Beyonce
“I Am … Sasha Fierce”
(World Music World/Columbia) —
There are two sides to Beyonce Knowles.
That’s the heavy-handed message of her third album, “I Am … Sasha Fierce.”
It’s a double album, with one disc for ballads and the other for the uptempo numbers for which Beyonce is best known (fortunately, it’s priced like a single album).
The first disc, titled “I Am …,” features the ballads which the singer describes as who she is when she’s not in her stage persona. There are some interesting choices among these six tunes, especially the single “If I Were a Boy.” But does the world really need another variation of “Ave Maria”?
“Sasha Fierce,” the second CD, shows off the dance numbers on which Beyonce has made her reputation ever since she first came up with Destiny’s Child.
This disc offers the more memorable songs, including the single “Single Ladies (Put a Ring in It).” “Sweet Dream” and “Radio.” These are the tunes that stick with you.
The risk of this kind of packaging, which Beyonce insisted on for artistic reasons, is that one CD can be played over and over while the other gets ignored. Mix the 11 songs together and that’s not nearly as likely to happen.
Sure, “I Am … Sasha Fierce” is a transparent attempt to get people to think of her as something beyond another dance queen. But, Beyonce, honey, you’re all of 27. You’re grounded and have avoided becoming a train wreck like some of your chart rivals. Keep showing off your many facets, keep pushing into new areas, and that respect will come … in time.
— DALE MCGARRIGLE
• • •
Glasvegas“Glasvegas”(BMG/Arista)
Almost the first thing you’ll find in any review of Glasvegas — band or album — is a comparison to the Jesus and Mary Chain. This is a little deceptive. While both bands are from Scotland and share a distinctive primitive drum sound and a love of Wall of Sound production, the similarities end there. The Mary Chain alternated raw squalls of energy with a drunken moroseness that transfixed. Glasvegas does not.
James Allan’s vocals are both perfect and yet the band’s biggest problem. Singing in a thick Glaswegian accent, his words are often lost inside the reverb-soaked guitar and detonating drums. It’s an almost claustrophobic effect and one that should grab you, overwhelm you. But somehow it doesn’t. Allan seems tortured by his tales of absent fathers, murdered children and lost lovers. He sways on your shoulder teary-eyed, his voice a continually wounded bellow, variety offered only through his occasional launch into a terrace chant. To be sure, there’s plenty of drama in this album, yet it somehow remains a very monochromatic affair.
It’s not too surprising that Glasvegas the band has been hailed as one of Britain’s brightest new hopes and is being showered with award nominations like a gloomy Glasgow rainstorm. They have a formula, and theoretically a pretty good one at that. Eventually, though, it’s not one that is as compelling as it looks on paper, and by the time Allan starts yelling, “Here we f—-ing go,” I can’t help but find myself beginning to wish they would.
— ADAM CORRIGAN
• • •
U2“No Line on the Horizon”(Interscope)
U2’s 12th studio album has been billed as a return to their more adventurous, exploratory side after the musically conservative (but commercially successful) retrenchment of “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb” and “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.”
Collaborating with a total of three legendary producers (Steve Lillywhite, Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno) who are all veterans of previous U2 projects, “No Line On The Horizon” seems like it should be a slam-dunk. The actual product, however, is a decidedly mixed bag, perhaps a result of too many cooks in the kitchen.
The album opens promisingly enough with the hard-hitting title track, featuring a buzzy guitar riff from the Edge that recalls “The Fly” from “Achtung Baby,” U2’s high-water mark for combining arty experimentation with their trademark anthemic rock. The next track, “Magnificent,” is even better, an instant-classic U2 anthem with the band’s trademark chiming guitars and a nicely yearning vocal from Bono.
Unfortunately, the middle of the album sags dreadfully, as both “Moment of Surrender” and “Unknown Caller” amble along for more than six minutes apiece without ever ending up anywhere interesting. Both of these songs are still preferable to the next two, though: “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” is a rote U2 ballad that could easily be swapped out for any of the rote U2 ballads from the last two albums, while the clumsy and plodding “Get On Your Boots” and its cringe-inducing lyrics is such an awful choice for a single that it makes “Discotheque” look like “New Year’s Day” in comparison.
Overall, “No Line On The Horizon” feels like a transitional work; it’s like U2 wanted to return to the musical back alleys and odd nooks and crannies that they so successfully explored in the ’90s, but they somehow keep ending up back in the middle of the road. Here’s hoping the next album finds them expanding their horizons again.
— TRAVIS GASS
• • •
Morrissey“Years of Refusal”(Anti)
Acerbic, self-deprecating, sly, angst-ridden and beautifully tragic. All the hallmarks of the Morrissey oeuvre are present in the coifed one’s latest release, “Years of Refusal,” the third in a line of re-energized records, beginning with 2004’s “You Are the Quarry.”
The big difference between “Years” and his two other more recent albums is that this one rocks even harder. Moz’s crack band of rockers amps up the volume and power, as evidenced on the opening track, “Something Is Squeezing My Skull,” which also features a classically Morrissey vocal performance.
“All You Need Is Me” is a slice of punked-up Brit rock just itching to be played in front of a crowd of swooning Moz fans, while “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore” is an over-the-top, hand-wringing ballad. The mariachi horns on “When I Last Spoke to Carol” could be an homage to his devoted Hispanic audience, or it could just be another addition to the slowly growing arsenal of tricks Moz keeps bringing out.
When all’s said and done there’s nothing dramatically different about “Years” from “Quarry” or 2006’s “Ringleader of the Tormentors.” But the “new” Morrissey is better than anything he put out in the late ’80s or ’90s, and each album just improves upon the last. If you love Morrissey, you’ll think it’s great. If you’re an idle fan or unfamiliar, you’ll hear hyperintelligent rock music from a hero of contemporary indie music. Either way, “Years” is a very, very good album.
— EMILY BURNHAM