Awolnation Defy Easy Labeling With Infectious Musical Stew on Debut EP

Aaron Bruno, formerly of Under The Influence Of Giants, responsible for the disco-funk flavored "Mama's Room," a sizable hit on alternative rock radio in 2006, returns to re-invent white r&b again as Awolnation with debut EP Back From Earth. However, this time Bruno steps out of the '70s and into the future with thick electronic beats.

"Burn It Down" is part Little Richard, complete with "Woooo!," part breakneck techno and maybe even a little Michael Jackson. For most of the song, animated live drums throttle underneath quickened electronic blips. This song is like a bus with cut break-lines speeding towards a brick wall.

Muted but distorted guitar, thumping bass and clean organ make "Guilty Filthy Soul" more of a traditional soul-rock song. Bruno's vocals here are mostly unadorned and his emoting would do James Brown and Freddie Mercury both proud. Bernie Worrell-style funkified synth sounds add a touch of George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic.

"Sail" may be the most provocative on the EP, a layered minor key dirge-like song. Electronic violins provide most of the melody while heavy slabs of electronic fuzz fall between them and a mix of live drums and drum machine. The bridge of the song does feature a smattering of guitar and piano too. Bruno's vocals here are layered and given a scratchy quality that enhances the anguish in his delivery and lyrics. Overall, the song, with its fade-in and fade-out, seems like it could go forever and what is heard is just a snippet of the whole.

The final track, "MF" is where the album loses some focus. It feels less like an actual song than dance club fodder. Bruno seems to be screaming himself hoarse in a quasi-rap style that becomes grating before the song is half-way through. The music here is entirely electronic, and while full of heavy beats like the rest, it feels overly repetitive.

Awolnation, while taking some cues from classic r&b, 1970s rock and heavy electronica like The Prodigy, mixes these disparate sounds into a stew that is unique and enjoyable. Bruno's impassioned, energetic vocal style is infectious. The live instruments and studio electronic wizardry find a compatible place when most of the time they don't in other music. These days, specific genre labeling in music is meaning less and less and Awolnation is definitely a positive outcome of this trend.

Petty Sings The Blues

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are back with their first new album in eight years, Mojo and it's a mess of blues. The band has moved as far away from the signature Petty sound as possible. Most of the time this experimentation helps the music but there are a few instances where it'd be better to stick to what they do best, honest to goodness American classic rock.

"Jefferson Jericho Blues" is driving, repetitive energetic Chicago blues in the vein of Muddy Waters. Wailing harmonica is the lead instrument while the guitar snakes around underneath, sometimes with a raw crunch and other times liquid.

The band channels their inner Pink Floyd on "First Flash of Freedom." Huge atmospheric, drawn-out notes inform this song with a David Gilmour meets Stevie Ray Vaughan quality. Vocals don't show up for well over a minute.

"Running Man's Bible" is a pretty standard electric blues song but the recording technique makes it sound live. There are hints of Albert King in the short bursts of lead guitar. Another live-sounding song, with its room reverb-soaked vocals is "Takin' My Time." It also features Hendrix-like lead guitar and a heavy thud drum pattern.

The sleepy "The Trip To Pirate's Cove" is reminiscent of post-Cream Eric Clapton meets Steely Dan. The song is cool and collected with clean blues-based guitar licks.

Petty has often shown his playful side but "Candy" is plain goofy. Full of half-baked blues cliches in the lyrics, its ultimately boring.

"No Reason To Cry" mostly continues the tradition of Petty's country-flavored solo songs. But this time around its almost too mellow, although the steel guitar is a nice touch. The song could use a memorable chorus hook.

Taking a page from Led Zeppelin, the first single "I Should Have Known It" has an infectious heavy riff throughout. Even the drumming cascades like an avalanche John Bonham-style.

"U.S. 41" is pure Skip James acoustic blues with some southern swamp rock thrown in. Petty even adopts a slightly dissonant falsetto like James. Employing a raw production value, it sounds like everything is filtered through the natural distortion of a "green bullet" harmonica microphone. Resonator slide guitar and piston-like drumming leads add to the effect.

In the tradition of Eric Clapton's cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff," the band attempts reggae on "Don't Pull Me Over." The experiment mostly succeeds, although it takes a bit to get used to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers playing swirling, echo-filled dub.

"Good Enough" is full of biting lead guitar that proves Mike Campbell is a highly underrated player. Benmont Tench's organ really shines as well, starting as shimmering texture in the background than emerging triumphantly as the guitar dies down.

Like all the best bands of the 1970s, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers play blues-based rock and roll. However, Mojo is the most straight-ahead blues that's ever been heard from the band on a studio album. While most of the songs show an excellent blues band has been inside them all these years, others suffer from Petty's voice. His distinctive nasal drawl is part of what makes the band's classic hits so great but the blues needs something meatier. Depending on the point of view, Mojo could be seen as a failure or a success.

Spoon Declare War On Melody

It's a good thing when bands don't stick to the same formula over and over again. There's nothing worse than stale music. However, Spoon has managed to change the formula and make an overall flat-sounding album, Transference, at the same time.

"Before Destruction" is a raw song that has a demo-like quality. The sound is far away and consists mostly of Britt Daniel's rasping vocals and jagged acoustic guitar strumming.

"Is Love Forever" takes a page from The Strokes' guitar playing book with a bouncy and punchy but ultimately boring riff. Too much robotic factory precision. The most interesting part of the song is the psychedelic reverb on the vocals.

"The Mystery Zone," musically at least, sounds a lot like the funked-up mid-'70s "Miss You" Rolling Stones. An intricate bass line anchors the song and the guitar and keyboard echo play off that.

"Written In Reverse" is one of the better songs on the album and surprise, surprise it's the current radio single. The rhythm here isn't too geometric and this allows some of the raw soul elements that have always been part of Spoon to come back. The percussive piano and Daniel's impassioned vocals help as well.

"Goodnight Laura" is a melancholy piano lullaby. This may be the only song on the album that's pure melody instead of pure rhythm. This song is somewhat reminiscent of live solo piano performances from Neil Young.

"Got Nuffin" came out last year as a radio single and on a lackluster EP of the same name. The song itself has an enjoyable slow burning guitar riff. In hindsight, this is somewhat of a precursor to the sonic approach this whole album takes but it doesn't quite go off cliff like other songs.

"Nobody Gets Me But You" is almost electronica. The drums are definitely "enhanced" and the only other prominent instrumentation is a funk-like bass riff.

While not without its bright spots, Transference definitely favors rhythm at the expense of melody. Good music needs both or you end up with the cold results the majority of this album ends up with.

Contra Proves An Unsuccessful New Direction For Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend exploded onto the indie rock scene two years ago with an appealingly organic, world music tinged sound with an Ivy League sensibility. Nobody had managed to capture that sound before besides perhaps Paul Simon. The band has attempted an about face on their highly-awaited sophomore album Contra. But the experimentation doesn't pay off.

"Horchata" has atmospheric vocals from singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig. Besides the marimba, everything else, like engine piston drumming and synth strings and choir, seems affected by overblown studio wizardry. This approach sets the tone for the whole album, reminiscent of solo Sting or Paul Simon as produced by Brian Eno.

"Holiday" and "Cousins" are perhaps the only two songs on the album that have prominent guitar throughout. The former has a ping-pong rhythm and the latter pummels along at a breakneck speed, which sounds like more studio magic.

Taking a cue from King Sunny Ade, "California English" has some interesting juju guitar leads undercut by jagged rhythm tracks. Koenig affects a stupid "ethnic" accent for portions.

The final song on the album, "I Think Ur A Contra" is an incredibly dreamy affair. A wave-like mix of keyboards and guitar harmonics washes over the listener.

Vampire Weekend's keyboardist, Rostam Batmanlij, produced Contra and it definitely shows. Too much in fact. It sounds as if the rest of the band had barely any contribution at all, just letting Batmanlij fart around. The problem with synth-heavy music in general is that it can end up sounding a combination of thin, cold, soulless and robotic. This, coupled with the lack of variety in instrumentation, hurts Contra. Vampire Weekend is a full band and it's a shame they don't sound like one here.