Flak Magazine: Gold Teeth and a Curse for this Town: Tracks 16-21, 01-10-02

"Lure and Cast" coos and sighs just right, a key part of ex-Spinane Rebecca Gates' mission to make her Ruby Series EP a lover's record. The blipping laptop beat, layered and echoed phase-guitar strums, ringing vibraphone and wheezing organ that open the song mark this is as mood music, like a soundtrack for a film.

Appropriately enough, the gauzily obtuse lyrics seem to be describing a pair of lovers playing roles, since "the effervesce is scripted and rated." There's a communication breakdown when the man she addresses buttons up and pays no mind to "the lines that fly out of (her) mouth," but the spark, the attraction remains. The song serves both as plea for and paean to the innate connection between lovers, the place beyond words, where "the hands you lay are oddly enchanted."

On the other hand, Gates' words mostly serve to conjure that loving feeling, as do the smooth sounds with which they're mated. By the time her husky voice fades out, begging, "C'mon, c'mon, tonight was gonna be ours," she's summoned "the sleepy high and the red rose rise" as surely as Al Green or Marvin Gaye ever did.
(— Wayne Lewis)

17. "Look ...no Fingerprints!" | Solex
Low Kick and Hard Bop | (Matador) | 2:21

The third album from Solex, a.k.a. Elisabeth Esselink, comes packed with a quirky brand of pop that would have come in real handy back when electronic music was supposed to be the next big thing. Solex is perhaps the most artistically successful and accessible proponent of cut-and-paste collage, building her songs with re-created samples of found sounds and lyrics culled from English-language media Esselink consumes at her Amsterdam digs.

But for all Solex's modern methodology, listeners to Low Kick and Hard Bop — in particular such songs as "Honey (Amsterdam is not L.A.)" and "Look ...no Fingerprints!" — can't help but be whisked away to a bygone era of bowler-and-fishnet-clad hotties rolling their hips to Bob Fosse dance routines. And even though such trappings already have launched a million Gap ads, Esselink makes it sound fresh, vibrant and vital.

The opening lines of "Look ...no Fingerprints!" do little to dispel such images, with Esselink sing-shouting "He replaced his hat/ and rubbed his hands like that," just before laying down the beat, a wonderful mix of dub bass lines, analog synth and smartly smacked cymbals.

The song's 20-second bridge, during which Esselink sexily coos, "I don't think he had a subtle bone in his body" over cymbals and an incidental electronic purr, is a world all its own, an intimate backstage cocktail chat with the star of "Solex: The Musical." Never mind most of the song's lyrics tell the story of a 15-year-old boxer's first knockout ("The knockee was/ his brother Jean/ only thirteen"); musical theater never sounded this good. (— Eric Wittmershaus)

18. "Anything You Want" | Spoon
Girls Can Tell | (Merge) | 2:16

Bad things often happen to good bands who sign to major labels, and the script is rote enough to be cliché. It begins with indie buzz and heartfelt promises from a hip A&R exec. It ends with rock 'n' roll hopefuls treated as unprofitable red-haired stepchildren to some megacorp, discarded and disillusioned.

Well, redhead Britt Daniel went through the ringer at Elektra, and this year bounced to Superchunk's Merge imprint and led a retooled Spoon on Girls Can Tell, a wonderful pop-rock album that while distinctive bears shades of early Elvis Costello.

"Anything You Want" is a great song in the middle of a disc full of great songs. The track opens with a playful organ riff played against a driving beat and resounding piano chords, mixed in with the portentous sound of a plane taking off. At once bouncy and bittersweet, the song recounts love turning to separation, ground down by the routine and compromise of daily life. The promise of the title is elaborated in the song's opening lyric as an entreaty, representing either a faint hope or a sad-sack delusion of the narrator, left to "drink (his) half of the beer."

Simply put, everything's working here: the spacious feel of the arrangement, Daniel's tired rasp tinged with a faux-Brit accent and the affectionate, detailed closing line, breathlessly crammed into two measures: "'Cause you know you're the one and that that hasn't changed/ since you were nineteen and still in school waiting on a light on the corner by the Sound Exchange." If only we could all rebound so confidently from life's disappointments. (— Wayne Lewis)

19. "Time Bomb" | Dismemberment Plan
Change | (deSoto) | 4:26

Change, the Dismemberment Plan's fourth album, is largely disappointing with the significant exception of "Time Bomb." Easily the best song the D.C. outfit has ever recorded, "Time Bomb" is hip-hop one-upsmanship for the literary crowd. Detailing why he is to be feared, singer Travis Morrison compares himself to: a time bomb, a poison, a land mine, a tar pit, a tripwire and a fault line.

Each mode of destruction is further enhanced by a slightly distorted guitar that pulls the tension tighter and tighter until Morrison utters, "Ticking away the years 'til I blow your world apart." The beat then takes its place with the high hat flopping open repeatedly, keyboards seeping into the right channel, but still, beneath all of this, the guitar continues buzzing. It feels like the sound is driving Morrison crazy, a la the tell-tale heart, eliciting this bravado.

The whole song is astounding with one caveat. When the Dismemberment Plan started playing this song live two or three years ago, the lyrics would inventory all these weapons until the last verse. At that point, when Morrison's voice and the guitar where the only instruments left, he unveiled what was to be considered the most dangerous weaponry of all — a love song. It was cheesy and over the top, but it revealed a weakness that the album's version unfortunately does not. Despite that one mistake, the song's essential. (— Yancey Strickler)

20. "Sunflower" | Low
Things We Lost in the Fire | (Kranky) | 4:39

Often dubbed "Slow" for its brand of plodding rock for those with patience, Low kicked off 2001 with one of the most beautifully brooding albums of the year, Things We Lost in the Fire.

Kick-off track "Sunflower" bursts into bloom with a stutter-start of guitars, while the conflicting sounds of the steady guitar and drums against the urgent violin layer this equally lulling and soaring dirge. But the intertwining vocals of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker pull all the sounds together.

The line "When they found your body, giant X's on your eyes..." is so elegantly executed, it's a far cry from the dramatic high school poetry that may have been home to such words. Parker's powerful backing lilt adds texture and sincerity to the sparse lyrics, making for the balmiest, tension-fraught 4-plus minutes of the year. (— Lavina Lee)

21. "Communist Love Song" | Soltero
Science Will Figure You Out | (Kentuckyland) | 3:22

In a track from the debut full-length of his brainchild, Soltero, Boston's Tim Howard sings,

I tried to always be nice,
but that didn't work,
so I tried being clever.

This essentially sums up the makings of a man who knows what to do with loneliness, an acoustic guitar and a penchant for combining the two.

Turning around a heartfelt play on communism and love, "Communist Love Song" begins with, "It was well-conceived in theory, but it doesn't work in life" — a tongue-in-cheek sentiment that seems quite applicable both to love and to communism — and crescendos to the romantic vow,

If you're ever less than certain,
I will be your Iron Curtain
I will be your Berlin Wall
and I will never fall.

The delivery is so inflected, one might be persuaded to believe such a red promise.

Howard also sings, "A comrade has to wonder, is it ever worth the effort?" If it means penning simple and sincere songs such as this one, then yes. Keep strumming, Soltero. (— Lavina Lee)

You can send an e-mail to Nicholas Coleman, Stephanie Kuenn, Lavina Lee, Wayne Lewis, Yancey Strickler, Aaron Tassano, Eric Wittmershaus or David Zahl by clicking on their names in this paragraph.