Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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wusc DESK ttnSiSUH ; m83 Before the Dawn Heals Us (Mute) Generally, I do not take the time to lambaste albums. I’d rather spend my time singing praises than decrying faults. Reviewing should be positively-charged instead of geared towards destruction. But never before have I felt such a profound, unavoidable disappointment as that which came with hearing M83’s sophomore album, “Before the Dawn Heals Us.” Indeed, the album title seems to allude to better days ahead, but it is difficult to find a single silver lining surrounding this incredibly tragic folly of a record. It’s truly saddening to witness genius wane before your very ears, but compared with their debut, “Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Ghosts”, this new effort fails on virtually every front. M83’s debut garnered heaps of critical acclaim as one of 2003’s best albums. It even justified the creation of a new genre called “screen-gaze,” which draws from My Bloody Valentine’s relentless waves of sound but incorporates a new electronic/synthesizer-based element. Like My Bloody Valentine’s classic “Loveless,” this French duo’s first batch of songs were as comforting as they were disquieting, like a welcomed punch in the gut. That record truly conjured a virtually unparalleled sense of beauty and wonderment. Swirling synthesizers and ambient guitars evoked the splendor of gazing upon the majestic sight of an untouched glacier. Highly dramatic yet entirely substantial, the music of “Dead Cities” created a highly cinematic landscape through sound. So it is with a great sadness and heavy heart that I declare this new album one of the greatest misfires in indie-rock history. An easy scapegoat would be the addition of organic vocals to nearly every song. In fact, much of the singing sounds like the worst moments of Journey. I assume the group was not comfortable enough with the quality of their instrumentals to leave well-enough alone. Previously, their songs had exuded the power that only the best instrumentals should exhibit — the ability to craft a mood and elicit an emotional response without the use of words to construct meaning. Granted, the decision to employ vocals is the main culprit in this album’s downfall, but to blame that alone would be unfair. The songs on “Before the Dawn Heals Us” are poorly structured, and the album suffers from the same forced, scatterbrained organization. The infuriating stop-start | routine of the track simply denoted by a “*” will drive fans out of their minds. Celestial, quiet, and pensive build-ups and oceanic washes of sound have been replaced with herky-jerky, overly melodramatic song structures that are sadly never as satisfying as they once were. In nearly every song, there are glimpses of brilliance that infuriatingly never fulfill their promise. The key difference between the songs here and on M83’s debut is that the new pieces lack the sheer overwhelming emotion that made “Dead Cities” such a moving album. “Before the Dawn Heals Us” lacks a certain ufibridled emotional punch that it is striving for so diligently. Is this record a sign of creative bankruptcy or just an incredible misstep along the road to greatness? Only another album, the aural equivalent of a written apology, will tell. By Jordan Redmond WUSC MUSIC DIRECTOR » Jamaicans opposed to exhuming Marley ., .mm w PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Bob Marley used his music as a voice for the Jamaican people, especially those living in the Kingston trenchtowns. Marley’s widow wants to move his body from Jamaica to Ethiopia. ■ Reggae icons widow plans to move body to Ethiopia By STEVENSON JACOBS THE.ASSOCIATED PRESS KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaicans reacted angrily Thursday to plans by Bob Marley’s widow to exhume the reggae legend’s remains and rebury them in Ethiopia, an African country holy to Rastafarians, saying it would rob the Caribbean island of its national heritage. The news ignited radio call-in programs and Internet chat rooms in Jamaica and aroun4 the globe, with most people coming down strongly against moving the remains of the singer, who died of cancer in 1981 at age 36. One university professor said such a deed would meet “serious hostility.” “Has Rita lost her mind?” P. Chin wrote in a letter published Thursday in Jamaica’s most widely read newspaper, The Gleaner. “Bob loved Jamaica. He Wouldn’t have made it his home if it were otherwise.” Speaking Wednesday in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, Rita Marley said she was working on bringing her husband’s remains to his “spiritual resting place.” She said the reburial would occur a after February celebrations in Jamaica and Ethiopia marking Bob Marley’s 60th birthday and has the support of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Ethiopian government officials. “We are working on bringing his remains to Ethiopia,” said Rita Marley, a former backup singer for her late husband’s band, The Wailers. “It is part of Bob’s own mission.” The announcement brought immediate controversy and confusion. In Kingston, the Bob Marley Foundation, a charity headed by Rita Marley, denied reports of her statement in Ethiopia, and a spokesman for the family later issued a statement quoting her as saying that Jamaica “will remain the resting place for Bob Marley for the foreseeable future.” A Cuban-born Jamaican citizen who now lives in the West African country of Ghana, Mrs. Marley, 58, has had an uneasy relationship with her adopted Caribbean homeland, where some complain she has exploited her late husband’s image and music for commercial gain. Popular host Cliff Hughes voiced opposition to moving Marley’s body on his nightly show on Jamaica’s Power 106 radio. “The Marley family is going to have to convince me that this is what Bob wanted,” Hughes said Wednesday. “He’s part of Jamaica’s national heritage. With the greatest respect, he belongs to the Marley family, and he belongs to the people of Jamaica.” Born in 1945, Marley grew up in the gritty shantytowns of Kingston and later shot to global stardom with hits like “I Shot the Sheriff” and “No Woman, No Cry.” His poignant lyrics promoting social justice and African unity made him an icon in developing countries. Marley was given a state funeral and buried along with his Gibson guitar and bible in a marble mausoleum at his birthplace of Nine Mile, a rugged hamlet in the green hills of northern Jamaica that’s popular with tourists. A statue of Marley graces the entrance to the national sports stadium in Kingston. Mrs. Marley said her late husband would be reburied in Shashemene, 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of Addis Ababa, where several hundred Rastafarians have lived since they were given land by Ethiopia’s last emperor, Haile Selassie. Rastafarians worshipped Selassie as their living god, a belief based on the prophecy by Jamaican civil rights leader Marcus Garvey that a black man would be crowned king in Africa. A devout Rastafarian, Marley’s lyrics were laden with references to the faith, whose followers preach a oneness with nature, grow their hair uncombed into dreadlocks and smoke marijuana as a sacrament. Rupert Lewis, a political science professor at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, said Marley is a crucial part of Jamaica’s identity and that any attempt to move his remains would be met by “serious hostility” on the island of 2.6 million. “The people would not allow that body to physically leave Jamaica,” said Lewis. “He’s a focal point of the Jamaican identity. What it means to be Jamaican is inherently bound up in Bob Marley.” Others saw no problem with the idea. “She feels he wants to be in Africa? Go ahead,” broadcaster Allen Magnus said during his morning program on radio RJR. “She has the right. It’s her husband.” This isn’t the first time that Rita Marley has created a stir. While promoting her autobiography last year, she was quoted in Britain’s Daily Mirror tabloid as saying that Bob had raped her once. She later said she was misinterpreted, but the remarks angered many of the late singer’s faithful. The latest uproar comes less than a month after Marley’s estate announced plans to lobby the government to make the revered artist a national hero, Jamaica’s highest honor. It begins on the streets. It ends here. Check out the Daily Gamecock starting Tuesday! www.dailygamecock.com