CD Reviews: Billy Talent, The Libertines, Kylie And More!
Tuesday December 04, 2007 @ 03:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

BILLY TALENT 666 Live (Atlantic/Warner)
Billy Talent make a grab for your Christmas cash with a new live CD/DVD package. It's less than impressive that Billy Talent can barely produce a 67-minute set but Ben Kowalewicz makes up for it by maintaining his skin-peeling shriek throughout. It's a daunting task of vocal evisceration that he performs from his perch atop a downstage monitor that resembles some sort of anarchistic pink vulture. While the DVD draws from three separate performances, the CD sticks with the most appealing one — BT's set in Dusseldorf (Germany has been Billy Talent's second home since II debuted at #1 there). The DVD also features snippets from interviews with the band members where we learn what we already know: They don't like George Bush, they adore Jane's Addiction and they remember the pain of travelling to band practice on godawful Mississauga Transit. Fans will likely dig it but the rest of the world will find 666 Live unnecessary. Jared Morano

GROOVE ARMADA Greatest Hits (Sony BMG)
Not to be confused with the forthcoming two-disc hits compilation, GA10: 10 Year Story, or Soundboy Rock, their seventh album just released in May, Greatest Hits is re-hash of Groove Armada's label-departing Best Of album with some newer singles literally slapped on top and no new material. Recent U.K. hits "Song 4 Mutya" and "Get Down" are the first two tracks on the album, which makes this collection feel quickly thrown together. These songs were hits about four months ago, guys! Could you at least throw them further into the mix? Song order and presentation aside, this best of is a lot of fun. Over 14 songs, it's a reminder of how many great singles and influence over the electronic genre this duo has had. From their beginnings as big and down beat trendsters, to the rock infusions of the Lovebox tracks, Groove Armada, though they've mostly been forgotten by North America after "I See You Baby" faded away, have been consistently innovative and danceable. Here's to another 10 years and no more hits compilations. Phil Villeneuve

HEARTBREAK SCENE The Szabo Songbook (Fayettenam)
The Szabo Songbook is one of those albums that we'll look back on in five years' time and label as criminally underappreciated. This first disc for Heartbreak Scene — a project conceived by Vancouverite Marcy Emery (The Choir Practice) — was a tempting enough venture that it attracted contributions from Destroyer's Dan Bejar, as well as his fellow New Pornographer John Collins. It's reportedly a cover project, but an Internet search turns up very little trace of Mark Szabo, the musician whose work is re-imagined here. If the man does indeed exist, we should all feel bad for not knowing who he is. While it may sound like something your mother would say about an afternoon tea party, this album is simply delightful. The material is flawless, and at times, tends to disguise the fact that Heartbreak Scene are a very talented acoustic pop act in their own right. The Szabo Songbook is one of 2007's must-find Canadian albums. Scott Bryson

WYCLEF JEAN Carnival Vol. II Memoirs Of An Immigrant (Columbia)
Ten years after his first Carnival disc was released, Wyclef is still working with a grab-bag full of collaborators (this time including Norah Jones and Shakira), but he's not having nearly as much fun. From the first song on the risk-free album, the listener is bombarded with messages — "Change the world," "Make things better," "Don't be greedy" and even the tirelessly played out topic of New York post-9/11. And, although the album travels the world from India to the Southern U.S. to Latin America and Haiti, most of the tracks end up sounding the same. With soft beats, acoustic guitars and chanted chorus lines infesting the record, songs such as "Fast Car," featuring Paul Simon, struggle to stand out in the muddled journey. While Wyclef's style of hip-hop can be refreshing, a full album as repetitive as this one gets tiring, over-loaded and boring quickly. Phil Villeneuve

THE LIBERTINES Time For Heroes: The Best Of The Libertines (Rough Trade/Beggars)
The Libertines' mix of ragged pop, garage rock and a hint of punk on their 2002 Mick Jones-produced Up The Bracket debut was one of the best and most exciting first albums of this century. The self-titled follow-up, while still quite solid, couldn't live up to its predecessor. So it's no surprise that Up The Bracket is represented here by seven songs and The Libertines by three. That leaves three songs that fans may not have. The best of those is the previously unreleased "Don't Look Back Into The Sun," a pretty pure pop tune. The shambolic "The Delaney" is an entertaining U.K. single B-side, while another British B-side titled "Mayday" is unexceptional. While one can quibble with the paucity of hard-to-get material, there's no arguing with the greatness of "Up The Bracket," "What A Waster," "Boys In The Band," "I Get Along" and "What Katie Did." Check this out if you want to find out why Pete Doherty was once better known for music than drugs, legal and girlfriend problems. Steve McLean

KYLIE MINOGUE X (EMI)
Kylie Minogue's 10th album contains one of 2007's best dance songs. "In My Arms." Its Calvin Harris synths, rapid-fire hi-hats and confident, care-free Kylie vocals make this track completely irresistible, catchy and rich on the dancefloor and on headphones. There are a few more heart-racing pop moments on X. "Heart Beat Rock" is a hiccupping piece of beat-candy and "Nu-Di-Ty" is an electronic banger worthy of Britney's "Gimme More." The rest of the album, however, sounds like overly well-crafted radio pop. Even the Cathy Dennis-penned "Sensitized" falls short of the many glorious Kylie moments fans are used to. If listeners expected Kylie to bare it all after her battle with cancer and headline-making breakup with her Hollywood boyfriend, they won't be completely disappointed with the subtle hints at personal lyric writing on "The One" and "Cosmic." In the end, though, X is a sugary sweet of-the-moment LP totally worth chewing on for a while, then spitting out. Phil Villeneuve

YOUSSOU N'DOUR Rokku Mi Rokka (Nonesuch/Warner)
For Youssou N'Dour fans, Rokku Mi Rokka (which translates into Give And Take) is a frickin' summers day compared to the dark cloud dramatics and politics of 2004's Egypt. Even though Egypt was a fantastic piece of work, there were few fun moments, danceable beats and singalong choruses. RMR has all these things combined with N'Dour's unstoppable sense of hope for Africa, politics and translations. Every song, from freedom anthem "4-4-44" to the Neneh Cherry-infused "Wake Up (It's Africa Calling)," is printed with a translation of the Senegalese version, so an English speaking listener can enjoy the album thoroughly. On "Tukki," N'Dour sings, "Take time to travel for knowledge/Bring back what you've learned/You'll learn about another way of life." RMR makes that trip easy and enjoyable. Phil Villeneuve

PEDRO You, Me & Everyone (Mush)
The cryptic dedication to David Tyack in Pedro's liner notes reads, "I dreamt it. Sorry for the delay. When I awoke I was 10 years too old." You, Me & Everyone sounds like composer/performer/producer James Rutledge could literally have written it during a Rip Van Winkle coma and awoken after a decade with a multi-layered instrumental masterpiece in his brain. Pedro's songs compress so many influences that it would take an essay to dissect them all. Some songs plant their roots in hip-hop with deep beats and repetitive hooks, but branch out with klezmer strings, wild jazz piano or tinkling xylophone. Others sound more like electro trances, free jazz freak-outs or post-rock head trips. As complex as it is, the music never seems pretentious or cerebral. Somehow these varied sounds coalesce into an effortlessly cohesive album. At the end, you might actually find yourself wondering if it really was a dream. Evan Dickson

PHONOGRAPH Hiawatha Talking Machine (Red Ghost)
If muffled instruments and tape hiss are the kind of thing that excite you, Hiawatha Talking Machine might be the EP you've been looking for. The follow-up to Phonograph's 2006 debut was reportedly recorded in a haunted attic and that's definitely the way it sounds. If nothing else, it proves there's a good reason that most discs spend weeks or months being tracked and edited in expensive studios. Quality of the recording process aside, the music the New Yorkers present here is better than average alt.country and follows the same path that their self-titled disc took. The five-piece were once billed as the next Wilco, but singer Matthew Welsh is still more of a sound-alike to Tom Petty than Jeff Tweedy. Phonograph seem to have all the skills needed to produce a good album; they just haven't done it yet. Scott Bryson

WOELV Tout Seul Dans La Foret En Plein Jour, Avez-Vous Peur? (K)
It took me a few listens to get past the tortured indie songstress schtick and give Quebec-born Genevieve Castree (a.k.a. Woelv) a chance. The problem is, even after giving in, I discovered there's precious little to sink your teeth into on her latest release. Track after track floats by in a rainy-day slumber, each barely distinguishable from the last. Opener "Drapeau Blanc" is the closest thing resembling a full-fledged song here. What you're left with is little more than some decent poetry set to some rather unremarkable instrumentation — spare guitar and piano lines coupled with the occasional rush of snare drum rolls and backing vocals from Phil Elverum (The Microphones), who recorded the album. It's only Castree's emotive French-language vocals, her clearest asset, that work to redeem the songs, but even they fail at times to gel with the music in any meaningful way beyond the shared cathartic tone, making initial Chan Marshall comparisons seem less and less apt as each track plays on. For all of its dramatic highs and lows, this record doesn't leave much of an impression at all. Matt Reeder

Previous Chartattack CD Reviews