Music review
How the pendulum has swung. A couple of years ago, rock music barely existed in the higher elevations of the charts, squeezed into near-extinction by pop and rap. Yet today an album like Disturbed’s “Believe” can debut at No. 1 on the Billboard’s album chart.
While it’s good to hear serious guitars buzzing back to life, it’s not so encouraging that something as derivative as “Believe” would become a national top seller.
But Disturbed has a “Prayer” – a hit first single keyed to staccato rhythm and David Draiman’s clipped screech. The group also has the requisite battery of weapons for “Believe’s” other tracks, including adrenaline-fueled generic guitars, jarring beats and carefully timed melodic flourishes.
Meanwhile, the lyrics indicate Draiman is forever on the verge of tragedy, as on the sobering “Intoxication,” where he spits out venom about having “enough to vilify what I love to sanctify all I hate.” Naturally he alternates between punkish shrieks and sweet croons, as per formula.
As Disturbed skillfully knifes through “Believe,” a few memorable tracks come to the surface, including a “Rise” full of chugging fire and a “Liberate” that blitzes the mindset of narrow-minded zealots.
Still, this is nothing new. And it debuted No. 1.
Rating (five possible): 3.
“American Idol: Greatest Moments,” various singers
Judging from “American Idol: Greatest Moments,” there’s a whole new crop of vocalists grooming themselves for careers as lounge singers.
Featuring individual songs by the nine losers of the reality TV show, four numbers by “Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson and one ghastly track by the lot of them, the compilation exposes several shortcomings.
Whatever magnetism some of these cheesy singers may have exhibited on the show is lost here – especially with the guys. Jim Verraros takes it too easy on his slack interpretation of Lionel Richie’s “Easy,” while RJ Helton is monochromatic in his handling of Stevie Wonder’s “Lately” and A.J. Gil sounds bored as he works his way through Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour.” At least Ejay Day seems to be feeling his rendition of Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be” as he bumbles along.
Even “Idol” runner-up Justin Guarini, who places two tracks on “Greatest Moments” (“For Once in My Life” and “Get Here”), is little more than Don Ho with cooler hair.
Except for Ryan Starr’s fitful cover of Wonder’s “If You Really Love Me,” the women have the better moments of “Greatest Moments,” including Christina Christian’s effectively bleak cover of Bill Withers “Ain’t No Sunshine” and Nikki McKibbin’s rock-growling take on “Piece of My Heart” (which was immortalized by Janis Joplin). Better still is Tamyra Gray’s emotionally florid rendition of the Burt Bacharach/al David standard “A House Is Not a Home.”
Then there’s “Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson, whose victory over the others is more than justified here with her four tracks, including her grandstanding No. 1 single “A Moment Like This.” She also boldly and deftly tackles two Aretha Franklin classics, “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman,” and though she does them well, Clarkson will never be able to make these songs her own.
Alas, there’s also that depression joint effort, a fragmented cover of The Mamas & The Papas’ “California Dreamin’ ” that’s rudely mangled.
Clarkson needs to distance herself from these wannabes as quickly as she can.
Rating: 2.5.
“Rip It Off,” Stroke 9
Like the prototypical split-personality drunk, Stroke 9 swings from party song to moroseness on “Rip It Off,” the San Francisco band’s follow-up to its 1999 debut “Nasty Little Thoughts.”
A Universal Records statement attributes the chasm between moods to Sept. 11; the band reportedly had a completed release on its hands before the 2001 attacks and then went back to the studio afterward to record more songs and lighten the atmosphere.
Thus the revamped “Rip It Off” features songs such as first single “100 Girls,” a choppy salute to hedonism (“One hundred girls or maybe more
eft me passed out on the floor …”), and “Latest Disaster,” a smirking, careening sendoff to a relationship that wasn’t much in the first place.
Those songs lead to “Vacuum Bag,” which seems like a mocking melodrama until it reveals itself as deadly serious song with Luke Esterkyn warning/pleading, “Don’t say I never loved you.”
The serious side of Stroke 9 occasionally proves to be as engaging as the rowdy side – Esterkyn evokes a nice blend of romance and lust with “Just Can’t Wait,” and he makes an especially nice turn as a beleaguered, fed-up lover on “We Were Wrong”: “I’m sick of being what you don’t want anymore.”
However, the band dissolves into a bitter pool of insufferable anguish as “Rip It Off” drags to a close with the reject-able “Reject,” the tedious epic “Anywhere,” the angst explosion “Lead the Way” and the album-closing “California” that’s a dreadful combination of lame songwriting and bland musicianship.
And just like that, Stroke 9 goes from getting down to being a downer.
Rating: 3.
(Chuck Campbell is the entertainment editor at the News-Sentinel in Knoxville, Tenn.) (Contact Chuck Campbell of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at http://www.knoxnews.com.)
(Contact Chuck Campbell of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at http://www.knoxnews.com.)