14

The Cadre « 1 December 1998

Christmas shopping List

Jack Drag Dope Box (A & M)

Ss

oe — Made api C4 a |

— a

~ |

é

Who? That’s what I first thought, too. They’re three guys from New York City, and no, they aren’t into cross-

dressing or racing cars. Not that] know ofanyway...maybe they’re into both... now that would be odd. Back tothe CD, yes, “Dope Box”. What do they sound like? Well, they sound like a lot of things. They’re mostly a mix of rock and techno. When the guitar breaks out, they sound a lot like the Tea Party. When they do harmony, it’s very “Simon and Garfunkel-esque”. The beats can be rock, hip hop, what- ever. The songs go from rockin’ to jangle-boppin’. It’s pretty darned hard to peg them under one style, as you can

see. They use many different sounds, while still maintaining their own sound. That’s pretty cool. It’s just so diverse, re- ally. When you listen to it first, you expect the songs to goa certain way, then they don’t. Initally, you’re almost disap- pointed. Then it grows on you. And grows on you like facial hair on ZZ Top (that’s a good thing). The subtleties of the songs make you listen more and more. | think that’s what I liked most about this disc; it gets better every time you lis- ten to it. The lyrics were pretty good, too, actually. For

example: inthe song “Sinner’s Delight”, John Dragonetti sings, “Oh girl, I think, yeah I know you so well, and I know we'll have fun, burnin’ in Hell...”. But the song is so light and boppy and “Beatles’- likethatit’s almostreally funny. Just imagine Paul McCartney telling Lucy to drop from her diamond-filled sky and burn in Hell. Kind of funny, don’t you think? ButI digress. This is a pretty good disc. If you ever see it somewhere at a good price, it’d be worth getting.

Stephen McQuaid

Various Artists

The Rugrats Movie - Music from the motion picture (Universal)

Soundtracks can usu- ally be a hit and miss affair. This one, on the whole, is a miss. But there are excep-

tions to this early judgement. “I Throw My Toys Around” (by Elvis Costello), per- ormed by No Doubt and Costello, 1s a solid song. It would stand very well on its own. Gwen Stefani sings ita bit lower than she usually sing, and the band sounds quite un- No Doubt-like. It’s easily the best song on the disc. The only other two good songs are “All Day” by Lisa Loeb, and “On Your Marks, Get oe Ready, Go!” by Busta

mes. The rest are pretty much basic soundtrack fare. They prob-

ably fit really well into the movie, but by themselves, they just don’t have it. Some songs that would have been neat additions to the disc are instead done by the voices of the Rugrat squad. So, some of it comes off as quite childish, bordering on annoy- ing. One song, “This World Is Something New to Me” contains 15 artists, some of them huge stars; their talents are pretty much wasted. When you look at the disc and see names like Beck,

Iggy Pop, Lenny Kravitz, Seok triat Lou Rawls, etc,

you a something really cool. But each person only gets about 4 words or so of their own. I couldn’t even make out who sang what most of the time. is CD would probably be loved by a young Rugrat fan, but for someone a bit older, and unfamiliar with them, it’s not that great. Overall, the CD left me with a bit of a feeling that it was missing some- thing... but what? I think it wants its bottle.

Stephen McQuaid

If you see someone without smile, give them

one Of yours

Various Artist Lose Your Illusion 1

Loose your illusion is a very appropriate title for this compilation. I lostmy illusion. [had the illusion thatthis would be a good album. This is a sad attemt to recapture some of the jaded cynnicism ofthe early 90’s. I really expected more from a disk that offered pennywise and the offspring, but even those tracks weren’t all that great. Some horible rap tracks round out this travesty, this sad testament to the dear departed alternative scene.

Aerosmith A little south of sanity

What can you say about Aerosmith that hasn’t been said before? A Little South of Sanity is an amazing album, it features their big hits as well as some little known favour- ites. Listening to this double live album you can just imag- ine the intensity of Aerosmiths liveshow. With some amusing chatter to the crowd, and the subtle changing ofsome lyrics, this album is a joy to listen to. Stephen and the boys have produced another great album.

The offspring Americana

From a band that had such a great start with “Smash”, and a good sophmore effort with “Ixnay on the hombre”, I was seriously dissapointed with “Ameri- cana”. This album lacks origionality, with stolen sam- ples and a twisted version of the classic lounge song “feel- ings”. The shining star of the album is” Pretty fly (fora white guy)”, but even that gets mo- notonous after a while. This is nota album, but it isn’t horrible either.

2 Dr. Dolittle 3 Small Soldiers

@& Godzilla

& Deep Impact

=) Hope Floats @ The Negotiator & A Perfect Murde

9 Can't Hardly Wa

4

es z aa ee & es = a

a

10 The Horse Vidal iy elt

449 University Ave = 566-5626

Locally owned and operated