Have been keeping these short, and I haven't been getting to as many albums, cause man I am getting crushed by finishing this dissertation. This one was from all the usual sources, these guys certainly qualify as darlings by now.
What an unexpected album, sincerely leaping into a variety of young love pop genres from the last 60 years, sounding a bit like Tom Petty or Elvis Costello (or a toned-down Exploding Hearts) in their general simpler-times retroism, but they actually manage to put their own stamp on the sound. The album evokes styles without aping them, and puts all the parts together to make a pretty nice mood piece on nostalgic love from times that never were. Its moving in a curious, roundabout way, and compelling in its old/new/other swirl. I'm not even sure I liked it, but I'm compelled. Carolina in particular is a masterpiece, overtly evoking beach boys era wistfulness, all sandwiched a in Pumpkinsey shimmering intro and a stompy climax. I'm tempted to go silver, but I think I'm just enthralled, lets keep it to a more accurate 3.5/5
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
#239 Mumford and Sons - Sigh no More
Third and last one from the Dave batch.
This time going into plucked, lush, anthemic country, sounding a bit like late-era Blitzen Trapper, Mountain Goats, Okkervil River or Dan Mangan. Which is not a bad thing, its actually generally listenable, powerful and well-paced. The main knock on it is that man, this album is tortured. This guy obviously went through some kind of breakup, because it is all epic pain, regret, resentment and loss. It's a good album to have around if you're going through that kind of stuff, and a better than decent one regardless 3.5/5
This time going into plucked, lush, anthemic country, sounding a bit like late-era Blitzen Trapper, Mountain Goats, Okkervil River or Dan Mangan. Which is not a bad thing, its actually generally listenable, powerful and well-paced. The main knock on it is that man, this album is tortured. This guy obviously went through some kind of breakup, because it is all epic pain, regret, resentment and loss. It's a good album to have around if you're going through that kind of stuff, and a better than decent one regardless 3.5/5
#238 Beats Antique - Collide
Also from Dave.
This is a lot more interesting to me, vaguely middle eastern themed downbeat instrumental hip hop, with lots of rough corners and glitchy jags in it. The beats are sometimes simple, sometimes oddly off-kilter, sometimes a bit of both, and the production is lush with diverse instrumentation. The problem is really the pacing though, after half an hour of this, it all starts to blend together, and starts to get a little annoying, and you've still got half an hour left. Sweet Demure is a highlight that helps though, slowing the pace down into an (again!) Ratatatesque surger, but still, as an album its a tough listen. Certainly worth hearing once, its a unique thing, it just isn't quite listenable enough for me to go higher than 3/5
This is a lot more interesting to me, vaguely middle eastern themed downbeat instrumental hip hop, with lots of rough corners and glitchy jags in it. The beats are sometimes simple, sometimes oddly off-kilter, sometimes a bit of both, and the production is lush with diverse instrumentation. The problem is really the pacing though, after half an hour of this, it all starts to blend together, and starts to get a little annoying, and you've still got half an hour left. Sweet Demure is a highlight that helps though, slowing the pace down into an (again!) Ratatatesque surger, but still, as an album its a tough listen. Certainly worth hearing once, its a unique thing, it just isn't quite listenable enough for me to go higher than 3/5
#237 Little People - Mickey Mouse Operation
Some hip hop flavored stuff I got from Dave.
This is some kinda groovy, instrumental hip hop stuff, sounding a bit like DJ shadow, but generally sounding more composed, a bit more classical, and a lot less sample driven. And not as good. I mean, c'mon. It actually reminds me of Ratatat a bit, having a similar repetitiveness and production sheen. Totally listenable stuff, especially Eitheror and Start Shootin, which have some nice beats and propulsive energy, nothing on here that totally blows me away though 3/5
This is some kinda groovy, instrumental hip hop stuff, sounding a bit like DJ shadow, but generally sounding more composed, a bit more classical, and a lot less sample driven. And not as good. I mean, c'mon. It actually reminds me of Ratatat a bit, having a similar repetitiveness and production sheen. Totally listenable stuff, especially Eitheror and Start Shootin, which have some nice beats and propulsive energy, nothing on here that totally blows me away though 3/5
Saturday, November 27, 2010
#236 Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Everyone's going nuts on this album. Guess I better check it out.
Pitchfork in particular went all 10 on this, and usually when they like a rap album, I'm not into it (see also Clipse, Tha Carter III). And I don't really like Kanye all that much, finding him to be a bit too self aware, a bit too concerned about being a good rapper and not concerned enough with just fucking rapping.
Here though, I have to admit, he turns some kind of corner. For one thing, his self awareness goes over the top and around the horn, becoming neurotic, erratic and bracingly personal, somehow. For another, while I'm still not too into his rapping, the production and structure is the star here. Its like I said about early Busdriver, you're better off thinking of it is a really weird art rock album that just happens to have a rapper at the helm. Here too, this is barely a hip hop album in any traditional sense, the track lengths run long, the sentiment is all over the place, the structure is wildly inventive, the approaches to production busting themselves in half everywhere. There are bizarre, fractured outros, going on for a minute, two minutes, three minutes on half the songs, following no particular method. Runaway ends on a fuzzy, strangely heartbreaking vocals-distorted-to-pure-synth solo that runs three minutes thirty! Who does that on a hip hop album?
I want to call this a prog-hip-hop album. Influences from genres far outside the co-hyphenated genre? Check. Long songs? Guitars? Check, check. Complexity in structure on a micro and macro level? Check. A general sense of indulgence, in the service of an attempt to be something "more important" than the genre normally demands? Double check. Heck, it even samples King Crimson's 1969 masterpiece 21st Century Schizoid Man; if that's not a wink I don't know what is. So as a rap album, its not what I'm looking for in rap. As an album in general? If I just take this in terms of what I want from music? Very yes. For the most part, he actually pulls it off.
So Appalled and Devil in a New Dress break up the flow pretty badly, each is momentum-killingly repetitive and generally a miss, but the rest is compelling, and even a bit heartbreaking, adding up to two pretty excellent half-albums on either side of that too-slow core. In my book, that's a solid 4.5/5
Pitchfork in particular went all 10 on this, and usually when they like a rap album, I'm not into it (see also Clipse, Tha Carter III). And I don't really like Kanye all that much, finding him to be a bit too self aware, a bit too concerned about being a good rapper and not concerned enough with just fucking rapping.
Here though, I have to admit, he turns some kind of corner. For one thing, his self awareness goes over the top and around the horn, becoming neurotic, erratic and bracingly personal, somehow. For another, while I'm still not too into his rapping, the production and structure is the star here. Its like I said about early Busdriver, you're better off thinking of it is a really weird art rock album that just happens to have a rapper at the helm. Here too, this is barely a hip hop album in any traditional sense, the track lengths run long, the sentiment is all over the place, the structure is wildly inventive, the approaches to production busting themselves in half everywhere. There are bizarre, fractured outros, going on for a minute, two minutes, three minutes on half the songs, following no particular method. Runaway ends on a fuzzy, strangely heartbreaking vocals-distorted-to-pure-synth solo that runs three minutes thirty! Who does that on a hip hop album?
I want to call this a prog-hip-hop album. Influences from genres far outside the co-hyphenated genre? Check. Long songs? Guitars? Check, check. Complexity in structure on a micro and macro level? Check. A general sense of indulgence, in the service of an attempt to be something "more important" than the genre normally demands? Double check. Heck, it even samples King Crimson's 1969 masterpiece 21st Century Schizoid Man; if that's not a wink I don't know what is. So as a rap album, its not what I'm looking for in rap. As an album in general? If I just take this in terms of what I want from music? Very yes. For the most part, he actually pulls it off.
So Appalled and Devil in a New Dress break up the flow pretty badly, each is momentum-killingly repetitive and generally a miss, but the rest is compelling, and even a bit heartbreaking, adding up to two pretty excellent half-albums on either side of that too-slow core. In my book, that's a solid 4.5/5
#235 Jatoma - Jatoma
I think this is a leftover vestige of the minimal technoey kinda dusted kick I went on a while back.
I have a terrible time trying to review electronic music, I just don't quite know how to tune into what its trying to do. I've come to believe that part of the appeal of rock music is, on some subconscious level, feeling like you're in the band, feeling the excitement you imagine would be felt playing that music. Which is why background matters, why attitude matters, while subtle details that aren't quite the actual music matters, even though it shouldn't. That gets short circuited in electronic music, where there is no band, and I can only guess at the process.
This album is fairly standard, loop based, texture driven stuff, just complex enough to be interesting, just organic and wobbly enough to not sound like all the rest. Its generally well-paced, balancing its hypnotic qualities with a bit of narrative, and its generally effective at evoking space, though it doesn't strike me as overly adventurous. Its pretty good working music, I'll probably return to it if I manage to differentiate the half dozen albums I've heard in the last year that fit this same basic description 3.5/5
I have a terrible time trying to review electronic music, I just don't quite know how to tune into what its trying to do. I've come to believe that part of the appeal of rock music is, on some subconscious level, feeling like you're in the band, feeling the excitement you imagine would be felt playing that music. Which is why background matters, why attitude matters, while subtle details that aren't quite the actual music matters, even though it shouldn't. That gets short circuited in electronic music, where there is no band, and I can only guess at the process.
This album is fairly standard, loop based, texture driven stuff, just complex enough to be interesting, just organic and wobbly enough to not sound like all the rest. Its generally well-paced, balancing its hypnotic qualities with a bit of narrative, and its generally effective at evoking space, though it doesn't strike me as overly adventurous. Its pretty good working music, I'll probably return to it if I manage to differentiate the half dozen albums I've heard in the last year that fit this same basic description 3.5/5
#234 KC Accidental - Anthems for Could've Bin Pills
The other half of the band's twin albums, see #233.
I don't know if its because I listened to this after CAfaEB, but man, this one is a lot slower, a lot more minimal, and I just find it kind of boring. Four songs cross the 7 minute mark, and most of them just don't justify it.
I have long thought that You Forgot it in People had a day half and a night half, and this feels like the night half to CAfaEB's day half. But here the difference is too extreme, where the previous album felt alive and pulsing, this feels like half-dead noodling, music played during the comedown, with no sense of its own pacing. It just meanders, and doesn't even seem interested in itself. Its a striking difference; I can't see revisiting this one any time soon. I'm just glad they were nice enough to split it up, otherwise finding a single rating for the two would be grueling 2/5
I don't know if its because I listened to this after CAfaEB, but man, this one is a lot slower, a lot more minimal, and I just find it kind of boring. Four songs cross the 7 minute mark, and most of them just don't justify it.
I have long thought that You Forgot it in People had a day half and a night half, and this feels like the night half to CAfaEB's day half. But here the difference is too extreme, where the previous album felt alive and pulsing, this feels like half-dead noodling, music played during the comedown, with no sense of its own pacing. It just meanders, and doesn't even seem interested in itself. Its a striking difference; I can't see revisiting this one any time soon. I'm just glad they were nice enough to split it up, otherwise finding a single rating for the two would be grueling 2/5
#233 KC Accidental - Captured Anthems for an Empty Bathtub
Saw this reviewed on Pitchfork, I always liked the early Broken Social Scene stuff, and this is kind of its prequel, featuring many of the same members. This was recently released with #234 as a single disc, but I have different feelings about the two, and they were originally separate, so:
This is the good one of the two. Its all propulsive beats, repetitive guitar lines, hints of experimentation and tons of fuzz, like The Microphones go Krautrock. It left me grinning, tapping my foot, with an eye through time. It has that BSS ability to evoke something bigger and mysterious and half-remembered, which makes the songs seem to stretch beyond themselves. Its not an everytime kind of album, dark and paced with priorities all its own, and it loses some momentum on the second half, but I will certainly revisit it. If nothing else, BSS diggers should hit this up just as an interesting big of lineage 4/5
This is the good one of the two. Its all propulsive beats, repetitive guitar lines, hints of experimentation and tons of fuzz, like The Microphones go Krautrock. It left me grinning, tapping my foot, with an eye through time. It has that BSS ability to evoke something bigger and mysterious and half-remembered, which makes the songs seem to stretch beyond themselves. Its not an everytime kind of album, dark and paced with priorities all its own, and it loses some momentum on the second half, but I will certainly revisit it. If nothing else, BSS diggers should hit this up just as an interesting big of lineage 4/5
Monday, November 22, 2010
#232 The Naked and the Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You
Heard these guys on NPR and it spurred the mini kiwi kick I'm on now. They're from New Zealand. Kiwi. Natch.
I try not to be a an ass / lazy reviewer by deconstructing an album into its influences and sounds-likes, but sometimes that's just how I perceive an album. Sometimes, if you sound enough like things I've heard before, I can't stop hearing those songs too, while I'm trying to listen to your album. This kinda ruined the Clues album for me. Here, the overriding point of reference is singles-off-oracular-spectacular MGMT: the male singer sounds like them, the guitar buzz sounds like them, the song structures sound like them, the big gated/synth snares on the 2's and 4's sound like them. This is especially on tracks 13, 2 (which sounds goddamn exactly like Kids for most of its duration) and 7 (which also more or less cops the main vocal riff from Passion Pit's Sleepyhead for good measure). I'm not trying to be a wiseass, honestly. But I keep getting aggressively reminded of these bands while I'm trying to listen.
Track 9 sounds like YYY's annual maps-alike, track 5 sounds like Trent Reznor remixing Everything in its Right Place (down to the cadence of the vocal delivery and the same organ sound), and track 10 seemingly cops the exact same background guitar chug from TVotR's Staring at the Sun (like, exactly) along with the TVotR-trademarked oooo's at the end, almost as a wink. Are these guys taking the piss? I'll assume not. Track 6 spends its first minute sounding (a lot) like an M83 cover, and track 1 sounds like Los Campesinos covering All My Friends.
And look, I like those songs, and I like those sounds. And if I had never heard of those bands, I would probably love this. And some tracks survive. I like the breakdown in the opening track a lot, and track 9 has a nice off-kilter energy to it, evoking my love of Zooropa rather than drowning me in sounding exactly like a specific song.
The other issue, though, is the production, the most interesting bits seem added in post, and don't feel well-integrated with the tunes themselves. It sounds like someone recorded some fairly straightforward tracks, and then pulled out every trick they knew to buff them, rip them, and generally try to inject interest. The result is like pre-weathered jeans in album form.
I kind of want to like this album; its always the albums I'm most conflicted about that I write the longest posts for, as I try to justify to myself the position I've settled into. And maybe these songs will supplant those they're impersonating in my mind. But for now its just too derivative to enjoy, it feels like someone had Gregg Gillis remix all of their favorite indie rock songs, tweaked the notes a bit, and rerecorded it as new songs.
Maybe its an honest set of coincidences, maybe its calculated appropriation performed to create a salable product, maybe its just homage gone too far, maybe I'm reading too much into it. And, heck, if you have no idea what I'm talking about with all those references, go buy this album! Or, check those reference points out and tell me I'm wrong. But for me, its like watching A Thin Red Line, so many recognizable cameos I can't get immersed in the plot 2.5/5
I try not to be a an ass / lazy reviewer by deconstructing an album into its influences and sounds-likes, but sometimes that's just how I perceive an album. Sometimes, if you sound enough like things I've heard before, I can't stop hearing those songs too, while I'm trying to listen to your album. This kinda ruined the Clues album for me. Here, the overriding point of reference is singles-off-oracular-spectacular MGMT: the male singer sounds like them, the guitar buzz sounds like them, the song structures sound like them, the big gated/synth snares on the 2's and 4's sound like them. This is especially on tracks 13, 2 (which sounds goddamn exactly like Kids for most of its duration) and 7 (which also more or less cops the main vocal riff from Passion Pit's Sleepyhead for good measure). I'm not trying to be a wiseass, honestly. But I keep getting aggressively reminded of these bands while I'm trying to listen.
Track 9 sounds like YYY's annual maps-alike, track 5 sounds like Trent Reznor remixing Everything in its Right Place (down to the cadence of the vocal delivery and the same organ sound), and track 10 seemingly cops the exact same background guitar chug from TVotR's Staring at the Sun (like, exactly) along with the TVotR-trademarked oooo's at the end, almost as a wink. Are these guys taking the piss? I'll assume not. Track 6 spends its first minute sounding (a lot) like an M83 cover, and track 1 sounds like Los Campesinos covering All My Friends.
And look, I like those songs, and I like those sounds. And if I had never heard of those bands, I would probably love this. And some tracks survive. I like the breakdown in the opening track a lot, and track 9 has a nice off-kilter energy to it, evoking my love of Zooropa rather than drowning me in sounding exactly like a specific song.
The other issue, though, is the production, the most interesting bits seem added in post, and don't feel well-integrated with the tunes themselves. It sounds like someone recorded some fairly straightforward tracks, and then pulled out every trick they knew to buff them, rip them, and generally try to inject interest. The result is like pre-weathered jeans in album form.
I kind of want to like this album; its always the albums I'm most conflicted about that I write the longest posts for, as I try to justify to myself the position I've settled into. And maybe these songs will supplant those they're impersonating in my mind. But for now its just too derivative to enjoy, it feels like someone had Gregg Gillis remix all of their favorite indie rock songs, tweaked the notes a bit, and rerecorded it as new songs.
Maybe its an honest set of coincidences, maybe its calculated appropriation performed to create a salable product, maybe its just homage gone too far, maybe I'm reading too much into it. And, heck, if you have no idea what I'm talking about with all those references, go buy this album! Or, check those reference points out and tell me I'm wrong. But for me, its like watching A Thin Red Line, so many recognizable cameos I can't get immersed in the plot 2.5/5
Thursday, November 18, 2010
#231 The Clean - Boodle Boodle Boodle EP
Been hearing a lot of buzz out of New Zealand lately, so I wanted to check out an early release from one of the original New Zealand bands. Might as well start at the beginning if you're gonna go on a kick.
This sounds sort of derivative until you realize that it came out in 1981. It sounds vaguely Kinks inspired, but it also has a Pavement/GBV/Smiths thing going, while predating all those bands. Heck, this came out the same year as Radio Free Europe, putting these guys at the very forefront of a sound that was just burbling up. Its funny what difference timing makes.
[Edit: apparently Pavement cited them as an inspiration. Well there you go.]
As for the actual music, its pretty good, vaguely garagey, fairly hooky, brisk pop-tinged rock, with an abundance of jangly acoustic guitars. It's strangely charming, just off-kilter and lo-fi enough, with just enough structural turns to keep things interesting. The longer, Krautrockey closer kind of comes out of nowhere, but is enjoyable enough. I'm curious as heck to see what these guys did next 3.5/5
This sounds sort of derivative until you realize that it came out in 1981. It sounds vaguely Kinks inspired, but it also has a Pavement/GBV/Smiths thing going, while predating all those bands. Heck, this came out the same year as Radio Free Europe, putting these guys at the very forefront of a sound that was just burbling up. Its funny what difference timing makes.
[Edit: apparently Pavement cited them as an inspiration. Well there you go.]
As for the actual music, its pretty good, vaguely garagey, fairly hooky, brisk pop-tinged rock, with an abundance of jangly acoustic guitars. It's strangely charming, just off-kilter and lo-fi enough, with just enough structural turns to keep things interesting. The longer, Krautrockey closer kind of comes out of nowhere, but is enjoyable enough. I'm curious as heck to see what these guys did next 3.5/5
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
#230 Busdriver - Computer Cooties
For some reason I went to see if Busdriver was touring, found out he put out a free mixtape. All kinds of free stuff by my old fav's coming out lately!
I've cooled on Busdriver a bit over the last 10 or so years; some of it's my taste in rap shifting, some of it's his style of rap shifting. The production kept getting glossier, the albums got less adventurous, and the emphasis on choruses kept growing. This is a pretty nice return to form though, sounding more exciting than anything he's done since Cosmic Cleavage (also C.C., coincidence?), with some nasty production, some curious song structure twists, and some good cross-album variety. Also, its going to take some time to take it all in, but my sense is also that there's a higher-than-usual density of clever turns of phrase to unpack in future listens.
If nothing else, I sure got that Girl Talk-style recognition-adrenaline rush going when Busdriver started rapping over Crystal Castles' Doe Deer (off an album I liked), Holy Fuck's SHT MTN (off an album I liked), and Wolf Parade's You are a Runner and I am my Father's Son (off and album I really liked, at #8 here). Those are some noisy ass songs to try to rhyme over, and to a strange degree, it works. Busdriver has always been at his best when he's rapping over something you don't normally rap over, and this gets me excited about his upcoming collaboration. Which, I guess was probably part of the reason for the timing of this mixtape. Well done then 4/5
I've cooled on Busdriver a bit over the last 10 or so years; some of it's my taste in rap shifting, some of it's his style of rap shifting. The production kept getting glossier, the albums got less adventurous, and the emphasis on choruses kept growing. This is a pretty nice return to form though, sounding more exciting than anything he's done since Cosmic Cleavage (also C.C., coincidence?), with some nasty production, some curious song structure twists, and some good cross-album variety. Also, its going to take some time to take it all in, but my sense is also that there's a higher-than-usual density of clever turns of phrase to unpack in future listens.
If nothing else, I sure got that Girl Talk-style recognition-adrenaline rush going when Busdriver started rapping over Crystal Castles' Doe Deer (off an album I liked), Holy Fuck's SHT MTN (off an album I liked), and Wolf Parade's You are a Runner and I am my Father's Son (off and album I really liked, at #8 here). Those are some noisy ass songs to try to rhyme over, and to a strange degree, it works. Busdriver has always been at his best when he's rapping over something you don't normally rap over, and this gets me excited about his upcoming collaboration. Which, I guess was probably part of the reason for the timing of this mixtape. Well done then 4/5
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
#229 Girl Talk - All Day
For reasons obvious to anyone who knows me, I wasted no time putting this on when it dropped from nowhere yesterday.
I'm not going to bother summing up the sound - its a Girl Talk album, its all been said, I love it. The basic formula is generally unchanged, but there are far more holy-shit moments on here than on his last two albums combined. From a pure head bob standpoint, this is almost certainly his best album yet; he's taken his signature sound and honed it into something unstoppably sleek. The only shortcoming I see so far is that it seems to have less of that subtle, emotional thread that was weaved through the last two. Also, some of the best bits on this album are almost too good, distracting from the overall flow they're so transcendental. But that's kind of a stupid complaint.
I suspect that with repeated listens the feel will smooth out, and the themes will burble up. Even more so than Night Ripper and Feed the Animals, this is a dense, long, complex thing to take in, but I have no doubt that it will live up to 5/5
I'm not going to bother summing up the sound - its a Girl Talk album, its all been said, I love it. The basic formula is generally unchanged, but there are far more holy-shit moments on here than on his last two albums combined. From a pure head bob standpoint, this is almost certainly his best album yet; he's taken his signature sound and honed it into something unstoppably sleek. The only shortcoming I see so far is that it seems to have less of that subtle, emotional thread that was weaved through the last two. Also, some of the best bits on this album are almost too good, distracting from the overall flow they're so transcendental. But that's kind of a stupid complaint.
I suspect that with repeated listens the feel will smooth out, and the themes will burble up. Even more so than Night Ripper and Feed the Animals, this is a dense, long, complex thing to take in, but I have no doubt that it will live up to 5/5
Sunday, November 14, 2010
#228 Tyvek - Nothing Fits
Dusted!
Smashy, metalic punk rock, with enough melody and rah-rah shouting to rouse the senses and keep you interested, sounding like a mellower, less virtuoso bad brains, if I had to pick a punk touchstone. That's a pretty good thing, and this is one of the better punk albums I've heard this year, with just enough purpose and theme to set it apart. That said, its pretty tough to get a super high score as a punk band on this blog. I'm all about originality and hooks and interesting structure, and if you're doing a lot of that kind of stuff, you probably are doing punk wrong. Highlights like Underwater 2 and the title track are still good for 3.5/5
Smashy, metalic punk rock, with enough melody and rah-rah shouting to rouse the senses and keep you interested, sounding like a mellower, less virtuoso bad brains, if I had to pick a punk touchstone. That's a pretty good thing, and this is one of the better punk albums I've heard this year, with just enough purpose and theme to set it apart. That said, its pretty tough to get a super high score as a punk band on this blog. I'm all about originality and hooks and interesting structure, and if you're doing a lot of that kind of stuff, you probably are doing punk wrong. Highlights like Underwater 2 and the title track are still good for 3.5/5
#227 Morgan Packard - Moment Again Elsewhere
Dusted pickup runthough cont'd.
Its easy to bang out a bunch of reviews a month and think that you're a pretty good music reviewer. I'd never make that mistake; this is all castoff halfassed impressioneering that I only even bother to tart up a bit when it suits me, but sometimes I flirt with that dangerous piece of delusion. Albums like this are good humblers though, since I really like it, but I am largely at a loss to explain why.
Its very repetitive, working its way through oblong, overlapping loops. It's electronic I suppose, but in a glitch way (without the unpleasantness that implies), and in a very textured, analog Books-ey way (though it is far more traditional in structure than that implied). It's minimal, maybe ambient, but it doesn't really evoke spaces the way ambient often does. If feels like you're moving slowly past things that are whirring, like you're lying on a conveyor through a half-real machine, complex beyond comprehension, drug-addled to the point of finding melody in whirs, engines, drafts and echoes. In the background, seven chambers away, a horn player plays 4/5
Its easy to bang out a bunch of reviews a month and think that you're a pretty good music reviewer. I'd never make that mistake; this is all castoff halfassed impressioneering that I only even bother to tart up a bit when it suits me, but sometimes I flirt with that dangerous piece of delusion. Albums like this are good humblers though, since I really like it, but I am largely at a loss to explain why.
Its very repetitive, working its way through oblong, overlapping loops. It's electronic I suppose, but in a glitch way (without the unpleasantness that implies), and in a very textured, analog Books-ey way (though it is far more traditional in structure than that implied). It's minimal, maybe ambient, but it doesn't really evoke spaces the way ambient often does. If feels like you're moving slowly past things that are whirring, like you're lying on a conveyor through a half-real machine, complex beyond comprehension, drug-addled to the point of finding melody in whirs, engines, drafts and echoes. In the background, seven chambers away, a horn player plays 4/5
#226 Weekend - Sports
Pitchfork said nice things about it. Its weird I got nothing off the big sites for a while, and then suddenly I'm back on the kick. I guess I just need stuff that's agreeable right now.
From the 1:30 mark, you'll go, oh hello Jesus and Mary Chain! What do you mean this isn't a Jesus and Mary Chain album? Weekend who? And you'll be saying that that for the duration of the album. Now, I like Jesus and Mary Chain, but as I mulled my curiously lukewarm feelings about this album, I came across the Dusted review. They, unsurprisingly, echoed my lack of surprise about this album's sound, but they also totally nailed the problem: this is well-plumbed territory, and there is simply nothing memorable about this. The whole thing washed right through me, and left nary a stain on my mind.
So, its fine. Its not what I'd call catchy, but its, fine. I feel like there's a little bit of disaffected frustration back in there that's appealing, but I can't justify better than 3/5
From the 1:30 mark, you'll go, oh hello Jesus and Mary Chain! What do you mean this isn't a Jesus and Mary Chain album? Weekend who? And you'll be saying that that for the duration of the album. Now, I like Jesus and Mary Chain, but as I mulled my curiously lukewarm feelings about this album, I came across the Dusted review. They, unsurprisingly, echoed my lack of surprise about this album's sound, but they also totally nailed the problem: this is well-plumbed territory, and there is simply nothing memorable about this. The whole thing washed right through me, and left nary a stain on my mind.
So, its fine. Its not what I'd call catchy, but its, fine. I feel like there's a little bit of disaffected frustration back in there that's appealing, but I can't justify better than 3/5
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
#225 Sun City Girls - Kaliflower
Pitchfork and Dusted both reviewed these guys' latest and theoretically last album. The pitchfork guy said that this was one of two albums that span their sound, and that newcomes should start with. Ok.
Well. These guys are arty. Fine. Velvet dissonance and disinterest, lots of clashy guitars, no real sense of pacing, no real interest in being especially pleasant to listen to. X + Y = Fuck You is a kind of brilliant, madcap stream of consciousness that should be heard once, and Dead Chick in the River is an ok art jam, but nothing I haven't heard before. But by then though my patience was wearing a little thin, and track 3 is goddamned unbearable, just sounding sloppy, lazy, and goddamned annoying, making the same shrill, skillless racket for 7 minutes without progress of any kind. I won't call much shit, but that song is album-ruiningly shit.
Zappa, Velvets, Beefheart, Boredoms, etc. They showed flashes of brilliant songwriting, and it justified their swerves and indulgences; judging by this album, Sun City Girls seem to think being weird is a substitute for actually writing any songs. The penultimate track is a 16 minute post-rocker that actually evolves and changes just enough, is just cohesive enough, and brings just enough riffage to work. It ends up being the highlight of the album, and the only song I'd be inclined to listen to again.
I'll probably check out their consensus best album, Torch of the Mystics, just to give the band a fair shake, but it's gonna be on a short leash 2/5
Well. These guys are arty. Fine. Velvet dissonance and disinterest, lots of clashy guitars, no real sense of pacing, no real interest in being especially pleasant to listen to. X + Y = Fuck You is a kind of brilliant, madcap stream of consciousness that should be heard once, and Dead Chick in the River is an ok art jam, but nothing I haven't heard before. But by then though my patience was wearing a little thin, and track 3 is goddamned unbearable, just sounding sloppy, lazy, and goddamned annoying, making the same shrill, skillless racket for 7 minutes without progress of any kind. I won't call much shit, but that song is album-ruiningly shit.
Zappa, Velvets, Beefheart, Boredoms, etc. They showed flashes of brilliant songwriting, and it justified their swerves and indulgences; judging by this album, Sun City Girls seem to think being weird is a substitute for actually writing any songs. The penultimate track is a 16 minute post-rocker that actually evolves and changes just enough, is just cohesive enough, and brings just enough riffage to work. It ends up being the highlight of the album, and the only song I'd be inclined to listen to again.
I'll probably check out their consensus best album, Torch of the Mystics, just to give the band a fair shake, but it's gonna be on a short leash 2/5
#224 Barn Owl - Ancestral Star
Part of the aforementioned ambientesque kick.
I listened to this right after the Maserati album, and I don't think that was wholly fair to this album. By then, I was a bit desensitized, and I sense that this album deserves to get a legitimate arc to itself. On some level its nothing I haven't heard before, vaguely doom-metalic in its pacing, instrumental growers and growlers, sounding like a crippled version of Explosions in the Sky. Where that band climaxes and crescendos every ten minutes, this album's movements are more subtle, lending themselves more to the creeping apocalypse we're all living through than the fiery, mythical apocalypse EitS sometimes evokes. See what this album did to me?
Even compensating for the post-Maserati post-rock-doubleup penalty, I don't have a lot of use for this. Its built mostly on emotion and space, and in this case, both are to bleak for me to want to summon them often 2.5/5
I listened to this right after the Maserati album, and I don't think that was wholly fair to this album. By then, I was a bit desensitized, and I sense that this album deserves to get a legitimate arc to itself. On some level its nothing I haven't heard before, vaguely doom-metalic in its pacing, instrumental growers and growlers, sounding like a crippled version of Explosions in the Sky. Where that band climaxes and crescendos every ten minutes, this album's movements are more subtle, lending themselves more to the creeping apocalypse we're all living through than the fiery, mythical apocalypse EitS sometimes evokes. See what this album did to me?
Even compensating for the post-Maserati post-rock-doubleup penalty, I don't have a lot of use for this. Its built mostly on emotion and space, and in this case, both are to bleak for me to want to summon them often 2.5/5
#223 Maserati - Inventions
Read dusted for the first time in a while, which lead to picking up a bunch of backgroundey ambeint kind of stuff that I was in the mood for, and that seemed like it would make decent work music.
This one is fine, I guess. Repetitive, semi-propulsive, vaguely-krautey post-rock. Its instrumental, with lots of looping guitar parts and bass, sounding like a rock band making vaguely low-key electronic music.
Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but this just didn't pop for me. Its pacing wasn't in synch with what I wanted at the right times, it seemed to be building to reveals that weren't worth the build, and the builds themselves weren't interesting enough to be justified. I just am not a connoisseur of this kind of stuff, and when my interest in it next rears its head, there are a dozen albums I'll turn to before this one. It seems like it should be exciting; I like the guitar sound, and the band's careful blend of rocking out and minimalism, but it just never stirred my passion beyond 2/5
This one is fine, I guess. Repetitive, semi-propulsive, vaguely-krautey post-rock. Its instrumental, with lots of looping guitar parts and bass, sounding like a rock band making vaguely low-key electronic music.
Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but this just didn't pop for me. Its pacing wasn't in synch with what I wanted at the right times, it seemed to be building to reveals that weren't worth the build, and the builds themselves weren't interesting enough to be justified. I just am not a connoisseur of this kind of stuff, and when my interest in it next rears its head, there are a dozen albums I'll turn to before this one. It seems like it should be exciting; I like the guitar sound, and the band's careful blend of rocking out and minimalism, but it just never stirred my passion beyond 2/5
Monday, November 8, 2010
#222 Screaming Females - Castle Talk
Ah, pitchfork review. Old school.
This band is not as screamy, nor as female, as you might guess based on their name. They're punk in places, but there's hardly any screaming at all, and only one of the band members is a girl. My theory is the lead guitar is, itself a girl. That would give them two females, and man does that thing scream.
This is kind of everything I want from rock. It's catchy, unpredictable, propulsive and talented front to back, as you keep going:
"man, this is a great bass album!"
"no, this is a great guitar album!"
"but that bass!"
Shhh. You're both right.
The result is a combination of rich texture, emotional swerves and raw rock power that sounds like Pretty Girls Make Graves meets The Smashing Pumpkins. In particular, I Don't Mind It is the first holy-shit-yes-again-again song I've heard in a long time, and it's right in the running for song of the year. Last year there were great songs, but no great albums. This year there's tons of great albums, but not a lot of standout songs. Weird. Well, here's a contender, and the album might make a list or two too when the time comes 4.5/5
This band is not as screamy, nor as female, as you might guess based on their name. They're punk in places, but there's hardly any screaming at all, and only one of the band members is a girl. My theory is the lead guitar is, itself a girl. That would give them two females, and man does that thing scream.
This is kind of everything I want from rock. It's catchy, unpredictable, propulsive and talented front to back, as you keep going:
"man, this is a great bass album!"
"no, this is a great guitar album!"
"but that bass!"
Shhh. You're both right.
The result is a combination of rich texture, emotional swerves and raw rock power that sounds like Pretty Girls Make Graves meets The Smashing Pumpkins. In particular, I Don't Mind It is the first holy-shit-yes-again-again song I've heard in a long time, and it's right in the running for song of the year. Last year there were great songs, but no great albums. This year there's tons of great albums, but not a lot of standout songs. Weird. Well, here's a contender, and the album might make a list or two too when the time comes 4.5/5
Friday, November 5, 2010
#221 Jel - Greenball
I got this a while ago as part of the instrumental hip hop kick and couldn't really get into it. Tried it again in the car recently, no go. Then put it on while I was doing dissertation diagrams today and it bored me at first, but then it clicked.
Its a repetitive thing, really milking each loop for a song's length without introducing a lot of movement. It just has a lot less initiative and propulsiveness and flow compared to, say, eternal benchmark Endtroducing. But if you can get past the slow start and let your body synchronize with what the album is doing, it's strangely compelling, really locking into your rhythms. It's patient. Maybe it just caught me at a good hippie ass moment, but I was into this stuff as it played on. It overstayed its welcome a bit, and I can't help but penalize its slow start a bit, and I'm wondering whether I'm just being swayed by good beer, but it was just about right for the right now. I'll give it a hopeful long-term keep-an-eye-onya and a generous, if provisional 4/5
Its a repetitive thing, really milking each loop for a song's length without introducing a lot of movement. It just has a lot less initiative and propulsiveness and flow compared to, say, eternal benchmark Endtroducing. But if you can get past the slow start and let your body synchronize with what the album is doing, it's strangely compelling, really locking into your rhythms. It's patient. Maybe it just caught me at a good hippie ass moment, but I was into this stuff as it played on. It overstayed its welcome a bit, and I can't help but penalize its slow start a bit, and I'm wondering whether I'm just being swayed by good beer, but it was just about right for the right now. I'll give it a hopeful long-term keep-an-eye-onya and a generous, if provisional 4/5
#220 White Denim - Workout Holiday
At that point with these guys where everything else I've heard is so good that I best just hear everything that came before.
Man. These guys are good as hell. Catchy, inventive, unpredictable, perfectly balancing driving, irresistible hookiness with proggy, spazzy, near-zappa swerves and stops and changes. The bass rattles and twists in every direction, the guitar swoons and funks as needed, and man, that drummer. Even back on this earlier album, he just kills it. Really into these guys, they're like the American Mint Chicks 4.5/5
Man. These guys are good as hell. Catchy, inventive, unpredictable, perfectly balancing driving, irresistible hookiness with proggy, spazzy, near-zappa swerves and stops and changes. The bass rattles and twists in every direction, the guitar swoons and funks as needed, and man, that drummer. Even back on this earlier album, he just kills it. Really into these guys, they're like the American Mint Chicks 4.5/5
#219 Super Wild Horses - Fifteen
Reviewed on Dusted.
Ok, boy/girl [edit: oops, 2 girls], drums / guitar, garage rock with the simplicity of days of yore, 50's via 60's via 90's via Exploding Hearts via Vivian Girls. In short, here's an album utterly without invention, not even reinventing things that haven't been re-re-invented before. Which is cool if you can weild all that simplicity and reference to do something really catchy. But this isn't that. Its fine it has its moments, but its too much the same, too simple, too boring, even over its short running length. The curiously sobering chappo fiasco notwithstanding, I will pull no punches - this didn't move me enough to want to listen to it again or give it better than 2.5/5
Ok, boy/girl [edit: oops, 2 girls], drums / guitar, garage rock with the simplicity of days of yore, 50's via 60's via 90's via Exploding Hearts via Vivian Girls. In short, here's an album utterly without invention, not even reinventing things that haven't been re-re-invented before. Which is cool if you can weild all that simplicity and reference to do something really catchy. But this isn't that. Its fine it has its moments, but its too much the same, too simple, too boring, even over its short running length. The curiously sobering chappo fiasco notwithstanding, I will pull no punches - this didn't move me enough to want to listen to it again or give it better than 2.5/5
Monday, November 1, 2010
#218 Beck - Golden Feelings
Inspired by the similar-sounding JSBE from the last entry, I checked out an extra-early Beck album I'd never actually heard.
If you take the well-honed scuzz of Odelay, track the trajectory back to the listenable-if-only-barely scuzz of Mellow Gold, and follow that trajectory into the depths, you get Golden Feelings. Its a strangely brilliant, occasionally unlistenably, totally original spaz out that I'm strangely fascinated by. Despite the outright unpleasantness of some of this, it is such a bold stroke that I'm sure I'll revisit it at least a couple more times, and its at least good enough for 4/5
If you take the well-honed scuzz of Odelay, track the trajectory back to the listenable-if-only-barely scuzz of Mellow Gold, and follow that trajectory into the depths, you get Golden Feelings. Its a strangely brilliant, occasionally unlistenably, totally original spaz out that I'm strangely fascinated by. Despite the outright unpleasantness of some of this, it is such a bold stroke that I'm sure I'll revisit it at least a couple more times, and its at least good enough for 4/5
#217 John Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange
I totally listened to this almost a week ago, so I'm pre-dating the post. I have been BUSY. I read a review of the reissue of this on pitchfork and realized I'd never really heard them, so let's check it.
I think I thought these guys were a lot more pop. Instead, they're downright scuzzy, sounding like early Beck (who I find out they toured with). And while I'm reluctant to compare everyone who sounds ramshackle and high and unpredictable and 90's to Ween... these guys sound like Ween. Or maybe Primus, or Beefheart, you know the type by now, but with a lot more riffage and general chops.
I don't know that I have a lot of use for this, its so aggressively weird without quite being Ween/Beefheart inspiring, nor Beck catchy, but it was totally worth hearing enough for 3.5/5
I think I thought these guys were a lot more pop. Instead, they're downright scuzzy, sounding like early Beck (who I find out they toured with). And while I'm reluctant to compare everyone who sounds ramshackle and high and unpredictable and 90's to Ween... these guys sound like Ween. Or maybe Primus, or Beefheart, you know the type by now, but with a lot more riffage and general chops.
I don't know that I have a lot of use for this, its so aggressively weird without quite being Ween/Beefheart inspiring, nor Beck catchy, but it was totally worth hearing enough for 3.5/5
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