KWCW

Despite being a walking advertisement for how smoking can ruin a beautiful voice, Joni Mitchell can still write a damn good song. For “Shine,” she has tackled the heavy subjects of genocide and the growing war on the environment, even revamping her classic anti-DDT anthem “Big Yellow Taxi” for a 2007 audience. As in all of Mitchell’s later work, jazz is a major influence (“One Week Last Summer”), but she’s still at her best when she picks up an acoustic guitar and sings from her heart (“This Place”). I can forgive her for destroying her vocal cords, because her music still makes me miss California and still makes me want to save the world.
Grade: B
-Katie Presley

St. Vincent is the performing name of 24-year-old multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark, who is now making her solo debut after backing up such acts as The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. On “Marry Me,” Clark surrounds her dexterous guitar work and quaint, angular soprano with keyboards, horn sections, children’s choirs, Moog, and strings to create a quirky and charming blend of singer/songwriter, wartime jazz/blues, and indie pop that is all her own. While her subject matter rarely strays from the standard love and heartbreak, Clark’s jesting wordplay and stately grace give her intricate arrangements a certain polish that keeps them above the mushy.
Grade: B+
-James Truitt

The fourth album from Montreal-based band Stars is extremely satisfying. It is less heartbreaking than anything they’ve done in the past. Problem: I love heartbreaking. However, this album is catchy and I also love to dance when I walk. The instruments, as always, are beautiful. One could easily listen to this album several times without listening to the lyrics and be entertained. After those first listens, however, the lyrics reveal themselves to be poignant and accessible. Another classic Stars move put to use on “In Our Bedroom”: the appearance of dialogue from movies or elsewhere, which adds a shot of pure human-ness into your listening experience. Heartbreaking? Not so much. Delicious? Absolutely.
Grade: A-
-Katie Presley

Call it “mature,” if you want. I call it boring. “Challengers,” the newest album from Canada’s sweethearts the New Pornographers, has made a change for the demure that is ill at ease when played for fans of their older, more fun-loving sound. A personification of this change: old songs = walking to class in the sun and dancing. New songs = background fodder for conversations in long car rides. Neko Case, one of the two lady singers for the pop outfit, takes a backseat for this album, which only hurts the effort. The lack of her intense vocals makes too much A.C. Newman just sound whiny, and even the well-honed harmonizing this band excels at can’t take away the annoyance factor in the many overly-repetitive hooks throughout “Challengers.” Where before the Pornos were young at heart and playful, fewer instruments and less creative production make their new sound simply sophomoric. Only a few of the songs here are really actually bad, but even the best doesn’t match up to the worst song on 2003’s “Mass Romantic.”

Grade: C+

-Katie Presley

Now that the Hold Steady has released its third album, “Boys and Girls in America,” it doesn’t seem necessary to reference lead singer Craig Finn’s and guitarist Tad Kubler’s previous work in Minneapolis’ Lifter Puller: the Hold Steady has proven itself as a powerful and dynamic force of its own. The core of the band’s sound is created by the sometimes tension, sometimes harmony between Finn’s harsh, atonal rasp of a voice and the surging, classic-rock sound of the instruments. Fans of last year’s “Separation Sunday” and its album-spanning story of religion, confusion, sex, drugs, discovery, and rebirth will be pleased to catch glances of the characters of that epic, finding references to Gideon, Holly, and Charlemagne throughout the album. But mostly, Finn steps a bit farther away from his characters and lets listeners fill in the blanks, while his insightful, poetic lyrics make even his generalizations seem personal. Calling out witty one-liners (“I’ve had kisses that make Judas seem sincere”), he tackles his usual themes, telling stories of ennui and hedonistic escape, of ship-in-the-night lovers and rueful reminiscences as behind him the band unleashes furious guitar licks atop a twinkling piano and sharp drums. The combined force creates something that will move you, physically and mentally, until your hands hurt from air guitar and your head hurts from considering how “Boys and Girls in America have such a sad time together.”

4.5/5

Recommended if you like: E Street Band, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Elvis Costello

- Graham Trail

Years ago, well okay more like two years ago, I wrote about the ‘working-class groan’ emanating from the last Constantines record, Shine A Light. This classification met with befuddled reactions and even the threat to end my privilege of music reviewing. Nonetheless, in the two years since, I’ve heard the Constantines described as ‘working-class’ numerous times in articles ranging from Pitchfork to the New York Times.

The Constantines’ new effort, Tournament of Hearts, does nothing to change this widespread perception. Though it’s not like one would visualize the Canadian band laboring in overalls a la Dexy’s Midnight Runners, the Springsteen-esque quality of Bryan Webb’s voice and song titles like “Working Full-Time” certainly contribute to the proletarian nature of the band, even if the lyrics themselves are neither revolutionary nor Marxist. Tournament is in fact a mere intensification of the Constantines’ sound, disguising its sometimes-overpowering intensity under sleek textures in “Hotline Operator” and building up gritty tension in “Love in Fear”, two of the standout tracks. If we were to overthrow the bourgeoisie tomorrow, there’d be no better soundtrack for our brash and aggressive movement than this fine album. The nice part is you can listen to it even if you don’t happen to be participating in a coup d’etat.

Ghosty is the kind of band that you can envision struggling to rise above obscurity in the music business for another three to five years before they get that big break with a major label, upon which their cult following indie-as-shit fans will turn on them like a pack of rapid wolverines. Luckily, there’s still time to hop on the train as it leaves the station, so you can remain in the good company of those who liked bands like Nirvana before they were popular or accuse Modest Mouse of selling out.

Grow Up Or Sleep In is the first full length album since the band’s creation in 2000. With their haunting pop jingles, they produce a sound with a meloncholy yet hopeful message. Indeed it is time for Ghosty to grow up, as frontman Andrew Connor ends his stint at KU in Lawrence. Listing some of his influences as Wilco, Pavement, and The Flamming Lips, Connor got the chance to work with Wayne Coyne on the album, which appears as a bonus track.

Despite this star studded collaboration, Ghosty remains a low profile group for the time being. Whether or not they enjoy the success that other intependent artists have as a result of entering into the mainstream or sinking back into their dedicated fan base in Kansas remains to be seen.