12.13.2007
Spins: Arrested Development, Robinson, Dickinson
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Arrested Development
Since The Last Time
Label: Vagabond Productions
If you like: Arrested Development
Song to download: “Miracles”
3 stars (out of four)
Arrested Development — the hippie hip-hop group, not the still-canceled television show — is back with a new release, Since The Last Time.
More than 10 years ago, the group won fans and critics over with its uplifting blend of soul-stirring music and socially-conscious lyrics on its debut, 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days In The Life Of….
But after a second album fizzled, the band broke up, and Speech, the band’s frontman, embarked on a solo career.
The group essentially picks up where it left off, as made clear on its first single, “Miracles,” a happy, hand-clapping song anchored by a thumping bass line and DJ scratches.
The rest of the album blends in elements of rock, gospel and Public Enemy-era lyricism, with a deep spirituality invoked throughout. The group teeters on the edge of sappy but never quite falls off, saved no doubt by the group’s reckless abandon of formula. The group melds hip-hop beats with African drumming and pianos.
And the group’s optimism is grounded in reality; songs such as “Caught Me” touch on everyday struggles and social ills affecting much of the country.
Arrested Development is indeed back, but this album feels as if the group never left.
Chris & Rich Robinson
Brothers of a Feather: Live at The Roxy
Label: Eagle Records
If you like: The Black Crowes, organic
Song to download: “Roll ’Um Easy”
3 stars
The results can be interesting when the guiding lights of a raucous rock band strip away the band and, in live acoustic performance, expose the creative heart and soul of the music.
It’s even better when showcasing brothers Rich and Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes, one of rock’s most infamous pair of bickering siblings. Brothers of a Feather was recorded on a short acoustic club tour by the brothers, who, after failed solo careers, decided to again work together. At the time of this recording, the brothers were also reviving the Crowes, which makes the set list intriguing — no Crowes hits are played (a 12-minute “Thorn In My Pride” is as close as it gets). Instead, the brothers revisit songs from their solo careers, obscure Crowes songs, and marvelous covers of songs by Tom Rush, Lowell George, Gene Clark and John Martyn. All performances are relaxed and edgy, with Chris in exceptionally soulful voice and Rich playing deft and varied guitar.
Endlessly entertaining, surprisingly vital.
James Luther Dickinson
Killers From Space
Label: Memphis International Records
If you like: Musical truth, served raw
Song to download: “Roly Poly”
3 stars
James Luther Dickinson is what he seems to be — a mystic gris-gris man and a Southern raconteur, a backwoods sage and the devil’s own bluesman, an eccentric evangelist and a master musician who was taught to play through osmosis. The deep culture of Memphis and North Mississippi haunts his soul and informs everything he does. He has worked with Ry Cooder, The Rolling Stones, bluesman Furry Lewis, Bob Dylan and The Replacements. He is father of Cody and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi All-Stars. He produced Big Star.
All this informs his latest album, Killers From Space — 12 crazy-cool songs, most obscure oddities, that tell the story of American music from the cultural fringes. Dickinson’s not a great singer, nor does he have to be. The playing is one-take hoodoo, whether roaring through a gospel testimonial, a country weeper, a rollicking juke-joint blues or swamp-fever psychodelia.
There is not a hint of pretension or artifice about this disc. It is what it is: Music — raw, pure and potent, delivered with a wink, a shot and a smile. Not everyone can handle it. It’s made that way.
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