Records
ROCK
MAGIC DIRT What Rockstars are Doing Today
(Sweet Nothing) 0..
is easy to feel sorry for the three blokes in Magic Dirt. They've been manfully put in front Of lead Singer and guitarist Adalita on the album sleeve but. in the tradition of girl-fronted bands from Blondie through Sleeper to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. yOu know there's only gomg to be one person getting the attention. Still. the hard-gigging Australian four-piece have a decent SOURd. dominated by heavy gu'tars. that stands in the substantial middle ground between Limp Bizkit and PJ Harvey. and a debut that's filled with short. sharp hook- laden punk, grunge stompers. plus a few lovely slower numbers. You could do a lot worse. (James Smart)
SOUNDTRACK VARIOUS ARTISTS Music From the Motion Picture Scooby-Doo (EastWesti O.
," 5...,
9-1
Has it come to this? Have all those after- school early evenings spent demolishing loaves of bread and cnocolate biscuits and watching glorious technicolour sleuthing while avOiding homework been reduced to a woeful mix of overcooked hip hop. tedious pop and ghastly AOR'? Well. Thelma. that's what it looks like.
Shaggy squats
profanely over “Scooby-
Doo. Where are You?'. Outkast slump to an unexpected low With ‘L and of a Million
1 16 THE LIST .1
1“, Jul 2002
Drums' and half-a- dozen dozy wannabe stars fling their out- takes in this compilations general direction. Lil' Romeo and AllStars (of all people) lift the quality a little. but if the films this weak we COuld be in for a long two hours at the multiplex.
(James Smart)
JAZZ FUSION WEATHER REPORT
The Best of Weather Repon (ColumbiaVLegaCy) OOOO
Weather RepOrt co- founder Joe Zawinul is seventy this month. and this excellent compilation (issued alongSide remastered versions of several individual albums) is a potent reminder of just what a cracking outfit he and Wayne Shorter put together in those heady post—Miles experiments of the early 70s.
No Surprises in a selection which lines up obvious Suspects like ‘Birdland'. 'Mysterious Traveller', 'Boogie Woogie Waltz'. ‘A Remark y0u Made' and the Miles tribute ‘Man in a Green Shirt‘ and nothing that is previously unreleased. but it's all top-drawer Weather Report. and an excellent introduction to what they were all about. Who knows. Columbia may even get round to the long promised box of unreleased live material this year. (Kenny Mathieson)
HIP HOP
ROOTS MANUVA Dub Come Save Me (Big Dada) .0.
Roots Manuva fell in love with dub whilst he was recording the critically acclaimed Run Come Save Me album. In 2000 as the Walwonh Road Rockers. he dubbed up a couple of tunes for Big Dada ‘Showtime' and ‘Witness' 7" that
Roots Manuva
took clubs across Europe by storm.
Roots also had tunes left over from the final cut of Run Come Save Me and it's a shock that the opening track ‘Man Fi Cool' did not feature as it tops everything Roots has previously released. Sadly the standard is maintained on only a couple of tunes. as Roots' ear for dub struggles to shine through the dross. (Kaleem Aftab)
EASY LISTENING ANDY WILLIAMS The Essential Andy Williams
(Sony) 000
At his best (“Music to Watch Girls Go By'. ‘House of Bamboo'l Andy Williams was capable of taking a tune and investing it with cheeky full throttled bravado. At his worst (‘Born Free'. 'Danny Boy') he is capable of killing a song with that Salt Lake City cheeseball Mormon impropriety he has perfected over the years.
Fertunately this new collection doesn't contain too many grim moments despite opening with a karaoke version of ‘Can't Take my Eyes off You' With Denise Van Outen. This is a must if you don't already own any Williams on disc. if only fOr his version of ‘Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In' with the Osmond Brothers. (Paul Dalel
HOUSE
LAYO & BUSHWACKA! Night Works
(XL) 0000
You have to wonder if Matthew Bushwackaf's
exclamatimi mark still feels like a good idea. particularly considering the thoughtful furrow he and Layo are pIOughing through dance music. The follow-up to LOW Life has a heavy breakbeat influence which helps disguise its more longwinded proggy moments.
Night Works is eclectic and experimental enough to keep interest levels high. dabbling in hip hop (‘Ladies and Gentlemen). bass frequencies (All Night Long) and soundtrack style atmospherics (the superb ‘Let the Bood Times Roll). Listen to this on a shite stereo and you may hardly notice its passing, but sling on some headphones and pump up the volume and your Synapses will melt. (James Smart)
ALSO RELEASED Misteeq Lick/17' on Both Sides — Special Edition (Te/star” //lf(3/'Ii()l The foxy female garage R&B trio have their album re—i‘eleased. bolstered by the inclusion of then' recent hit 'Roll On'.
Johnny Thunders You Can '1 Put your Arms Around a Memory (Cast/e) Three-CD best-of collection of solo work from the much under-rated. New Yerk Doll.
Nappy Roots Water/iie/on, Chicken and Grits (East/If/esti Another collection of rattlin' Outkast-ish hip hop from the Deep SOuth (Georgia. not Cornwall).
Bill and Ben F/obbatastic.’ iBBC MUS/C) A terrifying collection of tunes by and based around the flowerpot~lieaded kids' entertainers from a wholly more innocent time. Reminiscent of Fatboy Slim, Cerys Matthews and the Corrs: Christ lielp (it; . .
Alicia Keys has a great pedigree
Music. as Shakespeare probably said. is a kennel and all the songs are but bitches. hounds and pooches. And. sure enough, this fortnight's pile of singles is a Battersea Dogs' Home of sonic wonderment.
When examined by vets. the Coral were shown to be the most mixed up crossbreed that ever there was. but one that would still turn heads at Crufts. If ‘Goodbye' (Deltasonic) COO. wasn't a dog it would be the birds. no. the Byrds. It‘s a slice of boppy scallypop with crap words (Id rather die,” than say goodbye) but the great SOund of your entire Nuggets collection in one psychedelic single.
Peeing up the wrong lamppost are the Crescent who are like a Coral tribute band. ‘Test of Time' (Hut) .0 has lots of music. not so much song: a relentless folk riff with 608 rhythms and a gutsy but empty vocal line over the top. Much like Primal Scream. whose ‘Miss Lucifer‘ (Columbia) .0. is a tamed wolf of a record, neither as dangerous nor as dirty as they would it like to be. a mindless electronic riff endlessly repeated with Bobby Gillespie singing the same three notes over the top.
Slipknot's ‘My Plague (Roadrunner)
CO. by contrast. is a little puppy scampering through a field of nodding daisies
. . in a speedcore kinda way. Ridiculous. noisy and deep-down cuddly. You could say a dog's dinner.
My Vitriol's ‘Moodswings' (Infectious)
O. is one of those toothless-rottweiler songs that give the impreSSion they're all ferocious with their loud guitars. loud drums. loud everything. and then give the game away with a melodious scaredy cat vocal.
Bonus points for Paul Heaton whose ‘The Perfect Couple' (Mercury) 0. features two dalmations on the sleeve. Sadly. it's the same song he's been writing for the past ten years with the Beautiful SOuth. A brief mention to the original hound dog: Richard Hawley‘s ‘That's Alright Mama' (Setanta/Sobriety)
.0. is a iolly acoustic cover of the Elvis track. Choose Hawley for all your busking needs.
Which makes Alicia Keys the dog’s bollocks of the fortnight. 'How Come You Don't Call Me' (J) 0.... is a cover of a B- side by Prince from 1982 when little Alicia was but one year old. It isn't quite a 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. but it reaffirms how fab even the purple one's offcasts can be. She picks it up, funks it down and makes it SOund like something Aretha Franklin made famous. Nine Out of ten dogs say their owners prefer it. (Mark 'Mutt: Fisher)