More heroes than zeros

Carrying on the Beatles' legacy of eclecticism and aesthetic discontinuity. Plus: A Los Lobos album with only one good track on it? It's a sad day indeed.

By Thomas Bartlett

May 5, 2004 | In last week's column I featured Lansing-Dreiden's "Glass Corridor," and apparently so many of you downloaded it that their Web site was overloaded and stopped working. The site is back up, so if you missed the song last week, you can download it now.

"It's Only Time," the Magnetic Fields, from "i"
I've already written about "It's Only Time" in my profile of Stephin Merritt, but I like it so much that I wanted to include it here as well. It's my favorite song he's ever written, and, more important, it's his favorite song he's ever written. For those who usually find Merritt's music heartless, this is him at his most emotional and most vulnerable, even allowing his voice to crack (intentionally, he told me). More from "i": If you want a dose of Merritt at his wittiest, "I Wish I Had an Evil Twin" is great, and has one of those cleverly interlocking, clockwork-like arrangements he's so good at. "I Don't Believe You," "I Don't Really Love You Anymore" and "I Looked All Over Town" are also worth downloading, but otherwise "i" is sadly lackluster, and even boring. No matter: "It's Only Time" is good enough to redeem years of mediocrity -- and it only needs to make up for half a record of it. (RealPlayer)

"Lion Thief," Beta Band, from "Heroes to Zeros"
The Beatles were good in many different ways, but what truly set them apart, for me, was that they were able to take eclecticism, that artistic pestilence, and make it work. Plenty of bands have mined other elements of the Beatles' genius -- the harmonies, the sonic innovations -- and come up with gold. But the Beta Band is one of the few groups I can think of who have managed to follow the Beatles' legacy of eclecticism and aesthetic discontinuity, and make good music out of it. "Heroes to Zeros" is by far the band's best record yet. It's all over the place stylistically, a hyperactive pastiche of the last 50 years of popular music. It works because the band has such a sure hand with arrangements: The album is overloaded with exciting and fascinating sounds, but it's far from an illogical jumble. Instead, each new sound, whether it's a Stevie Wonder clavinet, a George Harrison guitar stab or a plinky Björk harp sound, is held back until exactly the right moment, so that each track unfolds as a series of welcome surprises. The songs are so consistently good that I had a hard time choosing one, but I eventually settled on "Lion Thief" as the one that stands best on its own. But "Heroes to Zeros" is worth hearing from start to finish. (RealPlayer)

Next page: Are albums stuffed with guest vocalists ever a good idea?