Record Reviews
📝 2096 reviews| Artist | Title | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Various | Avalon Blues: A Tribute In Music To Mississippi John Hurt | <p>If you assemble a bunch of above-average artists to pay tribute to a major artist, is the result an above-average tribute record? Not always, but in this case it is. Organized and executive-produced by Peter Case, this contains covers of the Mississippi bluesman's songs by more than a dozen medium-big and very-big names from the folk and rock worlds, including Beck, Taj Mahal, Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle (dueting with Justin Earle), Ben Harper, Peter Case & Dave Alvin (performing together), Geoff Muldaur, Gillian Welch, and John Hiatt. It's more a folk-rock-blues crossover album than a Delta blues one, which is fine: tribute albums shouldn't be re-creations of the originals, and whether or not it was the intention, it will expose some of John Hurt's songs to fans who identify themselves primarily as folk or rock listeners. And not many of these songs are very well-known, with the exception of "Candy Man" (done by Steve & Justin Earle) and "Stagolee" (sung by Beck). The arrangements are low-key and respectful, the best ones being Ben Harper's "Sliding Delta" (which is one of the bluesiest performances) and Victoria Williams' "Since I've Laid My Burden Down," which has very eccentric banjo sounds.</p><p>— <b>Richie Unterberger</b></p> |
| Various | A Double Shot Of The Blues | |
| Various | Uncut - The Best Of Americana | |
| Various | Uncut: February 2002 | |
| Various | Uncut - Totally Wired - April 2002 | |
| Various | Uncut RadioRadio | |
| Various | Dirty Deeds Soundtrack | |
| Various | Feed Your Mind | |
| Various | Uncut - Best Of 2002 | |
| Various | The Sopranos Peppers And Eggs Soundtrack | |
| Various | Gangs Of New York | |
| Various | Baroque Adagios | |
| Various | More Music Live From The Panel | <p>As the title suggests this is more fine music from the very popular Channel 10 show 'The Panel'. Featuring some of the biggest home grown and international acts around performing live, acoustic and without a safety net. Featuring the likes of Anastacia, The Eels, Midnight Oil, Travis, Powderfinger and Alex Lloyd!</p> |
| Various | Uncut - Eight Miles High | |
| Various | Uncut: Only Love Can Break Your Heart | |
| Various | Verve Unmixed | |
| Various | Uncut: Hard Drive | |
| Various | Kill Bill Volume 1 | <p>In its first teaser trailers, when it was still going to be released as a single film, <I>Kill Bill</I> was sold with the immortal teaser "In the year 2003 Uma Thurman is going to Kill Bill." Of course, Uma didn't come close to the messy business of killing Bill until early 2004, when the second part of Quentin Tarantino's grindhouse epic <I>Kill Bill</I> was released, but she sure started to kill in <I>Kill Bill, Vol. 1</I>, where the Bride, the character she created with QT , began her arduous revenge upon the five former colleagues that killed her fiancée at her wedding rehearsal, then left her for dead at the altar.</p><p>As Tarantino plot lines go, this is the simplest yet, but revenge movies shouldn't be encumbered by deep subtext. Instead, he divided the film into chapters, giving him opportunity to play with both time and location, and then decided to shoot each chapter as a homage to a different kind of exploitation film — something that's reflected in the soundtrack. After Nancy Sinatra's torchy "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and Charlie Feathers' tough, swaggering rockabilly chestnut "That Certain Female" set the story and the mood, the record is devoted primarily to instrumental pieces that range from surging epics to the calm kitsch of Zamfir's "The Lonely Shepherd," to the intense funk pastiche of Tomoyasu Hotei's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" (the song that kicks off nearly every trailer and ad for <I>Kill Bill</I>).</p><p>The reduced presence of dialogue from the film — a hallmark of Tarantino soundtracks — is a reflection of the film, which places emphasis on action and visuals. Hell, even the tracks on the soundtrack have minimal lyrics, consisting largely of instrumentals. This gives it more of a meandering feeling, and the soundtrack kind of peters out, ending in two quick excerpts of futuristic electro music by Quincy Jones and Neu!, then a gaggle of sound effects and kung fu hits. Nevertheless, its cavalcade of contradictory moods has its own coherence, and is more <I>musical</I> than most pop music soundtracks. Plus, this has <I>no</I> familiar material, nor does it have anything that would be a single on Clear Channel, which is why it works as an album of its own — it doesn't just reflect the movie; it follows its own logic, and displays fearless imagination. It makes you hungry for <I>Vol. 2</I>, both the movie and soundtrack. — <B>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</B></p> |
| Various | Uncut: Sin City | |
| Various | Uncut: Strange Currencies |
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