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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 14, 2008

WOLF PARADE:
AT MOUNT ZOOMER
(SUB POP) **½

Combine new wave quirks with lo-fi indie rock and you'll get, well, a mess, and not necessarily a hot one. As on loudly praised debut album "Apologies to the Queen Mary" (2005), Wolf Parade misses almost as often as it hits on its sophomore disc.

Tracks such as "Language City" make it easy to believe the hype. Keyboards carry a catchy minor-key melody, the rhythm section keeps things brisk and the quavering vocals don't threaten to wobble over the edge completely.

Elsewhere, self-indulgence takes over. All the parts are there but the band can't be bothered to put them together in any meaningful way. Worse, two prime misfires of this sort, "Soldier's Grin" and "Call It a Ritual," open the album.

Download this: "Language City"

Curtis Ross

CONOR OBERST:
CONOR OBERST
(MERGE) **½

Oberst is best known as the lone permanent member of Bright Eyes, the indie band in which his intensely introspective folk-rock revolutionized the art of shameless navel-gazing and self-flagellation. So, naturally, he needed to go solo.

Ironically, his self-titled disc feels less like musical voyeurism than anything issued under the Bright Eyes banner. Instead of woe-is-me mini-dramas, it's filled with images of parachutes, windowsills and convertibles on the open road.

Among the proclivities he still indulges is an appetite for high-lonesome alt-country twang, and while the disc boasts a few standout tunes - Oberst's expert songcraft has long been his salvation - it's hard to escape the feeling that it's more of the same.

Download this: "Danny Callahan"

Rommie Johnson

BUDDY GUY:
SKIN DEEP
(ZOMBA) ****

If nothing else, Buddy Guy, son of sharecroppers, legend of the blues, believes in truth in advertising.

Within the first 30 seconds of the first song ("Best Damn Fool") of his newly released "Skin Deep," Guy lays down a challenge.

"Nobody loves you like I do," sings the 72-year-old guitar virtuoso, "I'm as good as it gets."

With "Skin Deep" BG delivers on that promise.

Backed by the likes of Eric Clapton, who long idolized Guy, and the husband-wife team of Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, this is an album that answers, at least in the here and now, the question he raises on the song "Who's Gonna Fill Those Shoes," his rocking ode to the gods of blues.

Download this: "Show Me the Money"

Howard Altman

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