| | La Rocca Truth CD La Rocca Discography of CDs
 (2 Customer Reviews)
Irish indie-rockers La Rocca have plenty of great ideas on their debut full-length, but The Truth rarely coheres into a pleasing whole. First single "This Life" kicks off with a propulsive piano-and-synth hook that -- no kidding -- recalls some great old Electric Light Orchestra single or some similar bit of '70s AM pop, but singer Bjorn Baillie's voice strips away much of the tune's charm by the time the first chorus kicks in. Baillie has a perfectly nice voice overall, but his phrasing sounds distressingly influenced by fellow Irishmen Bono and Mike Scott of the Waterboys, as well as Simple Minds' Jim Kerr. This booming singing-to-the-rafters style, as on "Non-Believer" and the Queen-like pomp of the centerpiece ballad "Goodnight," is an odd, somewhat grating match for a band that at its best is closer to the unpretentious pop/rock of, say, Keane. Other songs add an alt-country tinge that blends with Nick Halworth's piano for a sound that suggests a modern rock updating of Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection, which works surprisingly well on the title track and "Eyes While Open." Baillie's irritating vocal tics still get in the way, but on the folky tunes, La Rocca sound more at home. ~ Stewart Mason
Audio Mixer: Tony Hoffer.
Recording information: Sound Factory Studio B, Hollywood, LA.
Photographer: Alex Prager.
La Rocca: Nick Haworth (keyboards); Simon Baillie (bass guitar); Alan Redmond (drums); Bjorn Baillie.
Personnel: Bjorn Baillie (guitar); Stevie Blacke (strings); Nick Haworth (keyboards).
Purchase Truth CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Brendan Benson Lapalco CD (2002)
Truth album
 $9.25   
| | Lucinda Williams Live @ The Fillmore West CDs (2005) Digipak
Truth CD music
$15.09 
Never one to tread the expected path, Lucinda Williams followed her big breakthrough album, CAR WHEELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD, with a pair of low-key records full of sad, quiet, fragile songs (interrupted by the occasional barn-burner). LIVE @ THE FILLMORE concentrates heavily on those latter two releases, unleashing all the intense, burning emotions that lay at their core, making plain ...
| | Brendan Benson Alternative To Love CD (2005)
Truth music CDs
$11.95
Brendan Benson's third full-length album is a bold, retro-minded, instant classic. While Benson's previous outings had lots of bright spots, their touches of cheeky humor possibly obscured their brilliance to those not looking closely ...
| | Jim Noir Tower Of Love CD (2006)
Truth songs
$11.95 
On his debut album, Tower of Love, Jim Noir proves himself to be a first-class mix-and-match master, blending the cheesy drum machines and bubbling synths of indie electronic, the lo-fi guitars and adult-child vocals of indie pop, and the full-bodied and harmony-drenched arrangements of chamber pop into a swirling, soothing, and truly lovely Technicolor pop confection. Noir also proves himself to be an able student of great outsider pop of the '60s, '70s, and 2000s. There are echoes of British eccentrics like XTC, Kevin Ayers, and ELO to be found in the grooves of Tower. There is the pronounced influence of those renowned American nutters, the mid-'70s edition of the Beach Boys and their Love You album. There are comparisons to be made to the anything-goes spirit and sound of contemporary explorers like Super Furry Animals and the Beta Band. Best of all, if you happen to have never heard of any of those bands and just love a good melody played and sung sweetly by a likeable singer, you will love the record just as much as someone who can train-spot all the influences. There really isn't a weak song to be had, and the album flows past like a gentle stream winding its way through a summer meadow. Noir's crack hand at arranging provides many moments of pleasure: ...
| | Las BBC In Session CD (2006) (Import) United Kingdom
Truth album
$11.99
It's quite possible that the La's showcased on BBC in Session is the closest to the ideal sound Lee Mavers had in mind when he sweated over the group's debut. The group is so lean and clean in these 17 radio sessions that their pop sparkles. It sounds genuinely out of time, hearkening back to the golden age of British pop and pointing toward the golden age of Brit-pop, especially when stripped of the lightest production flair Steve Lillywhite imposed on the band's debut. This doesn't necessarily make for a revelation -- there's no change on the arrangement, not even on the funky outtake "Come In Come Out," the tunes are just brought down to the bone -- but that doesn't make BBC Sessions any less valuable for die-hard La's fans: this is the group at their purest, arguably at their best, and it's as addictive ...
| | Ben Kweller CD (2006)
Truth CD music
$10.69
| | Roches CD (1979)
Truth music CDs
$9.09
This is a stunning ...
| | June Of 44 Engine Takes To The Water CD (1995)
Truth songs
$12.95
| | Charley Pride Decade Of CD (2000) Souvenir Edition
Truth album
$19.79
| | Rick Nelson More Songs By Ricky/Rick Is 21 CDs (2001) Import
Truth CD music
$15.55
The third in a series of four CD reissues containing the complete Imperial Records recordings of Rick Nelson combines his fifth and sixth albums with his five singles from the same period, November 1959 to May 1961. The story told here is one of musical exploration, as Nelson's early success as a teen heartthrob who liked to play Sun Records-style rockabilly faded and he began casting around for other approaches to maintain his popularity. After the relatively disappointing performance of a pair of singles, "I Wanna Be Loved" and "Young Emotions," ballads that peaked only in the Top 20, he made More Songs by Ricky, an album that found him attempting to update decades-old standards like "Time After Time" and come up with brass-heavy production numbers in emulation of then-popular Lloyd Price. As annotator James Ritz writes, the best way to appreciate the results is to "take everything he had already done musically and throw it out the window," but even if you do, you are still left with an artist who sounds comfortable only when he gets back to rocking, notably on the Dorsey Burnette composition "Hey Pretty Baby." Amazingly, however, he pulled out of this tailspin, artistically and commercially, with his sixth album, Rick Is 21, on which he developed a new pop/rock sound that contained echoes of his rockabilly past but also made its peace with early-'60s pop, especially on the double-sided hit "Travelin' ...
| | SBS Whatever Sessions Vol. 2 CD (2004) (Import) Australia
Truth music CDs
$27.69
| | Pat Benatar In The Heat Of The Night CD (1979) Remastered
Truth songs
$9.09
| | Cornelius Sensuous CD (2006)
Truth album
$12.85
| | Abstract Round Two CD (2008)
Truth CD music
$17.09
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