CD Reviews: Dark Dark Dark, The Wu-Tang Clan and more

Tribe After Tribe

“MOAB: Stories From Deuteronomy”

Rodeostar

2/5 Stars

South African band Tribe After Tribe will appeal to a very specific niche – after all, they’ve been intermittingly releasing albums since the mid-‘80s. Somebody must like this stuff.

Purveyors of a kind of thinking man’s metal, Tribe After Tribe has a message it wants to get across. Subtlety is not in this band’s vocabulary.

“M.O.A.B.” is a concept album using passages from the Bible’s book of Deuteronomy as context for the ills of today. A haunting female voice sporadically pops up to read verses from the book, and there are plenty of spooky, meandering interludes. It’s simultaneously a sprawling and an exhausting album.

The world music filter the band runs most of their songs through helps keep things moderately interesting and lead singer Robbi Robb’s voice is a pleasant Bono/Peter Gabriel hybrid, but “M.O.A.B.” requires the kind of dedication that only the most rabid of fanboys could muster.

— Dusty Somers/The Daily

Dennis Wilson

“Pacific Ocean Blue: 30th Anniversary Edition”

Legacy Recordings

4.5/5 stars

The brief life of Dennis Wilson, drummer for the Beach Boys, was marred by tragedy, from his unwitting connection to Charles Manson to his alcohol-related drowning at age 39. Perpetually in the shadow of older brother Brian, Dennis didn’t get the kind of recognition he deserved during his lifetime.

Now, 30 years after the release of his first and only solo album, “Pacific Ocean Blue” – the first solo attempt by any member of The Beach Boys – is getting the deluxe treatment It’s a potent reminder of the talent Wilson never fully capitalized on.

The two-disc set contains a remastered version of “Pacific Ocean Blue,” an album with impressive range. Wilson’s pop sensibility is undeniable on the infectious title track, but he’s clearly comfortable exploring the darker corners of his psyche and distilling those areas into song.

The second disc contains tracks from Wilson’s planned follow-up, “Bambu.” The album was never released.

The early death of Wilson was a tragedy – one listen to “Pacific Ocean Blue” and you can’t help but wonder what could’ve been.

— Dusty Somers/The Daily

Dark Dark Dark

“The Snow Magic”

Supply and Demand Music

3.5/5 stars

For a band that consists only of an accordion, banjo, cello and double bass, Dark Dark Dark is just a tiny bit too ordinary.

“The Snow Magic” is a darkly baroque chamber pop album on its good songs, and just mediocre indie quirk on its bad ones. Fortunately, the good outweigh the bad, making for a promising debut from this quartet with one foot in the past and one somewhere between the present and the future.

The songwriting could carry a little more bite, but vocalists Nona Marie Invie and Marshall LaCount’s peculiar harmonies are nice. Even if it’s not quite as revolutionary as you might hope, “The Snow Magic” still delivers.

— Dusty Somers/The Daily

The Wu-Tang Clan

“Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan”

Sony Legacy

5/5 stars

For those of you who know The Wu-Tang Clan only from the “Chappelle’s Show’s” infamous skit in which a group of old white people awkwardly chant “Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothin’ to f@$k with!” this album is a great way to aquaint yourself to the most prolific, rawest and commercially successful hip-hop group of all time. You will also discover that The Wu-Tang Clan is indeed nothing with which to f@$k.

For die-hard fans, this album may seem redundant (it’s a greatest hits record), but if you lack one or more of Wu-Tang’s greatest hits, I highly recommend picking this up. Wu-Tang earned its place in the hip-hop canon by consistently releasing gritty, innovative albums. Every song on this album is a piece of that legacy. Each time you hear Old Dirty Bastard’s grizzly voice or the classic piano sample in the song “CREAM,” an angel gets its wings. “Wu: The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan” is scheduled for a Nov. 18 release in conjunction with a DVD documentary of the same name.

— Tyler Branson/The Daily