06/10/08
BIG HASSLE
MARTHA WAINWRIGHT/I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too: Maybe it’s kind of like that Three Stooges thing where they debate environment vs. heredity. Rufus and Martha sprang from the same genetic soup that gave us both “Dead Skunk” and “Work Song”, yet Rufus seems to have to run hard and fast just to stay in place and Martha seems to have taken to the family business/franchise with the alacrity of Kate Hudson. She’s even made it to places we had hoped Liz Phair and Neko Case would have been to by now. If it wasn’t for the terrible things they are doing to thorobreds these days, we’d call Wainwright a thorobred without any hesitation. Simply a smashing record that takes a fine contemporary take on the singer/songwriter genre, Wainwright is going to have to go some to top this effort, a sure cure for sophomore slump. With as much drama as any early Joni Mitchell record in hand, she never whines so much as let’s you read her diary over her shoulder because you’re such a close pal. If this is the new sound of female angst singer/songwriters, we’ll take it—especially over the 90’s version. By the by, the title and the cover shot are winners in their own right.
(Rounder)
TELARC
P.D.Q. BACH/The Jekyll and Hyde Tour: Well, it’s been over a decade since Peter Schickele has been able to lure Bach out of his hiding place and now the laughs are back in classical music. Why he was gone for a decade, we’ll never know, but we’re too busy laughing at the low humor hiding under highbrow vibes. Other than come with some new music and schtick, Bach and his crew aren’t going to break any new ground, but when you’ve reached this point, it doesn’t matter. Simply the round rogering the classical world could lovingly use every so often. Certainly fun stuff for old fans that have gone without for too long.
DVD SUPPLEMENT
WARNER HOME VIDEO
CHAOS THEORY: The millennials and their particle theories are coming home to roost as their angst now gets it’s own cinema lexicon with this new variation on ‘shit happens’. Engaging kvetching from familiar young movie/direct to vid faces that bring the material home like a new version of those 90’s pics with Lisa Loeb singing the key song (so who’s gong to pick up the slack for her in the vid that promos this pic?) So much for efficiency experts that think things run like they do in text books.
(Castle Rock)
Volume 31/Number 223
June 10, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
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Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record