Release date: 10/2/07

Jack Says: C+

I used to detest Bruce Springsteen.

My love-hate relationship with Bruce started when I was about five. On family road trips, Springsteen, specifically the Born in the U.S.A. album, was featured in steady rotation. And like I did with most of my parents’ record catalog – the Beach Boys, James Taylor, Rod Stewart,* etc., etc. – I ate it up. I couldn’t get enough. But as adolescence set in, I found myself loathing what I thought were cheesy lyrics, lame chord progressions and stale… well… It was music my parents would listen to.

Unsurprisingly, like most of the tastes, attitudes and opinions I held in my teenage years, my feelings towards Springsteen couldn’t have been more wrong. He rocks. In fact, despite, ironically, the song “Born in the U.S.A.,” arguably his worst ever, Springsteen has, for decades, produced the quintessential American rock music.

As for Magic, the newest of Springsteen’s 15 studio albums, it never quite achieves the same emotional triumph as did those of his “Glory Days,” if you will, of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Bruce enthusiasts will not be disappointed; but for the rest of us, Magic doesn’t quite live up to its name.
(more…)

Jack Says: A-

Following up his stellar 2006 album C’Mon C’Mere, Massillon’s own Patrick Sweany recently released Every Hour is a Dollar Gone, a perfectly balanced collection of soulful ballads and rollicking foot-stompers all infused with Sweany’s well-honed backwoods pop sensibility. Produced by friend, occasional live bill partner and fellow 330-er Dan Auerbach, frontman of Akron-based The Black Keys, Every Hour showcases Sweany’s raw yet melodic fingerpicked guitar and his equally love-worn crooning. Where his past work might lean more so on his obvious Delta Blues influences, here Sweany shares his own take on ’70s guitar rock and Motown soul while never straying too far from the frenetic energy that had made Sweany’s live performances the stuff of local legend.

(more…)

Eardrum
Talib Kweli

Jack Says: B

Release Date: 8/21/07

AN OPEN LETTER TO TALIB KWELI:

Dear Mr. Talib Kweli, BK MC,

I’ve got some shit I need to get off my chest. But before I get into it, I just want you to know that I’ve always been a big fan. I remember back in ’98 when you and Mos Def made Black Star and all the critics said you were hip hop’s next great thing. I agreed! I bought all your albums, and I ate them up with gusto. Then, when the critics nitpicked, I stood by you. When they said you weren’t living up to the hype (which they manufactured, by the way – totally unfair), I ignored it. After all, nobody could question your skills. Hands down, you’re one of the most talented lyricists/MCs alive today. They said you couldn’t write a hook. I scoffed. They said you the beats you chose were whack. I pshawed. They said you wrote too many songs for the ladies. I said, ‘Oh well, I’ll throw it on a mixtape for my girlfriend.’
(more…)

Jack Says: A

When asked if he had yet heard The National’s newest album, “Boxer,” Matt, a ceaselessly knowledgeable co-worker, replied, “I haven’t heard it yet, but I know they’re like HUGE right now.” As everyone in my office knows, Matt is never wrong, and this was no exception. Although “Boxer” represents The National’s fourth highly-acclaimed studio release, it might just as well be their first. In the half decade since their self-titled 2001 debut, the Americana-meets-prog rock quintet has, until recently, received little attention outside the columns of gushing indie critics. (The band was featured recently in Rolling Stone under the headline “Breaking: The National.”) Now in the midst of an extended U.S. and international tour — including a string of dates in May with hipster faves Arcade Fire — the Cincinnati-born Brooklynites, historical lack of hype notwithstanding, have put out one of the best albums of 2007.
(more…)

Jack says: C-

Release Date: 5/22/07

After first listening to Sky Blue Sky, Wilco’s sixth studio album, due out Tuesday, my initial reaction was to proclaim it “The Best Sunday Morning Hangover Album Ever Made.” (In hindsight, this was a distinction clearly granted in haste — it’s up against some great and well-established competition in that category. Nonetheless…) Such a title can be interpreted a couple ways: At best, it implies songs that are everything one might be looking for on such a morning — soothing, refreshing, invigorating — all apt and suitable descriptions of Wilco’s past work. At worst, and, unfortunately, closer to the reality of Sky Blue Sky, it means 51 boring minutes.

The one thing I always liked about Wilco was that, for all but its most experimental, it was the rare “indie” rock band that could be appreciated equally by snobbish hipster bloggers and casual music fans with just the slightest level of taste. As Rob Mitchum pointed out in his review of Sky Blue Sky for Pitchfork, Wilco has long been the band that if played when your dad comes to visit would elicit little objection — he might even enjoy it. The downfall of Sky Blue Sky is that it is more like an album your old man might play for you.
(more…)

Lupe Fiasco
Food & Liquor
Monday, March 19
The House of Blues

When the second generation of hip hop torch bearers – i.e. the aforementioned Nas – ceased in pushing the limits of the genre after taking over where Big Daddy Kane and Rakim had left off, a void was created begging for a new class of risk-takers to take over. When Lupe Fiasco hit the scene last summer with the infectious skateboarding-inspired love song “Kick, Push,” it was a breath of fresh air in a culture that had for too long been defined by images by scantily-clad women, big jewelry and bigger cars. The song could be described in the simplest terms with one word: “fun.” More than anything, “Kick, Push” and the accompanying video introduced us to a young rapper legitimately enjoying what he was doing, grateful for the opportunity and without the boasting and posturing we had grown accustomed to. (more…)

Nas
Hip Hop is Dead
Monday, April 2
The House of Blues

When Notorious B.I.G. was murdered in 1997, his position of “The King of New York,” a title granted the city’s preeminent MC, suddenly went vacant. At the time, there were two Big Apple rappers with reputations grand enough to lay claim to the throne, setting the stage for one of most memorable feuds in the history of hip hop. Later that year, with the release of his single “The City is Mine,” it seemed that Jay-Z was making a clear statement as to who he thought was most deserving. His challenger was Nas, born and raised in Queensbridge, South Bronx, the birthplace of rap music, three years removed from his debut Illmatic, an album which to this day is considered among the best and most influential the genre has to offer. (more…)