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Album Review
by Eriq Blair
23-7-2002
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| Ed Case's 'Guest List' |
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Round-up : 'Ed Case*Filter*FLC*Ben Kweller'
(Various)
If variety is the spice of life, assume the position!
Ed Case
‘Ed’s Guest List’
(Columbia)
Garage producer Ed Case rounds up his friends, some of them sexy – Saffron of Republica, or ferocious – Skin, ex-Skunk Anansie’s Skin, or notorious – Harvey of So Solid Crew. A mish-mesh of styles and genres that truly come together on ‘Mayhem’ (Skin) and ‘Friends Like These’ (Saffron) when guitars, UK garage and rock vocals really work for a party time. This disc stakes Case’s claim as a producer with a bright future.
8/10
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Filter
‘The Amalgamut’
(Reprise)
The former Nine Inch Nails’ singer, Richard Patrick, has always managed to keep Filter on the outside of the showbiz and that hasn’t changed on ‘The Amalgamut’. An album of four distinct musical corners – the ambient, the semi-balladic, the radio-friendly’s, the rock-outs – and all work like a quatro-looped rollercoaster. The LP is appropriately titled although its end would benefit if it were ‘The Amalga-mute’, due to the concluding 8-minute wanking. Patrick is talented but erratic and that’s why he’ll never be a star to equal his previous employer, Trent Reznor.
7/10
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Fun Lovin’ Criminals
‘Bag Of Hits’
(Chrysalis)
It’s summertime and a ‘Greatest Hits’ compilation comes out?! Isn’t this supposed to happen around mindless-shopping time of Christmas? Additionally, the sad thing is that Fun Lovin’ Criminals are like the late (or did they reform?) The Presidents Of The United States – one-idea band. They exploited it brilliantly on several singles – ‘King Of New York’, ‘Loco’ and ‘Scooby Snacks’, in particular. But guys should know when they are licked, stuck and mailed to history.
6/10
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Ben Kweller
‘Sha Sha’
(679 Recordings)
Ben Kweller is the ex-frontman of Raddish and his ‘Sha Sha’ is another songwriter’s disc; mixing influences of The Beatles, Pavement, XTC and The Lemonheads, it ends up sounding like Weezer and/or Jimmy Eat World. On another think, Kweller reminds me of Stan Ridgeway. Who? Exactly… But, enough already. For whatever obvious reason I’d send people like Kweller to Cuba because this is the music that might make Castro vacate his communist-dictatorship.
5/10
Eriq Blair
23-7-2002
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