(Warner Brothers)
Coming from almost any other rock artist, an album focused on what's wrong with the music industry would seem hypocritical and pompous. But when it comes from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the result is a reminder of what rock 'n' roll is about, and one of Petty's best albums in years.
Dedicated to \Everyone who loves music just a little bit more than money,"" The Last DJ is Petty's first album since 1999's Echo. DJ starts off with the infinitely catchy title track, acoustically recalling an age when there was no Top 40 radio, and record DJs could play whatever they pleased. ""The top brass don't like him talking so much/And he won't play what they say to play/And he don't want to change what don't need to change,"" croons Petty in a typical three-chord song that has long defined his musical style.
Petty's sound strays a bit from the usual Byrds and Bob Dylan influences. Tracks like ""Money Becomes King,"" ""Dreamville"" and ""Like a Diamond"" have heavy emphasis on strings and some horns, varying from the usual Petty formula. This has mixed results, as songs like ""Money Becomes King"" and ""Like a Diamond"" are among Petty's best, but ""Dreamville"" seems somewhat forced and sappy.
""Joe,"" perhaps the best song on the album, is a direct return to simple rock 'n' roll, with screeching vocals from a sardonic first-person account of a music industry CEO: ""Or bring me a girl/They're always the best/ You put 'em onstage and you watch 'em undress/Some angel whore who can learn a guitar lick/ Hey, that's what I call music.""
The weakest songs are placed in the middle of the album. The two tracks that bog the album down, ""Lost Children"" and ""When a Kid Goes Bad,"" have lyrics that deal with a generation in crisis more so than the rock 'n' roll themes from the majority of the songs. But it is the final songs, such as ""Blue Sunday,"" ""Have Love, Will Travel"" and ""You and Me,"" that remind the listener of Petty's gift as a songwriter.
The reason the album works well is that it has a two-part message, the predominant one being that there is something wrong with the music industry today, and that money has indeed become king. But Petty knows if the whole album was merely a cynical tort, he and the Heartbreakers would be part of the problem rather than a solution. That's why the last half of the album is full of songs about open roads and the promise of an unknown future. Rather than simply complaining about the status quo, he and the band present songs that are as good as any in the Heartbreakers' catalog.
(Interscope)
After quietly, but not too quietly, recording one split EP and two albums, The Queens of the Stone Age are now enjoying some bright light shed unto them. This is due in part to the fact that Dave Grohl returns to the old skins on it, but more so because Songs for the Deaf is a magnificent beast of an album. In the unfamiliar context of grungy-progressive-metal tweaked-overtly Halloween-like alt-rock power, QOTSA thrive like maggots in the dumpster. Sure, the album sometimes delves a little far into the harsh, but it always pulls back to its center, and, as stated before, it is a beast.
The second track and first single, ""No One Knows,"" is quite the smash. The crisp guitar work of singer/guitarist Josh Homme and guitarist Mark Lanegan are optimized on this cut; it disguises how hard the verses are with a chorus that sounds like the ideal soundtrack for a sacrifice. The album continually moves and shakes with lyrics and vibrations sounding like they could be coming from the likes of Bob Mould, Helmet, Black Sabbath, Mr. Bungle and countless others in a bizarre amalgamation that the Queens own. One really can't complain about a 14-track album that is roughly 78.6 percent hard, raw, melodic, rhythmically near-perfect and just plain worth listening to.
