CD REVIEWS
Three CDs from Atlanta acts show area’s range
Keri Hilson debut imperfect while Indigo Girls and Mastodon shine
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Three Atlanta artist/music groups release new albums Tuesday. The Indigo Girls bring on their second independent CD, “Poseidon and the Bitter Bug,” as a double disc no less. Meanwhile, Atlanta singer-songwriter Keri Hilson’s long-put-off debut, “In A Perfect World …” finally arrives. And the progressive metal quartet Mastodon cranks things up with their second major-label album, “Crack the Skye.” All three have appearances in town this week.
Derek Blanks/Interscope Records
Keri Hilson’s debut has great moments, but much of the material doesn’t crackle.
Jeremy Cowart
The Indigo Girls’ latest is more melodic and more somber than their last album.
Warner Bros. Records
Mastodon cranks everything to 11 on their second major-label album.
R&B
“In A Perfect World … ,” Keri Hilson. Mosley Music Group/Interscope Records. 14 tracks. Grade: B
As Beyonce alternates between coasting and retreading on her current CD, and Ciara’s third disc keeps missing release dates, the lane seems pretty clear for Atlanta singer Keri Hilson.
Too bad she doesn’t just zip through it on this bow.
She is not the singer that contemporary standard-bearer Beyonce is. And she hasn’t displayed any of Ciara’s dancing abilities in her two solo videos. But what the long-toiling, behind-the-scenes talent does arrive with is energy and excitement - and that’s not just an easy reference to the first single from Hilson’s debut, “Energy.” Her current No. 2 hit “Turnin Me On” (with everywhere rapper Lil Wayne) crackles with a style, sass and charisma that helped build great anticipation for this successful songwriter’s (Usher, Ludacris) long-delayed move out front. But most of the material here does not crackle. Instead, “In A Perfect World…” cruises along a futuristic, synthesizer-heavy, mid-tempo similar to the song that introduced many to Hilson (“The Way I Are,” by Timbaland). It’s almost all fun. But it rarely (“Get Your Money Up,” “Slow Dance”) revs.
Keri Hilson is scheduled to appear at DTLR at Camp Creek Marketplace in East Point at 6 p.m. Thursday.
- Sonia Murray
FOLK
“Poseidon and the Bitter Bug,” Indigo Girls. IG Recordings/Vanguard Records. 21 tracks. Grade: A
The news surrounding this Indigo Girls record is that it’s the Atlanta duo’s first independent release since its 1987 debut. Eleven CDs into their career, Emily Saliers and Amy Ray are absolute masters at the singer-songwriter genre. It remains evident here in the individual loveliness of Saliers’ voice on “Digging For Your Dream,” and when she and the lower, rawer Ray intermingle on “Love Of Our Lives.” It is underlined in the jaunt and musical spryness of “Sugar Tongue” and “Driver Education,” and the lyrical might throughout (especially in “True Romantic”). And if there is any notable difference in this self-released double disc (one band version, the other an acoustic version) and their last major label studio album three years ago, it is in the more somber tones and more contemplative themes. Made melodic, nonetheless.
Indigo Girls are scheduled to perform at Criminal Records Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
- Sonia Murray
ROCK
“Crack the Skye,” Mastodon. Warner Bros. 7 tracks Grade: A-
Everything is cranked up to 11 on Mastodon’s second major label album (and fourth full-length studio recording overall). The Atlanta quartet just gives us more of the good stuff that has always made it tick. Maybe that’s what that extra “e” on the end of sky is all about, more title, too.
Compared with the band’s earlier work, the harmonies are brighter, the melodies more memorable, the dynamics more brutal. Brann Dailor’s rafter-rattling drums are still the star, but the textured, cascading guitars are by turns gorgeous and brutal. The overall sound of Mastodon as produced by Atlanta’s Brendan O’Brien is cleaner without losing the band’s distinguishing metallic chug.
The guys in Mastodon still make the biggest impression when they blast shiny new-millennial monuments out of classic rock. The guitar riff of “Divinations” recalls Led Zeppelin’s “Achilles’ Last Stand,” and the twinned guitar fills have visions of Thin Lizzy dancing in your head. When the buzzing guitar solo fades in, it becomes all Mastodon.
Mastodon is scheduled to appear at Criminal Records at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
— Shane Harrison
