CD reviews
The Jealous Girlfriends, Spiritualized and The Futureheads get our music nerds 30 minutes of attention
The Jealous Girlfriends
The Jealous Girlfriends
(Good Fences)
*8.8*
Goes well with: Mazzy Star, The Concretes,
The Ponys
The hype is big for Brooklyn’s The Jealous Girlfriends, but the hype for sexy singer/guitarist Holly Miranda may be even bigger. Blog boys officially broke up with Feist and have proclaimed Miranda their new imaginary indie girlfriend.
But while the Girlfriends’ looks may scream next-big-thing, their new poster-child status is well-deserved in that their music is actually as good as their aesthetic. Few debuts live up to the buzz surrounding them, but The Jealous Girlfriends is a record that’s both accessible (Miranda’s Lolita-ish voice sounds like the second coming of Hope Sandoval), and artfully revealing with repeated listens. Cleverly combining aspects of shoegaze, soul, punk and pop, songs like “Secret Identity” and the single-in-waiting “I Quit” (with Miranda sharing vocals with keyboardist Alex Lipsen) would have been gigantic hits in the hands of U2 or Coldplay. The genre-hopping can get disorienting, but the fuzz-filled “Hieroglyphics” and the Miranda-crooned ballad “Organs on the Kitchen Floor” (where she gives Amy Winehouse a run for her money) belong on your next make-out mix.
“I must confess that you taste no different from any of the rest,” Lipsen whispers halfway through the album. The Jealous Girlfriends may wear their tastes on their sleeve, but they’re ultimately something very different and tasty indeed.
—Seth Combs
The Jealous Girlfriends play Friday, June 20, at The Casbah.
Spiritualized
Songs in A&E
(Fontana International)
*8.8*
Goes well with: Red House Painters,
Eliott Smith, Jeff Buckley, hospitals
It’s impossible to listen to this album and not hear how Spiritualized frontman Jason Pierce was effected by his 2005 hospitalization after falling seriously ill with pneumonia. It sounds, quite simply, like a near-death experience, at times inspirational, but often solemn and heartbreaking.
The first words Pierce (aka “J.Spaceman”) sings on Songs in A&E are “You sweet talk like angels…” to an almost hymn-like rhythm. From there, the album bounces back and forth from despair (“Death Take Your Fiddle”) to determination (“I Gotta Fire”).
Fans of the Spiritualized from five years ago will hear a different band, but they shouldn’t be surprised when they do.
Pierce’s stripped-down, melodic tone on 2003’s Amazing Grace hinted at his fascination with death. But where past albums offered jolts of energy, there is a morose atmosphere throughout Songs, especially on the final track. The soft lullaby of “Goodnight Goodnight” sounds like Pierce has arrived at the fifth stage (acceptance) of the grieving process as the song (and album) ends with him repeating “funeral home, funeral home, funeral home.”
Even without Pierce’s hospital battle (“A&E” refers to the Accident and Emergency ward where he spent most of his time), the album is a stunning display of songcraft and an impressive dive into the state of the human psyche when death is sitting beside you.
—Eddie Shoebang
The Futureheads
This Is Not The World
(Nul/Megaforce)
*7.3*
Goes well with: The Cars,
The Pointed Sticks, Wire
I was immediately hooked when I heard The Futureheads’ self-titled debut way back in 2004. The album was packed with smart, hyper, catchy songs that were remarkable for their casual complexity and their amazing vocal arrangements reminiscent of Queen. These guys were one of the few bands to actually stick out amidst the sea of Strokes and White Stripes clones at the time. So, naturally, nobody dug them. Their second album (News and Tributes) tanked and they were unceremoniously dropped from 679 Recordings.
Now they’re back with a barn-burning third album—released on their own label (Nul)—and angry as they’ve ever been. The pace on This Is Not The World is infinitely faster than the subdued News and Tributes, almost to a fault. The songs are delivered with such urgency that standouts (like “Walking Backwards,” “Think Tonight” and “Broke Up the Time”) are diminished because of the album’s lack of dynamics. And what happened to all those crazy vocal arrangements? It feels like the band wrote and recorded This Is Not The World with a gun in their face. As such, the album is inspired, but rushed. The Futureheads are fun when they play fast, but they can be amazing when they take their time.
—Dryw Keltz