MUSIC ZONE
Saurabh & Gaurav

The Lemonheads — Varshons
(The End)

Lemonheads’ frontman Evan Dando must be credited for tackling an eclectic set of songs and styles for the band’s covers album Varshons. Dando eases himself in gently, starting off with Gram Parsons’ I Just Can’t Take It Anymore. His graceful delivery of this melancholy shuffle, echoing Parsons’ deceptively timid, conversational vocal, is just one more reason to be glad that Dando chose to retreat from the abyss into which Parsons stepped. The adaptation of Green Fuz finds wide spaces within what was originally a noisy garage rock number by Randy Alvey & Green Fuz. The Lemonheads slow the song to a drowsy pace and let the trippy, fuzzy textures gradually unfold. Wire’s Fragile shapes up startlingly beautifully as a typical Dando acoustic country-pop trundle. Midway through, Varshons takes a sharp turn into creepy, fuzz-and-laser-anchored trip-rock and even some dark, fun, danceable electronica, featuring surprisingly fitting cameos from supermodel Kate Moss, Mot`F6rhead’s Lemmy Kilmister and actress Liv Tyler, who lends her angel-whisper croon to Leonard Cohen’s Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye. A couple of late 1960s psychedelic flashbacks also work well in pushing Dando beyond normal comfort zones, allowing for a tabla-framed attempt at Sam Gopal’s Yesterlove and the highly decorative Dandelion Seeds. I Just Can’t Take It Anymore is pretty much what Varshons does best, the dustbowl yearning of the Gram Parsons original, fleshed out into something a little more robust but no less sweet.

Best track: Green Fuz

Worst track: Dirty Robot

Moby’s sound hasn’t really changed dramatically in the decade and three full-lengths albums (not counting remix and compilation records) that separate Wait For Me from his best-selling record, but rather it has become better polished, more obscure and much more playful. The orchestral opener, Division, sets out the album’s stall and by the time Pale Horses, featuring Amelia Zirin Brown on vocals, is over, it’s clear this is going to be a sedate journey. Tracks such as Walk With Me and A Seated Night are reverb-heavy poetic reveries around a whining electro-pulse that would have sat easily on 1999’s brilliantly melancholic Play. The majestic track, reminiscent of the artist’s ambient classic God Moving Over the Face Of The Waters segues into some of Moby’s most somber, yet exciting productions in years. In particular is the leadoff single Shot In The Back Of The Head, another instrumental that marks an audio-visual collaboration with David Lynch and forms a notable collaboration of reversed guitars, raw live drums, muted piano and mellow strumming. The gem is Mistake, with a very drab vocal that somehow works with the moody bounce that fabricates into this regret-fuelled track. Voice samples surround haunting, spiritual tracks, and a healthy dose of instrumentals act as the glue that keeps it all together. Wait For Me has all the ingredients it needs to make an electrically emotional record.

Best track: Mistake

Worst track: Pale Horses Slow Light

Alternative British rockers Placebo are back, shouldering into the fray on their own terms with their new album Battle For The Sun, self-financed for complete artistic freedom in an increasingly frantic and grasping music industry atmosphere. Opener Kitty Litter sets the scene with a prolonged grinding guitar intro. Molko’s distinctive operatic vocals let fly fairly familiar territory as he declares "I need a change of skin." The presence of studio wiz Alan Moulder (who has done legendary work for Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails) and recently hired ace drummer`A0Steve Forrest`A0turns many of the album’s 13 tracks into arena ready anthems. The title track is wonder from start to finish with the repetitive vocals teasing and caressing the percussion fuelled backing, pierced only by the constant throb of guitar until the pace builds into a more determined but equally repetitive rant. Bright Lights, a much lighter Killers-esque tribute works very well here. In the end the spirally electronic guitars provide the lift as Molko talks about "open prisons" and "finding the true and inner me". Although the band includes a song Ashtray Heart which is a salute of sorts to Captain Beefheart, most of Battle for the Sun seems focused on crafting well-honed songs and less on pushing the alternative musical boundaries.

Best track: Battle For The Sun

Worst track: Devil In The Details