The Soul Rebels
Unlock Your Mind
(Universal)
5/5
Get ready to eargasm. Over and over and over again. With Unlock Your Mind, eight-piece New Orleans jazz band the Soul Rebels (a.k.a. the Soul Rebels Brass Band) bring you the funkiest 13 tunes this side of 1978.
Trumpet, trombone, tenor sax, tuba, and percussion are all layered on heavy, with vocal styles ranging from soul to hip-hop. Guests Cyril Neville, Trombone Shorty, and Leo Nocentelli boost this album from stratospheric to out of this world.
First track “504” is a highlight, with its smooth vocals and solid horns. A reggae cover of the Staple Singers’ chill, positive “Unlock Your Mind” evokes drinking out of a coconut on a beach. And “Let Your Mind Be Free” is the perfect party song, with its upbeat tempo, old-school vocals, and command to “free your mind and jump!”
It would be a crime not to listen to the latest offering from these New Orleans jazz kings. A funky, funky crime.
-Rose Jang
Ringo Starr
Ringo 2012
(Hip-O)
3.5/5
I have a theory that all Ringo Starr albums – all 17 of them – sound the same. The songs plod forward relentlessly, with simple song structure, instrumentation, and vocal lines that don’t stretch Ringo’s limited range. The songs are old-school rock ‘n’ roll with a country twang and the odd jolt of steel drums or accordion. The drumming is simple and prominent. The songs all drive forward like the world’s most reliable train.
So, if Ringo is so simple and predictable, why listen to Ringo 2012? For early rock ‘n’ roll covers of Buddy Holly’s “Think It Over” and prison song “Rock Island Line.” For Ringo’s relentless positivity, singing us “an anthem of peace and love” and encouraging us to “never give up.” For charming, uplifting songs like “Wonderful,” with its classic guitar solo.
And because, at 71 years old, Ringo 2012 is still Ringo, after all. Simple.
-Rose Jang
Boys Who Say No
Contingencies
(self-relased)
4/5
Not many bands feature stars from Degrassi: The Next Generation among their ranks. In fact, I can only think of one. That band is Boys Who Say No, a group of four childhood friends from Toronto, one of whom (Mike Lobel) portrays Jay Hogart in the aforementioned primetime television show.
Luckily, this isn’t another case of “I’m an okay actor, so I’ll obviously be a fantastic musician, too.” Upon listening to Boys Who Say No’s new album, Contingencies, most will agree he’s far better suited to making music.
The boys use clever lyrics and sonically pleasing rhythms to lure the listener in and keep them there with a pop-inspired indie-rock style.
With the deliverance of entertaining live shows and professional sounding studio productions, you’re going to want to say yes to Boys Who Say No.
-Lucas Milroy
Lana Del Rey
Born To Die
(Interscope)
3/5
Is she an artist, or just the result of clever marketing? Born as Elizabeth Grant in 1986 in New York City, Lana Del Rey changed her name to suit her music and personal style. She sports a retro fashion which, while being a refreshing change from the scantily clad wardrobe of the modern pop-star, seems to just be playing into the hipster demographic she seems so eager to capture.
Her new album, Born To Die, takes the hipster subculture and compiles it into just under 50 minutes of slightly-better-than-average music. She even goes as far as to reference drinking “ice cold Pabst Blue Ribbon,” the go-to drink of hipsters worldwide, in her song “What Makes Us Girls.”
Sure, the songs are catchy, and her voice is pleasant to listen to, but you can’t help but wonder if they are entranced by her talent or her image.
-Lucas Milroy
K’naan
More Beautiful than Silence
(A&M/Octone)
3.5/5
Outspoken and celebrated Somali-Canadian hip-hop artist K’naan has released a new EP and it’s everything you’d want it to be. With original music, soaring vocals, and high-profile collaborations, including Nelly Furtado and Nas, More Beautiful than Silence is energetic and clever.
The travelling troubadour drew heavily from his own life, as he has in the past, for inspiration and content: surviving a bloody civil war, escaping with his family to Canada in his early teens, phonetically learning English by listening to the music he grew to love.
A running theme through his work on this EP has been a condescending condemnation of popular gangster culture, contrasting the horrors of his youth to the aspiration of many misguided children of the west.
This latest release might not be more beautiful than silence, but K’naan makes a sincere effort to get there.
-Thom McMahon