BLACK TIDE — LIGHT FROM ABOVE (Interscope): Heavy Metal . . . whether you love it or hate it, you have to admire its resilience as an art form.

Feb 10 2008

by Ken Oxley, Sunday Sun

Although Miami’s Black Tide are a very young band — one of them is still only 14 — they’re incredibly talented musicians, completely steeped in the classic 1980s metal tradition, right down to covering Metallica’s Hit the Lights, while Warriors of Time has more than a flavour of vintage Iron Maiden. All opener Shockwave needs is slightly screechier lead vocals and it could easily be from Motley Crue’s debut album. Signed to Eminem’s label, I’d gamble on Black Tide becoming as big as Slim Shady, especially in America, where this kind of live fast, die young rock has always gone down a storm. RIVERS CUOMO — ALONE: THE HOME RECORDINGS OF RIVERS CUOMO (Geffen): Doing exactly what it says on the cover, this is a collection of home demos from the Weezer mainman, ranging from 1992-2007. Having said that, it’s far from the full story, as the somewhat prolific Cuomo is said to have recorded up to 800 unreleased songs over the years. Included here is the original demo of the multi-million selling Buddy Holly single that first put Weezer on the map. A little more off-the-wall is Cuomo’s distorted, screaming take on Ice Cube’s The Bomb, while Dude, We’re Finally Landing is a one-man barbershop quartet, taken from an abandoned rock opera. The CD comes with a detailed booklet where Cuomo explains how he came to write each song. LAURA MARLING — ALAS, I CANNOT SWIM. (Virgin): It would be wrong to compare Laura Marling to Sinead O’Connor, because their voices are very different, for a start, but there’s definitely something about Alas that reminds me of early Sinead . . . maybe it’s the slightly un-nerving feeling I get from listening to these evocative, haunting songs. Ghosts tells the tale of two lovers, both haunted by “The ghosts that broke my heart before I met you”. It’s a story in a song, something that makes you listen closely, and I can see radio picking up on it in a big way this year. Equally shiver-inducing is Old Stone, filled with imagery of desperate people screaming each other’s names in the pouring rain . . . it’s all very Heathcliff.