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SHARK SANDWICH – Fast Album Reviews for Those on the Go
August 26, 2016 – Vol. 20
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Music reviews come in all sizes, but you’re busy and do not have time for flowery language… or sentences, really.
Spinal Tap gave the world the greatest album review of all time:
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Welcome to our “Shark Sandwich” — razor-sharp reviews that sum up an album in five sentences or less.
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Tuns – s/t
Just what is it about Canada and amazing pop music?! Tuns is a supergroup consisting of members of the Inbreds, the Super Friendz, Sloan, and maybe the Beatles themselves? I mean, seriously, this is ridiculously well-constructed pop that should have you humming along the entire way to the beach. It is harmonious, toe-tapping, hand-clapping rock and roll fun that doesn’t care if summer is ending. It could be January, but pop on Tuns, and it is the middle of summer.
Rating: 3 out of 5 whistles
Best Song: “Lonely Life”
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Banks & Steelz – Anything But Words
Banks & Steelz (Interpol’s Paul Banks and Wu Tang Clan’s RZA) is a near perfect collaboration, taking the best of the principals’ day jobs, and molding something new out of them. It is hip hop, rock and roll, menacing, hard-hitting, and delicate. There is a lot going on, a lot of featured musicians, and it almost demands putting on headphones and allowing yourself enough to listen to the whole thing. Put your genres in a blender, folks, see if it makes your head bob (it will).
Rating: 4 out of 5 whistles
Best Song: “Love and War” (Feat. Ghostface Killah)
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Ingrid Michaelson – It Doesn’t Have to Make Sense
According to Ingrid Michaelson, It Doesn’t Have to Make Sense, but this album makes a whole lot of sense. The opening vulnerability of “Light Me Up” is blown away once the chorus swirls in, and that is the way with the album. Any vulnerability shown is backed up by wails of confidence over perfectly syncopated rhythms. I’m not going to make unfair comparisons, but It Doesn’t Have to Make Sense has certain similarities to another singer’s album for which my 5 year old daughter is coo coo, which is a good and maybe not so great thing at the same time.
Rating: 2.75 out of 5 whistles
Best Song: “Miss America”
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Midnight Faces – Heavenly Bodies
The 80s never really went away, people, and everyone knows it. Midnight Faces more than know it; they celebrate it. Opening Heavenly Bodies with the pulse-quickening “Blue Haze,” the decade that smiled on the surface but brooded underneath is on full display. It’s all Cure this, and Psychedelic Furs that, with a side of Glass Tiger and the Alarm for good measure. I love the 80s (in 3D)!
Rating: 3 out of 5 whistles
Best Song: “Blue Haze”
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De La Soul – And The Anonymous Nobody
De La Soul always did things a little (a lot?) differently. Jill Scott opens the proceedings preaching about love, the hard way, for the right reasons in this wrong time. This album is pretty much what the doctor ordered. It is all over the place, sometimes in your face, sometimes in the background like aural wallpaper, but you should find yourself always happy it is providing your ears and brain with controversy, solutions, questions, and surprisingly aggressive delivery.
Rating: 4 out of 5 whistles
Best Song: “Snoopsies” (feat. David Byrne)
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All artists are available on iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, and wherever else better music is sold, streamed, downloaded, or performed on tour.
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NewsWhistle music contributor Chad Werner is “ahead of the curve, behind the times.” You can contact this rock n’ roll sphinx at chad@newswhistle.com (e-mail) or @scooternotmoped (Twitter).
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Lead-In Art Courtesy of stockphoto mania / Shutterstock.com
