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- Antony - The Lake
- Antony - You Stand Above Me
- Current 93 - Sleep Has His House
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- Cormega - Get Out of My Way
- Infamous Mobb - Mobb Niggaz
- 18 Cent - U Not Like Me
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The defining moment of an album is frequently its closer. It's the last chance to make a lasting impression on the listener that can turn a good album into a timeless classic. Looking back on the 1990s, 'Millions Now Living Will Never Die' ended with the lasting impression of "Along the Banks of Rivers," a tune which differed so much from the others on that record but was strong enough to leave many breathless. Without that unpredictable variety and solid strength that came with the borderline out-of-place "Banks," it's almost unsurprising that when asked about Tortoise, their subsequent albums, 'TNT' and 'Standards' rarely are mentioned as being as globally important.
Sure, critics blamed it on the times and trends of instrumental "post-rock" music, but listening to any album Doug McCombs leads as Brokeback—exploiting the familiar soft, delicate, low-rumbling sound as heard on "Banks"—I can safely say that this type of flavor was surely left too far out of the mix. As the core duo of Brokeback (McCombs and Noel Kupersmith) are bassists, it's unsurprising that Brokeback recordings are bottom-heavy, with the distant thunder-esque a double-bass matched with the sound of a twanging baritone guitar or six-string bass. The duo rarely stop at only the low end, often allowing the songs to be colored with simple chimes, electronic rhythms, found sounds, guitar melodies, subtle horns, or angelic voices. On the whole, Brokeback albums consistently remain hovering in a point of serenity from start to finish, not entirely unlike an almost motionless bird, gracefully suspended in the wind (although the cover image has a lot of birds that look like they're crashing!). This album is no exception, and no surprise, as it maintains the serenity despite the stylistic changes from song to song. 'The Bird' is garnished with electric glitch beat-driven songs, beat-less pieces like the albums's all-too-quickly-fading opener, "From the Black Current," which combines a bowed double bass, bowed cymbal sound and twanging bass 6, and the voices of Stereolab's Mary and Laetitia in "Name's Winston, Friends Call Me James," and the catchy "In the Reeds," whose la-la melody can easily run around the head for hours. While there seems to be more experimentation this time around, there's nothing shocking about it, and this isn't a bad thing. The high quality of well-crafted melodies from previous releases is thankfully intact. If it's even more variety that's sought, program the songs between Tortoise tracks, but if something peaceful and lulling is more desired, this album can take the lead just fine.
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Swim releases are always worth a shot, so after being a bit surprised that Colin Newman was releasing a single by a band who sounded on the surface to be some kind of reversion to punk rock '77, I decided to try it anyway and see if it didn't grow in. This was a good idea, as I'd heard compressed radio broadcasts of Rhodes prior to hearing the single, and some of the raw powerhouse energy had been shorn away.
 
Colin's always been a big fan of process and this is why he liked Rhodes, a rock band born in a computer. He reckons that soon a lot more rock bands are going to be building tracks on computers from digitized building blocks, discrete chunks of recorded sound reconfigured furiously. Although this isn't nearly as distinctive as Wire's 'Read and Burn' EPs, it has a similar juggernaut crunch. "War Day" is a grimly appropriate a title for a song today, considering the idiotic destabilizing Middle Eastern situation, and the song rips, shreds and burns with a swagger not a million miles from the Saints second classic album 'Eternally Yours.' Despite a cocky attitude, the vocals are fairly weak and nondescript but that's not such a problem with a hotblooded ascending guitar riff driving the song to destruction. The computer also fuels ultraheavy crushing drum precision. On the flipside, 'The New' sounds like some long lost out-take from the Adverts first album, reshined and honed in widescreen moderninity. Rhodes deliver two quick blasts that leave me curious to see if they can transcend their influences when album time comes, because they've taken root in a killer sound bristling with needle-in-the-red digital distortion overload and it'd be a shame if something fresher didn't grow there.
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- Diane Wei Lewis
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Originally self-released as a five-song EP in 2001, Kid Dakota's expanded version (his debut full-length) arrives with three new tracks on Low's Chairkickers Union Music. (Low's own Zak Sally even joins the Minneapolis duo on bass on several tracks.) For a two-man outfit—Christopher McGuire on percussion and Darren Johnson contributing vocals, guitar, and all other instruments—Kid Dakota is electric. Jackson's songwriting and unvarnished angst break forth with surprising ferocity given that most of his songs feature two- (or three- or four-) part vocal harmonies and languorous guitar solos.
These decorative touches emerge like hard rock-inspired indulgences over otherwise straight-forward, sparse arrangements. It's as if you stripped the orchestra from the heavy metal power ballad, and then most of the heavy metal, but still found songs that were slightly glamorous, not a little trashy, perhaps even desperate, but definitely beautiful and raw. Jackson's voice, like that of an anemic angel, floats between humming guitars and sparkling cymbal crashes. Sweet, lazy, and clear, almost every trembling note is about pain. Lyrics touch on substance abuse and betrayal but inevitably return to the dull, debilitating conviction that one has become a cipher. Jackson, whose bloody face stares from the album cover in a candid snapshot from darker times, has said that while he is now completely sober, 'So Pretty' is a testament to the darkness of his worst years. But what great hooks! With several tracks actually waltzing into lilting crescendos, the music sustains humor and warmth if not hope throughout all sorts of miserable scenarios. Thus, although on the way there's a cheating girlfriend, getting dumped, alcoholism, heroin addiction, more alcoholism, meaningless sex, and murder—the last song, "The Overcoat," is emblematic of it all. Ending on a slightly higher note (detox), Jackson is still morbidly fatalistic ("maybe better but more likely it's worse") but even if nothing changes and even in the face of nothing itself, one has to keep moving: "And it's New Year's Eve / There's nothing to do there's nowhere to go / So I get a pass from my counselor to walk in the snow / Maybe going in circles again but it's hard to say / 'Cause my tracks keep filling up with snow and they fade away." 
 
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- Michael Patrick Brady
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