Well, here are a few more rock & pop reviews for y'all... I've decided to quit whining about how out of touch I am with the whole rock scene (lucky you!) and also to add reviews of jazz and pop vocals releases here... Just because I can. So... here goes... here are a few new things that have caught my ear in recent days...

This month: The "Beatles", The Commonwealth, Gore Gore Girls, The Lodger, The Pipettes, Sly And The Family Stone, Various Artists "LE POP, v.4"

The Beatles "Love" (Capitol-EMI, 2006)
As a Beatles baby, born and bred, I knew that someday I would have to give in and check this out... A remix album masterminded by Sir George Martin and his son, Giles, this purported to be a mindblowing reimagining of the Beatles catalog, drawing on the original EMI master tapes to create the ultimate Fab Four mash-up mix. There are some clever moments on here, but on the whole it is a profoundly unadventurous record: brightly remastered, mostly very linear, rarely challenging, and packed with facile combinations of beloved Beatles oldies. Compared to brilliant, aggressive reappropriations such as Christian Marclay's long-suppressed turntable manipulations or the infamous Beatles/Jay-Z Gray Album mashup, this is a terribly polite record, made of mere pastiche and a few good parlour tricks, but little real bite. Most of the tracks are more or less straight run-throughs of various golden oldies, with hazily-identifiable fillips of other songs -- guitar tones, string sections, etc -- thrown simply in for the sake of throwing something in and making the songs sound a little bt different. It's all very Little Jack Horner-esque, but not very visionary. Occasionally, it's even quite clumsy: the "Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing" mix is simply embarrassing and the "Blackbird/Yesterday" acoustic guitar segue, while sounding quite lovely, has the feel of a botched ice skating finale: did Michelle Kwan really just stop dead for a split-second before going into that triple-axle? Ouch. The only truly imaginative mix on here is the intertwining of John and George's mystical visions in "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows," and perhaps the underwater version of "Octopus's Garden." Sure, I can understand the need to keep a mainstream project accessible and coherent to the record-buying masses, but did they really have to play it so safe, and make a record that is so ineffably dull? Well, I suppose that one of these decades the copyright laws will finally run out, and some real remixes will be able to see the light of day. I'm looking forward to it, but in the meantime I'm just sorry that George Martin, a man who I greatly admire, missed his shot this time around.

The Commonwealth "The Commonwealth" (Let's Be Quiet, 2007)
As old-fashioned, acid-fried freak-folk continues to gain popularity with the indie-hipoisie, more and more kooky projects like this will float to the surface. Folks who find Sufjan Stephens a bit too tame and coherent will dig the arty, admittedly insufferable, spaced-out songwriting and general over-the-top weirdness of this Kentucky-based experimental folk ensemble. Other than the hilariously louche novelty song, "(Making Out With The) Mirror," this is not very accessible -- not at all -- but part of the price of admission is being able to declare your love of pretentious, indulgent musicmaking. And these folks deliver it by the truckload, indeed, wearing it as a badge of honor: for listeners looking for difficult music that will set them aside from the common herd, the Commonwealth just might be your cup of (licorice?) tea. Although I can appreciate the joke -- Violent Femmes-meets-Borbetomagus-meets-Bridget St. John, or whatever -- I can't really listen to stuff like this recreationally... but I know folks who do. (Self-released, available from the band's website.

The Gore Gore Girls "Grown Ups" (Bloodshot, 2007)
In a pre-Donnas world, garage-gal retro-rock would reference '60s groups such as the Standells and Troggs, along with a liberal dose of roughened-up girl-group riffs... Nowadays, though, the touchpoints are more likely to be '70s-style hard rock and power-pop backbeats -- Cheap Trick, Montrose, maybe even a little Foghat or Sweet. And of course, we can't forget foremothers such as the Schoolgirls, Runaways and Suzi Quatro. These gals cover a lot of familiar territory, with plenty of jailbait-y pouting and lyrical snarls, but they do hit some solid grooves, and do dip back into the fuzz-drenched 'Sixties grab-bag for a tune or two. They're not saying anything new, but sweaty-fisted fans of the style will probably dig it... especially if they crank it up loud.

The Lodger "Grown Ups" (Slumberland, 2007)
Cynical, clever, super-jangly, manically melodic Brit-pop, ala The Wedding Present... This Leeds-based three-piece offers rapid-fire, tightly constructed guitar riffs, unrelentingly up-tempo riffs that batten up all the empty space behind singer-composer Ben Siddall, who has a classic angry-twee/bitter-sensitive delivery. It's all very early-1990s, but as with the music it picks up the torch from, this draws you in with its majestic intent and sharp craftsmanship. It's not quite as exhausting or as caustic as the David Gedge ouvre but it draws from the same wellspring... And if that sounds intriguing to you, you are probably the right person to check this puppy out.

The Pipettes "We Are The Pipettes" (Memphis Industries, 2006)
Girl-group punk, with and electro-disco tinge? And they're from the UK? Golly! Im in...! Yeah, I fell for the hype, including recommendations from in-the-know hipster friends, but I gotta say, the Pipettes' schtick doesn't do much for me... The sound is too dense and the concept is too self-congratulatory, and the lyrics are a bit blunt... Clever, in parts, but not as much of a crank-up-the-volume-and-get-stupid power-pop lovefest as I'd hoped for. The wall-of-sound homage is too dominant, though it doesn't feel as retro as it should -- everything about this record feels planned out and mediated, a modern lark rather than an in-the-moment revel. If I were still doing radio shows, I probably wouldn't play much off this disc -- maybe "Judy," "ABC," or "I Love You," but that's about it. It just isn't that much fun to listen to, and that matters a lot to me. Silly old man.

Sly And The Family Stone "Stand!" (Columbia, 1969/2007)
Wow...! Every time you come back to these old Sly Stone albums, they continue to astound, and this one is certainly a highwater mark, by anyone's standards. There's the sheer ferocious funk of it all -- Sly, bassist Larry Graham, the whole crew -- and the cultural wham-bam of the best goddamn hippie band ever. A lot of people go on and on about how this is the wellspring of modern funk music -- or at least the George Clinton/Bootsy Collins wing of the scene -- and that is true, although it's certainly not the whole picture. One of the things that stands out for me is how thoroughly Sly & Co. embodied and embraced their role as a political-cultural entity, giving voice not just to a nascent multicultural/black power movement, but to the shaggy, hippiedelic Left as well. They sang in the code of the subculture, offering hope, affirmation, paranoia and anger, with a big psychedelic telescope aimed squarely at The Man and The Establishment. This disc is packed with mini-manifestos, girded by a raunchy free-your-mind-and-your-ass-will-follow playfulness that allowed it to survive the tedium of politics in the raw. Part of this disc's greatness is that it carried the drug-scarred, raw-boned politics of the hardcore hippies into the future -- the topical songs on this album didn't date themselves the way that tunes like "For What It's Worth" or "Blowing In The Wind" did... They still penetrate into people's minds because they music is wild and and message is weird... Meanwhile, in musical terms, this is hard to beat. Other than the tedium of "Don't Call Me N----r, Whitey", this is a nonstop funkfest, and some songs, like the fuzzed-out album-side jam of "Sex Machine" still can warp your brain, if you give it a good listen. (Note: the 2007 CD reissue adds four bonus tracks, including singles mixes of "You Can Make It If You Try" and "Stand!" Cool beans.)

Various Artists "LE POP, v.4: LES CHANSONS DE LA NOUVELLE SCENE FRANCAISE" (Le Pop Musik, 2007)
Another fascinating, richly rewarding collection of contemporary French indie/pop. The electro-tinged cool of Dominique A and Francoiz Breut hovers over this set -- Dominique A contributes one song, but the entire album echoes his work, a doleful, syncretic mix of dark cabaret and joyful, sassy rock-pop. Maybe a bit of Marc Almond and '80s synthies in there as well? Naturalment. It all sounds lovely, though after a while, also all rather similar. The one track to break ranks is "Torticolis," a giddy, handclappy powerpop tune by Bernard Lallemant. There are many enticing tracks on here -- by Pierre Lapointe, Vincent Delerm, Jeanne Cherhal and others, but Lallemant is the artist I most want to further check out. As with the previous volumes, this album is a fine guidepost for further exploration of new French pop: you'll be glad you checked it out! (Also, if you like htis disc, you'll want to check out the Tot Ou Tard record label, where many of these gems came from... One of the best French pop labels around!

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