]> http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/editorial/albumreviews/0,,,00.html Most Recent Album Reviews on ARTISTdirect 86400 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:30:23 PST en-us http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,4503095,00.html Johnny Depp is the perfect John Dillinger. In Public Enemies, Depp gives Dillinger depth. He understands the nuances of one of America's most famous outlaws, and he doesn't play him as good or bad. He plays him as real. Dillinger is a complicated cat. During "The Golden Age of Bank Robbery," he reigned supreme. He was cool, cold and calculated, and Depp embodies each quality flawlessly on film. Much of the character's complexity comes from how conscious Dillinger was about his public image. In one scene Depp mentions, "The public don't like kidnapping." Bank robbery is fine; just don't steal anybody. Dillinger wanted to be a celebrity, so it makes sense that one of the biggest celebrities on the planet should play him, but Depp brings this iconic figure to life. His awareness of Dillinger's intricacies leads to the creation of an intriguing character that will draw viewers back again and again. Depp shows every side of Dillinger—the suave lover, the ruthless killer, the Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:30:23 PST 6070720 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,4438247,00.html Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is everything that a summer action flick should be. Like the best summertime fare, it alternates seamlessly between clever and explosive. Director Michael Bay has amped up everything. There are more jokes, more robots, more battles, more special effects and, of course, more Megan Fox. In fact, there's nothing more a Transformers fan could ever ask for. In this follow-up, Shia LaBeouf's Sam Witwicky is now in college, but he's still got his robot pals by his side. How could he ever part ways with Bumblebee, really? However, there's a disturbance in the "normal" order of things, and an ancient sect of Decepticons known as "The Fallen" are about to wreak havoc on the world. Once again, Sam and his metal-head friends are the only ones that can stop impending armaggedon. The storyline is easy to follow, and it opens up the door for some of the most bombastic action sequences that we've seen yet. The battles—everywhere from Egypt to the Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:51:56 PST 6070599 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,1570957,00.html Off the Wall was a massive success, spawning four Top Ten hits (two of them number ones), but nothing could have prepared Michael Jackson for Thriller. Nobody could have prepared anybody for the success of Thriller, since the magnitude of its success was simply unimaginable -- an album that sold 40 million copies in its initial chart run, with seven of its nine tracks reaching the Top Ten (for the record, the terrific "Baby Be Mine" and the pretty good ballad "The Lady in My Life" are not like the others). This was a record that had something for everybody, building on the basic blueprint of Off the Wall by adding harder funk, hard rock, softer ballads, and smoother soul -- expanding the approach to have something for every audience. That alone would have given the album a good shot at a huge audience, but it also arrived precisely when MTV was reaching its ascendancy, and Jackson helped the network by being not just its first superstar, but first black star as much as the network Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:54:51 PST 6070379 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,5432083,00.html The lushness and sprawl of Coldplay, the experimental electronica of later period Radiohead and the neo-nu wave of The Postal Service is adequately reinterpreted by Nashville's Paper Route on Absence, their major label debut. Paper Route represent the new crest of college rock, which saw its zenith in the 1990s, but a band like Paper Route reminds musicologists of the period when indie bands were the norm more often than the exception. The richness of Absence cannot be underscored. Simple rock n' roll isn't what Paper Route is looking to achieve. The band invites the listener to sift through a multitude of ambient layers and sounds, all of which congeal in a dense yet gorgeous selection of songs. It’s all kicked off by “Enemy Among Us,” which is dangerously dream haunting. There’s somewhat of a somber tone and mood on Absence, and it's as though the band was reared in the gray industrial towns deep in England and inspired by a bleak environment. While Nashville is the very capitol Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:52:30 PST 6069539 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,3994847,00.html Imagine That showcases just how diverse of a comic Eddie Murphy truly is. The man who gave us Raw and Beverly Hills Cop has entrenched himself deep in family films over the past decade or so. However, in Imagine That, he finds the middle ground between Trading Places and Doctor Doolittle. This deep into his career, it's refreshing to see just how funny the comedian still is. In the film, Eddie is too-busy-for-family businessman Evan Danielson. He's on the cusp of a big promotion, but he couldn't connect with his daughter Olivia—an endearing Yara Shahidi—to save his life. While she's staying with him for a week, he realizes that her blanket, or "Goo-Gaa," is able to give him advice about tough decisions at work, and it's always right. Now, it's all imagination, but somehow the imaginary princesses and the little girl know what's up. You have to suspend some disbelief but it works. Eddie oscillates from slapstick to sarcastic. Take when he's dancing in public and singing in one Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:44:30 PST 6069533 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,4430983,00.html The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 places two men in a confessional; albeit it's not the standard church closet space. These men are also anything but typical. They're two of the most respected and acclaimed actors in Hollywood—Denzel Washington and John Travolta. However, they manage to become two seemingly regular guys confessing their sins and lies over a public transportation dispatch line. That tense interaction is what makes Pelham such an intense drama. The film kicks off with a bang. As Jay-Z's "99 Problems" blares, Travolta's Ryder and a few heavily armed henchman take Pelham 1 2 3 by storm. Ryder is menacing and malevolent, and he has no problem capping passengers to prove his point. Denzel is Walter Garber the dispatcher about to leave his shift that gets the call from Ryder. Ryder wants 10 million dollars in one hour, and he's going to kill a passenger per minute if he doesn't have the money by the time the hour is up. Travolta is on fire. When he takes the train, he tells the Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:26:11 PST 6069532 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,4444051,00.html Vegas does quite a number on The Hangover's main trio—Phil [Bradley Cooper], Alan [Zach Galifianakis] and Stu [Ed Helms]. No matter how crazy it gets—a tiger in the bathroom, a missing tooth, a shotgun wedding, a naked crowbar-wielding gangster—the characters are having the time of their lives. Now, audiences most certainly will have a blast as well during this raunchy romp. The Hangover blends a kinetic life-on-the-edge trip a la Go with the laugh-out-loud antics that director Todd Phillips [Old School, Road Trip] is famous for. However, Phillips takes the madness up a notch, and Vegas is the perfect arena for it. The plot is simple. Phil, Alan and Stu take their soon-to-be-hitched buddy Doug [Justin Bartha] to Vegas for a final stint of debauchery before he takes the plunge into married life. However, after toasting with shots of Jagermeister on the Caesar's Palace roof, the boys wake up in their trashed villa the next day, and the groom is Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:05:16 PST 6069121 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,4499885,00.html If David Cronenberg's cold and kinky Crash or Michael Haneke's nasty and brutish Funny Games were your idea of good date movies, this morgue-chilly psychosexual dirge will be the most fun you've had outside a Scandinavian funeral parlor. Downloading Nancy looks as barren and bleak as its "please kill me" plot, with occasional snatches of sadism to break up the monotony. Maria Bello is Nancy, a bitchy, sarcastic wife of 15 years. She gets on a bus one day to rendezvous with Louis (Jason Patric), a sadist she met online. Given that Nancy is a self-destructive cutter compelled to razor blade her arms, legs, and who knows what else, she obviously is expecting more out of the encounter than conventional adultery. Cue the cigarette burns, mousetraps on toes, and broken glass in bed. Husband Albert (Rufus Sewell) is disturbed by Nancy's unexpected departure, but not enough to call the police. Flashbacks to unpleasant scenes from the couple's less than blissful union indicate Albert Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:21:25 PST 6069083 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,5430470,00.html Yesterday & Today, the sophomore release from The Field (AKA Stockholm producer Axel Willner), is at times lovely, but more often than not, it's less than rewarding. 2007’s critically acclaimed electronic crossover From Here We Go Sublime managed to bring The Field’s blissed out music and ethereal vocal loops to the masses. However, what distinguishes Yesterday (and ultimately tries to save it) from their prior effort is The Field’s move in a more musically organic direction, evident in the album’s first single “The More That I Do.” Based around tense chopped-up vocals, guitars, synthesizers and Axel's signature loops, the lead single is a success. John Stanier [Battles] sits in on drums and assists in incorporating natural propulsive percussion into the song’s musical DNA. Nonetheless, Yesterday & Today has far too many moments that seem to go nowhere, leaving the listener waiting for a payoff that unfortunately never comes. Album opener “I Have The Moon, Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:29:59 PST 6062520 Album Review http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/movies/title/0,,4199981,00.html At its honey-sweet, but never cloyingly sentimental core, UP is a “carpe diem”-championing fable intended to move the moral minds of impressionable young audiences. Its message is painted with broad strokes, but crafted by Pixar’s visual virtuosos and filmmakers committed to the doctrine “Story First,” UP resists pandering altogether. It is wildly creative, genuinely profound, and pretty damn brazen, too: How many youth-targeted films can you name who count a curmudgeon as their hero? Carl Fredricksen (voiced by real-life, likeable grump Ed Asner) is a jowl-faced geriatric who, as a meek child, had wanderlust-driven fantasies of taking flight to faraway lands. These dreams persist as he ages, but his intentions are interrupted by life’s naturally-occurring hiccups, and he slowly evolves into the depressive we finally meet. What exactly these tragedies are would be a shame to spoil, as they’re part of a gorgeous, tear-jerking silent montage that gives UP’s live-action counterparts some Fri, 29 May 2009 17:46:59 PST 6062315 Album Review