By Doug Levy The Sounds of Summer - Your summer music buying guideWelcome to Ground Zero, your trusty weekly reference to the world of
arts and entertainment. This column is where you can expect to find n Things were off to a slow start this summer, with the eagerly-anticipated yet ultimately disappointing release of the latest from Faith No More, Album of the Year. Coming just after spring session let out, Mike Patton and company delivered a platter that was tasty but hardly enough to sate one's musical hunger. Following on the heels of the two remarkably intricate previous records that helped FNM shake off the silliness of "The Real Thing," Album of the Year does little to match its promise, much less its title. Hopefully this merely marks a low point for the band and not the end of a beautiful thing. On the flip-side, while many may have expected another mediocre release
from the Charlatans UK, their new CD, Tellin' Stories, The irresistibly delightful Kenickie were finally unleashed upon American
shores this summer as well, and if you haven't heard them yet, do yourself
a favor and pick up Other releases from the British contingent include Do It Yourself, the
depressingly awful debut from ex-Stone Roses guitar-god John Squire's new
band, the Seahorses, and Kula Shaker's Summer Sun E.P., a brief collection
of b-sides and rare tracks meant to keep you salivating for their next proper
album, which it does quite nicely. And then there's Radiohead's OK Computer,
an album which falls very neatly outside any label one could hope to put
on it. A band that seemed at first to be just another addition Back on our home shores, Sarah McLachlan put out her most impressive
single to date, the haunting serenade of "Building a Mystery,"
but the album from which it was taken, 311's Transistor, meanwhile, is most certainly throwing their fans for a loop, with the band drawing in the reins on their patented mix of rock, rap and reggae for a more melodic approach. While all of their trademarked elements are still there, the songs on Transistor are nowhere near as accessible as the band's past work, a possible put-off for some, but it is worth bearing with them. There's 21 tracks on this CD (!) and it clocks in at over an hour, so there's a lot to experience here, and for the most part it's good stuff. Radio junkies may lose track of 311 after this, but the real fans won't be going anywhere. In the dance world, Lionrock's And to wrap up your summer music tour, a couple of bizarre compilations
that are worth checking out: The "Spawn" movie soundtrack is the Random is a tribute to one of the pioneers of electronic music, Gary Numan, who is most well known for his robotic 80s hit, "Cars." This is a 2-CD set, including such artists as The Orb, Republica, Dave Clarke, Blur's Damon Albarn with Weezer's Matt Sharp, Jesus Jones (really!), Pop Will Eat Itself, the aforementioned Kenickie, and many others, all doing their take on Mr. Numan's synth-pop creations, with some groups even choosing to cover the same song, so you can hear multiple takes on it. Yes, "Cars" is on here, but only once. The rest may be unfamiliar, but that's all the more reason to give it a listen. So there you have it. Now hurry up and update your CD collection, because summer's finally over, and it's back to school and a whole new year of musical mayhem. And hold on tight, you crazy kids, because we're taking you along for the ride!
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