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Written by Gregg Shapiro
Dec 16, 2010
OMD
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
Sugarland
OMD
Devo isn’t the only new wave legend to make a 2010 comeback. Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey, better known as OMD (a.k.a. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark), return to the fore with “History of Modern” (Blue Noise/Bright Antenna). OMD’s first album in nearly 15 (!) years, “History of Modern” does a decent job of reminding us of the band’s contributions to electro-pop music, going back 30 years. OMD’s most commercial period is represented in songs such as “If You Want It,” “History of Modern (Part 1)” and such dance-oriented tunes as “Sister Marie Says,” “The Future, The Past and Forever After” and “Pulse.” That doesn’t mean that OMD can’t rock out with the best of them, as on “New Babies New Toys.” OMD takes advantage of technology they might not have used much in the past on “Sometimes” and “Save Me” (featuring a fierce Aretha Franklin sample).
The Weepies
Folk-pop duo The Weepies (Deb Talan and Steve Tannen) have found a tasty and satisfying musical recipe and continue to whip up batches of easy-to-devour songs. “Be My Thrill” (Nettwerk), their fourth full-length CD, begins with a musical request, “Please Speak Well of Me,” which will be easy to honor. Other cuts sure to thrill include the title number “When You Go Away,” “Red Red Rose,” “I Was Made For Sunny Days” and “Empty Your Hands.”
The Winterlings
If you like The Weepies, then folky/rootsy duo The Winterlings (Amanda Birdsall and Wolff Bowden) just might be your cup of herbal tea. The timeless 11 songs on their new album “The Animal Groom” (winterlings.com), including “Take Give,” “Long May You Live,” “Jennie Hodgers,” “Flying Kites By Moonlight” and “Belize,” serve to remind listeners of the power of two voices in an acoustic setting.
Jenny and Johnny and Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
A pair of duos came into being when two musicians with their own solo (or band) careers joined forces. “I’m Having Fun Now” (Warner Brothers) by Jenny and Johnny, for instance, combines the talents of Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) and Johnathan Rice. If you like She & Him (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward) or, to a lesser degree, Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn’s collaboration, then you’ll enjoy this sweetly sexy set of songs, including the standouts “Switchblade,” “Scissor Runner,” “While Men Are Dreaming,” “New Yorker Cartoon,” “Slavedriver” and the 21st-century surf of “Big Wave.”
As unlikely couplings go, Isobel Campbell (Belle & Sebastian) & Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age) are high on the list. And yet, their partnership has proven to be fruitful. “Hawk” (Vanguard) is their third joint release. Somehow, Campbell’s sweet purr crossed with Lanegan’s raw growl creates a pleasing concoction, as you can hear on “Come Undone,” “Time of the Season,” “To Hell & Back Again,” “Eyes of Green” and “Lately.”
The Hundred in the Hands and Matt & Kim
The dance music world is familiar with electro duos. On their self-titled Warp debut, The Hundred in the Hands gets the dance party started right with the dizzying disco of “Young Aren’t Young,” which practically dares you not to dance. The bare bones “Killing It” is killer and “Pigeons” takes flight above the dance floor. “Commotion” is sure to cause one and “Dead Ending” is livelier than its name suggests. Matt & Kim put a Brooklyn spin on the dance-oriented songs of their third album “Sidewalks” (Fader Lablel). Beginning with the white funk of “Block After Block,” this loft-party soundtrack keeps the good times coming.
Sugarland
Country duo Sugarland (Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush) will probably never live down the embarrassing rap on the song “Stuck Like Glue” from their album “The Incredible Machine” (Mercury). But they’ve got bigger problems than that. As they’ve grown into an arena act, so has their sound. That makes songs such as “Stand Up,” “Find The Beat Again” and “Wide Open” impersonal and distant, no matter how hard Nettles wails. Still, they deserve props for quoting Mark Helprin’s “The Winter’s Tale” in the liner notes.
The Green Children
“Encounter” (Knightingale Entertainment) by the duo The Green Children opens with the rhythmic, other-worldly title track that suggests a sort of new age disco. The gently persuasive beats continue on “Dragons,” but are more or less abandoned for a less-interesting style of Euro-pop favored by people who watch “American Idol” and buy Katy Perry songs on iTunes because they haven’t yet discovered LaRoux.
