Edited By Mike Breen

· Air -- The Virgin Suicides original score (Astralwerks).
Normally a film's score is a throwaway album, with little to offer but sparse Classical music that seems lost outside of the film. In a few cases, films have a combination soundtrack and score, with songs and background music, as In The Name of the Father. In most cases, the score takes a back seat to a film's soundtrack.

But the French ambient duo Air -- makers of The Virgin Suicides' score -- shoved the film's retro soundtrack into the back seat. Air, who gained international prominence with their last full-length album, 1998's Moon Safari, have perfectly complemented a film about (female) teen angst, 1970s-style -- the unbearable heaviness of being. It's a film whose look might have been inspired by the fake photos in a new album bought at Kmart in 1975, and Air's dreamy, sweet, swaying score of light Jazz and keyboards feels remarkably at home there.

It's still a score, and a good one -- just not a typical one. "Playground Love," the first track, is the only one with vocals, except for a few spoken word bits on two other tracks. Don't look for any of the other 12 cuts at the top of the charts: They're not single material, either on corporate radio or really any kind of radio. It's experimental elevator music kicked up a few notches, but it still has the power to put you in slow motion. (Doug Trapp)
CityBeat grade: A.

· The Who -- The Blues to the Bush/1999 (Musicmaker.com).
The Who is one of Rock's greatest live bands, releasing several live albums in their career to prove it. But, as The Rolling Stones have disdainfully proved recently, a great live band doesn't often age well. Certainly, The Who's live affront has gone downhill since their first "last tour," supporting the It's Hard album in the early '80s. The group, always touring for "a purpose" (Quadrophenia anniversary, Roger Daltrey's dwindling pocket change), made their live shows in the past 10 years an overbloated spectacle, bastardizing what The Who were really all about by overloading the stage with a parade of backing musicians (and what a shame to see Pete Townshend strumming an acoustic guitar for the bulk of a show).

So it was promising when this record was recently released (through Internet site musicmaker.com exclusively, like the surprise hit collaboration from Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes), drawing material from a charity concert last year in Chicago when the band played as they should've all along-- as The Who. Along with longtime keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick and Ringo's son, Zak Starkey, on drums, the band runs through a fairly straightforward but splendid set of Who standards ("Baba O'Riley," "My Generation," "Who Are You") and a couple of lesser-played songs like "Pure and Easy," "The Kids Are Alright" (not played since '66 ... and it shows) and "Getting in Tune." (For some reason, they've also included the Townshend composition, "After the Fire," from Daltrey's solo album, Under a Raging Moon ... ouch!).

While this isn't The Who from their raucous Mod days or from their transcendent, acidic Woodstock days, the group sound at least as good as they did during the It's Hard tour. Without the aural augmentation of excess musicians, you can hear that Roger Daltrey's vocals are actually pretty dead-on (Townshend's crack here and there) and that Townshend can actually wield the electric guitar around with his expected energy (an extended "My Wife," "5:15" and "Magic Bus" even allow for a little listenable improv jamming). Starkey's no Keith Moon (show me someone who is), but without the addition of useless percussionists, you can hear that his skills are a bit sharper than your average studio hired gun. And John Entwistle is still The Ox, anchoring the band as well as he always has.

That said, like any live album from a band this prolific in the live-album department, there are better ones out there (Live at Leeds, perhaps the best live album ever, and the Isle of Wight recordings, a close second). But this is an aged Who showing they can still kick with the best of 'em, which is reason, especially for a fan, to check this two-disc set out. It could rekindle your love for the band. I'm even considering paying the $100 or so that it'll probably cost to see this version of The Who on the road this summer. Don't think I'll ever say that about the Stones. (Mike Breen)
CityBeat grade: B.

· Aimee Mann -- Bachelor No.2 (SuperEgo).
After sitting here for over an hour trying to write a bad review of Aimee Mann's new album, Bachelor No. 2, I've given up on the task and accepted that the great muse of hack Rock critics will not be visiting me tonight. Had she come, I was going to make a remark about how annoying it is that Mann's songs are always about someone in her life who's not behaving as she thinks they should. And then I was going to mention that Mann's voice, which is a little reedy but pops from her throat like some sort of magic egg, is a nice but monotonous sounding instrument. Then I was going to say that Mann's fussy relationship songs have run their course. I mean you can only rewrite "You're So Vain" so many times, and really, besides her husband Michael Penn, who cares about her love life anyway?

But then I thought, "Well, if you're going to write romantic sounding music, as Mann does, and you have a lovely egg-shaped voice, then you can't exactly write about conger eels or Admiral Nelson's decisive but fatal victory at Trafalgar. You've got to write about love." And besides, Bachelor No. 2 doesn't have a bad song on it and it even has a few great ones, which is reason enough, if it was only half as good, to overlook the small stuff. (Brad Quinn)
CityBeat Grade: A.

E-mail Mike Breen

Spill It (May 4, 2000)
Spill It (April 27, 2000)
Spill It (April 20, 2000)
more...

personals | cover | humor | news | movies | music | arts & entertainment | classifieds | mediakit | home

Gig of the Week: Zrazy

Locals Only
The Women's Traditional Music Jam Session strives to create a community

Spill It

	Join the CityBeat Mailing List
	» JOIN NOW