Music
That Osama bin Laden has a hell of a lot to answer for. I mean, goddamit. Since the attacks on the World Trade Centre, every Tom, Dick and Harry has been finding a new, more politically sensitive side to their musical output. Just think about Fred Durst's contribution to the memorial show in the immediate aftermath of the attack, or chest-beating anthems like Chad Kroeger's abysmal 'Hero'. Shudder. Proof that fundamentalism has terrible consequences, as if it was needed.
It's a bug that seems to have bitten Everclear, too. In the 90s, they sold a truckload of previous records trading on a pleasant, grungey, slacker vibe, that combined energetic punk with increasing pop nous. Fortunately, all the ingredients that Everclear fans will expect are present and correct. Art Alexakis has always been at his best as a lyricist when documenting the ordinary lives of white-trash, middle America, and this remains his strength. He's getting older though. The tragic characters found on the earlier records, in songs like 'Heroin Girl' and 'Amphetamine', have been replaced by a 'Volvo Driving Soccer Mom'. Subversive.
Still, there's a certain poignancy to be found in the image of a middle-aged, born-again Republican desperate to tell people of her 'wild child' past. 'You know I used to be a bad girl', he sings, 'I got gang-banged in the bedroom at my high school prom...but now I know my Right-wing from my wrong'. Or maybe he just has gender issues. It's always hard to tell with these rock-star types.
Thankfully, this sense of humour prevents proceedings from becoming po-faced. There's plenty else to enjoy on this record. The opening couple of tracks are the album's most energetic, while 'Chrysanthemum' is like nothing they've ever recorded, a darkly haunting story of a father's fear for his daughter's safety. There is a sense in later songs that some of the bounce of earlier years has left them, but enough remains to keep the balance between rocking and popping just right. The universal hope expressed as he sings 'When I think about you I want to believe that I can make things right' is a fitting end.
Everclear might be growing old, but not so gracefully that you'd be able to easily spot it. Slow Motion Daydream might not change the world, but it might just brighten up a few of these dark days for you.
Almost two years since their first release, 'Days Go By' was hijacked by Pete Tong, and twelve months since a Mitsubishi advertising campaign helped it smash America, London trio Dirty Vegas are back with a new single. Although considered one of the hippest chart acts in the States, Dirty Vegas need another record of similar clubability as 'Days' to survive in the bigtime. 'Simple Things' threatens unsettlingly to head the same way as earlier release, 'Ghosts', and linger in the daytime radio mainstream.
Granted, club success does depend on who remixes the track, and how they go about it, but the highly produced 'Simple Things' offers less to the House DJ than their first release, resting on a calmer beat. However, the record does boast uplifting vocals and a highly hummable chorus, making it deserving of the comfortable chart placing it will probably achieve. Unless given a noteworthy remix, moderate success in the UK Chart may be the epitome of their achievement.
Some facts about Avril Lavigne. 1) She is FIT. 2) Her album was on my 43 year old aunt's Christmas list. 3) Her latest single fucking sounds like fucking Alanis fucking Morisette but without, if you, dear readers, can suspend your disbelief for but a moment, without even the hideous Canadian harridan's lyrical ability and musical skill.
That's right, tender audience, you never believed that such a thing was possible, but take it from me: it's true. I've done the dirty work, so you don't ever have to make the effort of listening to this execrable dollop of distended audio bumfodder. If you are the kind of person who frequents places like the Bridge expressely to listen to cheese music, you will like this. You're probably a sappy type with no taste, no sense of humour and no more right to live on God's green earth than dirty maggots (Oi! I go to the Bridge! No more CDs for Tom...Ed). You and your discernment-free ilk disgust me. Go and buy this record; you don't have the brain capacity to appreciate anything more real.
The omens for Simple Plan's debut are NOT good. For starters, the cover consists of annoying 'comedy' photos, which instantly and correctly places them in the pop-punk bracket. Perhaps just as worryingly, they're Canadian, which puts them right up there with Avril Lavigne, Bryan Adams, Sum 41 and Nickelback in the flappy-headed, beady-eyed, musical export stakes. Even worse, they're French Canadian. Shit me.
However, I have something of a soft spot for melodic, sing-along pop-punk, and Simple Plan do it passably well. They are marginally less whiney than New Found Glory, more introspective than The Sums, and, thankfully, largely avoid the scatological path so successfully paved by Blink-182. Still, they do sound remarkably similar to certain of Blink's more 'sensitive' moments, and the overall air of adolescence is in the end cloying. Anything punk has been surgically removed. In the end, Simple Plan are just a little too simple for their own good.
13th Feb 2003