CD Report
July 23, 2004
Akon
TROUBLE
Universal
Usually summer anthems are about open skies, easy living, and a sense of freedom. Not this year. This Senegalese-born singer/songwriter/producer has the buzz song right now with "Locked Up," an irresistible joint about doing hard time where "they won't let me out." Over an insinuating piano refrain and echoing, clanging jail doors, the ex-con, Akon, tells a taut tale of the life inside with a novelist's eye. "Locked Up" and its companion "Trouble Nobody" are sharply crafted tunes about getting caught up in a system that has little sympathy for any back-story. Many of these 12 hip-hop-informed R&B songs find the vocalist reflecting on trying to get by in an unmerciful world knowing that there may be a price to pay for wrong decisions. In "Ghetto," the disc's best song, one that refuses to let go, he sings about streets that seem like quicksand. It's a clear-eyed, unsentimental panorama of ghetto life. Akon's got a fragile but supple voice and he understands nuance, rare these days with a lot of R&B crooners. As producer or co-producer of all the tracks, he's a minimalist, with spare rhythm tracks and tight instrumentation predominating. Not all his choices work (a sample of Bobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely" on "Lonely" is one glaring misstep), but Akon is an artist with a particular vision and a voice worth paying attention to.
KEN CAPOBIANCO
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Faithless
NO ROOTS
BMG/Cheeky
Even at their beat-crazy best on hits such as"Insomnia" and "Salva Mea," Faithless has always seemed like a unit with a focus beyond the dance floor. That is especially apparent on their latest CD, which dives right into political waters on its opening track. On "Mass Destruction," a father bound for war tells his young son, "You're the mister of the house now," then Maxi Jazz's deadpan, yet emphatic voice indicts the evils of racism, misinformation, and greed. It isn't necessarily anti-Bush or, since this is a British band, anti-Blair. It's more of a cry against what ails our fevered world, and how inaction only deepens the insanity. (A tasty club remix of the song closes the album.) Still, this CD isn't a polemic, and Maxi, Sister Bliss, and Rollo retain their keen sense of how to get a party started. "I Want More" is a choice floor burner anchored by persistent percussion and a sample of Nina Simone's "Tell Me More and More and Then Some," and the chilly instrumental "Sweep" segues perfectly into the disco strut of "Miss U Less, See U More." Singer LSK provides wonderful contrasting background vocals to Maxi's lead, and has his own fine turn on "Love Lives on My Street." Dido (Rollo's sister) adds her ethereal voice to the title track, while the ambience of "What About Love" should keep fans twirling under the lights for months. Uncompromising but accessible, this is a perfect album for those capable of dancing and thinking at the same time.
RENEE GRAHAM
The Rogers Sisters
THREE FINGERS
Troubleman Unlimited
The worst that can be said of the new Rogers Sisters album is: "Where's the rest of it?" At a lean 22 minutes (or seven songs), the latest from this Brooklyn rock trio is a tease in the most delicious sense of the word. Sisters Jennifer and Laura Rogers hammer out fierce hooks on guitar and drums, respectively, and bassist Miyuki Furtado confirms what one might have gleaned from the band's 2003 debut, "Purely Evil": He's a devoted post-punk revivalist moonlighting as a singer. The new album drops the New Wave shadings of "Purely Evil" and opts for a more classic punk aesthetic, circa 1977. The opener, "Freight Elevator," with its swelling, murky bass lines, sounds like the arrival of Jaws. In a way, it is. Furtado goes on to sneer his way through the chorus. (It's official: Tom Verlaine's heir apparent is upon us.) Sure, it's unjust to compare the Rogers Sisters to their predecessors, but truly, Jennifer Rogers is a Patti Smith doppelganger on "Fantasies Are Nice," a song that suggests the band's political concerns are intact. As Furtado, nearly losing his breath, rambles on about buying an SUV, a kitchenette, a Learjet, the White House, and more, his bandmates tersely dismiss him: "They're just fantasies."
JAMES REED
Funeral for a Friend
CASUALLY DRESSED & DEEP IN CONVERSATION
Ferret
This UK band has had the hype merchants pulling extra duty. The group has received two cover stories in Kerrang! magazine and has opened a tour for rock legends Iron Maiden. But, based on this debut full-length CD, the South Wales band too often resembles scores of Southern California acts that are blending punk, emo, and metal-rock into a nebulous fusion that is quickly starting to sound played out. (Funeral for a Friend, by the way, took its name not from the Elton John song of that name but from a tune by American group Planes Mistaken for Stars.) Two notable tracks are "Juneau" (with singer Matt Davies telling a girlfriend, "I'm nothing more than a line in your book") and the swirling "Bend Your Arms to Look Like Wings," with some hot guitar fills from Darran Smith. But as that song title implies, there's a certain pretension at work here. In fact, the album could have easily been retitled "Pretentiously Dressed & Deep in Repetition." Many songs combine histrionic screams (Davies has said he had to repair damaged vocal cords after the sessions) with fuzzy, pseudo-literary lyrics. And, unfortunately, the lyric sheet is full of mistakes (for example, the verse "When everything's said and done, we're dead or buried" gets translated to "dead and buried"), which suggests the band paid little attention to detail. The hype seems overstated on this CD, but perhaps they'll deliver more onstage. The band performs as part of Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution Tour at the Tweeter Center Thursday.
STEVE MORSE
The Stairs
CHIME AWAY
ATV
The Stairs are wolves in sheeps' clothing. They seem like art school dropouts. Their EP starts with sampled playground sound effects, their posters have fancy drawings, and their lyrics can be nonsensical. But under its arty trappings, "Chime Away" is a catchy pop album. The singers sound muffled and messy, like the Ramones crossed with the Decemberists. It doesn't matter that they write about mythical "aunts and uncles of three" or Planet X or people watching you. They still cause serious head-bouncing. The keyboard-driven "Stop Me, Stop Me, Stop Me Before I Get Creative" hammers its refrain into your head. "The Faraway People" deals in paranoia, but who cares about Big Brother when a song is peppered with "yeah, yeahs" and cheerful popping sounds? In "I Make Maps," orchestral guitars make creepiness seductive. "Bulb Popper" invites listeners to a post-apocalyptic party. "To shine is to shatter/It doesn't matter," they declare, and crank up the bass. The album is free at thestairs.com. The Stairs perform at Great Scott in Allston July 30.
DANIELLE DREILINGER 
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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