Music Reviews: The Latest From Train, Mike Doughty, Lia Ices and More

— -- intro: This week offered up an interesting variety of releases. Train release their latest record, while former Soul Coughing leader Mike Doughty releases his second album in a month’s time. Indie singer/songwriter Lia Ices releases her third album, Generationals go back to the eighties, rock producer and analog icon Steve Albini and his band Shelac release their latest and a pair of out of print Jimi Hendrix albums get the reissue treatment.

quicklist: 1title: Train’s “Bulletptoof Picasso” **text: Train’s evolution has been an interesting one as they’ve morphed from the rootsy band that brought you “Meet Virginia” and the Black Crowes’-esque megahit-ballad “Drops Of Jupiter” into the pop group that brought you the omnipresent ukulele-strummer, “Hey, Soul Sister.” As time goes on, there is a clear progression from the band’s organic beginnings to more pop-driven pastures. This is a band determined to have hits. Not small hits, but epic ones you won’t soon forget.

On the band’s 7th full-length, Pat Monahan’s vocals are covered in so much reverb and gloss and it seems like they are throwing everything up in the air to see what lands. They are decent musicians, but they have lost their way and lost the sound that made them interesting to listen to.

Sure, there are hooks galore on “Bulletproof Picasso” but it doesn't sound distinct. The title track has the feel of a generic anthem down to its tinkering piano line. “Angel In Blue Jeans” has a bellowing section that brings to mind a host of other modern folk-rockers. On “I Will Remember,” Monahan sings, “Did you ever do drugs? / It’s like love. / Have you ever done love? / It’s like a drug. / It’ll mess you up good. / Mess you up bad. /Make you fall harder than you ever have.” The lyrics get worse as the song continues.

There’s still a semi-decent band hidden behind all the flash and they may not have the best lyrics, but if you compare the band that they used to be vs. the band they are now, the actual substance in their work has declined significantly.

Focus Tracks:

“Cadillac, Cadillac” Putting on a faux reggae swagger, Monahan’s vocal turn on this opener, somehow imitates Sting, Colin Hay and Gotye all at once. It is the best song on the record.

“Angel In Blue Jeans” This folk-stomper plays like something out of modern Nashville while at the same time it sounds like it is trying to imitate the Shins’ “New Slang” and the Lumineers’ “Ho Hey” among others. It is still a highlight.

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quicklist: 2title: Mike Doughty’s “Stellar Motel” ***1/2text: A month after releasing the fantastic live album, “Live At Ken’s House” where the former Soul Coughing leader further explored his former band’s material, Mike Doughty has issued an album of all new songs. If you’ve been tracking his post-Soul Coughing career, this record will probably stand out among his other solo offerings. First of all, it has a huge production boost, courtesy of producer Good Goose, who also helps bring back Doughty’s hip-hop side, which has been more muted as of late compared to his Soul Coughing days. It is evident that exploring the older material woke up and renewed this element of Doughty’s music.

“Stellar Motel” sounds very much like Doughty’s stab at the mainstream. It’s got a radio-ready sheen that should win him new fans. It’s a double-edged sword, though. The production boost helps the darker, more beat driven material really pop and amaze, but on the brighter, tuneful songs, the gloss knocks him to the back of the mix, in effect watering him down. There’s no reason particularly why “These Are Your Friends” sounds like Doughty’s tongue-in-cheek response to Taylor Swift, but the crystal-clear production makes it sound that way. “When You Come Home” is happy, hand-clap-ready pop. It’s a good thing Doughty has range. If it weren’t for the darker, funkier, more beat-poet-minded tracks, one might think Doughty had really shifted gears. This album also is drowning in guests. It’s nice to hear Doughty drop verses next to H.J.A. and Jay Boogie, and Big Dipper adds nice verses to “Let Me Lie,” but in a way, the omnipresent roster of special appearances mutes the power of Doughty.

On the other side of things, though, this album offers up some of the freshest work of Doughty’s career. “Light Will Keep Your Heart Beating In The Future” is his best hope for mainstream top-forty radio stardom to date and it is extremely Soul Coughing-esque.

“Stellar Motel” is obviously a transitional record. Doughty is and always has been an artist who deserves mainstream love. This album has some really dynamite moments so even if it is at times somewhat uneven, it still deserves attention. Let’s hope that this gamble pays off.

Focus Tracks:

“Light Will Keep Your Heart Beating In The Future” Not only is this classic Doughty in every sense, but it this song also deserves to be one of Top 40 radio’s big hits of the Fall. With its banjo riff and slick, hip-hop beat it is has the potential in my mind to pull off the kind of surprise attack that Lorde’s “Royals” delivered last year. (And I mean this in all seriousness.) I dare every pop and AAA station to add this song. It’s his best song since “Wednesday (Contra La Puerta)” from 2008 and it deserves to give him even more exposure than “Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well” did in 2005. It’s an incredible piece and it gets more incredible with every listen.

“Let’s Go To The Motherf___ing Movies” It goes without saying that if this gets promoted as a single (and it should be) it’ll probably be renamed “Let’s Go To The Movies.” Back in 2011, Doughty’s song “Into The Un” was supposedly submitted and rejected for one of the “Twilight” soundtracks. Something like this, with the sharper production, but all the foreboding darkness intact, might have done better. It has some surprising pull.

“The Champion” (Featuring MC Frontalot and Laura Lee Bishop. This is a perfect merging of Doughty’s Soul Coughing sound and his folkier solo material and it possesses a bold, righteously stirred energy.

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quicklist: 3title: Lia Ices’ “Ices” ***1/2text: Brooklyn singer/songwriter Lia Ices’ third album “Ices” has a decidedly more upbeat and celebratory tone when compared 2011’s incredibly moving and ethereal “Grown Unknown.” If it pales in comparison to that record, it is because that album is an alluring masterpiece.

This album is a completely different beast. While the last record found her singing with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, this one at times sounds like tweaked Euro-disco with some cool international touches. This record may not play quite as consistently as its predecessor, but it is incredibly daring. Arriving at the end of summer this collection perhaps sadly misses the opportunity to soundtrack hip rooftop parties.

Producer Benny Sagittarius’ beats can sometimes come off a tad tinny and he seems to want to alter Ices’ beautiful voice a bit too often with electronic effects, but this record still works quite well as a laid-back underground party-starter. This is the kind of music commercial radio would never play but really should and this is the kind of album that will gain an audience by word-of-mouth with friends passing it along to each other. Like similarly-minded performer Jesca Hoop, Ices seems to be playing on her own field and setting up her own rules. There is always an air of mystery and wisdom in her pieces.

As Ices mixes quirky dance music with trippy ballads it becomes abundantly clear that this record will play best for those without expectations. This album is a leap in a different direction but like her past work it possesses its own uniquely exotic gifts.

Focus Tracks:

“Thousand Eyes” This is a great piece of electro-tinged-psychedelia. It sounds like a feminine response to the Beta Band’s “Heroes To Zeros” album.

“Creature” With its woozy, off-kilter beat, this is really something special. Ices’ voice is extremely welcoming and sweet here.

“Waves” This epic, seven-minute closer is an enveloping ballad full of warmth and echo. It favorably recalls Sarah McLachlan’s more experimental side.

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quicklist: 4title: Generationals’ “Alix” **1/2text: Synth-pop is back in a big way and retro-eighties-sounding acts seem to be hot right now. The New Orleans-based duo Generationals are on such a kick modernizing the sounds of that decade. Along with producer, Richard Swift they create sunny sing-along numbers that recall a simpler time. Their fourth album, “Alix” offers some effectively synthy grooves.

Grant Widmer and Ted Joyner approach this reverb-heavy gusto. If you aren’t a fan of falsetto singing, this might not be the record for you. Like the group Foxygen, (whom Swift also produced) and to a lesser degree Foster The People, they are part of a trend of groups led by wispy voiced singers and throughout the majority of the set, this approach paired with heavy effects can diminish the power of the songs. Still there are moments that allow them to rise to the occasion, but it still isn’t enough to save the set on the whole.

The weird thing is, they showed a completely different side when they covered Creation’s “Making Time” on the Wes Anderson tribute album, “I Saved Latin” earlier this year and sang in a completely different way. Tracks like “Heart In Two” and “Gold Silver Diamond” are meant no doubt to be campy and fun and to a certain degree they are, but at the same time they are a bit grating. I think the ultimate problem is actually the reliance on the retro-eighties sound and the amount of reverb. If you listen to this album and then go back to the retro-60’s soul swing of “When They Fright, They Fight” from their 2009 debut, with somewhat untouched (dusty sounding) falsetto vocals, it sounds so much better. Too much reverb and echo can diminish the power of even the best singer if placed in the wrong context.

This was a record I wanted to like more than I did. It has pep, but it is missing something. Generationals, like their name indicates can imitate sounds from a variety of eras, but sometimes they can also slightly overstep. Ultimately this is a slight misfire from a band I know has done better work.

Focus Tracks:

“Welcome To The Fire” This is one of the more winning offerings on the disc, with its upbeat, memorable chorus, fused with some effective, fast-paced synth accents.

“Reading Signs” This song sounds like the summer of 1986. It just does. It’s the kind of low-key dance pop that used to fill the airwaves back then.

“Charlemagne” This is one of the better melodies on this record, full of handclap-infused bounciness.

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quicklist: 5title: Shellac “Dude Incredible” ****text: “Dude Incredible” is Shellac’s 5th album in 20-years-time and their first album in 7 years. It showcases the kind of muscular, blunt workout you’d expect from Steve Albini, who is of course a legend in the Chicago indie-rock scene. Not only has he fronted Shellac but Big Black as well. He’s also put his sonic stamp on albums like Pixies’ “Surfer Rosa,” Nirvana’s “In Utero” and Bush’s “Razorblade Suitcase” as a producer.

“Dude Incredible” is exactly what you would expect if you are familiar with Albini’s work and that is a good thing. It is calculated, brutal and cerebral all at once. These nine songs in just over a half-hour bounce from quiet syncopated workouts to noisy tantrums on a dime, while Albini offers what sound like barely audible rants. There’s something still brave and scarily compelling about this formula and maybe calling it a formula is a tad misleading when the end result is rather unpredictable. But, in the end, this record offers something rare in the current musical climate. It gives you the sound of three people obviously playing unabridged rock in a room together. And you can hear every bit of echo in that room and know that it is authentic. Albini, after all is an analog loyalist who has had strong beliefs against digital recording his entire career, and in the album’s sludgiest moments you can hear every bit fleck of dust coming off the tape. Bob Weston’s bass on “Gary,” for instance is right next to your ear and you can hear each time he plucks the strings and can imagine how he has moved his fingers to create such a sound.

This album is as primal as it evergreen. It makes sense that 21 years ago Albini found kindred spirits in the members of Nirvana. Throughout his career, Albini has had a similar dynamic to Kurt Cobain and no doubt served as a huge influence on him. It is refreshing to hear a record that obviously doesn’t care about hit singles or airplay. The members of this band just want to make the best and most forceful statement they can. I suppose that makes this some sort of sonic art in its purest form.

Focus Tracks:

“Dude Incredible” This bluesy opening title track is full of tension that culminates into a series of small explosions later in the track. At roughly the 4:50 mark it hits full-throttle.

“Complaint” This plays like a brand of extremely minimalist math-rock, simply because the trio is very tight in their execution. It’s a focused meditation and dissection of a riff.

“The People’s Microphone” This is where the rocking energy hits its peak, bouncing from a noisy riff to more concentrated guitar chugging.

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quicklist: 6title: Jimi Hendrix’s “The Cry Of Love” (Reissue) ***** and “Rainbow Bridge” ******text: Here’s something that is utterly baffling. How can it be that Jimi Hendrix’s first two posthumous releases fell out of print? How is that even possible? He’s one of the most respected and revered figures in the entire rock era. Both albums originally arrived in 1971 in the months following Hendrix’s premature death and both pack quite a punch. “The Cry Of Love” was available for purchase in the early nineties but fell out of circulation. “Rainbow Bridge” has never been available on CD until this week. It’s a gross oversight.

What makes the reissue of these two records unusual is that it is not a transparent cash-grab to get fans to buy albums they already have. In fact, it is merely filling a void and righting a wrong. Again, this is a case where you don’t need me to tell you if these albums are good. Of course they are! They are in rock’s DNA and imagine the damage to the previous generation of musicians and music fans by not having them in regular circulation.

The void has thankfully been filled. You should get these albums and treasure them. They are classics.

Focus Tracks (“The Cry Of Love”):

“Angel” This song is thankfully still known through the years since it has been reissued on a variety of best-of collections. The shimmering texture of Jimi’s guitar alone speaks volumes.

“Freedom” This is another well-known Hendrix standard. One of his signature songs actually, which has also long been available on many collections.

Focus Tracks (“Rainbow Bridge”):

“The Star-Spangled Banner” This is a pristine studio-reading of our national anthem.

“Hear My Train a Comin' (Live at Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, Calif.)” This is an 11-minute blues workout, where Hendrix further cements himself as one of the very best hard-rock guitarists in history. Had he lived beyond 27, the future opportunities would have been nearly endless.

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