3 Minutes, 49 Seconds

As a devoted fan, this is what you dream about: your beloved artist, long considered past his/her prime, releases an album that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with their best work. Elton John did it a couple of years ago with Songs From The West Coast , but it's a very rare event. So here we have Prince, who is not only content to release a good, consistent new record. No, he has mounted a full-on return to form accompanied by a performance at the Grammys, induction into the Rock 'N Roll Hall Of Fame, and an extensive tour. And he's getting more press than an elevator button (most recently and notably on the cover of Entertainment Weekly). Of course Prince is saavy enough to know that without the critically lauded new album all of that is nothing but a nostalgia trip. So he has whipped up a seemingly effortless collection that's easily his best album in 9 years ( The Gold Experience being the last, and some might argue with that). In those years Prince has followe...

Here are five bite-sized portions from the first quarter of 2004: 31. Loveless - Gift To Th e World This debut effort from Boston-based veterans of the '90s rock scene (including Jen Trynin on guitar and back-up vocals) has a lot of power pop pleasure in it. Male-female harmonies, great melodies, and buzzing guitar hooks dominate. But there's an overwraught angst in the lyrics that doesn't jibe with the joyfulness of the music. I can't decide how to feel when I'm listening. Rating: B Fave Song: Beautiful 32. Air - Talkie Walkie I've always felt I should like this French electronic duo, but it took three albums for that to happen. This is wonderful chillout music: spacy, interesting, inoffensive. Despite those adjectives the music avoids emotional detachment. It's perfect for going to sleep and waking up. Rating: B+ Fave Song: Cherry Blossom Girl 33. Get-Up Kids - Guilt Show Check out PopMatters.com for a well-written, insightful review (I hate getting ...

I’ve been waiting for something special to occasion my 30th review, and the news that Sammy Hagar and Van Halen are back together is very special indeed. In fact, check out the February archives for some quite detailed expressions of my feelings toward the band. In honor of this long hoped-for development I dusted off my copy of Sammy’s first post-Van Halen solo album and gave it a spin. I was immediately struck by how much the songs have to say about his departure from the band. When the whole debacle went down I tended to side with the VH camp, but time has shown me that maybe Sammy’s side was closer to the truth (consider that VH have now run through three lead singers, two of them twice…they’re like your friend who keeps breaking up with boyfriends and at first you sympathize with her and then you start to realize that she’s more of the problem than she’ll ever admit). Looking at the album with that point of view it becomes that much more interesting. The songs that may or may ...

Listening to music is an obsessive thing. You might get really stuck on an album or an artist, but in my experience the most prevalent objects of obsession are songs. Isn’t your life littered with songs you just couldn’t get enough of, that you played incessantly and got stuck in your head for large portions of the day? Like most obsessions it isn’t necessarily healthy, but it sure feels good. No matter how advanced our methods of experiencing new music become, that obsession will always be one of the primal thrills of music consumption. Honestly, it doesn’t happen to me much anymore. Maybe I don’t listen to the radio enough, or I’m too jaded to open my heart and mind to new sounds. The Darkness have changed that! I Believe In A Thing Called Love is a big old slice of cheese from the U.K. Dressed up in Def Leppard- style guitar bombast and Queen-style vocal bombast, it brings back a time when metal and pop were still together and pop had a little more say in the relationship. I’m...

The summer before I moved to Minneapolis (or even knew I was going to) I listened to a lot of Janet Jackson and Prince. It didn't occur to me until later is that maybe the Minnesota origins of those artists was subconsciously influencing me to relocate. Since the move, I've had an unerring devotion to music that's made in Minnesota. I have savored the music of The Jayhawks, Replacements, Semisonic, and especially Prince with a strong sense of civic pride. (It's sort of like the sports teams. I grew up in a city with no pro sports teams, so the fact that we have the Twins, Vikings, Wild, and Timberwolves right here in the city is wonderful.) And though I've followed a few lesser-known local bands, I haven't given in to every single group. For example, Husker Du's brilliance still escapes me, and I only sort of like Bob Dylan and Soul Asylum. And before I listened to 10,000 Years , I would have lumped The Honeydogs in that same forgettable category. I ne...

I might be risking a cease and desist order by even reviewing this album (my lips are zipped as to how I acquired it; computers were not involved), but how could I resist? If you didn't know this album is a marriage of sorts. It takes the vocals from Jay-Z's recent Black Album (see the November archives for a review) and places them over music samples from The Beatles' White Album . DJ Danger Mouse is the mastermind behind it, and like a lot of brilliant ideas, it was a gamble. The Beatles' publishing is very tight about the use of those songs (except it seems when it comes to selling out for commercials), so you had to know it wouldn't fly. So sadly this is a work of art that will never reach the masses. And have no doubt, this is art. There are those who might find it blasphemous, and those who might simply argue that taking things other people have created and putting them together is not art. But these people would have never had the creative audacity to pu...

It's not the most rock 'n' roll thing to admit, but piano is the instrument that does it for me more than any other. It's percussive and propulsive and yet wistful and thoughtful. It contains multitudes. That's why I like Elton John, Steely Dan, Billy Joel, and Ben Folds so much. In fact, one might argue that this song here embodies everything that's great about the use of piano in rock 'n' roll. (One might also argue that it's the prototype for about 85% of Ben Folds' career.) The song is propelled by a quick-tempo, but the mood is entirely reflective. And though I'd be hard-pressed to tell you what the song is actually about (the title is apropos of nothing), the lyrics certainly project a sense of depth. There are lots of memorable couplets: "They say that these are not the best of times, but they're the only times I've ever known / And I believe there is a time for meditation in cathedrals of our own." "How tho...