Chronic Future - Lines in My Face

Chronic Future used to be a novelty band. They were Kris-Krossing their way to the top of Phoenix's airwaves at 13 with "Scottsdale," a song about rich Scottsdale kids.

It was a terrible and hilarious song that gave them 15 minutes. And that was that. But wait ...

The kids have grown up, and (somehow) signed to Interscope Records. Now in their early 20's, the voices have changed while the sound remains the same: immature rap-rock without a hint of originality.

Each song starts with some serious white-guy rapping and moves into power-chord choruses. It's best to not listen to the verses, or you risk hearing lines like "I need to reconstruct what happens subconsciously/so we don't continue to treat our silence so obnoxiously."

What was quasi-impressive for these dudes at 13 is embarrassing now. It's a good thing they already had their 15 minutes, because this record won't give them any more time in the spotlight.

- Nate Buchik

Jonathan Richman - Not So Much To Be Loved As To Love

Jonathan Richman has always been the eccentric type. The song "Vincent Van Gogh" from Richman's latest makes me yearn for Richman's material with influential 70's semi-punks the Modern Lovers. On the Lovers' classic debut Richman sang the coyly sarcastic line "Pablo Picasso was an asshole." Compare that assessment of artistic genius to his new cute-and-cuddly portrayal of Van Gogh as a man who "loved color and he let it show." Apparently the tortured, mentally-ill painter also "loved life that way" and his "paintings said things paintings seldom say." Thanks for the insight, Jonathan.

Sad what age can do to. Here Richman is reduced to putting on the kind of cutesy little-boy act that makes girls swoon over twenty-somethings and grown children put sixty-somethings in the home. Not that the record isn't pleasant enough, but it seldom gets past cute. This isn't necessarily a misstep, just the sound of a former icon coasting into the sunset.

- Mark Sussman