2 stars (out of 4)
Kings of Leon have a lot riding on their fifth studio album, “Come Around Sundown” (RCA), a chance to cement their status as the “It” band of the moment, the sexy, drawling, Southern-fried royalty of arena rock.
They are among the increasingly rare rock stars in a world dominated by hip-hop and R&B, with an unbeatable, myth-making back story: The three Followill brothers (bassist Jared, vocalist Caleb, drummer Nathan) who make up the core of the band (along with their guitar-playing cousin Matthew) grew up playing holy-roller boogie while traveling the South with their preacher-father.
The Tennessee quartet took half-a-decade before breaking through to the mainstream, developing a bigger following in Europe on the festival circuit than in the United States. A 2008 album, “Only by the Night,” was the great leap forward, at least commercially, with massive hits in "Sex on Fire", "Use Somebody" and "Notion." Now comes “Come Around Sundown,” which reunites the band with “Only by the Night” producers Angelo Petraglia and Jacquire King.
Continue reading "Album review: Kings of Leon, 'Come Around Sundown'" »
Drake performs at Chicago Theatre. (Photo for the Tribune by Marina Makropoulos)
The 23-year-old, Toronto-born TV-star-turned rapper Aubrey Drake Graham just has to walk onstage to rev up his lady-killer mojo.
At the screamfest that broke out Wednesday at the sold-out Chicago Theatre in the first of two concerts, Drake flexed the muscular posture, the sunglasses and the three-day facial hair of a guy who’s never hurting for female companionship. But on his recent debut album, “Thank Me Later,” he juxtaposes his boasts with anxiety, a regular guy wondering just what he’d gotten himself into, whether the love he feels is genuine, whether his chosen path is just a soul-sapping charade.
It all makes for one of the most intriguing new voices in hip-hop, a talent who in the last two years has collaborated with or written for artists ranging from Jay-Z and Kanye West to Alicia Keys and Mary J. Blige. What they crave is not just a piece of his charisma, but also his knack for combining pop hooks, psychodramatic combativeness, lip-smacking playfulness and unexpectedly dark introspection.
Continue reading "Concert review: Drake at the Chicago Theatre" »
(Photo courtesy of D'Andre Michael)
Though there’s a certain glamour that comes with a two-decade career that has produced eight multimillion-selling albums and earned nine Grammy Awards, Mary J. Blige lays it on the line when she sings. She’s the same way when she converses in an interview. No matter how many records she’s sold, one senses that her humbling, often troubled upbringing in Yonkers, New York, is never far from the surface.
In an interview before beginning a tour that brings her to the Chicago Theatre on Sunday, the singer discussed her latest album, “Stronger With Each Tear” (Geffen), and her upcoming starring role in a Nina Simone movie.
Q: The song “I Can See in Color” is you at your best. It was originally written for the movie “Precious” and it sure sounds like you connected with that character’s struggle.
A: I did. Precious was depressed, going through a lot of strife and it made me go back to my own life when I was going through my own depression. I wasn’t able to see how beautiful the roses were or how beautiful the sunny day was. You can’t see anything. You’re walking through life in black and white. Precious was going through so much. Her mom hated her, she hated herself, she was ashamed for having a kid by her mother’s boyfriend. She got to the point where you don’t want to see anything. That’s where I got the song title. Precious says to her mom, “I see who you are now,” and she finally was able to let go of everyone holding her back.
Continue reading "Mary J. Blige interview: 'You take your life experience and you purge it' " »
Solomon Burke, the robust, regal preacher-turned-singer who defined soul music in the ‘60s and continued to perform and minister for decades afterward, died Sunday in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
Burke died on a plane after arriving on a flight from Los Angeles, airport police said. Burke's family said on his Web site the singer died of natural causes, but did not elaborate. He had been scheduled to perform a show Tuesday in an Amsterdam church converted into a concert hall.
It would have been a fitting finale for a singer who was born 70 years ago in a room above a Philadelphia church “to the sounds of horns and bass drums" from the United Praying Band (some sources claim he was born in 1936, four years earlier, but Burke said in a 2002 interview that he was born in 1940). He seemed fated to join the church, and he became a preacher and hosted a gospel radio show. By the early ‘60s, his immense talent led to a deal with Atlantic Records, where he began a fruitful partnership with songwriter-producer Bert Berns.
He recorded a string of classic soul sides, including "Cry to Me," "Got to Get You Off My Mind," "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" and "Down in the Valley." His sound was a bold merger of orchestrated sophistication and countryish, down-home grit, and his best singles built a Gothic sense of drama and heartbreak (a guide to Burke's essential recordings HERE).
Continue reading "Solomon Burke dead at 70; 'the king of rock and soul'" »