Music: CD Reviews
Mando Diao's 'Hurricane' rocks at Category 4
Web posted: May 10, 2005
Mando Diao: "Hurricane Bar"
(Mute)
Mando Diao frontman Gustaf Norén has compared the band's second album, "Hurricane Bar," to "Pet Sounds" — which makes sense if he's talking about the sounds your pet makes when its tail gets stuck in the door rather than the classic Beach Boys record of the same title. Like its predecessor, 2002's "Bring 'Em In," "Hurricane Bar" pushes rock dynamics to the wall. Norén's caterwauling vocals overload his microphone, Björn Dixgård's lead guitar does the same to his amp and the manic tempos sprint well past the Swedish garage-rock scene the band has been lumped in with.
Still, you can see what Norén is getting at when he calls this Mando Diao's "pop" record: Many of the songs on the raucous "Bring 'Em In" sounded as if they had an implicit tempo that everyone was outracing. This time around, the songs just sound fast, the better to pound their hooks into your head.
And boy, those hooks sink in. On the debut, the really indelible melodies were found on Dixgård's songs (or at least the ones he sings; like Lennon and McCartney, the two frontmen share writing credit on everything). On "Hurricane Bar" everything sticks; the only way to tell the two men's songs apart are by the vocals — Norén is the hoarse shouter, Dixgård has a bit more rock-god wail in his voice.
What's going on behind those distinct singing styles is all of a piece — producer Richard Rainey, who twiddled knobs on U2's "All That You Can't Leave Behind," has reined in this chaotic band without muting their penchant for thrilling noise. The fiercely disciplined racket of "Hurricane Bar" would scare the sandals off Brian Wilson, but it'll make perfect sense to today's listeners. Songs such as "Annie's Angle" and "God Knows" — the title of which might be a tip of the hat to Wilson's "God Only Knows" — hit on an irresistible combination of punk drive, rock swagger and pop hookiness.
Mando Diao are nothing like the Beach Boys and, contrary to Norén's nervy boasts, not better than the Beatles. But they aim that high without making fools of themselves.
— Jeff Salamon
Mando Diao plays Emo's on May 16.
Supersystem: "Always Never Again"
(Touch and Go)
After a few albums as El Guapo, Supersystem got themselves a new drummer, a new record label and a new lease on life. Adding progressive-punk drummer Josh Blair was a brilliant addition. From his work with the squiggly avant-metal duo Orthrelm, you wouldn't think he was the perfect stick man to sell danceable grooves, but "Always Never Again' gets off on a (reasonably) good foot and doesn't stop. Though dated in spots — dance-punk revivalism is becoming its own cliché — this is the band's smoothest amalgamation of full-band, post-punk dance music and a strain of open-hearted lyricism. It marks them as the Washington, D.C., punk band they are. Most of the jams resonate, but the highlight is "Everybody Sings," which speaks to our common humanity over frantic patterns. We don't feel a connection to "people in the service," "people in the office," "people making laws", but we can relate to "people at the show" from "time to time." "But everybody knows to step to the rhythm like an instinct ... everybody flails around/everybody in the world" Aww. That's sweet. And weirdly effective. And true.
— Joe Gross
Supersystem plays Emo's on May 17.
Perceptionists: "Black Dialogue"
(Razor and Tie)
"Black Dialogue" looks back on the compulsively "conscious" hip-hop of the late 1980s and early '90s and thinks "Those were some good times." Mr. Lif, Akrobatik and DJ Fakts One clearly grew up on A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Black Sheep at the party end, also some Paris, late-model Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy. So they take out their frustrations on other MCs: "Some MCs are nice, but the key word's some/Others suffer from suckerdom/Some succumb to a rough rhyme and some powerful drums." Lif and Akrobatik talk trash, but they also got game. The two toss around verses like fire jugglers. When a concept gets too hot, they hand off and let the other one stoke the flames.
The title track sticks up for African American slang as a mode of resistance that's become "the most imitated culture on this Earth." "Love Letters" falls in love with a pal's child's second-grade teacher. Politics is a crucial part of the mix. They sample Joy Division and support building a third party on "What Have We Got To Lose?" "Memorial Day" is the most direct anti-Iraq war song hip-hop has produced thus far, spat from the perspective of a disillusioned enlistee. "Would Donald Rumsfeld back me up with the chrome?/Would Tom Ridge fight or would he stay secure back home?/and would Condoleezza Rice cover grenades in a fox hole?/I'm starting to believe what I was told is not so."
— Joe Gross
Perceptionists play the Parish on May 18.
