Red Hot Chilli Peppers
By the way
With the wear and tear that nearly 20 years of countless member changes, strategically-placed tube socks and enough drugs to kill a yak causes, the music world might have forgiven the Red Hot Chili Peppers for failing to deliver a worthy follow-up to 1999's hugely successful Californication. But By the Way is exactly what you would expect from one of the most talented alternative acts around: a perfect mix of Kiedis' rapid-fire funk, Flea's energetic slap bass and Frusciante's six-string mastery. More melodic and intelligent than ever before, RHCP adds an inspired new chapter to an already impressive career.
Grade: A
--David Walters
DJ Shadow
The Private Press
What made DJ Shadow's landmark 1996 debut Endtroducing... such a mindblowing listen was its sense of cohesion. One track flowed effortlessly into the next until the final beat broke 64 minutes later. Not so on Shadow's new album, The Private Press. Although numerous individual cuts shine, the album lacks the continuity that drove his first offering. The shattering death of "Blood on the Motorway" proves that Shadow hasn't lost the ability to make groundbreaking music, but the altogether goofy and misplaced "Mashin' on the Motorway" shows that he may have forgotten how to make a complete album.
Grade: B
--Greg Veis
David Bowie
Heathen
Don't all rock stars wish they could grow old as gracefully as David Bowie? On his new album Heathen, the 21st of his career, the White Duke manages to sound both mature and entirely fresh at the same time--no small feat if you consider the many late-career offerings from even our best rock heroes. Tracks like the wholly creepy "Sunday" and the extraterrestrial romp "I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship" demonstrate that while Ziggy Stardust may have committed rock and roll suicide years ago, Bowie's sense of artistic invention continues to thrive without him.
Grade: A-
--Greg Veis
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