Eye discs: September 27, 1995

The Great Escape

Blur

Parlophone/EMI

Rating: Five eyes

Blur has come of age. The Great Escape is a concept of the world today. A world lost in itself, a confused world that seems to be too much for any individual to handle.

And so the theme emerges, oddly enough, of …Escape. Songs such as “Stereotypes,” “Charmless Man,” “The Universal,” “Ernold Same” and “Globe Alone” evoke the image of a modern-day metropolis of mass civilization swallowing people in repetition, despair and a glut of sameness.

Musically, The Great Escape has moved beyond its predecessor, Parklife. The arrangements stretch to include banjo, mellotron, waltzes and scu-whif keyboards that are uniquely colloquial, and very English.

It’s tea time!

– Jonathan Blackburn

Dear You

Jawbreaker

Geffen

Rating: Four eyes

Jawbreaker’s first major label release is a mix of power pop songs with a dash of fuzzy guitar thrown in for good measure. The trio is led by Blake Schwarzenbach who sounds uncannily like Richard Butler of Love Spit Love and the Psychedelic Furs.

This CD, produced by Rob Cavallo (Green Day, the Muffs, that dog), is not the candy the band is named for and much easier to get into.

I’ve been told that Blake’s voice sounds considerably different on this album than on Jawbreaker’s first three independent releases, due to an operation to remove a benign tumor from his throat in 1992, but that shouldn’t hold you back. Let Jawbreaker infiltrate your consciousness with their ferociously melodic power pop songs.

– Alex Mlynek

Greatest Dance Hits

KC and the Sunshine Band

Curb Records

Rating: Four eyes

Beat me, Daddy! Eight to the bar! Get down!

This collection of disco favourites is sure to turn the cool cats at your next party into towering disco infernos.

“Get Down Tonight” is a super-classic, and you know you can’t go wrong with a song called “Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake your Booty.”

That’s four Shakes, one Booty and a whole lot o’funky.

–Guy Leshinski

Kultura

The Ukrainians

MCA

Rating: Two eyes

Break out the babushkas, it’s time to rock with The Ukrainians!

Kultura is entirely in Ukrainian with lyrics dealing with the new independence of Ukraine, the working class and the democracy of the U.S.A..

But the lyrics lack sophistication and thoughts; so much so that it is funny at times. For example, in “UkrainAmerica” the translated chorus is “Give me MTV UkrainAmerica, ABC 123 UkrainAmerica.” Pretty deep, huh?

Whilte some attempts at an alternative sound are evident, most of the songs are done with a pop/folk emphasis.

Personally, this disc brought back horrible memories of my fat Ukrainian grandmother who constantly shoved perogies and cabbage rolls on my plate at our Uke family Christmas.

– Josh Brown

Seven Mary Three

Self-titled

Attic

Rating: Four eyes

Innovation will not expand Seven Mary Three’s pious home-town following beyond Orlando. What will are their lyrics for love-lorn devotees of Loser culture. The album decries an on-again/off-again relationship. Timid forgiveness incites further torment over a soundtrack of power-pop hooks that have you swaying one moment and thrashing the next. The tear-blurred images ride steep crescendoes of noise that teeter briefly in climax before relenting to soothing melodies.

Seven Mary Three aren’t the first to punctuate quivering vocals with fuzzed-out guitar sounds. They aren’t the first to lace their songs with despondent lyrics and subdued guitar solos, or the first to do much of what is on their debut label release. But music isn’t a race.

– Phillipe Devos