STACK NZ Dec #58

MUSIC

REVIEWS

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TV on the Radio Seeds Out Now

haunts their every move, including the purportedly fractured, conflict-strewn making of the new record. And from its opening stanza – the sprawling, key-flecked manifesto Ruckus In B Minor , featuring all MCs on deck – it’s clear this no gritty throwback, as the lurking guitars and pianos of Felt reiterate. This is polished, balanced and

any lifestyle at all. These five local lads have released this astounding debut, conjuring every forgotten joy when you first heard Steve Albini, Trail of Dead, or just about all the cool stuff from Flying Nun. Angsty, honest and gutsy-geek. Gordian Knot will take your head off, nicely. More please! Chris Murray

This will be the band’s best- selling record to

date, and probably the worst reviewed. Not a bad one, just not THAT one – the one that made you feel the wonder of the unknown in a creatively terrifying and sexy way, rather than soaking up interplanetary sunshine with a herbal tea and a MacBook Pro. There’s reasons for this, particularly here, as it’s the first recordings since losing a comrade. Hope and awe are the go here; commercially friendly, musically accomplished and when listened as an entire album, pretty satisfying. There’s the electro-pop fury of Happy Idiot , the old TVOTR promise of obtuse greatness with Careful of You and the close-your- eyes-and-you’d-swear-it-was-the- Foo-Fighters in Could You . It’s a conundrum of wanting to like this album more than it deserves. Chris Murray

Smashing Pumpkins

The Wu-Tang Clan

reflective. Indeed, there’s all manner of drama, theatre and plaintiveness here, if little that ties An interesting addition to the Wu catalogue, but not life-changing. Dan Rule

Monuments to an Elegy December 12 Billy Corgan finds himself in an odd place these days – his

A Better Tomorrow Out Now A legacy can be a curse, especially for artists whose early

peak musical prowess eclipsed by his own personal limelight. He’s in the simultaneously glorious and nightmarish position of having the music world’s undivided attention for the remainder of his career; the question just remains of how he’s going to wield it. Lead single Being Beige threatened to be a blatant metaphor for this, the band’s tenth LP, but thankfully Corgan is nothing if not supremely talented and ambitious, and thus worthy of your time. Emily Kelly

work strayed close to iconoclasm. Every meticulously crafted, well- realised or mature later career effort will pale in comparison to the early, raw and relatively unedited. Good albums are built in studios: great albums emerge as signposts of social and cultural context. The Wu-Tang Clan – and their hugely anticipated sixth album A Better Tomorrow , which arrives two decades after their world- changing debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) – is a prime example. The weight of the nine-piece’s history

Trust Punks

Discipline Out Now The Urban Dictionary defines the band’s moniker as “a person

between the ages of 17–25 who lives off their parent’s money, yet maintains they live a punk lifestyle’. It’s safe to assume they spend time in the garage making sweet tunes to be having

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FOOFIGHTERS sonic highways

AC/DC RocKoR bust

PINKFLOYD the endless RiveR

February 2014 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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