Air Premiere Symptomes (8) Virgin/EMI

Weird Al and Air both started out as archi- tects, but Air uses their architecture back- ground to build their composi- tions. Premiere Symptomes is impressive in its layering of retro sounds, but some tracks sound a bit sparse in com- parison to their last album, Moon Safari. The Mike Mills directed video for “Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi” on this enhanced CD is a real treat.

MacLeod

Stompin’ Tom Connors

Northlands Zone/On Tragedy Trail (7) EMI

Once again, woo hoo! Two Stompin’ Tom CD's for the-price of one! The first half of this is from his first ever record, recorded in 1967, and includes “Sudbury Satur- day Night” and “My Home Cradled Out In The Waves.” The second half includes “Black Donnelly’s Massacre” and “Benny The Bum.”

Cra Oe ei lad

Two Great Albums on ONE CD

O’Connor

that’s okay,

The Charlatans UK Us and Us Only (7)

Universal

Us and Us Only has the blues influence of the Rolling Stones with a touch of innova- tion. The open- ing track has elements of trip hop mixed with raw gospel, but the rest of the songs are more blues rock than trip hop. All of the tracks sound good, but the album, asa whole, does not work because it is not con-

Brian Setzer The Brian Setzer Collection ‘81-‘88 (6) Capitol/EMI

There are a lot of smoking tracks on this CD, especially the four from his rockabilly days with the Stray Cats. His a cappella ver- sion of “I Won’t Stand In Your Way” is great. There’s also an unreleased version of “Sum- mertime Blues” that rocks. The problem with this CD is that some of the other tracks

sistent. sound very dated. MacLeod O’Connor

Our Lady Peace

Happiness...Is Not A Fish That You Can

Catch (7) The Arrogant Worms Columbia/Sony Dirt! (7)

So, what’s new with OLP? Judging by this CD, not

much — but

‘cause they pull off another fine CD here. There’s lots more of their style of rock, featuring Rain Maida’s unmistakeable voice. Besides their current hit “One Man Army,” other top tracks are “Thief” and “Consequence of Laughing.”

O’Connor

Www.arrogant-worms.com

The Worms, Canada’s foremost comedy group, experi- mented with various instru- ments on this album. Does it work? Some- times. “Steel Driving Man” is a hilarious track about John Henry’s oppo- site, and “Scary Ned” is about a real...spooky guy. “Winnebago” is probably the goofiest track they ever recorded. But what the heck is “Sponges”?

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