It's music rage, which is like road rage, only more righteous. When you get road rage, a tiny part of you knows you're being a jerk, but when you get music rage, you're carrying out the will of God, and God wants these people dead.
~Nick Hornby
I've just got too many albums and not enough time to go through all of them to give them the full review and whatnot they deserve, sooooo how bout a bunch of shorter ones to catch up.
Artist: Local Natives
Album: Gorilla Manner
Rating: 9.5
Best Tracks: Airplanes, Wide Eyes, World News
Listen if you like: U2, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Band of Horses, New Pornographers (minus Neko Case)
Local Natives is a fan-freaking-tastic rock album. Ridiculously good drums mix with great vocals and solid guitar to form one of the best albums from the year. Guitar is weirdly reminiscent of The Edge on earlier U2 albums--check out Wild Eyes for more on that. World News is a fantastic track.
Artist: Caribou
Album: Swim
Rating: 8
Best Tracks: Kaili
Listen if you like: Weird prog rock techno. Think Prodigy meets The Ma
rs Volta meets Cursive meets Sasha/Xpnder.
This is a bizarre but awesome album that was dominating my ears for about a week and a half. If you dig prog rock, especially prog rock heavy on the keyboards and warping, hit this up. Very listenable if you're in the right mood for it but it lost a bit for me on the replayability--I listed for about 10 days and then I was done with it. I think I'll probably come back to it but for right now it is on the shelf.
Artist: The National
Album: High Violet
Rating: 9
Best Tracks: Afraid of Anyone
Listen if you like: The National. Just do it.
It is a superb album but... when your expectations are Boxer.... you are going to fall short of that. Boxer is one my all time favorite albums. Fake Empire is a top 5 song. High Violet is a great album, but I've been tempering my expectations for this album since Boxer invaded my brain and I still somehow felt letdown. That being said, if I didn't know Boxer and compare this album against it, I would love it--and I do love it but it's just... WHI I want Boxer Pt 2.
And the best for last...
Artist: Metric
Album: Fantasies
Rating: 10
Best Tracks: Sick Muse, Gimme Sympathy, Gold Guns Girls, Help I'm Alive really everything
Listen if you like: Muse playing Dance Rock
Everything about this album is fantastic. It has top notch tracks from front to back. It has multiple Dangerous Driving Songs. It is a perfect album, in my opinion. I can listen to it over and over and over and not get tired of it. Gimme Sympathy is a perfect pop song-- seriously, perfect--it has a ridiculous hook, it has a phenomenal refrain and... just listen to it.
So it's been a while since my last post--but fear not as I've got a giant store of music that I've been a total slacker about posting on. There should be a solid number of reviews going up in the next week or two, so, hold on tight.
To start it off, The New Pornographers return with a set of tracks that just falls right in line with their last three or four albums. It feels like these are songs they wrote during Challengers, and just never got around to putting them out--which is a good thing if you liked Challengers (which I did)--and a kind of ho-hum thing if you didn't.
The album houses all the signature New Pron sounds--multi-track, man-woman/woman-woman/ man-man harmonies, tambourines, classical beats (Challengers had a Fugue. Together doesn't have anything THAT classical), some classical instruments and excellent, simple guitar and drums fills. Overall, the album is just solid, front to back, and there's really no songs on it that I find myself forwarding through--which is kind of a feat. There are definitely tracks that are better than others, but, I mean, fucking duh.
Neko Case remains at top form. She continues on her last four year track record and pumps out A+ music. Her vocals remain strong and her country-twang is tempered a bit by the other members of the group, which isn't really a good or bad thing, it just kind of... is? Her vocals are elevated by the harmonies in the songs she sings lead vocals on and she adds depth and tambour in those tracks where she provide the harmony.
Overall, the album is a Solid A- to me. The one "failing", if you can call it that, is that there's no iconic song for me on the album. There's no Bleeding Heart Show. There's no, My Rights vs. Yours. And I can live with that--the album is solid front to back, but if there were an iconic song, it would really elevate it to a high A album. There's not a lot of innovation here and there's nothing "new" to the New Pornographers, but I'd rather buy an album and have it be them showing everyone how good they are at doing the thing they come together to do than them going out to left field and doing something totally different.
Album: Together
Artist: The New Pornographers
Rating: 9.2
Best Tracks: Moves, Crash Years, Sweet Talk - Sweet Talk, If You Can't See My Mirrors, We End Up Together, Up In The Dark
Listen if you like: New Pornographers, harmony, Canadian Rock, Pop, Rock
I'm not sure the word, "disappointment" conveys the level to which Ted Leo has been a musical let down over the last 4 albums. Wait--I do know. It doesn't. The Tyranny of Distance was an amazing album. Heats of Oak was really good. At some point he stopped writing really good songs and started writing political anthems--only, no one was listening and everyone was there wondering when the next, Great Communicator, Timorous Me or Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead, was coming.
Shake the Sheets offered a glimpse at that greatness--and i think that is probably his second best album to date. It's a solid A-. It gets political in a lot of places, but it just drives with the guitar and is a Dangerous Driving Song. Living with the Living was, in my opinion, a giant let down. Yes, you hate Bush. I get it. We all get it. Most of us agree with you. Now write a song that isn't political in nature--or maybe one where the point of the song isn't the political message. You've got a soap-box to stand on and you want to use it--and that's great--but the fundamental question here is, are you a musician or a political activist? If you're a musician, hey, great, i'll give you my ten bucks every two years and go see you in concert (unless Ted is playing without the band. I've seen him 6 or 7 times, twice without the rest of the band. I'm set on that. For life.) But if you're a political activist, I'm solid with saving my money and giving it to a cause that does direct political activism.
I said the same thing when the last album came out, but then I listened to Tyranny again and went, oh man, that is just a top 5 album for me. It is solid, front to back. The worst song on there is a B. And so i plunk down my ten bucks and buy the album and proceed to go, What did you do with all that promise?!
That brings us to Brutalist Bricks.
The haiku review is: Promise Unfulfilled I tire of reggae punk shit Where's Tyranny at?
Maybe that's a bit rough, but, seriously the album sounds like someone was listening to Brit wall-of-sound pop, reggae and the Ramones and went, I-I can combine them! Yeah, PASS.
There are some songs worth listening to, but overall, i was pretty down on this album. Maybe it's my expectations. I"m kind of the same way with Weezer. The Blue Album was just out of this world--another Top 5'er--and really everything else has been down hill. Maybe it's the JD Salinger syndrome. He published a few things--short stories and novellas-- after Catcher in the Rye, but was well out of the public eye and never put out a book like Catcher again. Put in more modern terms, Salinger pulled a George Costanza--he makes the one funny joke and then claps his hands together and says, I'm out! and leaves, so everyone thinks, Wow, that George--he's a funny guy!
Obviously, making an album as good as Tyranny isn't a one and done joke, but, you get my drift. Perhaps i am so hard on TL/Rx because they started out on top of the mountain. It's hard to top standing on the summit.
Fundamentally, my issue with Brutalist Bricks is that it doesn't summit. It doesn't have a 4th gear, let along a 5th. It feels scattered and like he's trying to make a conscious move away from the politics of the last few albums, only, he doesn't know where to go exactly, soooooo he just meanders around.
Much like that last sentence.
Anyway.
Where Was My Brain and The Stick sounds like a revamped Ramones song, but less anger and screaming. One Polaroid A Day sounds like a Flight of the Concords parody of a mid-90's Brit song. Ted drops his voice into a faux-Barry White a la Jermaine and the music is soporific. Mourning In America is bad dance-rock. The Mighty Sparrow is somewhere between the revamped Ramones sound and the bad mid-90's brit pop. The best songs are also scattered but if you ignore the openings, they really work. No joke, I've cut off the first 20 odd seconds for both Ativan Eyes and Bottled In Cork they sound 1000x better. Ativan eyes is a solid rock song, and pulls itself together after a rocky opening. Bottled in Cork... The song starts off as another faux-mones song then does a complete (and seriously, i mean complete) cord, beat and tone change and becomes a late 60's brit pop song but with a better guitar solo. The song reverts to "eh"-ness with a minute long fade out of an oft-repeated call and answer of, Tell the bar-tender / I think I'm falling in love. For a minute. Really? No other lyrics on that one? Nothing? Couldn't come up with a basic rhyme? Couldn't just change the song again? When you cut 45 seconds off a 3:18 song, it gets pretty short.
Overall, if you saw this in a used rack, i'd grab it. It isn't worth buying new. There are some good songs on it, but not enough to justify the ten bucks I paid for it. Sorry--but for ten bucks, there needs to be 5 songs i want to keep listening to, or 3 that are going to own my ears for the next few weeks. This album faded into the background after the fifth or sixth listen.
Album: The Brutalist Bricks
Artist: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
Rating: 6.5
Best Tracks:Ativan Eyes and Bottled In Cork
Listen if you like: Scattered albums, punk-ish, Ted Leo, brit-pop
It’s Canuklestani Day here at Musical Junta!I know, I know, calm down.Okay, no more sugar for you.I’ve got a doubleshot here, with Sam Roberts’ latest and Jason Collett’s penultimate.I bought these two albums about 6 minutes apart and listened to them together and so it really only makes sense that I’m going to review them together.The sounds are similar.The music really works together.And, to be frank, they’re both really good.
Hardly a secret north of the border, Sam Roberts, or Sam Roberts Band, are rather unknown in the states. A few folks know about his poppy southern rock sound, but, no where near enough. And part of the problem is that he is a Canuklestani who plays what I can only describe as poppy Southern rock—but isn’t really in the alt-country vein and it doesn’t cross over into the stoner jam band genre either.Acoustic guitars mix with electric brothers mix with a keyboard and tambourine.Mixed with some French.Sometimes.Look, their Canadian.
Love at the End of the World is the band’s third full album and they are not trying to reinvent themselves on the album—and it sounds great.They’ve just been working on and improving their sound.The guitar work is top notch and the music is inviting and foot-tappingly good. Detroit ’67 will either have you singing along or tapping your foot after the second or third listen.Heavy piano and bouncy notes immediately plop you into tune.It also doesn’t hurt that one of the early lines is, “past the abattoir, past the glory holes.”That is a feat of song writing right there!Putting abattoir and glory hole in the same song is impressive.Doing it in the same sentence in a song is pretty freaking awesome.As a friend of mine said, what’s really impressive is putting both those things in the same architectural structure.
But that’s another review.Hopefully, one I’ll never write.
The album is full of great song—5 five star songs by my count.There are another 3 four star songs.Check out, Love at the End of the World, Stripmall Religion, Oh Maria, Fixed to Run, Them Kids, Detroit ’67, End of the Empire and Words & Fire. Yeah, that’s a long list. When was the last time you had eight solid tracks off a single album?I got it for five bucks off Amazon.That is value right there.The disc is fun, it is totally approachable pop and it is perfect windows-down, stereo-cranked-up, driving music.
Love at the End of the Worldalso one two Juno awards—the Canadian Grammy’s—for Artist of the Year and Best Rock Album of the Year.It was the band’s second time winning Artist of the Year (their 2004 We Were Born in a Flame previously won.Also, check that out.)They remain somehow able to not be plastered all over the radio here, but I’m not sure how much longer that will last.
Even better is the album is about 2 years old at this point, which means their next effort should be right around the corner and that you can find this disc in reseller bins at local brick and mortars.
Jason Collett is probably better known for his work in Broken Social Scene but I prefer his solo stuff.Idols of Exile is a soft(ish), thoughtful album that shows shades of The Decembrists, Wilco, John Vanderslice and Iron & Wine.The mixture of the traditionally more “country” instruments—violin/fiddle, piano, banjo, lap steel—with the more traditionally pop/rock instruments—electric guitar, synth keyboard, boom boom drums-- really works and sets a relaxed mood with the album.While there are a number of songs that are doomed to serve as background noise for when I just want something playing, there are a couple songs that are really standout, great tracks.
The album is not complex, musically, and it is better for it.I’ve heard that the toughest thing to write is a good simple story, song or poem.These are good, simple songs.Songs will layer up, with piano matching fiddle matching lap steel or something else eventually, but for the most part these songs remain basic and they’re better for it.The style and feel of the alt-country songs would be lost if they had tried to mix in more tracks or overlay more sound.
The album is at its best when Collett is duet-ing, if that is a term.Don’t let the, at times, simple instrumentation cause you to think the album is boring.Hangover Days is probably the best track on the album and it is a stark, simple song that Works.The stripped down instrumentation just lets the vocals dominate and do their thing and the song is better for it.We All Lose One Another is another instrumentally simple song with luscious harmonies and short stints of duet.
The lack of complexity just Works.If you’re looking for a good, quiet alt-country-ish album, pick it up.
Maybe it’s because I was listening to this in the spring or maybe it is because I was listening to it with the Sam Roberts album, but It really sounds like two sides of the same album.Sam Roberts was the bouncy, high energy Side A and Jason Collett was the more thoughtful, quieter Side B.I love when albums line up like that.It raises them both, in my estimation, which is kind of bizarre because while both artists are Canadian and have a bit of that country twang… aaaandthe similarities really end right around there.
Dig the albums. Overall, Sam Roberts' third is a stronger offering, though.
Album: Love at the End of the World
Artist: Sam Roberts (band)
Rating: 8.3
Best Tracks: Love at the End of the World, Stripmall Religion, Oh Maria, Fixed to Run, Them Kids, Detroit ’67, End of the Empire and Words & Fire
Listen if you like: Great rock, classic rock, a country twang in your rock, Foot-tappingly good songs
Album: Idols of Exile
Artist: Jason Collett (solo)
Rating: 6.9
Best Tracks: Hangover Days, We All Lose One Another
Listen if you like: Alt-Country, softer music, duets, simple songs.
This month, I rekindle my love affair with alt-country and dive-bar-easy-listening with albums from Jason Collett and Sam Roberts. Likely, there will be two albums from Jason Collett as he just released a new one 20 odd days ago.
Let's get this out of the way-- I read Pitchfork every now and then and if I'm on the fence on an album, i will give their review a read. Sometimes the reviews are useful, sometimes they're just sucking on the teet of absolutely terribly hipster shit-pie sometimes they get that shit-pie and they cover it in music nerd rage and they throw it at people because they are either not good enough or not indie enough or they "sold out"--which, is just a useless term these days. When TV shows have Music Directors who troll new releases and ad agencies gather up rights to songs (See Cadillac and Phoenix's 1901 for a recent example) I stop caring about the "cred" of the band or the reviewer. Ultimately, music is about one question: IS IT GOOD?
How you define "good" can be personal and it can evolve and change over time--my definition certainly has--but if you decimate an album or artist before you even hear a note, then piss off. You're no longer interested in the music; you're interested in making A Point.
Yawn.
Owl City, aka Adam Young, is a solo project that does sound an awful lot like someone in their late teens or early twenties sat in their room late at night listening to the Postal Service's A++ album Give Up and said, huh... ya know, i bet i could make something that sounds like that. And then maybe they sat down and did that because they were insomniacs and it was pretty good and it got the attention of some other people who also liked Give Up (did i mention it was a ridiculously well selling album and is probably 80% of the reason Death Cab For Cuties is on a major label?). And then, wow, it's like, right after that this insomniac kid got some money from those people at a label and he got some people around him who were also musicians and then they put their music into a recording software and the label released and it sold. For money. Which is weird because, oh wait, that is what happened.
How anyone can fault the kid for hearing some musician and wanting to sound like them is beyond me. How many kids listened to House of the Holy and went, Fuck yeah, I'm gonna play rock'n'roll! Did anyone listen to The White Album and go, I'm gonna make some fucked up awesome music too! Did that happen? I can't remember. It's hard to hear through all the blues-rock and every indie "Beatle's Break-off Band" darling E6-style shit-bomb band that cropped up because of those two albums. My apologies to the "purists"--apparently the synth-pop mine is closed to all but the initiated, for lo, the hallowed grounds are not fit for mere mortals to tread upon.
Gimme a break.
I started off talking about Pitchfork because they gave this album a 0.0 rating and railed against it like they album broke into their home and pooped in the shrine dedicated to the Vivian Girls relentlessly-mediocre-yet-lauded debut. Their reasoning? Owl's City's Ocean Eyes sounds like music from The Man. It's what they WANT you to like, brah. They turned that guy from Dntel, ya know, whatever his name is cuz i don't listen to his D+ solo stuff, into commercial "beats". And the vocals? They're all faux-Gibbard. They're Fauggard. There's even a male/female duet in there. Fuckin trash, man. You wanna go put some weed on my dad's amex?
Eat me.
Yes it's major label. The album isn't amazing, but it is quite good and very listenable. It does have high and low notes. If you liked Give Up, it is worth the 5 bucks on Amazon.
Good songs are Meteor Shower and On The Wings. Fireflies works for me too, but less so. There's a whole range of kind of second tier songs that are okay and just over the hump of not making me reach for my iphone to change the song when they come up, but if I'm already clicking through songs, I'll click through them as well. The Cave In and HelloSeattle are prime examples.
And I'm fine with that--look, the kid is young, he hasn't been a musician for terribly long and the fact that he made an album that has three or four really solid tracks on it should be lauded not harangued. It is a superbly rare and gifted artist who is any good before 25. That he turned insomnia into music--and presumably some money--is a good thing.
Unless you're a douche. In which case, who cares what you think anyway?
Album: Ocean Eyes
Artist: Owl City Rating: 6.5
Best Tracks: Meteor Shower, On the Wings
Listen if you like: Synthpop, Panic at the Disco, Postal Service, Dntel
The Temper Trap is an Aussie band who got the attention of some folks in the US and UK--notably Jim Abbiss, who’s list of A++ debut albums include Sneaker Pimps awesome triphop explosionBecoming X, Arctic MonkeysWhatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not,Ladytron'sWitching Hour,The Editors post-punk The Back Room,andAdele'skinda slow/sappy for me, but still pretty good,19 -- and put out a superb pop album. It isn't going to revolutionize pop music or make you sit up and go, What have I been missing in Aussie pop?! but it will make you glad you listened.
There is a lot to like about The Temper Trap.The music is approachable and light but with enough guitar and drums to let you know that they can probably make your chest cavity rattle in concert.They employ the use of a, 10 short notes are better than 1 long note, ideology and it really works.It keeps songs moving and energetic even when they’re a bit on the quiet side.Combined with the syncopated drums it shows musical talent and an ability to craft songs that draw the listener into the songs and keep you humming.Keyboards invade a couple of songs on the album and I wasn’t keen on them at first, but they grew on me. Trying to imagine the song without the piano track makes me think it would sound empty and lacking something.
The voice is really the tie that binds the album together.“Dougie” Mandagi, the lead singer, can bust out a falsetto like he is intimately familiar with gonad crushing. It is high, has range, has depth and he can convey a whole spectrum of feeling and meaning there—it is frankly of virtuoso quality, which, when you're talking about making your voice sound like a 12 year old girl and you're an adult guy... i mean, it's great for the music, don't get me wrong, but... how do you discover that talent? How do you perfect it? Hey, hey guys, i can't quite hit that high C, kick me harder!
Gotta sacrifice for the music.
I'm not sure where this whole falsetto thing has come from of late, but it really seems to be cropping up. Silversun Pickups are another band that, at first listen, you think, wow, you don't hear a lot of chick singers fronting a band that sounds like this. She's got some throat there. Oh wait, it's a dude. Matthew Bellamy of Muse is able to hit that registry and sustain it believably--but he usually steers clear of it. There's certainly a number of more "classical" rock singers who did it--Freddy Mercury, Bowie, Jeff Buckley, David Lee Roth (I need to collect myself after putting him in the same sentence as the first three. Okay) and so forth. I'm just wondering where this resurgence in the falsetto came from. Is there a rampant glandular problem with our rock singers?
But, seriously, the vocals make this album. There are tight harmonies and the mixing is layered, unobtrusive and feels correct. In short, it is everything you want in your vocal mix. Additionally, there's no auto-tuning or other vocal BS--they can actually sing. Mix interesting singing with tight beats and good music, and you've got a solid album, through and through.
There really isn't a glaring weakness here, but there also isn't a 5th gear. There are three or four fantastic pop songs, which makes this a standout overall album--especially for a debut. The number of albums with multiple four or five star songs in the rock/pop genre is pretty severely limited. This is one of them. Love Lost, Down River and Soldier On are solid four/borderline five star songs. Sweet Disposition is a solid five star song. Love Lost incorporates the very best of modern pop--tight song, builds, harmonizes, end, 3:30 in length. It is a single tied up with a bow and it is a delicious pop morsel. They out-Coldplay Coldplay--and that is meant as a compliment. Love 'em, hate 'em, whatever--respect that they have consistently put out some of the most successful pop albums of the last decade. Love Lost is as good as anything they've ever put out.
Sweet Disposition raises the whole album. It is a mixture of U2, Silversun Pickups, and, again, that Coldplay pop model. It starts with the picked guitar anthem that draws the listener, followed by foot tapping drums and clinging vocals and it all builds up to a Dangerous Driving Song. It veritably wills your foot down on the gas pedal, demanding higher and higher speeds. All the while, the song never loses the pop thread that ties it to the album, that makes it part of the cohesive whole.
This is, without doubt, the best album I've heard thus far this year. They will go far and they will become big. It will probably take an album or two after this one--again, see Silversun Pickups. You'll know this name in a couple years.
Name for me, if you would, an album that made the artist's career, is auctioned on Amazon and Ebay for $100 - $200 for a single disc and that never sold a single copy. It isn't signed, it isn't a reboot by an older artist and it isn't a busty actress's attempt to launch a music career. Also, it came out in the last ten years.
Any two of those (minus, maybe the never sold a copy and busty actresses crap album) is impressive. That an album that you can't buy on iTunes or your local brick and mortar is influential and is being resold for hundreds of dollars is a status usually reserved for original Beatle pressings.
Which is fitting, because The Grey Album includes the Beatles. The Grey Album is incredible in both scope and execution. I'm not sure what's greater--the hubris of thinking you can mix two masterpieces--The Beatle's, The White Album, and Jay-Z's, The Black Album-- or the talent exhibited in being able to pull it off with such incredible results. This album is probably old news to some, but tack it up under, Things I Should Have Listened To Years Ago.
Danger Mouse, a mashup artist and producer extraordinare (now) is the creative mind behind this awesome bastardization of one of the best rock albums of all time (The White Album, if there was a question on which of the two i was referring to) and one of the defining hip-hop albums for this generation of artists. You might know Danger Mouse from other projects of his--Gorillaz, Gnarles Barkley and, immenently, Broken Bells, another duo with James Mercer of indie-hipster-cred powerhaus The Shins. The guy clearly has skills. So why have you never seen this album in stores or, potentially, never heard of it or the songs contained on it?
Copyright infringement laws.
I'll leave the arguments over whether someone who takes what one person creates and significantly alters it is creating something new or if they're infringing on copyrights to the EFF and others more versed in the legal arguments, but, essentially that's what this boils down to. Danger Mouse takes these two albums and starts mixing them together without, it seems, permission from either artist--although it should be noted that Jay-Z released the a-capella recordings of this album for personal remixes. So Danger Mouse goes to town and apparently kept it under the radar long enough to finish because he sent out 3000 promo CD's for review. The reviews were enthusiastic, to say the least--and they go the attention of EMI, who holds the rights to the Beatle's catalog.
You can see where this is going.
EMI sends a cease and desist order and blocks the CD from being sold, but, this is mid 2000's. You can't stop the signal. So the album gets out in electronic format and folks go coocoo for cocoa puffs.
Which brings me to how i got my hands on it.
There is something magical in hearing What More Can I Say played over the iconic piano riff of George Harrison's masterpiece, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Wait, what? Yeah. It works in the most bizarre way that is simultaneously ear openingly different, smile poppingly good and, Get-Your-Dirty-Mitts-Off-This-Sacrosanct-Song music-rage inducingly problematic. Which brings me back to the, what kind of stones do you have to have to think you can mash these two albums, question. Apparently, you need to have massive stones and you gotta match that with massive skill.
The album continues on with an Encore/Savoy Truffle/Glass Onion mashup, which is probably my favorite on the album. 99 Problems (But a Bitch Ain't One) is mixed with Helter Skelter. Interlude meets Revolution #9. Moment of Clarity is matched with Happiness is a Warm Gun.
This is some f'ed up shit, and it is awesome.
You still can't buy the album, but you can probably find it online. It took about 5 minutes for me to locate it. It is worth the download, without question.
Album: The Grey Album
Artist: Danger Mouse, The Beatles, Jay-Z (without permission)
Best Tracks: All of it. Just listen.
Listen if you like: Music. Listen to it even if you're not a hip-hop fan.
Let me begin by saying that i love when musicians and bands take risks and make something new and expand their scope. While I'm not a huge U2 fan, i think they have done a phenomenal job of recreating their musical sound every 7 or 8 years or so--to greater or lesser success. Green Day is another great example of that. Wilco, with their departure from a major label and delayed release, is another great example. Sometimes you get a critical, musical and commercial success like, American Idiot, or, Yankee Foxtrot Hotel. Sometimes you get a commercial and musical success that critics hate, in which case you have, Pop. Sometimes you get a critical darling that sits on shelves--we call this "indie" if you're a small time band or a "flop" if you're in the big time.
And then sometimes you get, In This Light And On This Evening. I imagine the conversations around starting this album went something like this:
[Lead Singer] Tom Smith: Hey guys, our last album was awesome Rest of the Band: Yeah! TS: People loved it, our tour was awesome, we finally got some radio air play and we're blowing up! Rest of Band: Alright! TS: Are you guys ready to make our next album, because i sure am--and i've got some great ideas! Rest of Band: Really?? What are they! We're excited to get started! TS: You know those driving guitars that define our sound? You know how we have a fantastic drummer who meshes our sound with ridiculous syncopation and tight beats? Remember those awesome bass lines that just push the songs forward? Rest of Band: Yeah! We love doing those! TS: Well, here's my radical idea--we're gonna--are you ready for it?--We're gonna GET RID OF ALL OF THEM AND BECOME AN 80'S THROW BACK BAND!!! How awesome is that?! Rest of Band: Yeah! Alright, that's grea--wait, what?? TS: We will throw out the guitars and drums and replace them with a shitty drum machine and a bunch of synthesizers! Rest of Band: Wait, WHAT?! TS: It'll be awesome. Now break that guitar.
I can only imagine that is how the conversation went because that is what happened. There are guitars on the "Bonus" tracks but, really, it is pure synth and drum machine on the heart of the album. The whole thing feels like they listened to Joy Division and decided that, really, what they were missing was the score to the credits and/or driving sequence of every 80's Jean Claude Van Damme movie. Hey, look guys! We made post-punk dance music! Let's go put on white face makeup and talk about how White Snake has no musical talent!
Really? Really?? This is the next album from one of the defining post punk bands? This sounds more like The Cure, Q Lazuerus (of Goodbye, Horses, "Silence of the Lambs", Would you fuck me? I'd fuck me, fame) or Ultravox. This is vintage Brit Electropop coming from a band who's previous two albums were rough, not overly produced and better for it, and piled high with the defiant growl of post-punk.
Sometimes a band needs to move in a new direction and find something else. I get that. But this might as well be a side project for all the consistency and tie ins to their previous catalog. I'm sure the three other band members played parts in the creation of this album, but you'd never know. The only hold over from the previous albums and EP's are Tom Smith's voice. He could be doing this in a studio by himself. Did the guitarists suddenly become keyboardists? Drummer is now programming a drum machine?
BOO.
That being said, there are a few decent tracks, but, really, nothing on par with their previous offerings. Papillon is a fun dance rock song full of wailing synth solos and drum machine explosions. The Boxer is a slow 80's ballad. I can dig that. There's even a few seconds of the verbotten guitar. It is quickly pushed to the back of the track and covered by the main riff being played on the synthesizer, so, all is well.
Overall, this album was a huge disapointment. While it has some decent tracks, it just doesn't go anywhere for me. On top of that, the sudden 90 turn in their sound leaves me baffled and wanting an album that sounds like a collaboration and not a solo project.
Update:
The more i listen to this album, the less i like it. The majority of the songs are flat and uninteresting, the lyrics are adolescent at best and the music feels like i'm listening to a giant loop of Depeche Mode and Eurythmics. That is borderline torture, as far as i'm concerned. This has been pulled off all playlists and now just resides in the uncategorized aether of my library.
Artist: The Editors Album: In This Light And On This Evening Best Song: Papillon Overall: 4 Play If You Like: Dark 80's synth rock
I also love when your mix up Fredrik the Swedish experimental band and Frederick, the former R&B band famous in the northeast Ohio area. What, you're not familiar with the vibrant R&B scene of northeast Ohio? Amazon is.
Prior to the Dazz Band, Levert, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's chart assaults, Frederick's "Gentle (Calling Your Name)" held the distinction of being the most popular R&B/soul recording ever cut in the northeast Ohio area, reaching number 40 on the pop charts in 1985. Cleveland natives Edwin Starr, Bobby Womack, the Hesitations, and the O'Jays recorded bigger hits, but in other places. Frederick cut…
Strap on the daddy pants, cuz here's something a bit different. Gnawledge is not so much a group as it is a research project. Canyon Cody recieved a Fulbright Scholarship and went off to Spain to study, well, who knows what, but, he ended up collaborating with a Spanish hip-hop artist, Gnotes, and together they made what is one of the most unique albums i've heard. It is somewhere between folk music, hip hop and Spanish guitar/flamenco. It works. Somehow. Not a combination i would ever really seek out, but, i heard it a while ago and it has remained high on my playlist for nearly 6 months. The music varies between more folky to Flamenco to, frankly almost club music. I could heard El Manisero de Potemkin being played at a club early in the night. It doesn't have that driving beat you need for later on, but, as a warm up? Hells ya.
The album is at its best when it combines the essence of the combined elements. Nunca Fui a Granada mixes beats with soft guitar, haunting voices and counter-beat clapping. It finds places that, alone, none of the other genres could. It introduces the listener to new sounds and new ways of listening to music. Hip Hop, Flamenco and techno? Wait, those can go together? Huh... I was a mind opener for me.
The best part? It is freeeee. You can head on over to the link in the title and download it for nada.
That's Spanish for nothing.
Artist: Gnawledge Album: Granada Doaba Best Song: Nunca Fui a Granada Overall: 8.5 Play If You Like: hip hop, flamenco, spanish guitar, mixes, folk, eclectic
Sit down kids and let me ol' uncle Nick tell you the tale of freaky little Nordic band that makes incredible music you've never heard of. Yeah yeah, i know--but this is no Pitchfork BS-athon where i just find the most avante-shit noise that got slapped onto a CD and claim it is the second coming Orgamsothor, the Norse god of hipster music and neck beards. No, this is legitimately kind of weird and underground folktronica made by 6 people in the cold wastelands of the Nordic North that is just fantastic music that doesn't fit into either club music or 3:30 rock/pop/radio friendly stuff. It is ephemeral and complex, gorgeous music that is entirely approachable and unpretentious. They create these huge soundscapes and the music takes you to another land--one where the mountains are high and the ground is covered in snow and the sun doesn't shine. Beowulf would be at home with this. It is alternately dark and menacing and exploratory and uplifting. The melodies just soar and find new places to go and demand the listener's attention while simultaneously drifting you off into one of those dreams where you're flying over landscapes and you see the trees go zooming by below you.
This shit is good.
The mixture of beats, dub, some crafty guitara musica, an operatic chorus and the lead vocalists soft, Iron & Wine like, soothing tones create an air of menacing beauty.
On top of that, the band listed out some influences--and they're superb. In no particular order:
Drugs
H. P. Lovecraft Cthuluian Old Gods horror novels
Norse epic poetry
Come on, how can you top that?! The album and song titles are in Swedish, but the lyrics are in English. Amazon has the MP3 album for a couple bucks. It is entirely worthwhile. This is the best i've heard from 2010 so far.
Artist: Fredrik Album: Trilogi Best Song: Ner, Olmberg, Milo Overall: 9 Play If You Like: vast soundscapes and creepy thinking music
I've just got too many albums and not enough time to go through all of them to give them the full review and whatnot they deserve, sooooo how bout a bunch of shorter ones to catch up.
