Perth Music

Grinspoon – Alibis and Other Lies

For Alibis and Other Lies, Grinspoon have departed the pop road they were traveling on in recent albums and have returned to producer Ramesh Sathiah, who produced their early EP’s Licker Bottle Cosy and The Green Album.  It was widely reported that the recording of this album was interrupted when singer Phil Jamieson entered rehab due to an addiction to Ice.  Jamieson has discussed how his addiction caused him to have an affair and steal from his bandmates but musically the band sounds as strong as ever.

There are still acoustic based songs on the album (Minute By Minute, Leave It, Find Your Own Way) but many of the songs are very reminiscent of the sound created on their first album Guide To Better Living.  Black Tattoo, Outside Looking In, Living In the City and Gun For Hire all show the trademark Pat Davern heavy guitar that dominated the Grinspoon sound of the 90’s.

It is promising that the album debuted on the ARIA charts at number 2 but if Grinspoon believe they can keep their early fans that love the rockier sound as well as their newer fans that love the pop sounds, ala Chemical Heart, then they are destined for failure.  Alibis and Other Lies is a great transition album for the band to get back to the rock sound but the next album will need to all or nothing.  6.5 out of 10.

Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist

The Smashing Pumpkins 6th commercially released album is a return to the more guitar driven sounds of early Pumpkins material and as a result is a much better album to listen to than the electronic driven Adore and Machina.  Although this album is stated as a Smashing Pumpkins album, the only original band members are Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain.  This really only effects the live concerts as it is common knowledge that Billy Corgan recorded almost all of the guitar and bass parts for past Smashing Pumpkins records anyway.

The drumming on the album is superb and Jimmy Chamberlain really shows the listener why he is still in the Pumpkins while James Iha and Darcy Wretsky are not.  The drumming on the ten minute epic United States was done in one take, while most other songs prove that Chamberlain is still one of the most powerful drummers in rock music.

Of course there are the usual dark lyrics from Corgan on most of the songs, but with songs such as For God and Country and United States and with the Statue of Liberty sinking in, what could be, blood on the album cover there is also a political feel to the album.  First single Tarantula and (Come On) Let’s Go are probably the most radio friendly songs on the album, but none of the songs have the overly gothic sound that were a big part of the Pumpkins last two albums.

Overall it is quite a good album from a band that has only just survived many meltdowns in the past decade.  7 out of 10.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 1:27 am and is filed under CD Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.