Rush – Working Men

I’m a Rush fan.
And I’m not a compilations fan.

I think compilations exist only for sake of enriching record labels’ pockets. And Working Men is not different.

As you can tell by the cover, if you like the canadian trio, this is a compilation of live performances. With more than 30 years on the road, plus countless live albums, Rush easily exceeds the numbers of a single-disc tracklist. So you can expect great stuff here. The flaw is, nothing here is new.

Every performance is already released on a live album. Then if you’ve bought a recently released Rush live album, chances are that you have at least 30% fo Working Men. Because this release contains the best track out of Snakes & Arrows Live, R30 and my personal favorite Rush in Rio. I saw them at that tour, but in the São Paulo show.

That aside, all tracks are great and show that in spite of being in grandpas’ age, theses guys rule.

If you’re new to Rush and want to know how the band sounded live in the 00’s, that’s the album. Otherwise it’s just collectors stuff.

Kitsuné Maison Compilation Vol. 8

I had a hard time looking around the web to put my hands on the new eighth kitsuné compilation release.
Kistuné is a french label, famous for shooting new stars on the dance/electro scene. So their compilations are (or should be) hot.

First two tracks and the record label got me down. Are the teenager-sounding French Horn Rebellion and The Drums is IMO the perfect disastrous way to start anything. People must know that the childish Los Campesinos! was a mistake and that should never be repeated.

But Siriusmo saved the compilation in time. The german guy has a nice track. It sounds to me like the Health’s album, more polished. The bass is so cool.

Le Corps Mince de Francoise is lame R&B in atari mode.
At this point it looks like Kitsuné is emphasizing chiptune-oriented electro.

Do the Midnight Juggernauts have a new vocalist? The New Technology sounds strange and weak compared to their debut album. Not only musically but technically as well.

The compilation proceeds with the weak Heartsrevollution, and the OK Logo.

Two Door Cinema is catchy but haven’t everybody listened enough of this kind of stuff?
The same goes for Beni, except the catchy part.

Slagsmalsklubben brings back chiptune sound with the Yello-like Brutal Weapon.

I wonder why the 2007’s distorted synths of Amwe is fooling around…

And Jolie Cherie scores for chiptunes again. But the vocals sucks SO BAD. I cannot stand that. ouch.

Chew Lips remixed by Alex Kapranos is not bad, but we all know why this track is here…

The next contender is Delphic. Successfuly inspired -again- by the Health’s remixes album. Nice track.

Memory Tapes is already known by people around the Disco Dust blog. Not my cup of tea.

Still around the Disco Dust people is Parallels. Looks like they put their shit together, which resulted in a more concise track. And still not my cup of… tea.

The compilation goes on with Notes and Crystal Fighters. They’re nothing. Skip both.

My Tiger, My Timing closes the Kitsuné Maison Compilation Vol 8 with a simple, solid structured pop song.

The conclusion is, if you’re already a Kitsuné fan you’ll probably like it just because it’s Kitsuné. Otherwise I don’t think this edition is a relevant realease about newcomers rocking out now.

Chromeo – DJ Kicks

Chromeo is for sure one of the most respectable and high profile electro duos today. They’re maniac with 80’s funk and synths, and are not ashamed of showing it. After all it’s cool anyway.
What makes them stand out of the crowd?
Besides the fact they really play most of their stuff, they know their stuff.

Dj Kicks is a mixtape specially hand-crafted with electro/disco/funk tracks released in both the 80s and the 00s. I bet you can’t tell the difference in most of them.

DJ Kicks is the proof that the canadian duo rocks hard. No hype bullshit.

The Fiery Furnaces – I’m Going Away

I got the new Fiery Furnaces – I’m Going Away through my ears just to make sure they sound annoying and extremely boring to me. I’m starting to give up on them.

Go away guys, I’ll be okay.

The Crooked Vultures – The Crooked Vultures

Them Crooked Vultures is a supergroup starring Dave Ghrol on drums, Josh Homme on guitars/vocals and (tcha-ram) John Paul Jones on Bass and additional stuff.
They play solid rock ‘n roll as three guys relaxing and doing their thing naturally.

The juicy aggressive and groovy guitar riffs, always doubled by a hard bass are spontaneously pierced by the sharp Dave Ghrol, back to the drums again.
Well, not even in twitter times I’m not a Dave Ghrol follower. So I just superficially say that I’ve never heard him playing with the sticks that well.

At the level of these masters of rock is the audio production. Crystal clear. Really impressed me.

Musically, TCV sounds like the perfect collision of classic rock and modern alternative rock. As the lineup would chronologically suggest:

John Paul Jones >> Josh Homme >> Dave Ghrol

The result is very fine.

After a few replays  Josh Homme starts to get me tired. And reminds me why I never liked his brain-child Queens of Stone Age or maybe the defunct Kyuss.

I should not complain about the composing skills of Homme. But I will do so when it comes to performance.
He sounds so bored to me when singing. His guitar solos are cliche collections to my ears and they’re weak.
I’m talking specifically about Scumbag Blues. A powerful Hendrix-like song that BEGS for gorgeous trippy guitars solos. But Homme just don’t deliver that. In fact he doesn’t even get close.

After realizing that, my mind was corrupted by the idea of having an Ataxia-spirited John Frusciante for moving up the guitar solos. That would be huge.

I’d point out the highlights Elephants, Gunman and my favorite Bandoliers.

There’s a curious similarity between the song Caligulove and the last Arctic Monkeys album, Humbug. Produced by the very Josh Homme. That makes me think he had a good time with Alex Turner and his band.

The View – Which Bitch

Scotch rock band. They sound very rough and somewhat old fashioned. Not my taste.

Mirah – (A)Spera

Strange sounding and inconsistent folk.

Handsome Furs – Face Control

The canadian couple strikes again. I don’t like Wolf Parade so I didn’t have any expectations about it, and I wasn’t wrong at all.
This kind of electro reencarnation of 80s phantoms (Billy Idol to say one) plus other punk and post punk names is not my cup of tea.

Franz Ferdinand – Tonight

I was frankly waiting for the postponed releasing of Tonight to critisize and declare the suit-wearing indie rock dead – I’m that bad.
As their likes The Strokes, The White Stripes, Hot Hot Heat and Bloc Party , I thought Franz Ferdinand would put out a bad album following the domino effect.

Tonight is surprinsingly great and refreshing in every detail. The scotch guys just reinvented themselves without losing their identity.

The production is awesome and makes justice to a mature band that knows exactly how they should sound.

Tonight is above everything a secure album. FF don’t seem to doubt a thing. And they wisely mixed a lot of synthetic elements to their energetic disco-punk approach. But in my opinion the 70s glam rock factor is the cream of the crop.
Name it from David Bowie to The Sweet. It’s everything here. Sounding as great as it was just discovered.

Every song is carefully crafted as one of the definitive dance rock records of the year. And mark that, it surely is.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Animal Collective is in my opinion the latest most innovative band from NY. They keep going deeper into freak folk and psychedelic vocal experimentantion in such a way that every record they release I like better than the predecessor.
Merriweather Post Pavilion keeps the tradition and is my fav AC album to date.
Everything sounds like a perfect polished one-peace. The music is more synthetic, and the upbeat goes on and on during the whole album, making the whole thing really happy and inspiring.