The Chemical Brothers
“We Are the Night”
RATING: 1 1/2 SOUND LEVELS
In 1997, the Chemical Brothers were the face of the British big-beat electronic music movement that stormed the States. The duo’s block rockin’ beats were the Next Big Thing, signaling a new era in which cutting-edge dance music crashed the mainstream. Ten years later, the Brothers’ sixth album, “We Are the Night,” finds them unwilling, or unable, to evolve. Almost every aspect of their music — typically robotic, repetitive vocals and gimmicky blips and bleeps over arena-rock drums — has become stagnant, down to each album’s requisite pair of anthemic ballads. The album raises the question: Can a group that started out so revolutionary now be irrelevant?
[ MICHAEL HAMERSLY, THE MIAMI HERALD ]The Meat Puppets
“Rise to Your Knees”
RATING: 4 SOUND LEVELS
It’s been a dozen years since Curt (guitar) and Cris Kirkwood (bass) played together. “Rise to Your Knees” marks an unexpected return for Cris, who Curt once called a suicide in progress because of heroin addiction, jail time and a gunshot wound. “Rise” is a return to the sunburned, acid-drenched psychedelia filtered through punk rock and country that has helped transform underground American rock ‘n’ roll since the band’s formation in 1980. “Rise” is a bleak album for bleak times. There are several outstanding songs here, but let’s focus on a contribution from Cris. Check out the cascading beauty of his gitjo on “Tiny Kingdom.” It’s like stumbling across a waterfall in the desert.
[ CHRIS TALBOTT, AP ]Suzanne Vega
“Beauty & Crime”
RATING: 3 1/2 SOUND LEVELS
“Beauty & Crime” is Suzanne Vega’s meditation on New York City and the emotional climate that coalesced around it after Sept. 11. With a poignant dedication to Tim Vega, the brother whose death she can’t help but associate with that tragedy, it’s also a suite in the key of farewell. But thanks to a keen sense of proportion and concision — and the unmannered integrity of Vega’s singing style — the album isn’t ponderous.
[ NATE CHINEN, NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE ]
