Walking is Still Honest

Woods - Sun & Shade

2011-06-26T18:26:00.002-04:00

Sun & Shade is the sixth album from this Brooklyn-based psychedelic pop duo. On it, they continue to showcase their strong pop sensibilities, fondness for polyrhythmic percussion, and a penchant for folky atmospheric jams. The structure of most of these songs are straightforward, but the delivery isn’t. Woods’ aesthetic involves falsetto vocals, understated melodies, often-acoustic guitars, and beat-driven songs.

They break the mold twice on this album with a couple of lengthy folk jams. The seven-minute “Out of the Eye,” which comes at the beginning of the album features a propulsive bass melody and a definite sense of progression towards a climactic final minute. The nine-minute “Sol y Sombra,” the album’s centerpiece, is a slow moving, meditative piece with a rustic beat, soft acoustic guitars, and soft electric guitar notes wailing out over everything.

My biggest issue with Sun & Shade—and it’s actually rather minor—is how abruptly many of these songs end. They carry a degree of momentum right up until the end, but they’ll stop on a dime. It isn’t a huge buzzkill because these songs are delightful while they’re playing, but it would be nice if they gave a sense of closure. This is true of much of what I’ve heard from this band.

Perhaps I’m making something out of nothing, though. This is 44 minutes of bubbly psych pop, but it has more depth than those inadequate descriptors may suggest. It’s rhythmically complex, often hypnotic, and generally catchy. Woods throw in some moments of experimentation (the longer tracks), which fit in nicely, and keep things varied, but they do the pop stuff incredibly well. It’s an incredibly fun listen.

Battles - Gloss Drop (2011)

2011-04-21T19:35:00.003-04:00

In some ways I like Gloss Drop more than their massively-hyped debut Mirrored (2007). That album had some excellent tracks, like “Atlas” and “Tonto,” but spent too much time not doing anything all that compelling. I enjoyed the album, but there were about 50 albums that came out that year that I liked more. I did think that Battles were as true a blend of electronic music and rock music as I’d ever heard. Both elements are about as central to their music as the other.

The most notable difference is that Tyondai Braxton’s vocals are absent. Without him, the band is largely an instrumental band, in fact, Gloss Drop listens like something of an electronic jam band. That high-pitched bell-like electronic effect that appeared on Mirrored is all over this albums. It’s absolutely inescapable and it gets irritating after a while. John Stanier’s drums play an especially prominent role in their music, with his chaotic stuttering beats, but the combination of his beats (which blend together after a while) and that bell sound become kind of irritating.

While there are subtle differences between most of the songs, and not-so-subtle differences between the others, this album kind of does sound too similar throughout. That bell sound kills me because I think I would enjoy this thing a lot without it. Battles are a talented band but too self-indulgent for my liking, at least thus far, two albums into their career.

I quite like the more straightforward track “Sweetie & Shag” which features Kazu Makino on vocals. Also, “Africastle” takes some interesting turns and “My Machines” creates some interesting tension.

TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light (2011)

2011-04-18T17:43:00.002-04:00

Nine Types of Light is a soulful album, borrowing as usual from funk, post-punk and electronic music styles. The production value creates some distance between the listener and the sounds, which makes this something as a grower. Having not listened to this band since their last release in 2008, and only giving their previous albums a handful of cursory listens each, I did not know what to expect from this album but the time felt right to give these guys another chance.

After spending some time with this album, I’d be inclined to believe TV on the Radio are at their best when the songs are catchy. They aren’t a band that can get by on a great sound or on an interesting atmosphere. Not that their sound is especially bothersome, but when the melodies don’t work, the entire song just falls flat on its face for me. Examples are “No Future Shock” which just feels too cluttered in combination with the synthesizers and layer of fuzz that covers the track and “New Cannonball Blues” which had some annoying vocals.

There are more good moments than bad ones here though. The first track, “Second Song,” “Keep Your Heart,” and “Repetition” are all fantastic songs. “Killer Crane” is a more atmospheric track that works well and the last track on the album, “Caffeinated Consciousness,” is a bombastic song that is about as funky as they get on this album, but I thought it served them well to end the album on a different note.

I’m not totally nuts about this album like a lot of people probably will be. There are some really catchy, soulful moments on this album. The general sound of it, mainly due to this warmth given off by the synthesizers, is warm and approachable. Save for a few awkward moments where it felt like too much was going on and a few moments where the vocals bugged me, this is worth checking out.

Obits - Moody, Standard and Poor (2011)

2011-04-16T16:36:00.005-04:00

Moody, Standard and Poor is the 2nd LP by Obits, a band from Brooklyn, New York notably featuring Rick Froburg, the former frontman of a highly-regarded hardcore band called Drive Like Jehu and terrific punk band called Hot Snakes. Obits are unlike any of his other projects, however. They don’t have the raw emotional outbursts that characterized Drive Like Jehu songs, and they just aren’t as aggressive as Hot Snakes were.

The songs on this album are built around very understated, controlled melodies, simple drum beats, audible bass melodies, with one of the guitars just sort of chiming, buzzes and screaming over everything. With post-punk bands like this, it’s really all about the sound. You want to hear something unsettling that doesn’t try to be pretty or melodic or fun, but gets mileage from portraying a certain type of emotion—and it’s generally a relatively bleak one.

These songs are rarely far above midtempo and for the most part they avoid being too loud and aggressive. These guys aren’t going for the catharsis of Drive Like Jehu or the intensity of Hot Snakes. In some ways, you could call this band a more restrained version of Fugazi. It's a moody album (partially titled appropriately) with some really nice, rough guitar tones.

Obits are not doing anything new in terms of sound and approach to their sound. Many of these songs are very straightforward and an obvious complaint is going to be the lack of variation, but at thirty-five minutes, this thing doesn't overstay its welcome. My main issue with this album is that, because nothing really gets all that loud, it might not be the most gritty, or loud, or dark, or most [anything] post-punk album you'll hear.

That doesn't mean it isn't worth your time. The melodies and the textures are nice enough. Forburg's vocals have an urgency to them that is sometimes at odds with the music. When a guy is wailing over slow, midtempo, understated melodies, it doesn't always make for something especially intense. These guys are going to fill clubs just by virtue of playing that sort of slightly abrasive post-punk.

I am a firm believer that it is perfectly okay to adopt a sound or a specific set of influences and just go with it. Not every band has to rewrite the book or necessarily do anything that throws sand in the face of convention.

I like their sound, and Obits are the kind of band that I could see live and expect to have some common musical interests with the rest of the crowd, but what makes Moody, Standard, and Poor work for me is the songwriting. They deliver some great melodies and some great guitar sounds. My favorite tracks include the urgent "I Want Results," the almost dancable "New August," "Shift Operator" which has one of the catchiest vocal hooks on the album, and "I Blame Myself" which is the band at its moodiest with a brooding bass melody and this really hollow guitar sound.

I can definitely see how one music fan’s reaction would be to just revel in the mood and tones on this album, and how another fan might hear these sounds all sort of blending together. I find myself liking most of the songs on this album, loving some of them. Hating none of them. I like this album, if you like this type of music, you may enjoy it. Go listen.

Crippled Black Phoenix - The Ressurectionists (2009)

2011-03-19T01:40:00.006-04:00

This is a terrific album from a post-rock group I’ve only recently discovered. At times, the “post-rock” label seems insufficient as tracks like “Burnt Reynolds” have a psychedelic, hard rock feel and many of the tracks feature a very sludgy, bass-heavy guitar sound. “Rise Up and Fight” and “444” showcase this beautifully; the simple chugging riffs are delightful, even as the other elements of the songs drift into different directions. If you’re a fan of bands like Black Mountain, but could tolerate something a bit more psychedelic and songs that generally take longer to get where they’re going, Crippled Black Phoenix is worth your time. “Littlestep” is a somber ballad that could almost be classified as gothic country. “Human Nature Dictates The Downfall of Humans” sounds very Mogwai-ian, which should be expected since this is the side project of Dominic Aithcison (Mogwai’s bassist). This project also includes Justin Greaves, who played drums with Electric Wizard on one of their recent albums and Andy Semmens who plays in the doom metal band, Pantheist. “Whissendine” is another track that fits the post-rock bill with an arc like that prototypical of the genre. “Song for the Loved,” the only track to break the ten-minute mark, features multiple movements, although the middle portion of the song is a little dry.

Dull moments are inevitable in an album that spans an hour and eleven minutes (“Crossing the Bar” did nothing for me and “Hymn for a Lost Soul” feels like filler), but they are few and far between and more than worth it because most of this album is absolute gold. I like this album for many of the same reasons I loved The Besnard Lakes’ Are the Roaring Night (2010) last year. It’s an atmospheric journey through psychedelic hard rock with beautiful soaring passages, dark brooding moments, and an incredible guitar sound.

Listen

The Dodos - No Color (2011)

2011-03-16T17:02:00.004-04:00

The Dodos formed during the heyday of the artists they seem to be trying to emulate. “No Color” sounds like a band trying to be Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes, and Wolf Parade all at once. The forays into folk rock lack the majestic, rustic quality of Fleet Foxes’ debut album. The quirky vocals sound like Panda Bear minus the interesting psychedelic soundscapes. The album as a whole sounds like a band who took pages from the be-eccentric-but-sound-kinda-bored playbook, a la Wolf Parade, except nothing here compares with the best songs from any of those bands’ cannons.

There are a lot of songs built around echoing, peppy drums that are lent a hollow sound by the production. Gentle, almost math-y (think Joan of Arc, but sleepier) acoustic guitar melodies just repeat throughout most of the tracks. Nearly every moment of this album is something we’ve already heard, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I loved the album Noah and the Whale just released, and that thing was derivative as hell. It borrowed from a number of different sources, which made it somewhat more original than if it borrowed from just one or two. That album did have a wonderful, inviting character to fall back on, not to mention the knockout melodies. I hear none of that here.

When a band or scene takes flight, there will inevitably be followers who try to strike the same chords with people that made albums like Apologies to the Queen Mary, Arcade Fire’s Funeral, or Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise such big hits. Though The Dodos do not sound exactly like those artists, I think they were influenced by them. People can be strongly resistant to bands that do what’s been done before, especially if they’re part of the “second wave” of a sound. In general, second waves lack the spark of the first (grunge is the best example). Sometimes a band can transcend this problem and stand up alongside the artists that influenced them (Interpol, Flogging Molly, and The Cribs, for instance). I am not usually one to whine about a band being derivative, but I am really in no mood these days for an album that rehashes required listening for “Hipsters 101.”

“Don’t Stop” sounds like it could be a lost Sunset Rubdown b-side; “Sleep,” an Animal Collective b-side; “When Will You Go,” a b-side from Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix sessions. The only moment I liked on this album was “Companions,” which has some nice acoustic guitar work.

Katie Costello - Lamplight (2011)

2011-03-15T23:36:00.003-04:00

If you haven’t heard of Katie Costello, which is very likely, pretend you have a human-sized blender in which you can throw your favorite artists and have it spew out some musically-inclined humanoid synthesis of them. Throw in Mirah, Imogen Heap, and the singer from Camera Obscura and you might get something like Katie Costello. This is her second album (I wont comment on her first cause I haven’t heard it) and it begins with one of the most charming songs I’ve heard in the past few years (sorry “Gimme Sympathy,” “Living Room,” and “Higher Than the Stars”). It’s an upbeat little number called “Cassette Tape,” more or less a love song in which she proclaims her desire to make some young gentleman a mixtape. That song, with its infectious melody, engrossing ethos, and flawless execution, would have been enough for me to sit around for the rest of the album, but there are several other gems here. “No Shelter” has a more aggressive flow to it, and almost grunge-y guitars in the verses. “Out of Our Minds” is a lovely duet with someone who sounds like the guy from Stars. “Dig a Hole” is a muscular pop song, using a recycled (but winning) melody. “People: A Theory” is an almost indescribable semi-vaudevillian pop song that is probably meant to be taken more seriously than it will be. “The Weirds” is the best of the mellow songs. Every time she sings “I guess I have the weirds,” it’s touching in perhaps the cheesiest way possible. This is not a universally stunning album. It hits some lulls, mainly on the slower tracks, but never gets worse than “pleasant.” It’s the times when Katie steps outside of the singer/songwriter “box” that she leaves all the Starbucks-CD-selling girls-with-acoustic-guitars in the dust. They wouldn’t know rock ‘n’ roll if it peed in their lattes. Katie, though not a rocker by trade, is one in spirit, and she has created a very fulfilling album.

Hum - Downward is Heavenward (1997)

2011-03-14T19:17:00.004-04:00

This is a very good alternative rock album from the late 1990s. It has an enthralling guitar sound, often dipping into the shoegaze playbook, but also being content to just rage without abandon. Despite using those hazy guitar tones, this is an album more about melody than texture. [Actually, I’d say they care about both.] Every track is a song—a rock song to be precise—which means no filler, no interludes, and no issues with cohesion. There are a couple of tracks here that I’m not in love with. “The Inuit Promise,” for example, but even those tracks manage some interesting guitar parts. My least favorite moments were the ones in which the band treaded a little too closely to mainstream radio-ready rock for my happiness. These guys never got big, which is surprising because our world is one in which Smashing Pumpkins can sell 18 million albums, and I don’t know why it wasn’t kinder to Hum.

Some people call this “space rock.” I don’t know what that means. That they’re like Muse? Not especially. That they’re like Pink Floyd? I wouldn’t say so. That they use reverb? Oh, okay then.

Check the comments

Hello

2011-03-07T13:57:00.004-05:00

Let's get this going again. I've grown disenchanted with the wordpress blog. In my absence, this blog has gained a modest followership and I was always more comfortable with this blog anyway. Wordpress has some nice features in terms of formatting and such, but I just feel like a blog strictly about reviews has to be more formal than I want it to be. I just don't enjoy wordpress. It's about the feel of it. What can I say?

When posting links, I'm going to leave out the mediafire part. Just go to mediafire and add the part of the links I put in the comments to the URL.

I will maintain the other blog and probably just copy and paste my reviews into it. That way, I can direct anyone there if I ever need to provide a writing sample or something.

While it may not be necessary, a quick word on what I'm into and what I'm likely to post. I want this to be very diverse because I'm into pretty much everything. It will all most likely be grounded in rock music.

I'm into punk and many of its subgenres. This includes classic punk bands (Ramones, The Clash, Social Distortion), some pop-punk (Green Day, Alkaline Trio), bands having to do with folk-punk (Against Me!, Andrew Jackson Jihad), post-punk (Sonic Youth, Wire, Jesus Lizard, Les Savy Fav), really any punk genre except ska (but I've found a few ska albums that I don't hate).

I'll post a lot of stuff that falls under the massive umbrella of "indie" including post-rock (Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Grails), indie folk (Iron & Wine, Felice Brothers, Sun Kil Moon), twee (Mates of State, Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura), the obvious indie darlings (Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene) and various others that I can't classify with just one easy label (like Built to Spill).

I am into a lot of metal, generally not mainstream metal (like Metallica). I am especially fond of sludge metal from the gritty, dirty stuff (Electric Wizard, Eyehategod) to the more ambient/prog stuff (Pelican, Isis). I like some death metal, though generally not melodic death metal (Death, Aborted, Deicide). There are some other fantastic metal bands that are a hybrid of styles (Mastodon, Opeth, Boris), and I also like some bands that would fall under the hardcore/mathcore label (Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan).

I love early emo bands like Rites of Spring, Moss Icon, Jawbreaker, and even some of the bands who took emo into more indie rock territory like Sunny Day Real Estate and Texas is the Reason.

I also expect to post a lot of stuff that has to do with electronic music to varying degrees (Four Tet, LCD Soundsystem, Holy Fuck). I like shoegaze and dream pop stuff as well, though tend to be rather picky with that type of music. I may post to occasional hip-hop album, although I am extremely selective. The list of hip-hop acts I enjoy is very short, including Mos Def, Jurassic 5, and Jay-Z's first album.

Please do not hesitate to comment on albums I post. Let me know what you thought and I am always receptive to recommendations.

Jaill - That's How We Burn (2010)

2010-08-05T19:46:00.004-04:00

Wonderful blend of garage-rock and post-punk with great pop sensibilities.

New Blog

2010-07-29T23:27:00.001-04:00

Started a new blog here. Eventually it'll probably replace this one, but maybe someone will occasionally share music with you on this one :).

Slowdive - Souvlaki (1993)

2010-07-22T22:13:00.004-04:00

Artist/Album: Slowdive—Souvlaki
Totally Subjective Number Rating: 10/10
Recommended if you like: Any contemporary dream pop or post-rock.
Released By: Creation Records
Favorite Tracks: “Catch the Breeze,” “Waves,” “Primal”

In introducing a little more rock to their sound, Slowdive both benefit and suffer. Yes, this is a less atmospheric album than Just for a Day, which is forty of the most beautiful minutes ever recorded. However, the more tangible vocals, toned-down synths, and clear melodies, increases the impact of these songs. Not to mention the diversity of sounds on this record, which surpass most of what you’ll hear in most shoegaze or dream pop albums. It’s kind of a neat thing to know that this type of stuff can be incorporated into popular music forms, and to do it takes skill. Not that it doesn’t take skill to do what Slowdive did on their debut, but they’re two different things. Some of the vocals have an almost twee vibe to them, which doesn’t really bother me, but it could conceivably bring the band’s music a bit closer to Earth and rob it of some of its ethereal beauty. I don’t think this matters because this album’s introduction of Slowdive’s slowly churning atmosphere into more a standard pop/rock format really works as well as I could have expected. This edition of the album has four bonus tracks.

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007)

2010-07-22T20:44:00.003-04:00

Artist/Album: Spoon—Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Totally Subjective Number Rating: 9/10
Style(s): Post-punk, indie pop/rock.
Released By: Merge
Favorite Tracks: “Don’t Make Me a Target,” “Rhthm & Soul,” “The Underdog,” “Black Like Me”

When I think of Spoon, I think of a very tight sounding band, with rigid rhythms and a penchant for occasional experimentation. Everything is just so tight, so controlled; their songs tend to be really skeletal, with simple, common drum beats, repetitive guitar melodies, and a post-punk reliance on bass. They tend to dress these elements with pianos, brass, and other bells and whistles, none of which distract from the simplicity of the melodies. Note the citar (I think) solo on “My Little Japanese Cigarette Case,” as just one of the many creative flourishes they include on this album. Spoon is so good at dressing their angular post punk melodies in a rather unique way. Britt Daniels also has a fairly distinctive voice, if not an especially strong one. They achieve a lot of cool guitar tones, really giving each song a different feel. A lot of these vocal hooks are really catchy too. I have to highly recommend this band to anyone with any interest in independent music. Few bands combine creativity and catchiness like Spoon, and post-punk is rarely made this catchy while staying true to its foundations. They aren’t one of my favorites, I find I have to be in a specific mood for Spoon, but few bands combine creativity and catchiness like Spoon. This is probably their most upbeat, most accessible album. It’s pretty consistent, though there are a couple tracks I like less than the rest, there’s nothing here that doesn’t fit.

Sick of it All - Based on a True Story (2010)

2010-07-22T19:22:00.006-04:00

Artist/Album: Sick of it All—Based on a True Story

Totally Subjective Number Rating: 5/10

Recommended if you like: Sick of it All

Released by: Century Media

Favorite Tracks: “A Month of Sundays,” “Dirty Money”

Sick of it All’s Based on a True Story is pretty basic New York hardcore. Whether you look at this strain of punk rock as dated or nostalgic will determine whether you like this or not. If you like your punk on the melodic side, or are into melodic hardcore, this probably isn’t where you want to be unless you’re looking to discover some of the relics from the 80s, in which case I’d still think you’d be better served to look into the early emo bands. Allmusic’s review of this album call this “old-school hardcore comfort food for punk rockers.” I sort of agree. I liked their debut album Blood, Sweat, and No Tears (1989) better. The difference is in the production. With the slicker production on this new album, it sounds like vocalist Lou Koller is shouting at you, rather than with you. That’s what happens when his vocals are so high in the mix. The guitars exist just to continuously slap you in the face, again sort of what hardcore aims to do, but I like a little more tact. On their debut, the riffs were more varied. The variation from song to song is relatively minor. It doesn’t have to be that way though, as these guys proved 21 years ago. It’s almost like they try to be so aggressive that it really loses some of its impact. Good hardcore? Sure, but this has been done better many times, and there are contemporary bands who put interesting spins on this without compromising aggression.

No link per label request.

Slowdive - Just for a Day (1991)

2010-07-20T21:30:00.003-04:00

Artist/Album: Slowdive—Just for a Day

Totally Subjective Number Rating: 8/10

Recommended if you like: Any contemporary dream pop or post-rock.

Released By: Creation Records

Favorite Tracks: “Catch the Breeze,” “Waves,” “Primal”

Just for a Day was the debut of this short-lived British band whose songs were slow and expansive, shoegaze slowed to a crawl. Drums were very low in the mix, and the bass and synthesizers near the top. But the melodies were of secondary importance to the waves of synth noise that just dominates the mix. It’s a sound that’s pretty but melancholic. The music on this album is not as exciting as the stuff the band would go on to record, being mostly devoid of pop sensibilities. This isn't exactly a problem for me because this music really reaches some truly beautiful heights, something that must be heard to be believed. If you enjoy lush, atmospheric music, this delivers in spades. If you’re looking for something a bit more rock-oriented, this might not satisfy, but do seek out their sophmore album Souvlaki, which mixes this sound with more pop/rock song structures.

I'm going to try to mix in some older albums with the new releases I typically post. By older I mean before 2010.

Autechre - Move of Ten (2010)

2010-07-20T17:08:00.003-04:00

Artist/Album: Autechre—Move of Ten
Totally Subjective Number Rating: 7/10
Recommended if you like: glitchy electronica, ambient electronica, dark ambient
Released By: Warp Records
Favorite Tracks: “Etchogon-S,” “rew(1),” “M62,” “Cep puiqMX”

This is the second album by Autechre to come out this year, the other one being a fine release called Oversteps that I talked about a few months ago. The duo uses analog synthesizers and experiment a lot with different sounds ranging from techno to ambient to hip hop. For me, this is not the sort of thing I encounter very often, even within the electronic stuff I listen to with any regularity. What makes Autechre distinct from most electronic music is that these songs are quite complex and tend to have a dark, mysterious quality to it. That darkness, I attribute to their waves of synth noise that just sort of cascade over each track. I think they used this to excellent effect on Oversteps, which really showed off their ambient side. The beats they use aren’t simple as in a lot of dance music. The first track, “Etchogon-S,” begins with a glitchy beat, the timing of which, I just cant quite put my finger on. When they combine synth notes and beats, it’s often hard to focus on one or the other for very long. Often my attention would be diverted from one rhythm to another and back again numerous times within a song. It gives the illusion that there’s a lot going on.

This thing is being billed as an EP, but at 10 tracks and 47 minutes, it is short only by Autechre’s standards. Oversteps was over an hour long. I quite enjoy what these musicians do, especially the ambient aspect of it. It’s unlike most things I’ve listened to, and I know there’s a niche within the IDM community for this sort of music, but it feels very fresh and unique to me. I like their more abrasive tracks best, such as “Cep puiqMX” (most of their song titles are like that), and wish there was a little more of that on the album, but this “EP” is a wonderful example of just how diverse electronic music can be.

This Will Destroy You - Moving on the Edges of Things (2010)

2010-07-20T15:14:00.004-04:00

Artist/Album: This Will Destroy You—Moving on the Edges of Things

Totally Subjective Number Rating: 7/10

Recommended if you like: Noisy, ambient post-rock.

Released By: Magic Bullet

Favorite Tracks: Both are pretty good.

This EP consists of two tracks, and fourteen minutes of music, from this post-rock quartet. Their second full-length is due out sometime this year, and it isn’t clear whether these two tracks are on that album. They were a pretty standard post-rock group from what I remember of their debut album, which I quite liked. These new tracks are really more ambient than anything on that album, with a lot of murky static that really clouds the mix. I really liked the jazzy rhythms and the almost math-rock guitar melodies on their self-titled, so I hope those aren’t completely gone on the upcoming album. What they do really well on these new tracks is use the hazy ambiance to muffle what’s going on. You can hear different tones ring out underneath the droning atmosphere that hovers over everything. Throughout the first track, “Rituals,” I kept getting the feeling that notes were about to bubble up to the surface, but they didn’t really do so until about halfway through the nine-minute track when you hear strings and soft percussion poking its head through the haze. The band does a good job of justifying their song lengths—a distinct linear progression can be heard on both songs—far from simply creating some pretty guitar sounds, the music starts somewhere and winds up somewhere different. The other song, “Woven Tears” has a more lively drum beat but turns up the noise, giving the song a dark, mechanical feel. It’s hard to get too excited or disappointed by a two-song teaser for an upcoming album. If these songs are any indication, I’d have to recommend the first album more highly to post-rock fans.

Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998)

2010-07-20T14:39:00.004-04:00

Artist/Album: Belle and Sebastian—The Boy With the Arab Strap
Totally Subjective Number Rating: 7/10
Recommended if you like: Any indie (or mainstream) pop, especially stuff with twee sensibilities.
Released By: Matador Records
Favorite Tracks: “It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career,” “Sleep the Clock Around,” “The Boy With the Arab Strap”

This is a fine collection of tunes if not as impressive as the album that preceded it. If anything, it shows that maybe Belle and Sebastian shouldn’t experiment. The spoken word/psychedelic pop on “A Space Boy Dream” kind of kills the momentum of the album for me. I still don’t know if dreamy, sunny pop gets any better than Belle and Sebastian when they’re at their best. I still prefer If You’re Feeling Sinister (1996), Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003), or The Life Pursuit (2006), simply because they’re more consistent. Little things go a long way, like the hand claps on the title track, towards making the songs really memorable. If you like this band, then you’d be missing out if you don’t give this album a chance because it has some great songs.

Steel Train - Steel Train (2010)

2010-07-18T01:20:00.004-04:00

Artist/Album: Steel Train – Steel Train

Totally Subjective Number Rating: 7/10

Recommended if you like: The Format, Tegan and Sara, bands like that.

Released By: Terrible Thrills (the band’s own label)

Favorite Tracks: “Bullet,” “You and I Undercover,” “Children of the 90's,” “Soldier in the Army”

Steel Train’s third album begins with what might be my new favorite song of theirs, “Bullet.” It’s a song that alternates between the two distinct strains of their sound. It has that U2 arena momentum that they excelled at on songs like “Kill Monsters in the Rain” off their 2007 album Trampoline. The chorus is a bouncy, sing-along passage lead by acoustic guitar strumming. These styles are almost two extremes, the first sounding huge and the second warm and intimate. Steel Train do both very well and it makes for a good pop song, but they don’t really do that throughout. Sometimes they seem to stray towards an eccentricity I associate with indie rock, by which I mean a sort of franticness that comes at the expense of catchiness. In a number of places the hooks just don’t go where you might want them to go, and I applaud Steel Train for not being overly predictable, but wish more of their songs would be as catchy as “Bullet” or “Soldier in the Army.” I couldn’t warm up to all of these songs, which is a shame because the songs I could warm up to I absolutely love. This is an album of peaks and valleys—really high peaks and valleys that are just low enough for you to really miss the peaks. Steel Train brings a fun energy to songs that are about serious things and they value musicianship and that makes for an album on which nothing is hard to listen to and it’s a hard album for all but the most hardcore indie-heads to hate. If you liked their past work, especially their last album, this might work for you. Also, if you like pop music with synths, with a fun spirit, that likes the rock at times, and aren’t afraid of a few left-field songwriting choices, Steel Train might be worth your time.

School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire (2010)

2010-07-18T00:49:00.003-04:00

Artist/Album: School of Seven Bells – Disconnect From Desire

Totally Subjective Number Rating: 8/10

Recommended if you like: Dream pop, shoegaze, any combination thereof.

Released By: Vagrant Records

Favorite Tracks: “Windstorm,” “Babelonia,” “Dial,” “Bye Bye Bye”

On School of Seven Bells’ debut album, 2008’s Alpinisms, they played dreamy pop music a la Beach House but borrowed a lot from world music. A lot of the percussion was rhythms borrowed from other places, and this gave that album a very fresh, original feel. On this album they’ve replaced the world music elements with shoegaze, at no loss of overall quality. This reminds me a bit of Imogen Heap. The vocalists, a set of twin sisters, sound much like her, but with entirely different backing music. At their heart, these are pop songs, and it’s too easy to get lost in the beautiful vocals and miss all that is going on. The murky guitar tones are a bit murkier than I typically hear from this style. Their excellent use of electronics almost contrasts the guitar tones. The drums are a bit clearer than you hear in most shoegaze, but this isn’t purely shoegaze so who cares, and that actually makes the songs feel a little more urgent. Some songs certainly seem to owe more to the shoegazers than others but I found the music constantly lively and the vocals enchanting throughout the album. On their first two albums, this band has taken two different styles and incorporated them into their music to make something that really is their own.

Soilwork - The Panic Broadcast (2010)

2010-07-18T00:33:00.006-04:00

Artist/Album: Soilwork - The Panic Broadcast
Totally Subjective Number Rating: 4/10
Recommended if you like: I would recommend this to anyone in the front row of a metalcore show.
Released by: Nuclear Blast
Favorite Tracks: “Late for the Kill, Early for the Slaughter,” “Enter Dog of Pavlov”

Members of Soilwork have indicated in interviews that they wanted this album to feature “catchy choruses” and be more technical than past albums. I don’t think this is an overwhelming success on either front. Far from being a solid melodic death metal release, this album approaches what I would call a mallcore/metalcore or even a nu metal sound sometimes, and that is a huge turn off. The band throws some melodic passages and clean singing into the mix, but they do so without tact, with the abrupt turn halfway through “Sweet Demise” being just one example. I think a lot of young bands tend to do this; they think that melody is the same thing as catchiness and it isn’t. I don’t think the transitions from verse to chorus or from heavy to soft are all that smooth and they seem totally arbitrary. The clean parts are obnoxiously faux-metal and they convey to me absolutely no believable emotion. They’re certainly melodic, as in not heavy, but that doesn’t make them catchy. Seven years ago I’d have been all over these songs, rocking out in my The Used t-shirt. Now it just sounds sort of lame. As for the technical thing, I haven’t heard their last album and it’s been a long time since I listened to their earlier stuff, so I have no basis for comparison. This isn’t overly technical; within the metal community, this caliber of guitar playing is rather common, but it’s miles above anything I could do with a guitar and there are some nice guitar riffs. Actually, the band is catchier when they just go balls-to-the-wall heavy instead of trying to turn in some anthemic chorus. Even when the guitarists show their chops, the songs are often ruined by horrible vocals. “Epitome” has an awesome solo but the vocals throughout the song ruin it for me. I like melodic death metal, but there are so many albums that do it more intensely, more technically, and pay better attention to the cohesion and flow of each song. I saw some live clips that inspired me to check this album out, but the intensity of that show just wasn’t there on this album. Maybe their older stuff is better. Teenage bands everywhere have adopted strains of hardcore and metal and sort of made it their own but too often it feels too controlled, tame even, and Soilwork’s latest album is an unfortunate example of this.

Plants and Animals - La La Land (2010)

2010-07-18T00:14:00.002-04:00

Artist/Album: Plants and Animals – La La Land

Totally Subjective Number Rating: 5/10

Recommended if you like: Guitar-based rock, bands with folk influences, maybe

Released By: Secret City Records

Favorite Tracks: “American Idol,” “Future from the 80s”

Parc Avenue (2008), which borrowed about as much from Neil Young as it did from the Arcade Fire, was a fine folk rock album in my opinion. I like stuff that blends sparse rural folk and tense indie rock, but Plants and Animals have completely changed direction on their new album. They describe themselves as “post-classic rock” and I can definitely hear the classic rock influences here. This is similar to the recently-released Blitzen Trapper album in that it borrows heavily but lacks any real charm or personality. On this album they basically sound like a young band covering their heroes. I’m having a lot of trouble connecting with this band through these songs. I kept hoping something would come and pick up the songs, that one element would step up and do something interesting. I like to be able to get a handle on the musicians’ moods and personalities through their work, and when I am unable to I find the music rather boring. This isn’t completely bad though. Some fine moments, such as the meditative “Future from the 80s” save the album from being a complete bust, but don’t really make it all that interesting to me. I tried listening to it maybe 10 times, and each time it just completely faded into the background. I'd sit and stare at the little bar on itunes as it crept closer and closer to the end of each song, and was left feeling rather indifferent to this album.

Orders of business

2010-07-16T20:20:00.002-04:00

New format. I thought this would make the posts a bit more informative. This blog is meant to be something like my diary relating to all the music I consume, not simply a newsletter. In that way, it's sort of self-serving, although the ideas of sharing music and my thoughts on music, do appeal to me.

The number ratings are my way of summarizing how I feel about an album extremily briefly. Something I cannot really describe in words how an album makes me feel, and so I think my reviews are somewhat incomplete without these. That said, these numbers do not really represent an end all be all grade. It's sort of a way I can organize the albums I like into tiers. There are a handful of absolute favorites, a bunch that I like slighty less, and so on. I tend to look for a numerical representation of reviewers' opinions when I read reviews. I find it gives a bit of context to the review itself. Don't take them too seriously.

The RIYL was a recommendation from someone whose opinion I trust. I am probably not well versed enough to compose a complete list of recommendations for a given album, but I'll try.

Finally, the record labels who put the albums out deserve some credit. Do you ever find yourself enjoying a bunch of releases from the same label? There's a lot of music to be discovered. Also, the reason you're here... click the album cover photos for a special treat.

The Roots - How I Got Over (2010)

2010-07-16T20:09:00.004-04:00

Artist/Album: The Roots – How I Got Over
Totally Subjective Number Rating: 6/10
Recommended if you like: Smart hip-hop, or any hip-hop at all for that matter.
Released by: Def Jam
Favorite Tracks: “Walk Alone,” “Radio Daze,” “How I Got Over,” “Right On”

The Roots are a rap band, which is a really cool thing. It’s refreshing to hear real drums and instrumental passages that aren’t sampled, such as the piano on “Radio Daze.” I hear more jazz and soul influences than on typical hip hop releases, but the real draw is the intelligence. They’re one of those rap groups with lyrics about things that actually matter, and songs that have messages and aren’t designed to be danced to in clubs. I’ve only heard three of their albums, including Things Fall Apart (1999), widely considered to be their best. This album features slicker production and a more relaxed attitude. Even their last album was more raw and energetic. I generally enjoyed this album, but some unfortunate choruses and awkward lyrics held it back. John Legend’s chorus on “This Fire” and that weird refrain of “it aint cool being no fool” on “Now or Never” are two examples of things that bring this album down. The Roots deserve a ton of credit for taking chances, most notably on two tracks one of which worked really well and another of which fell flat, in my opinion. “Dear God 2.0” samples Jim James’ vocals from the Monsters of Folk song “Dear God,” a song that I didn’t love on that album. The Roots’ sampling of it on this song, a mellow one, just results in something a bit sappy. The other curveball is “Right On” featuring Joanna Newsom, who I don’t particularly care for, but on this song her vocals are haunting and eerie, and absolutely capture my attention when they come on. The album ends with two short tracks that have the rawness most of this album was missing, but I didn’t like these two tracks all that much. Overall, this is not the most cohesive album, but it is of fairly high quality throughout. The Roots really don’t let you forget that they’re a smart group of guys and the stuff they are saying does ring true in a way that most rap doesn’t, for me anyway. The rhymes themselves were not interesting enough for me to be able to recommend this too strongly, but if you have any interest whatsoever in hip hop, consider giving this group a chance and start with one of their earlier albums.

SINGLE: Smashing Pumpkins’ Freak

2010-07-15T14:26:00.003-04:00

New single released recently from their upcoming EP. I was never much of a Smashing Pumpkins fan, but having not given them a chance since their overhyped Zeitgeist album, I thought this single might be worth a shot. The song is not offensively bad, and I can conceive of longtime fans or fans of their recent stuff liking this. It does very little for me though. I think the issue with this band is that I want my alt. rock groups to display a bit more personality. Billy Corgan just bores me to tears, and the chorus of this song is obnoxious. The lyrics sound like something I would have heard in a middle school assembly. The lyrics are simply places over a wall of distortion, and in truth, it’s moderately catchy. At the end of the day, it’s all stuff we’ve heard before. Plus it’s Billy Corgan. The combination thereof does not excite me all that much, but here’s the song. Decide for yourself.

Jakob Dylan - Women + Country (2010)

2010-06-29T14:43:00.005-04:00

Obvious comparisons notwithstanding, Jakob Dylan’s second solo album is a fine alt-country album. This is definitely more country than folk, a relaxed affair that, unlike many of his father’s greatest songs, are not confrontational in the slightest. Many of these songs are built around gentle acoustic strumming, slow tempos, and a subdued percussion that propels the songs nicely. Dylan’s voice doesn’t sound all that much like his father’s, aside from some similar tonalities, but this commonality wont jump out at the listener. It would be silly to expect anything all that similar to his father, and sillier still to judge Jakob’s work in comparison to Bob’s. I don’t remember the elder Dylan ever recording anything quite as mellow as this, even in his advanced age. There’s an edge inherent in nearly every word he sings. Jakob Dylan doesn’t have this edge, with a voice more suited for lullabies than protest songs. This style suits him well on this album, and though I cannot compare it to his other solo album of any of the Wallflowers’ albums, this is strong enough for me to consider giving those a chance. The drawback is that, by the time the album is halfway over, a lack of variety becomes evident. Too much of the same drums beat, the same soothing acoustic rhythms, it just becomes a little too similar after a while, but, soon after this becomes evident, the album suddenly branches out slightly, and thus saves the album from being a one-trick pony. The eighth track, “Truth for a Truth,” breaks up the semi-monotony with a surprisingly upbeat melody. The song has a nice flow to it, with Neko Case providing background vocals that lend a great deal of texture to the song. The track that follows this, “They’ve Trapped Us Boys,” is another highlight. It’s sort of a bluegrass ballad, with a rollicking guitar and banjo melody. Nothing on this album is bad, as I’ve said, but right when I started thinking everything sounded a bit too similar, these two tracks came on and reignited my interest in this album. There’s another noteworthy track, earlier in the album. “Lend a Hand” is a slow, plodding, brass-augmented, track that certainly doesn’t sound like most of the album. The album, despite a lot of similar sounding songs, is pretty consistant in terms of quality. The songs capture the feel you’d expect from a country album, though it doesn’t tread so far into country as to become a charicature of the genre (like more mainstream country music). I feel like this is a very strong album, almost bordering on being a great one, but it will certainly get a lot of plays through this summer from me.

Recommended Tracks:
“Nothing But the Whole Wide World”
“Yonder Come the Blues”
“Truth for a Truth”
“They’ve Trapped Us Boys”

Hour of 13 - The Ritualist (2010)

2010-06-23T20:20:00.005-04:00

This is the sophomore release of this doom metal band, and as near as I can tell, this is pretty true to traditional doom metal. I really don’t fully understand what “traditional” doom metal was, but if this is it, then I wasn't far off. This has more in common with Black Sabbath, than some of the bands bordering on drone/doom like Earth. I guess that traditional means the stuff that sort of influenced the doom metal movement. I hear vocals that sound like Ozzy, guitar playing heavily influenced by blues, and drums that have a sort of hollow sound. These guitars, rather than pummeling, grinding, or droning, tend to play tangible riffs. Now, these riffs are of the mid- to low tempo variety, distorted so that they sound kind of bleak, and they tend to ring out a bit (a la drones) but I’m really hearing more Sabbath than the really dirgey stuff that, to me, characterizes doom metal. The guitars really dominate the mix, again lending credence to the doom label, but it’s really just a classic metal, straying closer to blues than doom. If this is “traditional” doom metal, then so be it, but I challenge you to hear this and not immediately think of Sabbath. I’m not the biggest Ozzy/Sabbath fan, but I liked this Hour of 13 album a lot. I tend not to be interested in what I consider classic heavy metal; I tend to like it a bit more unusual or extreme, punishing and technical if it’s of the death metal family or else atmospheric if it’s of the black persuasion. As a “noob” to doom metal, and still unsure if this really qualifies or is just kind of influenced by the same stuff as the forefathers of doom, I’d be interested to hear what more people think of this. Reviews and information about this band are scarce. I must say, this album really hit the spot for me. It’s heavy, dark, mysterious--gave me everything I want from my metal albums--it's got some mean guitars tones that just kind of wash over you as you listen. Very nice.

Deer Tick - The Black Dirt Sessions (2010)

2010-06-22T20:46:00.004-04:00

Deer Tick’s third album was recorded around the same time as their second, Born on Flag Day (2009). They play a bluesy sort of alternative country with vocals that approach grunge territory. I thought their music that would be more comfortable in some honky-tonk bar than at some large festival in Texas, until I heard this new album. These songs are stripped-down to the bare essentials. Mostly gone is the distorted guitar buzz that drenched the songs on their 2009 release. Gone is the gritty country vibe. The rural elements are still here; you’ll notice plenty of bluesy guitar tones and the vocals still have that country vibe, but these songs sound clear and crisp, the product (or victim?) of impeccable production. These songs just reveal themselves to you very quickly. You can pick up the melodies and the vocals, and just sort of get it. This album is not so much about creating any sort of mood, just about delivering the melodies. I like a lot of these songs, but cant help wishing there was a bit more going on. Deer Tick haven’t exactly disappointed me, but I’m having trouble getting too excited about this new album. If you liked Born on Flag Day, I’d suggest giving this a listen before you buy it. You might miss the overall grittiness, but these songs really aren’t bad.

Stars - The Five Ghosts (2010)

2010-06-22T19:30:00.002-04:00

I enjoyed this album a lot more than I expected to. I expected the sweet, charming vocals. I expected unchallenging, easily digestible song structures, with lots of pleasant keyboard and guitar sounds. A lot of chiming melodies, synths, and songs about breakup, loss, uncertainty, all things I can easily relate to. What I didn’t expect of the latest Stars album, was that it would be as diverse as it is. It really doesn’t take many listens for these songs to each take on their own identity. The album shifts seamlessly between upbeat dance-pop and lush, atmospheric balladry. Similarly, the emotions communicated in the songs shift from sad and reflective to confidence on the more upbeat tunes. The band, especially Amy Millan’s vocals, are of similarly high quality throughout. Millan pulls off each mood quite well, never sounding overly bubbly or too self-loathing. She never approaches anger or outright ebuliance, with her reflections constantly sounding even-headed. This makes her a likable and aesthetically pleasant storyteller on these songs. This is a moody album, but it doesn’t ride a particular disposition to the point of novelty or overindulgence. It’s constantly believable. The music frequently dabbles with the hazy guitar tones characteristic of dream pop (check out “He Dreams He’s Awake.”) The twee sensibilities are pervasive, but there is more to Stars than sugary sweetness. They use their guitars and synthesizers to create the mood, thus taking some pressure of Amy Millan to be the only communicative vessel on this album. A few songs approach dance-pop (“We Don’t Want Your Body”), but only under appropriate restraint, so this never feels too dancey or club-ready. Millan also pulls off sultry, almost bluesy vocals quite well on “Winter Bones.” The male vocals that appear on several tracks, were rather nondescript, with the exception of the album opener, “Dead Hearts.” This track is a duet—really a conversation—between the two vocalists, and is one of the highlights. It’s about as close as two vocalists can come to having “chemistry,” and is a rather affecting track, despite the awkward transitions into the choruses. If you liked Stars before, I don’t see why you wouldn’t like these songs. I’d expect some fans might want that band to change their approach a bit before album six, just to keep things fresh. I think these are talented enough musicians to be able to experiment a little bit without completely abandoning who they are. The band is very good at musically representing the ups and downs relating to their chosen subject matter. They sing about break ups, about people changing, and about coping with such changes. This is an album that pulls off lush and catchy equally well. It plays like a quick tour through a variety of emotions, all presented with a pleasant pop façade.

Blitzen Trapper - Destroyer of the Void (2010)

2010-06-18T15:12:00.002-04:00

I’ve tried to get into Blitzen Trapper each time they’ve released an album for the past three releases and I’m afraid they still don’t really interest me all that much. On Destroyer of the Void, I hear a lot of classic influences. There is a distinctly Southern feel to the whole album, with songs that have a dirty sort of guitar sound, banjos and harmonicas, the sort of stuff that makes you think of some tavern off a dirt road in the Deep South. Another influence is mid-era Beatles. The vocals sound like they’re somewhere in between Lennon and McCartney territory, perhaps a little closer to the former. The melodies sung are very Beatlesque, reminding me of albums like Revolver and Rubber Soul. Of course this is all packaged as a folk-rock album. It has that sort of aesthetic, the lyrics tend to come from a weary, love-starved, traveler. I think I hear the influence of Love as well, an early folk-rock group. These influences give the songs a distinctly late-60s feel to it, but beyond that, Blitzen Trapper really doesn’t do much to make this sound their own. This album is a nice tribute to some of the sounds of 40 years ago, but it feels sort of anonymous. I can listen to The Beatles, or Love, or Grateful Dead and get it right from the source. I probably wouldn’t though, and that’s the thing about this album. If you’re a die hard Dead, Love, or even just a fan of early folk-rock with a bit of psychedelia thrown in, this will probably cure your itch. My problem is not that this is a bad set of songs, they are actually quite well written and performed proficiently. You have to care for the band’s influences to appreciate Blitzen Trapper. I give them credit for some really good vocal hooks, some clever songwriting, and generally being a talented band, but this is all sort of under the heavy shadow of their predecessors. If you’re looking for something that fits nicely alongside the folk-rock, or even psychedelic-tinged rock of the late 60s and 70s, maybe this band is for you. Check it out.

Wolf Parade - Expo 86 (2010)

2010-06-15T17:50:00.002-04:00

Wolf Parade is the collaboration of two prolific singer/songwriters, with a handful of other projects under their belts. Within the indie community (whatever that means), they might as well be Gods. Spencer Krug is worshipped beyond anyone this side of Steven Malkmus, and let’s face it, he’s a talented guy. Krug has written and performed some incredible music with Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, and Swan Lake, to name the most prominent of his projects. Wolf Parade’s third album is due out at the end of June, and the music doesn’t feel quite as fresh as it did the first time around. Apologies to the Queen Mary (2005) was an immaculately crafted pop/rock album. It had character, was fun, approachable, and the attention to detail on that album was impressive. Down to every last pause, every last fill, the band seemed to make all the “right” choices, if that makes sense. I liked At Mount Zoomer (2008) too, but thought it was a moodier, less accessible album.

I often wonder how an artist with a variety of projects can return to one after extensive work in others, and not have the music colored by his/her more recent work. Dan Boekner’s songs don’t really sound like his work in Handsome Furs, and Spencer Krug’s don’t really sound like Sunset Rubdown songs, but I hear influences from both of those bands on this album. I hear Handsome Furs in the rigid, angular nature of some of the riffs. I hear Sunset Rubdown in the more left-field direction of Krug’s songs.

Another issue with Wolf Parade is that they embody many indie stereotypes. The eccentricity in Krug’s voice, his abstract lyrics, the odd song titles, the stylistic choices they make on their records. But let’s not confuse Wolf Parade’s adventurousness with indie wankery. It really isn’t. Wolf Parade is a band that is not afraid to take chances. They’ll include a verse here, a note there, a shift in melody anywhere, that seems odd from the standard pop/rock rulebook. That’s a really cool thing, and it’s part of what makes Wolf Parade an interesting band to me. My issue with the new album is that the band covers these songs with too much fluff. The synths and guitars wail in ways that distract somewhat from the skeletons of these songs. That makes these songs far more challenging than the ones the band released five years ago. My opinion of this album is largely a positive one. I expect that over the coming weeks, I’ll discover more to like about it.

Another gripe of mine is that there are too many “who-oh’s” in these songs. One vocalist will be singing, and the other will keep interjecting with “who-oh, who-oh, who-oh.” That gets annoying after a while.

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Peter Wolf Crier - Inter-Be (2010)

2010-06-08T15:36:00.003-04:00

This is the debut album of a folk duo from Jagjaguar records, who have some very good artists on their roster. The vocals often remind me of M. Ward, a very good thing, though sometimes they enter a more soulful area. The music is built around simple guitar melodies and percussion. These songs are not badly written, they just don’t sound as though they are performed with much passion, which is a shame, because the album has some fine moments that would be made even better if performed with more conviction. I think this is a band to watch, as they probably are capable of topping this.

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Band of Horses - Infinite Arms (2010)

2010-05-20T17:19:00.003-04:00

I’ve been a huge fan of Band of Horses’ combination of folk and arena rock. Their guitar sound makes their best songs sound absolutely massive. Infinite Arms is somewhat different from their first two albums. It’s more towards the folky end of the spectrum, with an overall quieter sound and less atmospherics going on. The focus is clearly on the songs themselves, the hooks and melodies, instead of just creating an intense atmosphere and it works pretty well. It’s too soon to say whether this reaches the heights of the previous two albums, but it’s pretty clear this isn’t a disappointment by any means. Some songs like “Compliments,” “Laredo,” “Dilly,” and “Older” are among their catchiest.

Holy Fuck - Latin (2010)

2010-05-20T17:06:00.003-04:00

Holy Fuck do electronic music really well. They have that whole thing down where you take a simple beat and riff, preferably a catchy one like the bass riff that propels “Red Lights,” and gradually add elements to build to song to build tension that eventually erupts as the song concludes. Drums join the bass riff, followed by warm synth notes, and then the underlying riff changes occasionally to keep the song interesting. Holy Fuck’s Latin is just filled to the brim with gripping beats, unpredictable turns, and tunefulness throughout. This album starts with a gloomy ambient track, “MD,” before it really gets going. The mood is distinctly eerie, as on “Latin America” which has an almost-industrial backdrop to a cymbal-heavy beat. One interesting thing Holy Fuck do throughout is combine contrasting sounds. On “Stay Lit,” for example, a sunny synth melody provides the backdrop for grungy guitar noise that comes and goes as the song progresses giving the song a dark, almost post-punk feel, though you cant ignore the almost blissful synthesizers. “Stilettos” is the reverse of this. The song uses a bass melody and a tribal-sounding drum beat to provide the rhythm, while the synths add brightness in spots. Latin is a compelling album because it isn’t content to just give you something to dance to; every catchy electronic melody is replaced or shifts into another equally catchy one. Also the album plays with different moods to an interesting effect. There is really no electronic album I’d rather hear at this point.

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Pianos Become the Teeth - Old Pride (2010)

2010-05-19T18:17:00.004-04:00

“Old Pride” is a fitting name for this Baltimore band’s debut album. They’re a throwback to the days when screamo has yet to be popularized and bastardized by fashionable scenesters but was an outlet for pure anguish. Most mallcore faux-emo bands are about dyed hair and controlled (safe) bursts of aggression. They wouldn’t know true catharsis if it kicked them in the face, let alone came through their Bose speakers. Pianos Become the Teeth, true to those D.C. bands from twenty years ago, are not about pummeling your eardrums until they bleed. Often the screamed vocals are backed by beautiful, melodic guitar work. They frequently mix in mellow, atmospheric passages, which give the music added complexity. In this way, the music represents a wider range of human emotion and just feels more relevant. Sure, these songs are generally bleak, often heavy, and not all that accessible, but they are diverse despite residing within the framework of early emo. Within a given song, the mood changes and shifts, tension builds and is released, guitar melodies come and go. The percussion is intricate and the pretty guitar-based ambient parts, such as on the last half of “Young Fire” are gorgeous. These 8 songs breeze by lasting only 36 minutes, and I immediately found myself needing to relisten just because I hadn’t quite gotten enough. That said, if you don’t like heavy music, or have an aversion to screaming, this is not for you.

For their singer’s explanation of the album title and the meaning behind each of the songs, check this interview.

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The Kissaway Trail - Sleep Mountain (2010)

2010-05-18T18:12:00.003-04:00

While listening to The Kissaway Trail, I kept thinking of The Arcade Fire and Death Cab for Cutie. The Kissaway Trail’s brand of indie rock relies on a very spaced out, atmospheric vibe. The songs tend to start slow and gradually built to a huge-sounding climax. They make heavy use of ambiance, using strings to build tension like The Arcade Fire. The record also feels very safe. It’s approachable, unchallenging, and wears its heart on its sleeve. The music is beautiful throughout, though it isn’t really distinctive. Anyone can play a pretty melody, and The Kissaway Trail do that throughout the album. The problem is that it is very clear what sort of sound they are going for, and they do not do it as well as some of their obvious peers. Additionally, at 55 minutes, the album is too long. You probably won’t remember anything ten minutes after it ends unless you spend a lot of time with this album. My favorite track is “Don’t Wake Up,” which uses a pleasant organ melody to make it stand out slightly. The drumming is the most lively component of the band, and it goes a long way to lending a sense of hugeness to these songs. The Kissaway Trail are a band worth watching, but they haven’t done anything especially noteworthy yet.

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The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang (2010)

2010-05-11T17:56:00.002-04:00

The Gaslight Anthem surprised me. How could anyone follow such a great record as The 59 Sound? I figured they would either try too hard to rewrite that album, or else try to hard to make something different. Instead they focused on songwriting. The melodies are terrific, vocally and instrumentally. There are some really satisfying guitar melodies, such as on “Stay Lucky.” What made their last two albums especially great was the genuine conviction in Brian Fallon’s voice. He sounds like he means every word with every fiber of his being, and it’s hard not to appreciate that. Also the humble, almost folky, aesthetic made them so likable. The 59 Sound was a warm, friendly album, and so is this new one. It took a few listens to grow on me, and I don’t think it’s quite as gripping their last one but that’s probably just because they were a new, lesser-known band then. Now, with higher expectations comes a greater potential for disappointment, but after spending time with this album, there really isn’t anything I dislike. Sometimes it sounds a lot like Bruce Springsteen, but I can live with that.

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65daysofstatic - We Were Exploding Anyway (2010)

2010-05-09T16:29:00.003-04:00

65daysofstatic's new album will probably gain them a whole lot of new fans, but also make longtime fans cringe. This album must have been very anticipated. The band waited three years to deliver this one after taking only three years to give us their first three albums. Clearly a lot has happened over this time since their sound has undergone quite a change. Their first three albums were all relatively constant in style and quality, with frantic guitars and percussion, interspersed with nice ambient passages, and electronics used to give the music a rather unique texture. The music was confusing. It often shifted between gloom and beauty, fast and slow, loud and not so loud, but it was unpredictable for those new to it. This album is similar in style, but heavy on the dance elements. It’s less frantic and not as dark. There is some post-punk grime and some rapid percussive effects, but it’s got an entirely different feel. Their debut, The Fall of Math (2004) had more in common with Nine Inch Nails than, say, Hot Chip. I don’t object strongly to their new sound. I do think what they were doing before is less common, and they did it so well, but this is a fine album.

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The National - High Violet (2010)

2010-05-02T20:52:00.005-04:00

High Violet (2010) is too brilliant to have come from this world. Any of the adjectives I would typically use to describe music I love would fail to do this album justice.

As for the requisite comparisons to Boxer (2007), these songs are more layered, make more use of piano, and create an ambiance that's immediately darker and more melancholic. As with all their work, beneath the somber tone I hear hope in Matt Berninger's voice. This isn't just gloom; there's a real sense of life to these songs, kind of like a dark room with light spilling in through a window. The complexity of their music demands multiple listens. The more you immerse yourself in this, the more you'll gain from it.

If, for some reason, you haven't heard this band, please do. The hype machine isn't always wrong.

Discover America - Future Paths (2010)

2010-05-01T23:12:00.004-04:00

This is the second album from a guy named Chris Staples under the moniker "Discover America." It's a pretty basic album as far as indie pop goes, dominated by the guitar which is high in the mix and somewhat versatile, shifting between thick distortion ("Devil in the Woods"), gentle strumming ("1979," "Brighton Beach") and sweet chiming melodies ("Force the Proper Wind," "A Lock of Samson's Hair"). Unfortunately the guitars are the source of pretty much all the variation on this album, as the other elements contribute relatively little of value. Staples' voice is mid-range and breathy, often lacking the emotional content one might expect when he's singing over an especially beautiful guitar melody, or else singing about his struggles (as he does often). His guitar is really the source of the record's tone. The disconnect between the vocal performance and the instrumental soundscape is palpable but doesn't totally ruin the album. These songs are generally very catchy, and at its highest points, the album is a pleasant, whistful journey through Staples' thoughts. He seems to have a penchant for country, as evidenced on songs like "1979," which would fit very comfortably alongside whatever's on the country radio charts these days if it weren't for the vocals being decidedly un-country. Many of his guitar melodies feel like they were lifted out of some old country tune as well, which isn't a bad thing. I hope, next time around, he releases something with a bit more variety, performed with more conviction.

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The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever (2010)

2010-04-29T22:42:00.003-04:00

How could anyone not like drunken singalongs? Songs like this are made to be sung by anyone and everyone, preferably in unison, even by those of us with voices that don’t sound good unless you’re too inebriated to really hear it. The Hold Steady are a band made to be played at jukebox bars; their very sound conjures images of wooden, beer-stained bar tops, in the best sense possible. Vocalist Craig Finn sings in an almost slurred drawl. His voice isn’t pretty, but it contributes nicely to the vibe of the album, and isn’t so bad as to be a turn-off. The songs are all in the form of stories, telling about things that have happened without attaching any judgment or imposing any subjective values. The music alternates between thick slabs of distorted guitar, twangy country jams, or a combination of the two, throwing in some piano, rabid drumming, and even a vocal choir for good measure. Most people probably remember The Hold Steady’s massively-hyped 2006 album, Boys and Girls in America, which seemed to be universally-lauded in similar terms to those I’ve used to describe this one. In reality, while both are great albums, this one has a slightly different feel to it. After a few listens, I like this one better. The production on the new album seems a bit sloppier, though not altogether sloppy. “A Slight Discomfort” is a bit of a departure, it’s a slow dirge with animated percussion, strings, and a haunting piano melody. The song progresses towards a monumental climax of strings, chiming keys, and rolling percussions; if this album is bar-rock (which probably isn’t a real thing), then this song is analogous to the hazy walk home at closing time. I don’t think they’ve written a more affecting song than “We Can Get Together,” which is a charming tribute to (as near as I can tell) a dead musician. Stylistically, the band hasn’t changed much over the years; if anything, they are just willing to branch out a bit more these days. This is a wonderful thing as they have kept what makes them an interesting band, and have made a conscious decision not to be complacent but not to completely abandon who they are. Heaven is Whenever is definitely a good move for The Hold Steady. If there’s a low(ish) point, it’s “Hurricane J” which reminds me very much of Fountains of Wayne. The highs are far more numerous than the lows, though, and the overall aesthetic is just unabashedly fun; this is an album that should not be missed unless you’ve already decided you hate the band. The Hold Steady’s greatest asset is the fun factor, but I don’t throw that term around as an excuse for liking a mediocre band. The Hold Steady have absolutely mastered their craft, producing a work of art, and it’s such a friendly, inviting, and absolutely relevant record.

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Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record (2010)

2010-04-29T19:34:00.003-04:00

Broken Social Scene make really good use of their many band members. All the elements working together nicely, to create some grand soundscapes that never really sound suffocated. Their songwriting skill is undeniable; they really know how to make their songs work with all the elements thrown in. Every guitar note, flourish of strings, vocal harmony, or what have you, is pretty much perfectly placed. That is not to say that Broken Social Scene is among the best bands out there, or that Forgiveness Rock Record is among my favorite new albums (it’s not). It’s just that given the sound and style they’ve chosen, I cannot imagine how a band could make better music within their chosen aesthetic. What makes them especially good is that seemingly every song has some melody or verse that just sticks. Usually these infectious parts are rather subdued, and wont jump out at you, but once you take notice it’s hard to forget them.

I’ve heard that they tend to be rather pretentious during live shows, and that has turned me off to the band somewhat. Their last album, 2005’s self-titled, was outstanding but I almost never listen to it. It’s unfair to judge a band based on hearsay relating to the members’ personalities, but I tend to gravitate towards music I find somehow inviting, either in mood or the emotions conveyed. Broken Social Scene’s music really requires a lot of attention; without a close listen it might just glide by, pleasantly, but without leaving the mark it is capable of leaving. If you do take the time to listen to every song on that record, you’ll find that they really force a lot of beautiful sounds into relatively small spaces and wind up with very catchy, though somewhat challenging songs. They’re challenging because they’re often absolutely infectious, but rarely appear so on the first listen. Give it some time. I was especially drawn to Emily Haines’ (from Metric) vocals on tracks like “All to All” and “Sentimental X’s.” These songs feel like short breaks in the album where the pacing is slowed down, and as such, they stand out. Haines commands so much attention and she has a beautiful voice. Broken Social Scene has always been strong vocally, and that trend continues here. The band members inject a lot of urgency into their voices, which I like. There are so many gems here, like the frantic sing-along verses of “Chase Scene,” the upbeat, poppy “Texaco Bitches,” the mellow, soothing “Highway Slipper Jam” (complete with whistling and a steel guitar), and my personal favorite, the slow, hypnotic “Sweetest Kill.” Broken Social Scene do indie rock the right way. Their music is rich in emotion, melody, and is competently arranged. Very few bands sound like them, and their back catalog, as well as this new record, should not be missed.

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The Radio Dept. - Clinging to a Scheme (2010)

2010-04-29T19:18:00.002-04:00

2006’s Pet Grief was a good album, but in the subsequent years I all but forgot about this band. When this album leaked a couple months ago I was initially excited but in lieu of some other much anticipated releases, I forgot about it. Clinging to a Scheme is a more upbeat album than its predecessor, which is a good thing—the songs feel grab you more easily. This may be due to the use of an actual drummer, as opposed to a drum machine. The drumming is quite intricate at times, giving some songs a nice rhythmic feel. Mostly, the different sound is due to the synths creating a brighter atmosphere. The guitars also feel a bit more pronounced, making this feel more like a rock album. Vocals are my least favorite thing about the band. The songs are sung in a monotone, somewhat hushed voice that somehow sounds very obviously digitally processed though not especially distorted. This gives the album, as it did their last one, a somewhat mechanical feel—something that worked better on the more melancholic Pet Grief. They use more immediately tuneful melodies which are nice, and also throw a few curveballs like spoken-word passages on “Never Follow Suit.” If there’s anything worth complaining about, it’s the fact that some of the songs may come across as a bit too simple. These really try to be pop songs, and are quite melodic in places, but the vocals hold this album back from being as good as I think it could be. I think there will be better albums that make use of synth-heavy dreamy pop music, in the near future.

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John Grant - Queen of Denmark (2010)

2010-04-21T21:47:00.003-04:00

John Grant scores major points for recording this album with folk-rock band Midlake providing the backup. Midlake’s recent album, The Courage of Others, showed they’re masters of austere folk balladry. That album was absolutely stunning, and they do good work here with gentle piano and guitars as the most common elements. Strings and flutes pop up now and then to add some color, but this album is really intended to allow Grant to showcase his voice. He spent the past decade as frontman of The Czars, a decent indie rock band that was a bit on the mellow sound. He sings in a high baritone, or low tenor, and his voice is rich and soulful. If this album has any flaw, it’s that it sometimes sounds a bit too lounge-rock. “Chicken Bones” is an example of this, as is “Where Dreams Go to Die.” Despite the latter’s glorious chorus, he might as well be leaning on a grand piano with a glass of scotch as he sings. There are also times he sounds a bit too dramatic. A song like “Outer Space” sounds like it was pulled from the climax of a Disney adaptation of some fairytale, but the song has some nice flute playing. There are also a couple of dull, sleepy ballads towards the end of the album. “Silver Platter Club” has a bouncy music hall piano melody, and despite sounding too much like Ringo Starr’s solo work, it’s a fun song. “JC Hates Faggots” is an odd song with gritty guitars in the verses but there is something entertaining about hearing him sing some very offensive words seemingly without irony. “Queen of Denmark” features some of his best lyrics. There is something entertaining about hearing him sing, sounding quite serious, about having urinated in someone’s coffee. This album is at its best when Grant grabs hold of a melody and lets loose. He has decent pipes, so why not show them off? Given its style, it really shouldn’t be as enjoyable as it is. Far from life changing, John Grant nonetheless is an example of how a guy can sing from his heart and have it mean something. The Midlake collaboration helps too.

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Broken Bells - Broken Bells (2010)

2010-04-21T20:29:00.003-04:00

Broken Bells is a terrific pairing of two artists who complement one another perfectly. Jim Mercer is taking a break from The Shins to focus on this project, and while the aesthetic is new for him, his greatest asset is present here—his voice. He sings in a fragile tenor that is full of genuine emotion, making Shins songs like “New Slang” and “Gone for Good” among the most beautiful songs of the generation. Dangermouse is a musician/producer I know very little about but here he creates sonic backdrops that perfectly complement Mercer’s vocals. The music tends to be understated, initially seeming moderately depressive, but reveals its subtle beauty over repeated listens. It contributes so much to the mood of the album, and lends a great deal to the emotional content of the songs. Neither musician’s contributions would resonate in quite the same way without the other’s. Mercer’s typical acoustic strumming is predominant, but unlike The Shins’ cheerful, welcoming sound, it given Broken Bells a crisp, cool tone. Many of these songs have an airy, majestic tone, which makes the album sound a bit grander than any of The Shins’ work. The album’s first song, “The High Road,” is a gorgeous midtempo song that reaches absolutely sublime heights as it progresses into a refrain of “let loss be your guide.” “Citizen” is an excellent example of strings and Mercer’s acoustic guitar creating the perfect backdrop for the duo’s (I think I hear other voices as well) soulful singing. “The Ghost Inside” is an interesting song; musically it has one of the strongest melodies, a really nice percussive rhythm, and handclaps that feel absolutely necessary, but it has some unfortunate falsetto harmonies before a gorgeous (non-falsetto) last verse. The album ends with one of its better songs, “The Mall & Misery,” a more upbeat song with a glorious synth motif and catchy vocal harmonies. Ultimately, it is hard to listen to most of Broken Bells without hearing pervasive sadness. Despite this melancholic tone, I can’t hear music as beautiful, and as well-constructed as these songs and not feel good. Classifying this album into a style is probably unnecessary because there is no genre it fits into perfectly. It should suffice to say it’s hard to find more affecting music, or two musicians who accentuate the others’ strengths so well.

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Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (2010)

2010-04-19T16:16:00.006-04:00

Their second album is self-titled just like the first and that’s quite fitting since this is not a very cohesive album. Listening to it, I really couldn’t find anything to latch onto. The dance influences and layered synths are a constant throughout the album, but they try their hand at several different styles, including mellow, otherworldly ballads (“Ethereal,” “Violent Dreams”) that are a bit boring because they lack any discernible emotion. There are some classic dance-pop tunes (“Celestica,” “Year of Silence,” “Pap Smear”), that also sound as though the artists really aren’t very passionate about their craft. Worst are when try to play dance-punk, sort of like early Yeah Yeah Yeahs (think pre-Fever to Tell EPs) meets disco. These songs are sloppy (not in a good way), and feel underdeveloped. Thankfully, they only try this on “Doe Deer” and “Baptism” which is what Karen O might sound like if she were being taken hostage. I do applaud Crystal Castles for their adventurous spirit, and willingness to try different things, but it’s a shame they didn’t pick a direction and try to perfect it. This album sounds like a bunch of random parts haphazardly assembled, and it really feels empty. Their music doesn’t conjure any images in my mind, nor does it cause any emotional reaction whatsoever. In short, it had no effect on me, and for that reason I didn’t like it.

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Matt Pond PA - The Dark Leaves (2010)

2010-04-18T15:13:00.003-04:00

Matt Pond PA has fashioned a decade-long (and counting) career out of giving us things we’ve heard so many times before. The Dark Leaves, is by no means a bad album. It’s pleasantly poppy, has a warm, approachable feel to it, is often rather tuneful, and the music and vocals lend it enough emotional depth for it to feel somewhat relevant. All in all, this makes for good pop music. I rather like Pond’s vocals, in fact. The only real fault is that this album feels somewhat unfulfilling. It delivers on the one front of being musically competent and having a nice atmosphere to it, but it lacks any real defining characteristic. There isn’t one aspect of the music that sets it apart or above the rest of the pack. There also isn’t any one aspect that is annoying or feels out of place. While there really aren’t many highs and lows, “Remains” and “The Dark Leaves Theme” are especially good songs, and this album wound up being far more enjoyable than I expected.

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Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame (2010)

2010-04-14T18:00:00.002-04:00

Shame, Shame is a delightful album of sixties-flavored pop that has a very friendly quality to it. If this band is concerned primarily with writing fun music, they’ve succeeded entirely. The vocals have a nice spirited delivery, at times featuring very nice harmonies. My concern is that their style may give the illusion of a lack of personality, and thus limit the staying power of this album, but for now this should serve as a reminder that pop music is quite enjoyable when it is concerned with delivering catchy melodies.

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Across Tundras - Old World Wanderer (2010)

2010-04-14T17:53:00.002-04:00

This is sludgy post-metal. The songs are long and progress slowly, so this feels very post-rock in that sense. The guitars create a murky atmosphere, but I especially like the solos.

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Here We Go Magic - Pigeons (2010)

2010-04-08T20:09:00.003-04:00

This was released quite soon after their self-titled debut which was a very pretty psychedelic-pop album. It had a sunny, cheerful feel to it, while keeping the sound relatively fresh and interesting throughout. 15 months later, they’ll have released a second album, and it’s immediately clear they wanted to accentuate their pop sensibilities. They have done a fine job, writing songs that are genuinely catchy and tuneful, but not sacrificing that cheery psychedelic glaze that really defines the band. This new album is more immediately accessible than their debut. Their aesthetic is beautiful, and here they apply it to strong pop songwriting. The vocals tend to be in an almost-falsetto style, but aren’t so high in the mix as to dominate the songs. Instead, the textures created by the instruments is the real attraction. Some tracks, like “Hibernation” and “Old World United” are built around bouncy bass lines, while others use guitars and synths to create the mood. There are some slower tracks, like “Father Figure” (which is mislabeled in the mp3s posted) and “Land of Feeling,” which work just as well as the upbeat ones. With songs that are more immediately gripping than on their debut, I expect this album to stand out a bit more in the long run, but as it is, they have written two very strong albums in less than two years.

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The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt (2010)

2010-04-03T13:27:00.002-04:00

It’s exciting to have a follow-up to his debut, Shallow Grave (2008) coming out next week. The Wild Hunt is certainly a worthy successor to that wonderful album. Shallow Grave showcased some really nice, intricate guitar playing, that was interesting enough to carry the album. It spoke volumes about his talent that he was able to make interesting music with just his voice, a guitar, and a banjo. In 2010, he’s doing the same thing. The most striking difference is that he seems to be actually trying to sing. His voice has a shrill quality to it, and on his debut he embraced it but here he sometimes tries to strain a bit, as if trying to hit notes out of his range. This doesn’t exactly sound bad; and, though it just took some getting used to, there is such genuine emotion in his voice when he does this, it is a joy to hear. The guitar playing is still beautiful, always suiting the music so well. He still delivers great vocal hooks to keep the music interesting (see “King of Spain” for the best example). On the last track of the album, “Kids on the Run,” the guitars are replaced with a piano for a surprisingly disarming ballad. The Bob Dylan comparisons I keep reading are, at least, somewhat valid, since both artists had ways of communicating very common feelings in creative and uncommon ways, through their lyrics and the general emotion their presentation lent the songs. The Tallest Man on Earth is an artist to keep an eye on, for sure. If this is worse than Shallow Grave, it’s only so by a little bit.

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Red Sparowes - The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies The Answer (2010)

2010-04-01T19:34:00.004-04:00

So many post-rock bands are content to just run with a pretty melody for 8 minutes without it really going anywhere, or else write songs that go from point A to point B through seemingly arbitrary melody changes. Red Sparowes, who spell their name this way on purpose, are about to release their third album, and first since 2006. I can say, without hesitation, that this is their strongest album so far. In more ways than one the band has cut out the fat, so to speak, producing a leaner, more substantial set of songs than before. The song lengths are shorter this time around averaging just under six minutes (not counting the short intro), while before they averaged almost nine minutes. They use the time better too. Never does it feel as though a song is stretched out just for the sake of it. “The Sixth Extinction Crept Up” from their debut, At the Soundless Dawn (2005) is a whopping 19 minutes, but it takes over five minutes to get give us anything more than a singular repeating guitar note then after the 11½ minute mark it suddenly gives way to a minute or so of silence and then random echoes for the duration. If you need to skip around to hear a select six minutes of a 15+ minutes track, it isn’t worth it, beautiful as the meat of the songs may be. This isn’t a problem anymore. New track, “A Hail of Bombs” is a good showcase for this new approach. The guitars immediately set the mood with a pleasant, surprisingly intricate, melody that shifts subtly throughout the four minutes of the song. Not a note is wasted just lingering on an isolated stretch of pretty sounds. The very first seconds and the final few seem as relevant to the songs as the very middle. These songs immediately get down to business and end before they’ve worn out their welcome. In terms of actual sounds, they creating a tense, moody atmosphere, but also deliver plenty of gorgeous ringing guitars with a lot of haziness and reverb. This atmosphere is more tense and ominous sounding rather than being pretty in a shiny sort of way, but it isn’t overly aggressive or downright depressing. Another bonus–a rather superficial one–is that the unnecessarily long song titles from past albums are no more. Instead of titles like “And by Our Own Hand Did Every Last Bird Lie Silent in Their Puddles, The Air Barren of Song as the Clouds Drifted Away. For Killing Their Greatest Enemy, The Locusts Noisily Thanked Us and Turned Their Jaws Toward Our Crops, Swallowing Our Greed Whole,” we have “As Each End Looms and Subsides” on the new album. It’s a bit easier to take the band seriously now, with this less annoying surface quality and a more streamlined sound. They do what they do really well, and it’s great to hear them step it up. Aside from being Red Sparowes’ best album, it’s also one of the best of the genre in recent memory.

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Caribou - Swim (2010)

2010-03-28T15:25:00.003-04:00

In 2007 Caribou’s fourth album, which was his second under the “Caribou” moniker was really more of an ambient pop album that used electronic elements but wasn’t completely dominated by them. That was a first from him and it resulted in a more coherent album than his other Caribou album or either of his two under the name “Manitoba.” Swim is predominantly an electronic album but it is hard to pinpoint exactly what style of electronic music it is. Sometimes it’s clearly ambient techno, other times it has an atmospheric vibe like Autechre. Some tracks, like “Leave House” are closer to the poppiness of Andorra, which I loved. Overall, this is a good album with a lot of pleasant sounds that don’t sound overly derivative, but listening to it, it may be difficult to know exactly what you’re listening to.

Murder by Death - Good Morning, Magpie (2010)

2010-03-24T20:59:00.004-04:00

Murder by Death’s fifth full-length album is to be released on April 6^th. From the first listen, I immediately found it to be another strong addition to their catalog. Their most immediate quality is Adam Turla’s voice, which is rich, soulful, and very deep. The band’s use of an electric cello also adds immensely to their sound, lending it depth and creating a darker mood than the music would otherwise have. Good Morning, Magpie has more of a Western/Country feel than their past albums, although that style has always influenced their sound to some degree, though perhaps never as much as in their last two albums. Songs like “As Long as There is Whiskey in the World” and “Yes” are good examples, showing the band as blatantly western as they get, with catchy melodies, Turla’s great voice, and a moodier overall style. Some songs have a lounge vibe, such as “Piece by Piece” and “You Don’t Miss Twice (When You’re Shaving With a Knife).” On these songs they use horn sections and bass melodies to create something both upbeat and dark. “The Day” closes the album with a bang as the song’s lively percussion, rumbling bass, well-placed piano notes, and Turla’s relatively amped-up vocals all work together so well making it one of the best songs on the album, and in their discography. I once heard someone describe this band as a cross between Johnny Cash and Cursive, and although that doesn’t completely capture their sound, it’s not far off. Murder by Death create a tense atmosphere, with their cello and guitar sound, similar to Cursive. However, unlike Tim Kasher’s dramatic, highly emotional singing style, Adam Turla doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve. His songs, first of all, tend to be in the form of stories, rather than diary entries, and his vocals are understated, sung in a voice that is closer to talking than howling. When Turla does sing “loud” he still doesn’t sound like he’s straining himself to do so. Turla doesn’t exactly sound like Johnny Cash either, but like Cash, his deep, distinctive voice has an odd sort of charm to it. It’s really a joy to hear, although I tend to enjoy low-voiced singers. This album definitely has that old western feel, but it also has an ominous tone to it, which makes it unique and worth checking out. It's not easy to describe this band in terms of who they remind me of. It should suffice to say the music has significant depth to it, is often moody, but has a fun aspect as well, has the flavor of country music without being country, and uses its instrumentation to maximum effect. This band’s meticulous songwriting, coupled with their unique sound, and strong melodies make Good Morning, Magpie one of the best albums I’ve heard in recent memory. This isn’t just a unique album, but it’s one of five from a unique band, who have given me no reason not to expect their next album to be gold.

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Against Me! - White Crosses (2010)

2010-03-23T20:50:00.003-04:00

I hate being the guy who complains about a band abandoning their old sound, but it’s difficult to avoid that sentiment with Against Me!’s new album. They have been my favorite band for about four years now, with their debut album Reinventing Axl Rose remaining one of my favorite albums of all time. Now, eight years after they released that album, something is different. Something is even quite different from 2007 when they released New Wave which was a great album despite being miles apart from their debut. Now, in 2010, the songwriting is definitely weaker. I keep feeling as though they’re trying to replicate their previous fury, but not quite nailing it. The lyrics feel a bit forced and are more general complaints than specific criticisms, as they used to be; they’re less hard-hitting. I should note, that in the hands of most bands, these songs would be far worse. Tom Gabel injects passion into everything he says, and his voice is capable of turning a bad song into a mediocre one, a decent one into a great one, and so on, in my mind. “White Crosses,” “High Pressure Low,” and “I Was a Teenage Anarchist” are all quite catchy. “Suffocation” is the best song on the album and fits nicely alongside my favorites from their back catalog. There are a few that I haven’t learned to like yet, but in time I’m sure I’ll come to terms with Against Me!’s changing sound and my opinion of this album will probably become more positive. I think that when they play these songs live, they’ll be performed with the same passion and fury as all of their material. This is certainly my least favorite album of theirs, but I remain a fan because they’ve given me so much terrific music. One album not up to their usual standards is not going to end my fandom, and if they want to play radio-friendly modern rock they’ll do it better than most of the bands doing that.

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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Beat the Devil's Tattoo (2010)

2010-03-20T01:19:00.004-04:00

This is the first album by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club I’ve listened to and I immediately understand the widespread positive reaction to this album. It’s a creative take on post-punk, psychedelic, and garage rock that at times shifts closer to one style than the other, but is never easy to categorize. This album boasts a terrific, lively, guitar sound that lends some power to tracks like “Bad Blood.” The vocals tend to be in a lazy sort of drawl, akin to what most of those garage rock groups of the early 2000s went for. While it is a creative combination of rock subgenres, at times a given song will tread a little too close to a particular touchstone. This makes the band sometimes sound too much like their influences. This makes for enjoyable rock music, but it is hard to shake the feeling that they borrow a bit too much from their influences. Lyrics are a weak point (see “Evol,” for example), but since the music tends to either be very strong on its own, or else mostly drown out the words, this isn’t as much of a problem as it could be. Some tracks enter a sort of psychedelic/hard rock area, with “War Machine” especially reminding me of early Black Sabbath. Other times they will enter Velvet Underground territory on songs like “Evol” which makes me think of what it might sound like if Bono joined The Velvet Underground. The only true low point on the album is “Aya” which is an exercise in faux-goth brooding a la Marilyn Manson. I imagine I’ll skip that song more often than not. More often than not, they are an adequate modern day version of some of the more interesting musical styles of the past.

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She & Him - Volume Two (2010)

2010-03-18T18:58:00.004-04:00

So, where’s him? That’s what I kept thinking while listening to this album. M. Ward’s bluesy guitar playing pops up here and there, but his awesomely rustic singing voice is unfortunately used very sparingly in favor of Zooey Deschanel’s higher, sweet-but-relatively-bland voice. It just comes down to a matter of preference, and I much prefer M. Ward’s singing style. When he finally appears, on “Ridin’ in my Car,” he injects some much overdue soul to the music that lends some variety, but he only sings a few lines and then goes back to playing a supporting role to Zooey. His guitar playing is generally good, and he sings backup now and then, but everything Him does is overshadowed by She. There is a place on my itunes for pleasant, female sung, indie pop. I like Rilo Kiley, Camera Obscura, and The Fiery Furnaces, to name a few off the top of my head. However, those bands pull it off with a bit more style than Zooey does. The album has a distinctly old-timey style to it. Zooey’s voice, which is nice, reminds me of those old girl groups, and M. Ward provides backing music that mostly remains in the background as if it wants not to distract from the vocals. I was somewhat disappointed this isn’t a truer collaboration. M. Ward might as well be a session musician. Some duets would have been wonderful. As most fans of Volume I (which I haven’t heard) might expect, this is a decent pop album. I doubt those searching for this really want another M. Ward album—as I do, admittedly—and I’m sure this will satisfy fans of the genre.

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Aloha - Home Acres (2010)

2010-03-16T13:11:00.003-04:00

I haven’t listened to Aloha since shortly after Some Echoes (2006) came out, so needless to say, I am not their biggest fan. I do really like their sound, however. It’s guitar-based indie rock with the drums a bit lower in the mix and vocals that echo as if sung in a tunnel, but are more subdued than on past albums. It tries to create an atmosphere rather than simply deliver rock songs. I think Home Acres surpasses Some Echoes by showing stronger overall songwriting and a more accessible sound. Previously their game plan seems to have been to take a pretty melody and sing over it, which works to a point– Some Echoes was a very pleasant album. Every melody was gorgeous, but sometimes the songs didn’t really click. A nice melody only makes for a good song if it meshes nicely with the vocals, which it does throughout Home Acres. To their credit, they have really embraced synthesizers more than ever before, and I think this takes some pressure off the guitars for carrying the songs. The first track to really stick is “Microviolence,” which follows an opener that works more to prepare listeners for their sound than as a song in its own right. “Microviolence” uses an acoustic guitar and drums to create one of the better melodies on the album. “Everything Goes My Way” is a good example of their more melodic approach, instead of focusing primarily on texture. “White Wind” is a slower song that has a folky melody (I think I hear banjo but that might just be a guitar effect); it’s probably my favorite on the album at this point. “Blackout” is more garage-rock than the rest of the album, and I didn’t like it as much as the rest of the album, but that’s more to do with my take on the style than the execution of the song, which is solid. “I’m in Trouble” has a twee vibe to it, maybe caused by the synths, toned-down vocals, and the guitars’s jangle. “Ruins” ends the album on a high note with a longer track that encompasses everything that works well on the tracks before it. It sums up the album nicely, gorgeous synths, intricate percussion, good vocals, and a catchy refrain. The second time through the album, everything I liked about it was still there, but the tracks that didn’t impress me the first time around began to click a bit more. Songs like “Moonless March,” “Cold Storage” and “Waterwheel,” may not be as immediately gripping, but are good songs in their own right. Listening to Home Acres, I found myself torn between being caught up in the beauty of their sound and the catchiness of the songs. That’s a very good thing, and this is a very good album.

Generally, the more I ramble, the stronger my feelings are for a given album. That's the case here.

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Thrushes - Night Falls (2010)

2010-03-16T12:58:00.003-04:00

Thrushes have just released their second album, Night Falls, and it’s a winner in my book. This band from Baltimore sounds a bit like The Cure with vocals reminiscent of Rainer Maria. It’s a recipe for success, since I love The Cure’s dark, brooding, bass-heavy style, and Rainer Maria had gorgeous, emotive vocals. I actually had to check the band’s website to make sure the singer wasn’t Caithlin from Rainer Maria (it isn’t). Lyrically, this is in line with those latter-day emo groups who sang introspective lines, often sung in the first person and directed at someone who caused the singer some intense sadness. Sometimes the music sort of drowns out the vocals though, but that’s a small complaint when the album is really a good example of this type of music at it’s strongest.

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Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This (2010)

2010-03-15T18:46:00.002-04:00

Blood Red Shoes remind me of bands like Kaiser Chiefs and Hot Hot Heat. They play catchy rock music that does a lot of things we’ve heard before, but it does them fairly well. The music generally feels “right,” as in there is nothing especially bad or offputting about it unless you’re bothered by its derivative nature. I can’t help but wishing their sound had a bit more style to it—something to make the band a bit more individual. As it is, they don’t stand out from the legions of bands who combine garage rock sensibilities with a hint of punk, grunge, and sometimes shouted choruses. Bands like the aforementioned Kaiser Chiefs tend to stick because they release singles that are so infectious that you cant avoid them if you try, and when you hear them, while on line to pay for you groceries or what have you, it makes those three minutes slightly more entertaining than they normally would be. Blood Red Shoes don’t have that. They don’t have any standout track that makes me want to keep this album on repeat. They don’t have the one super-catchy chorus or that one really clever line to bring a smile to the face. They do have forty minutes of catchy alt. rock that has energy to spare but no distinct character to make this anything special. It’s a toe-tapper but a relatively empty one.

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The Apples in Stereo - Travellers in Space and Time (2010)

2010-03-09T18:25:00.003-05:00

I am in no position to comment in much depth since my experience with this band is minimal. In the past I’ve not been terribly impressed, but since my early impression of their new release is in sharp contrast to those initial opinions, I am unsure whether to trust my past or present self. This is a defiantly fun album, despite having a very bubbly surface qualities that probably have turned a lot of people off this band. The vocalist often sounds pre-pubescent, and the music is unabashedly sunny, but they seem perfectly comfortable with their aesthetic and perform these songs with conviction and a high level of energy. There are some really fun, upbeat pop songs, like “Dream About the Future,” “Hey Elevator,” “No Vacation,” and “Next Year About the Same Time.” But, there are also a handful of overly simplistic songs that aren’t fun enough to distract from their utter simplicity. This simplicity doesn’t make for enjoyable music unless the melody is especially catchy, so songs like “CPU,” “Dignified Dignitary,” “Told You Once,” and “Wings Away” are easy to skip. The vocals can become a bit tiring after a while, and the album runs about four tracks too long, not counting the intro, outro and interlude. Again, fun counts for something and they get credit for a very spirited album that wont appeal to some people simply because of that.

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Xiu Xiu - Dear God, I Hate Myself (2010)

2010-03-09T00:20:00.003-05:00

I’ve not been the biggest Xiu Xiu fan in the world, but they (or is it just one guy?) always put out adventurous music that’s worth checking out. From Dear God, I Hate Myself, I expected a heavy dose of self-loathing, electronics, ambiance, and general eccentricity. What I found was pretty much just that, but it is surprisingly accessible. I had trouble last time I played Fabulous Muscles, which was a few months ago, and figured that if I couldn’t get it to stick, it wasn’t worth returning to Women as Lovers or La Foret. At any rate, the music itself is beautiful at times, and always quirky and adventurous. He uses synthesizers, drum machines, and other effects to create a pretty engaging electronic backdrop for these songs. It may seem a bit schizophrenic though, with the melodies constantly shifting almost at random. It makes me wonder if the arrangements are purely artistic or if some of them are arbitrarily complex simply for the sake of being challenging. Some songs, like “Gray Death” and the title track are really catchy. Songs like “House Sparrow” and “Cumberland Gap” are quite beautiful. The latter is sort of his odd foray into bluegrass music, but I like it.

I guess the best thing I can say is that this is a pleasant adventurous listen. The first couple times through I had no idea what twists and turns the music was going to take, even within each song. Notes don’t follow one another in a logical, melodic progression. As a result sometimes various notes, whether on the synth, guitar, or random glitchy electronic sound, appear as if out of nowhere and disappear before you really take them in. You have to stick around to hear how the songs will end, without having the slightest clue how they will end, and I thought it was worth waiting around to see where the songs go. One glaring flaw is generally mediocre lyrics. It kind of dulls to creative soundscape when he sings about the merits of chocolate over what would be a pretty great electronic jam. Oh, and the self-loathing is there. Stewart’s voice sounds so sad; I imagine a very meek individual curled up in the corner of a recording studio delivering these lyrics, which are full of lamentations of his surroundings and his past, and often, his present self.

I don’t believe this album deserves the accolades I imagine it will get. It is a good album because it’s creativity makes me curious to hear what comes next. However, it’s a very polarizing album. People will love it or else they’ll completely not get it. I found myself shifting between both areas while listening. Xiu Xiu is certainly entertaining, but this isn’t something I’ll listen to often.

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Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010)

2010-03-06T17:15:00.003-05:00

Bands of this ilk characterize what’s going on with the indie rock/pop crowd these days. They meld genres by including various instrumental themes and stylistic motifs over a skeleton that’s just standard pop/rock at its core. The illusion is something grand and abstract, but strangely accessible, when in reality it isn’t far removed from much of what we hear out there every year. Frightened Rabbit are a pop group, and quite a good one at that. They are led by a vocalist who sings in a rather serious tone though the Scottish accent is relatively pleasant to listen to. A healthy dose of strings and keyboards give these songs in a whistful glow, and the addition of occasional woodwind and string instruments makes this feel like an artful collection of songs. Admittedly, their style is somewhat derivative, which isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but it colors my perception of that album. I hear The Arcade Fire as an obvious touchstone, most notably on “The Loneliness and the Scream.” There is an austere quality to the music that makes it hard not to take seriously, but also limits the “fun factor” inherent in the music. It is a very pleasant album, as its affect is serene and calming. Certainly not a brilliant work but Frightened Rabbit show that you can be a follower and still produce something worth indulging in. My favorite tracks are "Nothing Like You" and "Yes I Would" which sound the least like the bulk of the album. The former being more upbeat and the latter stripped-down.

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Pantha du Prince - Black Noise (2010)

2010-03-05T16:47:00.003-05:00

Ambient techno; it's more about creating an atmosphere than being dancable, and it succeeds on that front. Check it out. This Bliss (2007) is good too.

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The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night (2010)

2010-03-02T19:01:00.003-05:00

This is wonderful folk rock with a bit of psychedelia. My jaw dropped upon hearing “Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent; Pt. 2: The Innocent,” an epic track of wailing guitars, a really rhythmic percussive effect created by the rhythm section, and glorious vocals. The guitar solos throughout are gripping, as is the overall guitar tone which really propels the album. “Land of Living Skies Pt. 2…” has some really nice guitar harmonics going on. The vocals have a hazy quality to them that really gives the album an almost hypnotic vibe. On the slower tracks, like “Chicago Train,” the singer approaches a Bon Iver-esque croon. Otherwise, it has a deeper echo. The female vocals, which appear on tracks like the afformentioned “Like the Ocean…” and “Albatross” are gorgeous. Some reviewers have noted hints of shoegaze and dream pop, which isn’t the best way to characterize the album. I hear more of a psychedelic-influenced arena rock. This is only their third album since 2003, but if they’re going to wait 3-4 years between albums, music this good is worth waiting for. I don’t typically go for psychedelic stuff, but this is too addictive to pass on. Highly recommended if you like music.

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Tindersticks - Falling Down a Mountain (2010)

2010-03-02T17:25:00.004-05:00

I hear a hint of Radiohead with more of a folk aesthetic and vocals that sound like The National's, which is a recipe for success. These vocals have a pleasant baritone sound. The music, which has a very acoustic feel, sometimes approaching smooth jazz, is quite pleasant and well written. This is an album that creates a distinct mood of melancholy before shifting midway to more rock/pop oriented songwriting. The textured sound continues throughout, however and that is what reminds me of Radiohead circa early 2000s, the melding of melancholic textures, layered effects, and pop/rock elements. The harmonica on “Peanuts” is a very nice touch and shows their attention to detail and mood. “Black Smoke” has nice percussive effects and is the most pop-oriented song; it's accessibility is immediately apparent. I like the flute on “She Rode Me Down” as well. Overall, I like this. I was initially contented by the serenity conveyed by the music before noticing that there's more depth to it. I expect most non-fans to have a similar reaction. Initially this may appear a bit dull, but it grows on you and it is hard to deny that they create some gripping music.

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Hot Chip - One Life Stand (2010)

2010-02-25T23:47:00.004-05:00

I’m very pleased with this new album by Hot Chip. Their last two didn’t click with me, even though there is nothing especially bothersome about this band. I especially like the vocals on this album. They have a nice sort of airy croon that’s very emotive and has a soothing tone and meshes well with the electronics that color the album. It isn’t a dance pop record in the sense that it’s a club-ready hip-swinger sort of album, but its dance elements are more subtle giving it a lush sound, helped greatly by the vocal style. “Thieves in the Night” which opens the album is pretty much a perfect pop song. It has a nice beat to it and a pleasant melody. The synths gain momentum as the song goes until it’s a full-fledged electronica background and by the time it ends, is just sublime. I think it’s the best song of this style since “All My Friends.” While it isn’t the only good song on this album, the opener is easily the best. Another highlight is the title track, which places a catchy beat behind the soulful vocals. “Brothers” shows they can pull of a slow song as well as they do upbeat ones. The vocalists alternate verses. Finally, “Take it In” seems to want to end the album with a bang, driven by a gritty bass line over a club beat and a melody loosely reminiscient of a James Bond score. Even the weaker tracks aren’t all that bad. “Slush,” for example, is a bit on the drowsy side, although the middle section in which the vocalists duet is nice and the second half of the song showcases some interesting textures. Of course there are the requisite ringing synth notes, pounding beats, and glowing ambiance that make this dance pop, but Hot Chip use these tools to perfection on this album. That’s what makes for good pop music, having the fundamentals down and adding some personality and emotion to the mix. I think I’ll have to go relisten to The Warning and Made in the Dark.

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jj - jj n° 3 (2010)

2010-02-25T23:19:00.003-05:00

I really enjoyed this band's debut album last year and am somewhat surprised to have a follow-up so soon. In style this is a very similar album to jj n° 2. For anyone unfamiliar, their a Swedish dream pop band, but that doesn't really do them justice since beyond beautiful atmosphere is an adventurous streak that brings unusual instrumentation into their music. While there are a lot of really good song ideas here that don’t always feel fully fleshed out. The music is beautiful, very rhythmic, and there’s an orchestral section that covers everything with a heavy portion of strings. The only downside is this feels very subdued at times and I find myself wishing they would just amp it up a little bit, which I think would give this a truly majestic feel. I give them credit for their creativity, best shown on “Let Go,” but the album lacks something that would make it truly great, and instead we have a good album by a creative band, who are probably going to top this album sometime in the future.

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Bomb the Music Industry - Adults!!!... Smart!!! Shithammered!!! And Excited By Nothing!!!!!!! (2010)

2010-02-19T20:03:00.002-05:00

Bomb the Music Industry sound like a blend of hardcore punk, skate punk, and ska, with an overall attitude that is energetic and positive. They are a very fun band because they don’t sound angry, as one might expect of punk rockers, the vocals sound fairly good natured even when all the band members are screaming them at the top of their lungs. Another cool thing about them is that they record and distribute their music themselves, offering their discography for free on their website http://bombthemusicindustry.tumblr.com/, which is why I didn’t post a link. Unusual elements often find their way into the music, such as keyboards and synths, and they frequently use acoustic guitars giving some songs a folk-punk feel. In short, this is a band any fan of punk rock should hear just because they really breathe life into their music with their sense of free spiritedness (is that a word?). They’re a better, more creative, more intelligent, more fun version of NOFX, if that helps anyone. This is an EP with seven songs and is consistent with the quality of their previous work, especially their last album Scrambles (2009), despite being a bit slower. “All Ages Shows” is more or less a power ballad. The first half of “Struggler” and “Slumlord” are also more on the mellow side, and even the full-band sections feel a bit less energetic. Still, this shouldn’t disappoint fans.

Foxes in Fiction - Swung from the Branches (2010)

2010-02-19T19:45:00.002-05:00

This is a rather lengthy album of ambient music. It relies heavily on synth notes that can be heard to rise and fall in volume, with occasional percussion and vocal effects. The synths give the album a nice glow with an effect that’s somewhat hypnotic in a relaxing sort of way. I especially like the use of the ice cream truck song in “Cream Screen,” which buries that song underneath recorded highway sounds and a thick layer of airy noise. If you like ambient music, this is as good as anything. This album is offered for free at a link I found on his myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/foxesinfiction). Go here to get the album: http://foxesinfiction.blogspot.com/2010/02/swung-from-branches.html

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor (2010)

2010-02-18T21:17:00.004-05:00

Their music is quite original—it blends indie rock with punk and elements of prog-rock and it’s impressive. I couldn’t really think of an appropriate enough adjective because anything I notice about the music could be also said about any number of albums I’ve heard but wont quite capture the essence of this album. Not to say this is out of this world, it does drags on a bit at times and it does sometimes feel like they tried a bit too much, but overall this is really good. But for every overindulgent composition there’s at least a few moments where everything clicks and just feels grand, like the second half of “A Pot in Which to Piss.”

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Autechre - Oversteps (2010)

2010-02-18T20:47:00.002-05:00

I really wanted to review something I’d enjoy. A lot of the new music I’ve heard has been unremarkable, and so Autechre feels like an antidote from the mediocrity I’ve been injesting of late. This duo really doesn’t need much of an intro. They’re like the Radiohead of electronic music. Everything they do is praised for its creativity, emotional resonance, and they’ve been consistently good for over a decade. Oversteps sounds somewhat like a soundtrack to the mundane everyday lives most city folk (like me) lead. And that’s really a high compliment because they use their machines to create something that feels very real. It borders on industrial and has elements of other electronic styles here and there, but it maintains an element of gloom that conjures incredibly vivid images without using vocals or samples. It is remarkable what some artists can do, using the same or similar tools as everyone else, but creating something completely unique and interesting. Oversteps is not at all catchy or tuneful, in fact it’s hard to pick out any distinct melodies, but the atmosphere it creates is really very powerful, and makes this album worth anyone’s time.

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Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks (2010)

2010-02-18T19:33:00.002-05:00

I can really tell Ted Leo’s trying to sing his heart out, and while it’s somewhat endearing it isn’t exactly pleasant to the ears, unless the song’s melody is really great, like on “Me and Mia” or “Counting Down the Hours” from Shake the Sheets (2004). Because of this, your tolerance for his voice will go a long way to determining whether you like his music. If you liked his past work, I don’t see any reason you won’t enjoy this. It’s certainly a bit more inspired and cohesive than his last album, Living With the Living (2007). Most of the music on this album is straight out of the typical punk rock playbook with quick downpicking on the guitars alternated with power chords in the chorus (see “The Mighty Sparrow”) and a drummer trying to kill something on his snare drum (see most of these songs). I cant really fault a band for sticking with what’s tried-and-true. Ted Leo does this, but his music is not boring. The pacing and energy does get a bit exhausting since there aren’t the strong melodies to grab you, but that doesn’t make it boring. All of the songs sound pretty distinct, even on the first listen, which is an accomplishment. Many of them are, as described above, fast-paced rockers in which Ted howls his vocals over garage-rock-ish music. Then there are some more gritty songs, generally a bit more distorted and messy, like “Mourning in America” (good song) and “The Stick” (not so good). This style is very hit or miss because it sounds like Ted is trying to be something he isn’t. They don’t stand up well alongside his typical vocal style, which is somewhat high-pitched, sometimes (unintentionally, I think) bordering on squeaky. Then there are a couple quieter slower tunes, which provide a nice respite from his energy, such as “One Polaroid a Day” and “Tuberculoids Arrive in Hop”. I find a lot to dislike about his music but somehow I enjoy this a lot more than my opinions may make it seem. It isn’t remarkable but it’s pretty fun, which is more than enough to be worth my time. My favorite song is “Bottled in Cork” which makes good use of an acoustic guitar to provide some rhythm.

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Lightspeed Champion - Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You (2010)

2010-02-16T20:53:00.003-05:00

Lightspeed Champion spends too much time trying to borrow from his predecessors and influences when he is probably capable of writing perfectly good pop songs in his own style. Falling Off the Lavender Bridge (2008) was a fine, though not remarkable album and I expected him to follow it with a similar album because… why not, right? He must have gotten very bored over the last two years, because this new album is something else entirely. The songs that I most enjoy from this album are the ones that are unabashedly poppy, the ones that latch onto something really fun (like the funky melody of “Marlene”) and don’t try to be anything more or less than the sum of their parts. These songs are in the minority. On most of this album he appears to be going for a more abstract type of songwriting. A lot of songs go for the fuzzy lo-fi-ish indie pop of bands like Guided by Voices or Pavement—groups that made it okay for pop music to not be all that poppy in the traditional sense. That’s all fine and good, but it comes across as derivative when Lightspeed Champion does it, and it’s made even worse by the fact that the less ingenuous songs here are the better ones. If he’d not been trying so hard, he might have written a better album. Some examples… “I Don’t Want to Wake Up Alone” sounds like a crappy high-school power trio covering GBV (or The Ramones with your discman headphones on the fritz, take your pick), and it just as compelling as it sounds. “Smooth Day (At the Library)” sounds like a sleepy soul song until it devolves inexplicably into aimless guitar noodling. “Dead Head Blues” is a cutesy duet sung over very underproduced ukulele strumming, but I don’t usually judge first tracks too harshly as I typically expect them to be intros of some sort to wean us slowly onto the meat and potatoes of the album. “There’s Nothing Underwater” is eerie synths and echoes with barely audible vocals (was it recorded underwater?) It comes across as pretentious rather than artistic. I mean, good for you LC, you’re “unconventional.” That means nothing unless you have the music to back it up. You can be a pioneer, an experimenter if you will, but to be successful, it has to translate into good music and it doesn’t on this album. Then there are the intermissions. They add nothing to the album basically because they sound pretty much exactly like the aimless offbeat jams that surround them. Interludes on albums are meant to somehow break up the continuity of an album by interjecting something different from the bulk of the record. These intermissions really aren’t intermissions, and I’m not a big fan of intermissions anyway. If an album is good enough, it doesn’t need to have an aimless divider (cough cough Band of Horses) of whatever ambient noise or instrumental motif the artists feel compelled to include but couldn’t write into an actual song. If he turned in an entire album of poppy songs like “Marlene,” “Romart,” and “Madame Van Damme” this would be among the best albums of the year so far. Instead it tries to be something fresh and intrepid and falls flat on its face.

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Eluvium - Similes (2010)

2010-02-10T18:30:00.004-05:00

Eluvium make really pretty ambient music that sounds a bit classical at times. He does wonderful things with a piano and his vocals aren’t too bad, though they aren’t the main attraction. He creates a very nice atmosphere with his ambient sounds. My only complaint is that sometimes it gets a bit predictable: often songs are in the form of a shimmering note that grows progressively louder until the piano and maybe vocals come in. This motif is so common amongst instrumental post-rock and ambient music that it lacks any real impact. This type of music is not supposed to be predictable in the slightest, and that keeps Eluvium from being a really great ambient artist. His music is pleasant enough to make for great albums though, since it isn’t easy to put this much beauty on a compact disc.

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The Album Leaf - A Chorus of Storytellers (2010)

2010-02-09T20:45:00.004-05:00

This is another very pretty album from Mr. LaValle. This is his fifth, and is maybe a small step down from Into the Blue Again (2006). It’s mostly instrumentals that rely on ambiance and makes great use of piano and synthesizers to create its atmosphere. I generally like when he sings, as he did on a couple of great songs from Into the Blue Again, but the vocals on “Falling From the Sun” and “We Are” feel too much like the centerpiece of the songs, and I would prefer them to compliment the soundscapes rather than distracting from them. “There is a Wind” and “Almost There” are tracks with vocals that work well, however, maybe because it feels as though the vocals fit the melodies a bit better. His vocals are really devoid of emotion but have a nice sort of echo to them that works well with the keyboards and ringing synthesizers. While much of this album is truly beautiful, he’s really going to need to make some changes to his sound. Five albums in, it’s beginning to approach stagnation. Hopefully next time the music will have something to make it unique and fresh, like he sounded the first time I heard him. Picking out highlights seems foolish since the album really doesn’t differ all that much from track to track, but I’ll be foolish and go with “Falling From the Sun” and “Tied Knots” simply because of their stunning melodies. Chances are, you’ll be using this as background music while focusing on something else, like studying or housework, and it’s likely to sort of float by unless you make a distinct effort to pay attention, but if you do, you’ll hear some very pleasant music.

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Liars - Sisterworld (2010)

2010-02-06T12:49:00.003-05:00

Liars are all about atmosphere and mood, but they play songs that are structured in the standard rock format, so they are a bit odd to say the least. The buzz around their back catalog, especially Drum’s Not Dead (2006) outshadowed my actual impression of the music, which was of appreciation without being overly enthused. The vocals are very understated, and the synthesizers, guitar, and percussion produce sounds that are hard to latch onto. These aren’t rock songs, but they don’t feel like the non-rock music I’m used to. It doesn’t really feel like a progression, like post-rock. It doesn’t have the free-flowing nature of the better jazz or electronic albums I’ve heard. And it doesn’t have anything that immediately jumps out at the listener, so (unless you’ve been swept in by the hype) you’re facing the moodiness of these songs, most of which convey images of confusion. I think the impression most people will get is that this is a challenging album, and that will undoubtedly appeal to many people who will find the overall mood of this album brilliant. But, listeners should be prepared for something unwaveringly moody, and if they can get past that, they’ll find a very interesting album that doesn’t sound like much else out there.

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Four Tet - There is Love in You (2010)

2010-02-06T12:45:00.003-05:00

Four Tet’s electronica music sounds like most decent electronica music I’ve heard. If you have the ear for it, maybe you’ll hear what sets him apart from others making this type of music. For the rest of us, this is pleasant, midtempo electronic music that’s catchy but not all that memorable as far as electronica goes. The album has received mostly glowing reviews, suggesting that this album is simpler and more stripped-down than some of his past work. I think this is a good album, but it probably wont elicit strong reactions from most listeners. It’s often quite pretty, which is really all I need for this type of music.

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The Magnetic Fields - Realism (2010)

2010-01-30T17:05:00.003-05:00

Even though their music isn’t overtly challenging, The Magnetic Fields are fairly adventurous. They tend to throw odd combinations of instrumentation into their songs, are unconcerned with catchiness or melody, and Stephen Merritt is extremely sarcastic and bitter. “Realism” is predominantly acoustic, mellow, and this gives it the illusion of being lifeless when it stands next to albums like Distortion (2008) or Get Lost (1995). They aren’t at their best here, although fans will probably like this simply by virtue of it being Stephen Merritt and containing songs that are his, for what that’s worth. I don’t expect this to become anyone’s favorite album of theirs, but at least it shows they still do what they do well, and are creative as ever, even if that creativity doesn’t translate into songs as striking as their best ones. “I Don’t Know What to Say,” “Everything is One Big Christmas Tree” and “Seduced and Abandoned” are my favorites.

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Alkaline Trio - Agony & Irony (2008)

2010-01-30T16:40:00.004-05:00

Their sixth album is their furthest removed from their original sound. It's far more accessible, and ready for mainstream rock radio than their best work, but it has some songs worth hearing. "Help Me" is a catchy single. "Into the Night" is probably the best song here, and bassist Dan Andriano's four tracks are all solid, especially "In Vein," and "Do You Want to Know." Corey Apar from AMG.com writes: "it's a little hard not to wish for more of that edgy bitterness to creep back into the songs, roughing things up a bit and adding some excitement to the mix. The album is still enjoyable and damn catchy in spots — but knowing as much as we do about this talented trio, it seems like it could have been so much better." That sums it up.

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Out Hud - Let Us Never Speak of it Again (2005)

2010-01-30T16:36:00.003-05:00

The second and last album from this electropop group is a perfectly decent album, despite being done pretty much by the book. It's most noteworthy feature is a track called "Dear Mr. Bush, There are Over 1000 Words for Shit and Only 1 for Music. Fuck You, Out Hud." Worth a listen if you're into this sort of thing.

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These New Puritans - Hidden (2010)

2010-01-26T20:52:00.003-05:00

These New Puritans fall somewhere between 1980s post-punk and the sort of dance pop you’ll hear if you live anywhere near a nightclub. The former can be heard in the guitars which are often amelodic and noisy, appearing at various points in the song to lend a gritty feel to the music. The dance aspect is helped by the synths and vocals; it doesn’t really help the music, as the vocals tend to be rather obnoxious and the synthesizers don’t really add much color or texture. The drums often play rather monotonous beats as well, so this comes across as more dance than post-punk. This is a decent album, and if you like the hybrid style they’re going for you may find this interesting.

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Alkaline Trio - This Addiction (2010)

2010-01-25T19:44:00.003-05:00

I have mixed feelings about this album. Alkaline Trio are a band I have loved since I first heard them 7 years ago. Their first four albums are absolutely perfect in my mind, as are their two b-sides compilations. They combined catchy pop-punk with a macabre sense of humor with a very fun effect. From their fifth album, Crimson (2005), energy was sacrificed when they decided to begin experimenting with keyboards and the punk energy that characterized their early music was all but gone on their sixth album, Agony & Irony (2008), so I was thrilled when I read they wanted to go back to their punk roots on the new album. They didn’t really do that, in fact about half of these songs sound as though they would fit on their underwhelming 2008 album.

First the positive. This is better than Agony & Irony. This is more like their earlier stuff, without actually being like it, if that makes sense. Some of these songs are very catchy, such as “Lead Poison,” “This Addiction,” “Piss and Vinegar,” and “Dead on the Floor” which is a great slower song. Matt Skiba’s voice sounds great. He’s a highly emotive vocalist and I love hearing him sing. The band still sounds good, technically. That means that I won’t regret spending $58 on two tickets to see them live in March. If they play a bunch of old songs, which they usually do, then they will sound pretty much like Alk3 circa 2003. There are no obvious signs of age, wear and tear, or lost enthusiasm. The brass section on “Lead Poison” is a nice touch, and shows that they aren’t complacent with their sound.

There are a few issues I have with this album. First, the lyrics. The band has a great sense of humor, but some of these lyrics are a bit cliché. Second, it sounds more like they were trying to recreate their old sound than an actual revisitation of that sound. They’re playing similar melodies at similar tempos but with a different attitude, so it comes across differently. It just lacks something their early material had. Their melodies had a certain momentum back then they don’t have now. I think they rushed this album, but over a half dozen listens it has started to grow on me. At the end of the day this is a decent album from a band I love. It’s hard to hear musicians who are important to you change, but the change could have been much, much worse. They are still Alkaline Trio, and are still great, and This Addiction is a fine album that doesn’t measure up to their awesome earlier albums.

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Sp0on - Transference (2010)

2010-01-25T19:25:00.002-05:00

I grew a bit bored of Spoon’s back catalog, so this new album gives them a fresh slate and I like this. Their style is distinctive, refreshingly simple, and generally pretty catchy. They really revel in this simplicity, and are a better band when they keep it simple, as they do on this album. They play melodies that everyone’s heard a thousand times before, but inject their own flavor into the music. I think it helps that most vocalists don’t sounds quite like Britt Daniel, and his singing style really does define the band. He can sing falsetto without making me want to turn the volume down (“Who Makes Your Money”), but I like when his voice best when it has a wailing sort of quality on the verses of “Written in Reverse” and “Trouble Comes Running.” “The Mystery Zone” is my favorite here, with a catchy beat and nice little flourishes of guitar appearing here and there. I don’t think there is a monumental difference in quality between their best albums and their worst, and the trend continues here.

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Beach House - Teen Dream (2010)

2010-01-21T20:20:00.003-05:00

Beach House have released two great albums before this one, a self-titled (2006) and Devotion (2008), both of which were absolutely gorgeous. The same could be said about this one, although it sounds like their sound is diversifying. They don’t seem to be constrained in that somber dream pop sound that so many of their peers are, but they try some different things on this album. They don’t hide behind the melancholy, which only thinly veils these intricate songs. Victoria Legrand’s vocals are crisp and clear and will capture your attention, so you’ll have to listen close to really take note of the arrangements, like the organ on “Walk in the Park” that really add depth to these songs but may not jump out at you. Lyrically, this deals with common themes such as loss, which contributes to the sadness that characterizes their music, but it would do them no justice to not listen past such first impressions to the strong songwriting. Overall, this is pleasant album from back to front and compares favorably with their first two albums. Favorites: “Zebra,” “Norway,” “Used to Be.”

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Favorite Albums of 2009 (Part 4)

2010-01-21T19:15:00.008-05:00

(5) Built to Spill - There is No Enemy

(4) David Bazan - Curse Your Branches

(3) The Duke & The King - Nothing Gold Can Stay

(2) Chuck Ragan - Gold Country

(1) Metric - Fantasies

Took long enough. One sentence each should suffice. Built to Spill's album is one of their more consistent ones and a vast improvement over their last. David Bazan wrote a very clever batch of songs that are interesting thematically. The Duke & The King released a mellow folk album with excellent vocal harmonies. Chuck Ragan, former singer of Hot Water Music, sings protest songs that borrow from folk and country, a style he is well-suited for. Metric's latest is one of the catchiest albums in recent memory, and is both fun and intelligent.

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Ringo Starr - Y Not (2010)

2010-01-16T00:01:00.003-05:00

On Y Not, Ringo tries to present a lot of things we’ve heard before as if they’re actually still meaningful. That’s harsh, but also part of the reason he has the reputation he does. This is not to say I hate this album, because I don’t. I wouldn’t even call it bad. I think he’s still stuck in a time when pop music really sold. These days, I’d say it’s more accurate to say it’s borrowed. People latch on and then forget about it. In five years, who’s going to remember Lady Gaga, or Miley Cirus, or any American Idol (other than Kelly Clarkson)? This is not really what people want to hear, and unless it has any special meaning or importance to its author, it serves little purpose. Ringo needs to write a bunch of songs that actually speak to people and that feel relevant. This might have been received well 30 years ago, but not today. One instance: He actually refers to a “Peace Dream” as if it’s a real thing. The song is a giant cliché, and it isn’t one that has anything pleasurable about it. “Time” begins with the lyrics “Time waits for nobody, and nobody waits for time,” which shows the problem that plagues Ringo’s work. The last track, “Who’s Your Daddy” features Joss Stone (a young R&B singer) and is just a big pile of crap. Some songs are fine though. “The Other Side of Liverpool” isn’t bad. “Walk With You” features Paul McCartney singing in the chorus, which is nice, and “Everyone Wins” would be pretty good with a better singer. I think Ringo was less of an artist than the other three Beatles, and so his work doesn’t seem to have a real strong personality. It just sort of borrows from those he surrounded himself with during his career. I think Ringo genuinely likes making music, and is genuinely having a good time, and so the greatest pleasure I got from Y Not was the idea that he probably had a good time making the album.

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Favorite Albums of 2009 (Part 3)

2010-01-15T21:58:00.007-05:00

(10) Converge – Axe to Fall

(9) Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South

(8) Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle

(7) Grand Archives – Keep in Mind Frankenstein

(6) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Converge are giants in the metal scene, although their music can better be described as a specific brand of noisy hardcore punk that borrows from heavy metal styles. Axe to Fall is their seventh album and it seems to borrow more blatantly from heavy metal, especially in the guitar playing. They are defined by their heaviness, which is more than simply the requisite distortion, down-tuned guitars, and screamed vocals. They seem to take each element of heavy music to a higher level, with vocals could shatter glass, intricate guitar playing, and a rhythm section that makes its presence known. Tuneful passages can be heard, but its under the mire of the band’s extreme style which makes this album a spectacle. They consider this album a departure from their last three albums, which were, in turn, a departure from their early material. They worked with some guest musicians on this album and experimented more with progressive rock, although they’ve dabbled a bit in that direction on their last three albums. There are a bunch of raw, aggressive tracks, but the slower ones, like “Worms Will Feed,” “Cruel Bloom,” and “Wretched World” are absolutely epic. Outer South is Conor Oberst’s second post-Bright Eyes full length album, with the Mystic Valley Band. Seven of these 16 songs are sung by Conor’s bandmates, but the highlights are Oberst’s own songs. He has grown into a wonderful songwriter, nowhere near as indulgent as he was in his amateur days. “Nikorette,” “Roosevelt Room,” “Spoiled,” and “I Got a Reason #2” are the best tracks, but Conor’s bandmates steal attention from him, giving the album a different feel when compared to his last one. Nik Freitas, who toured with Bright Eyes two years ago, contributes “Big Black Nothing” and “Bloodlines,” two relatively bland midtempo songs. Taylor Hollingsworth’s two songs, “Air Mattress” and “Snake Hill” are an acquired taste due to his unusual voice, although the former song is fun and lighthearted. Jason Boesel, the drummer, contributes “Eagle on a Pole” and “Difference is Time.” His singing voice has the most in common with Oberst’s and his songs are the least offensive of the non-Oberst tracks (actually, they are quite good). Finally, bassist Macey Taylor sings “Worldwide,” an unmemorable song. The shared songwriting gives the album a somewhat disjointed feel, especially since the five singers do not have all that much in common, but the high points on this album are very high, and the low points are not really that bad. Bill Callahan, known as “Smog” for his first 11 albums, released his second record under his birth name this year. As usual, his poetry, delivered in a deadpan style through his baritone voice, is very intriguing. His lyrics, in many songs, could be interpreted to be about a wide variety of things. I found that many of his lyrics had a certain relevance to my own life, although I was often convinced my interpretation was not necessarily the one Callahan had in mind. I like this; the album feels like it is very much the property of the listener. Aesthetically, his voice is backed by subtle musical nuances that, on close listen, are revealed to suit the songs very well. For example, the light drumming on “Eid Ma Clack Shaw,” the understated acoustic guitar strummed on “Too Many Birds,” the gripping melody of “My Friend,” or “Faith/Void” which is my favorite song of the year, expressing a sentiment I don’t hear often enough. This album just feels very right in so many ways. Grand Archives released their second album in as many years in 2009, and it’s comprised if incredibly beautiful melodies, both in the vocals and the guitars, it’s the kind of album that makes me forget I live in the middle of a city. It really commands my attention. Every word Matt Brooke sings seems to have far more impact than it should on paper. The guitars on The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s album chime and buzz in a very fun way, turning what would be decent pop songs into something very fun to hear. The haziness covers the vocals just enough so that you don’t really focus on the words but the melodies, which are strong. See, “Young Adult Friction.” It’s very rare that this type of music is done this well.

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Adam Green - Minor Love (2010)

2010-01-15T19:40:00.003-05:00

Green is a former member of the well-received pop group Moldy Peaches. His solo work is pretty standard singer/songwriter fare. His songs are all very short, none reaching three minutes, and he doesn’t really do anything especially interesting on any of them. His vocals are rather high in the mix, so it takes a very close listen to even identify what instruments are being played. Keyboards and percussion are the most dominant ones, but none of the backing music really contributes all that much to the songs. They add some color, but at no point is there anything really distracting you from his vocals. He sounds a bit like Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, with maybe a bit less of that drawling moan style of singing. Most of his songs take on a storytelling form, with him telling of some experience he’s had. My main issue with this album is that nothing he says is very compelling or especially fun. An album that is neither interesting or somehow fun to listen to, is hard to love. Despite the simplicity of his songwriting, Minor Love is performed fairly well with no major flaw, just a lack of anything great. Overall, this is a decent pop album and nothing more.

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