Word: stereos
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...Apples In Stereo album, Tone Soul Evolution, in your CD player, and the first thing you hear is...Paul McCartney? Of course not, you silly. But it might as well be. The Apples' stock in trade is very, very Beatlesque pop, full of jangling guitars, buzzing George Harrison solos and carefully crafted vocal harmonies. Of course, Apples In Stereo isn't the first (or the last) band to worship shamelessly at the Beatles altar. Oasis, for one, has made a rather nice career by recycling classic Beatles melodies and lyrical themes. But Apples In Stereo takes the game one step...
...only Apples influences. "You Said That Last Night," "Get There Fine" and "Silver Chain" are straight from the school of Pavement. "You Said That Last Night" casually tosses in some surf guitar for good measure. And with the first part of "Silvery Light of a Dream," Apples In Stereo crafts sonic collages unlike anything those Liverpool lads ever made...
...course, no matter what the Beatles sang about, they always sang like they meant it--a statement that the Apples In Stereo can't claim. Clever lyrics are hurt as often as helped from Schneider's laid back attitude. Imagine Lennon and McCartney singing while strung out on acid and mescaline, and you get the idea. Too often, instead of sounding cool, Schneider simply sounds anemic, like his heart beats at about the half the rate of a normal person. When he and his fellow co-vocalists really lay into a song, like the catchy "We'll Come...
...listen to Tone Soul Evolution? The answer, of course, is after you've listened to Revolver for the umpteenth time, once again damned Yoko Ono and Wings and cursed God that the Beatles ever broke up. Oasis, look out. With the release of Tone Soul Evolution, Apples In Stereo has the leg up in the Beatles sound-alike competition...
...Brooks is but one painful example of talent going to waste: it's another case of good actors trying their damnedest with bad lines. Kyra Sedgwick, James Spader, Albert Brooks and Helen Mirren are all fine, subtle performers; here, they are relegated to stale, two-dimensional stereo-types. Lumet may as well have subtitles put in key scenes: "This man is evil, because all he cares about is money. This man is good, because he really cares about making people better...