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4AD (USA) ( July 21, 1998 ), Genre: Rock & Pop

Epic (USA)

Having Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as your record producers is roughly the equivalent of having musical life insurance. In addition to the pair's outstanding work together in the Latin Playboys, Froom has produced Crowded House and Suzanne Vega, to name two, while Blake has mixed or engineered seminal groups from the BoDeans to the Bangles. That said, the danger in hooking up with such a studio-savvy pair is the sheer force of their dominance, and unless an artist has real vision, the star of the show will inevitably be the ensuing sonics, not the songs. While fledgling pop combo Phantom Planet write breezy, accessible, jangly, upbeat songs that only occasionally speak to darker themes (the mildly cynical "Turn Smile Shift Repeat" and wistful "One Ray of Sunlight"), The Guest feels maddeningly measured, as if every chiming guitar part were scripted and directed for maximum sheen. In other words, it's toothless. If a band can't stretch in the presence of Froom and Blake, when can they? --Kim Hughes

PHANTOM PLANET The Guest (2002 US Limited Edition 2-CD set comprising of the 12-track album including California Lonely Day and Anthem plus a BONUS 3-track CD including The Guest plus live versions of Do The Panic and California.

Kranky

Audio Mixer: Tchad Blake.Recording information: Fairfax Recordings; Prairie Sun, Cotati, CA; The Cave, San Clemente, CA.Photographer: Samantha West.Delta Spirit scaled themselves back from five to four members before entering the studio to record their second album, History from Below, but the band doesn't sound any less powerful or expansive for losing a guitar player. If anything, History from Below sounds bigger and more ambitious, in terms of both the production and the performances; Delta Spirit (is that the name of a band or an airline?) have refined the melodies which weave together country and blues influences while letting the guitars speak louder, with a pop tunefulness that's leavened by smartly layered guitar work. Listen to the undertow of guitar noise that builds into a thundering storm on "Salt in the Wound, " or the sheets of feedback and percussion that ebb and flow through "White Table, " and it's clear Delta Spirit learned a lot about what to do with the studio in the two years that separated

Having Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as your record producers is roughly the equivalent of having musical life insurance. In addition to the pair's outstanding work together in the Latin Playboys, Froom has produced Crowded House and Suzanne Vega, to name two, while Blake has mixed or engineered seminal groups from the BoDeans to the Bangles. That said, the danger in hooking up with such a studio-savvy pair is the sheer force of their dominance, and unless an artist has real vision, the star of the show will inevitably be the ensuing sonics, not the songs. While fledgling pop combo Phantom Planet write breezy, accessible, jangly, upbeat songs that only occasionally speak to darker themes (the mildly cynical "Turn Smile Shift Repeat" and wistful "One Ray of Sunlight"), The Guest feels maddeningly measured, as if every chiming guitar part were scripted and directed for maximum sheen. In other words, it's toothless. If a band can't stretch in the presence of Froom and Blake, when can they? --Kim Hughes

Audio Mixer: Tchad Blake.Photographer: John Peets.Retreating from the hazy Danger Mouse-fueled pot dream of Attack & Release, the Black Keys headed down to the legendary Muscle Shoals, recording their third album on their own and dubbing it Brothers. The studio, not to mention the artwork patterned after such disregarded Chess psychedelic-era relics as This Is Howlin' Wolf's New Album, are good indications that the tough blues band of the Black Keys earliest records is back, but the group hasn't forgotten what they've learned in their inwardly psychedelic mid-period. Brothers still can get mighty trippy -- the swirling chintzy organ that circles "The Only One, " the Baroque harpsichord flair of "Too Afraid to Love You" -- but the album is built with blood and dirt, so its wilder moments remain gritty without being earthbound. Sonically, that scuffed-up spaciness -- the open air created by the fuzz guitars and phasing, analog keyboards, and cavernous drums -- is considerably appealing, but the Black Keys' ace i

Capitol/EMI Records ( May 23, 2000 ), Genre: Rock & Pop

A&M (USA)