Sparta
Threes
2006
With their third release, Threes, Sparta shows not only striking maturity as a band but ample restraint given previous releases Porcelain and Wiretap Scars. The new record packs familiar sonic ferocity but with a heartily different approach. Vocally, Jim Ward traverses familiar territory but mixes it up with softer fetching harmonies. There are moments on several songs eliciting faint traces of Coldplay (‘Atlas’) and Moby (‘False Start’) yet the band couldn’t be further from those two artists. Ward’s vocals are so strong that they envelop the song itself and the listener, youthful, tragic and worldly.
While Threes is shows more hints of Porcelain, a ragged and melancholic record all its own, the new album is surprisingly more pop – accessible to more listeners without selling out.
The opening lyrics from ‘Untreatable Disease’ sets a mood lyrically, Hope is unborn memories, Hope is knowing this won’t last, an idea that navigates through the final track, ‘Translations’, in which Ward sings of redemption, A branch to hold onto/Make piece with your actions. The feeling of helplessness transcends to the belief that one can stand on their own.
‘False Start’ is quick fire alarm of a song that opens with scratchy, monotone vocals echoing Moby but quickly switches off and turns into an incredibly upbeat and metallic song about a plan awaiting the individual, All that’s left is execution now…We’re waiting for you.
With Threes, Sparta has rendered their own music into something fresh; reeking lyrically of being harangued by moments of mistake and guilt but musically leaves the listener feeling optimistic. The album moves like a wave, moving from paralysis to hope, to acceptance and self reliance.
- Brian Tucker
The Black Crowes
The Lost Crowes
2006
Over the years directors have released different versions of their films that, for the most part, illustrate the evolution or creative process of how art takes shape. An even more fruitful example of that evolution can be found in music. Whereas a film can be altered through editing or narration, music takes a slower, more organic evolution, like a tree rooting its way along your front yard.
With The Lost Crowes, an album targeted mainly at fans but accessible to all, the band showcases several periods of the bands life, one a turbulent time and the other full of creativity and musical freedom. The two disc set (Band and Tall) contains unreleased material in addition to songs that exist in different clothing altogether, some musically slower and others with different lyrics. Whereas Band is essentially unreleased recordings, Tall is a disc of material that was originally recorded for the Amorica sessions in 1993.
Band – compiles songs recorded quickly over three days in 1997 that mark a return to roots flavored rock and roll, lacking the tie-dye aspects of Amorica, and rich with emotion and freedom. ‘If It Ever Stops Raining’ would later become ‘By Your Side’ for a later record. ‘Another Roadside Tragedy’ is a real gem of the set, mixing up high school band tempo drumming with Jimmy Page guitar fingering and brimming with soulful choruses. It’s a funky number that would interlace well on Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Much of the material on this disc is unheard. ‘Wyoming & Me’ hits acoustic melancholy dead on with lyrics You’re beautiful but you’re flawed/You’re desperate but you’re strong/You’re lonely but never alone/You’re empty like Wyoming and me. ‘Never Forget This Song’ stomps around with Sly Stone familiarity while ‘Lifevest’ and ‘Grinnin’ mirror Three Snakes and One Charm. ‘My Heart is Killing Me’ is most beautiful, a mix of ‘Good Friday’ and ‘Girl from a Pawn Shop’ also from Three Snakes. The tracks have a raw, unmastered feel lending to the quick and personal nature of their recording.
Tall – Recorded as a follow up to 1992’s The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, these tracks (and apparently more) were to be for an album to be called Tall, (a Thirties jazz term for being high) would become a blueprint for Amorica. The recording process was fraught with fighting, drink and drugs. One brother would come in at night and record only to have the other enter the studio the next day and erase everything from the night before, each not speaking and erasing each other’s work. But the resulting material for Tall is heavy with the feeling that the band was working towards something wildly different from anything being played at the time. It’s in the subtleties, the layering of different sounds – horns, percussion…. tension often leads to incredible creativity.
What is all the more apparent from these recordings is the unending creativity that stems from the band, and its core, brothers Chris and Rich Robinson, whether temporarily feuding or working in harmony. Often accused of copying, unjustly, their peers, the band is merely a bridge from the past into the present in which music still carries honesty and originality. And presence.
- Brian Tucker
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