Tuned In: On Cracker's 'Sunrise,' a gritty reality dawns

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"SUNRISE IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY," Cracker (429 Records)

Cracker never had a particularly sunny outlook, but there's something about the core duo's march through middle age that gives extra weight to the band's ragged observations. Singer David Lowery, 48, and guitarist Johnny Hickman, 52, may be merely knocking through business-as-usual alt-rock for the 18-year-old group's new "Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey." Yet the depressing verse, "Dying is easy, it's living that's hard," on the gritty title track has more oomph coming from guys with so much life experience than it would from a bunch of 20-somethings.
Produced by David Barbe (Drive-By Truckers), the release is unpretentious and competent, albeit not earth-shaking. Some cuts are little more than the essences of songs -- including the nostalgic ditty "Time Machine" and the wry and punchy "Hand Me My Inhaler," a breakup song in which our hero vows to move on as soon as his ex gives him miscellaneous junk. Such modest material proves that every Cracker track doesn't have to be a revolution to work. Even more pedestrian cuts like the treacly ballad "Darling One" (featuring vocals by Adam Duritz of Counting Crows) and the rambling "We All Shine a Light" (featuring John Doe of X) have appeal.
Fortunately, "Sunrise" packs more intensity elsewhere. Lowery's hoarse vocal and the sharp guitars of the soldier song "Yalla Yalla (Let's Go)" accentuate the cut's edge and depth, while the careening "Show Me How This Thing Works" is humorous. Also, the beleaguered Lowery sounds pained as he pleads with his woman for an escape on "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out With Me." And "Hey Bret (You Know What Time It Is)" is a working-class call to arms: "We live like serfs in this new feudal land/We pay the bills and fight the wars."
Most noteworthy, though, is the honky-tonk drinking song "Friends," a tribute to a dysfunctional bromance featuring Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood. The rowdy track is a little silly, a little sad and ultimately no more complicated than it needs to be. Much like "Sunrise" in general.
Rating (five possible): 3-1/2

"TEUFELSWERK," DJ Hell (International Deejay Gigolo Records)

DJ Hell isn't much of a day person.
That stands to reason: He is a DJ, after all. But the German music-maker also proves not to be much of a "Day" person. His new "Teufelswerk" ("Devil's Work") is a two-disc set, titled "Night" and "Day." "Night" features the invigorating kind of electronica for which DJ Hell is renowned, while on "Day" he branches out into more ambient sounds built on long synthetic notes, stalled rhythms and subtle textures.
Eventually, DJ Hell may sort out his gentler side and come up with something more inviting that the fitful "Day." It isn't bad when it gets its footing on the bumping "Hell's Kitchen" and percolating "Silver Machine," though too often it merely sits on its butt.
Still, even if he does find a way to harness his ethereality into something more engaging, he'd do well not to package it with his trademark sound.
"Night" is a primal experience as DJ Hell escorts his listeners into the dark, sweaty basement of house music. Opening track "U Can Dance" is a mesmerizing surprise, featuring the wistful guest vocals of Bryan Ferry against a fluttering bass line. There's also a smoky jungle vibe in the air of "The DJ," which humorously offers P. Diddy extolling the virtue of "15-, 20-minute versions" of dance songs, extended so they can "marinate."
On much of the rest of "Night," DJ Hell is superb at balancing tension and release. For example, with "The Disaster" he starts with whisking energy and then adds and subtracts layers of loops -- hard beats, varied percussion, electronic nuance, deconstructed breaks -- so there's an ongoing sense of anticipation with an underlying continuity. Elsewhere, "Hellracer" rhythmically hums as a buzzing-car effect periodically cycles through. "Friday, Saturday, Sunday" pits a wobbly throb against an irregular siren.
DJ Hell's "Day" may drift lazily by, but his "Night" passes in earnest.
Rating: 3-1/2 (4 for "Night," 3 for "Day")

"APPLE TREE," Katie Herzig (Marion-Lorraine)

"Here I am again, singing the same old tune," Katie Herzig warbles on "Songbird," the opening track on her new "Apple Tree." And if she really were just another Nashville-based singer-songwriter stuck on repeat, the fruits of her labor wouldn't be any more exciting than a Red Delicious.
But what Herzig is peddling is more exotic, like a Honeycrisp or at least a Fuji: tarter, sweeter and crisper than just any mass-produced apple.
Her odd enunciation, loopy cadence and crunchy upheaval on that first cut, not to mention downcast lines like "I can't fly away," prove her more engaging than the typical stool-straddling vocalist plucking an acoustic guitar for a single-digit audience.
Herzig, formerly of the Colorado band Newcomers Home, produces low-key magic with her gently eccentric way, fleshed out in a fanciful pop setting on "Apple Tree." Her childlike voice is often immersed in overdubs and supported with a healthy dose of strings and/or electricity that add shimmer to her melodies.
The mood of the release often swings to the wistful, as on the full-bodied waltz "I Want to Belong to You" and the twinkling "Wish You Well." It gets to downright wrenching when she seems to channel a heartbroken Dolly Parton on "Hurt Too" or on the ethereal "Sumatra," when she sings, "Everyone needs someone to hold/So why is it so damn hard to love when we're alone?"
But Herzig doesn't always push those buttons, and she kindly closes with "Forevermore," her offbeat spin on the old playground song "Playmates" by Saxie Dowell. Many listeners will find the singer's invitation to climb her apple tree irresistible, and they'll want to hang around.
Rating: 4

(E-mail Chuck Campbell of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at Campbell(at)knews.com.)
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