Author: John Brown

Country Ghetto is roots blues rock with
a touch of soul funk straight from Louisiana. The music is like Dr
John singing in the Creedence Clearwater Revival with Stax / Volt
horns. JJ Grey outstands as an original songwriter, singing for the
poor.

It is a laid back and melodic album
that ends up hitting a high note on the gospel flavoured tune The Sun
is Shining Down and the coda Goodbye which bring some hope to the
ghetto.

JJ Grey & Mofro delivered another
enjoyable album for a hot summer night.

In spite of
the changes, Guts and Glory should not disappoint the fans. It’s the same old Peer
Günt. Indeed, this hard rocking machine is at full speed. “No guts, no glory…
Nobody is gonna stop me now” sings Nikki in the first song and the boogie
oriented trio goes non-stop down a road of aggressive riffs and great guitar solos.
One can imagine raising fists and headbanging when Demolition Child is played live

There is
only one gear for Peer Günt. They hardly slowdown in any of the eleven songs of
the 11 songs. They played with the same strong attitude of Motörhead or AC/DC,
although Guts and Glory might suffer
in the end of including one type of song. Nevertheless, the bluesy guitar
licks, the very good guitar solos and the smell of gasoline are there. Fans can
expect good times for the new era of Peer Günt. Nikki is in top and Pete and
Sakke pass the test with a very good grade.

The result
is a laid back album of pleasant listening. Music floods like calm ocean waves
and pop song structure is exceeded. The songs are moody, even cinematic. Allen
and Simonon, who is back in the music business after 16 years, keep a mellow
groove and Albarn’s singing is melancholic so the album is at risk of falling
into monotony, until the climax of the final song when the band loses the
unsentimental mood.

The album
is produced by Danger Mouse, responsible of Gnarls Barkley’s hit Crazy. Frequent listening will help finding
the rich details of the production and the charm of the compositions. One just
misses a more adventurous way of telling this sad story of a city.

Cave sounds
revitalized, trying to be dark and noisy as he hasn’t been since Henry’s Dream. Grinderman is an
incorrect band, even naughty with a low-fi punk blues approach. The opener
track, 'Get it On', is uplifting and angry in a way that one feels like running
down the streets kicking basket cases and smashing windows.

But
Grinderman is also the continuation to the previous Nick Cave work, the double
album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus.
The song '(I Don’t Need You To) Set Me Free' would have perfectly fit on that
album. Another connection with previous works is one of those obscure murder
ballads that Cave loves to deliver.

Even when
Grinderman does not bring many new things to his music, it is thrilling to
listen to such a fresh Nick Cave, full of raw energy. The music on this album
promises some very hot live shows.

{mosimage}Orphans is divided into three parts, arranged by title and theme. The first disc, Brawlers, is the rock and blues album with the artist traveling across the darkest places of American music, from the demented rockabilly Lie to Me to a cover of the Ramones’ The Return of Jackie and Judy, and to the political song Road to Peace that narrates a suicide-bomber’s attack and its aftermath, based on a news article from the New York Times.

The second disc, Bawlers, includes the heartbroken ballads. It is a bar-room moment of sweet solitude as the piano is drinking and does the talking. There are some tunes from movie soundtracks and again the Ramones appear in a reinvented cover of Danny Says, which is one of the most desperate moments of the 20-song collection.

Finally, Bastards is the weirdness, the cabaret and carnival music. Musical experiments accompany twisted stories and the words of Charles Bukowski, Bretch &Weill. Tom Waits also delivers several of his specialties on stage: spoken-word performances, like the funny The Pontiac, which seems to have been recorded in a diner from a Jim Jarmusch movie.

The usual top-class guest musicians (Larry Taylor, Les Claypool, Marc Ribot and Charlie Musselwhite, among others) help Tom Waits, but the most outstanding instrument is the voice. The howls, the groans, the beat-box rhythms and the whispers of a broken voice define the world described by Orphans.

The first intention of this set might have been to create a compilation, but the results are certainly strange and messy. However, whatever else it may be, it definitely represents the multiple facets of the most unique and changing songwriter of the last 30 years.