By Marc Stephens
Artist: Mitch Easter
Album: Dynamico
Released: March 13,
2007
Label: 125 Records
Verdict: Worth the
19-Year Wait
You may not have
heard of Mitch Easter, but you’ve definitely heard his
music: Jangle-rock producer extraordinaire, he was the
wizard behind R.E.M.’s first two classic records, as
well as a slew of other well-regarded releases over the
past three decades. In the early ’80s, his band Let’s
Active practically invented Southern indie rock, and
despite more than 100 production and playing credits in
the interim, Dynamico represents his first album
of original material in 19 years. And while the man
could always play, he can definitely still write too.
Each Mitch Easter
song is its own distinctive animal and just as easily
recognizable: hook-laden, deceptively complex guitar
rock, except with a heap of southern American
Gothic thrown in as well. This is utterly American music
first and foremost, and gloriously so, a seemingly
endless cache of twang and country drawl infusing every
chord and lick. While considerably more muscular than
the bulk of his revered Let’s Active catalog,
Dynamico unquestionably inhabits the same crevassed
terrain; though not depressing by any means, Easter
definitely likes his vibe sinister, celebrating the
hidden and the ominous at every melodic turn. “Sudden
Clown Drop” plays like a serial killer teaching the
facts of life to an eager protégé on a lost deserted
highway, while the gritty, fuzzed-out “Dusky Lair” is
what Russell Crowe would sound like if you got him
rip-roaring drunk and handed him an electric guitar with
the reverb set too high. And then, just when you least
expect it comes the glittering “Why Is It So Hard?”
breaking up the lurid mood via a jangling Byrdsian tour
through departed 1970s small-town arcana. With
Dynamico, the Master has returned, and gloriously
so; two years past 50, Easter sings and plays like he
hasn’t aged a day.
Artist: Kitchens of
Distinction
Album: Cowboys and
Aliens
Released: 1995
Label: One Little
Indian
Verdict: Everything
You’ve Ever Lost
“When you’re in love,
you have someone to hit.” Not exactly a ringing
endorsement of relationship bliss, granted. But
fortunately Kitchens of Distinction aren’t always so
blithely pessimistic, and on this near-masterpiece of
forlorn love and passion, it’s honest hope and a
blinding ache for romance that eventually win the day.
Lead singer Patrick
Fitzgerald got a lot of press for his uncommon sexual
candor in the late ’80s, and one wonders if the heat of
the British public eye may have contributed to the
piercing brilliance of such dreamlike showpieces as “One
of Those Sometimes Is Now,” or the heartrending
“Remember Me” (the latter of which benefits immensely
from guest Katie Meehan’s wrenching background vocal).
“Here Come the Swans” is another jewel, mystically
treading the fine line between ballad and balls-out rock
with ease. Through it all, guitarist Julian
Swales wields his guitar as a pair of angel wings,
layering songs such as “Come on Now” and “Now It’s Time
to Say Goodbye” with a billowing sonic wash that settles
over the listener’s ears like hallucinogenic fallout.
“Remember Me” may be Cowboys And Aliens’ most
compelling moment, but for latent explosive complexity
one might just have to go with album climax “Prince of
Mars” — a stunning Who-like epic that Swales makes his
own, with an elliptical coda whose mountainous notes
rise and fall much the same way Pete Townshend’s did on
“Bargain” 35 years ago. In fact, if there’s a musical
template for Cowboys’ ebb and flow, it probably
is 1971’s monolithic Who’s Next: Much like that
masterwork of sorrow and heartbreak, it’s tough to
listen to this record without being gently and
nostalgically reminded of everything you’ve ever lost.
Marc Stephens is a
Web consultant by day, writer by night.
Comments?
E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com.
