Opinz

Franz Ferdinand – Blood

As far as dance/dub/remix albums go, Blood is a fine record which consists of dubs and remixes from their latest full release Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, but like most remix albums one questions the point of releasing something that isn’t really suited for Joe Commuter driving home during rush hour and is more suited for bumping and grinding on a Saturday night…as far as the music, well, it’s exactly what you would expect a remixed Franz Ferdinand album to sound like – take that as you will.
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Gossip – Music For Men

Music For Men showcases a bit of musical maturity for Gossip since their last album Standing In The Way Of Control, not at all unlike Yeah Yeah Yeahs demonstrated on It’s Blitz – the formula is pretty much the same but the sound is more focused; indie-ish, catchy pop rock but filtered through Rick Rubin – Music For Men is a classic example of Rick Rubin making a band sound better with no one really able to pinpoint exactly how he did it.
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Rancid – Let The Dominoes Fall

It’s probably too early to tell if Let the Dominoes Fall can be regarded as a punk classic like those by their oft-compared counterparts The Clash, but that’s OK because it is a modern rock/punk/ska masterpiece that runs rough and ragged all over the musical map and avoids being cliche or predictable but all fits together wonderfully; standout tracks include “Last One to Die”, “I Ain’t Worried”, & “Skull City” but almost every track is strong on its own merit and bustles with energy…but the real gem lies in the acoustic disc contained in the deluxe edition of the album which shows how much of a solid, well-rounded act Rancid is an not just a snotty-nosed punk band.
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Elvis Costello – Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

Elvis Costello transitions through musical genres as well as David Bowie or Prince, and Secret, Profane & Sugarcane continues this trend, sounding little like his previous album Momofuku – T Bone Burnett’s production shines throughout the stripped down and countrified disc, and while it never gets tedious it can get tiring…there are a lot of fun and catchy tracks like “Down Among the Wines and Spirits”, “Complicated Shadows”, and “Hidden Shame” (originally written for Johnny Cash), but clunkers like “I Felt the Chill Before the Winter Came”, “She Handed Me A Mirror” bog things down needlessly – Secret could have proven to people who don’t usually listen to bluegrass/country that it’s not all bad, but unfortunately it falls into some of the trappings that make people that otherwise love Costello’s other more eccentric work loathe country music.
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Chris Isaak – Mr. Lucky

Mr. Lucky is decent enough, but coming from someone who has built a career out of making “cool” retropop it’s disappointing to have an album almost devoid of that “cool” factor and even seems like it was made on autopilot and mailed in; the overall sound throughout is quite generic and anyone looking for more “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing” will be disappointed.
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The Sounds – Crossing The Rubicon

The Sounds continue their instantly identifyable pseudo-new wave sound on Crossing The Rubicon, but in doing so they seem to have fallen in to a rut because that same instantly identifyable pseudo-new wave sound has become formulaic and predictable; compared to their last album Dying To Say This To You, which had plenty of standout songs and managed to stay interesting throughout the disc, Crossing just kind of plods along generically and aside from Maja Ivarsson’s vocals it sounds like just about anything else in the record bins today…it’s moments, though, particulary the first single “No One Sleeps When I’m Awake” and the weird electronic sadness of  ”Home Is Where Your Heart Is.”

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