Never News: Music

Morningwood - Self-Titled

Self-Titled
Capitol

When a lead singer can channel equal parts of Corin Tucker/Joan Jett/Karen O and Jenny Lewis/Beth Orton/Liz Phair, you know that they'll be an immense asset to a band.

Which, considering that Morningwood's other players aren't contributing much more than the afore mentioned Ms. Jett's Blackhearts or, even, at a stretch, Daft Punk, is a good thing.

Mostly I picked this album up after hearing a track or two off of it and seeing a series of articles in which the frontwoman (Chantel Claret) is featured in beautiful photos; she's a looker, alright and, while usually I hate comparing one artist to another for these reviews, that's the strong suit of Morningwood—Claret, as both face and voice of the band.

She goes equal parts Phair and Jack White on the disco-pop track 'Jetsetter', Joan Jett on the album opener 'Nü Rock', but never once do the band do anything as remotely flexible as she; both songs (even if 'Jetsetter' is more disco than rock) have the same types of hooks—the most stand-out of the tracks is 'Body 21', in which we start out crooning (again, Claret) to post-goth (Manson style) in the space of three and a half minutes. Meh.

All the songs on the album are fun pop-rock tracks that you'll, no doubt, get stuck in your head if you listen to it enough times—the problem is getting the motivation to listen to it more than a couple times; it may be good background rock for, say, Entourage, but definitely not a summer soundtrack—especially seeing as how Yeah Yeah Yeah's, Saves the Day, and Free Diamonds have albums out this summer; I'd be hard pressed to say that this album would be even a fall or winter soundtrack for me; even if albums are few and far between, it doesn't exactly mean you'll listen to whatever the fuck you can.

Buy it if you like poppy beats and chicks rocking the mic, but don't buy it if you want something clear, well versed, or even well-written.

posted by Colin Reed Moon @ 1:51 PM