Mar 10th 2010 SHE AND HIM - Volume One (Merge MRG 324)

With the lead performer calling herself “Zooey Deschanel”, my hopes were not high. Surprise! The over-reverbed lyrics grew

on me and fit the instrumentals quite nicely. Imagine Jenny Lewis replacing Hope Sandoval in Mazzy star, only with better

lyrics. Deschanel doesn’t sing as well as Lewis, but has a much better grasp of lyrics. The best record I’ve heard in

almost 2 years (A-)

Posted by scratch / THE NATTERING NABOB

Mar 10th 2010 P. J. HARVEY & JOHN PARISH - A Woman a Man Walked By (Island B 001 281 102)

After a couple of interesting albums in the 90’s (last one: To Bring You My Love) I sort of lost interest. However, our

Polly soldiered on, and with the help of her old collaborator, Johnny Parish, she has produced a totally un-commercial

recording of some interest. She still emits atonal squawks, but the minimal use of instruments (ukulele, for example) make

it bearable. (B)

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Mar 10th 2010 JOHN FOGERTY - Rides Again (Verve B 001 328 602)

Here, John-Boy does a bunch of covers with one original. For the most part he (and his band) sound like a less twangy Randy

Travis. Except for one song (the lone original, natch) this could be Joe Blow and the Hayseed Serenaders at the local C&W

guzzle shop. Except for the Ricky Nelson whiner, “Garden Party”, these are mostly forgettable (B-)

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Mar 10th 2010 BRAZILIAN GIRLS - New York City (Verve B 001092902)

This outfit deals up mildly interesting instrumentals mixed with idiotic lyrics. At times the cheeziness of the keyboards

is appealing - but all it ends up doing is seeming like second rate Manu Chao (B-)

Posted by scratch / THE NATTERING NABOB

Mar 10th 2010 OASIS - Dig Out Your Soul (Big Brother/Reprise 2-514078)

The Gallagher brothers had their period of fame in the mid 90’s. Then, they were mostly forgettable. With the passage of

years,  improvement seems to have been forgotten. Here they have nuthin’ to say (but they do it with a maximum amount of

angst!) The band playing at the bottom of a rainbarrel doesn’t help either. (C)

Posted by scratch / THE NATTERING NABOB

Mar 10th 2010 COLDPLAY - Viva La Vida (Capitol 16886-07)

After their first commercial success “A Rush of Blood to the Head”, our playboys degenerated into total crud. Here, they

continue in that vein with yowls of whack lyrics over totally rhythymless mush. Except for the U2-esque “Lovers in Japan”

(some complement!) the songs are completely forgotten an hour after play (C-)

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Mar 10th 2010 NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!?! (Anti 86943-2)

Some people love this guy, but for some reason I have never heard him (until now.) And a good thing too. This can be

described as the worst of Tom Waits (say Heart Attack & Vine) doing 60’s Dylan (say Highway 61 Revisited) with a big whack

of Mickey Spillane. Naturally, this thing is loved by Ann Powers (she of “ain’t Chris Cornell the absolute greatest”.) So,

if you are a lover of extreme horseshit this thing may be for you. I’ll call it a candidate for the worst of the year. (D-)

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Jan 30th 2010 APOSTLE of HUSTLE - National Anthem of Nowhere (Arts & Crafts/AC021)

After listening to the first track “My Sword Hand’s Anger”, I had high hopes for this BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE spinoff.

Unfortunately, after that it was all downhill as the rhythm became as chaotic as the lyrics became moronic (C)

Posted by scratch / THE NATTERING NABOB

Jan 30th 2010 DEVOTCHKA - A Mad and Faithful Telling (Anti/86940-2)

Can you imagine KLAUS NOMI performing in a Jodorowski movie (say El Topo) where the band plays Herb ALPERT in an insane asylum?  If these guys didn’t have too many THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS tendencies and were a bit more over the top I could be a fan. Some people (izzat you K. P.) could be infatuated with their over-the-top idiocy. I’m not so sure (B-)

P. S. a better choice for album jacket would be the first STRING DRIVEN THING recording from 1972.

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Jan 21st 2010 AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD - Source Tags & Codes (Interscope/069 49326 2)

With a name like this, the smell of pretension overwhelms. This thing is stuck between punk influences (boo) and Artsy

pretentiousness (hmmm.) I could listen to Relative Ways and (maybe) Monsoon again and not be overly irritated. however, if

I had to listen through the punk section again, I would throw up (C+)

Posted by scratch / THE NATTERING NABOB

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