Art Brut
It's A Bit Complicated
(Downtown)
That second album—it's indeed a complicated affair. Especially when your debut was such a pitch-perfect confection of cheeky wit and barbed riffs. What's left to say? Art Brut have found some new wrinkles to exploit, chronicling that in-between zone fraught with youthful desires and adult responsibilities. The band is more confident than ever, churning out more complex but still compellingly catchy music. Unfortunately, singer Eddie Argos occasionally settles for simply ranting over the glorious racket, forgetting to sweeten the songs with, say, a hummable hook. Art Brut often recapture the old magic—and add some new twists—with songs like "Direct Hit." Fans of the debut will enjoy these growing pains. But make no mistake, that's exactly what they are.
—Jeff Jackson
Michael Brook
Bell Curve
(Canadian Rational)
Guitarist/sound engineer Michael Brook's latest release will unleash the same sort of debates over process versus product that Jackson Pollock paintings induce. From where I sit, process is poorly served by this programmed pot of aural mush. About half of this album consists of "lite" evocations of Coyote Oldman, Enya, Andean pan flute and New Age chant; the other half is as aimless as waiting for Godot. Even on the eponymous bell curve, this one scores no higher than a D.
—Rob Weir
Teddy Thompson
Up Font & Down Low
(Verve Forecast)
Generally, I'm wary of singer-songwriters producing cover albums so early in their careers—it suggests their own talents aren't enough to sustain them. But Teddy Thompson's selection of older country classics (by Ernest Tubb, Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton, for instance) serves to highlight his ample skills as a vocalist and clarify what he was after in his first two solo outings. With his friend Rufus Wainwright singing backup and orchestrating the string sections, Thompson turns these simple song gems into a lush, passionate salute to love-sick melancholia. As is clear from his cover of Elvis' "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone," Thompson, far from being just another folky with a guitar, can croon with the best of them.
—Mark Roessler
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind
(Music Maker)
Everybody knows British Invasion groups borrowed heavily from the black blues performers who later ended up opening for them. But did you know that country music also has African-American roots? The banjo has African origins, and in the 1920s and '30s many Southern African-Americans played the instrument, and fiddle, too. The Carolina Chocolate Drops recapture a lost tradition with an exuberant take on old-time country. They excavate pre-bluegrass music made for stomping pre-war barn dances. But there's no archival dust on this headlong music.
—Jim Motavalli
