In case you still want to buy L.A.M.B., here’s the recap: the album is completely derivative, and it doesn’t even do a good job of ripping off the music it tries to copy. Stefani wants to be the next Madonna with her sex-obsessed lyrics and electronic synth beats, but she loses the thing that got No Doubt its fans and made Stefani famous: her innocent-yet-knowing sexiness and clever lyrics. It’s a sellout as disappointing as Jewel’s or Liz Phair’s, and far less pleasant to the ear.
Trust me, this shit is bananas—B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
—Michael A. Mohammed
Stars Look Down
Stars Look Down
(Blackfly Records)
This album is growing on me. Slowly, admittedly, but not imperceptibly. When I first put the disc on, I was dismayed by the guitars, overly saturated with distortion and punk-pop sensibility. It didn’t strike me as Blink 182 necessarily, but the same simplistic chord progressions were evident, as were the fuzzboxes and somewhat predictable guitar and drum breaks. Now, a few days later, I’ve gotten better acclimated to this, the first release from Stars Look Down. I’m still not enthralled with frontman Trent Gay’s voice or with the hardly-changing guitar sound and tempo, but the melodies are making more sense to me and the chord progressions feel a little bit catchier.
SLD’s sound isn’t altogether easy to define; there are elements of Built to Spill, U2 (in the soaring guitar riffs), various pop-punk bands, and even 3 Doors Down. That is to say, SLD favor controlled but nonetheless ragged guitar sounds, driving drums (deceptively light at times), simple bass lines and an singer frequently sounding at his wits end. If any of this sounds unappealing, you probably won’t like this album: SLD has identified their sound and hardly stray from it. There is a certain majesty, a more primal musical essence in some of their more carefully-written choruses (“You’ve Done Enough,” for example) that transcends the painfully typical downbeat power-chording of so many tracks. Stars Look Down is never lackluster in its sound, and the straightforward production does little to enhance or detract from the sound quality. But what it comes down to is that there is no inherent creative drive at work here, or at least that I can detect.
SLD have written some pretty catchy tunes and they’ve executed them well—this is a much more interesting album the second time through, especially when listened to with good headphones able to catch the arpeggios that add nuance and subtlety. Nonetheless, I still can’t help feeling that this album is somewhat derivative. Maybe this band will surprise us with its sophomore effort and head into uncharted territory, but so far they fail to play anything truly innovative or head-turning. One look at the strikingly well-done CD cover depicting various scenes of the sky grants the sense that SLD may have a little more at stake than they let on during the relatively brief course of this album. It will be interesting to see where their musical and lyrical development takes them.
—Nathaniel Naddaff-Hafrey