RECORD REVIEWS
Deep Blue Sea
Soundtrack
Warner Bros.
The main thing that has made soundtracks appealing to this reviewer
over the years is that they usually feature a variety of bands, a variety
of songs and, most importantly, a variety of different music styles. And
then I listened to the soundtrack for Deep Blue Sea.
While the songs themselves are in no way bad to listen to, it's just that
they basically all sound fairly similar.
Specifically, they are grouped into two broad categories – rap and
songs that sound like Boyz to Men type deals crossed with rap.
Okay, rap is good. But for some, too much of a good thing can turn rap to
crap.
Veteran rapper LL Cool J, who stars in this film and seems to have been
around longer than Hollywood has made shark movies, kick-starts the CD with
the interesting Deepest Blue (Shark's Fin), and also contributes
Say What, a typically good rap number.
Simone Starks offers Burn Baby Burn, a funkily fast song and Smokeman
gives us Smokeman, a hardcore rap song. Trevor Rabin, the music producer
for the flake flick, offers a final change of pace with the concluding Deep
Blue Sea Montage, a drama-filled instrumental.
Okay, so perhaps I couldn't quite get my teeth into the soundtrack for one
of the year's most… interesting-looking films, but rap fans are likely
to forgive it for its lack of variety.
Bug rating out of 5: 2.5/5
- Michael Gordon-Brown
Yellow Submarine Soundtrack
The Beatles
EMI
After having endured 12 hours at Big Day Out earlier this year, trying
to make sense of the sort of music that one of my co-reviewers cherishes
beyond comprehension, I was overwhelmed with a wave of nostalgia when this
album lobbed on my desk.
Now don't get me wrong here. I'm not that square that I didn't
enjoy the set Korn put on at BDO. I just couldn't for the life of me work
out why they decided to play the same song over and over again during their
time on stage.
I even stayed in the mosh pit long enough to cop a dozen or so bruises and
the first few songs of some bird called Marilyn. Any trooper who still goes
on stage so as not to disappoint her legion of fans, despite clearly being
the victim of advanced laryngitis, deep-seated bronchial pneumonia and an
outfit Dame Edna Everage discarded in the early 80s, will always get my
vote.
I'm also a big fan of Courtney Love's Hole, so after retreating to the sanctuary
of my car to tend to my wounds, I sat back and listened as she brought to
a close a very enjoyable day, if you discount the two-hour drive home. I'm
sorry I was too tired to see her excellent set close up.
But to each their own, and the Beatles' new release brought back the sounds
of my youf - a time when bands used melodies to sell songs and penned and
sang lyrics that were clearly understandable.
At this moment, the album is CDing away in the background and my foot is
a tappin' to the tune of When I'm Sixty Four, a prospect that once
seemed so far, far away.
When I'm Sixty Four, EMI's press release informs me, wasn't on the
original soundtrack three decades ago. Only six of the Fab Four's songs
were used then; the other nine presented here were apparently teased at
in flitting fits and instrumental starts.
To be brutally honest, I can't recall seeing the original movie or hearing
the original soundtrack.
Have to confess, in fact, that I was rather out of it for most of the 60s.
You'll have to take my word for it that Gatton College in the 60s was about
as far out of it as you can get.
The blurb also says this new Yellow Submarine has been remixed and revitalised.
Whatever, after the mother-fucking gormless gutturals of Korn and Ko, it's
just great to hear one more time clearly delivered, easily understood songs.
Take, for example, All You Need is Love.
With, at a quick count mind so don't hold me to this, 13 refrains of
All You Need is Love; 34 of Love is All You Need, a couple
of She Loves You, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and close on 30 free-standing Loves
for good measure, music fans of that era were left in no doubt what Messrs
Lennon and McCartney had in mind when they penned this particular classic.
Same goes for Yellow Submarine.
As we live a life of ease
Everyone of us has all we need
A sky of blue; a sea of green
In our yellow submarine.
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow Submarine,
Yellow Submarine.
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow Submarine,
Yellow Submarine.
They just don't write songs about yellow submarines like this any mores
the pity.
And could that lead character from Korn possibly have come up with this
passage of pure genius from Eleanor Rigby:
Father McKenzie
Writing the words of a sermon that no-one will hear
No-one comes near
Look at him working
Darning his socks in the night
When there's no body there
What does he care.
I very much doubt it!
And it's all very well for that Marilyn woman to stand on a stage at BDO
and scream: "Come up here and I'll fuck you up the arse" which
may or may not have been a lyric, but does anyone out there really think
she's capable of penning something as poetic and mystical as:
Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you
You answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
Or for that matter, even this:
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes
And she's gone.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain
Her rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers
That grow so incredible high
Newspaper taxis appear on the shore
Waiting to take you away
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds
And you're gone
Is it any wonder that so many of us long for those innocent days of the
60s, when we made No 1 hits of charming little songs that told of the pleasures
of a picnic in the company of the people you love.
No, you can shove all this techno/house/industrial deafness/hip hop rap
crap up your arse. Let us rejoice in Yellow Submarine, with its simple
little songs of a much sweeter time when everything made so much sense,
albeit with a little bit of help from our friends and other hallucinogens.
Bug rating out of 5: 5 (How can you possibly mark down perfection?)
- Don Gordon-Brown
Creed
Human Clay
Sony
Creed has a powerful, rocking sound that is very familiar - sort of
a cross between the rock of Pearl Jam and Bush.
While relatively new to Australian audiences, though they have played
short gigs in Brisbane and Sydney, Creed has been very successful in America.
Their debut album, My Own Prison, sold 3.2 million albums worldwide
and 10,000 in Australia.
Band members. Scott Stapp (vocals), Brian Marshall (bass), Scott Phillips
(drums) and Mark Tremonti (guitar), originally from Florida, have produced
a very solid second album that is both powerful and easy to listen to.
Strong guitars combine with growling, meaningful lyrics to produce a sound
that while not totally original is always good listening.
The first song, Higher, has regularly been at the top of American
rock charts and for good reason. Beautiful, Are You Ready? and Never
Die are very powerful songs with great guitar play. For added interest,
What If? will reportedly appear on the soundtrack for the upcoming
Scream (enough already!) 3, which the band is executive producing,
and the Australian version features Young Grow Old, exclusive to
Australian and New Zealand audiences.
Overall, Creed's second album is a fine effort that showcases their considerable
talents. It is always nice to see a band that just plays no-frills music
without gimmicks. A bonus is its darkly interesting CD cover.
Bug rating: 2.5/5
- Chris Gordon-Brown
Apollo Four Forty
Getting High on Your Own Supply
Sony
And now for something completely different.
By the end of this CD, listeners will probably have one thing running through
their minds, freshly bombarded with one of the more strange music styles
going around at the moment - what the hell was that?!
Formed in Liverpool 1990, the eight members of Apollo Four Forty have produced
a good effort in what is just their third album. Well, perhaps puzzling
is a more appropriate word than good.
The lyrics are definitely techno - most songs boast fewer than 10 words,
repeated over and over again. But the music is not the hard, continuous
beat of techno songs; instead, the lyrics are in front of a variety of different
music styles, rock included.
The first song, appropriately titled Are we a Rock Band? sets up
the rest of the album with its pleasant tune and no lyrics and may lead
people to think the band is actually easy listening. The following Stop
the Rock quickly puts paid to that notion, plunging the listener immediately
into a wild mix of a rock tune coupled with techno sounds and lyrics. Heart
Go Boom provides a nice variation with its reggae lyrics, while Stadium
Parking Lot and Yo! Future are more rock than anything else.
Getting High on Your Own Supply, with its strange mix of just about
every type of music, will one of those CDs I can safely say you will either
love, hate or be indifferent to. Like the unpredictability of the music,
who knows? Give it a go.
Bug rating: 3/5
- Michael Gordon-Brown
Gomez
Liquid Skin
Virgin
Gomez music is very nice country/soft rock, featuring predominately
acoustic guitar with a bit of Indian guitar mixed in on some songs for good
measure. All blend guitar with slow percussion beats to produce a unique
sound that makes for an enjoyable album.
Liquid Skin is Gomez's second album, following Bring It On.
Gomez have already toured promoting Liquid Skin but didn't come to
Australia - yet. The members of Gomez – Tom Gray (vocals, guitar and
key boards), Paul Blackburn (bass and guitar), Ben Ottewell (vocals and
guitar), Ian Ball (vocals, guitar and harmonics) and Olle Peacock (drums
and percussion) – obviously have excellent chemistry as their sound
is at times very addictive.
With 11 tracks all of similar hue it's hard to pick out the highlights.
Hangover and Revolutionary Kind are interesting for their
Indian style tunes, while Fill my Cup and Rhythm and Blues Alibi
also stand out.
Their web site – www.liquidskin.co.uk – also deserves a mention,
for its easy design and bright, bright colours.
If you like that hippy beat and soft, calm vocals then check out Gomez.
Bug rating: 2.5/5
- Chris Gordon-Brown
Siam Sunset
Soundtrack
Manamusic/Festival
The soundtrack for the new Australian movie has plenty of its own
charm but lacks the surprises (that is, the humour) that the film delivers.
It seems as if 40 of the 50 plus minutes on the soundtrack are just re-workings
of the opening tune. Well it's probably not that many minutes and it is
a good tune, but there is only so much one can take.
Nevertheless, the soundtrack is a nice, relaxing composition of mostly instrumentals
(that is, the theme song) that range from s-l-o-w to jazzy. Composer Paul
Grabowsky has chosen good music that compliments the movie. But on its own,
it isn't exactly going to set pulses ablaze.
That said, it probably was never meant to. Swingin Safari offers
a slightly more upbeat song, as does Siam Samba. Hallelujah (Torch
mix) provides one of the few vocal songs, and is a solid effort.
So, just like Deep Blue Sea, there isn't a huge amount of variety
on this soundtrack. But seeing it's a good tune, that's not necessarily
a totally bad thing.
Bug rating: 2.5/5
- Michael Gordon-Brown
Dixie Chicks
Fly
Sony
The Dixie Chicks, certainly one of the most popular bands at the moment,
will certainly repeat the success of their first album with this second
effort, Fly.
Members Natalie Maines, Martie Seidel and Emily Robinson have made a good
follow-up to their first album, Wide Open Spaces, which sold about
six million copies.
The album is dripping with their easy, country music for the 90s style and
should sell a few more million copies for them before it disappears into
the great big record store in the sky.
One song, Ready to Run, appeared on the soundtrack of Julia Roberts/Richard
Gere's recent re-pairing in Runaway Bride (together with You Can't
Hurry Love, another Dixie Chicks song.
Cowboy Take me Away, Goodbye Earl and Sin Wagon are slightly
more up-tempo country songs (yep, who would have thought that possible but
there you go).
There are no surprises on this album, and fans will be pleased. The country
scene is not loved by all, but the Dixie Chicks have got exactly the right
mix of traditional elements (the banjo, the toe tapping rhythms) with the
new (the faster beat). The result is a solid brand of music that is easily
enjoyed.
Bug rating: 3/5
- Michael Gordon-Brown
Mark Lizotte
Soul Lost Companion
Festival
Soul Lost Companion, by Mark Lizotte, is a strong and very
solid soft rock album that will most likely leave fans wishing for more
and non-fans curious at the very least.
Lizotte certainly has a good musical background. In 1987, he rose to
prominence from Perth as the front man of Johnny Diesel and the Injectors,
who had a very successful first album that managed to pick up a few ARIAs
for Best New Talent and Best Selling Record, with more than 200,000 copies.
After the Injectors broke up, Lizotte continued to make a name for himself
as just Diesel, before leaving Perth for the supposedly greener pastures
of New York.
This album suggests that the move has paid dividends. Soul Lost Companion
is both calm and rocking at the same time. Each song does sound suspiciously
like the one before, but they are all good to listen to.
Together with Guy Davis (keyboards programming) and Paraninie Prince (drums),
Lizotte did get some famous help for the album, with a different artist
pitching in for each song. For example, Split Enz star and Lizotte friend
Neil Finn lends his considerable talents to the very thoughtful Burning
Water.
Dig and When it Rains also boast top lyrics. The most touching
track is Darling of the Universe, as it is about one of Lizotte's
Perth friends who died shortly after he went to New York. It is a good song
in its own right, however.
Lizotte shows great potential with this album and will be one to watch.
His music is thoughtful, sometimes beautiful, though occasionally a tad
repetitive. Oh, well .... no-one is perfect.
Bug rating: 3/5
- Chris Gordon-Brown
