| SO MANY CDS SO LITTLE TIME
With space on the CD review pages at a premium and an ever-growing pile of music on my desk, I figured it was time to get down to cases and listen to some music.
· Russ Freeman – Safe At Home (Just a Memory): Recorded live in Vancouver in 1959, this is a lovely (if basic) jazz album with the Russ Freeman trio making music that’s perfect for the background of a subdued dinner party.
· Ben Lee – Awake is the New Asleep (New West): Ben Lee loses Claire Danes and finds spirituality. Recorded and mixed by Brad Wood, the album showcases Lee's much-improved songwriting, even if some of the longer numbers start to drag. Still, it's way better than his 1999 effort Breathing Tornados.
· Dead Meadow – Feathers (Matador): If Sonic Youth was into psych rock instead of experimental noise they would sound a lot like this. Heavy yet somehow still ethereal, Dead Meadow prove that there is a fine line between shoegazing and hobbit rock, and stay much more focused than most stoned drone-rockers. Don't worry – there is still a 14-minute super jam.
· The Old Soul – The Old Soul (Hand of God): Most of the time this group of aging Toronto scenesters come off sounding like a younger version of The Rheostatics, albeit without the chops or cred. When they cover Brian Wilson's "Vega-tables" it all goes south.
· Mogwai – Government Sessions (Matador): Glasgow's golden sons of space rock compile a career-spanning BBC-sessions album that reminds you just how good they are. Most bands as epic as Mogwai lose something when recorded for radio, but these tracks (including the 18-minute-plus version of "Like Herod") sound almost as full as the album versions. You gotta love the loud-quiet-loud.
· We Are Wolves – Non-Stop Je Te Plie En Deux (The Mintaka Conspiracy): At times like a Francophone version of Les Saavy Fav, at times like a synth-heavy version of Nation of Ulysses, We Are Wolves take punk-funk, new wave and sludgy indie-rock and tie it all together with massive bass and crisp production.
· Unwritten Law – Here's to the Morning (Lava): Like Nickleback meets Blink-182 – wait, don't Linkin Park already sound like that?
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