#1809 Flake Music - When You Land Here, It's Time to Return

The only Flake Music album before James Mercer spun off into The Shins, and it shows - this could easily be the first Shins album. Those chiming guitars, those rich Mercer vocals over top, those keening swerves, that wistful regret, that understated awe.

It's all rougher around the edges, as a first album would be, before it all got polished to Oh Inverted World levels, with a micro-retro debt to 90's underground: think Built to Spill, REM, maybe Pixies // Replacements // Guided by Voices at their very most tuneful. Jesse Sandoval's busy, skittering drums in particular bring a little livewire spark. Totally worth hearing as a little history lesson, pretty good fun besides 3.5/5

#1808 Wilco - The Whole Love

Quietly great, packed with flowing little interplays. Album kicks off with the proggy, 7-minute explosion: Art of Almost. And then it just settles on down into some agreeable little 3-4-minuters, never quite disappearing, until that majestic 12-minute closer that rolls and bobs and shines and is over before you know it, like a secret best ever Kurt Vile song.

Terrifically listenable, understated, even if it's never quite brilliant 4/5

#1807 Wilco - Star Wars

A lot of people came across Wilco via their big Yankee Hotel Foxtrot breakthrough and never really kept up. People like me. Those people still have this frozen impression of Wilco as a band: folky, structured, with the occasional headscratching detour into noise. But it's kind of one of those blind men and the elephant things: the more you feel around Wilco's catalog the more you see YHF as a somber outcropping on a larger, wilder continent of rock and roll adventurism.

With this and a dip back into The Whole Love (more soon) you can start to get the big picture: there's a just *good* *band* here, guys who have that knack for letting good songs and interesting ideas flow through endlessly, who make adventurousness and tunefulness coexist effortlessly. They don't balance their impulses: their impulses are in balance.

The interplay of guitars, the hypnosis, the agreeable tone, the drift of emotion and sensation, the toe-tapping, the crunchy vocal float: this is the band My Morning Jacket strives to be, and fails from over-striving. Hell, this is the band U2 strives to be, maybe Blitzen Trapper (Wild Mountain Nation fevr).

--

All that shows through here on their latest (free!) album: it's inventiveness is understated, the tone agreeable but fresh. The feel is loose and jammy, but it's the opposite of a jam album: leaving you wanting more, songs tipping out in 3:00 or so before they remotely overstay. You feel like Wilco could pound out 200 more albums like this, and every one would be a pleasant surprise 4/5

#1806 Ebba Gron - We're Only in it for the Drugs

This Swedish punk album's as solid as anything else going around 1979, finding a Clashy balance between hooks and fuck you, with a little extra Buzzcocky // rockabilly WHEEE! It's good fun, stompin and rompin and making me want to rompandstomp along, track after track after track, but not understanding a word of the Swedish chorus shoutalongs leaves me feeling a little left out 3.5/5

#1805 VA - Cleanse the Bacteria

If you want to know about early hardcore outside the US, this's about as good an introduction as you're gonna get: 18 bands from around the globe spit and shit their hearts out for 3 minutes each (however many songs that takes: Mob 47 get done with 4 tracks in 2:30 or so). That track-defying act of pacing alone's a stroke of genius, setting up a subtle, sputtering heartbeat.

It's a rush of loud, fast, brutal energy that rips with desperation and and that perfect punk combination of giving a shit // not giving a shit, cutting to each city's quick. Pacing's solid: transitioning from hardcore into a a variety of mode traditional punk cousins, pre-post-punk, metal-drenched grindcore, and everything in between. It's exhausting, packed with a million little ideas about how to rip the world apart, wrapping up a bunch of shitkickers that you'd otherwise have a hard time tracking down 3.5/5

#1804 Tame Impala - Currents

Well, there's a lot of album here for your money. Here's an all-encompassing psychadelic rock/pop/funk/soul/indie record, just stuffed with deepdeep bass, super crisp beats, and layers and layers of strings, synths, and of course an echoing, reverberating chorus of Kevin Parkers.

'cause Parker's here to fill your whole mind; sometimes it seems he's added things just to fill every last cranny, packing justonemore shimmering synth into a space where it justbarelyfits. The overdone approach works when it's alongside some contrast: that invisible breakdown in the middle of Let it Happen, the skeletal bridge of The Moment, even that Giorgio by Moroder-esque muttering on Past Life. Actually Daft Punk's a pretty good point of reference: here's an album that's trying to be end-all, drawing on pop and art and oldness and newness and hoping it all adds up. Occasionally it does!

But like the often-forgettable RMA, the album flags for long stretches, forgetting about surprise, energy, and songwriting. That nine-minute stretch of Yes I'm Changing // Eventually is an unrecoverable mistake, a slog that annihilates any momentum that first few good songs had built. It happens again on the second half: there's just too much emoting, moaning, fluffing, not nearly enough actual hooks or hard edges to make this satisfying or any damn fun.

If you've just broken up with your girlfriend AND eaten a bunch of mushrooms this is probably justsfuckingright, but man, I'm not sure this hits the sweet spot for any other time in your life 3/5

#1803 The Chemical Brothers - Born in the Echoes

Sometime around Surrender you knew these dudes were always going to be worth keeping one eye on. That big lateral leap into house, slathered with their own special sauce; a sauce that had zero overlapping ingredients with their Blockrockers' Original Recipe. These guys never let a number of beats per minute or bass hits per measure keep em pinned for a three count.

That unconventional energy's the best and worst thing on this record. When it's weird, it's good. Shit bends, songs get minimalist//busy, and you feel the whole thing tick, your head converted to some unknown clockwork purpose. The rebirthy acid of EML Ritual, straight into that fucked up squon! . . . squon! . . . squon! Such an awkward, uncomfortable piece of timing that gets right up in your skin, giving you this whole extra side tempo to groove to. Just Bang's clopping Orbitalism, the title track's sweep'n'thump, etc.

But then there's the more pop vocal tracks that mostly* land flat. Go seems fun, but if I told you that was the new Black Eyed Peas single, would you tell me to get the fuck out with any real confidence? The falsetto on SIFSD, actually the whole opening salvo's kind of a disaster, building icky momentum that kind of ruins the otherwise pretty interesting Under Neon Lights.

As a listen, it's a strangely structured, poorly considered record that would have played better if the brothers had trusted themselves and kept their most accessible songs out of the way of the good ones. Still, once you get into the thick of it there's a whole secret labyrinth, bristling with little surprises 3.5/5

*Beck's turn on Wide Open's an exception, a real pretty note to go out on

#1802 Damien Jurando - Live at Landlocked

Singer-songwriter types have to do a lot to win me over: they better have serious chops, lasercutter insight, or one hell of a winning personality. Zero boxes checked - Jurando's aw-shucks demeanor's annoying, his singing's annoying, and his lyrics and guitarwork are bog standard. Totally forgetable Joe Hum'n'strum stuff 2/5

#1801 Thee Oh Sees - Mutilator Defeated at Last

kjasfdkja;lbaodfbj'elfbj'aerm;lmbnk

That's the face I'm making right now, a rocknroll damnthatsnasty face getting melted off. That's an emoticon.

Thee Oh Sees teased us before - I Come From the Mountain made us crunch up our lips and noses with that pernicious little bupadup-adup-adup-adup, but the rest of Floating Coffin didn't live up to it.

But this just come out of the gate revving and revs it and revs it and revs it again, ratcheting tighter and tighter, that bass roaring, those drums clattering in hotter and hotter*, a mad squadron of clockwork crashlanding. It doesn't descend into decadent, pointless noise like so many TOS records** - it just keeps fucking ruling and ruling and ruling and ruling and ruling. One of the most immediately, relentlessly awesome records I've heard in years 5/5***

* edit: goddamn, those goddamn drums
** edit: ok Sticky Hulks / Holy Smoke is a bit of a lull
*** edit: ok, ok, drunky - it is pretty great, but 4.5/5 is probably plenty

#1800 Nina Simone - Pastel Blues

Fuck. What a fuckin force. What a record.

That tap tap of shoes (?) coming on out, clipping into that beat, and Simone just fucking launches into it with the power of a thousand. She works around the song and spikes and howls and you're in, you're caught, you're bound, you're en thralled. Pure magic, pure blues, pure force. If this song doesn't grab you just go and fucking die, officially.

When the band comes in it's a tsumani, built to crush and to propel Simone to her pyrrhic destiny. Feel that flow, that interplay. This is how it's done, it's the ballet of dueling juggernauts, the majesty of cities crumbling under the weight of those complementing // opposed forces.

And you could stop at track 7 and have a hell of a thing.

But then, jesus mary and all the swears.

That immortal Strange Fruit that I won't disgrace with description.

Top 10 all time vocal performance, full stop.

And then Sinnerman, that wave of fire, that elemental force, the earth itself rising up and swallowing all of mankind in a slowmotion eruption of piano and voice and guitar and beats that can not be stopped will not be stopped.

All the flow, all the pace, all the power, all the nuance - one of the great records I've ever heard. Stunning, incomparable. 5/5

#1799 Brown Bird - The Devil Dancing

It's basic, that chugga-chunk of accoustics and backbeats, those man//lady harmonies soaring overtop, laying out those windblown wafts of grain and sun and pain. It creaks like machinery, like the sweating back of a man pushing and pulling and plowing, all that dust, all that effort, all that inevitable everything.

The mix that brings David Lamb's voice right up into your head does it all service, you're there for every spark and crack, simmering with stakes 4/5

#1798 Laura Nyro - Eli And The Thirteenth Confession

So. Nyro can sing. Surely. Her voice's deep and full, and winedark and glinting white off ice at a moment's notice.

But I don't have any need for it. A humble rhythm section stays out of the way, busy horns and flutes circle like Snow White's birds, and there's no sense of band, no sense of purpose. It's indulgent and baroque - all show, no soul 2/5

#1797 Langhorne Slim and The Law - The Way We Move

I've been listening to some stuff recommended by the incomparable Scott Ganem. It's all got soul, but some's a little too legit for my tastes, some a little too straightforward. But this dodges every pitfall, doubles every upside, swings for the fences, bringing a revival of joy, a double shot of innovation, old made new made real made soulful made exuberant.

Slim's voice caws and croaks and careens while a merry flock of pianos and horns and banjos and guitars and organs ramble alongside in a fantastic caravan, keeping you on your toes just to tip you into a ditch you'll roll out cathartic and grinning in spite of yerself. Shades of Okkervil, Wilco, Districts, Mountain Goats, Benjamin Booker, Josh Ritter, Yo La Tengo, even bizarro good versions of Mumford and Dylan, they all open into a clearing sparking with wonderful depth and levity 4.5/5

#1796 Cahalen Morrison - Old Timey and New Fangled

Utterly unflinching revivalism, all swooping, soaring vocals scooping up souls, over all the plucking you can imagine. No drums, no bass, no production tricks, just a twinkle of string like light through trees and a moan of open road. Straightforward to a fault, all texture and tone, boring if you're not in the right spot, but just maybe dead unbeatable if you are 3/5

#1795 JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound - Howl

JC can belt it and the The Uptown got a good Sound - every song's got a slinky little buzz to it, especially that Rouse Yourself bass. But the songwriting's just too damn predictable, each track showing its cards straightaway, verse-chorusing its 3-4 minutes away without a single swerve.

This is the kind of thing Alabama Shakes gets away with because they've got Brittany, but Brooks just doesn't have that kind of bandcarrying force 2.5/5

#1794 The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica

Be My Baby, Chapel of Love, Baby I Love You - you know this stuff even if you don't know it. That layered-layered-lush backing has got a backstage pass to your heart and soul and strides on in with a nod. The mix is thin and the nasal attack on the vocals gets a little grating by the end, but this is real sweet with a backbeat, about as pure as it gets 3.5/5

#1793 Miguel - Wildheart

A twisty, alien album that sneaks around in the shadows with an oilslick glow and unknown intentions - snapping // soaring into place on the back of a plainspoken chorus, a savior in snake's clothing.

Miguel's not quite sexy, not quite sexual -- not in any way you've got antibodies for. He's got mystery on his side, synthy buzzes, washy vocals, seducing through side doors and slipping through fingers. It's fascinating and inventive, unmarked Midnite Vultures, MBDTF in plain sight 4/5

#1792 Bassnectar - Mixtape 13

A better-flowing, live-show-evoking version of its twin Into the Sun, with some extra thisandthat mixed in. It leans a little heavier on the signature BWOOOMS, and its nods to adventurousness get a little lost in the mix, leaving a more-hypnotic, less interesting listen 3/5

#1791 Bassnectar - Into the Sun

Bassnectar's got that BASS right in the name. And that big dumb

BWWWOOOOOOBBB-BB-BB-BBBB

is still basecamp alpha.

But Ashton does his darndest to take day trips into the wasteland, whipping up some Prefuse choppery and Lemon Jelly sunniness and blinding M83 gigantism. Every song got it's angle, and you've mostly got its trajectory by the 4th bar or so and the gearchanges leave the album flow a little uneven - I'm reminded of Chemical Brothers circa Surrender - but it's more kaleidoscopic than you might expect from a one-dimensional sound this far down the line. It's fun watching the scouts span the space 3.5/5

Month in Review: June '15

Shit been busy, search been scattered: mostly just keeping up with the new stuff, cramming some jazz.

Album of the Month
 
Jamie XX - In Colour - All those useless tricks I hate, put to good use building a weird, winding wonderland.

Also Recommended!
 

Christopher Owens - Chrissybaby Forever - Insidiously intimate, hooky weirdo pop

 

The Moody Blues - In Search of the Lost Chord - A wonderfully strange, overlooked psychadelic classic

 

Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus - His best tracks revisited and improved, a self-performed greatest hits covers album