GM FORECASTS RADICAL CHANGE - The Founder

thefounder Monday 29 January 2007
Music
w w w . c d - w o w . c o m / t h e f o u n d e r
MUSIC
19
Tom Waits - Orphans
By Tom Feltham
Cold War Kids –
Robbers and Cowards
By Tom Shadbolt
The American music industry is
running dry. Just as our Indie music
has to be infected by some kind of
reverence to the libertines, stateside
there seems to be little innovation
and risk taking at all. This album will
definitely sell well both in the US
and the UK, and although it keeps
a high music standard throughout,
there is a distinct amount of drudgery
when listening to what seems
like the same track over and over.
The major problem I have with this
band is they seem to lack any form
of charisma. If I went out on the piss
with these guys, what would we do?
What trouble would we get into?
They are probably nice blokes who
would sneer at some pop music
playing in the corner while politely
declining a swig from a bottle of
brandy I’d offered under the table
because they have work the next
morning.
Admittedly, the tracks ‘Hang me up
to dry’ and ‘We used to vacation’
are inevitably going to be successful,
and expect a fair amount of
radio play time devoted to them,
but the album lacks killer tracks to
justify a must buy title, Download
the two main tracks and leave it at
that, unless you really do enjoy an
album which all blends into one.
Personally I would rather listen to
Razorlight and think ‘God I hate
these guys’ than listen to something
that I’ve forgotten about as soon as
the song as finished.
3/5
Tom Waits, as his wife and cowriter
Kathleen Brennan once said,
writes grim reapers and grand weepers,
and there are few better at it than
him. On “Orphans” he produced a
three-disc selection of songs both
new and old, arranged into three
categories – ‘Brawlers’, ‘Bawlers’
and ‘Bastards’, the latter being the
stuff that falls between, over and
under the grim reapers and grand
weepers. Recalling Dylan, Howlin’
Wolf, Sinatra, and including a number
of covers ranging from Leadbelly
to the Ramones to the Heigh
Ho song from Snow White, Waits
revisited some familiar ground and
dragged us down some alleyways
we’d never encountered before too.
‘Lie to Me’, opening the collection,
is a feral rockabilly stomp rivalling
The Cramps’ best output, with
Marc Ribot still staking a claim as
one of the best and most versatile
guitarists around today. The muddy
Cuban blues-funk and beat-boxing
which dominated his last album, the
compelling ‘Real Gone’, still packs
a punch here, especially backing
Waits’ first foray into overt political
comment, the incredible protestsong-of-2007,
‘Road to Peace’.
Whereas on previous songs such
as ‘Day After Tomorrow’ he presented
a single soldier’s story, here
he presents all sides at once: “But
Bush is reluctant to risk his future
with the fear of political failure / So
he plays chess at his desk while he
poses for the press / Ten thousand
miles from the road to peace”.
Meanwhile, fans of Waits’ earlier albums
will be easily satisfied by the
‘Bawlers’ disc. ‘Widow’s Grove’
and ‘World Keeps Turning’ are up
there with Waits’ most heart-breaking,
enchanting songs. That a cover
of The Ramones’ ‘Danny Says’
does not seem out of place here
says it all about Waits’ genius. Despite
the categorization of the discs,
each one is well-balanced with a
few misfits to keep listeners on their
toes. For instance, a song like the
wonderful cover of ‘Sea of Love’
could have ended up on any one of
the three CDs, its familiar patterns
twisted and torn out of context to
become something wonderfully
new, holding its own on the ‘Brawlers’
set despite being a careworn
ballad. The ‘Bastards’ set is comprised
of a handful of spoken word
pieces showing off Waits’ story-telling
brilliance, alternately creepy,
touching and funny, alongside some
more out-there covers and musical
experiments such as ‘Dog Door’,
a flirtation with electro-rock. Once
it’s over you might be at a loss as to
which disc to re-listen to next while
you examine the beautiful packaging
of the set, but that’s the only
drawback to the collection. The set
achieves a rare feat, simultaneously
holding the irresistibility of a collectible
for die-hard fans, a brand
new album’s worth of songs which
are as good as anything Waits has
done before, and also being the best
starting point for newcomers to his
music.
Standout Tracks: Lie to Me, Road
to Peace, Sea of Love, Widow’s
Grove, Children’s Story, Redrum
EXTRA student discount at cd-wow.com/thefounder
By Dan Nicholls
Not many of you are aware of this,
but this paper is funded completely
by advertising. Along with the advertising,
various companies offer
us their sponsorship and help in exchange
for us helping them a little
back.
One such business, cd-wow, who
provide us with all our DVDs for
review have kindly set up a web
site specificaly for us students here
at Royal Holloway, University of
London.What’s different about the
web site comparedto their normal
site, I hear you ask? Well, the best
thing about it is having the extra
discount on top of the fantastic prices.
The other thing? The Founder’s
logo displayed next to cd-wow’s on
a web site that is extrememly popular.
Although not particularly professional,
I do have to admit that’s
pretty cool. The web site address is
www.cd-wow.com/thefounder. Do
yourself a favour and check it out
- every student loves a bargain!
We also have Vue Cinema in Staines
sponsoring our Film section. Make
sure you see The Fountain this
weekend, I promise it’s not one to
be missed.