First album from Pitchfork in ages, and first 2011 album reviewed.
Off to a good start, 2011. This is a poppy, joyous, stompy run, evoking a touch of 60's, plenty of Supergrass, some of Arcade Fire's anthemic starreaching, and even a roundabout touch of the maximalist crowdrousing of late The Hold Steady. On paper, it shares a lot with that watery, domestic indie rock I'm always complaining about. Lush production, wimpy vocals, repeated chiming guitar backbones. The key is that the songs actually bother to lift and surge, actually rise to become large and try. And most importantly, the songs exist only as a playground for this one guitar sound, this everpresent, savage, gorgeous distored guitar line that romps all over every spare moment, giving it guidance and power. Think the finest guitar lines that Ratatat and the Pumpkins ever had, that guitar line polished to perfection, with every ragged edge perfectly considered and placed in place, like a serrated samurai sword, so well-executed you can see its overengineered lack of texture as a strength. That guitar line, and that general willingness to rock, is what elevates this.
I'm a sucker for the big gorgeous riff, and if you want to plow it through big gorgeous structures, I'm hooked. This album makes me regress, makes me turn into my 90's music self, where I get swept up in big pop rock moments, where a guitar line takes my heart out. Plus, it's well paced,with a good opener, a great track 3 follow-up, and a great anthemic closer.
I don't know that its all that good. I don't know that its all that inventive or worthy or what, but it works. I feel a little sheepish 5-ing this up when I've so recently 4.5-hedged on so many long-loved classics of the 60's, but the fact is, something that sounds new and immediate stands a better chance of getting access to that irrational section of my mind that holds the keys to the 5's. I don't think any album deserves a 5, its only the albums that get into the idiot emo center that trick me into giving one that get one anyway 5/5
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
#288 Beach House - Teen Dream
Completely by accident, I went a month without listening to anything off of Pitchfork, Dusted, or any of the music sites or blogs. I think it was a combination of getting the Allmusic Guide and those sites being on holiday hiatus, but its been nice to get into some classics and away from some of the whispy cleverness of the modern indie rock world. But now, back to reality. This seems to be the 2010 album getting the most buzz among those I hadn't yet heard, so I figured I'd give it a try, even though I wasn't so hot on the debut.
This is very Detroit. A few of you know what I mean. Very Fielding. Very watery indie, with prettiness in place of fire, with a willingness to ride a chiming arpeggio and a wheeling vocal line all the way to the coda. A spare beat, a simple guitar line, repeat with minor swells and subtle swerves here and there, and that's your song. I think in theory I get caught up in the emotion of this, and I can see that maybe happening once you get used to it, if you let it in your heart. Maybe.
I find the chiming guitars mostly annoying, the structures too boring, the atmospherics underwhelming, the vocals cloying. That all sounds really negative, and I don't hate it as much as I sound like I do. Actually, it is pretty in places. The last track is moving, and I suspect becomes more so with further listens. And each song has a moment when it crystallizes that the rest of the song seems to have been reverse-engineered to scaffold.
But its a no for me. I listened to this while I watched unexplained shit tons of crows wheel and pitch over dead trees in sunset to dusk. By all accounts, this should have been the perfect soundtrack, but it didn't live up. Underwhelmed, at least for now. I'm bothered, as I write-enough to warrant more than a slightly stingy 2.5/5
This is very Detroit. A few of you know what I mean. Very Fielding. Very watery indie, with prettiness in place of fire, with a willingness to ride a chiming arpeggio and a wheeling vocal line all the way to the coda. A spare beat, a simple guitar line, repeat with minor swells and subtle swerves here and there, and that's your song. I think in theory I get caught up in the emotion of this, and I can see that maybe happening once you get used to it, if you let it in your heart. Maybe.
I find the chiming guitars mostly annoying, the structures too boring, the atmospherics underwhelming, the vocals cloying. That all sounds really negative, and I don't hate it as much as I sound like I do. Actually, it is pretty in places. The last track is moving, and I suspect becomes more so with further listens. And each song has a moment when it crystallizes that the rest of the song seems to have been reverse-engineered to scaffold.
But its a no for me. I listened to this while I watched unexplained shit tons of crows wheel and pitch over dead trees in sunset to dusk. By all accounts, this should have been the perfect soundtrack, but it didn't live up. Underwhelmed, at least for now. I'm bothered, as I write-enough to warrant more than a slightly stingy 2.5/5
#287 Nirvana - The Story of Simon Simopath
Nope, not that Nirvana. The one making psycadelic, vaguely proggy music in the UK in 1967. I think I must have heard of these guys when I was reading about The Small Faces, and thought I'd check out their best-known album.
Its kind of a great one. The opening song is fraught with mystery and innocence, with pre-LO symphonic pop gestures, and when it breaks into a double-time catchball jam, you know something interesting is going on. Then the waltzy lurch and Zombies organs creep in on track 2 and you're off and running. There are some positively brilliant moments here, and the whole thing is a lot more fun than you might expect for something so complex and proggy. The obvious comparisons are psychedelic contemporaries like the aforementioned Zombies and The Small Faces, though this sounds much more polished, much more ahead of its time, and generally less hard-rocking. Decide where that leaves you, given your particular tastes. The other obvious point of comparison is Sgt Peppers, which came out the same year. There is a similar loose narrative feel, a similar blending of styles, a similar use of varied instrumentation and tempos, a similar mastery over melody and structure. It's not as good as the Beatles' classic, but on one listen, it comes close more often than you might guess. Can you tell me Pentecost Hotel would be altogether out of place on Sgt. Pepper's? That outro, with its dododoos is as joyous as it comes.
This feels like an album that, in another world, would have been a huge hit. There's an alternate universe where some of these songs are classics. It's whispy and wimpy and overproduced, so if you have no stomach for such things, take that under consideration. But if you like elaborate, inventive, joyous pop music that will keep you on your toes and crystallize once a song or so, do go find this one and give it a listen.
Have I gone soft? All these high scores. Then again, I'm specifically seeking out all these alleged classics. Plus, I really like good 60's rock, and I'm finding I've missed a bunch of good albums that don't quite make the classic rock radio. Chalk up another gold, boys 4.5/5
Its kind of a great one. The opening song is fraught with mystery and innocence, with pre-LO symphonic pop gestures, and when it breaks into a double-time catchball jam, you know something interesting is going on. Then the waltzy lurch and Zombies organs creep in on track 2 and you're off and running. There are some positively brilliant moments here, and the whole thing is a lot more fun than you might expect for something so complex and proggy. The obvious comparisons are psychedelic contemporaries like the aforementioned Zombies and The Small Faces, though this sounds much more polished, much more ahead of its time, and generally less hard-rocking. Decide where that leaves you, given your particular tastes. The other obvious point of comparison is Sgt Peppers, which came out the same year. There is a similar loose narrative feel, a similar blending of styles, a similar use of varied instrumentation and tempos, a similar mastery over melody and structure. It's not as good as the Beatles' classic, but on one listen, it comes close more often than you might guess. Can you tell me Pentecost Hotel would be altogether out of place on Sgt. Pepper's? That outro, with its dododoos is as joyous as it comes.
This feels like an album that, in another world, would have been a huge hit. There's an alternate universe where some of these songs are classics. It's whispy and wimpy and overproduced, so if you have no stomach for such things, take that under consideration. But if you like elaborate, inventive, joyous pop music that will keep you on your toes and crystallize once a song or so, do go find this one and give it a listen.
Have I gone soft? All these high scores. Then again, I'm specifically seeking out all these alleged classics. Plus, I really like good 60's rock, and I'm finding I've missed a bunch of good albums that don't quite make the classic rock radio. Chalk up another gold, boys 4.5/5
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
#286 Mike Watt - Ball-Hog or Tugboat
I recently read the 33 1/3 book on Double Nickels on the Dime (which has about 5 pages-worth of really great trivia in it that are totally worth the price of admission alone) and got curious about Mike Watt's solo career after The Minutemen. Sounds like this is the one to hit.
I don't even know what to do with this. The Minutemen were a pretty unpredictable lot, but swerved within a particular part of town. This is all over the map, pulled asunder by countless big-time guest stars, seasoned by a thousand cooks. Its pretty much impossible to take in in a single listen, or describe in a single mini-review. Basically it sounds like a lot of pretty good, slightly weird 90's rock songs, largely high-energy, mostly catchy, generally fun. It sounds like a B-sides album, or like a collection of the second-weirdest song off every album I bought in my 20's. That is to say, these aren't the truly experimental songs, just the ones that are slightly off-center. I tend to like songs that really do something new, or do something in particular really well on an album level. This is sort of just a bunch of weird, seemingly unrelated, pretty good songs, that despite my claims of diversity, aren't all that far afield. It's all over the map, but it never leaves the map.
Then again, this was pretty inventive for the 90's. A cover of Maggot Brain? A song complaining about the over-influence of the 70's? "Intense Song for Madonna to Sing"? Its that kind of twistiness that I associate with more-modern bands.
I could go back and forth like this for days.
I think that the B-sides album holds, it reminds me of Pisces Iscariot or the Singles soundtrack, both good, varied collections of 90'sey songs. If you like that sort of thing, check it out. I feel like I'll certainly hear it again, and will come away with a collection of favorites and auto-skips, just like I had in the mid-CD era 4/5
I don't even know what to do with this. The Minutemen were a pretty unpredictable lot, but swerved within a particular part of town. This is all over the map, pulled asunder by countless big-time guest stars, seasoned by a thousand cooks. Its pretty much impossible to take in in a single listen, or describe in a single mini-review. Basically it sounds like a lot of pretty good, slightly weird 90's rock songs, largely high-energy, mostly catchy, generally fun. It sounds like a B-sides album, or like a collection of the second-weirdest song off every album I bought in my 20's. That is to say, these aren't the truly experimental songs, just the ones that are slightly off-center. I tend to like songs that really do something new, or do something in particular really well on an album level. This is sort of just a bunch of weird, seemingly unrelated, pretty good songs, that despite my claims of diversity, aren't all that far afield. It's all over the map, but it never leaves the map.
Then again, this was pretty inventive for the 90's. A cover of Maggot Brain? A song complaining about the over-influence of the 70's? "Intense Song for Madonna to Sing"? Its that kind of twistiness that I associate with more-modern bands.
I could go back and forth like this for days.
I think that the B-sides album holds, it reminds me of Pisces Iscariot or the Singles soundtrack, both good, varied collections of 90'sey songs. If you like that sort of thing, check it out. I feel like I'll certainly hear it again, and will come away with a collection of favorites and auto-skips, just like I had in the mid-CD era 4/5
#285 Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
This is probably the most famous album I've never heard all the way through. I've had it forever, and just never wanted to keep listening to it whenever I put it on. Finally decided enough was enough.
I like Bob Dylan good enough. I mean, his songs are often structureless and insufferably long, his voice is fairly unbearable and utterly limited, and I generally think he speaks for a generation that I don't much associate with. But. But! When he's at his most sun scorched and infinite (Highway 61 Revisited) or his most starkly tortured (Blood on the Tracks) I actually like him a lot. This album never seemed to fit either of those roles though.
Upon making it through, I can see the appeal. The songs are actually pretty inventive, keeping you on your toes, swerving hither and tither, sounding utterly unconcerned with keeping you on board, but following a predictable enough path that you might be able to cut it off at the pass. I actually think its a pretty brilliant album that I just don't much enjoy. I just don't really have the patience for his voice on this album, is what it comes down to. Its just a deal breaker. I don't even know if I have the patience for his albums that I previously liked any more, I'll have to revisit them. This might have to be, at least for now, one of those albums that I respect without liking it, but at least now I've heard it and can regain some degree of respectability as a student of rock and roll 3/5
I like Bob Dylan good enough. I mean, his songs are often structureless and insufferably long, his voice is fairly unbearable and utterly limited, and I generally think he speaks for a generation that I don't much associate with. But. But! When he's at his most sun scorched and infinite (Highway 61 Revisited) or his most starkly tortured (Blood on the Tracks) I actually like him a lot. This album never seemed to fit either of those roles though.
Upon making it through, I can see the appeal. The songs are actually pretty inventive, keeping you on your toes, swerving hither and tither, sounding utterly unconcerned with keeping you on board, but following a predictable enough path that you might be able to cut it off at the pass. I actually think its a pretty brilliant album that I just don't much enjoy. I just don't really have the patience for his voice on this album, is what it comes down to. Its just a deal breaker. I don't even know if I have the patience for his albums that I previously liked any more, I'll have to revisit them. This might have to be, at least for now, one of those albums that I respect without liking it, but at least now I've heard it and can regain some degree of respectability as a student of rock and roll 3/5
#284 Richard and Linda Thompson - I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
AMG'd!
Its moments like this that I love this project - I would have so much less perspective on this album if I hadn't heard the Fairport Convention album. Richard was in FC, so this album's similarity isn't surprising, but the British folk rock model is just generally such a useful frame for this album, and I appreciate it more than I would have if I had come across it out of the blue.
And it works forward too, this sound surely inspired bands like Songs: Ohia (see The Calvary Cross) and The Decemberists (see The Great Valerio), and Okkervil River (see Withered and Died): there is a languid, stretching, wondering, mournful sound here that permeates a lot of the soulful, acoustic indie rock of the last 10 years. I mostly like it: it's peaceful, pretty, with spikes of energy and just enough twists and angles. The title track even has whiffs of arty new wave, though I suspect I'm hearing associations that aren't actually hearable.
I don't love her voice, and some of the folkier, more-narrative songs drag for me, and I generally don't think this kind of music (my affection for Okkervil River and Songs: Ohia notwithstanding). But I can see the appeal. I'll probably check out their other well-liked one, Shoot Out the Lights, at some point. For now 3.5/5
Its moments like this that I love this project - I would have so much less perspective on this album if I hadn't heard the Fairport Convention album. Richard was in FC, so this album's similarity isn't surprising, but the British folk rock model is just generally such a useful frame for this album, and I appreciate it more than I would have if I had come across it out of the blue.
And it works forward too, this sound surely inspired bands like Songs: Ohia (see The Calvary Cross) and The Decemberists (see The Great Valerio), and Okkervil River (see Withered and Died): there is a languid, stretching, wondering, mournful sound here that permeates a lot of the soulful, acoustic indie rock of the last 10 years. I mostly like it: it's peaceful, pretty, with spikes of energy and just enough twists and angles. The title track even has whiffs of arty new wave, though I suspect I'm hearing associations that aren't actually hearable.
I don't love her voice, and some of the folkier, more-narrative songs drag for me, and I generally don't think this kind of music (my affection for Okkervil River and Songs: Ohia notwithstanding). But I can see the appeal. I'll probably check out their other well-liked one, Shoot Out the Lights, at some point. For now 3.5/5
#283 Link Wray - Rumble! The Best of Link Wray
Allmusic had good things to say about this one, and some later reason confirms this to be something of a guitar history missing link. I'm normally against compilations, but some of these older groups didn't necessarily put out album albums of particular note.
You probably know the languid bwaaaa-bwaaaa-bawaaaaaaaah of Rumble from about 4 seconds in. If you like that, there's plenty more for you here, lots of stripped down guitar work with more edge than you might associate with the 50's and early 60's. Like a lot more. This is some garagey, near-punk stuff, and from what I can piece together it was way ahead of its time. Surf rock on jagged coasts, greaser rock with daggered jackets. Some of it is just bluesey, which is the least successful stuff for me, and some of it peppers in vocals that largely don't move me, but the best tracks are overloaded instrumentals that still totally bristle with nervy energy today - see Jack the Ripper, Hang On and Deuces Wild.
A lot of this has been done before, but this has a roughness to it that largely works for me. It sounds spontaneous and dangerous, like the cops are gonna bust in on it at any minute. It's not much for variety, there's some clunkers there, and eventually the songs starting bwaah-bwaaah all run together, but its good fun, with plenty of highlights 4/5
You probably know the languid bwaaaa-bwaaaa-bawaaaaaaaah of Rumble from about 4 seconds in. If you like that, there's plenty more for you here, lots of stripped down guitar work with more edge than you might associate with the 50's and early 60's. Like a lot more. This is some garagey, near-punk stuff, and from what I can piece together it was way ahead of its time. Surf rock on jagged coasts, greaser rock with daggered jackets. Some of it is just bluesey, which is the least successful stuff for me, and some of it peppers in vocals that largely don't move me, but the best tracks are overloaded instrumentals that still totally bristle with nervy energy today - see Jack the Ripper, Hang On and Deuces Wild.
A lot of this has been done before, but this has a roughness to it that largely works for me. It sounds spontaneous and dangerous, like the cops are gonna bust in on it at any minute. It's not much for variety, there's some clunkers there, and eventually the songs starting bwaah-bwaaah all run together, but its good fun, with plenty of highlights 4/5
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