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Cassidy, Backstreet Boys, Coheed and Cambria and Sigur Ros.

the music press

tue 11/13/2007

Still hustlin'. A collage of Cassidy, Backstreet Boys, Coheed and Cambria and Sigur Ros.

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After some jail time and a car accident, Philadelphia rapper Cassidy returns with his fourth studio album, B.A.R.S.: The Barry Adrian Reese Story. Billboard finds Cassidy “fit and focused with a revised worldview that's not unlike the faith-restoring turn Kanye West took after his own auto mishap.” Rolling Stone loves the R&B hooks and smooth rhymes but predicts B.A.R.S. "probably won't stay in your personal rotation for very long."
The Backstreet Boys are back sans Kevin Richardson with Unbreakable, “the best pop album of the year so far," according to Sputnikmusic. The Onion's A.V. Club thinks otherwise: “Backstreet Boys sound particularly confused,” sounding like Maroon 5 on an album that “lacks both a mission statement and a sense of purpose.”
Prog-rockers Coheed and Cambria, led by vocalist Claudio Sánchez, deliver their fourth release, No World For Tomorrow. Popmatters isn't satisfied: “is not a mature concept album, it’s a science-fiction fantasy.” All Music writes that the album is "simple ear candy for those who haven't studied the band's previous releases, and sweet resolution for those who can spot the references to older songs."
Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros return with Hvarf-Heim, the soundtrack to the documentary Heima. The album is “a beautiful post-rock symphony, topped by singer and guitarist Jonsi Birgisson's simultaneously naïve and profound singing,” according to The Boston Globe. The snobs at Pitchformkedia find the album remarkable, for recasting the band's music “for strings, harmonium and far more tactile instrumentation than the usual bowed electric guitar or thundering percussion.” Tactile instrumentation.