XL CD REVIEWS

Willie Nelson and the Cardinals, the Deftones

Monday, October 23, 2006

Willie Nelson and the Cardinals

'Songbird'

(Lost Highway)

Apparently, alt-country malcontent Ryan Adams didn't smoke enough grass with Willie Nelson on their recent tour, so he lured the legend into the studio to produce "Songbird" in between tokes. It's 73-year-old Nelson's 187th album (by my count), and a far cry from the crowning latter-day works of his contemporaries, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.

Here we have a hodgepodge of six covers, two originals (one by each), and three re-workings of Nelson oldies, all backed by Adams and his band, the Cardinals, with a guest appearance by Nelson's harmonica player. C'mon, Red Headed Stranger, why bother? Is Adams' herb that primo?

Credit Nelson, though, for not choking, strangled as he must have been by Adams' incessant employment of twang and self-absorbed selection of songs. The old man's emotion on the Fleetwood Mac title track resonates regardless of Adams's speed-demon arrangement. But the sacred "Hallelujah" intimidates him into flatlining verses, and "Amazing Grace" proves double-trouble.

Meanwhile, the Dead's "Stella Blue" and Gram Parsons's "$1,000 Wedding" are just excuses for Adams to worship his idols and import his own guitar flurries into their songs. It's a shame Nelson's carefree approach keeps him from focusing on making defining works in the winter of his life.—Michael Hoinski

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The Deftones

'Saturday Night Wrist'

(Maverick)

It's never a good sign when you must skip past the first two songs of an album in order to hear something worthy of the average metal-head's attention. The annoying "Hole in the Earth" is the shameful choice as this album's first single. It is whiny, juvenile and possibly the least memorable Deftones song ever, which is saying a lot. "FM" is infused with the kind of hostility commonly seen in prison fights, but it fails to strike any mentionable note of style.

It's a good thing CD players come with a skip-forward buttons.

The rest of the songs are consumed by that sincere, angst-ridden nihilism that puts Deftones in the same anti-establishment league as Korn and Alice in Chains. The pick of the litter, "Beware," fires on every alternative-metal cylinder. Lead singer Chino Moreno fluctuates between theatrical brooding and menacing rage before unleashing his feral bassist, Chi Cheng, and rabid drummer, Abe Cunningham, on an instrumental frenzy.

The album as a whole sounds like the second coming of "White Pony." It's scary, bizarre and nostalgic. How perfect is it that the album comes out on Halloween.

— Jeff McCrary