By Jesse Cataldo
Bright Eyes – Noise Floor (Rarities and B-Sides, 1998-2005) – Saddle Creek Records
Bright Eyes has already released one bad rarities collection. That was 1998’s A Collection of Songs, which was somewhat excusable considering it had been recorded by Conor Oberst between the ages of 15-17. As sloppy and immature as its mix of lo-fi electronica and basement folk may have been, it nevertheless showed a strong amount of promise for a young artist. His latest effort, on the other hand, is a resounding second strike, a slipshod mix of basement folk and high-end, studio electronica which rattles with the hollow sound of a nearly empty wastebasket being dumped upon our heads.
Noise Floor begins with same lackadaisically artistic found sound that starts off all Bright Eyes albums, and while it would be hard to go downhill from here, things pretty much remain on a level of standard mediocrity, with 15 other sub-album quality tracks popping up along the way. The best explanation for this kind of waste is that Oberst is working in a pattern – after transitioning from the beautiful, rambling mess of Lifted to the painfully forced, faux older and wiser I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning he’s trying to feign aged maturity even further by cleaning out the vaults and dumping the results in our laps. At this rate, it may not be far-fetched to expect a farewell tour by next summer.
Josh Groban – Awake – Reprise Records
Josh Groban’s beautiful voice was found popular and quite surprisingly when he was featured on an episode of Ally McBeal some years ago. While the show has since died, Groban’s talent has not and his popularity has only grown to now include the newest release Awake.
Even though he attempts to spice up the album with a more pop influence on some songs and duets with Ladysmith Balck Mambazo and Herbie Hancock, the duets are the last three tracks on the album and cannot help but feel squeezed in at the last minute. Equally, they do nothing much in terms of raising Groban’s cool factor or perking the listener’s interest more than slightly.
For long-time fans, this newest album is simply another in a long line of music that they have grown to love. However, Groban fails to awaken anyone new (pun intended) by offering the same music he became popular for. Just because Groban’s voice has changed, the polarizing abilities of his glorified easy listening has not and Awaken is still very much “Love him or leave him.”
The Walkmen – Pussy Cats – Record Collection
Pussy Cats is the kind of album that could have only been concieved in a groggy haze of alcohol and good friends, but in this case that’s a good thing, because that’s the only way it could have worked. The album is itself a novel concept – cover albums have been created before, but it’s hard to think of an example where one band did all the covering. The original Pussy Cats, released in 1974, was primarily the work of Harry Nilsson, but it’s the minds and circumstances behind it that have made it such a legendary mess.
During a short separation from Yoko Ono, John Lennon flew out to Los Angeles to stay with Nilsson, a close friend. The two went on a whopping spree of drugs and alcohol, a lost weekend that ended up with them in studio along with two of the world’s most famous drummers, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon. The end result was a mess that’s largely been forgotten.
After recording their last album, A Hundred Miles Off, the Walkmen were evidently in good enough spirits to try their hand at the songs. The album is expectedly raw and disheveled, but it ends up working by the sheer force of not taking itself too seriously. Planning to create a disaster might not be the best way to go about making music, but in this case the result is fun enough to pass muster.


