Something for the weekend, Sir? If your cheerful neighbourhood barber would flock CDs, here are the three he’d recommend for this weekend: JJ Toth, Keziah Jones and Oasis.
These are three fairly strong albums that you can happily bring home together in one bag, provided you haven’t adopted a recession budget yet.
If you are on a budget, here’s the lowdown. James Jackson Toth’s ‘Waiting In Vain’ is an excellent rock album with loud guitars, sing in the shower melodies and full of general bonhommie. If you are more into Funk or Jazz, I’d pick Keziah Jones’ ‘Nigerian Wood’ - Shades of Nigerian Afro Funk executed in a slick, urban R&B fashion. And finally you got Oasis doing what Oasis does best - Crisp Technicolour rock full of sunny 60’s nostalgia and Liam ranting on in that half-bored but insistent way you either love or hate.
Next week we’ll definitely have more on Hip Hop’s hottest new things, Yo!Majesty, as well as the new Lambchop album. And with Halloween on the horizon we’re working on a special on gore billy, slasher rock, horror rap and other music suitable for the occasion. Got any songs, albums or artists you want us to consider for this cabinet of horrors? Leave your suggestions in a comment below, please!
Album Of The Week: James Jackson Toth ‘Waiting In Vain’
Not another Hillbilly songwriter dude, I hear you say. Yeah, but this one has got the sound just right. Dirty guitars, laconic vocals and JJ writes good songs. He’s supremely ironic, too.
Good songs with hooks that are hard to come by these days. Tennessee-based JJ sounds like he had Alex Chilton and the Cramps cooped up in a Memphis studio, watching over them with a shotgun. ‘Waiting In Vain’ is way rockier than any decent singer-songwriter stuff you may come across this year. And that includes Micah P. Hinson.
Hinson’s music is darker and has that ’50s feel. Toth’s album is more like a slice of 70’s rock: Music for cruising. But JJ ain’t no jock and there is a dark streak running through the album that makes you sit up and listen carefully. Just check out the ever so slightly psycho video for the catchy ‘Doreen’. That’s his wife Roxy in the clip with him, by the way.
Watch JJ Toth Play ‘Doreen’
Sweet melodies and a touch of menace in the air - Highly addictive, but slightly scary stuff.
Toth is definitely tackling this whole Alternative Country and singer-songwriter revival from a new angle. There is a conscious arty element to ‘Waiting In Vain’ that belies the country backwater image you see at the surface. ‘Waiting In Vain’ is a studied, highly ironic look from within at the Alt Country and Americana genre, if you ask me.
Listen to JJ Toth’s new album here. US residents can also download tracks directly from the MP3 player below. UK and Ireland residents would need to jump to the iTunes link further down to buy the album.
Here’s the iTunes UK link for JJ’s album ‘Waiting In Vain’.
US readers can buy the album on CD here:
UK and Ireland readers can buy the album on CD here:
#2: Keziah Jones ‘Nigerian Wood’
Respect to Jones for daring to be different in the copycats infested R&B scene. When African bands picked up the fashionable Funk sounds from the US in the early 1970s, they put their own spin on it. Just like Jamaican artists covering Curtis Mayfield’s Chicago Soul set the Reggae train going (well, Rocksteady, if you’re pedantic), the largely West African Funk merchants kick started Afro Funk. Now Nigerian-born, New York-based Jones claims the sound back.
Like Afro Funk’s best known exponent, the late fellow Nigerian Fela Kuti, Jones makes music for night clubs. Suave, mellow with the odd frenetic break to get booties on the dance floor. The smooth execution makes ‘Nigerian Wood’ pleasant home listening material, too.
Watch Keziah Jones Play Live
For the most overt Afro Funk workouts, check out the title track or the more uptempo numbers ‘Lagos vs. New York’ and ‘Pimpin’.
On other tracks, Jones adds more of a jazzy New York vibe a la Roy Ayers. Listen to ‘African Android’ or the two seriously good ballads ‘My Kinda Girl’ and ‘Beautifulblackbutterfly’.
When Jones reverts to standard R&B ballads during the rest of the album, the results are too syrupy for my taste. I mean, he’s got a cool, understated style of delivery, but stuff like ‘In Love Forever’ just lacks moxie. Jones doesn’t do the obligatory R&B bombast, however. So even the bling ballads sound sharp and crisp. Check ‘Blue Is The Mind’, for instance. Still a bit syrupy, though.
Listen here to samples of Keziah Jones’ album ‘Nigerian Wood’ on iTunes UK. Readers from the UK and Ireland can also download the album using the iTunes link above. Please note, that a CD version of ‘Norwegian Wood’ is not currently available on Amazon.co.uk.
#3: Oasis ‘Dig Out Your Soul’
Oasis always drew their strength from soaking up the best bits of British pop culture and playing it back in their own way. After plodding along fairly aimlessly for the past decade, the band now once more turn to the imagery and sounds of 1960s pop, combined with the Rave culture take on rock that fuelled Oasis’ 80s idols the Stone Roses.
It works surprisingly well. ‘Dig Your Own Soul’ is the first Oasis album since 1997’s ‘Be Here Now’ that I’ve played twice, back-to-back, and again.
Hear for yourself, listen here to a free stream of a selection of songs from the album. You can also listen to short samples of all album tracks using the Amazon MP3 player below.
The album not a throwback to the band’s 90’s heydays either. Never before have Oasis embraced 1960’s Psychedelia as openly as on ‘To Be Where There’s Life’ or ‘The Nature Of Reality’. You will find swirling guitars, Indian sitars, sound effects - the works.
Watch the video for ‘The Shock Of Lightning’. While the song may be a straightforward 90’s rocker, the video is all about flowery images and psychedelic colour filters.
Watch Oasis’ Psychedelic Video For ‘Shock Of Lightning’
Oasis also revisit the heirloom of their revered idols and fellow Mancunians, the Stone Roses. The standout track among the straightforward rockers is ‘The Turning’ with its loose groove. Sure, there are noisier, guitar riff dominated tracks like ‘Bag It Up’, ‘Falling Down’ and ‘The Shock Of Lightning’, but ‘The Turning’ is pure understatement.
The biggest surprise for me was the general quality of the songwriting on ‘Dig Out Your Soul’. It’s a return to form for Oasis.
Readers from the UK and Ireland can download Oasis’ new album from iTunes UK.
