FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF THE ALBUMS BELOW, CLICK ON THE ALBUM TITLE ABOVE THE REVIEW. THAT WILL TAKE YOU TO A PAGE ABOUT THE ALBUM ON CDNOW, WHERE YOU CAN LISTEN TO SOUND CLIPS AND/OR PURCHASE IT. ALBUMS WHOSE TITLES DON'T HAVE A LINK ARE OUT OF PRINT OR UNAVAILABLE ON CDNOW.

Almost Here

Willie's comments: Unbelievable Truth is a musical project fronted by Andy Yorke, who happens to be the sibling of Radiohead’s singer/lyricist/genius Thom. So, for better or worse, Andy’s band is destined to put up with endless comparisons to Radiohead. That’s somewhat unfair, since Unbelievable Truth approaches music totally differently from Radiohead: Where Thom is concerned with changing the world, and uses complex fusions of prog rock, pop, and electronica to make his point, Andy is content to comment on love and other aspects of daily life, and his music is appropriately simple, folksy, and pretty. Andy’s voice isn’t as distinctive as Thom’s, but it is gorgeous and (Jenny tells me) his accent is sexy as all get-out. Almost Here suffers from rather monotonous production (and Andy doesn’t help his case against this criticism by repeating a big chunk of “Solved” in the middle of “Forget About Me”), but there are plenty of good songs here. “Solved,” “Finest Little Space,” and “Higher Than Reason” are memorably catchy, while the beautiful “Same Mistakes” can stand next to some of Crowded House’s better work. Ultimately, though, this album only illustrates that Unbelievable Truth has a lot of potential; hopefully, the next one will be the affecting classic that they’re obviously capable of. Grade: B

Ginny's comments: If Andy and Thom Yorke got together for an album, they'd be unstoppable, though male-stubborness and sibling rivalry will probably prevent this from ever happening. Though it'd be impossible to mistake Unbelieveable Truth's music for Radiohead's, I won't even waste my time attempting to compare their drastically dissimilar styles. However, both Andy and Thom have a distinctive vocal simiarity that, despite their best efforts to avoid, is a genetic trait that makes their accents both gorgeous and magnetic. Andy, in particular, has a voice so gentle it seems to melt into the acoustic guitar. "Higher than Reason" and "Be Ready" are amazing, and though some of the other tracks tend to be a bit on the bland side ("Forget about me" and "Building" for instance) the album shows that genius DOES run in the family. Almost Here is the album-equivelent of Nirvana Unplugged. Simple, yet elegant acoustics accompany darkly beautiful lyrics (only a near-sighted critic would dismiss this album's genius with an aseptic word such as "pretty") Unbelievable Truth should be given massive credit for being infinitely compared to Andy's sibling counterpart, and they've held their own pretty darn well. Almost there, guys. GRADE: A
Added note: If you love this album as much as I do, I implore you to buy the "Solved" single which contains the best song they've ever recorded called "Roadside No. 1." It wouldn't simply stand up next to "the best Crowded House song," it would run it into an early musical grave. Incredible.

WRITE COMMENTS ABOUT UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH

UNKLE

Psyence Fiction

Willie's comments: It sounds like a great idea to have a host of talented vocalists and guest musicians accompany DJ Shadow’s deep grooves- a sort of trip-hop supergroup. However, as the presence of actual vocalists distracts from the trancey nature of Shadow’s work, the tracks succeed or fail on the merits of the guests’ contributions. As such, songs featuring Kool G Rap and The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft fall flat, and "Getting Ahead in the Lucrative Field of Artist Management" is little more than a sophomoric joke. On the plus side, however, Badly Drawn Boy lends his voice to an impressive "Nursery Rhyme," and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke wails on "Rabbit in Your Headlights," a pensive, moody piece of electronica noir. Grade: B

SEE ALSO: DJ SHADOW

THIS ARTIST ALSO APPEARS ON: SUBURBIA SOUNDTRACK

THIS ARTIST HAS TENUOUS CONNECTIONS TO: BEASTIE BOYS; RADIOHEAD; CORNELIUS; BADLY DRAWN BOY

WRITE COMMENTS ABOUT UNKLE

Unrest

Imperial f.f.r.r.

Willie's comments: The late home recording project of Mark Robinson (currently of Air Miami) is reasonably good. Among such one-man bands, Unrest isn't nearly as magnificent as James McNew's Dump or Damon Gough's Badly Drawn Boy, but rather belongs in the company of Bill Callahan's stultifying Smog. Imperial f.f.r.r. is widely held to be Unrest's best album, which shouldn't make anyone salivate to investigate the band further. It starts off promisingly enough, with the irresistable pop confection "Suki" and the dreamy drone rock of "Imperial," but it quickly goes downhill. Too many songs, such as "Champion Nines" and "Firecracker," are repetitive instrumentals that not only go on too long, but do not develop at all along the way. By album's end, even the fully formed songs have lost their hooks ("Yes She is My Skinhead Girl") and Robinson has fallen into irritating self-indulgence ("Full Frequency"). Perhaps you have more patience than I do, but it took me about three sittings to slog through the whole thing. And I don't think it's a trip I'll be taking again. Grade: C

THIS ARTIST HAS TENUOUS CONNECTIONS TO: THE 6THS

WRITE COMMENTS ABOUT UNREST

Until the End of the World soundtrack

Willie's comments: Has any movie soundtrack ever had the star power that this one packs? R.E.M., Elvis Costello, Depeche Mode, Lou Reed, k.d. lang, U2, and the Talking Heads all appear here, but the amazing part is, they all contribute great songs! It’s remarkably cohesive for a soundtrack album, too- virtually all of the songs float along in a dreamlike haze, regardless of which artist performs them. The exception is Reed, whose nonsensical rocker “What’s Good” is such a hoot that it’s impossible to harp about its baffling inclusion here (“What good is seeing-eye chocolate?/ What good’s a computerized nose?/ What good was cancer in April?”). R.E.M.’s “Fretless” is an Out of Time outtake that’s gorgeously dour, while Julee Cruise’s cover of Elvis Presley’s “Summer Kisses, Winter Tears” is terrifically spacey (and her singing voice sounds charmingly like Mokey from Fraggle Rock) and Patti Smith and her husband Fred turn in a hypnotic spoken-word track. From all accounts, the movie was pretentious at best, laughable at worst, but it was worth making just to get this soundtrack out. Grade: A-

WRITE COMMENTS ABOUT UNTIL THE END OF THE WORTH

U2

The Joshua Tree

Willie's comments: For an album that sold umpteen million copies, The Joshua Tree is really, really boring. It’s surprising that a producer as consistently creative as Brian Eno couldn’t eliminate the monotonous quality of the Edge’s chimey guitars and Bono’s wailing vocals. Big hit singles “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Where the Streets Have No Name” are basically interchangeable, while most of the other songs don’t leave any impression at all. Only “With or Without You” is worthwhile, thanks to the stirring bass line, but rather than buy this pretentious mush, if you want to hear that song, just tape any given episode of Friends which revolves around romantic troubles between Ross and Rachel. Grade: C

Achtung Baby

Willie's comments: By 1991, U2 could have been called "the biggest rock band in the world" without much argument from anyone. The Joshua Tree was mystifyingly huge, and Bono's head had grown to match, so the band rejiggered their sound a little for Achtung Baby. Instead of relying on the one-note slickness that made The Joshua Tree such a bloody chore, here the band chose to pump up Adam Clayton's bass in the songs, tentatively dip their collective toe into techno, and write choruses designed to soar to the highest seats in the nosebleed section. Thankfully, it worked, and it resulted U2's most immediately gripping album to date. Apart from the laborious "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" and the abrasive "The Fly," every song has something to recommend it, from the effortless catchiness of "Mysterious Ways" to the hypnotic sleaze of "Acrobat." "One" is masterful peacenik rock, and "Until the End of the World" is a killer song with the sort of detached vocal treatment that only a truly charismatic rock star can pull off (too bad Clayton's bass seems to be lagging a half-beat behind the rest of the song, for some reason. It really annoys me everytime I listen to it, and I want to fix it). This is definitely the place to start if you're curious about U2. Grade: A

Zooropa

Willie's comments: This time around, producer Eno apparently did things his way. This is a sparse, clattering collection of computerized noises, keyboards, and effects that is, quite simply, the best thing U2 ever did. The title track is an epic swipe at the advertising industry (“Don’t worry baby/ It’ll be alright/ You’ve got the right shoes to get you through the night”) that builds from a droning, chattering pulse to a great rocker. “Numb” lets Edge sing, and he does so in a literally monotonous chant that’s hypnotic and droll, while “Daddy’s Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car” is danceable and surprisingly weird. It’s futuristic, catchy, and clever. Woohoo! Grade: A

Pop

Willie's comments: Much ado was made in 1997 about this being U2’s “techno” album, but when you stand this album up against Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton’s pulsating electronica theme to the Mission: Impossible movie, or even Zooropa, that assessment doesn’t make much sense. Despite an appreciable increase in the number of danceable rhythms on songs like “Discotheque” and electronic effects on songs like “Mofo,” Pop sounds basically like a return to the rock smarts of Achtung Baby. And that’s to the good: “Staring at the Sun” could hold its own against “One” as the band’s catchiest song, while “The Playboy Mansion” has Bono murmuring lines like “If Coke is a mystery/ And Michael Jackson history” to some expert slow funk. “Miami” is really grating, but apart from that, Pop is classic U2: Spiritual, intelligent songs that stick to your brain just as the album’s title suggests they should. Grade: A-

READER COMMENTS:

Rich Bunnell writes: I do think that "Joshua Tree" is overrated, but I can't see how "Zooropa" and "Pop" could even come close to the A-level. They're not horrible albums, but they're utterly average and have far too many tracks that just don't work. Of the two, I actually think "Pop" is better, because it has standouts like "Discotheque" and "Last Night On Earth," but I can't see for the life of me why they're shoved so high up against the band's early work.

I don't consider "Joshua Tree" their masterpiece, but I think it's worthy of a B. As for their real masterpiece, I'm one of those shallow, easily-impressed folks who loves "Achtung Baby" (A+) completely to death. "War" (A) from 1983 is really good, too, and "The Unforgettable Fire" (B-) would be great but there're a few inexplicable filler tracks which really overshadow the good ones.

I heard U2's next album is gonna be "hard-rocking." Did I hear that correctly? Judging from the quality of their "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" single (but not Weird Al's parody version, "Cavity Search." WEIRD AL FREAKING RULES DAMMIT.) the idea of U2 doing a whole album of the stuff would be reeeeeally grating.

THIS ARTIST ALSO APPEARS ON: TIBETAN FREEDOM CONCERT ALBUM; UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD SOUNDTRACK(though I really shouldn't have to link you to that one)

THIS ARTIST HAS TENUOUS CONNECTIONS TO: BRIAN ENO

WRITE COMMENTS ABOUT U2

IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THESE REVIEWS, SEND AN E-MAIL TO IGOTTOES@AOL.COM AND PUT THE BAND YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT IN THE SUBJECT LINE.

BACK TO THE DISCLAIMER MUSIC REVIEW ARCHIVE HOME