — a minus. But on the best tracks, when Turner dreams of a distant lover (''...lying on your side, with your hands between your thighs'') or an unhappily reformed party girl (''You used to get it in your fishnets/Now you only get it in your nightdress''), it feels more intimate — a plus. The latter tune sounds like a mere insult until he casually addresses the subject as ''my love,'' and you glimpse a hurt smart-ass counting down his own rabble-rousing days. It's the sort of wisdom, and emotion, of which rock poet laureates are made