Category: Reviews

The sophomore jinx is not just for sophomores anymore

I’ve been covering popular music from Japan since 2000, and I’m now familiar enough with it to see little to no difference from popular music in the US. Band politics work the same, and Japanese artists who I thought could do no wrong have shown their humanity.

2005 marked the year when the exoticism of Japanese popular music wore off for me. All that to say I’m far more willing to pan than I was when I first started listening to this music, and this round-up is perhaps an impressive collection of cookware.

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toddle: I dedicate D chord

One of the hidden extras on Number Girl’s first DVD release, Sawayaka na Enesou, is video footage of guitarist Tabuchi Hisako singing “Mappurima Girl”.

It’s a performance she reprises during the career-capping Number Girl film. Karaoke makes anyone sound reasonable good, and in those clips, she sounds all right.

It’s a different story for I dedicate D chord, the debut album by toddle, which Tabuchi formed in 2003. There, she sings slightly off-key, sounding earnest and bittersweet.

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Sigur Rós: Takk …

Sigur Rós has always struck me as a band I could probably like, but my exposure to them has always been at inopportune times.

I was under the mistaken impression the band’s third album, () (I like to call it Two Hot Dogs Facing Each Other), would be the kind of subtle ethereal as Wayne Horvitz’s 4+1 Ensemble.

It wasn’t, and I returned the disc to Waterloo Records when I discovered a debilitating scratch on it.

Then I listened to Takk …, and when I heard the driving conclusion of “Glosoli”, I thought, “Huh. Just like mono and Explosions in the Sky”.

Takk … got under my skin, and before I knew it, Sigur Rós had me.

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Kate Bush: Aerial

After achieving crticial and commercial accolades for 1985’s Hounds of Love, Kate Bush released two albums not considered her most shining moments — The Sensual World in 1989 and The Red shoes in 1993.

And then she recorded nothing else for 12 years.

In 2005, Bush re-emerged with Aerial, an album quite out-of-step with anything happening in popular music at the moment.

But it makes me curious — what would have happened if more than decade hadn’t passed between releases?

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Madonna: Confessions on a Dance Floor

It’s been nearly 20 years since Madonna commandeered the imperative, “Shut up and dance”.

It’s an imperative Madonna at times has lost sight of herself.

2003’s American Life was described by its performer as an “angry” album. It can also be described as scattershot and cold. I can’t see how she ever thought Mirwais would add any value to her work.

For her eleventh album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna recorded with her touring music director, DJ Stuart Townsend, a.k.a. Les Rhythmes Digitales, in his home studio.

The result is one her strongest, most focused albums in years.

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Enya: Amarantine

In 2004, Enya’s management company, Aigle, had to backpedal the overly enthusiastic announcements of Warner Bros. Japan regarding a new album by the meticulous Irish songstress.

So when Tower Records Japan started accepting pre-orders for a new Enya album back in September 2005, I had to wonder whether it would be for real.

To gauge whether I looked forward to a new Enya album, I took out A Day Without Rain, her previous album from 2000, and gave it a spin. At the time of its release, I didn’t warm up to it. When I listened to it again half a decade later, I confirmed what I couldn’t bring my long-time Enya-loving ass to consider — it really, really sucked.

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Bob Mould: Body of Song

I never listened to Hüsker Dü nor Sugar, and the only exposure I’ve had to Bob Mould’s solo work is a 7-inch single from his first album, Workbook.

So I can’t approach a review of Body of Song in context of his previous work. My credentials are insufficient.

I can, however, approach the album in terms of gay men who play rock music. Lesbians usually have a lock on the really good rock bands, ranging from the defunct Butchies to the gay-inclusive Sleater-Kinney. What do gay men have? Judas Priest and Pansy Division.

Insert requisite Seinfeld quote here. (“Not that there’s …”?)

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In lieu of real wankerdom

Brevity is the soul of wit, some guy in 16th century England once said. I will be the first to admit Musicwhore.org reviews can be witless, on that count and many others.

Since the backlog of albums in which I’ve intended to toss my 2.332 yen has become mountainous, I figure short reviews should suffice to purge those opinions out of my head once and for all.

Should keep the wankerdom down, too.

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Bridin Brennan: Eyes of Innocence

To call the Brennans of County Donegal, Ireland, a musical family would be inadequate. Patriarch Leo Brennan was a musician himself before opening a tavern, but his children have found phenomenal success with their careers.

Multi-platinum seller Eithne releases her first album in five years, titled Amarantine, on Nov. 23, 2005. Her siblings in Clannad have been together for three decades, scoring the first Top 5 hit in the UK sung in Irish with “Harry’s Game” back in 1982.

Youngest daughter Bridin Brennan watched as Enya and Clannad became international stars, but instead of following in her siblings footsteps, she decided to become a hairdresser.

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