I can’t tell you how much I looked forward to this album. I’m a big fan of Kid Rock and I think he’s gotten better and better for each album since day one, with the possible exception of the last album. Perhaps I should’ve been alarmed when I couldn’t tell if the previous album was better than the one before it. Has Kid Rock peaked?

I think the trend has been quite clear. Kid Rock is leaving rap behind in favor for country, ballads and rock. It was noticeable on ‘Cocky’ where Kid perhaps did his finest blend of rap and rock to date. Nu-metal dudes, don’t bother this is so much better and so much more unique. With ‘Kid Rock’ there was only one or two songs that he even rapped on at all. Fine, songs were still pretty good, but today I’m not really as excited about it as I was when it was released. ‘Rock n roll Jesus’ takes it one step further. The rap is pretty much gone and the rock stands with one foot in the coffin.

The worst part is that the album is filled with gospel crap. ‘Amen’ is perhaps the worst song Kid ever done. It’s always a bad sign when rockers start getting religious. ‘All summer long’ with the incorporated ‘Sweet home Alabama’ is good for one chorus, by the second I’m tired of it. Two slightly Cocky-smelling tracks - ‘Sugar’ and ‘So hott’ - tries to save the day, but there’s too much gospel, smooch and sweets to save it by then. If Kid Rock is Jesus then I must be the Devil. He’s too old to Kid and Rock.

According to some Sheik Yerbouti (”shake your booty”) is Frank Zappa’s best work. It’s a four side vinyl (meaning double LP) for those of you who still have class enough to listen to this superior format, but I’m sure it’s available on CD or MP3 as well.

‘Sheik Yerbouti’ is an odd piece, not surprisingly since it’s a Zappa record. When listening to it as regular background music you might get confused on where one song ends and the other begins. Most songs is using some sort of live recording as backbone and have later had things added, been cut or chopped up by Zappa. Almost the entire album feels satirical and almost every group in this world is target of Zappas humor, from gays to jews. I love it.

Everything from Zappa guitar masturbation to soft pop ‘Bobby Brown’ (huge hit here in Sweden) to great rock art in ‘Jones crusher’ is present. It’s a very odd selection of songs, and sometimes ‘Sheik Yerbouti’ seem more like a ‘best of’ collection, but it’s not, it’s just a great collection of all kinds of songs from one helluva mother of invention.

Frank Zappa has to have been one of the busiest composers in the world. Probably among the most innovative as well. ‘Jazz from hell’ is an all out instrumental recording that won a Grammy 1988 for best rock instrumental performance.

This album was almost entirely created with the help of a now ancient system called Synclavier. In the heydays - priced at close to half a million dollars - the Synclavier was a high-end sampler and synthesizer. Zappa obviously loved this thing and managed to squeeze out quite a few interesting sounds from it. In true Zappa manner there are a lot of odd sounds coming and going everywhere and you’re not entirely sure about what’s actually going on in the songs. If you want to hear Zappa shredding guitar then you should look elsewhere. With the exception of ‘St. Etienne’ this album is guitar-shred-free.

I kind of miss Franks taboo lyrics and strange do wop influence, but ‘Jazz from hell’ is an OK album. It’s odd, sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard and has a lot of fun sounds. It’s definitely not easy to listen to, catchy or pop. Just some odd shit that you like sometimes and want to throw out the window at other times.

So you’re thinking “what’s with this guy and soundtracks?” I stand with my last statement that soundtracks in their own suckish nature sucks. In Can’s case I made an exception and acknowledged that soundtracks can indeed be good. This time it’s up to Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez to tell me I’m wrong.

They’re not really up for the task however. Starting with Planet terror, there are indeed some music in their that can pass on a home stereo. The main titles is really cool stuff, ‘You belong to me’ and ‘The grindhouse blues’ pass as well. Most of the other tracks aren’t really songs but more like… background music for a movie. Weird huh?

Continuing with Death proof. I’m of the opinion that everybody likes Tarantino’s music picks for his movies. Some tracks, like a ton from Pulp fiction, work outside of the movies while others don’t. The soundtrack for Death proof is mainly of the latter kind. Hearing T-Rex ‘Jeepster’ puts a smile on my face, while hearing Pacific gas & electric doing possibly the worst version I’ve ever heard of any Stagger Lee song makes me scratch my head wondering why Tarantino didn’t give Professor Longhair, Jerry Lee Lewis or [insert name] another listen. The Coasters ‘Down in Mexico’ - kickass. Overall there are some interesting 50’s-60’s - or at least pre 80’s - stuff in here for people like me, but it’s all a little too pretty.

As far as covers done by wonder children go, I’m usually not impressed. Jamie Cullum is an extremely talanted piano played and he’s also extremely written about in the music press. This record with old time jazz favourits in a pop presentation did not come off as something I would appreciate when I first heard about it.

But I was luckily, not wrong, but at least corrected. This is a really good quality production, no suprise there, but it also has personality and something that felt new and not done a million times before. I’ve given the cd to my father to balance up his usually very tacky choice of music and I loves it. I like it, but I wouldn’t exactly kill for it.

I’m interested in what Jamie keeps on creating. Theese tracks now have a few years on their neck and he’s still young, still making music. Maybe, it’ll end in greatness.

I was partly right. The first single released from this album is the grand, symphonic “Soul on fire” and it’s both rock-ish and space-ish. There are, however, a lot more punk than I had expected and a touch of the really old school rock’n'roll, you know, like they did it in the fifties. In the tracks “I gotta fire” and “Yeah Yeah” I can hear a touch of Bob Dylan at his best. These influences makes a humongous difference. Some tracks like “Baby I’m just a fool” gets boring, at their best (no you’re not just a fool- you’re lame as well!), but this can be overseen when the rest is great.

When Nick Cave cut down on members from his Bad Seeds and formed Grinderman people said it was a step back to early rock & roll and blues. I say they’re wrong.

OK, so perhaps there’s some sort of naive youthful energy reminiscent of early rock & roll, but to me you’re kind of missing the point if you narrow Grinderman to something from the past. Let’s examine this. First off, it’s Nick bloody Cave. What? You don’t get my point? Nick won’t do ‘basic rock & roll’. Secondly, it doesn’t seem like the other members are there to do it either.

At first and 21st listen not all songs seem that good, actually some could even be considered poor. At 22nd listen almost all songs could be considered a slap in the face… In a good way! Perhaps except for ‘Go tell the women’ which I just find too damn long and boring and the song ‘Grinderman’. The latter passes sometimes depending on the mood. Highlights include without a doubt ‘Electric alice’, which I kind of wish I’d recorded myself, ‘Depth charge ethel’ and ‘Honey bee’, but most songs are cool the 22nd time. Now go Youtube them and find some killer TV performances then buy the album.

This is some sort of monster or ghost song. I’m a sucker for these kind of things. I have over 40 Alice Cooper records, everything Rob and White Zombie ever released, and psychobilly with a touch of living dead is always nice. Now, this isn’t musically really like any of these but it sort of gave me the same vibes.

‘Love crimes’ is beat oriented with some lo-fi grit and distorted chorus synths and/or guitars. It doesn’t hit right on the mark but I’ll probably check out their (or his) upcoming EP. The heavy riffing in the break gets two monster thumbs up.

‘Love crimes’ MP3

Dark Disco Club website