From out of nowhere, this album crept in and stole the show. It's a trio from the UK that fuses samplers and galvanized rock 'n' roll the way it should be. But this year, there were a handful of intelligent musical delights, one being Jill Scott. Besides having an outstanding voice, Ms. Scott also possesses the ability to write soothing, truthful, beat-type lyrics. But the man who sounds like a depressed Beck can't help but sound down.
Daisies is the calm reflection after the storm, though.
It's a slow waltz made softer with cotton-candy pop sensibilities. That's what singer Maynard James Keenan says about his two projects, Tool and A Perfect Circle. But while Tool was the band that helped Keenan become a cult figure, A Perfect Circle is the group he should have always been in. Korn doing a Cure tribute album. This is an alt.country record, after all, as striking and foreboding as a harvest sunset.