CD REVIEWS
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday September 25, 2009
ophelia of the spiritsTHE SECRET GARDEN (the little label)Rating: 3/5Performer, songwriter and film composer Angela Little (aka Ophelia of the Spirits) is tough to pin down. Her work in film leaves its mark on this moody seven-tracker: the opener, Leave a Light On, is an eerie Angelo Badalamenti/Julee Cruise-like slow-burner. It's stirring stuff but Little does sometimes suffer from a slight case of the Deltas, albeit the overwrought one reborn as a torch singer with a thing for Middle Eastern sounds and pacifism, duly noted in This War. Sydney's Little does, however, hint at interesting times ahead on Fireflies, where she douses the sonic fireworks and sings straight from the heart, a la Tracy Chapman. Nice.Jeff Aptercobra starshipHOT MESS (Warner)Rating: 2.5/5Cobra Starship, touring here next March, are at the nexus of the US's punk history and pop future, where relentless appropriation renders the question of authenticity so 20th century. Hot Mess, the five-piece's third album, finds them liberally quoting from '80s L.A. pop, hip-hop rhythms and the grandiloquent riffs of Fall Out Boy (who contribute co-writes, label support and business model). But if FOB's Pete Wentz uses self-deprecation as a rallying cry, Cobra Starship's Gabe Saporta binges on self-aggrandisement: I make them good girls go bad, he boasts, his vocal performances aggressively affected. Further signs of ironic dissonance include a keytar player and guest vocals from a Gossip Girl starlet.Craig Mathiesonnewton faulknerREBUILT BY HUMANS (Sony)Rating: 2/5Newton Faulkner looks like a hippie, sounds like a suit, sells like a marketer, makes you want to reorder your sock drawer and read that Reader's Digest article about the pancreas. Like a constipated David Gray, an occasionally herbal Snow Patrol or a turned-down American power balladeer, Englishman Faulkner isn't truly appalling: his songs have choruses like steak dinners, his arrangements make nice cupcakes and acoustic instruments mix with electronic ones in matching outfits. It's just that any thought of an active, interesting life drains away from you every second you listen. Bernard Zuel
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald