Emotionalism
Avett Brothers
(Ramseur)
The Avett Brothers are two siblings and a friend based in Concord, N.C., who make country music for the indie crowd. The three men — Scott and Seth Avett, and Bob Crawford — are proficient in banjo, acoustic guitar, stand-up bass and loose vocal harmonies.
There are plenty of other organic elements running through their front-porch picking, as well. Stately piano and a mournful cello caress several of the album's many emotive confessionals. Drums and fuzzy guitar drive a faux barnburner. Harmonica fuels a toe-tapper with a bluesy backbone. There's even a Latin-tinged ditty. Ultimately, it all amounts to a sound that's mostly folk and old-timey pop, with a dollop of punk and backwoods weirdness thrown in for good measure.
But the record's feel is what we have come to expect almost exclusively these days from all music labeled indie. There's a blatant vulnerability to the band's songwriting underpinned by the pensive (nasally) vocal delivery. It speaks more to influences like the Violent Femmes and Morrissey than, say, The Everlys or Louvin Brothers. It's the sound of young men reveling in sorrow rather than trying to lose themselves in the thrill of a Saturday night. There's no salvation Sunday morning. No palpable tension.
Emotionalism isn't as mopey as the band's breakthrough album from last year, Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsiville Sessions, but it's still depressing enough to start grating after repeated listens. These are college types grappling with their guilt of privilege, struggling for the right words to say to the women they're afraid to confront, giving songs titles like "The Ballad of Love and Hate."
In the end, Emotionalism is just too sophomoric in its penchant for melodrama to hold up as a truly great record — one where the pathos sounds real rather than affected. 3 stars —Wade Tatangelo
New Moon
Elliott Smith
(Kill Rock Stars)
Three-and-a-half years after indie-pop-folkster Elliott Smith's violent, still-unresolved death, the danger is to read too much into everything the man sang, scouring lyric sheets for hints of his tragic end rather than merely luxuriating in the quiet, introspective gems he composed. New Moon — a two-disc, 24-track compilation of songs he put on tape between 1994 and 1997, his most fruitful period — does a lot to remind us that Smith was a lot more than a suicide case. The tracks consist of little more than Smith's reedy whisper and expert plucking, only occasionally complemented by percussion. But they achieve a rare, intimate power. Newcomers should be steered toward Smith's established diamonds, 1995's Elliott Smith and 1997's Either/Or, but for the confirmed fan, New Moon proves that Smith's golden age was an embarrassment of riches. 4 stars —Cooper Levey-Baker
Night & the Music
THE FRED HERSCH TRIO
(Palmetto)
One of the most lauded pianist/composers of his generation, Fred Hersch returns to the trio format for the first time in more than 10 years — with splendid results. With jazz A-listers Drew Gress (bass) and Nasheet Waits (drums) at Hersch's side, the trio exhibits a rare telepathy, gracefully navigating subtle rhythm shifts, building artful crescendos and, in all, crafting a sound that places damn-near equal emphasis on each instrument. The program includes a mix of originals, standards — two, "Change Partners" and "How Deep is the Ocean" by Irving Berlin — and a couple of Monk tunes: one obscurity, "Boo Boo's Birthday," and "Misterioso," where the group downplays the usual see-saw rhythm with more of a late-night blues feel. Overall, the trio's performance skews more lush than overtly energetic — there is very little uptempo material here. This is sublime late-night music: seamless and, above all, gorgeous. 4 stars —Eric Snider
Year Zero
Nine Inch Nails
(Interscope)
Gotta give Trent Reznor credit for sticking to his guns. He's still flogging the same machine-driven industrial metal that he did in the '90s — music trends be damned — and he's doing so without sounding like a complete anachronism. The fact that Year Zero zipped to the upper reaches of the Billboard album chart right out of the box is testimony to the man's lasting appeal. Year Zero is a bleak, bracing affair that paints a dystopian world, probably in the not-so-distant future, with all the violence, thought-control and general ugliness that you'd expect. Amid all the big-beat crunch and sonic grind is a pretty solid collection of grabby tunes, propelled by Reznor's sneering vocals. 3 stars —ES
Sensuous
CORNELIUS
(Everloving)
Japanese cut-and-paste maestro Cornelius again blurs the lines between genres by splicing them together into an elegant audio Zen Garden on Sensuous. Every component can be appreciated on its own or for its integral role in the whole: Eastern synth-pop, electronic bossa nova, Tortoise-like texture-rock (disc highlight "Wataridori"), wood-grained instrumentals, computerized hard rock and elegant ambient. Cornelius has been at it for more than a decade, and his sense of musical Feng Shui rarely disappoints. 3.5 stars —John Schacht
Correction: In the review of Elliott Smith's album, we mistakenly reported that his death was an apparent suicide. He died from two stab wounds, but evidence was inconclusive as to whether they were self-inflicted.
This article appears in May 23-29, 2007.