CD Reviews

Alex Chilton | Free Again: The ''1970'' Sessions

Omnivore (2011)

By ZETH LUNDY | January 10, 2012

2.5 Stars

Post–Box Tops and pre-Big Star, Alex Chilton was an 18-year-old Memphis boy on his way to his dual identity: former #1 pop hitmaker, perpetual underground hero. He recorded songs for a solo disc at Memphis's Ardent Studios in 1969, which didn't surface until the '90s (despite the Beach Boys' attempt to release them on their Brother label). Those tracks are re-released here, along with some extras, and mostly betray a songwriter still finding his own voice. Chilton resurrects the gruff dude of "The Letter" in "Free Again" and "Something Deep Inside," but here it's less wise-beyond-its-years and more parodic. The tough-guy Bolan blooze of "All I Really Want Is Money" doesn't work as well; Chilton would be better off as the Patron Saint of the Less Confident. The truly good bits are oddball fare and covers. The country smirk of "I Wish I Could Meet Elvis" and the sloppy-riff reinvention of "Sugar Sugar" are great fun, whereas the meaty tromp through "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is the only non-Stones version necessary. "All We Ever Got from Them Was Pain," one of the few previously unreleased tracks, approaches the quietly profound territory of Big Star's greatest tracks.

Assaf Kehati Quartet | Flowers and Other Stories
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Ash Borer | Ash Borer
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Active Child | You Are All I See
Pat Grossi used to be a choirboy, which is not surprising at all, given that his full-length debut under the Active Child moniker sounds like it was cut in some sort of dimly lit, hallowed hall under the cover of night.
Review: Janie Jones
Borrowing the name of a Clash song with which it has nothing in common, this generic riff on the Crazy Heart template by writer/director David M. Rosenthal ( Falling Up ) also cribs from Sofia Coppola's Somewhere .
Review: Joyful Noise
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.
Cardinal | Hymns
After a nearly two-decade silence, chamber-pop duo Cardinal emerge from their near-mythic hibernation with the sleepy-eyed, Beatles-underwater gem "Northern Soul," which crawls out of the speakers as if to say, "Yeah, we've been gone since 1994 — but really, don't mind us!"
Snow Patrol | Fallen Empires
Word on the street had Snow Patrol looking to change up the big anthem sound for their sixth release.
O'Brother | Garden Window
O'Brother's bio for their debut album, Garden Window, reads in part: "Native American tradition believed taking a picture of someone also took a piece of their soul. O'Brother views this album in the same vein. It captures a piece of them at a time in their lives that they will never get back."
Guided by Voices | Let's Go Eat the Factory
The GBV name on Let's Go Eat the Factory' s label indicates two things to those fans: this is the first record to feature the "classic" Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes line-up since 1996, and this is the first Pollard album to deserve the GBV moniker since the break-up.
Brite Futures | Dark Past
A few years ago, the cutesy teens in Natalie Portman's Shaved Head slid out of Seattle on the hot pink shoulders of robo-bounce kinda-hit "Me + Ur Daughter" and the cheap intrigue of a ridiculous moniker.
A Place to Bury Strangers | Onwards to the Wall
Onwards to the Wall clocks in at 16 minutes and 35 seconds, and it could shatter into smithereens at any moment.
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