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By Dan Grunebaum
CHEMICAL BROTHERS
Push The Button
(Freestyle Dust/Virgin)
Pre-released in Japan in an indication of the importance
of the local market, Tom Rowland and Ed Simons' fifth
studio album faces the task of revitalizing dance music. To
approach the challenge, they've enlisted A Tribe Called
Quest rapper Q-Tip, who turns in an energizing performance
on the anti-war leadoff track "Galvanize." Compared
to 2002's Come With Us, the overall vibe is decidedly
more in your face, with a strong hip-hop influence that also
shows up in an appearance by Mos Def's brother Anwar
Superstar on "Left Right." Other contributors
include guitarist Tim Burgess from the Charlatans, singer
Kele Okereke from Bloc Party and the Magic Numbers on the
classically Chems psychedelic outing "Close Your Eyes."
Compared to their fellow decade-old electronica peers the
Prodigy's recent album, Push The Button shows the Chems
aging gracefully.
THE NEW YORK DOLLS
Morrissey Presents: The Return of the New York Dolls
(Attack/Sanctuary/BMG)
Rock band reunions are always suspect for the, as Johnny
Rotten succinctly put it, "filthy lucre" factor.
One can't discount this in the 29-years-later get-together
of the proto-punk glamsters, but since the Dolls were invited
to perform by Morrissey at his Meltdown Festival last summer,
they deserve to be cut some slack. The Return is unlikely
to win them any new fans. But David Johansen and co., minus
the legendary Johnnie Thunders, who died in '91 of
a heroin overdose, put on a solid history lesson in the roots
of punk in the amalgam of hard rock, cross-dressing and nihilism
that they, Iggy Pop and later the Ramones cultivated in the
rock dive laboratories of New York's as-yet-ungentrified
Lower East Side in the early '70s. Songs like "You
Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" and "Lonely
Planet Boy" help put a human face on the drugs and
mayhem of the era.
DE LA SOUL
The Grind Date
(Sanctuary/BMG)
It's been the usual three-year gap since De La Soul's
last album and a decade and a half since their debut, "Three
Feet High and Rising" put a garland of flowers, rather
than a gold chain, around the neck of hip-hop. No doubt realizing
that amusing skits become annoying too quickly, De La have
traded these in for a lean and economical 12-track production.
And by placing the latest hot producers behind the mixing
desk-Madlib, 9th Wonder, Supa Dave West, J. Dilla,
and Jake One-the trio have scored themselves solid
and soulful sample-led grooves to bounce their rhymes over.
9th Wonder's production on the standout "Shopping
Bags" is bright and catchy, even if its story of gold-digging
women is a bit too obviously hip-hop for the usually quirky
De La Soul. Perhaps The Grind Date isn't vintage De
La Soul, but it's not a bad hip-hop album. Jeff
Hammond
KEN HIRAI
Sentimental Lovers
(Sony)
Sentimental Lovers seems such an appropriate title for a
Ken Hirai album that one wonders why it hasn't been
used before. Possessing an angelic voice that defines how
wonderful love songs can sound in Japanese, Hirai has himself
asserted that "sentimentality becomes the motivation
to write a song." But while his seventh album is book-ended
by simple and lush ballads, that's just the tip of
the iceberg. The sheer funk of "Jealousy" quickly
opens the album right up, pitching Hirai's voice against
a backdrop of lounge rhythms ("Signal") and
even jungle ("Style"). Nevertheless, it's
the plaintive "Nostalgia" that endears itself
the most, it's stark melancholy apparent through any
language barrier. That voice shines through no matter what
but it's the diversity and flow of the album that makes
it his best yet. Robert Poole
Would you like to comment on this article? Send a letter
to the editor at letters@metropolis.co.jp.
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