"MEMENTO MORI," Flyleaf (A&M/Octane)
Flyleaf lead vocalist Lacey Mosley proves the seldom-made case that a woman can lead a hard-rock band by neither aping a man nor emasculating the sound with her femininity. Yet her impressive performance doesn't elevate the genre as much as it sustains it on a parallel level, and as a result the Texas quintet's new "Memento Mori" succumbs to the same pitfalls that handicap Flyeaf's all-male counterparts.
The group's follow-up to its platinum-selling 2005 self-titled debut makes a good run of it before its inevitable demise, however, sometimes teasing with a tantalizing sound akin to Tool meets Veruca Salt.
Mosley sings with conviction, whether declaring "I don't know who I am anymore" in the wailing drama of "This Close" or beseeching "Please give me something" against the off-kilter progressions of "Chasm." Her voice trembles alongside the aggressive riff of "Beautiful Bride," arcs through the swarm-rock of "Again" and settles into the smoother pop context of "Missing" (even as she's exclaiming "Something's missing in me").
The music is crackling and hook-laden, and Mosley make a sympathetic protagonist as she reflects on her mistakes and looks for meaning and hope -- all while making a show of her unapologetically feminine voice. And except for the weird juxtaposition of Mosley's folkish stylings tripping over the impatient electricity of "Treasure," producer Howard Benson finds the right balance between the singer and instrumentalists on "Memento Mori."
Unfortunately, Flyleaf doesn't stretch far enough away from formula and commits several of the commonplace sins of tumultuous rock. The band's railing eventually becomes exhaustingly repetitive, and Mosley's excessive histrionics and redundant revelations land farther away from the target with each attempt. It doesn't help that "Tiny Heart" concludes with a meandering, inconsequential blur-out, and it's even worse when the careening cadence of "Swept Away" collapses into metallic mud, unnerves with rote thrashing and finally crashes into the ultimate cliche: feedback.
More often than not, though, Flyleaf stays airborne.
Rating (five possible): 3-1/2
"SAY ANYTHING," Say Anything (RCA)
Appropriately enough, Say Anything frontman Max Bemis always has something to say.
The singer who has drawn on his history of bipolar disorder and drug abuse for the Los Angeles band's past releases branches out on "Say Anything," because, as he wryly notes on the new track "Mara and Me," he "can't write the same song over and over." Also on that song he spells out world woes and then adds "Somehow the Kings of Leon still find time to write about girls" because that band doesn't have to process angst and hopelessness.
The smart Say Anything freshens up modern punk with indie rock and a generous pop sensibility that adds infectiousness to the plaintive singer's musings and pronouncements.
The vocalist may well dive into a nasty chorus on "Eloise" with "Eloise, you never meant that much to me," but he shows a sweet side on the slower "Crush'd" as he hands off such gawky lines as "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven, girl?"
Bemis sings about self-improvement ("You could be the greatest man in the world," he announces alongside strings and slapping beat on "Do Better") and resignation ("He's like a less cute version of you/But he'll have to do," he declares on "Less Cute" with horns and guitars for support).
Say Anything grinds through darkness with gallows humor. On the hard-edged "Property," Bemis assumes the power position in a soul-sucking relationship, boasting about smashing dreams and gleefully proclaiming "You can't retrieve the love I stole from you." Best of all, on the catchy and anthemic "Hate Everyone," Bemis sings "I hate everyone on this cursed Earth" and eventually comes to realize that he therefore hates himself.
Although the singer's voice isn't as expressive as his lyrics, "Say Anything's" sound never stagnates. And that's saying a lot.
Rating: 3-1/2
"TEMPORARY SECRETARY," various acts mixed by Dixon (Innervisions)
At this point there may be more remixers than there are people making original music. Type in the title of just about any dance song on YouTube, and you'll be directed to remixes, most of them unauthorized and by amateurs.
The accessibility of so much music and so much equipment to revamp so much music has created a glut of refashioned songs. Consequently, there's something archaic now about DJs simply segueing together remixes into a continuous-play compilation, a tried-and-true product for decades.
Berlin-based DJ Steffen Berkhahn -- a/k/a Dixon -- ups the ante in the compilation game with "Temporary Secretary." He mutates songs, sometimes to their cores, and mixes them with other songs that might already have been remixed by others beforehand, and then Dixon mixes them into even more songs, a process that probably took more effort than if he just created new music from scratch.
Dixon's method sounds chaotic, but the results are slick -- so much so that "Temporary Secretary" is as suitable for meditation as for dance.
Songs, and bits of songs blended with other songs, breeze in and out of the hour-plus compilation, tethered together with stirring electronic pulses and throbs. As deceptively minimalistic as the music seems on the surface, there's generally a wildly kinetic current underneath "Temporary Secretary," and the thick atmosphere periodically intensifies, though rarely to the point of breaking the hypnotic vibe.
Dixon's choice and treatment of vocals is especially interesting, ranging from the straightforward delivery on Junior Boys' "Hazel" to the robotic femme fatale of Butane's "Inferno Jack" to the childlike voice on Cortney Tidwell's "Watusii." Even better are the ancient chanting voices that turn The Machine's "Fuse" into a supernatural thriller and, best of all, the penetrating whirl of ghostly vocals in Fever Ray's "If I had a Heart," an unusually striking, funereal track that alone makes "Temporary Secretary" worthwhile.
Fortunately, Dixon offers much more.
Rating: 4
(E-mail Chuck Campbell of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at Campbell(at)knews.com.)
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