9 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 13, 2001 Phantom Moon, Duncan Sheik; Atlantic/Nonseuch By Neil Pais Daily Arts Writer Progressive and intelligent in its scope, Phantom Moon continues in the same fine line as Duncan Sheik's other works, embracing its audience with gentle folksiness and grassroots rock. Ostensibly a contemporary pop album (albeit far more well-con- ceived), the album emerges rather as a type of baroque compilation of soothing melodies. Aesthetically, the album reaches at perfection - and comes close. Duncan Sheik, trouba- dour of sorts, manages to infuse rock with the Romantic Movement. Heavily influenced by little-known 1970's counterpart Nick Drake, Phantom Moon contains many inter- esting musical arrangements that are virtually unseen in much of today's music. Almost completely dependent on his acoustic guitar, the album flows with the ease of a delicate day- dream. In going against the grain of mod- ern pop, Duncan has daringly forged an exclusive sound that cannot be emulated by many other artists. Reliant on simplicity and standing without gimmicks or images, Phantom Moon becomes accessible to its listeners. This is the real deal - non-commercial and unadulterat- ed with petty strivings at glam, this Spiritual Machines, Our Lady Peace; Sony/Columbia By Christian Smith For the Daily First, let me start by clearing up a common misconception. Our Lady Peace is not a church. It happens to be the name of a popular Canadian rock band. And they are not a New Age hardcore Christian rock band, just simple alternative rockers with a little spiritual influence. Our Lady Peace was born nearly nine years ago when University of Toronto criminology student Michael Maida answered an ad in a local Toronto magazine placed by guitarist Mike Turner, who was looking to form a band after coming over from England. The name Our ,,Lady Peace was taken from a poem %wiiitten by Mike Van Doren. A lot has changed since 1992. For Wlone, Maida's name is no longer Mike. Because he wanted to avoid Sthe confusion of having two 'Mikes' in the band, he decided to take the 'logical derivative, Raine. See how *that works? Don't worry, neither do I. The concept of the band's fourth ,album, Spiritual Machines is just as 'confusing. The record, which was released in Canada almost four ..onths ago, takes its inspiration from Ray Kurzweil's overwhelming- ly paranoid book, "The Age Of Spiritual Machines: When .Computers Exceed Human Intelligence." Our Lady Peace wrote and par- tially recorded the new album dur- ing a year of nonstop touring in the States, Europe and Canada and that live-stage context, says Maida, inspired the band to "keep it really basic and not try to add too many textures ... to not overdo it." The result is a less polished recording than in previous outings, but after the lackluster performance of their third album, Happiness ... Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch (don't ask), on which Maida admits the band succumbed to the "tempta- stuff is as organic as it comes. Phantom Moon's track list is superb all around; slightly variant from Duncan's last album, Humming, the present endeavor still contains some of the Duncan Sheik flavor with a dash of folk. Particularly well-written tunes include: "Mr. Chess" and "Sad Stephen's Song." Also to be savored are the melodic, ode-like "This is How - My Heart Heard" and "Requiescat" Intimacy reigns supreme on this album, as does romanticism. Not in a while has something so beautiful and stimulating emerged from a main- stream pop artist. (A subtle enough hint to the consumer of popular music?) Grade: A Reptile, Eric Clapton; WEA/Warner By Gaut= Bakl Daily Arts Writer With a massive library of songs and styles spanning five(!) decades, Eric Clapton is always at his best when he plays the blues. After a successful col- laboration last year with B.B. King on Riding with the King, Reptile is essen- tially a solo follow-up project that even goes as far as to include many of the ses- sion players from the King release. From slow-moving ballads to acoustic based 12-bar blues, Reptile is a solid record from start to finish. Through 14 tracks, Clapton performs half a dozen covers, ranging from a country/blues mix of Stevie Wonder's "I Ain't Gonna Stand For It" to a groovin' version of J.J. Cale's "Traveling Light." Clapton's own standout tracks include the fiery "Superman Inside," reminis- cent of his late '80s Journeyman days, and the title track, "Reptile," an instru- mental piece with a salsa beat. He even does a Marvin Gaye impersonation on a cover of James Taylor's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight;" just one of the many bluesy love ballads on the CD. As expected, all tracks feature superb solos, but Clapton doesn't go as far as to abuse his talent by cramming the songs with extended guitar riffs and fill-ins. Overall, Reptile may not go down as one of Slowhand's most influential modern releases, but it shows the legend is still doin' his thing ... and doin' it well. Grade: B tion" of going a bit overboard in the studio, the band is content with the change in direction. Spiritual Machines incorporates spoken word passages from the book by Kurzweil himself, and the songs on the album go a step fur- ther. Particularly "In Repair," which ponders the necessity and effective- ness of machines "repairing" peo- ple. The book excerpts are more annoying than anything, but they don't make the album any less effective. From the glaring "Right Behind You (Mafia)," more of a supportive anthem than an ode to the mob, to the rousing leadoff sin- gle "Life," to the haunting melodies of the ballad "Are You Sad," the album's spontaneous feel is a much better fit for the band. With their unconventional lyrics and edgy rock melodies, Our Lady Peace has developed a strong cult following. After becoming a Canadian rock mainstay with the success of hits like "Clumsy" and "Thief," they are attempting to cross the border and do the same in America with Spiritual Machines. If you don't already know who Our Lady Peace is, look out, you will. Grade: B Spew 15, Various Artists; Atlantic Records By Chris Lane For the Daily What to say about the compilation that is Spew 15? Well, it's ... diverse. There are veterans and rookies. Men and women. Good and bad, sure. Everyone from Bad Religion to Taproot to Sinead O'Connor -finds a happy home on Spew. This mlange of musical styles certainly makes for vari- ety, but within that plethora of the son- ically dissimilar, there is a whole lot of redundancy. Yes, that was a contradiction, but it is accurate. Something called Liquid Bang starts off the comp. The Bang's got a fast and heavy, seduce you with a sledgehammer approach, which is always fun, but is all the same better left to metal. Following the Bang is Bad Religion. These guys get props for still somehow being able to rock with their very familiar brand of 'America is bullshit,' fast punk. Semi-strong beginning. In the middle of said comp,-there is the song, "Haunted," by Poe.:In case you haven't heard of the anorexic, "Angry Johnny" songstress, she's got a gloomier than Aimee Mann type of voice and shallower than Edgar Allen type of lyrics. Trust me, Poe's depres- sion sucks just as much as Aimee's does. Lyrically, there is a bit of sensi- tivity. Musically, there is studio, studio, and more studio. Poe's lyrics seem to call for something less polished. Skip 'em. The real female star of Spew 15 is surprisingly Sinead O'Connor. Although, the title is dubious, "Daddy I'm Fine" is actually an unexpected gem from the notorious, head-shaved hellcat. The song showcases her usual melodic moaning, but the combination of reggae and pop-punk grooves breaks new ground for the artist. It's a treat, but the real diamond of the middle is surely the Meat Puppets. Despite the utter radio-friendliness of their "Endless Wave," they draw you in and get you down deep. The Puppets prove that even a poppy tune can put you into a waves crashing type of trance. Not bad for the middle. Ah, but the end. Where's the big fin- ish, Atlantic? Ok, we're just going to skip the end because it's just out of con- trol. There's Christian rock, somejazzy noise, and there's Taproot and Collective Soul. These two bands make my worst ever list. All right, so I've got a few things to say about the end. Sweet Jesus, what is the local shit that is Taproot? Fred, what have you done to music? Stop it, please. And Collective Soul, get your diet-rock asses out of my stereo. No more. The end kills it. If Spew 15 is supposed to represent the talent that Atlantic currently employs, then the executives better get cracking because these tracks are tired. You and I have heard them before. There are maybe three songs here worth a nod. The rest just make you nod off. Grade: D+ Records Gradew .A-~ Excetent .8- Good DI- oor .................. Ozzfest-Live-Second Stage, Various Artists; Priority/Divine By Rob Brode Daily Arts Writer Metal is a valid form of music, the album Ozzfest-Live-Second Stage is not. With the genre of metal seemingly fad- ing on the national scene the notorious bat biting Father of metal concocted his own traveling metal show, self indul- gently, yet deservingly titled Ozzfest. But a festival usually means an all day event and with only three or four top quality acts there is much room for filler. Filler finds itself playing in front of smaller crowds on a much smaller stage aptly titled the second stage. As the title of the album bluntly says the music is entirely from the second stage, which implicitly says it sucks. Since the bloody birth of metal from Satan's womb each generation of metal- ers try to weld their brand of metal into the toughest, and heaviest metal of all. Bands have traded screaming for bark- ing, and traded the melodious sounds of a tuned guitar into mush as their detuned strings flap in the wind. These practices have turned a grand form of music into a stew of cacophony. All the bands featured on Ozzfest- Live-Second Stage suffer from this heav- ier than thou complex. The bass guitars sound like a lactose intolerant after three bean burritos and four milkshakes. The guitars are tuned so low that their intes- tine rattling lows seep into the flatulent sounds of the bass. The trained seals that pass for singers sound as if their vocal chords were removed, put into a blender set to puree then reinstalled so each shriek is saturated with the pain of hav- ing vocal chords ripped out and the lack of clarity associated with a blended set of vocal chords. Tragically enough this album is a two CD set. Nineteen tracks and 18 different artists, yet it would be quite a formidable chore to differentiate between the acts. Disturbed's track "Voices" is one of the few flowers in this pile of dung. Much of the vocals seem to be words and there seems to be a bit of singing interspersed with the yelling and the addition of a synthesizer adds a breath of fresh air into the dense cloud of gas that hangs over the two albums. Slaves on Dope add the poetic lines "Pushing me/and I can't push you back/pushing me/I'm ready to attack." While these simple couplets of anger may be enough to peak the interest of troubled testosterone filled teens it won't do much for anyone else. One of the most interesting tracks comes from a group of seventeen-year- old Canadian girls smugly named Kittie. A group of girls doing death metal should have a place in everyone's heart. Other standouts include Ode to Clarissa's "Ode to Clarissa;" Powerman 5000's soulful funky pepperesque "Organized." Metal is tolerable and even enjoyable while standing in a sea of adrenaline valiantly braving the dangerous whirlpool of the moshpit. This type of energy is impossible to catch on CD. If you find metal enjoyable take the twenty bucks you were going to spend on this CD and go see Ozzfest in concert this summer. Even live it may not be good but it can't be worse. Grade: D- :. ;v7 ,$wi. .'~°6 Rik