CD REVIEWS

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

By JH Weekly Staff

Your Future Our Clutter
THE FALL
Many albums are said to stick in one’s head. In the case of The Fall’s latest, Your Future Our Clutter, however, it’s a review that keeps ringing in my memory. Earlier this year, in a mostly flattering critique of the album, The New York Times describes Mark E. Smith’s “lyrics” as the hissings of an old drunk, slumped on the bar. “Yes, you think, ‘ex-pats,’ what a nuisance. Go on, sir, get yourself home now,” wrote critic Ben Ratliff. On the chant that earned the album’s title, Ratliff wrote, “You want to hear this as a political statement. But it doesn’t really track.”

This review sticks because until the point that Ratliff apologizes for Smith (“The tag line … it energizes Mr. Smith”), it articulates my feelings about Your Future Our Clutter. On the other hand, I empathize with Ratliff’s reverence for the band, which he uses to place the album within the context of The Fall’s 30 years of music-making. Being new to it, however, I’m wondering when Smith will pass out, so we can dump him in a taxi. – Matthew Irwin

Mwaliko
LIONEL LOUEKE
Lionel Loueke – the Benin-born guitarist whom Herbie Hancock championed a few years back and who has since enjoyed an international career – brings a magically light, nearly elfin touch to his instrument. But there’s also jaw-dropping density and ferocious technique that probably needs to be witnessed with eyes as well as ears to be truly appreciated. Mwaliko, Loueke’s second album for Blue Note, leaps to life with “Ami O,” with Angelique Kidjo lending the full range of her vocal talents, and Loueke wasting no time to show what the percussive pops and clicks he produced with his mouth can add, for one of the most thrilling opening tracks I’ve heard in years.

Other tracks bring Jaco Pastorius or even Joni Mitchell to mind. On two tracks, he pairs up with bassist Esperanza Spaulding for fantastically entertaining music-making. Solo tracks are as ethereal as nightfall on the Serengeti. It’s the mix of the familiar and the exotic, the predictable and the unexpected, that makes for great art – like this album.
– Richard Anderson

All Is Falling
JAMES BLACKSHAW
On his first few albums, London-based guitarist James Blackshaw made a name for himself as the Gen-Y Leo Kottke. His chops on the 12-string guitar on Litany of Echoes and The Cloud of Unknowing were as impressive as the arrangements were long and sprawling. Blackshaw opens his new release, All Is Falling, at the piano with a short track inspired by Philip Glass. Though the track works, Blackshaw is at his best on the axe, and the album improves when he picks up his electric 12-string.

Over the next four tracks, Blackshaw guides the listener on a nearly 14-minute long epic that recalls more Glass as well as Italian classical guitarist Carlo Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba. All Is Falling sounds like a concept album, as the tracks flow into one another and the brooding, burnished sounds evolve towards what sounds like the sunset evoked on the album’s cover. Blackshaw’s latest is the ideal soundtrack for the moody, cloud enshrouded months ahead.
– Benjamin R. Bombard

Cover Art courtesy The Fall

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