MONTREAL - Here is this week's collection of new-music reviews, starting with Watch the Throne.
Jay-Z & Kanye West
Watch the Throne
Roc-A-Fella Records/Island Def Jam/Universal
Let?s get the issue of expectations out of the way right off the bat: Even if they had produced the finest album in the history of rap, Jay-Z and Kanye West ? the genre?s most celebrated figures over the past decade-plus ? would have only just met what was anticipated from them by a wide swath of hip-hop nation.
Out-of-control hype aside, Watch the Throne is far from deserving of that lofty designation ? hell, it?s not even the best rap disc released this year ? but with the outsized players involved, it?s rarely less than intriguing.
If the album is remarkable at all ? aside from being a summit of two rap legends ? it?s due to the state-of-the-art-form production from West and an A-list of producers of both the established and on-the-come-up variety, including Q-Tip, the Neptunes, RZA, Swizz Beatz, Mike Dean and Sham (Sak Pase) Joseph.
The first single, the West-produced Otis, takes its obvious sample source ? Otis Redding?s mighty Try a Little Tenderness ? and transforms it by chopping and screwing it to the point of being near-unrecognizable. The menacing bass line and brooding hook (courtesy of R&B upstart Frank Ocean) on the album-opening No Church in the Wild provides another standout, as does the hypnotic drum-and-bass assault of Who Gon Stop Me.
Lyrically, the punchlines come as furious as ever from the coolly calculating Jay and the constantly improving Kanye ? particularly on such intense statements of superiority as That?s My Bitch and Niggas in Paris ? but there is a sense of roteness that creeps in. As clever as the pair are, there are only so many ways to say you?re rich and famous, and Watch the Throne exhausts pretty much all of them. (And while I don?t doubt the authenticity of Jay?s back-in-the-day drug rhymes, it?s starting to ring more than a little hollow from a guy who now vacations in St. Barts with Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow.)
But what?s most starkly absent from Watch the Throne isn?t lyrical inventiveness. In pre-release interviews, Jay-Z telegraphed the album?s uncommercial sound ? including his initial desire to not even release any singles from it ? so the pop-unfriendly hooks permeating it are true to that vision. But a defining single, whether more indie-leaning fans care to admit it or not, is crucial to attaining ?classic? status, particularly in the world of rap, and there isn?t a track here that approaches those heights. The most blatant attempt at doing so is the Beyonc?-assisted Lift Off, and even that is only a fraction as memorable as some of the past collaborations between hip hop?s First Couple.
Of course, not giving the people what they want is a perfectly valid creative choice, but one that prevents Watch the Throne from being the landmark it should and could have been.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Podworthy: Who Gon Stop Me
Watch the Throne is available now in digital format for $11.99 via iTunes. A deluxe edition with four extra tracks (Illest Motherf?ker Alive, H*A*M, Primetime and The Joy) is also available on iTunes for $14.99. The digital version will be available at other online retailers beginning Friday, Aug. 12, and the CD will be available in stores Tuesday, Aug. 16. Jay-Z and Kanye West perform at the Bell Centre on Tuesday, Nov. 22. Tickets are $72.50 to $270.50 and are available via Evenko at evenko.ca or 514-790-2525.
BB
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The Horrors
Skying
XL
Considering the Horrors? history as shadowy shape-shifters, it isn?t surprising that Faris Badwan would evolve into a David Bowie impersonator. What is surprising is that he would bypass Ziggy Stardust?s agitated theatre and head for the dapper desolation of Hours and Heathen. Still, the voice suits the British quintet?s third album, whose hazy, big-beat psychedelia can?t mask an edge-of-the-world solitude. Far less campy than 2007?s Strange House and far less creepy than 2009?s Primary Colours, the radiant Skying isn?t what anyone would have expected from a band that, until now, has only come out at night. Still, the Horrors sound at home under surreal beams of blue sunshine, although the lyrics flooded with natural images ? rain and waves and sky and wind ? are coming from a band that no longer appears to have a natural state of its own.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Podworthy: I Can See Through You
The Horrors perform Sept. 28 at Caf? Campus, 57 Prince Arthur St. E. Tickets cost $17. Call 514-790-1245 or order at www.admission.com.
JZ
Nick Carter
I?m Taking Off
Universal
Sure, Backstreet Boys told everybody to rock their body back when Nick Carter was drinking from juice boxes, but now that he?s of legal leering age, it?s still disconcerting to hear the 31-year-old rhapsodizing about ?the way you shake, shake, shake, shake that ass? in Burning Up. More disconcerting is Carter?s apparent mission to spearhead a Haddaway revival, with house grooves that even the Night at the Roxbury guys would shun for being tacky. Carter is more convincing when he leaves the club and settles for skilled pop craft. There?s more depth to the energized ballads Falling Down and Great Divide than to the average Backstreet tear-jerker, and the title track?s glammy chorus has enough punch to survive some clunky NASA metaphors.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Podworthy: Great Divide
JZ
Trivium
In Waves
Roadrunner
Since forming in 1999, Florida?s Trivium has sought to balance melody and ferocity, complexity and brutality. They?ve occasionally faltered, coming off like a junior-league MMA bout held in a Juilliard sub-basement. But not on In Waves, the metal band?s fifth studio album. Blending elements of traditional thrash metal with metalcore?s stuttering E-string palsy, In Waves is both accessible and aggressive. The title track delivers body blows with machine gun guitars, and Dusk Dismantled augments its ominous opening with a slow-burning menace. In Watch the World Burn, frontman Matt Heafy?s clean, radio-friendly vocals are underpinned by harsh roars and thrashy guitars, like rusty nails and broken glass covered by floral wallpaper. In Waves doesn?t carry its momentum all the way through ? Forsake Not the Dream overindulges in Guitar Hero theatrics, for example ? but it effectively showcases Trivium?s sensibilities.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Podworthy: Dusk Dismantled
Trivium opens for Dream Theater Oct. 7 at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier of Place des Arts. Tickets cost $44.50 to $79.50. Call 514-842-2112 or order at pda.qc.ca.
AK
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