David Byrne & Fatboy Slim - Here Lies Love

By Rich Alan

As a self-proclaimed Talking Heads fan, I wanted to help out with this post. While I admit I haven't kept up with most of David Byrne's solo work, I think the Heads's '77 and More Songs About Buildings and Food are two of the best rock records of the 70's. And having heard that David Byrne was collaborating with Fatboy Slim to create a concept album on the life of former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, my interest was piqued. Not only because of the interesting approach, but also to actually sit down and listen to what David Byrne has been up to these days.

On Here Lies Love it turns out most of what I know of David Byrne, the "Talking Heads David Byrne," is nowhere to be found. Those of you coming in to this record primarily interested in his presence, as I was, will most likely be disappointed. But what I was impressed with is how unique this record is: it just might be the first chronological history lesson I've ever heard in album format. To give it more realism, it's told in the voice of almost entirely female vocalists, to give the impression we are hearing Imelda tell her story in her own words. Byrne & Slim don't hold back in getting a wide range of incredible talent either: ranging from hipster favorite Santogold, to jazz singer Charmaine Clamor, to 80's nostalgia-favorite Cyndi Lauper.

Unfortunately, as interesting as the idea might be, the execution is simply satisfactory. While Byrne is most well-known for creating some of the most unique pop music of the past 30-plus years, Here Lies Love contains adult-contemporary electronica you'd most likely find sandwiched in between a Sheryl Crow and Matchbox Twenty song on your mother's favorite radio channel. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, it's just not my flavor, and it's definitely not what I'm listening to David Byrne for. Slim's beats are OK, Byrne's melodies are pleasant enough, and most of the vocalists do an admirable job, but the whole thing is just a bit too bland. Byrne does contribute vocals on two tracks; "American Troglodyte" is alright but "Seven Years" is my least favorite track on the entire double album, an overly long fairy-tale themed song with choir-style vocals that has me pressing the skip button every time.

There are a few songs I will definitely keep however; Cyndi Lauper's "Eleven Days" is the highlight, a very dance-able pop track with stellar vocals provided by the 80's legend herself. And being a bit of a St. Vincent fan, I do mildly enjoy the track she contributes to, "Every Drop of Rain." There's a couple of other songs I'll keep, but they will all most assuredly be tracks I'll come back to as potential candidates to get the axe when I need more space on my rapidly dwindling 32gb.

Slash Review:

By M.William Holden

In 1985 two bands, Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns, came together to form one of rock’s legendary groups…Guns N’ Roses (also referred to as GNR). While their freshman album Appetite for Destruction may be their best effort, several of their follow ups, and particularly the band members themselves, left a mark on the music industry rarely duplicated. Axl Rose and Slash are synonymous for not only creating renowned music (and in my opinion the inspiration behind the air guitar) but also ugly breakups. In 2007 Slash admitted on the Howard Stern show that he was not fired from GNR but that he left on his own accord after the rest of the band [perhaps mentally] quit. Although rumors had circulated that a GNR reunion was in the works, the band (excluding everyone except Rose) and an array of musicians not part of the original line up, released an over anticipated Chinese Democracy in 2008.

Now, after venturing off and starting Slash’s Snakepit, being part of the super group Velvet Revolver, and putting out an autobiography, Slash has released his solo self titled album Slash (which in my opinion was a waste of a perfect name like, given his past, From Riffs to Solo). Going into this I had no expectations of a rehashed Guns N’ Roses but more of a record that delivered a sound, and experience, that could stand on its own. Technically it does that, but unfortunately not in the right direction. An album filled with prominent rock vocalists and musicians might make one think music magic could appear when instead your left feeling more tricked than treated.

So, for the trick…in the very first song from the :18 to :27 second mark I challenge you to sing “Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty…oh won’t you please take me home?” and see how easily it fits. I wouldn’t even have minded, in fact I would have celebrated its symbolism, except that Ian Astbury, front man for The Cult, comes in with second-rate vocal melodies twined with cheesy Saved By The Bell lyrics like “Kill the ghost, that hides, in your soul, Rock 'n' Roll”. For whatever reason, a number of songs that feature a superstar vocalist sound more like a b-side to their own record than a guest on Slash’s creation. This formula seems riddled throughout the album with cuts like: “Beautiful Dangerous” featuring Ozzy Osbourne; “Doctor Alibi” featuring Lemmy of Motörhead; “We’re All Gonna Die” featuring Iggy Pop; and “Baby Can’t Drive” featuring Alice Cooper.

The album takes a more interesting turn down a different road, yet driving the same vehicle, on tracks like “Promise” (featuring Chris Cornell), “By the Sword’ (featuring Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale), and perhaps the ballad of the album “Gotten” (featuring Maroon 5’s Adam Levine) by providing listenable, almost even playlist-able, songs that fans from these artists may enjoy. However, in this digital age how many followers will buy an entire album for one, half decent, song that too could be considered a b-side?

For the biggest trick of them all, Slash teams up with fellow GNR and Velvet Revolver bandmate Duff McKagan along with Foo Fighter frontman Dave Grohl on “Watch This”. Watch this is right, with one sleight of the hand…poof…the lyrics have disappeared. Yup, you have one of the industry’s best voices in the studio with you yet only his drumming skills are taken advantage of? Even though the majority of the song is an intense instrumental perfect for a cinematic fight scene, save the Pink Floyd solo, it comes off as incomplete. I’m starting to believe Slash is one of the greatest guitar players of all time, but as an overall song writer…not so much.

For all of these songs above, the music itself isn’t half bad and at times even pleasurable. The downfall comes when the lyrical choice seems cheap or the vocal melody feels forced. Slash may have been more likely to benefit with leaving his influences at home and going in a whole new direction with a singer like Muse’s Matthew Bellamy.

So, where’s the treat you ask? It comes in three interesting pair ups that I personally wouldn’t have thought to be the highlights on this album.

As for the first pairing, from the opening licks of guitar fire to the climactic ending of “I Hold On”, this is easily one of the best, if not the best, songs on the album. Kid Rock’s southern style voice, complements the sound of Slash’s playing. It even has a faint church organ in the chorus and a beautifully written, and performed, guitar solo reminiscent of Slash’s golden years to help package this song as worth replaying. This classic rock throw back mixed with a dash of adult contemporary could fit well into any background from an NBC primetime hit like Parenthood to your next sunny, blue skied barbeque.

The eleventh track is where you’ll hear the next odd pairing. If you ever wondered how Slash would fit in a band like Metallica, accompanied by a vocalist from a watered down poppy version like Avenged Sevenfold, he easily proves that it would come at no difficulty with his performance on “Nothing to Say”. Slash’s transitions from a hardcore barre chord to his melodic licks drape your ears with an intense resonance. If you’re looking for what I call the best “Drive Fast To” song on this album, here it is. All you need is a leggy redhead, who has a problem with puckering her lips continuously, to claw all over you while you take this 5:25 road trip and there you have it…a 1987 music video.

For Slash’s trademark sound and the third anomalous duo go no further than the Japanese bonus track “Sahara” featuring Koshi Inaba. Even though not one word is sung in English and he eerily sounds a bit like Axl Rose, Slash’s brand of riff jumps out at you. These short melodic phrases could easily take you back to the billiards you first heard “Mr. Brownstone”. The guitar solo on this track makes you want to close your eyes and imagine the amount of albums that unfortunately never were.

Overall if you go into this journey only desiring a great effort by Slash as a guitarist, you won’t be disappointed with his self titled record (again, waste of a name with everything he’s been thru). However, if you go into this looking at each song as a complete work you may feel like you bought a various artist record that somewhat fills your craving (depending on your taste). I could have went without Slash being marketed as a one fits all guitar player but hopefully this can now fill his appetite for destruction.

Wu-Massacre Review:

By M.William Holden



In 1993 the Wu-Tang Clan exploded onto the scene with their critically-acclaimed debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). This catapulted the group to hip-hop honors as one of the most influential groups of all time. From the release of their single “Protect Your Neck” to the final track “Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber, Pt. 2” the group brought uniqueness to the music industry never witnessed before. Now they continue their quest to bring the ruckus in their new album Wu-Massacre (albeit Method Man, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killah).

The hype of this new album not only toted three of the most powerful emcees but production from the RZA himself. Unfortunately now that the final product has been released, only one track credits RZA as the creator ("Our Dreams"), and this might be the most unimpressive song on the album, and believe me when I say that’s not a complement. Overall this album feels like an EP, or incomplete, at best. It totals in length a mere 30 minutes and 6 seconds (30+6=36…coincidence?) and leaves you feeling incensed.

With no intention to go thru every song, the first several tracks play an important role in defining the overall album. While the first track, “Criminology 2.5”, has a great sound to launch you into the continuation of the Wu tradition, an initial sign that this might feel like an unfinished album comes from the fact that only Method Man and Ghostface laced it, leaving out Raekwon from the get go. The irony here is that this song, with a variation of its lyrics, originally appeared as a promotional cut for an up and coming Raekwon album last year. So even with an eerie melody of bells and a chorus of ghostly horns reminiscent of a Wu who stepped out from the 36 Chambers, you still tend to feel cheated, especially since the next track, “Mef vs. Chef” is exactly that…only the two of them. Yes, I know this is a sequel to Method Man’s Tical cut, however his lyrical spar that’s accompanied by a Kung fu composition reminiscent of a legendary fight scene leaves out Ghostface all together (and unfortunately this seems to become a habit throughout most of the album). Another major setback is that it’s constructed with a synthesized brass section rather than a real martial art film sample which unfortunately may take out any loyal Wu listener from this dactylic match.

Speaking of lyrics, you may be sorely disappointed. Most of the lyrics have lost their abstract appeal and become more cliché like the rest of the hip-hop game. You’ll be hard pressed to find Method Man alluding to his favorite past time of smoking herb, and Chef Raekwon cooking up something in the kitchen. However, Ghostface never stops with his now famous stream-of-conscious style tapestry with lines like, “Behind those mahogany walls, indoor pools with steel doors, flipping eggs over in my silk drawers”.

Don’t get me wrong, on track three I realized a very important lesson for this review: I wasn’t looking for a duplication of their freshman album. In “Ya Moms”, schoolyard trash talking is traded, akin to the opening of Enter’s “Method Man”. It even has a background that sounds like it’s going to play a sample similar to that of something off of 36 Chambers. Thinking that may be the case, it revealed to me that I wasn’t looking for a reproduction but instead a journey to the unknown. However most of the soul samples used on this album, like in “Gunshowers”, “Miranda”, "Youngstown Heist", and “Made Men”, seem more forced than fitting (Except “Smooth Sailing”) and the Kung fu snippets, that make them who they are, appear nil.

When it comes to the production, a variety of different producers were used, unlike Enter The Wu-Tang where RZA produced every track. Names include Mathematics, Scram Jones, Emile, and Ty Fyffe. The most disappointing find is in the melody of track eight, “Pimpin’ Chipp”, because it is precisely that of which is found on Method Man’s hit single “All I Need”. Perhaps the best lifted melody comes on the last track where a variation of “Na, Na, Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye” is played, and that’s only because by that point in your listening journey you’re ready to return those same sentiments.



One thing that will last in your mind, and arguably the best part of Wu-Massacre, is Marvel’s art work created by Chris Bachalo. It portrays a comic caricature of a blunt smoking, fire conjuring Method Man; a bling toting, ski masked Ghostface; and a blade chopping Raekwon.



I understand that the number 3 is an integral part of their philosophy, so that gave me hope for what these 3 particular emcees could do collectively. However, when I realized that the 3 of them (Meth, Rae, and Ghost) appeared together on only 3 of the 12 tracks (and yes, I know 3 and 3 makes six, and 12 times 3 equals 36, and so on and so on), my faith in this philosophy died.

Overall the entire project feels forced with no cohesiveness that I’ve come to expect over the years. The tone of the album is more of a daytime driving rather than late night creeping. To have named this album Wu-Massacre is ironic, because I think that’s exactly what they did to the potential they were gifted with.

Reviews To Come:

• Wu Tang (Meth/Rae/Ghost) - Wu Massacre (4/3)
• Slash – Slash (4/6)
• David Byrne/Fatboy Slim – Here Lies Love (4/13)
• Hole – Nobody’s Daughter (4/29)
• Ratt – Infestation (5/5)
• Deftones – Diamond Eyes (5/18)
• STP – Stone Temple Pilots (5/25)