ATARI STAR
The Beloved Enemy | Undertow
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The middle album of Jay Bennett’s post-Wilco solo CD trilogy, this nine-song effort is a breakup album firmly in the tradition of Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks and Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear. While the often ramshackle record can’t touch those masterpieces, it is a significant improvement over Bennett’s disappointing spring release, Bigger Than Blue. He makes like Tom Waits on the searching “My Little Valentine” and Nick Cave on the murder ballad “It Might Have Looked Like We Were Dancing,” and ends with a downright suicidal cover of Tori Amos’s “Pretty Good Year.” The whole dark and disturbing affair sounds like a last-minute wail from someone about to plunge into the abyss. On the flip side, Arabella, the latest from Wilco bassist John Stirratt and his twin sister, Laurie, is a light and breezy 11-song set of pastoral pop. The sibs fashion a sound that’s closer to John’s AM Gold-loving side project the Autumn Defense than their early-90s redneck Replacements combo, the Hilltops. Though Arabella boasts an array of hotshot guests (Jeff Tweedy, Brad Jones, Will Kimbrough, Glenn Kotche), the Stirratts’ strong harmonies are the album’s chief appeal, twining together on the country lament “Can’t Stand Yourself,” the golden summer reverie “Canadian Noon,” and the softly chugging groover “Mistral.”
Lonely People of the World, Unite! | Mousse
IT: INFINITO & THAIONE
Led by D.C. transplant Chris Thomson, former front man of Circus Lupus, the Monorchid, and Skull Kontrol, the Red Eyed Legends have tweaked their personnel for their second EP of the year, losing guitarist Steve Denekas and adding Dishes veteran Kiki Yablon (who also works at the Reader) on guitar and Farfisa. Though this stuff is still best enjoyed in small doses, Mutual Insignificance is more polished and satisfying than the band’s debut, The High I Feel When I’m Low (GSL), and manages to make something worthwhile out of the danceable postpunk style that’s been abused by a crowd of paint-by-numbers preeners like the Killers and Hot Hot Heat. The thundering “Go-Go Girls” and the hooky, stop-start “Cold in the Sun” stand out among these five tangled, insistent songs, and Thomson’s vocals are the star of the show throughout, evoking both English art punk and American hardcore with their combination of brattiness and bile.
