LITTLE ROCK — The Cult
Choice of Weapon
Cooking Vinyl B-
Prodigious layers of guitar? Check. Stratospheric vocals? Yep. Propulsive rhythm section? Mmmhmm. A frontman with shamanistic tendencies? Oh, yeah.
Is this 1989? Uh, no.
But it is the latest from ’80s arena darlings The Cult.
You won’t confuse this with the band’s seminal LPs Electric, Love or even Sonic Temple, but singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy are still kicking, and kicking out the jams. Casting a baleful eye over what he sees as a society on the verge of a drug and technology-fueled collapse, Astbury wails his way through 10 tracks (our “bonus edition” copy has 14 songs), and Duffy’s guitars are just as soaring and swaggering as ever.
Sure, the lyrics and themes can be as hokey as second-rate Jim Morrison, but hey, this is The Cult. It’s best to just go crank up the Camaro and start growing a new mullet.
Hot track: “Amnesia” starts with a glamlike strut before heading for the stars on the chorus.
- SEAN CLANCY
George Harrison
Early Takes, Volume 1
Hip-O A-
These 10 songs are part of the deluxe Blu-ray package of Living in the Material World, the Martin Scorsese documentary. Also released on its own, Early Takes is warm and intimate, though the versions vary little from their fully produced versions.
As you listen to “My Sweet Lord,” it’s most enjoyable in its own right, even if your head is filling in the backup vocals. “I’d Have You Any Time” remains almost unspeakably tender. The simpler setting enriches “All Things Must Pass.”
Hot tracks: “My Sweet Lord,” a fine cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mama, You’ve Been on My Mind,” “All Things Must Pass” and a countryish, heartfelt “Let It Be Me.”
- ELLIS WIDNER
Cathy Jordan
All the Way Home
Blix Street A-
The first solo effort for Irish singer Cathy Jordan, longtime member of the band Dervish, will be big news in Irish folk circles. The rest of us will likely be bewitched with Jordan’s exquisite voice, which has character, charm and subtle power.
The material does not stray far from the confines of traditional Irish folk - most of the tempos are slow and most of the instruments are acoustic. But anyone with ears - Irish folk fan or not - should be swayed by this captivating work.
Hot tracks: “The Bold Fenian Men,” “All the Way Home,” “The Road I Go.”
- WERNER TRIESCHMANN
The Royalty
Lovers
Victory B+
Such is the state of hipster pop rock that a spot on National Public Radio gets listed ahead of MTV Buzzworthy in the press material. The latter appraised Lovers this way:“Like Amy Winehouse went on holiday with Vampire Weekend.” Frontman Nicole Boudreau and Winehouse?
Um, no. She really calls to mind Deborah Harry. But Vampire Weekend is apposite. Together these acts are making a beach music revival scene, the kind of pop that poured off the grills of bass-less push-pull vacuum tube amplifiers in the 1960s and got pumped over 100,000 AM watts to your Philco, buffeted by the wind in your ’55 convertible, over your sunkissed shoulders and beyond your potato chip-oiled fingertips and even down to your sandy soles tanlined by your thongs.
The best of these 12 tracks come in under three minutes. Most don’t grab me, but a couple of anthems do, which, if they both topped the charts, would be one more than Jan and Dean had.
Hot tracks: “Saint Bowie,” “I Want You.”
- BOBBY AMPEZZAN
Matthew Santos
Quickly Disappearing
CandyRat B
You know Matthew Santos. Ever hear Lupe Fiasco’s “Superstar”? Yeah? That’s Santos singing the hook. “If you are what you say you are/A superstar ....”
This is the third full length outing from the Chicago-based Santos, and it deals with the threat of climate change, hence the title.
“Don’t make the same mistake twice,” he warns on “Shallow Grave.”
Santos is able to shift between Peter Gabriel-type world pop, gritty blues, quiet folk and spaced-out ambience. If this all sounds a bit herky-jerky, it’s not. He’s smart enough to keep things moving along artfully and thoughtfully without being preachy or shrill.
Hot tracks: “Scarecrow,” “Quickly Disappearing,” “Not Such a Big World.”
- SEAN CLANCY
Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer
Little Blue Egg
Red House B-
Beloved folk singer-songwriter Dave Carter died in 2002. This album of original material by Carter and Tracy Grammer was recorded from 1997 to 2002.
Their cover of “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key,” the Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg tune, is lovely. The songs have spare acoustic backing, so Carter and Grammer’s voices, hardly powerful but expressive, are front and center.
Perhaps Carter has better lyrics elsewhere; the ones here seem limited. Anything that would spice them up is missing. Carter fans will want this, but the rest of us will be baffled at the adoration.
Hot track: “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key.”
- WERNER TRIESCHMANN
Style, Pages 23 on 05/29/2012