(Capitol)
***
Review: Russell Baillie
Sounds like the worst thing this New York female trio could do, musically speaking, is get out of town. The first half of the fourth album by an outfit long nicknamed "the Beastie Girls" is great. Like their previous, it's another product of their indie rock/hip-hop bent meeting
memories of the last days of disco.
So we get a run of handclap dancebeats and sunny tunes with sardonic words making for a highly enjoyable beginning. But then, about the time they start bringing in the guest stars like Debbie Harry and Emmylou Harris, it starts to unravel and goes into overtime.
That's rather helped by their efforts at going gospel-ish (Friends, aaah, it undoubtedly went down a treat at Lilith Fair), country-ish (Country's A Callin'), or slow blues-ish (Fly).
But up front, it's one groovy pop confection after another, from the DIY disco of opener Nervous Breakthrough, the sassy funk of Alien Lover and the dreamy electropop of Lady Fingers (featuring Harris). All are helped by LJ's sweetly nonchalant vocal delivery.
Debs gets a Blondie-song-that-isn't-quite (Fantastic Fabulous) which just adds to the forgettable latecomers that rather let that first side down.
Half great.
