On Tuesday, new releases are scheduled to hit stores from Kinks frontman Ray Davies, the Mountain Goats, the Raveonettes, and the Seattle-based group the Hands. Here's a look at each.
Ray Davies, "Working Man's Cafe" (New West Records)
Ray Davies needs to stop.
Best known as the lead singer and songwriter for the Kinks, a British Invasion band that scored hits with "You Really Got Me" and "Lola," Davies falls flat on his latest solo album, "Working Man's Cafe."
Now, I'll ignore the fact that Davies, basically a lifelong musician, is hardly a blue-collar guy. But still, the album ends up a stale set, with lyrics that ask, "Why is it difficult to get things done in the age of computers and communication?"
Often, it's hard to tell where Davies stands, or if he even feels bothered at all. Does he dislike globalization, one topic he broaches? I can't tell. Does he think it's a bad thing he bought a pair of designer jeans where a man used to sell fruit? Hard to say.
A middling record with a roots-rock sound, the album suffers even more when compared with Davies' past triumphs. Kinks songs like "A Well Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" had biting social commentary. This is toothless.
Just once on this new album, Davies hits the nail on the head. During "You're Asking Me," he sings, "If you're asking me, don't take my advice." Fair enough.
The Mountain Goats, "Heretic Pride" (4AD)
The Mountain Goats' "Heretic Pride," has a glorious sense of apocalypse to it.
Take "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," the album's best song. John Darnielle sings that he "woke up afraid of my own shadow, like genuinely afraid. Headed for the pawnshop to buy myself a switchblade. Some day something's coming from way out beyond the stars to kill us while we stand here. It'll store our brains in mason jars."
Darnielle's intricate and engaging lyrics deserve attention. Better still, he delivers the lines with an often-appropriate furor, his nasal whine leaving traces of spittle on your face.
The group's sound, a meaty sort of folk rock, punches out the electric moments while deploying strings and organs on more down-tempo songs, including the creepily attractive "Michael Myers Resplendent" and the piano-sprinkled "How to Embrace a Swamp Creature."
The album's odd subject matter, on display in those titles, helps give "Heretic Pride" the flavor of a crazed, street-side sermon -- uplifting, unusual and able to win over converts.
The Raveonettes, "Lust Lust Lust" (Vice Records)
On "Lust Lust Lust," the Raveonettes prove that being bad generally sounds good.
Singing about passion, obsession and sugar, the Danish duo deliver their usual reverb-heavy surf rock, playing music that sounds like 1960s pop strained through dirty velvet.
At times, the near-constant distortion gets old, particularly on the overlong album opener, "Aly, Walk With Me." But during "Hallucinations" and the catchy throwback "You Want the Candy," that same sonic fuzz gives a welcome darkness to otherwise shiny pop songs.
Those atmospherics make the album work, as the group grinds through retro love songs that sound dirty, frightened, tired and confused -- like actual love, or lust, can be.
The Hands, "The Hands" (Selector Sound)
The Hands' self-titled debut sounds like an album the Rolling Stones shelved after putting out "Exile on Main Street." That is, it sounds old but good.
The tightly wound collection of 12 songs has a dirty bluster to it, and singer John Healy, screaming about a need to "get right out of here," serves as an able Mick Jagger mimic.
The group revels in its garage rock, going so far as to meld lines from "Bring It On Home to Me" onto the album's closer, "Knife." It's no shock the Hands' version of that classic ends up sounding more like the Animals than the Sam Cooke original.
The Hands don't serve up anything too original, but when you're listening to songs such as the rebellious "Praying Hands Will Make Fists (Or Be Chopped Off)," it's hard to care.
Reporter Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or e-mail arathbun@heraldnet.com.
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