THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2003
MUSIC
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 11
'Kansan' reviewers pass and fail mix of albums
Make Up the Breakdown by Hot Hot Heat
One of the best things that can be said about Make Up The Breakdown, the new album from Hot Hot Heat, is that the asshakability factor is high.
Nearly every song on the record is catchy and danceable, good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll.
The Victoria, British Columbia, foursome plays neogarage rock with a twist, adding keyboards into the mix instead of
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playing straight guitar rock. The interplay between guitar and keyboards on songs such as "Bandages" and "No, Not Now" is reminiscent of '80s new wave, and the fact that vocalist/keyboardist Steve Bays tends to sound like Robert Smith of The Cure only adds to the effect.
The album's last track, "In Cairo" is its most ambitious. It's a longer, slower, piano-based song, but it's also the album's biggest misstep. There is nothing groundbreaking on this album, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Hot Hot Heat is at its best when keeping it simple, short and sweet: catchy riffs, big choruses, and clever song structures. One of the best things about the album is the way the group continually changes tempos and dynamics in the songs to maintain listener interest, as on songs like "This Town."
Grade: B
— Aaron Passman
Trapt by Trapt
Trapt? It seems as if these guys could've
"crapt" a better record. On its self-titled, major-label debut, Los Angeles band Trapt offers listeners a summation of repetitious modern rock, also recognizable as radio dribble.
Equal parts Papa Roach, The Calling, Linkin Park and Lifehouse,the members of Trapt seem to be confused as to what type of audience they appeal to. Guitarist Simon Ormandy,bassist Peter Charell and drummer Aaron Montgomery work together to create a bland canvas of clichéd riffs and predictable song structures.
Vocalist Chris Brown adds his lyrics and vocal melodies, which seem to serve only as filler. For example, the first single "Headstrong," begins with a loud guitar riff, similar to a well-known Papa Roach single and also serves as the song's chorus. Opening a song with a chorus is reserved for the classic pop genius of the Beatles"Can't Buy Me Love"and "She Loves You" and aging rock dinosaur Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like a Lady." This tactic should never be used when the chorus is repeated three more times in the duration of a song.
Throughout the record, Brown plays the part of both the tough, macho character and the sensitive song writer with a broken heart, each
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unconvincingly. In "Headstrong," Brown sings, "Back off we'll take you on / Headstrong to take on anyone / I know that you are wrong / Headstrong, we're headstrong."
To contrast this defiant attitude, Brown expresses his sensitive side on tracks like "Enigma." He sings, "Hey, I'm pleading; my soul is bleeding / I don't want to be left
alone, not when I'm right next to you."
Contrived lyrics like these make it hard for Brown to be believable as either personality.
On the positive side, producer Garth Richardson has created a sonically powerful record for Trapt, mixed by Andy Wallace. Both Ormandy and Brown have impressive guitar sounds best displayed on songs like "These Walls" and "Echo," which both start with clean, percussively picked passes and soon turn heavily distorted.
Despite these positives, Trapt offers nothing new to the already over-bloated, modern rock radio world.
— Nate Harold
Grade: F
Catch Me If You Can soundtrack by Various Artists
The title of Steven Spielberg's latest film falls accordingly to the level of the soundtrack for which longtime Spielberg composer John Williams is responsible.
For all of Williams' success in catching audiences in his 28 years of musical service to Spielberg, the recent Catch Me If You Can effort fails to enrapture moviegoers as Williams' previous works have done.
Williams' music has been in Spielberg's works since 1974's The Sugarland Express. Several popular scores were born from these films including the Indiana Jones series and arguably the composer's most renowned effort with the score from Jurassic Park, which was an invariably catchy work closely associated with the film.
Williams' task clearly set him to try to replicate the contemporary classical and easy listening tunes of the early to mid-'60s. Predictably, the tracks Williams contributes himself are crafted to suit the scene for which they are created. So much so that the arrangements are named precisely after the
scene they serve. For instance, the sentimental "Father And Son" arrives in a scene where the movie's father and son share an equally sentimental moment.
Frank Sinatra's "Come Fly With Me" and Judy Garland's "Embraceable You"
somewhat effectively add vigor to the otherwise turgid mix of Williams' work.
Sinatra's tune especially demonstrates the
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foundation upon which most other "original" Williams tunes on the soundtrack evolve from. With its antiquated and subtle rhythm section and easy instrumentation, Sinatra's song shows a strong influence upon which Williams crafts his own watered down arrangements.
As far as Williams overall work as a musician, he has never stacked up against contemporary classical composers of his time such as Herbert Howells and others, which is probably why his most notable work is in movie soundtracks where his music usually uses the film as a vehicle to dilute his lack of classical sophistication when compared to other classical musicians.
As a soundtrack, nothing particularly stands out besides the Sinatra and Garland contributions. As far as Williams' own work, contemporary classical music fans would easily find more satisfaction with other artists than the repetitive and unrefined arrangements found in Catch Me If You Can.
Grade: D+
Steve Vockrodt