This week we review the latest albums from Eminem, the Calico Brothers, Placebo, The Black Eyed Peas, and The Checks.
2 stars (out of 5)
It's been a long road for rap's foremost parent-baiter, in a steady descent from world domination to a five-year absence due to drug dependency.
Given 2004's underwhelming Encore, the suspicion lingered that Marshall Bruce Mathers III had little left to say - his fifth album Relapse confirms this.
While his sinuous flow remains, so do the preoccupations (My Mom, Must Be the Ganja, and Insane), ensuring that his much-lauded return is little more than amorality-by-numbers.
Dr Dre's production is a highlight, however, as the console kingpin enlivens proceedings with his gleaming synth-and-strings blueprint.
Single download: We Made You
For those who like: Celebrity pot-shots and Dr Dre's breakbeats
- John Hayden
2 stars (out of 5)
Auckland band Calico Brothers do a nice line in soft rock and sweet country-pop, but there's little in this debut full-length to suggest they will take us anywhere we haven't already been.
Jimmy Calico's soft-sung vocals echo the reserved vulnerability of a George Harrison - pleasant enough but never stirring - and there are signposts aplenty to the more melodic and accessible works of the Beatles and Big Star.
Were there more contrast between the shades of light and dark, and were the soft edges roughed up a bit, these songs might be more memorable.
Single download: Tell It To The Sun
For those who like: Tom Petty, The Thorns, Crowded House
- Jeff Harford
4 stars (out of 5)
Battle for the Sun is not quite the return to form Placebo promised with their follow-up to 2006's Meds. But it is very good.
Though frontman Brian Molko views it as a bright, upbeat break from the band's characteristic dark themes, it is actually very similar.
Gone is long-time drummer Steve Hewitt, but not the big hooks or the calculatedly ragged solos.
What makes a lot of Placebo's music good - the tension between dance and rock - in some ways works against Battle, in places destabilising it. Molko's signature nasal vocals have in a way improved with age and in another not, while his lyrics trace familiar lines of crisis and addiction.
Single download: Kitty Litter
For those who like: Meds, Muse, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine
- Thom Benny
3 stars (out of 5)
A decade ago, the Black Eyed Peas could be heard declaiming righteously over jazz-inflected hip-hop beats.
Thanks to the inclusion of a sassy female hook-slinger, they are now perhaps the biggest pop act on the planet.
And while it would be easy to criticise the LA foursome for pandering to the lowest common denominator, their fifth album The E. N. D. shows incredible pop nous, and little need for profundity.
While there is no experimentation to interrupt the drive-time friendliness of I Gotta Feeling and Alive, The E. N. D. nevertheless acts as a stirring testament to the Peas' ability to push the buttons of collective euphoria.
Single download: I Gotta Feeling
For those who like: Compulsive, calculated pop
- John Hayden
5 stars (out of 5)
Alice by the Moon marks the evolution of The Checks' music from a nascent, energetic type of blues-rock, and their resolution to develop their songs in such a way as to avoid the second-album nose-dive.
They demonstrate an impressive grasp of a range of styles, from dance-rock in the vein of Kings of Leon to Zeppelin-esque power in their heavier moments.
Ballroom Baby is a marked shift in direction, and Back of the Restaurant begins as a groove before descending into a big-band jam.
This is New Zealand music tempered by international experience but not overpowered by it.
Single download: You and Me
For those who like: Led Zeppelin, Conan and the Moccasins, White Stripes
- Thom Benny
