LukeBox

Yet another one the great poet laureate pulls out from his sleeve and lays it on us like the sweet unsuspecting Dylan lovers we try to be. Well a lot of us are, but are we such that we love all that emerges from the gravel-laden throat of Uncle Bobby? Do we really look forward to the next nasal attack of Monsieur Zimmerman and his bluesy warblings of a weary world? And is his contribution still as relative as to merit continual celebrations for every note his band plays set to wavering vowels and syllables? Well, for me, the answers to all those questions are relatively positive ”“ after all musical thoughts by such a thought provoking artist do provoke my own thoughts, doesn’t it? So all I will say is here is another album of sonic snapshots that gets Dylan and his listeners like us, Together Through Life.

I love supergroups, I think it takes great balls to find and put together like-minded individuals from already successful bands to play music that detracts from those very bands. So here we have Tinted Windows with James Iha from the legendary Smashing Pumkins, Adam Schlesinger from Fountains of Wayne, Bun E Carlos from Cheap Trick and Taylor Hanson from Hanson. MMMbop! How do u like that! And the fun part is that all these guys are keeping their other bands intact as well, so it’s not like they’re being bandwreckers. This only signifies that the fun needs to be brought back into popular music. The whole scene has reached such a numbing level of disenchantment, it’s causing the youth to tune out more than they can tune in. Kudos to Tinted Windows for beginning the revolution.

Speaking of supergroups, all hail the return of the best post-Ozzy Osbourne lineup of the legendary mammoth Black Sabbath! Named Heaven and Hell after the 1980s Dio-fronted Black Sabbath album and featuring the lineup of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Vinny Appice and Ronnie James Dio, the band has just released their self-titled album. True to its pioneering black-metal tradition the album is a return to Sabbath’s epic doom roots with songs like ”˜Atom & Evil,’ ”˜Bible Black’, ”˜Breaking Into Heaven’ and the appetisingly titled ”˜Eating The Cannibals’. Ronnie James Dio wavers a bit more than usual but hey, it’s not the age it’s the mileage, and the distance between Toni Iommi’s Sabbath and Heaven and Hell are just that.

This is one low-profile band that deserves to be heard. My initiation to the Doves was their third 2005 album Some Cities and I remember thinking how different their sound was, particularly in the face of other bigger british bands like Oasis and Coldplay. I was presently surprised to find that their sound was so accessible yet it made you want to make an effort to get into it a bit more that just a first listen. Kingdom of Rust begins with a soaring electro slam called ”˜Jetstream,’ and it stays true to its roots. The title track follows in a dreamy folk mode and goes on to keep the beat, so to speak. The subtle channeling of Floydian phrases is not lost on me as well. A soaring effort and triumph from a band that in such a low key manner puts across such strong musical statements. Get this now for some superb songwriting and maddeningly edgy arrangements in modern rock songwriting.