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November 14, 2002

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The Rant

By wpengine | November 14, 2002

By its nature, a diary is a private thing. I’m not talking about the kind of diaries we see on MTV. We’re a generation bombarded by “The Diary Of

Test Spin: Eric Clapton

By wpengine November 15, 2002

The cover of Eric Clapton’s new recording of his 2001 tour, a tour that the guitarist has claimed will be his last major tour, shows him departing for the crossroads (of Cream fame), relinquishing himself to his own tireless legacy. It’s a poignant picture and many of the renditions take on a similarly heartfelt sincerity in the context of Clapton’s last world tour. Unfortunately, the first disc mostly consists of songs off of Reptile and Pilgrim, two of his most pathetic albums. Even with a band containing Andy Fairweather Low and Billy Preston, “Reptile,” “My Father’s Eyes,” and “River of Tears” teem with such tedium, such maudlin mayhem, that even a legitimate guitar god isn’t able to invigorate them. Clapton’s first mistake was listening to James Taylor and Sting in the early 1990s and producing preternaturally lame music. Reproduced live, it maintains a little bit of an edge, but simply cannot make up for the incompetent songwriting. It is just not worth it to sit through five minutes of “River of Tears” waiting for one of his patented solos. The second disc, however, starts with a slew of Cream and Derek and the Dominoes hits, allowing Clapton to reembrace the electric blues that made him an idol. It’s almost as if the producers felt that the track listing of the first disc was so unbearable, a second disc with “Badge,” “Cocaine,” and “Layla” was needed. Those songs are executed so well that it almost compensates for the easy listening of the first. Still, as technically phenomenal and eccentrically admirable as his rendition of “Over the Rainbow” is, this is not what a master guitarist should be doing with the final days of his career.Archived article by Alex Linhardt
Test Spin: Rilo Kiley

By wpengine November 15, 2002

Rilo Kiley is fronted by two mostly unknown once child actors that appeared on shows like Boy Meets World and Growing Pains. Why is that relevant? Well, if nothing else, Rilo Kiley provide a more preferable result of Hollywood corruption and exploitation than, say, those Mickey Mouse Club alumni that offer little beside their belly buttons. These folks sound so embittered by their sleazy L.A. hometown on their sophomore breakthrough that the cynical, melancholy lyrics actually carry some weight, so much so that the opening line of “The Good That Won’t Come Out” — “Let’s get together and talk about the modern age” — doesn’t even sound twee. And when the same song emerges from the first three minutes of sparse, cheap-drum-machine-backed lo-fidelity into the grand orchestral final chorus, replete with bells and saxophone, it doesn’t sound overdone. Credit is also due to singer Jenny Lewis (she of Golden Girls fame). The false innocence implied by her gently girlish voice always sounds on the verge of breakdown. When Lewis sings “I’m not going back to the assholes that made me, and the perfect display of random acts of hopelessness” on the fantastically poppy “Paint’s Peeling,” the word “asshole” is more powerful than any curse that is bleeped out from those Top 40 pottymouths. The title-track introduces some thrift store electronics alongside Slash-style guitar lines (I think of “Sweet Child of Mine” for some reason) and a bubbly synth. It is here that the skillful arrangements of Lewis and singer/guitarist Blake Sennett (he of Boy Meets World fame) comes to full fruition. Sennett steps up to the mic on “So Long” and “Three Hopeful Thoughts,” making for a nice change of pace with the twangy, sun-baked pop