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title track closes with Guitar Bob stran
gling bile out ol his screeching strings
All ot this adds up to the Cure
album tans have been wishing lor
since Disintegration, Smith dire in both
capital and lower-case romantic
modes The last ot the Great
Depressives still standing, the Cure's
playing held is leveled lor critical and
popular survey, unclouded by commer
cial baggage
BloodFloms is. granted, one
long, oppressive dirge—and Smith
and company are the only non-hippie
outlit that takes lour and a halt minutes
to get throuyh a verse and chorus—
but it is an untailmqly beautiful one It
may be Robert Smith going out kicking
and screaming, but I wouldn't count on
it There's still the world tour to think
about (1540 Broadway, 27th Floor,
New York, NY 10036)
Mark Emge
DAVE MATTHEWS BAND
Listener Supported
RCA
This double-length album is the
Dave Matthews Band's second attempt
to capitalize on its hallmark live pertor-
mances Whereas the national phe
nomenon's previous eflods drew from
the band's unique soun 4 —refined over
the years through touring and
recording- this la'est ieiease is a real
disappointment
Recorded at Jew Jersey s
Continental Airlines Arena m
September 1999. Listener Supported is
the result ot a show performed after a
month-long hiatus following a lengthy
summer tour The band's exhaustion
shows Nearly every song is performed
at a slower tempo than its originally
recorded version DMB seems unin
spired, gone are the dynamics and
emotion that helped propel the band lo
tame a few years back The music
sounds forced, as it the band members
looked at their set lists that evening
with these 'eanticipation that pre
cedes a visit to the dentist
Ot the 20 tracks on the album,
nearly a third are tunes that the band
regularly performed prior lo its mapr-
label debut, 1994's Under The TaPle
And Dreaming On 'Granny"—a song
Matthews usually enhances with cre
ative, impromptu lyrics—he moans
monotonously at the sing’s end
Similarly, the band predictably trudges
through "Rapunzel" and "Two Step *
The attempt lo mask their boredom
with background singers and the addi
tion ot keyboardist Butch Taylor tails,
and the appearance ol the additional
musicians only makes the songs
sound half-heartedly produced
There are a tew highlights, how
ever Violinist Boyd Tinsley linally gets
to sing his composition 'True
helleclions,- a song he regularly per
formed with the Boyd Tinsley Band
while Matthews worked as a bartender
at a Charlottesville. Va jazz club The
group also admirably tackles the
Johnny Cash classic "Long Black Veil"
Compared lo some ol the older mate
rial on the album, newer songs like
"The Stone* and "Slay* even seem
intense
Few can doubt Matthews' talent as
a songwriter or the musicianship ot his
band—especially drummer Carter
Beautord's immaculate time-keeping
and Tinsley's impressive violin work,
but the band has tired of its own
sound
For years the Dave Matthews Band
pedormed "All Along the Walchtower"
as an encore, and characteristically, the
group does so on this album I'm not
asking Dave and company to drasti
cally change their approach, but
please, try to explore new musical ter
ritory It's just not tun anymore (1540
Broadway New York. NY 10036)
Brian Wingfield
BILLIONAIRE
Ascension
Slash/London
Atlanta quartet Billionaire has set
itself out on a valiant mission to
single-handediy bring back arena rock
On the bands major label debut, it
makes a valiant ettort but tails a bit flat
because it concedes loo much lo what
it apparently considers "modern rock*
standards
Granted, huge-sounding rock and
roll endings like the one on
"Joymaker" have rarely even been
attempted lor the last decade and a halt
(there have maybe been none as
obnoxious as this since "Free Bird"),
bul it seems forced here The
overblown Zeppehn-esque coda to this
track winds up more like Kingdom
Come than Zep. unfortunately
"Someday I'll Leave It Air is indicative
ot another problem concerning the lack
of the big rock chorus While the song
is more Southern-tinged than others
(think ol a watered down "Backwater"
by The Meat Puppets), it shares the
same hole in it as a lot of Billionaire's
other numbers where a knock 'em dead
chorus should be *i Fell From Space"
is Verve Pipe territory, but il would
have been one ot the better songs on
ttie record it it didn't drag on so long
and slowly morph somehow into Third
Eye Blind The band almost gets it right
on the strummy acoustic-based
"Sunny Sunday Afternoon" The
melody is much stronger here and it
raises this to a higher level than a lot ot
the other tunes The standout, though,
is "Rollercoaster * This hard-rocking
cut hints at Cheap Trick (or at least
Enulf’Z'Nutf) and it deserves a once
over by radio programmers This could
breathe some life into the stale one-
dimensional formats ot all the 99Xs in
the world It's simply a good rock song
Lead singer Marc Tompkins' voice
is tailor-made for this merriment
Crossing Gregg Dulli's (Alghan Whigs)
edge with Vince Neil's (Motley CE)
tone and attitude, he manages to mod
ernize without compromise Guitarist
Rick Beato supplies blazing leads over
the tight thunderous rhythm section ol
Walter Busbee and Darren Dodd, but
Billionaire is still not quite there The
band possesses chops to spare arid
plays its collective ass oft. but it
should locus more on inventive song-
writing The band needs to build some
atomic strength into its choruses
before it's worthy to ascend lo the level
of its heroes Billionaire is off to a
good start here, though You know, the
guys in ttie band might even pull oft
making long-haired rock and roll valid
again it they keep it up Good luck to
them (325 8th Ave. 23rd Floor. New
York, NY 10019)
Chris McKay
MUSIC AND DANCE MALI
not satisfied ■■■> r^_o_
with our music.’' ▼
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