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Show e THE SUMMER UTAH CHRONICLE JUNE 20, 2001 WEDNESDAY, ffl Ueaventu $ies?f&ie eat like this all the time." So rather than attempt to critique this godsend of an album, I'll suffice to bask in its glory and make a few observations instead. "Packt like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box" captures the aloof paranoia that pervades the band's ocuvre with a delicious pun the refrain, "I'm a reasonable manGet off my case." BRENT SALLAY Chror.jcle Feature Columnist Amnesiac Kadiohead Capitol It's a shame that the scale only goes to four stars and that Radiohead achieved this lucrative rating with '997 s ()K Computer. Such superlative consistency could surest stagnancy on the band's pari as if Radiohead climbed Mount Everest only to stand around. This couldn't be further from the truth. With Amnesiac, Radiohead continues to push the bar of modern musical expression while still maintaining its distinctive feel. The album sounds little like anything else, even last year's experimental Kid A. So as a critic, I slap a perfect rating on it in an attempt to reflect my amazement. I feel like I've been asked to review God's wife's cooking. That is, after the third course of ambrosial hash browns, all I can say is, "Gee God, those were good. You sure arc lucky to be able to There are trap doors that you can't come back from." The latter features Thorn Yorke's troubled vocals over a song being played in reverse. "Dollars and Cents" walks on tacks, sweeping anguished guitar drones across a palette of frantic lyrics until finally coming to the conclusion that "We are the dollars and cents." "Life in a Glass House" closes the album with a somber, jazzy, lounge tune. The brass funeral marching band that drives the song leaves a glorious taste in the mouth a fleeting residue of divine bacon and eggs. Rating scales were made to measure empirical quantities of tangible things. Amnesiac eludes both criterion. To give it a perfect rating on a scientific scale is an insult to the band and to "Pyramid Song" track two is hypnotic, grandiose and haunting. While listening to it, I am convinced it is the most beautiful song ever penned. Until track four "You and Whose Army?" And then track six "Knives Out" I realize that such descriptions betray my intuitions as a music critic, but these songs appeal on such a primal level that no other word seems fitting. It's like the first glimpse of the sun after a life chained up in a cave. "PulkPuII Revolving Doors" and "Like Spinning Plates" carry on the experimental torch that "Kid A" and "Idiotcquc" lit a scant eight months ingenuity. But I will do so, only because it is ago. The former showcases weird, windblown percussion over heavily affected, spoken vocals: "There are doors that let you in and out but never open the most earnest recognition of greatness that I can offer. bsalla ychronicle. utah. edu LB crcBGo-Q-E- BRENT SALLAY Chronicle Feature Columnist 10,000 Hz Legend Air Astralwerks fc-fr-- (out of four) j Air's Afoort Safari came out of nowhere. More specifically, It came out of France a few years back, lulling the vorld with its syrupy, fresh pop styiings. The members touted themselves as "the French band," yet featured a woman singing sultrily in unmistakable English. The next year, the band provided an affecting soundtrack for Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides", leaving some of us with an memento of an eager Kirstcn Dunst, and reaffirming the notion that three days without air can kill , you. But now for its sophomore effort, the French band is already touting itself as legendary. Never mind that 10 mHz lies well outside the frequency range of human hearing. The fact is, although 10,000 Hz Legend is still musically intact, it is far from legendary,, and is no sure step in that direction for Air, Think of your first conversation with that special lusty someone who turned out to be especially lackluster, It's kind of like that Musically, Air is as curvaceous and alluring as ever. "Radian" and "Sex Bom Poison" consciously wallow in blissful licentiousness. And well-belate- 'Weekend Firecracker Frenzy Oil k f A Save 5 off Regular Prices 1 L"" U Savannah "i ECayatlc St LAKi , J Li TZJ BRENT SALLAY Chronicle Feature Columnist r FAKE!!!) Tool Volcano n J , - if.' I (out of four) Canoe EEsisis: Sat urday July 7t 15 off Suggested Retail Prices on all Dagger Canoes, Touring Kayaks and Recreational Kayaks in dealer stock. Offer limited-time good for period. Check with your Dagger Dealer for details and model availability. Sale does not include composite boats. m Lateralus i.'Tir.: is only post-mode- Napster (out of four) CITY, UTAH SaJe i T0030I opportunity to purchase select Dagger Touring and Recreational Kayaks at the best prices of the year! AI.T f.j-- Beck provides a welcome knowledge of English and scat, as it were, to "Vagabond" and "Don't Be light." But the majority of o,ooo Hz Legend sounds like a poorly dubbed Godzilla movie. Singing mostly on their own from vocals translated via Etch A Sketch, the members of Air belt out titles like "Don't Be Light," "Wonder Milky Bitch" and "Sex Born Poison" as if they made perfect grammatical sense all the while making inane rhymes a kindergartner would be ashamed of. "Radio Nci combines these qualities with the musical savvy of a '60s band reunited. Perhaps the French band would be better off singing in its own native tongue. Members of Iceland's Sigur R63 don't feel like they have to Anglicize their lyrics, and it only contributes to the otherworldly fed of their music. Or if the listener can find and kill that part of the brain that knows English and respects decent lyrics, ?o,ooo Hz Legend may weil be worth the cost of trepanation. Amusez-vou- s bien en 6coutarti ' bsaUaydichronide.utah.edu Wings of Greatness Latrlus (NOT Don't miss this limited-tim- e ger d, l 1 Dogger Caliisto .1BL , IF h With ail the trouble some of you have gone through to distribute your mediocre music over the Internet, I feel it is the least I can do to give you the public exposure you so yearn for. You know who you are some punk teenagers bent on fame, realizing the principles of supply and demand, and more importantly, name recognition. So you record a few songs in your garage, rip them to mp3S and cleverly give them names strikingly similar to titles from the upcoming release by Tool garnering yourself an even deeper spot in hell by adding that these songs are most certainly "not fake." Little do you realize the impact of g your actions. Strung-ou- t, thrashheads (myself included) across the nation sweat anxiously whilst their 56K modems drudgily pull down your hackjob songs at 3 ks. This inevitably slows down their downloadable porn speed, and then they lose faith in their icons after hearing the metal-achin- prog-met- al bunk that has been passed off in their name. Sure, some of the tracks are decent enough. I enjoyed hearing Pavement's "Range Life" and "The Hexx" again. Whoever did that was pretty clever. And two songs actually fooled me for a minute that is, until you started singing. I liked the track of audible static while you said you were going to kill me, repeatedly and in obscure ways. It reminded me somewhat of Aenima. To the anonymous authors of these musical travesties, know this: I offer you my most sincere feelings of scorn, and I assure you that I have deleted all of your files. As for the actual new Tool album, I have heard it and it is good. It's no "Prison Sex," but then, what is really? Fear not, jaded Napster users. five-minu- te Tool lives on. bsailaychronicle. utah. edu |