TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2010 MUSIC QUICK SPINS
Tom Jones PRAISE & BLAME
Almost
every male crooner over 60 has his Johnny Cash Moment, when he stops mak-
ing drecky adult contemporary (or country, or pop) albums and returns to his purportedly natu- ral state of grave artistic seri- ousness, even if, like 70-year-old Welsh legend Tom Jones, he was never all that serious in the first place. Jones made his fortune as a hip-swinging, winkingly louche purveyor of lounge pop in its purest, giddiest forms. On his latest comeback album, “Praise &Blame,” he’s appropriately re- strained, somber, even, but wise enough not to try to out-serious Neil Diamond, who performed on his own comeback disc as if he was singing from inside the tomb, or Cash, who almost was. Jones is no stranger to hip- ness makeovers. In recent years he’s collaborated with Wyclef Jean, covered the Arctic Mon- keys and grown the kind of goa- tee last seen in Brooklyn in 2006. “Praise” could be merely a maneuver, but the disc, pro- duced by Ryan Adams’s fre- quent collaborator Ethan Johns, feels real. It’s Jones’s “O Broth- er,” “Raising Sand” and “Ain’t No Grave” all rolled into one, a mixed bag of roots-related styles —blues, gospel-lite, country- folk, rockabilly, soul — stripped of all fat and reduced to the bar- est elements of voice and spar- tan, if often electrified, instru- mentation. The song choices are impec- cable, from a thunderous cover of Bob Dylan’s “Oh Mercy” standout “What Good Am I?” to a holy roller redo of John Lee Hooker’s “Burning Hell,” all pro- pelled by Jones’s remarkable voice, still a marvel of quaveri- ness and bluster and sinew after all these years.
—Allison Stewart Recommended tracks: “What Good Am I?,” “If I Give My Soul”
Fat Joe THE DARKSIDE VOL. 1
In a recent
interview, the rapper Fat Joe spoke candidly about reaffirming his bona
fides. “I’mma have to do something that I’m an expert at; it’s called ‘kill people,’ ” he said. Joe, of course, was speaking metaphorically about the failure of his last album, 2009’s pop-reaching “Jealous Ones Still Envy 2.” So his newalbum, “The Darkside Vol. 1,” is meant as a return to the hard-nosed Miami-via-New York sound that has made the late-career version of Joseph Cartagena such a consistent — and consistently unspectacular — interloper. “Darkside,” like nearly all of
Joe’s albums, features a handful of songs that chill and burn in equal measure. The Cool &
Dre-produced “Valley of Death” and the devilishly composed, Soul II Soul-sampling “(Ha Ha) Slow Down” are the sort of seething hip-hop that he excels at. But there are drab moments as well, particularly a lumpy, R&B-laden midsection, a predictable Lil Wayne cameo and self-serious declarations from an artist no longer at the center of his own sound. Joe has never been celebrated as an intricate lyricist — he is mostly about heft and brute force —and can be easily diminished by his own production; his serrated voice is typically just a placeholder signifying menace and vituperation. When paired with another East Coast formalist —as on the patient, insinuating “I’m Gone,” a reunion with DJ Premier — he’s at home, in good hands. But, too often, Fat Joe wants to be everyone’s friend. —Sean Fennessey
Recommended tracks:
“Valley of Death,” “(Ha Ha) Slow Down”
Mountain Man MADE THE HARBOR
It’s nearly impossible to find an
album with more
unadorned elegance than “Made
the Harbor” by Vermont’s Mountain Man. Save for some very quiet, gently plucked acoustic guitar, the nectar-sweet voices of Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Randall Meath are the only elements present on the 13 songs. It’s almost jarring in its simplicity and makes for a refreshing, often entrancing listen.
Owing much to Appalachian
folk, gospel and even some barbershop, the songwriting is basic. But this works in the group’s favor as there’s no sense in distracting from the trio’s voices. They enter one at a time on the album-opening “Buffalo” —“follow, follow, follow, follow the buffalo” — before joining together in striking clarity, turning a throwaway lyric into something of a mantra. Throughout the album they repeatedly hit the right balance of solo singing and harmonizing. When they sing in tandem, it’s as thrilling as any guitar-driven rock crescendo. Taken out of context individual songs might seem a bit gimmicky, but there’s a heartfelt honesty throughout “Made the Harbor.” The influences are clearly of another era, but the songs never feel retro. That term usually implies an adherence to a specific sound tied to a certain era. Mountain Man reminds us that nothing else is needed but the right combination of unaccompanied voices to make something that sounds timeless. Mountain Man performs at 9:30 Club on Nov. 8. —David Malitz
Recommended tracks: “Buffalo,” “White Heron,” “Soft Skin”
KLMNO
S
THE CLASSICAL BEAT Post critic Anne Midgette offers her take on the classical music world at voices.
washingtonpost.com/the-classical-beat.
CLICK TRACK For more pop music news, reviews and features, visit ClickTrack, The Post’s pop music blog at
blog.washingtonpost.com/ clicktrack.
C3
ROGER KISBY/PICTUREGROUP VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS LOVELORN: Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast has written an enchanting debut album of boy-crazy diary scribbles transposed as punk rock. Best Coast goes ‘Crazy’ in love recordings from C1
rattling off her last three Face- book status updates. She’s killing time in the absence of an AWOL boyfriend, and as the song charg- es forward, our hero grows more goofily bereft. “Nothing makes me happy,” she shrugs. “Not even TV or a bunch of weed.” By the time she reaches the chorus, love- lorn ennui gives way to lovesick confusion: “I don’t love you, but I don’t hate you, I don’t know how I feel.”
But on much of “Crazy for You,” Cosentino knows exactly how she feels: lonely. This is an album of boy-crazy diary scribbles trans- posed into pining punk rock. Over the course of 31-odd min-
utes, the singer utters the phrase “I miss you” nearly two-dozen times.
“I miss you soooo much” serves as a heartsick incantation on the trundling “I Want To,” before the song snaps into a sprint. “I want to go back to the first time, the
first place,” she declares repeat- edly over a rush of snare drums and distortion. And when she’s not singing about being a slacker, she’s sing- ing like one, repeating lines over and over and over (and over and over). Considering slackerdom has always been the dominion of young men, there’s something strangely compelling about this approach, giving “Crazy for You” an oddly triumphal undercur- rent.
But despite her aloofness, the songwriter’s
finest moment
comes in the form of a clear-eyed love song, “When I’m With You.” Its refrain might as well be a cre- do for how romance is supposed to work when you’re in your 20s :
Recommended tracks:
“When I’m With You,” “Goodbye,” “Summer Mood,” “I Want To”
“When I’m with you, I have fun.” In a world of tempestuous love songs, this one feels as clear and pure as Motown.
But for all of Best Coast’s charms, there’s one trait — some might call it a weakness — Cosen- tino shares with the likes of AC/ DC, the Ramones, Slayer and countless other rock dinosaurs: Every song sounds the same. There’s a retort that’s equally
evergreen: Yeah, but what a great song!
richardsc@washpost.com
Presley’s grand piano to go on the auction block
los angeles — Elvis Presley’s white grand piano and his 1955 contract with RCA Records are going up for auction next month in Memphis, with the piano ex- pected to fetch more than $1 mil- lion, auctioneers said Monday. The purchase agreement for
SINGLES FILE A weekly playlist for the listener with a one-track mind
Tennis: “Baltimore” The husband-and-wife duo craft a peppy, lo-fi ode to Charm City.
U.C.B. featuring Wale: “Diana” The DMV go-go all-stars team with frequent collab- orator Wale on this puta- tively Diana Ross-in- spired, (very) unofficial “Pat Your Weave” follow- up.
Presley’s Graceland mansion and a letter he wrote in 1955 to his then-girlfriend shortly after en- tering the Army are also among the highlights of the 270-lot Elvis memorabilia auction Aug. 14. The white Knabe piano was owned and played by Presley for a decade. The singer bought it in 1957 from the Ellis auditorium in Memphis, where it had been played by visiting gospel per- formers for more than 20 years. The piano was placed in Grace-
CHELSEA
The Vaselines: “I Hate the ’80s” Kurt Cobain’s favorite Scots return after a 20- year hiatus with this supremely grouchy “We Didn’t Start the Fire”-like rundown of everything they hated about the Reagan era (spoiler alert: They’re coming for you, Simon Le Bon).
CHARMED:Tennis dedicates a peppy, lo-fi song to Baltimore.
Freddie Gibbs featuring Bun B., Chuck Inglish, Chip Tha Ripper and Dan Auerbach: “Oil Money” The latest leak from Gibbs’s increasingly impressive “Str8 Killa” fea- tures the Cool Kids’ Inglish and an awe-inspiring vocal from Black Key Auerbach.
The Kleptones: “Come Again (Beatles vs. Beasties vs. Daft Punk, et al.)” What do you get when you cross Eric Kleptones’ song-filching “Come Again” with a montage of classic movie dance numbers? Multimedia mash-up nirvana.
— Allison Stewart SF
land’s music room until 1969. Doug Norwine, director of mu- sic & entertainment at Heritage Auctions, said the piano was “an emotionally charged prized pos- session of the King himself." The singer’s personal services
contract with RCA Records — signed by Presley, his father and his manager, “Colonel” Tom Par- ker — is expected to fetch more than $150,000. Norwine said the contract
marked the transformation of Presley from a popular Southern act on the Sun Records label to an
VOICEPRINT
KING-SIZE SALE: The auction will include 270 items.
international superstar. The 1957 purchase agreement
for Graceland is expected to bring $35,000, and Presley’s four-page handwritten letter to sweetheart Anita Wood in 1958 has an esti- mate of $75,000.
Other items include Presley’s personal address and phone book, a pair of custom gold- framed sunglasses and his gun. — Reuters
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