PRISONERS OF LOVE
Yo La Tengo
The two-CD version of the new Yo La Tengo compilation, "Prisoners of Love: A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs 1984-2003," is a fine primer for those who don't know this inimitable band's sweet dissonance.
Devoted fans, and the Hoboken, N.J., trio has no other kind, already know that the band is intensively creative, endlessly inventive, truly transcendent. They're the target for the limited-edition version, which adds a disc of rarities compiled by Ira Kaplan (guitar) and wife Georgia Hubley (drums).
Either way, what makes this comp worthy is its range of textures. Few bands can maintain such a solid identity yet thrive on experimentation. Just a smattering of the contents: deadpan indie rock ("Shaker"), country-folk ("Did I Tell You"), crisp pop ("Sugarcube"), electronica ("Autumn Sweater"), hypnotic drone-fueled instrumental ("I Heard You Looking") and tricky jazz (a fervent if overlong cover of Sun Ra's "Nuclear War").
The 16-song bonus disc is home to such previously unreleased gems as the acoustic "Decora" from a 1995 radio appearance; the lounge-lite "Almost True" (with trumpet!); and a country-western rendition of the Cosmic Rays' "Dreaming" as cooed by Hubley. (This Sun Ra we like.) Other high points: A rockin' demo of "Big Day Coming," the acoustic version of "Tom Courtenay" from the "Camp Yo La Tengo" EP, "Autumn Sweater" remixed by Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine and a 1986 cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams."
"The first time we played this song live, it immediately leaped to #1 on the Most-Objected-To Cover by Our Friends chart," Kaplan writes in the liner notes, "meaning it was just a matter of time before we recorded it."
-- Elaine Beebe Lapriore
ORIGIN VOL. 1
The Soundtrack of Our Lives
The downside of making music rooted firmly in the sounds of the past is that even at your best, you end up sounding like someone else. Sweden's Soundtrack of Our Lives has made a career out of replicating the likes of the Who, Pink Floyd, the Stones, the Stooges and many others -- basically bombastic classic rock tinged with mild psychedelia. But the band backs itself into a double dead end with "Origin Vol. 1," its fourth album and major label debut.
Even when the band ably apes the past, it captures it at its most plodding and boring. At least previous TSOOL albums were inspired in their pilfering. "Origin," on the other hand, is shockingly dull, particularly compared with 2002's "Behind the Music," an infectious retro-rock pastiche that not only matched but sometimes bettered the very bands it ripped off.
Here, though, songs like "Bigtime," "Mother One Track Mind" and "Transcendental Suicide" aim for epic greatness and monster riffage but end up either ponderous or stale, or both. On "Heading for a Breakdown," a bold stab at melodic hard rock, TSOOL comes off only as good as the palest B-side moments on the weakest Who albums. And that's the band's problem: As impressive as it may be to produce a winning facsimile of the early '70s, it's a lot more impressive to produce something timeless.
-- Joshua Klein
LEMON LOVE
Aslyn
Today's female pop star seems so willing to play the victim, handing over control of her life to the closest boy around. She's quick to admit that he is her sole source of stability (Ashlee Simpson, "Pieces of Me"), that the mere thought of him makes her unable to breathe (Liz Phair, "Why Can't I?"), or that his multiple personas leave her confused (Avril Lavigne, "Complicated").
In a refreshing change of pace, singer-songwriter Aslyn takes charge of her own emotions on her debut album, "Lemon Love," a collection of up-tempo songs that oozes confidence and self-awareness.
Aslyn combines the gruff texture of Nelly Furtado's voice with Lavigne's melodic attitude -- but with no trace of teenage superficiality. On "Be the Girl," she sings, "I'm not here to be around / And be that girl that you forget about." She remains in charge in "Gotta Get Over You," where she cleverly describes why she's not ready to move on from a relationship.
With training in classical piano, Aslyn plays with an aggressive style that takes more from Billy Joel's repetitive poundings than the airy plinkings of Tori Amos. And while "Lemon Love" is slickly rounded out by a full band, it's Aslyn's keyboard that drives such songs as the the passionate "493-1023" and the bouncy "Rainbow."
-- Catherine P. Lewis
