4Play

Sept. 27, 2006

Persephone’s Bees - Notes from the Underworld - Sony
At first getting a reputation as a top-notch live act, having opened shows and shared stages with the likes of Johnathan Richman, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Cake, and many others, Persephone’s Bees, fronted by Russian singer-songwriter Angelina Moysov, has finally returned with their second album, and it’s a doozy.  Highlighted by Moysov’s spunky, controlled Gypsy-meets-California vocals, the band’s songs are further texturized by guitarist Tom Ayres’ experimentation techniques with everything from his spare guitar work to organ and theramin sounds.  “Nice Day” and “City of Love” (already heard in a Razr phone advertisement) are perhaps the most obvious singles, but tunes like “Queen’s Night Out,” “Walk to the Moon,” “On the Earth,” and “Paper Plane” are easy second-place winners.  This is pop with real style.
 


Stereolab - Serene Velocity: A Stereolab Anthology - Rhino/WEA
Stereolab has plenty - trust us, that’s Plenty with a capital “P” - of songs, so it’s interesting to see what they chose for an anthology album, given that so many of their tracks are impressive enough to have been included.  This set, however, nicely spans the gap between critical faves and fan faves, and will also likely serve as a good primer for the un-Stereolab-initiated.  Their ambient sounds and both pop and experimental sides are showcased well here, from “French Disko” to “Wow and Flutter,” “Percolator” to “Vonal Declosion” - songs from a half-dozen or so albums are represented, including the landmarks Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Sound-Dust - and as for those songs, there’s not a clunker in the bunch.  As if the songs weren’t enough, their are also some pretty snazzy liner notes included, making this a great package all the way around.
 


Kasabian - Empire - Sony/BMG
Kasabian’s sophomore effort was recorded in Monmouth (UK) and was produced by the skillful Jim Abbiss, who has also managed to draw the best out of such up-and-coming bands as Editors, Arctic Monkeys, and Ladytron, and does much the same job here.  Playing ironically on the band’s success and posing them as being kings of the pop heap (which they’re not quite, yet, but they’re well on the way), the album opens with the thematic “Empire” single, complete with military rhythms and artistic electronica sounds;  these sorts of risky arrangements (well, risky for pop music, anyway) will be repeated to great and interesting effect throughout the remainder of album, on impressive tracks like the thick-vocaled “Last Trip,” the loop-ridden “Seek and Destroy,” the earworm “By My Side,” and the giant finale anthem, “The Doberman.”  It’s not an empire-conqueror, but they’ve definitely gained quite a bit of territory with this one.
 


Lemonheads - Lemonheads - Vagrant Records
They’ve been around since 1986, hopped on the pop side of the early ‘90s grunge explosion, and have been through at least a dozen different band member configurations.  But in spite of all that, the Lemonheads have proved to have staying power, even if it’s come and gone in phases over the years.  Twenty years later, it’s time for their 8th studio album, and surprisingly, the band sounds pretty darned current.  Less introspective and melancholy than past releases, this is a revved-up Lemonheads, more pop-punk than grunge-pop, and, much like previous efforts, a good number of fellow indie musicians showed up to join in on the new songs, from the appearance of Dinosaur Jr. members on “No Backbone” to some heavy drum work from Black Flag’s Bill Stevenson to bassist Josh Lattanzi’s contributions on “Poughkeepsie” and “Rule of Three.”  A new Lemonheads?  Singer Evan Dando says it’s a “better” Lemonheads - you decide.