It’s always good to hear Paul Westerberg’s voice, especially in the rough, late-night-in-the-home-studio format of his new album Stereo (Vagrant) (packaged with a “rock” album Mono), but Westerberg lately seems to have mistaken rawness for commitment, forgetting that it was the songs that made The Replacements, not the attitude. Warm and agreeable his new stuff may be, but only about three of the 23 tracks have any kind of lyrical or melodic specialness.... Five years after making a cultural curry on their eclectic LP When I Was Born for the 7th Time, Cornershop have smoothed out their avant-garde edges for the infectious rock-disco party platter Handcream for a Generation (Willja/V2), and though bandleader Tjinder Singh’s vocal cadence tends to convert the straight-up pop songs into variations on “Brimful of Asha” (itself a variation on his “Wog”), the instrumental mix is never less than ebullient, especially when Noel Gallagher’s guitar and Sheena Mukherjee’s sitar lay into a smoldering jam on the 14-minute “Spectral Mornings.”... Neil Young’s Are You Passionate? (Reprise) pairs the veteran rocker with Booker T. & the MGs, which gives his epic guitar crunch a little more soul than usual. Still, that crunch can get pretty oppressive, given that Young is capable of crafting powerful bullets when he wants (and his backing band is capable of focusing his aim). The record’s best moments are the mellower ones, particularly the ghostly album closer “She’s a Healer.”... Badly Drawn Boy’s debut album The Hour of the Bewilderbeast generated a lot of buzz despite a slacker bent toward dilettantishness and half-completed ideas. BDB’s follow-up—the soundtrack for the upcoming movie About A Boy (Artist Direct)—is much more accomplished, with winning folk-pop ballads alternating with entertaining, movie-ready instrumentals. For once, it’s case of promises kept.
—Noel Murray
Greg Davis’ Arbor (Carpark Records) is a brilliant crossover folktronica record that successfully joins transcendental ambience and the melodicism of Nick Drake to the highly personal structures of electronica. And while ambient music is often regarded as incidental—to be heard, not listened to—anyone choosing to engage this wonderful album will likely be impressed enough by Davis’ tasteful integration of computer electronics and acoustic guitar folk tropes to believe the widespread assertion that “laptop is the new folk.”... The Geographic Records sampler You Don’t Need Darkness to Do What You Think Is Right winds its way from the expressionist folk-psych of Japanese bands Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Nagisa Ni Te to the orchestral pop of Empress and the Velvetsy folk of Sister Vanilla, closing with an ambient guitarscape by My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields.... Managed by Fluxus artist Al Hansen (Beck’s grandfather) and having Brian Eno interested in producing them, The Screamers were perhaps too preoccupied with video projects and the promise of stardom to actually get anything on tape. The legendary L.A. synth-punks disbanded in 1981 without releasing any proper recordings, which makes In a Better World (Extravertigo/Xeroid)—a collection of live performances, radio appearances and demos—an indispensable glimpse at a strikingly original, seminal band. Just imagine if Joy Division were a collectors’ kept secret for over 20 years—yes, they’re that good.
—Chris Davis
