Review: Let Freedom Sing! Music of the Civil Rights Movement

CD Reviews

The Cinematics

A Strange Education | TVT

By MIKAEL WOOD | October 27, 2008

3.0 Stars

Despite the title of their debut album, it’s unlikely that there was anything particularly strange about the Cinematics’ education. To judge by the terse, tuneful post-punk rave-ups collected here, frontman Scott Rinning and his Glasgow-based mates studied the same Joy Division and Echo & the Bunnymen records as everyone else in their current neo-new-wave cohort; throughout Education they pay precise tribute to those pioneers’ gloomy guitar haze and swoony desperation. What keeps them from receding into pure form is Rinning’s voice, an agile instrument that occasionally shimmers with the romantic fervor that earned Jeff Buckley the adulation of those who saw him perform in tiny East Village cafés. But these guys have no interest in playing tiny East Village dives; in their cover of Beck’s “Sunday Sun,” Ramsay Miller’s Edge-esque guitars shoot arena-goth sparks, and the throbbing disco beat in “Rise & Fall” practically demands a big-club remix treatment. At their most distinctive, the Cinematics achieve a degree of emotional engagement uncommon in their field.

The Cinematics | Axis, 13 Lansdowne Street, Boston | March 11 | 617.931.2000

Review: Rudo y Cursi
In 2001, Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna teamed up in Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también , and that exuberant coming-of-age romp suggested that Mexican cinema might be the next New Wave.
Review: Have Nots, Serf City U.S.A.
Poverty sucks, but buying stuff is awesome, so I have mixed feelings about capitalism.
The New Alibis | Hard Promises
Stick around any scene long enough and after a while everyone's been in a band with everyone else.
Various Artists | Love Train: The Sound Of Philadelphia
It took Detroit’s Motown and Memphis’s Stax to pave the way for the Philadelphia International Records of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.
OZZY OSBOURNE
Anyone who’s ever sat through one those Ozzy solo sets that leads up to a big Black Sabbath climax at an Ozzfest will appreciate the logic of this all-covers disc.
Review: DJ Hero
Shortly after DJ Hero ’s release, a couple of craiglist ads popped up from gamers claiming they’ll plug in and play the game at your party for $75 — all you have to provide is the TV and the speakers.
Review: Let Freedom Sing! Music of the Civil Rights Movement
In any given Black History Month, the three-disc Let Freedom Sing: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement would be a powerful anthology.
Rock n' Roll saves the day
One way to keep dry, academic art theorizing from getting too, well, dry and academic is to inject some rock and roll.
Thinking person’s metal
Jerky’s Bar continues its hot streak of delivering quality live acts spanning all genres, and next weekend the hardcore metalheads will descend upon Richmond Street for a fistful of metalcore bands, including the much-anticipated return of former Killswitch Engage/Seemless frontman Jesse Leach.
The Flaming Lips | Embryonic
If new albums by Super Furry Animals, 50 Foot Wave, and the Flaming Lips are any indication, 2009 is smack in the middle of a new psychedelic age.
Adrian Soiza and Dani Umpi | Dramatica
Uruguay, a small nation often shadowed by neighbors Argentina and Brazil, is home to a thriving music scene that has produced some of the best performers and composers of the "southern cone" of South America.
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music, More

Comments

Add a Comment

Today's Event Picks

[WORDS] Live Bait: "Stories of Death, Near-Death and Survival"

Plus 1 more >>

ARTICLES BY MIKAEL WOOD

ANNIE | DON'T STOP | November 17, 2009
Things have gotten pretty crowded in the electro-pop demi-monde since Annie released her indie-hit debut, Anniemal , back in 2004.

JACKSON 5 | I WANT YOU BACK! UNRELEASED MASTERS | November 10, 2009
If you’ve ever wondered how great it might be to hear a slowed-down version of “ABC” that lacks all the youthful charm of the original, this set of previously unreleased Jackson 5 recordings is for you.

PINK MARTINI | SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS | October 30, 2009
The members of Portland’s Pink Martini have covered plenty of well-known songs in their decade and a half together, like “Que Sera, Sera” on their 1997 debut, and the theme from I Dream of Jeannie in their early live shows.

ERIN MCKEOWN | HUNDREDS OF LIONS | October 21, 2009
This local folkie has spent the past few years sifting through the ample riches of the Great American Songbook, first on 2006’s excellent Sing You Sinners , then on Lafayette , a spirited follow-up taped live at Joe’s Pub in New York.

BARONESS | BLUE RECORD | October 14, 2009
For a band of ultra-prosaic album titlers, Baroness are big thinkers when it comes to their music.

See all articles by: MIKAEL WOOD

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

GREG EPSTEIN, ATHEIST SUPERSTAR
Once an intellectual taboo, atheism has become one of the great growth industries of the third millennium.

PHOTOS: GROSS THANKSGIVING FOOD TO AVOID
Thanksgiving is a time for gorging on food and hanging out with family, but really it's mostly about the food. There are some dishes that take it too far, however, and we are here to help you steer clear of those.

10 MEMORABLE MOMENTS FROM MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an unapologetic, cross-promotional cheese-fest. But whether you love or hate it, you have to admit that its giant balloons are nearly as synonymous with the holiday feast as turkey, cranberries, and indigestion.

REVIEW: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
Chris Weitz comes on board to direct Twilight ’s hotly awaited sequel, New Moon , but the second bite doesn’t sate quite like the first. Bella (Kristen Stewart) celebrates her 18th birthday with vampire boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson); when she gets a paper cut at the party.

WE'RE KILLING THE OCEANS
I meet world-renowned undersea photojournalist Brian Skerry at Legal Seafoods, across from the New England Aquarium, where he's the explorer in residence. He orders a chicken Caesar salad.

GREG EPSTEIN, ATHEIST SUPERSTAR
Once an intellectual taboo, atheism has become one of the great growth industries of the third millennium.

WE'RE KILLING THE OCEANS
I meet world-renowned undersea photojournalist Brian Skerry at Legal Seafoods, across from the New England Aquarium, where he's the explorer in residence. He orders a chicken Caesar salad.

COAKLEY TAKES A STAND
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley this week separated herself from the gang of essentially like-minded candidates seeking to fill Senator Ted Kennedy's Washington seat by rejecting the US House of Representatives compromise that traded approval of a health-care-reform bill for greater restrictions to abortion access. Good for Coakley.

GLENN BECK'S UNHINGED SWEATER SAGA
Hello, America. A special Glenn Beck Program tonight: I'm speaking to you from somewhere in the North Pole, and let me tell you [adopts cartoonish yokel voice with rubbery exaggerated shiver] it is coooooooold up here.

CLASSIC ROCK?
If you're looking for meaning in the overly sanitized myth that is our national Thanksgiving celebration, a good place to start is southeastern Massachusetts, where nearly 400 years ago that band of hungry, ill-prepared religious zealots tried to colonize the middle of nowhere at the start of winter.

HOT TOPICS

Danger Mouse , Cat Power , AL East Division , David Hoose , Kurt Weill , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Boston Red Sox , Claude Debussy , Trent Reznor , Craig Smith

CD Reviews

The Cinematics

Swollen Members | Armed to the Teeth

Them Crooked Vultures | Them Crooked Vultures

Annie | Don't Stop

Pink Martini | Splendor in the Grass

The Raveonettes | In and Out of Control