The Erik Review

The Generic Awards Special: Songs of the Decade

2009-12-18T14:37:00.003-06:00

The aughts were the first complete decade of the post-Napster era. While file-sharing, iPods, digital files, and musical piracy had an undeniable impact on the music industry and its products, all was far from lost. As these twenty-five tracks demonstrate, the decade had a wide breadth and depth of musical achievement. Without further ado, let's get to this list.

Two ground rules:
1) Live albums and greatest hits are ineligible. Sorry, Kicking Television, How the West Was Won, and Nirvana: Live at Reading.
2) No album was allowed to have more than one track on the list. This wouldn't have happened in more than a few instances anyway, but I figure the more variety the better. Plus, two artists still managed to make the list multiple times.

25. M.I.A. - "Paper Planes" - (video) - Okay, okay, I'll be frank: I dismissed this song (and the album as a whole) when I reviewed Kala on its initial release. Two years later, I have no idea how that could have happened. "Paper Planes" pistol-whips the listener the second that Clash sample kicks in. M.I.A.'s sing-song vocals on the refrain play in perfect contradiction to the violent acts described therein. The musical marriage of Diplo and M.I.A. hasn't always proved fruitful, but this is the perfect synthesis of their talents. So, uh, no funny business.

24. My Morning Jacket - "Dondante" - (video) - When Z arrived in 2006, OK Computer comparisons were plentiful and inevitable. They were only lent more credence by each album having an epic, earth-shattering finale, with "Dondante" serving that role for My Morning Jacket. Jim James' vocals carry the load for much of the song, as the guitar flourishes hint at the maelstrom to come. When James finally lets go and the band lets loose, it's the sound of beautiful chaos.

23. Peter Bjorn and John - "Young Folks" - (video) - The runaway winner for "Mistake of the Decade," the famous whistling of "Young Folks" was originally put into the mix until the band could figure out an instrumental. Instead it became the most instantaneously catchy, yet simplistic, hook of the decade. As the music fleshes out around the aforementioned hook, the band has seized lightning in a bottle. That it became a left-field hit and career-defining moment for the band was inevitable.

22. Soulja Boy Tell 'em - "Turn My Swag On" - (video) - Yeah, I know, what the fuck, right? This isn't some joke or post-ironic hipster posturing. "Turn My Swag On" is amazing. It's the sound of an artist simultaneously winking toward and flipping off his critics, taking the best beat he's ever worked with and singing (admittedly terribly) about fucking waking up and getting ready in the morning. He's not only in on the joke, he is the joke, yet he transcends the joke and delivers this: part hip-hop, part pop, somehow neither, somehow both. His unabashed joy and confidence are endearing, and after this song finally sinks in, it's simply the fucking jam. For some, its appeal will never reveal itself. Advice to them: look in the mirror and say "what's up?"

21. Interpol - "NYC" - (WTF video) - Many a morning-after drive have been soundtracked by the third track on Interpol's immaculate debut. A bittersweet letter to his hometown, Paul Banks doesn't shy away from the city's ugly underbelly ("the subway she is a porno, and the pavements they are a mess") as he reflects apathetically about what the city (and by extension, life) mean anymore. "I know you've supported me for a long time, but somehow I'm not impressed," he reveals. Meanwhile, the song's ceaseless waves of guitar crest over, washing everything away. The city might not be perfect, but it's not going anywhere and it'll always be bigger than you. Same goes for life, but at least those moments of realization can bring about fantastic and touching music like this.

20. Broken Social Scene - "Lover's Spit" - (video) - Those encompassing opening chords. The sensual mood the songs sets. The tossed-off romantic vocals of Kevin Drew (who really has cornered the market on that). Modern lyrics touching on the classic theme of wanting to grow older and escape the angst of young adulthood. There are so many things to appreciate in this song, it's easy to forget the best one: this whole flawless composition is about fucking blowjobs.

19. Shearwater - "The Snow Leopard" - (video) - Johnathon Meiburg, sometimes contributor to Okkervil River, truly comes into his own as a singer-songwriter with "The Snow Leopard," the easy highlight from his band's best LP, Rook. Beginning with sonic hints toward Radiohead's "The Pyramid Song," the track sets itself apart as soon as Meiburg's vocals kick in. In the best alternative vocal performance of the year, the band follows his lead as he takes the song to soaring heights. By the time the horns kick in at the end, it's game over; Shearwater's won.

18. Immortal Technique - "Dance With the Devil" - (video) - In a genre where violence, misogyny, and drugs are embraced, "Dance With the Devil" is the answer. Telling the pitch-dark story of a wannabe drug dealer, the rapper guides us through a cautionary tale with such vivid detail and imagery that some listeners were left wondering if it were a true story. In its bloody and impacting conclusion, with a twist that would make M. Night double-take, Immortal Technique grabs the audience by the throat before concluding with a fatalistic lesson. Whether it's true or not isn't the point, it's a bleak parable that will stick with you either way.

17. Wilco - "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" - (live video) - The opening track on Wilco's magnum opus, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, it immediately establishes that this is an entirely new Wilco experience. Over rough-hewn, AOR-style production, Jeff Tweedy sing-speaks about a relationship, bouncing between past and present tense, and occasionally drifting into free-association. The song carries an undeniable force, with enough sinister subtext to give Tweedy's understated vocals extra gravitas. It's rare for a band to completely surprise with a sonic shift this late into their career, and even rarer that the shift results in the group's paramount effort. One can see why a major record label would doubt this song, just like one can see why major record labels are struggling.

16. The Streets - "Dry Your Eyes" - (video) - The emotional centerpiece of Mike Skinner's musical soap opera, A Grand Don't Come for Free, "Dry Your Eyes" chronicles the beloved protagonist attempting to cope with losing his love. The song's power and emotional tug comes not only from circumstances, because the song is able to carry those traits outside of the context, but from those heart-wrenching strings and the song's perspective. In the moment of realization that his "life is crashing before [his] eyes," she closes her eyes "for what seems like an eternity." Love isn't logical, emotions don't always make sense, yet here The Streets have managed to construct heartbreak in meticulous detail.

15. Band of Horses - "The Funeral" - (video) - Band of Horses stormed out of the gate in 2006 with lead single "The Funeral." Three years later, and the song hasn't let-up in the least. Ben Bridwell's vocals are given a tremendous task: to carry the emotional burden of the song's lyrics while competing to match the intensity of the band. Mission accomplished. Note to other hype bands: this is how you earn it.

14. Incubus - "Aqueous Transmission" - (video) - So, wait, the premiere ambient pop song of the decade came from... fucking Incubus? I can just imagine Brandon Boyd and company chilling in their tour van, patting themselves on the back, when by some deus ex machina they become aware of the existence of the Chinese instrument known as the pipa. But I have to give credit where its due, and while Incubus certainly take full advantage of the pipa, they also manage to craft a brilliant and perfectly cohesive framework around it. As he sings of floating down a river, the music flows with it in synchronization. I'm left jaw-dropped, double-checking that this indeed Incubus I'm listening to. Then, as if to fuck with me, the band puts a pointless one-minute outro of nothing more than frogs croaking. Yes, this is Incubus alright, but fuck if it isn't also brilliant.

13. Primal Scream - "Pills" - (video?) - As the name implies, this is a drug trip put to music, and not a good one. The heaviest song on this list, Primal Scream's "Pills" is the soundtrack to a horrifying, bleak acid trip through the night clubs of Hell. As the backing vocals reiterate themes of isolation and paranoia, the lead vocals warn you're fading away, presumably into oblivion. The song also manages to make the repeated use of the word "fuck" go from merely a shock tactic to a crushing realization expressed in a single word. Forget D.A.R.E., this shit will keep kids off drugs, while still being one of the most compelling listens of the year.

12. Missy Elliott - "Get Ur Freak On" - (video) - The second Timbaland hits those keyboard notes, this song's place among the decade's best tracks was sealed. More club-ready than previous Elliott singles like "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)," with more edge than later work such as "Lose Control," "Get Ur Freak On" is the ultimate product of Elliott and Timbaland's partnership. It's immortal enough that each could have rested on their laurels after its release. Thankfully, they've only used it as a compass pointing toward further innovation.

11. Radiohead - "Everything in Its Right Place" - (video) - "Everything in Its Right Place" is a more cerebral track than anything the world's greatest band has released before or since. The keyboards sound like something imported from another planet, Yorke's vocals float among the many sounds co-existing in the track's strange brew, another strong instrument in the mix. The disparate elements form a cohesive whole, decimating expectations in the band's post-OK Computer era. From this song on, Radiohead were capable of anything, and limited by nothing.

10. Cannibal Ox - "The F-Word" - (song-only video) - That the song manages to be the standout on an album as loaded as The Cold Vein automatically warrants a spot in the top ten. El-P's beat is breathtaking, dense and layered. There's a reason this album's instrumentals were released as a separate album. Yet, more than any other song on the album, "The F-Word" lets rappers Vast Aire and Vordul Mega take the forefront. Reversing the traditional role of gender in hip-hop, "The F-Word" finds the duo frustrated and denied by women, stuck in the friendship role despite desires toward love and lust. Stylus claimed the lyrical virtuosity conveyed "the potential for hip hop lyrics to work on as many levels as the finest English poetry." Allow me to nominate Vast Aire for Poet Laureate.

9. Bright Eyes - "No Lies, Just Love" - (mood-killing video) - I have friends both who love and loathe Conner Oberst, and both camps raise valid points, depending on perspective. Whereas his emotional nudity can be perceived as grating or overly melodramatic, on "No Lies, Just Love," the best song he's ever written, it's nothing less than gripping. Dealing with suicide, apathy, family, and disappointment, Oberst covers a wide breadth of areas with the master's touch that earned him Dylan comparisons in the first place. The arrangement is just as strong; when the music amplifies after the "if you go, then soon I will follow," it has never failed to give me goosebumps. As he cries out in the coda, there are shades of Lennon's "Mother": an artist facing his dispassion, disbelief, and disillusion, and contradictorily reaffirming life's importance to the listener.

8. Boards of Canada - "Dayvan Cowboy" - (video) - Leave it to the masterminds of the 90's best electronica album, Music Has the Right to Children, to come up with the 00's most impressive electronica composition. "Dayvan Cowboy" immediately and repeatedly finds one perfect groove after another, slowly bleeding one into another, a cognitive exploration of the mind using analog synthesizers and drum machines. This is music for when the drugs no longer work. It doesn't hurt that it has the decade's best music video to accompany it either.

7. Justin Timberlake - "My Love" - (video; actual song starts at 1:40) - Like Missy Elliott before him, Justin Timberlake's artistic future was forever altered for the better when he began working with Timbaland. "My Love" is the primary example. Timbaland throws out all his usual pop tricks. There's no element here we haven't seen before, but the combination is pop perfection, the musical equivalent of the first time Reese mixed peanut butter and chocolate. Timbaland lays the groundwork, Timberlake does everything he's asked to, and then there's T.I.'s verse, the second-best of his career (behind "Swagga Like Us") and a stone-cold confirmation of his talents. Consider this the aughts' equivalent of "Billie Jean."

6. Eminem - "Stan" - (video) - Eminem was, without argument, the most divisive figure in popular music this decade. Even Eminem was divided into two artistic "characters": Marshall and Shady. "Stan" tackles the criticism Eminem has faced as an immoral "role model" to fans, as well as establishes the distinct difference between Eminem the persona and Marshall the person. The sonic details (the scribbling of the pen, the background noise during Stan's final correspondence, etc.) make the song all the more enveloping and engrossing. "Stan" was (and, let's be honest, will remain) Eminem's career-defining track, one which took much more risk than obvious-subversive bullshit like "Fack" or "We Made You."
(sidenote: If I'd given out a "Worst Song of the Decade," it would have been the aforementioned "Fack.")

5. Wolf Parade - "I'll Believe in Anything" - (video) - I have a theory regarding the energy crisis our nation faces: there has to be some way to harness the pure energy Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug produce on Apologies to the Queen Mary's stand-out jaw-dropper. The sound builds and builds as Krug pleads to take his love away from the pains of the real world, to somewhere where "nobody knows [her] and nobody gives a damn." The energy pulses through the song, managing to maintain a crescendo for its entire second-half. The band demonstrates the ability to transport anyone with nothing more than drums, keyboard, guitar, and cries of howling longing. By the time it's over, the listener truly does believe in anything. After a performance as honest as this, how couldn't they?

4. Sigur Rós - "Svefn-G-Englar" - (video) - I read a brilliant author's take on this song, which was much more accomplished than anything I could produce. Take his word for it.

3. The Wrens - "She Sends Kisses" - (WTF video) - Full disclosure: I have a jaded affection for this song. About the same time I got into The Wrens, I broke up with my first love. After that point, listening to "She Sends Kisses" was a painful but essential experience. The song so perfectly captures the post-heartbreak fallout from a male perspective that each listen was a confirmation I wasn't alone in my suffering. Seeing your first love in the next girl ("I put your face on her all year"), the flooding of emotion from simply reading of text from your once-beloved, wondering how her next man could ever do the things you could; all of it was there, all of it rang true. Three years later, and while the feelings for that ex are gone, the feelings for "She Sends Kisses" are as strong as ever.

2. Radiohead - "Backdrifts" - ("Hard Candy" video) - Hail to the Thief may not have been Radiohead's premiere album of the decade, but as is to be expected from a band of their caliber, it provided moments of unparalleled excellence. "Backdrifts" is the track on which Radiohead return to rock from the ambient/electronica detours of their previous two albums, while perfectly incorporating lessons they had learned along the way. The lyrics of paranoia are fairly standard fare for the band's post-The Bends output, yet within the analog mind-fuck of the song's sonic strucutre, their power is amplified. Radiohead have continued to break ground with each new album this decade, which makes it all the more impressive that "Backdrifts" stands as their finest track during that span.

1. My Morning Jacket - "Steam Engine" - (song-only video) - It's a shame what's happened to mainstream radio. The days of triumphant rock and roll gaining widespread radio play are seemingly vanished, replaced by lazy, misogynistic hip-hop and faceless pop music. In 1977, "Steam Engine" would have been all over the air-waves, playing next to "Hotel California" and "Tuesday's Gone." The song is no relic though; rather, it is timeless. Jim James' voice remains one of America's under-appreciated national treasures (American Dad plugs aside), capable of hitting seemingly any note with ease. The guitar and drums do exactly what they're supposed to do: breaking through at the precise moments they need to; letting James carry the load when needed. The song is a heart-on-sleeve epic, the kind of beautiful craftsmanship and songwriting that wouldn't stand a chance on Top 40 radio. It's better that way. You can't play "Steam Engine" and follow it with "Poker Face."

And now you can tell me how wrong I am for leaving off Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Daft Punk, and/or your favorite band.

Swan Lake / "Enemy Mine"

2009-04-08T08:53:00.000-05:00

Questions I Asked Heading Into Enemy Mine and How They Were Answered

How would it compare to Beast Moans, which was inconsistent, but worthwhile thanks to impressive zeniths? As much of a fan as a I am of the artists involved in Swan Lake (Carey Mercer, Spencer Krug, and Dan Bejar), the group's debut album was not up to expectations. Signs of life, however, were seen in outstanding tracks such as "All Fires" and "Are You Swimming in Her Pools?" As I prepared to listen to Enemy Mine for the first time, I was cautiously optimistic that the three talented musicians at the core of Swan Lake could build off Beast Moans' highlights while reaching a level of consistency that album never had. Turns out, not so much. After the Carey Mercer opening number "Spanish Gold, 2044" validates the optimism by letting Mercer's compelling and unique vocals carry the song over a plodding beat out of Wolf Parade's down-tempo playbook, things slowly but explicitly slide downhill. By the time the album gets to the convoluted mess that is "Warlock Psychologist" all hopes are diminished. Compared to Beast Moans. Enemy Mine fades sooner, has fewer lasting highlights and impressions, and is frankly quite dismissible.
Can Swan Lake ever span the classic album their talents are capable of? With two albums into the books and only three or four tracks worth of great material between the two, Swan Lake appears more and more like a masturbatory side project for all its members. Maybe they don't want to bring out their best material for an album not as closely tied to their musical legacy. It's not like Swan Lake is an outlet for the artists' more experimental fancies. Take any Frog Eyes album and it will take infinitely more risks than both Swan Lake albums combined. So what is Swan Lake? Is it nothing more than a way for Krug, Mercer, and Bejar to crank out more albums (all are renowned for being in three-plus bands as it is) regardless to if the trio is diluting their talents or not? Don't get the wrong impression, the songs on Enemy Mine not named "Spanish Gold, 2044" aren't by any means terrible songs (exception being the aforementioned "Warlock Psychologist"); they just aren't at the level of any of the artists' best - or even notable - songs. Perhaps the trio has a classic in them, but it's going to take a much more substantial effort. I mean, come on. The laughable Bowie impersonating which comprises the last two minutes of "A Hand at Dusk"? I thought I was listening to Flight of the Conchords.
Is a group really a "super-group" if no one in the band has even had a gold record? From an artistic standpoint, yes, Swan Lake are capable of being a super-group, even if Frog Eyes and Destroyer aren't exactly household names (unless you're referring to the Kiss album). When attempting to warrant the title based on artistic merit, however, that merit needs to be conveyed on the group's albums, not simply implied due to the triumphs each artist has individually achieved. Generally speaking, that takes more than two great songs per album.
But, hey, it's still better than Surfing by Megapuss, right? Yeah, so it has that going for it.

Rating: 5.8

DOOM / "Born Like This"

2009-03-31T21:27:00.005-05:00

Daniel Dumile was once not only one of hip-hop's greatest working artists, he was also one of its most prolific. Hell, in a two-year span he dropped three of the most original and striking albums the genre has seen this decade ("Take Me to Your Leader" as King Geedorah, "Madvillainy" as Madvillain, and "Vaudeville Villain" as Viktor Vaughn). Then after 2005's mediocre-by-his-standards "DangerDoom" collaboration with Danger Mouse... nothing. But here he is, four years later, and finally making a return to the studio. The problem is, it just doesn't feel right. "Born Like This" is Dumile all right, with yet another moniker, but at the same time it doesn't sound like the artist I remember. There's something missing besides just the MF.

For one, the production is lousy nearly all across the board. I counted two songs out of seventeen ("Rap Ambush" and "Cellz") with beats that didn't sell DOOM short. Compared to the revelatory production on "Madvillainy" and the nearly as impressive production on "Leader" and the first Viktor Vaughn album, nothing here would even cut it as a B-side. Quite frankly, these beats wouldn't have sounded relevatory in 1989, nevermind 2009.

But, hey, people don't tune into a DOOM album for the production anyway. His main draw is his labyrinthine and ludicrously great rhyme flow. After all, Mos Def said he'd "bet a million dollars on DOOM against Lil Wayne." If we're comparing DOOM circa 2009 to Wayne circa 2008, I think Mos Def would be losing money faster than AIG at this point. I've listened to this album through eight times now. Maybe two or three lines stuck with me, and those were for all the wrong reasons, and all on the same track, "Batty Boyz." The song is the first time DOOM has ever sounded this vicious, but his anger is not directed at other MCs, but rather at homosexuals. Opening with a variety of homophobic sound bites from various sources (I think I even heard a Jeff Dunham puppet in there. What?) it goes on to basically spew hate-speak and bigotry for three minutes straight.

Now, I'm not naive. I realize homophobia and hip-hop have been bedfellows for some time now, and some of the most bashing albums are actually among the genre's best (see: "The Marshall Mathers LP"). But with Eminem it's expected, and it's all part of his persona, like it or leave it. It's never been part of DOOM's repetoire, and the track leaves a confused and slightly bitter feeling with the listener.

What's saddest about "Born Like This" is that "Batty Boyz" is really the only thing I remember about the whole album. While its remaining sixteen tracks aren't bad (well, maybe a couple are), they leave no discernable impression upon the listener. No "America's Most Blunted" or "Never Dead" to be found here. Five years or silence and instead of that long-rumored Ghostface collaboration we get this? Perhaps the man himself spells it out best on "Ballskin": "Don't believe the hyperbole." Generously, this is a poor man's "Supreme Clinetele"; realistically, it's a barely above-average album by an artist who has proven time and again capable of so much more. Hopefully it won't take him another four years to redeem himself for this misfire.

Rating: 6.1

2009-03-27T21:49:00.000-05:00

Dead Mellotron / "Ghost Light Constellation" EP

2009-02-20T12:08:00.010-06:00

2009 has been a great year for music already. First, Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavilion" proved to be every bit the masterpiece the hype had suggested. Next, Phantom Band released an album ("Checkmate Savage") which appeared poised to challenge "Merriweather" for album of the year up until December. Now this: relative unknown Dead Mellotron's "Ghost Light Constellation" EP, a muscial achievement so crowning as to topple both of the aforementioned albums, and to set its sights upon being not only one of the year's finest albums, but one of the decade's most impressive releases.

The description for this album might as well have read "a lo-fi reimagining of all of Erik Hukriede's favorite rock genres." Throughout its eight tracks, it tackles alternative, ambient, post-rock, shoegaze, and also manages to successfully incorporate elements of noise and electronica. Album opener "Nothing I Ever Imagined" builds itself up from the skeletal blueprints of shoegaze, leaving room for creativity and genre revision. The guitar is brought further to the forefront, amplified to crash over everything like a tidal wave. The vocals are buried in the mix, functioning more as an additional instrument than a means of conveying words. The percussion shoots through the fog of haze like escaping light beams. Everything is illuminated, and it is brilliant.

The brilliance carries over through each of the remaining tracks. "I Woke Up" is aptly titled, an ambient guitar piece swirling sonically as the sound gets bigger and nearer, like leaving a dream to rejoin reality. "I Hate the Way Things Are" opens with a dance/electronica beat before a menacing guitar enters in and obliterates the conscious, before slowly returning to melody. It's the musical direction Fuck Buttons should have taken post-"Sweet Love for Planet Earth" had they wanted to remain ahead of the curve. "Heart Flutter" operates as a form of break for the listener, all minimal drum machine and keyboard arrangments with little in the way of variation. By itself, it is not an overly impressive track, but it fits perfectly into the context of the album as a whole.

"Dress Rehearsal" signals a return to the rock side of the EP, and is the most straightforward rock track on the album. It is also one of the few times the vocals are both audible and distinguishable, although even here they remain down in the mix. The song ends with a guitar solo which abruptly ceases as "Saltwater (Beach House)" begins. As the sounds of waves crashing across the shore set the exposition, guitar, keyboard, and drums fade in and out while distorted vocals further set the mood. Simply put, it is one the finest ambient rock tracks I've heard in the last five years. The album closes with the two longest songs, "Untitled" and the title track. "Untitled" is an amalgamation of post-rock and ambient, and manages to exemplify both genres simultaneously in only a four-minute run time. "Ghost Light Constellation" ends the disc on a high note, although at this point it's more like a peak sticking up from a very elevated plateau. Reminiscent of Tangerine Dream's electronica masterstroke, "Phaedra," the song rides extended keyboard notes while percussion kicks away to keep the pace. As the percussion gives away, the songs bleeds away slowly, before both it and the album end.

"Ghost Light Constellation" combines a plethora of disparate elements with such fluidity in a way unseen since "Kid A." Cohesive, masterful, and unique, it is a new artist not only making a name for himself, but challenging all of his contemporaries to reach the same zenith he has. It might be awhile before the challenge is accepted. This album is just that incredible.

Rating: 9.7

The 2008 Generic Awards Part Two: Albums of the Year

2008-12-31T23:59:00.006-06:00

With apologies to Black Milk, here are the top ten albums of 2008:

10. Sigur Rós - "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" - The last thing I thought I wanted from Sigur Rós was change. The slowly-paced, post-rock artworks which had become their trademark had shown signs of diminishing since "Ágætis Byrjun," sure, but the formula certainly wasn't broken. However, after just the first two songs from the Icelandic group's latest album, I saw (or rather heard) the error of my thinking. "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" is an album full of life, one which provides new direction for the band while leaving enough of their signature sound intact to keep old fans while welcoming the new. It may not be their best album, but it feels like their most immediate.

9. Torche - "Meanderthal" - In a year in which a lot of hard rock albums drew praise ("Fortress," "The Chemistry of Common Life," "Life... The Best Game in Town," etc.), the best of all was an album masquerading as hard rock. Torche explore genres and annihilate each and every one of them. "Speed of the Nail" does up death metal while adding a hint of pop levity, "Grenades" takes the power anthem and soars it to new heights. Torche exemplifies genres while rebuking them, joke too straight-faced to possibly be kidding, and just happen to make kick ass rock music the whole time.

8. Fleet Foxes - "Fleet Foxes" - Observed from a distance, this album doesn't suggest it should be receiving its exemplary level of praise from critics both mainstream and independent. Which makes sense, since "Fleet Foxes" is such an inviting record that to hear it is to fall in love with it, thus never needing to observe it from afar. The album never seeks to blow the listener away or leave them in awe, but rather to provide a sense of welcome and familiarity. When all those hype albums fall by the wayside six months after being proclaimed 'the next BIG thing,' "Fleet Foxes" will be waiting, every bit as great as it has always been.

7. The Dodos - "Visiter" - That am album crafted by two guys on a minuscule label manages to sound this bombastic is incredible. That it can transition almost immediately, yet flawlessly, into soft acoustic rock is even more impressive. With the success of this album, both critically and commercially, I wonder what the future will bring from The Dodos. If they can make an album this inspired out of nowhere and with a lo-fi budget, with the resources it has created for them, the follow-up already promises greatness.

6. R.E.M. - "Accelerate" - Maybe I put it on here because R.E.M. is such a historic band, with a back catalogue which can match almost any band working today. Maybe I put it on here because "Reveal" and "Around the Sun" were so underachieving. Maybe I put it on here because the first time I heard "Until the Day is Done" I had to check that it was indeed a new R.E.M. song. Maybe I put it on here because its political statements were fitting without rendering the album ephemeral to its time. Then again, maybe I just put it on here because it's brilliant, regardless of history, return to form, or any other non-musical factors. Yeah, I think that was why.

5. Jacaszek - "Treny" - Post-rock is dying. Mogwai will never make another "Young Team." Sigur Rós will never make another "Ágætis Byrjun." Tortoise are no longer relevant. Jacaszek offers the solution in this eulogy to the genre. On the surface, "Treny" appears simple but encased within its songs are labyrinthine structures of sound, a plethora of tiny parts each contributing to a massive whole, then muffled to create the illusion of ambiance, a façade of peace created by constant war. Maybe it's all a metaphor, maybe I'm over-thinking it, maybe that's why I never wrote a review. Whichever way, it's certainly one of the year's finest albums.

4. Bon Iver - "For Emma, Forever Ago" - 2008 was the best possible year for this album to arrive. Auto-tuners had taken over, with Kanye, Lil Wayne, T-Pain, and Akon (among others) dominating the charts and the airplay. The raw humanity of Justin Vernon's voice is an instrument in itself. Flawed in the classical sense, yet so ideal for this album that to imagine these songs being performed by anyone else is nearly impossible. That the vocals are accompanied by compositions which fit the mold of folk music while transcending the genre through experimentation and creativity makes "For Emma, Forever Ago" that rare album which achieves importance effortlessly.

3. TV on the Radio - "Dear Science," - Time will tell what Barack Obama's ultimate legacy is and, by extension, what the legacy of this album is. At this point, it may well be a "Golden Age," and it seems beautiful and cause for hope. It may turn out to be a representation of when the United States made a turn toward progress. It may turn out to be a time capsule of a nation's naiveté if things don't end up really changing at all. Either way, it remains a profound document of our nation's collective emotions moving beyond one of our least popular presidents toward one of our most inspiring, a chronicle of finding hope in dark times. It's an important, engaging album to match an important, engaging regime.

2. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "Lie Down in the Light" - My affinity for Will Oldham has been made blatant and obvious on this website. Albums like "Lie Down in the Light" make it easy for me to confirm why I love his work so much. In many ways, "Lie Down in the Light" is his most approachable album to the uninitiated since Palace Music's "Viva Last Blues," perhaps ever. In many ways, it sounds like an amalgamation between Oldham's alt-country and the Golden Era country music of Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, and others. It is a love letter to his influences, while also drawing the love of his fans.

1. Chad VanGaalen - "Soft Airplane" - The transition and artistic leap made from VanGaalen's first two albums to "Soft Airplane" is staggering. A singer-songwriter suddenly emerging with an album which covers every genre from dance to folk to noise rock. Just look at the list of artists I listed as influences in the context of my original review: Devendra Banhart, Talking Heads, Grandaddy, LCD Soundsystem, Beck, Destroyer, Smog, The Microphones. Try finding another album which can connect those dots! That he manages to not only explore genres, but master them in the process is simply ridiculous. Creativity, artistic leaps, variety, and masterful execution? Sounds like the album of the year to me.

And, lest we forget, the worst album of the year: "Vanilla Ice is Back!" - If I have to explain to you why an album which features Vanilla Ice covering "Buffalo Solider" and "Fight the Power" (shudder) is the worst album of the year, I wouldn't know how to make it any more obvious.

The 2008 Generic Awards Part One: Songs of the Year

2008-12-26T11:19:00.003-06:00

With apologies to Sigur Rós, here are the best songs from 2008...

10. Fleet Foxes - "White Winter Hymnal" - Music need not be bombastic to be impressive. Using fairly basic (and at times no) instrumentation, Fleet Foxes let their uncanny ear for vocal harmonies and their pitch-perfect blending more than make up for what the song lacks in sonic experimentation or creativity. What results is a song which sounds as though it could be at home in any era, one which defines what is meant by "timeless."

9. Animal Collective - "Water Curses" - For all their wild experimentation, Animal Collective have been a pop band since their fifth and best album "Sung Tongs" came out in 2004. "Water Curses" is the most concrete proof of this that the Collective has ever offered. With a straightforward tropical percussion, easy vocals, and little signs of experimentation, it almost seems too safe at first to suit the band. However, it nonetheless remains immediately enjoyable, while still impressing more and more with each subsequent lesson.

8. Vampire Weekend - "A-Punk" - On "A-Punk" Vampire Weekend make pop music look way too easy. One listen and I was sold. Ezra Koenig's vocals are inviting, the woodwind flourishes add variety, and the drums pace everything wonderfully. The song is a great representation of the band: immediate, enjoyable, perhaps forgettable, but always welcome.

7. Bon Iver - "Skinny Love" - Justin Vernon's "Skinny Love" exemplifies all of the characteristics which made his debut under the Bon Iver moniker such a beautiful and treasured find among the vast landscape of indie albums. The lyrics are heartfelt and affecting, delivered in a fashion which conveys all of the emotions touched on by the lyrics. The composition is minimal, allowing Vernon's voice to become the focus. The bare compositions leave Vernon's exposed, forced to reveal itself and to wear its emotions on its sleeve. There is a level of power which comes from the quiet, and Vernon has found the most productive means of channeling it.

6. Lil Wayne - "A Milli" - I know. What is "A Milli" doing on this list, right? It's just a series of unrelated punchlines and non sequiturs. The beat isn't all that impressive. There's just something about it though that keeps me coming back. Lil Wayne is at full swagger, and he doesn't give a shit if things don't add up. He's here, he spits his rhymes, and then he leaves. I stand and witness, my mind left two-thirds blown and one-third confused. After enough lisens I just give in. Lil Wayne is a venereal disease like a menstrual bleed. He's the shit, and I've got loose bowels. I don't see him, but I hear him.

5. TV on the Radio - "DLZ" - As "Dear Science," slowly but surely became the go-to album for chronicalling America's transition from Bush to Obama, each of the album's songs took on additional meaning. The dark and ominous sound of "DLZ" combined with its Bush-bashing lyrics represent a fear of the direction the nation was heading in. Tunde Adebimpe's "la la la" chorus conveys a hope and light through it all. You might not agree with their message, but it's hard to knock TV on the Radio's means of delivering it.

4. Big Boi, featuring Andre 3000 and Raekwon - "Royal Flush" - With the failed "Idlewild" experiment and the overrated "Speakerboxxx / The Love Below" most recently on the minds of their fans, it's understandable to forget how great OutKast really is. Leave it to Big Boi to remind everyone how he and Andre 3000 are still ahead of any other hip-hop artists working today (although Clipse are closing the gap quickly). He and Raekwon drop some nice verses over an Isley Brothers' sample of "Welcome to Atlantis," but really they're just setting up the audience for Andre 3000 to provide further evidence that he is the most intelligent and creative and, well, essential MC working today. When he says "hey I'm talking young man / as if chalk in my hand / I will take yo' little ass to school," he's not kidding.

3. Fuck Buttons - "Sweet Love for Planet Earth" - Noise rock tends itself to fans of the avant-garde, a genre designed to be appealing only to those who crave the unappealing. Fortunate, no one relayed that message to Fuck Buttons. Combining ambience and noise, chaos and sleep, the group wound up with one of the most original and compelling compositions of the year.

2. T.I., featuring Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Lil Wayne - "Swagga Like Us" - Just as "Paper Planes" and M.I.A. hype were dying down, Kanye West resurrected them as well as his hip-hop credibility on the stand-out single from T.I.'s otherwise-disappointing "Paper Trail." Bringing together arguably the four biggest names in hip-hop, each contributes at or above expectations. Kanye makes incredible use of the M.I.A. sample while turning his best verse since "The College Dropout." Jay-Z, who typically phones-in his guest spots, brings a verse up to par with anything on "American Gangster." Lil Wayne is business as usual, which means he's exceptional. Then there's T.I., who has the verse of the year. Every rhyme is worth quoting, so to save space just listen to the track and stand back in awe. Indeed, no one on any corner has swagger like these four guys.

1. Shearwater - "The Snow Leopard" - Okkervil River is a very good band. However, they've never released anything this good. "the Snow Leopard" is nothing short of a monumental achievement in music. The piano sets the tone, Johnathon Meiburg's vocals howl and coo beautifully in an almost operatic fashion, and the guitar seals the package. In a year with many exceptional songs, "The Snow Leopard" was the only one which I would unequivocally qualify as perfect.

Top Ten Albums I Didn't Review

2008-12-21T10:57:00.000-06:00

Seeing as this is a blog, not a job, I simply don't always find time to review all the albums I'd like to. However, with it being the end of the year, and since not all of these albums can make my final top ten list, here's a chance for these albums to get some love and for me to briefly explain what made them great. If you're wondering about how they score, the range is 7.8 to 8.6.

10. Man Man - "Rabbit Habits" - Man Man's third effort is arguably their best yet, with a bigger sound, crisper production, and an even more original reworking of their Tom Waits + pop + vaudeville formula. As with the group's other albums, it's not for everyone. Man Man invite you down the rabbit-hole into a bizarre alternate world of theatrics, and for those willing to make the journey it is a memorable experience.

(video is "Easy Eats or Dirty Doctor Galapagos")

9. Pale Young Gentlemen - "Black Forest (Tra La La)" - Last year, after rewarding Pale Young Gentlemen's debut with a ridiculously high 9.1 rating, they earned spots on both my album and song of the year lists. They also earned a record deal with Science of Sound, which released their second album less than 18 months after their debut. The use of a label is reflected in the crisper production and deeper sonics, but lost in the transition is the spontaneity and, well, fun of the debut. It was still good enough to make this list and avoid a "sophomore slump," but better albums are ahead for this band.

(video is "The Crook of My Good Arm")

8. Flying Lotus - "Los Angeles" - This is how Warp interprets hip-hop. "Los Angeles" sounds like nothing else released this year, yet is accessible to fans of a wide variety of genres. Electronica, hip-hop, IDM; the lines between all three were blurred and erased in under an hour. Not bad, Steven Ellison. I can't even begin to fathom what he's got planned for album number three.

(video is "Riot")

7. Hold Steady - "Stay Positive" - Craig Finn and company are certainly consistent. One knows what to expect from them each time out. Sing-along refrains surrounded by Finn's storytelling sung-spoke vocals and plenty of guitar. Four albums in, and the formula is showing very little (if any) diminishing returns. "Stay Positive" is another solid Hold Steady album, with the usual stand-outs ("Constructive Summer" and "Lord, I'm Discouraged") and hardly a weak track on the album. Sure, the Hold Steady don't change much, but why should they?

(video is "Constructive Summer")

6. Cut Copy - "In Ghost Colours" - Just give in. There's no use resisting. Click play.

(video is "Feel the Love")

5. Deerhunter - "Microcastle" - Bradford Cox has reached the point when he can do anything and critics will adore it. "Microcastle" marks the first time on a full-length that he's deserved the praise. Removing himself from the jam-out tendencies of the band's previous two LPs to find an increased level of structure, and finding originality through variety rather than spontaneity, Cox showcased abilities in composition and songwriting which converted me. I believe in Bradford Cox... except for Atlas Sound.

(video is "Agoraphobia")

4. Black Milk - "Tronic" - In a year in which many big name hip-hop artists released albums, none were able to match what Detroit beat connoisseur and MC Black Milk was able to accomplish with his latest album (unless you thought "Tha Carter III" was a masterstroke). It's fourteen tracks of hip-hop, no filler, ranging from good to jaw-dropping. The frequent comparisons of Black Milk to J. Dilla are easily drawn here, although on tracks like "Hell Yeah" Black Milk out-Dilla's the late Jay Dee himself. With "Tronic," Black Milk rises from the ashes of J. Dilla to become an even more powerful version of the late producer extraordinaire.

(video is "The Matrix")

3. Torche - "Meanderthal" - In a year in which a lot of hard rock albums drew praise ("Fortress," "The Chemistry of Common Life," "Life... The Best Game in Town," etc.), the best of all was an album masquerading as hard rock. Torche explore genres and annihilate each and every one of them. "Speed of the Nail" does up death metal while adding a hint of pop levity, "Grenades" takes the power anthem and soars it to new heights. Torche exemplifies genres while rebuking them, joke too straight-faced to possibly be kidding, and just happen to make kick ass rock music the whole time.

(video is "Grenades")

2. Fleet Foxes - "Fleet Foxes" - The "Sun Giant EP" was good, but Fleet Foxes' debut convinced me the hype surrounding the band was warranted. Robin Pecknold's vocals are an instrument in themselves, with a level of reverb previously reserved only for My Morning Jacket's Jim James. Consistent, gorgeous, and impeccably arranged, "Fleet Foxes" may have gained recognition through hype and buzz, but will be able to sustain it through the shear quality and craftsmanship of its songs.

(video is "Ragged Wood")

1. Jacaszek - "Treny" - Post-rock is dying. Mogwai will never make another "Young Team." Sigur Rós will never make another "Ágætis Byrjun." Tortoise are no longer relevant. Jacaszek offers the solution in this eulogy to the genre. On the surface, "Treny" appears simple but encased within its songs are labyrinthine structures of sound, a plethora of tiny parts each contributing to a massive whole, then muffled to create the illusion of ambience, a façade of peace created by constant war. Maybe it's all a metaphor, maybe I'm over-thinking it, maybe that's why I never wrote a review. Whichever way, it's certainly one of the year's finest albums.

(video is "Lament")

Kanye West / "808s & Heartbreak"

2008-11-24T17:59:00.006-06:00

Let me just get it out of the way right now, I'm giving this album a 10.0. For better and worse, it's the quintessential Kanye West album. It's Kanye West telling everyone and everything that isn't Kanye West to fuck off, including rap music and Kanye West's fans. Kanye West doesn't care about any of that shit. Kanye West only loves Kanye West. Kanye West knows Kanye West is invincible. Kanye West can premiere Kanye West's latest video on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." It doesn't matter. There's no knocking Kanye West. Kanye West can make an entire album using autotuner, and expect Kanye West's fans to pay money to own it. Kanye West knows that putting the name Kanye West on Kanye West's latest album guarantees the album will sell 500,000 copies (minimum) its first week. It doesn't matter that it's an over-produced, boring, pile of shit which gets old before the first listen is even through. It's the "Metal Machine Music" of autotuners.

Sure, it could be qualified as a hip-hop album. After all, Young Jeezy shits out an awful verse on the annoying-beyond-belief "Amazing", and Lil Wayne almost sort of raps (terribly) on "See You in My Nightmares." Kanye West fans will wonder why Kanye West doesn't rap on the entire album. Kanye West will say something about how Kanye West is "expanding the very meaning of hip-hop, and forever changing the nature of the music for the better" or some bullshit. The truth is Kanye West is content to do whatever Kanye West wants to do, and will continue to do whatever Kanye West wants to do as long as Kanye West is making money, and then Kanye West will speak out against every review which dares question the artistic merit of "808s & Heartbreak" and question the integrity of the Grammy Awards (as if they had any to begin with) when the album fails to win every major category. The thing is, at first I thought it was all just a big gimmick on the part of Kanye West. Kanye West's ego couldn't possibly be that inflated, right? I was wrong.

I think Kanye West actually believes this is a classic masterpiece of an album, a 10.0 album. Kanye West will stand up for and defend this album against anyone and everyone. Kanye West will hear the criticism, sure, and Kanye West will address it as Kanye West always does. The thing is though, it won't really bother Kanye West. Kanye West will know at the end of the day that Kanye West is still the greatest musical composer since Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Kanye West won't let the fans' disgust at this horrid album unruffle Kanye West. George Bush doesn't care about black people, and Kanye West doesn't care about Kanye West's fans. "808s & Heartbreak" is the archetype Kanye West album for precisely that reason. It's not made for you, the fans. It's made for Kanye West, and you know Kanye West loves it and thinks it's flawless.

Rating: 10.0

(Kanye West loves the score I gave Kanye West, but did complain that I didn't use Kanye West's name enough.)

The Streets / "Everything is Borrowed"

2008-10-27T15:24:00.003-05:00

(sigh) I didn't even want to review this album...

Let me just get it out now: "Everything is Borrowed" is a terrible album. That the album will be his penultimate brings about mixed emotions. On one hand, Skinner has shown in the past to be a talented, and in many ways groundbreaking, artist whose work will be missed. However, on the other hand, with the trajectory mapped out by the development (or lack thereof) from "A Grand Don't Come for Free" to "The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living" to this suggests it's tragically for the best if he just fades out. It's a sad and surprising story that someone who arrived with as much to say on his debut as Skinner, someone who reached even further with his craft on his sophomore album, and looked as though he were ready to be a major musical voice for years to come, would fade out with such a dim light.

Make no mistakes, whereas "Hardest Way" was upsetting in its stagnation and its failure to meet either of its preceding albums, "Everything is Borrowed" leaves the listener stoic. It suggests Skinner is out of ideas, or good ones anyway. Instead of angry, the listener simply sighs in the realization that The Streets is not only failing to meet expectations, but that Skinner has eliminated any reasonable reason for expectations to even exist entering album number five.

There's nothing interesting on this album. It doesn't fail under the weight of its own ambitions. It has no ambitions. I don't even know what he was aiming to accomplish. "Original Pirate Material" sought to translate the life of a regular Londoner into hip-hop with a twist, making the mundane into something of great interest. "A Grand Don't Come for Free" remains Skinner's masterpiece, a soap opera set to music which has lost none of its dramatic flair or intrigue in the four-plus years since its release. Even the mediocre-at-best "Hardest Way" attempted to translate the life-as-art approach of "Original Pirate Material" to Skinner's current life of luxury, but failed due to a lack of creativity and a lack of connection to the listener.

"Everything is Borrowed" is Skinner making an album. Period. His verses, which were always even more of a selling point than his production, are lousy. One listen to "Heaven for the Weather" tells you all you need to know. Skinner has no flow, his lyrics aren't creative, and the song is about as captivating as watching Carnie Wilson's gastric bypass surgery online. His production occasionally shines through ("The Sherry Ends", "Alleged Legends"), but not until the album is nearly over, by which time I was only continuing to listen so I could write this review.

People grow up and mature. You can't expect artists to stay in the mold they began in. Skinner isn't the same kid making beats on his laptop and rapping about smoking pot and trying to land women while turning it all into a social commentary of sorts, just like Conor Oberst isn't the same emo kid screaming his insecurities. But just like Bright Eyes became decreasingly interesting since "Fevers and Mirrors" before bottoming out with last year's neutered alt-country strummer "Cassadaga", The Streets no longer desires to make music like he used to. That's fine, I suppose. I just no longer desire to listen to his music.

Rating: 2.0

Chad VanGaalen / "Soft Airplane"

2008-10-06T15:14:00.013-05:00

I'd be lying if I told you I was entirely sold on Chad VanGaalen entering the year 2008. Sure, his debut album, "Infiniheart" was a reasonably impressive lo-fi recorded singer-songwriter album and his most recent album (and second overall), "Skelliconnection", earned some nice buzz and a Polaris Prize nomination. However, the change from "Infiniheart" to "Skelliconnection" did not hint that VanGaalen has ready to make the jump to being a premiere artist. His latest offering, "Soft Airplane", finally sees VanGaalen taking advantage of SubPop's technology and releasing an album that captures and solidifies all of his talents.

Opening with the bizarre but nonetheless interesting Devandra Banhart sound-alike "Willow Tree", VanGaalen finally hits his stride with "Bones of Man" and never looks back. "Bones of Man" begins with VanGaalen's voice accompanying a simple guitar line before adding harmonizing vocals, xylophones, and a myriad of odds and ends. Too many chefs may spoil a stew according to the old adage, but VanGaalen knows the perfect portioning. As the song parlays from refrain to one instrumental solo to the next before fading into static, there are no doubts to VanGaalen's talents as a composer, lyricist, or performer. "Cries of the Dead" combines cryptic lyrics ("I can hear the cries of the dead, muffled by the ground, but still loud enough to make it out") and an upbeat pop beat into a song that would be humorously ironic if it weren't so fucking good

His influences are vast and scattered. "Bare Feet on Wet Griptape" sounds like the Talking Heads, both vocally and sonically. "Poisonous Hands" hints at Grandaddy, with its space-age vocals and distant guitar. Hell, "TMNT" (which, yes, does stand for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) is a dance-rock track in the vein of LCD Soundsystem with a (no joke) harmonica solo! In the same way Beck used to do during his creative zenith, VanGaalen takes a disparate elements, slams them together, and creates a coexistence where one would seem unlikely or even near impossible. It's undeniably captivating music. From beginning to end, "Soft Airplane" explores new sonic possibilities, mesmerizes the listener with its beauty and creativity, and never becomes static or redundant.

In fact, the second half of the album might be even better than the disc's exemplary first half. "Molten Light" embraces VanGaalen's lo-fi roots magnificently and the effects combined with the chorus of "she'll find you and she'll kill you!" gives the song an eerie, hypnotic aura. "Old Man + The Sea" drowns VanGaalen's vocals in effects and instruments, only allowing it to approach the forefront as the song changes fronts and sonics during the refrain. "City of Electric Light" somehow manages to sound like Destroyer, Smog, and the Microphones simultaneously, and is every bit as good as those impressive influences. "Rabid Bits of Time" opens "you've been dead for years, but you never knew" before becoming a slow, quiet, melancholic burner of a track. "No one knows where we go when we're dead or when we're dreaming" sings VanGaalen as the song broods with the percussion of tambourines before more and more instruments slowly enter and exit the picture like characters in a play, each delivering one poignant line and exiting the stage. It gives way to a grumble and effects which sound like a train passing over rails. Closer "Frozen Energon" sounds like nothing else on the album, an ambient noise track with blips and static filling the remaining space. The album opens with a hum, and closes in an eruption of noise. In between, it is no less than one of the most original and exciting albums I've heard all year.

Rating: 9.1

TV on the Radio / "Dear Science"

2008-09-29T19:22:00.003-05:00

This is how you get popular without selling out. TV on the Radio have followed an ideal timeline for a band to achieve mainstream success without changing their sound to meet Top 40 standards. Arriving fully-formed and loaded with the incredible "Young Liars" EP in 2003, they were hit-and-miss (fortunately the former more than the latter) on their debut full-length "Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes" before fulfilling their early promise with 2006's excellent "Return to Cookie Mountain". Now comes "Dear Science", which takes the astronomical expectations forged by the success of "Cookie Mountain" and strides past them without breaking a sweat. TV on the Radio have crafted a career-defining masterpiece, while sounding as effortless as they ever have on record.

Opener "Halfway Home" swells with the energy of a dormant volcano awaiting eruption. Lead singer Tunde Adebimpe's falsetto floats across waves of muffled feedback and Dave Sitek's programmed drums guide the song on a linear path toward the inevitable eruption at the 4:30 mark. It's an even better opener than the near-perfect "I Was a Lover" from "Cookie Mountain" and establishes both the pop-oriented nature of the record as well as the quality of the tracks. Whereas "Cookie Mountain" was an album of expanding the boundaries of alternative music and creating beauty from the dark chasms of Sitek's production, "Dear Science" sees the band reaching that perfect mixture of pop music's popular sensibilities and the expansion-seeking experimentation of independent music, the way artists like David Bowie used to do. In fact, "Crying" sounds like vintage post-Berlin Bowie, with it's radio-ready beat and smooth yet expressive vocals. Lead single "Dancing Choose" begins with Adebimpe making use of a rap / spoken-verse delivery. Carried more by energy than composition, the song nonetheless succeeds, even if it's not quite the single "Wolf Like Me" was in 2006.

The album's torrid pace slows for yet another stand-out track in "Stork and Owl", before kicking back up to dance music speed with "Golden Age". "There's a golden age, comin' round, comin' round, comin' round!" sings Adebimpe with hope as the strings and drums and synthesizer give the song its intoxicating allure and make it impossible to deny. "Family Tree" is the album's slowest track, and while not as immediate as the tracks preceding it, it nonetheless remains beautiful, both lyrically and sonically. "We're laying in the shadow of your family tree, your haunted heart and me... There's a hundred hearts soar free, pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep it young" sings Adebimpe, his lyrics enigmatic yet poignant, made all the more visceral through the harp and woodwinds which lead the song. If there's any low point on this album, it's "Red Dress". An anti-war song, beginning "a-hey Jackboot! Fuck your war! I'm fat and in love and no bombs are fallin’ on me for sure." The vocals are just as ludicrous as the lyrics read, and the song never really finds its footing.

However, this lack of footing is only a misstep, not a full-out fall. The album reasserts itself with the slowly-building and irresistably poppy "Shout Me Out", which goes from bubblegum to guitar rock without missing a beat. The guitar solo which comprises the song's second half is easily the best guitar work the band has ever shown. "DLZ" is the late highlight of the album, propelled by the darkest mood on the album, recalling the best songs of "Cookie Mountain" and "Young Liars". Adebimpe makes more from a refrain of "la la la's" than should be possible, and the song starts off supremely well and only continues to get better and better as it progresses. Simply put, it's a perfect track.

"Lover's Day" closes the album on a high note, all anthemic rock and no pretense. The band brings out a marching band worth of instruments, holding nothing back. It's an apt summary of the album. TV on the Radio continue to expand their sound, all while making it increasingly user-friendly. I can't imagine that "Dear Science" will fail to add to their fan-base and the fervor which surrounds their album releases. I'd say it would be a hard album to top, but with the level of talent and execution on display, there really is no limit to what this band can do.

Rating: 9.0

A Series of Quick Reviews

2008-09-22T14:20:00.008-05:00

The Review is back with three new reviews...

Mount Eerie / "Black Wooden Ceiling Opening": "What's in a name?" asked Juliet in the second act of Shakespeare's famous play. "Would Phil Elvrum's music by any other name not sound as sweet?" asked Erik as he prepared to listen to the newest release by the former Microphones genius under his Mount Eerie moniker. The answer is not as clear-cut as one would imagine. "BWCO" is undoubtedly an Elvrum work, but it never grabs the listener the way that the best Microphones albums did. Whereas with albums such as "The Glow, Pt. 2" or "Mount Eerie", Elvrum would build to his crescendos gracefully and subtly, making their impact all the more substantial, on "BWCO" he seems lackadaisical in his approach. For example, on album centerpiece "In Moonlight", Elvrum begins with an interesting anecdote of walking down a road and seeing what he thinks to be a car, before realizing "there was no car; it was me revealed in moonlight." Then Elvrum decides "what the hell, I might as well just throw a giant guitar jam in" and jerks the listener out of the story. This process of lazily and randomly placing pieces which should act as culminations might seem brave and artistic at first, but over and entire album of repeating the process (albeit only a 6 track EP) it nullifies the effect of these zeniths and leaves the listener to wonder whatever happened to Mr. Elvrum between 2003 (when "Mount Eerie" was released) and now that caused him to lose his grasp on song composition, especially when largely the lyrics are still so strong. Sure, it's a good album, but it so easily could've been great, especially for someone with the obvious talent of Phil Elvrum.
Rating: 7.5

Kingdom Shore / "... And All the Dogs to Shark": You know how someone will play an album for you, and should you dare to not find it revelatory you will be told "you just don't get it"? Well, I just don't get Kingdom Shore. Kingdom Shore, the brain-child of Mark Molnar, consists of four violins all playing separate parts at the same time. The best way to describe the sound is to take Jonny Greenwood's "There Will Be Blood" score at its most dissonant, take whatever means of rhythm still exist, remove them entirely, and then throw another violin or two into the mix each playing with no sense of timing or melody (hear a sample here). The entire thing is borderline unlistenable, and considering the average track runs well over nine minutes, only a fan of the most far-fetched avant-garde music would find this compelling. If Greenwood's "There Will Be Blood" score soundtracked a man selling his soul for oil and power, then "... And All the Dogs to Shark" is the sound of the hell he was forced to suffer in the after-life.
Rating: 0.6

Shearwater / "Rook": Shearwater could be considered a side-project of Okkervil River in the way the Silver Jews were once seen as a Pavement side-project: the two bands share members, one is better-known than the other, and the two bands sound fundamentally different. Just in the way the Silver Jews' "American Water" propelled them to being argued to be just as good as late-era Pavement, "Rook" will arouse debate that Shearwater may have surpassed Okkervil River in quality. The album is relatively slow-paced, and is carried on the strength of frontman Jonathan Meiburg's vocals, and what a voice he has! His gorgeous tenor is able to carry minimal arrangments, or accompany his band beautifully. While the band occasionally loses focus (the second half of "On the Death of the Waters", the too-fanciful "Lost Boys"), when they hit they knock it out of the park. The penultimate track, "Snow Leopard", is the current leader in the race for song of the year. Beginning with a piano line reminiscent of Radiohead's classic "The Pyramid Song", Meiburg coos "let the moon do its work on your body" and lets the mood encapsulate the listener before crying out "waa!" and letting the guitar and drum enter the picture. As the song turns its intensity up, Meiburg matches it and the rest of the song becomes a thrilling game of "let's see you top this!" between Meiburg and his accompaniment. To call it beautiful is to use lazy terms for a song that demands so much more. It's a majestic composition that leaves me no doubt that someday Shearwater could craft some of the finest music in the coming years. This is Shearwater's coming out party, and you don't want to miss it.
Rating: 8.5

What happened to the Review?

2008-09-06T12:32:00.002-05:00

1. Two-week trip to New York and Canada.
2. Getting a new full-time job in mid-August as a server.
3. Classes beginning on August 25th.
4. New girlfriend.
5. Watching this:

With all that going on, a review site I write simply for pleasure had to take a step back. Reviews will start up again in the later part of this month. All apologies to those who've enjoyed my writing.

Year in Reviews

2008-07-30T17:58:00.002-05:00

On July 28th, The Erik Review reached the one year mark. To celebrate, here are a bunch of random statistics...

Number of new reviews: 44
Average score of new reviews: 6.9
Highest scoring new review: Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "Lie Down in the Light" (9.5)
Lowest scoring new review: Weezer - "Weezer" (The Red Album) (1.5)
% of new reviews under 5.0: 20.4%
% of new reviews over 8.5: 20.4%

And here are some more random notes...

My three favorite reviews:
1. Sigur Rós - "Ágætis Byrjun"
2. Weezer - "Weezer" (The Red Album)
3. Sigur Rós - "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust"

My three least favorite reviews (not counting quick reviews):
1. Dethklok - "The Dethalbum" (just an awful review)
2. Dengue Fever - "Venus on Earth"
3. Interpol - "Our Love to Admire"

If you have any compliments, comments, criticisms, or condemnations of my site in its first year, let me know.

Beck / "Modern Guilt"

2008-07-23T10:03:00.004-05:00

As years and albums pass, I suspect "Guero" marked the end of Beck's importance and inventiveness. On that album, Beck more or less followed the mold of the best songs in his catalogue and then slapped a new label on it (see: "E-Pro" versus "Devil's Haircut"). He followed it up by remixing his rehashes as the entirely unnecessary "Guerolito". After that came "The Information", which despite moments of inspiration, was still Beck's worst album to date. His descent continues with "Modern Guilt", which manages to bring together two unlikely pairings: Beck Hansen and boredom.

On "Modern Guilt", producer Danger Mouse continues on his roll of making exciting artists sound tedious, following his efforts with The Black Keys' "Attack and Release" and Gnarls Barkley's ill-fated "The Odd Couple". The album has no idea what it's shooting for, which worked for "Odelay", but instead of shooting in all directions at once as that masterpiece did, Danger Mouse and Beck take time to aim and still misfire before trying to find momentum in a different sonic area. "Gamma Ray" aims for the irresistible pop of "Odelay" and "Midnite Vultures", but is neither interesting enough to draw the listener in nor catchy enough to warrant repeated listens. "Youthless" rides a robotic beat as a pseudo-dance number in the vein of "Hell Yes", but becomes redundant. "Replica" is a sloppily-executed song where the duo of Danger Mouse and Beck attempt to throw enough disparate elements together until it turns out to be something extraordinary. While some of the pieces are interesting, when mixed together the bright individual colors come out grey.

While "Modern Guilt" may be defined by its shortcomings, there are still successes to speak of. "Soul of a Man" stomps in with a distinct guitar chord and thick drums as Beck asks "what makes the soul, the soul of a man?" It's certainly not the best song Beck's ever recorded, but it's far from boring. However, if even his brightest moments on current discs pale in comparison to what lies in his past, it raises the question of the relevancy of Beck's current work. His past albums either nourished the ADD-inflicted consumer culture of today by creating musical and lyrical splatterings across an ever-changing canvas of genres ("Mellow Gold", "Odelay", "Midnite Vultures"), showcased Beck's underappreciated gifts as a songwriter and his folk roots ("Sea Change"), or both ("Mutations"). "Modern Guilt" is indecisive in what it wants to be, and ultimately becomes little more than 'Beck's 10th Album'. I'll do with it what I did with "The Information": listen to it for a handful of weeks, delete it from my Zune to make room for something new, and only recall it when 'Beck's 11th Album' comes out and I need something to compare that album to which it won't be dwarfed by.

If you'll excuse me, I've got to listen to "Odelay" again now and sigh.

Rating: 4.6

Sigur Rós / "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust"

2008-07-10T21:18:00.003-05:00

Sigur Rós are still the only band on my humble site to receive a 10.0 review. Their debut, I wrote, was "an album that is comprised of songs in name only. These aren't 'songs', they're epiphanies and moments of self-realization. A reminder of all that is glorious in this world." Given such lofty praise (and I was hardly alone in my adoration of "Ágætis Byrjun"), it was a nearly impossible act to follow. Their next two studio albums, "( )" and "Takk..." were in a similar vein to "Ágætis Byrjun" in that they were composed of beautiful, slowly unveiling miniature symphonies carried by the vocals of lead singer Jónsi Birgisson. While fine albums in their own right, it was an impossible task to make an album similar to "Ágætis Byrjun" that would be of superior quality and artistic merit. The band's latest album, "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust", which translates to "With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly" in English, sees the band attempting new goals and strategies musically. Instead of attempting to impress the listener, as their previous albums sought to largely successfully, the band is instead simply making music which expresses the variety of emotions which it (and life) provokes.

From the beginning seconds of opening track "Gobbledigook", it is clear that this is a vastly different record than anything else in the Sigur Rós discography. The song stomps along merrily at a speed which is jarring relative to the band's past work. It doesn't build toward anything, content to simply exist as a brief, beautiful pop song. It will surprise those familiar with the band upon first listen, but becomes as vital of a work as nearly anything in their catalogue. The exuberance and joy of "Gobbledigook" carries into "Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur". Again, the song is much quicker and less expansive than the band's usual output, but is still an immediate and engrossing listen. "Góðan Daginn", on the other hand, sees the band playing more in the vein of "Takk...". Jónsi Birgisson floats his vocals effortlessly along the keys, guitar, and string of the band as the backing vocals seem to power him along. It's much more attuned to the senses than the beginning of the album, as so many of their finest songs are. While not neccessarily impressive compared to the finest moments of "Ágætis Byrjun", it fits beautifully in the context of the album.

"Við Spilum Endalaust" returns to the ecstasy of the earlier moments. At this point in the album, I'm surprised to find it to be a pop album, which is far from what the band sounded like when they first hit America in 2000 and 2001. That tide changes again with the 9-minute opus of "Festival", which is as much opera as pop. Birgisson may have sounded more otherwordly before, but never has he had a vocal performance like that displayed on the first half of this track. To call it simply beautiful is to do it injustice. In the second half, the percussion and guitars return and the song builds to a crescendo as vocals swirl faintly in the mix like distant seraphs. It's everything a Sigur Rós song is supposed to be, and for the first time on the album the band has crafted a lovely piece which sounds like listener expectations.

"Suð Í Eyrum" is another lovely moment, feeling simplistic despite containing a vast array of disparate elements. This is further evidence of the band's stunning ability to meld many individual sounds into a unified melody. It breezes along placidly, and like a brief but pleasant chill on a summer day, is gone. "Ára Bátur" marks the second time the band tops the 8-minute runtime. It continues as little more than Birgisson singing over minimal arrangements until about the 7-minute mark, when a choir and strings take over, lifting the song to new heights. It's exhilirating the first time, but the long length doesn't reward multiple listens. "Illgresi" is an acoustic piece which never takes off in the way many of the band's numbers do. It's hardly exhausting or boring at only four minutes, but is a bit of a disappointment overall. The slow pace and largely minimalist nature of the album's second half continue with "Fljótavík" and "Straumnes" which never amount to the glorious highs of the band's best work, although the final 45 seconds of the former makes a worthwhile attempt.

However, any disappointment in the second half is cured by the final track, "All Alright". When I heard pre-release that the song would be the band's first in English, I was a bit anxious. After all, part of the wonder of Sigur Rós is their songs (whether in Hopelandic or Icelandic) rely more on touching emotions than evoking them shallowly through words. However, "All Alright" is transcendent. The fragility and quiver of Birgisson's vocals gives the song a haunting aura, and it is a genuinely chilling and touching finale, regardless of language.

"Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" might not be the 10.0 decade-defining classic of "Ágætis Byrjun", but it conveys the intelligence and self-awareness of the band. They've made history already. They're not out to speak the language of angels this time around; they're out to convey the happiness, sorrow, anguish, and hope of the human condition, as represented by the change in cover art from the fetal angel of "Ágætis Byrjun" to the naked, revealed people which grace the cover of this album. It's not perfect, but neither is humanity. Imperfections don't impede art from being breathtaking.

Rating: 8.7

Girl Talk / "Feed the Animals"

2008-07-04T18:40:00.001-05:00

(Erik attempts a review of a mash-up album with a mash-up review...)

I never know what to say about mash-up records. You can say that Girl Talk was the pioneer of the mash up that helped bring them to a wider audience. Unlike mash-up makers in it to figure out the lamest way to combine two song titles, justify their existence with cheap mp3 blog Diggs, or wind up in a Cobrasnake shot with some Olsen twin look-a-like, Gillis just really likes stuffing tons of his favorite FM moments into bursts of Top 40 overload. But the album is more than just a gimmick: Gillis makes some samples sound like brand-new music with a more complicated message: "The whole basis of the music is that people have these emotional attachments to these songs. Being able to manipulate that is a really easy way to connect with people." What does this mean for "Feed the Animals" though? Feed the Animals is a good record. Though it’s broken up into 14 tracks, it functions best (and as Girl Talk intends) as a single 53-minute mash-up. There are no contradictions here; it’s just like scanning across several radio stations simultaneously, while everything magically synchs up. The real fun of Feed the Animals is the act of recognition, so I won’t say much more, except this—Lil Mama’s “Lip Gloss” over the riff from Metallica’s “One?” The best part? It's available free and/or cheaply at your own discretion. $0 gets you 320kbps MP3s, $5 gets you high quality FLAC files, and $10 gets you a physical copy of the CD. Damn!

In short...

Feed the Animals = NICER DICER!!

Damn, indeed.

Rating: 8.2

Coldplay / "Viva La Vida"

2008-07-03T13:59:00.014-05:00

I've made no secret of my disdain for Coldplay's previous album, the polarizing "X & Y". However, with pre-release news that their new album would be of a more experimental nature (without the heavy synthesizers that sank "X & Y" for me) and produced by the one of music's most brilliant minds (Brian Eno), morale was high. After all, I enjoyed "Parachutes" and found "A Rush of Blood to the Head" to be a near-masterpiece. As Meat Loaf famously put it, "two out of three ain't bad". However, when I finally heard the finished product of "Viva La Vida" my reaction was that Coldplay has made their most impressive album, but it lacked the compelling heart-tugging anthems which helped their best work to be more than the sum of its parts. There are songs to love, sure, but nothing to fall in love with.

The album begins with Eno's assistance very evident. "Life in Technicolor" is a nearly-instrumental number which seamlessly blends Eno's best pop work of the 1970's with Coldplay's fist-pumping crowd-pleasers. It ends on a crescendo of sorts, before "Cemeteries of London" begins. The sound is again fuller, the execution flawless, and the lyrics ("there are ghost-towns in the ocean... I see God come in my garden") shrouded in mystique with a gothic nature. Simply put, it's excellent. Through the fog cast over by "Cemeteries of London", the organ notes forming the base of "Lost!" shine through like a beacon as Chris Martin offers up an example of the arena-sized sing-along anthems which have become Coldplay's signature as their sound and following have expanded. While never gripping, it's delivered efficiently and compacts as much energy as a Coldplay song can in under 4-minutes.

"42" begins slowly, but effectively, as Martin's vocals are strengthened in an audio illusion of sorts by the strings accompanying him. Halfway through, however, the songs shifts fronts to a straightforward rocker with the memorable hook "you thought you might be a ghost. You didn't get to heaven, but you made it close". The guitar, combined with a subdued jazz piano in the background, lead a nice if not a bit forgettable outro into the near-seven minute "Lovers in Japan". The track is split into two parts, the first a stomp which will sound familiar to anyone who's listened to U2 (although it's not a rip-off, like 2005's "Talk" was to Kraftwerk's "Computer Love"). The piano takes the lead in an upbeat fashion above the muffled roar of guitar. It may not sound entirely original, but it sure is easy to listen to. The second movement sees the guitar taking a further step back as it is replaced by another piano. It could be called the "sensitive" part following the "rock" part. It could also be called the "dull" part following the "exhilirating" part.

Rock makes a return on "Yes". The song features the smoothest guitar playing on the record. Again, the song consists of two movements. The first is the "heavier" movement (although this is Coldplay, not Zeppelin, we're talking about) whereas the second is basically a glorified guitar piece with indiscernable vocals and drums. Overall, the song is another great listen and segues well into the lead single and title track. "Viva La Vida" is the kind of song that gets stuck in your head, but you don't mind a wink. The strings are lush and melodic, the lyrics political and somewhat personal without being blunt, and Martin's vocals (as well as the group's backing vocals) pristine. "Violet Hill" is a solid, though not-quite-brilliant guitar track, with Martin's best lyrical work on the album. "I don't want to be a soldier who the captain of some sinking ship would stow, far below", he sings, reflecting either losing love or losing faith in leadership depending on your interpretation of the song.

"Strawberry Swing" is the kind of pleasant, whimsical, and disregardable song that works at filling up a tracklist without detracting from the overall quality of the album, but will be little more than a nice after-thought when reflecting on the album. Closer "Death and All His Friends" is the third song on the album to top the six-minute mark. Despite the tenebrific title, the song actually functions as a fairly upbeat sing-along number, or in other words Coldplay being Coldplay. It segues into the same rich melody which began the album, only with expanded sound and Martin's vocals singing about the end. Comparisons to the penultimate track on "Abbey Road" are easily justified. As one critic noted, it "is sort of a Brian Eno take on 'The End.'" Too true.

With "Viva La Vida", any conflicting opinions of the music were not from listener-to-listener as they were with "X & Y", but rather within myself. It's impossible to deny its merits: the production is absolutely flawless, perhaps the best I've heard on a record all year; the album is without a weak link; the politics of the album are handled with a reasonable amount of subtlety. However, without the emotional pull of their most compelling works, such as "Warning Sign" and "The Scientist", I felt as though it were only a beautiful vase. Great to look at, but nothing inside. It is an incredibly and impeccably well-decorated vase though.

Rating: 7.9

Cover Songs

2008-06-24T19:42:00.005-05:00

Finally, the world's worst cover song has been decided. Shockingly, it wasn't Taco's version of "Puttin' on the Ritz" (which in my opinion is the worst song ever recorded, period), but rather Celine Dion and Anastacia's God-awful take on "You Shook Me All Night Long".

In the spirit of the occasion, here are some great modern covers worth looking into:

Magnet (featuring Gemma Hayes) - "Lay Lady Lay"
My Morning Jacket - "Rocket Man"
White Stripes - "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself"
The Black Keys - "I'm Glad" (although it's not very different from Captain Beefheart's original)
Sonic Youth - "I'm Not There"
Petra Haden - "Don't Stop Believin'"

Then there's the greatest cover of all-time... Hendrix's take on "All Along the Watchtower"

...

Sigur Rós and Coldplay reviews coming soon.

Lil Wayne / "Tha Carter III"

2008-06-17T15:15:00.014-05:00

Where to begin with "Tha Carter III"? Thanks to a plethora of stellar mixtapes since Lil Wayne's last studio album (2005's "Tha Carter II"), more than a handful of inspiring guest spots, and more internet buzz than perhaps any hip-hop album ever, it was easily the most anticipated album of the year (and last year, as well). After selling approximately one million copies in its first week alone, receiving praise from all kinds of critics, and dominating music discussion across the web, it has become more of an event than an album. What's interesting is the album is surprisingly predictable. Your view of Weezy F. Baby isn't likely to change significantly after this album. If you came in thinking he was (as he claims) "the best rapper alive", there's enough white-hot couplets to fill a review and back up your claim. If you entered thinking he was overrated, all the hype tied with the album combined with its inconsistent nature will do little to sway you. If you think he's shit, you're just bitter and there's no talking to you anyway. As for me, the album is far better than "Tha Carter II" and while it does very little we haven't heard from Wayne before, it's still his best album to date, although it's still erratic and not without its dull moments.

Working with a flurry of producers (The Alchemist, Shondrae "Mr. Bangladesh" Crawford, Cool and Dre, Andrews "Drew" Correa, David Banner, Darius "Deezle" Harrison, D. Smith, Infamous, Jim Jonsin, Kanye West, Maestro, Play-N-Skillz, Rodnae, Robin Thicke, Swizz Beatz, StreetRunner) Lil Wayne flows with great fluidity across a variety of beats and sounds. His talent, as always, is unquestionable. His gift of thinking up the most creative and witty similes is seen throughout the album. On "Mr. Carter" (featuring Jay-Z), the album's second track and early highlight, Wayne shows up Sean Carter himself by stringing together lines like "I got summer hatin' on me cause I’m hotter than the sun. Got Spring hatin' on me cause I never sprung. Winter hatin' on me cause I’m colder than y’all, but I will never I will never I will never fall." Unfortunately, each time he hits his stride, he runs into either dull production ("Comfortable") or else kicks into auto-pilot ("A Milli").

However, the highs manage to outweigh the lows significantly. "Phone Hom'" with its space-age beat suiting perfectly Lil Wayne's raps about being "a martian", claiming "they don't make 'em like me no more. In fact, they never made 'em like me before". It's arguably the best track on the album. "Mrs. Officer" is both humorous and an effective slow jam, thanks to a great guest spot by Bobby Valentino. "Shoot Me Down" has a beat (produced by Kanye West) which could work in either a Sergio Leone film or the next Eminem movie. "My picture should be in the dictionary next to the definition of 'definition'" raps Wayne. As he builds more drama and emotion in his vocals throughout the performance, you believe him. He even brings out his guitar, and while he's no Eddie Hazel, he's also better than I would have guessed. The inescapable "Lollipop" is either the jam of the year or a waste of space, depending on your point of view. I hate auto-tuners, so naturally I'm not sold on the song, although the beat is extremely club-ready. Finale "Dontgetit" opens with a sample of Nina Simone's 1964 classic "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" before Wayne takes off with it and raps over a simple-but-effective beat. The album closes with the beat repeating as Wayne discusses his thoughts on politics, racial discrimination, drug enforcement, and sex offenders, among other things. It's an excellent (albeit long at nearly ten minutes) and logical close to the album, one which gives the listener further insight into the twisted and brilliant mind of Lil Wayne.

While it may be the best hip-hop album thus far this year, and certainly the biggest event in hip-hop (or popular music, period) that 2008 will offer, I still think the best is yet to come from Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. While he might claim (on "Mr. Carter") "next time you mention Pac, Biggie or Jay-Z, don't forget Weezy Baby", this album is far from the overall consistency and quality of "All Eyez on Me", "Ready to Die", and "Reasonable Doubt" respectively. However, it's well within the realm of reason to think he can make an album every bit as compelling as those genre-defining works, and "Tha Carter III" only adds more leverage to his case.

Rating: 8.2

A Series of Quick Reviews

2008-06-12T14:05:00.017-05:00

Too many albums, too little time. Situation calls for another "Series of Quick Reviews".

The Dodos / "Visiter":
"Visiter", the Dodos' second album, might be the most easily recommended album so far this year. It might not be album of the year material, but I'd find it hard to believe any fan of rock or pop music would fail to enjoy it. The album is largely drum-driven, and the guitars go from acoustic to electric even within the same song with ease. The musical creativity on "Jodi" alone is more than I've see on entire albums this year (cough-Weezer-cough). The lyrics are straight-forward but work well within the context of their songs. This is clearly a band with a great deal of talent, who is just beginning to tap into it. Sure, not every track is a winner, but the high moments ("Fools" and "Winter", among others) cancel out skippable songs such as "It's That Time Again". You'll want to get "Visiter" now, so as The Dodos popularity swells you can proudly boast you were there early. I can't guarantee you'll like or love this album, but I can guarantee if you don't that you and I have vastly different tastes in music.
Rating: 8.3

Silver Jews / "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea":
It's been three years since we heard from Dave Berman and the Silver Jews, the band best known for on-again, off-again member Stephen Malkmus and their 9.9-Pitchfork-rated LP "American Water". On "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea", which arrives in stores June 17th, the band hasn't changed much since 2005's "Tanglewood Numbers" (although this time out Stephen Malkmus is absent), but unfortunately the changes which have occurred have left the band worse off. The most noticeable change is the frequent use of Berman's wife Cassie as a background singer. Her contributions are noticeable, but not in a good way since surprisingly her voice doesn't work well with Berman's gruff baritone. Berman's lyrics are his usual fare of witty Americana and storytelling, but musically the album never really takes off. I actually found myself yawning about halfway though it. Berman can write lyrics, no question, but I still think without Stephen Malkmus to provide the punch and guitar which made "Starlite Walker" and "American Water" so enjoyable he's not nearly as much fun to listen to as he is to read.
Rating: 6.5

Elbow / "The Seldom Seen Kid":
Here's an album that caught me off-guard. I'd never thought Elbow would really develop into much, seeing as none of their first three albums were particularly strong. However, having read glowing reviews of their fourth full-length, "The Seldom Seen Kid", I thought I would give them another listen. Obviously, I'm glad I did. From the opening crashes of "Starlings" this is much more than just another British indie-rock affair. The songs all move slowly, but the compositions are solid and guided gently, but surely, along by lead singer Guy Garvey's vocals. While the band may not be doing anything too radical with their compositions, they're certainly more original than most, and have improved greatly beyond just following the mold laid out by other British artists such as Coldplay and Travis. In between highlights such as "Mirrorball" and "Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver", the songs are largely strong enough to avoid lag and not only put Elbow back in critical favor, but also make this arguably the best rock release to come out of the United Kingdom so far this year.
Rating: 8.0

Weezer / "Weezer" (The Red Album)

2008-06-11T14:33:00.003-05:00

I sat down with Weezer's lead singer and songwriter, Rivers Cuomo, to talk about the group's latest self-titled release.

Erik: Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today. I realize you're very busy promoting the new album.

Rivers: Excuse my manners if I make a scene. (3)

Erik: Uh, okay, no problem. Why would that even be an issue? You seem like a well-mannered guy.

Rivers: 'Cause I'm such a fool. Talk smack and I'm gonna shut you up. (1,2)

Erik: Well, in that case, we'll start this interview in a non-confrontational manner. What do you think of the new album? Are you and the band pleased with how it turned out?

Rivers: Everyone likes to dance to a happy song. If you don't like it, you can shove it. (2,3)

Erik: (mutters) You may want to ignore my rating then.

Rivers: You wanted arts and crafts? How's this for arts and crafts? (lunges forward, eventually restrained) (1)

...

Erik: Look, I get it. You're pissed because "Make Believe" was horrible, so to counteract it you've sought to release an album with the goal of making yourselves look like cool bad-asses.

Rivers: You hate for the kids to think you've lost your cool. (3)

Erik: You may feel that way, but you didn't make your name or your mark by being "cool". Your debut album was the antithesis of the "cool" rock star album. I mean, hell, you say in "Garage" that you have a poster of Peter Criss in your garage. It doesn't get much less cool than that, but people loved it. I mean, let's be honest, Rivers. Lyrics suggesting you "stab the corpses [of roadkill] and lick the knives like we're evil forces" don't sound anywhere close to convincing coming from the guy who looks "just like Buddy Holly".

Rivers: Sorry, but we just missed. Not a single damn thing was true. (7)

Erik: Exactly! And that's why this album is so, well, atrocious. Plus, did you really think a line like "I will protect you, never disrespect you; but if you need love then I'll be here to sex you" would ever have any place in any song on any album? It's like you guys aren't even trying.

Rivers: I got the money and I got the fame! I'm the tops, I'm the king! (2)

Erik: No, you're just the leader of a band who doesn't realize how meaningless they've become. I mean, hell, you guys made "Pinkerton"! What happened? Since that stroke of genius, you waited five years, released two lackluster albums, and then dropped two steaming piles of shit and expected your fans to not notice the smell. Aren't you at least a little ashamed or disappointed in yourself?

Rivers: How do oceans connected by a straw get something through? (9)

Erik: (sigh) It was nice talking to you, Rivers. See you at the county fair in six years.

Rivers: Peace, shalom, peace, shalom, peace, peace, peace, shalom, peace, shalom, peace, peace. (10)

Rating: 1.5

(1) "Troublemaker"
(2) "The Greatest Man that Ever Lived"
(3) "Pork and Beans"
(7) "Thought I Knew"
(9) "Automatic"
(10) "The Angel and the One"

Wolf Parade / "At Mount Zoomer"

2008-06-06T15:30:00.001-05:00

On April 9th, as Wolf Parade's sophomore album "At Mount Zoomer" neared completion, label Sub Pop stated the album "might be this generation's 'Marquee Moon'", referencing Television's legendary 1977 debut. After this rush of Wolf Parade's own debut, 2005's "Apologies to the Queen Mary", it almost seemed possible. The string of songs from "Shine a Light" to "I Believe in Anything" is as compelling a series of tracks as anything released this decade. However, because it was an album of mammoth peaks with low plateaus dividing them, it did leave room for improvement. With "At Mount Zoomer", Wolf Parade has found a solution to the inconsistencies, but the none of the songs on the record reach the zenith of the best tracks from "Apologies". Needless to say, it's a good album, but "Marquee Moon" it is not.

"Soldier's Grin" opens the record with energy and plenty of guitar. Like Wolf Parade's previous work, the lyrics are seemingly direct, but abstract enough to leave plenty of room for interpretation. "What you know can only mean one thing," sings Krug in the song's refrain, "rooted to the place you spring from." As the song concludes, early-highlight "Call it a Ritual" marches in, lead by heavy drums and flourishes of guitar. The song appears to be an esoteric anti-war song, possibly about the Iraq, as it begins "into the dessert you will go" before stating "they will swing swing their swords for show while you turn your flower petals so slow." The songs remain solid as the album moves to "Language City" which is more upbeat and poppy than either of the two songs preceding it. The song builds to the kind of crescendo seen on the best "Apologies" tracks as Krug repeats "we are not at home!" before ending with a crash.

"Bang Your Drum" is yet another highlight, as Krug sounds as enthused as ever inviting the listener to "follow me, oh follow me" and "take a dive" as the song glides along gently. It builds slightly and gradually as Krug asks "will you burn your bridges down?" Along with Wolf Parade co-leader Dan Boeckner, Krug forms a nice vocal harmony of la la la's before asking "how can you turn away?" as the song comes to a close. "California Dreamer" sound less like the Beach Boys and more like the theme to a 1970's detective drama, with a subdued mysterious drum, guitar, and synthesizer beat before exploding with the first refrain of "and I think I might have heard it on the radio, but the radio waves were like snow." The song maintains this momentum all the way through the song's 6-minute run time, including the album's first guitar solo.

After the good but not great "The Grey Estates", a staccato guitar line opens "Fine Young Cannibals" (not to be mistaken for the douchebags who recorded "She Drives Me Crazy"). As another guitar enters and exits in spurts before taking over for a solo, the Television comparisons seem much more fitting. The penultimate track, "An Animal in Your Care", is a warped romantic ballad. "Time after time, you will forgive me, like an animal in your care," opens Krug before continuing, "you will outlive me and take the bow back you put in my hair." The lyrics are the strongest on the album, as Krug tells his love "when I die... [you can] sing the songs your lover taught you, when you were too young to know that this was what they were for." The song segues into the 10-minute-plus finale "Kissing the Beehive". If "Fine Young Cannibals" was reminiscent of Television, "Kissing the Beehive" is retrospective of the song "Marquee Moon" itself (in fact, the two songs are only one second apart in run time). If Wolf Parade seemed content on this album to hold back from letting loose as they did so often on "Apologies to the Queen Mary", "Kissing the Beehive" sees the band abandoning this tendency to sculpt a beauty of a closer.

"At Mount Zoomer" may not be quite at the level of the group's debut, but that doesn't make it any less impressive of an album. The group has successfully avoided the 'sophomore slump' while crafting an album without a single lesser track. Besides, this just means I can still await the group releasing the near-flawless masterpiece I know they have in them. In the mean time, this album is good enough to last the wait.

Rating: 8.4

My Morning Jacket / "Evil Urges"

2008-06-04T16:30:00.007-05:00

In the Rolling Stone review of "Evil Urges", My Morning Jacket's fifth album, Will Hermes likens the album to "Kid A" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" as a dramatic artistic departure for the band. This, by the way, is insane. First of all, both of those records are among the best albums released the entire decade and were breakthroughs sonically and culturally. "Evil Urges", on the other hand, while occasionally sounding like nothing else in the band's cannon is also not as good as any of the band's previous albums (which, if you've been keeping track of, have all been spectacular).

When I got my copy of "Evil Urges" on May 29th, it was easily my most anticipated album of the year, even ahead of Wolf Parade and well ahead of the increasingly-boring Coldplay* and Weezer. This fervor was only further assisted by the fact that the first single and opening track, "Evil Urges", was outstanding. Beginning with the dominant Prince-like falsetto lead singer Jim James first displayed on "Wordless Chorus" from 2005's masterpiece "Z", it rocks with sexuality and energy before breaking down into the band's signature Southern guitar-rock. But after that is when things go downhill. "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream (Part One)" appears to build to a crescendo, but besides a puzzling bagpipe entrance it never happens. The band hits rock bottom on the next track. "Highly Suspicious" might be the worst song the band has ever put to studio album. Beginning with a falsetto as on the title track, James tries to sound sexy and confident while singing some bullshit about "peanut-butter pudding surprise" while a chant of "highly suspicious! highly suspicious at you!" continues in the background. The band awkwardly segues into a mediocre guitar solo and the song comes to a long-awaited close.

Just when I feared I might be dealing with a "Some Loud Thunder" kind of flop, the band returns to form with "I'm Amazed". The song is an absolute gem with the kind of Southern rock and thunder that made 2003's "It Still Moves" a classic. The momentum built by "I'm Amazed" slows some with "Thank You Too", which sounds like Eagles-lite with hackneyed romantic lyrics and refrain vocal harmonies. It's not a bad song, just an extremely forgettable one. "Sec Walking" is the same story as "Thank You Too", although the James' vocal performance is much better than the average one exhibited on "Thank You Too". "Two Halves" is a slight return to form, and while inducing far fewer yawns than the previous two tracks, is nothing special in itself. The next track "Librarian" chronicles James' attempting to woo a librarian out of her prude shell. Combining a soft acoustic guitar with a touch of strings, it rings personal and tender despite the hard-to-be-taken-seriously topic of the song. "Look At You" sounds like their earliest work harkening back to 2001's "At Dawn", which is definitely a good thing. The acoustic guitar and vocals intertwine beautifully. The lyrics more or less sum up the relaxing placidity of the song: "such a glowing example of peace and glory".

"Aluminum Park" and "Remnants" mark a return to the fist-pumping rock of the opening track and are the most captivating tracks on the album since "I'm Amazed". "Smoking From Shooting" is another very solid Southern rock number and features some of the best use of vocal harmonies displayed on the album, as well as a great guitar solo. It fades into "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream (Part Two)", which sounds very little like the first part. Unveiling itself slowly before hitting with a much quicker pace than part one, the guitar bubbles just underneath the surface as the vocals carry the song past the eight minute mark. Unfortunately, the similarity that it shares with part one is that no real crescendo ever takes place and elevates the song to its maximum potential. The closing "track" is "Good Intentions" which consists of nothing more than a crowd cheering for five seconds before James say "okay, cool" and the album ends. In an album that often confounds, it seems a natural conclusion.

"Evil Urges" is simply a frustrating album. It has too many bad tracks to be considered that good, but too many moments which showcase the band at their peak to be written off. However, in the wake of four consecutive incredible studio efforts and an equally thrilling two-disc live album ("Okonokos") it's hard to see it as anything but a disappointment. So, yes, it's a disappointing album, but one of the few which come recommended.

Rating: 7.2

*if only because I hated "X & Y"

Coming Attractions

2008-05-30T11:24:00.004-05:00

Next week, in a review bonanza, I'll offer my take on three yet-to-be-released albums. How exciting! I almost feel like a relevant music journalist!

My Morning Jacket - "Evil Urges" (June 10th*)
Wolf Parade - "At Mount Zoomer" (June 17th*)
The Hold Steady - "Stay Positive" (July 15th*)

*date of North American release

In other Erik Review news, I'll start labeling highly recommended, newly-reviewed albums as "Top Tunes" so that readers can more quickly find my most endorsed albums. If you have any other ideas for useful, non-distracting features I could add to my humble site, let me know.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy / "Lie Down in the Light"

2008-05-27T09:15:00.009-05:00

Take a deep breath. I'm trying to capture my thoughts.

...

Berthold Auerbach wrote that "music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." In the case of the music of Will Oldham (aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy), the music sifts through the dust to find gemstones. It's ironic that though Will Oldham's music lends itself to exorbitant critical laudation, the music itself is so grounded in the simple pleasures and pains of human existence and life. His ability to write songs and compositions that so effortlessly yet effectively touch the listener's very soul is beyond remarkable, it's nearly inconceivable. After all, at its core country music seeks to explore and report the wonders of everyday life. However, in its transition toward more and more mainsteam pop which took off with Garth Brooks and continues in the form of Keith Urban and Taylor Swift (among countless others), that tenderness has faded. Leave it to the man who composed the pitch-black classic "I See a Darkness" almost a full decade ago to release an album to resurrect that humanity with an insight and purity unseen in any country albums since the new millennium commenced.

"Lie Down in the Light" is quite simply a masterpiece. I've written before of the high esteem I hold Will Oldham in, but even with the burden of astronomical expectations and a catalogue of such depth and breadth, he still has the ability to captivate and surprise me. The opening number, "Easy Does It", offers up the kind of down-home Appalachian country that made "Viva Last Blues" (recorded under Oldham's Palace Music moniker) a warm and inviting classic. Oldham captures the simple essence of the track in its lyrics as "good earthly music," complete with guitar, banjo, violin, and tambourine. "You Remind Me of Something (The Glory Goes)" offers another uptempo song, and again the results are magnificent. However, the album reaches new heights with the Ashley Webber duet "So Everyone". The song is reminiscent of the duets of country music's golden era of the 1960's and 70's. One could almost imagine the song peformed by George Jones and Tammy Wynette, or Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. However, the song is hardly the only standout on "Lie Down in the Light." "(Keep Eye On) Other's Gain" makes great use of harmony and builds steadily to a crescendo before fading out quickly to a lull. "You Want that Picture" is another inspired duet with Webber, whose voice is not only incredible, but suits Oldham's so perfectly it brings out the best in him. "Where's the Puzzle?" is more of a rock song than anything else on the album, while still remaining firmly in the country roots of the album's body. "I'm disappearing into the wind," sings Oldham as the guitars seem caught in the breeze with him, darting in and out of conscious throughout the song. In an album replete with captivating moments, it is exhilarating enough to stand above them all. In an album which provides the light at the end of the "I See a Darkness" tunnel listeners crawled through intimately so long ago, it provides the beacon.

"Everything there ever was or will be is all there is," sing Webber and Oldham in consummate unison in "You Want that Picture." On "Lie Down in the Light," everything I could have hoped there could possibly be exists. "I See a Darkness" was and remains a 10.0 album in my mind. If only because happiness fails to grab the heart the same way as melancholy does this album score any lower.

Rating: 9.5

Atmosphere / "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold"

2008-05-26T16:46:00.004-05:00

While listening to the latest album from Minneapolis hip-hop duo Atmosphere, I was left with one burning question: What the fuck, Ant? The production on this album falters in a way I have never seen from Atmosphere, or from any other album I've heard Ant produce. The usually eclectic and generally impressive producer seems content to phone this one in. The beats are simple and lack the movement, change, and intricacies of Ant's best work. They're, quite frankly, boring, although the guitar strings and vocal sampling on "Me" work beautifully.

Which is not to say "Lemons" is a bad album, it's just much more dependent on Slug's verses than it should be and can afford to be. Slug is an above-average, but inconsistent MC. Here, he delivers his usual storytelling about growing up, the darker side of street life, and vivid character explorations. However, he is still inconsistent, even within the same track. On "Dreamer" he opens with the eye-roll inducing line "she got a condition of the heart, a heart condition," but in the same song drops quote-worthy lyrics such as "she still dreams after she woke, tight hold on that hope. Sometimes it can seem so cold do what you gotta do to cope." Slug knows he has talent, which he does, but he also seems oblivious to his limitations. When he attempts to "sing" on refrains like that of "The Skinny" it's almost embarassing and nearly overshadows the song's mostly strong verses.

It's good to see Atmosphere continuing to put Minneapolis on the hip-hop map. "Lemons" opened at number five on the Billboard 200, marking the band's (and label Rhymesayer's) highest level ever reached on the chart. Problem is, an album like "God Loves Ugly" would be a more deserving way to break-through than this. I have a hard time recommending this album, because it's not the band's best or the label's best, or even close. If you're in the market for an Ant-produced album by a white Minneapolis rapper on Rhymesayers, you're much better off purchasing Brother Ali's "Shadows on the Sun," which showcases Ant at his pinnacle and features a much better MC than Slug. However, getting back to this album and its rating, I'll give Slug a 7.0 and Ant a 3.0 for their respective efforts. Average the two out, and we're left with a...

Rating: 5.0

More May Reviews

2008-05-22T08:31:00.008-05:00

Consider this my effort at catching up after only one review in April...

Scarlett Johansson / "Anywhere I Lay My Head" - When I first heard of the concept behind the "Lost in Translation" starlet's debut album - that if would consist almost entirely of Tom Waits covers, with one Johansson-penned original - I rolled my eyes and anticipated the worst. However, when I heard Dave Sitek (of TV on the Radio) would be producing, visions of "Province" and hope were generated. Turns out both reactions were justified. "Anywhere I Lay My Head" is not nearly as bad as it could have been. Sitek's production brings a fresh take on a number of Waits' signature songs, and almost saves the album from Johansson's vocals or lack thereof. If you've ever listened to Waits' version of these songs, Johansson stands no chance of impressing you. The point of a covers album is to reinvent the songs in your own signature style. Johansson gets halfway there. She's got a good producer, now she just needs a musical personality or a vocal instructor.
(video of title track)
Rating: 4.8

Fuck Buttons / "Street Horrrsing" - I featured Fuck Buttons in a post awhile ago for their song "Sweet Love for Planet Earth," where I wrote the song had left me "speechless". Now that I've had the entire album for some time, I can draw two conclusions: 1) "Sweet Love for Planet Earth" is still damn near as good I thought is was, and 2) The rest of the album can never quite match the precedent the opening track sets. "Sweet Love for Planet Earth" opens the album beautifully. Beginning with a serene series of chimes, the fuzz and distortion bubble beneath the surface and slowly take over the song as it progresses. It's an ambient masterpiece, miraculously functioning as a relaxing piece even as the screamed, barely-coherent vocals enter the mix at the 5:30 mark. By the time the song concluded, I was ready to declare this the album of the year under the assumption Fuck Buttons would be able to retain this kind of quality and balance throughout the album. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The entire album functions as one giant track, one with an incredible commencement, but also one which gets less and less impressive as it moves forward. "Ribs Out" is an interesting ambient track, anchored by tribal drums and heavily distorted vocals. "Okay, Let's Talk About Magic" attempts to find a similar noise/ambient balance to that which was displayed in the opening track, with mixed results. "Race You to My Bedroom / Spirit Rise" is more noise-rock than anything else on the album, but is too redundant to validate its over 9-minute run time. "Bright Tomorrow" approaches dance music, and serves as the record's second peak, though like every other song on the album it can't match "Sweet Love for Planet Earth". "Colors Move" is 8-and-a-half minutes of combining elements of "Ribs Out" and "Race You to My Bedroom / Spirit Rise". On its own, it's a fine song, but by the time it's halfway done it becomes redundant. It's compelling to see Fuck Buttons doing something new with noise music on their debut album. It's disappointing that they don't do anything new with their own music on two-thirds of the album.
Note: The video of "Bright Tomorrow" is only 4:12, while the album track is 7:41)
Rating: 7.7

Destroyer / "Trouble in Dreams" - I love Dan Bejar. I love him in Swan Lake; I love him in the New Pornographers; I love him most of all as Destroyer. His last album, "Destroyer's Rubies", was arguably his best to date (among other contenders are "City of Daughters" and "Streethawk: A Seduction") and received ample critical acclaim as a result. As "Trouble in Dreams" approached, I waited for it in anticipation. However, it's left me conflicted. While it has all the trademarks of a Destroyer album - roots in classic rock melody, frequent sonic shifts, labyrinthine and enigmatic lyrics, and Bejar's love-it-or-hate-it vocals - it almost has too much of what one would expect from a Destroyer album, and it sounds too much like "Destroyer's Rubies" to ignore. Like Beck's "Guero" in 2004, it's an album that sounds great, but at the same time sounds like it has been recycled from better material (in Beck's case, "Odelay"). Lyrically, it's more straightforward than "Rubies", but is still songwriting of the kind of caliber, mystique, and originality that fans have come to expect from Bejar. The strength of the lyrics is really the saving grace of the album. They require and reward careful listening, and make the album stand apart from its close companions in Bejar's discography. Ultimately, even though instrumentally it isn't as original as past albums have been, it still has everything I look for in a Destroyer album, as well as one of the best songs in the entire catalogue in "Shooting Rockets (from the Desk of Night's Ape)". Besides, if anyone has earned the benefit of the doubt with my literary side, it's Bejar.
(video of "Foam Hands")
Rating: 8.2

Death Cab for Cutie / "Narrow Stairs"

2008-05-17T12:46:00.005-05:00

Death Cab for Cutie are a true indie rock success story. Starting small on the then-unknown Washington-based Barsuk label, they released the charming and excellent "Something About Airplanes". In the time after, they released two good, but not great, albums until everything with the band clicked. They got the famous Seth seal-of-approval on "The O.C." and dropped what was arguably the best album of their career, "Transatlanticism". In its wake followed lead singer Ben Gibbard's successful side project with Dntel, Postal Service, and a major-label record deal. Their first record with Atlantic, "Plans", sold over one million copies and established that Death Cab weren't just a band with hype, they were legitimate stars.

But ignored in all the fan elation over Death Cab is that "Plans" wasn't a very good album, it just happened to have two great singles tied to it: "Soul Meets Body" and "I Will Follow You Into the Dark". Now Death Cab for Cutie has released major-label album #2, an album Death Cab's producer and guitarist Chris Walla described as "really weird. It's really, really good, I think, but it's totally a curve ball, and I think it's gonna be a really polarizing record. But I'm really excited about it. It's really got some teeth." But fear not, instead of an avant-garde challenge, it's a much more consistent and engrossing affair than "Plans", and one of the group's best albums.

Album opener "Bixby Canyon Bridge" has strong melody, excellent execution, and Ben Gibbard offering a solid vocal outing. As it fades into static while Gibbard sings he was "no closer to any kind of truth, as I assume was the case with you," it bleeds into lead single "I Will Possess Your Heart". The full 8-minute track is a thing of beauty. It builds and builds guitars and drums until the 4:30 mark before settling to let Gibbard start his story of a stalker. Coming across as both creepy and endearing, it is the most impressive track on the album. "No Sunlight" is a fun little pop tune, but sounds even less impressive following "I Will Possess Your Heart". "Cath...", on the other hand, sees the band returning to full form. It's a classic Death Cab song: rich tunefulness, Gibbard's vocals at his best, emotional and personal lyrics. "Talking Bird" follows and despite showing signs of potential, it never really takes off. It's a disappointing, but hardly failing, track.

It's followed by the mediocre sing-along "You Can Do Better Than Me". The track fails to either reach the two-minute mark or impress the listener. Just when I was becoming concerned the album was falling off, Death Cab drops three straight solid tracks in "Grapevine Fires", "Your New Twin Sized Bed", and "Long Division". However, all three pale in comparison to the album's late highlight "Pity and Fear". Over bongo drums and electric guitar, the song begins slowly before turning into a wonderful straightforward rocker. Album closer "The Ice is Getting Thinner" is true to its name, moving along glacially while never boring the listener, in particular due to strong lyrics such as "we bury our love in the wintery grave". It's a great closing track, even if it doesn't stand on its own as well as some of the album's earlier tracks.

"Narrow Stairs" is hardly revelatory, but it's much better than I anticipated. It's an album the fans of the band since "Something About Airplanes" and the fans of the band since "Soul Meets Body" can equally appreciate. I wouldn't be surprised if this album goes on to outsell "Plans" and further Death Cab's reputation as arguably the most famous "indie" band working today. Congratulations Ben Gibbard, you've got me back on your bandwagon.

Rating: 8.3

Buzzing Around Town

2008-05-11T11:26:00.003-05:00

With the school year winding down, I have had no time in-between writing essays and questions to write reviews. It makes for a boring blog, sure, but my grades are good. Expect a good 5-6 review per month ratio throughout the summer. In the meantime, here are some artists I've been taking note of lately, with MySpace links so you can get a nice sample yourself. Reviews return May 16th.

The Jealous Girlfriends
Frightened Rabbit
Hilotrons
Cut Copy
Acid Mother's Temple - also notable for having a band member named "Pikachu"

M83 / "Saturdays = Youth"

2008-04-23T17:17:00.007-05:00

Dear M83,

It wasn't easy for me to write this. As you know, I have the a great deal of respect for you. However, I think it's time I leave you behind. Things started out incredible when we met. "Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Ghosts" won my heart the first time I heard it. Even with our imminent break-up, I'll still always cherish the record. It was a perfect, if very unlikely, combination of Boards of Canada's analog keyboards with the shoegaze aesthetic of My Bloody Valentine. Truth be told, I still prefer that album to anything either of those acts released. It was that good.

Times weren't as easy when the follow-up, "Before the Dawn Heals Us", arrived. I mean, sure, it was a fine album, but it never reached any of the peaks of its predecessor. You were changing, times were changing, and I felt a distance growing between us. At the time, I thought it was just a minor set-back. You would fine-tune your sound, make whatever rehashes you felt were necessary, and we would return to the splendor we had when we met.

But that's not what you did, is it? You decided instead of making revolutionary electronica records you'd rather make an 80's dance-pop throwback album. After all, aping New Order and the Cure is so hot right now. It's like you're not even trying!

I'm done waiting for you to be everything you promised me you could be. What hurts most is there's still talent there. "Couleurs" is a stellar track. Closing number "Midnight Souls Still Remain" has the same ambient quality of the quieter tracks off "Dead Cities". Some of the other songs show promise until you decide they're not "retro" enough and insist on making the synth line more hackneyed and the vocals more nostalgic, or else putting in a pointless and distracting spoken word bridge. It's the worst kind of bad album: a bad album by an obviously talented artist who appears content to squander his gift. You're Robert Pollard, post-Guided by Voices. You're Wilco's "Sky Blue Sky". You're done in my eyes, and you and I both know the only way you're going to win me back: release the kind of album that made me fall in love with you in the first place.

Best wishes,

Erik

Rating: 4.0

R.E.M. / "Accelerate"

2008-03-27T15:08:00.010-05:00

The first time I heard “Accelerate” in its entirety, I absolutely loved it. Track for track, it is easily the best album they’ve released since the criminally-overlooked masterpiece “New Adventures in Hi-Fi”. While the fan in me listened excitedly to the album, the critic in me reminded me not to get hasty. After all, it’s easy to get over-enthused and write off emotions when an artist you love comes back with a work that reminds you why you loved them to begin with (Brian Wilson’s “Smile” and Joe Strummer’s “Streetcore” come to mind). The fan in me was ready to declare this the album of the year; the critic in me is not ready to concede that yet, but is fully willing to embrace the album.

"Accelerate" errupts out of the gate with rocker "Living Well's the Best Revenge". Peter Buck tears away at a hard guitar riff as Michael Stipe establishes a tone for the album with opening line "it's only when your poison spins into the life you'd hoped to live". Similar to their IRS-era work, on "Accelerate" the band soundtracks often dark lyrics with energetic and memorable hooks and melodies. The first three songs all fall well into this mold, and perform with ease the difficult task of finding balance between emotional power and pop listenability (video). "Hollow Man" starts slower, as Stipe sings over minimal arrangement "I've been lost inside my head" before exploding into a radio-ready pop refrain. The song's sonic transitions are sometimes too quick and thus a little jarring, but overall it's a fine song though some of the song's lyrical power is mitigated by the upbeat rhythms and melody of its refrain.

The first real gem is the fifth track, "Houston". "If the storm doesn't kill me the government will" begins Stipe, before the song builds into an attempt to find the good in the world. Stipe asserts he will "make the best of what today has" before finally conceding in the track's closing lines "belief has not filled me, and so I am put to the test". These closing remarks leave the listener enticed, curious as to what will come next. While meditation on the previous song continues, the album's title track rushes in with the guitar and pace of the earlier songs on "Accelerate". The song is again effective, although it's placement after "Houston" could be seen as somewhat of a sequencing error. It closes with tremors of feedback and the opening acoustic guitars of "Until the Day is Done" shine like rays of light through the clouds.

"Until the Day is Done" marks the high-point of the album. "The battle's been lost, the war is not won" cries Stipe. The line initially appears a literal critique of the Iraq War, but as he continues "the verdict is dire, the country's in ruins" it becomes a metaphor of failure for the administration as a whole. By the end of the song, Stipe questions "where are we left to carry on?" As the situation in Iraq has no end in sight and over 4000 casualties, the economy sits in recession, and society clamors for change, his sendiment echoes that of the public as a whole giving the song a more harrowing and powerful quality. It's emotional power resonates even greater because of its subdued musical approach. "Mr. Richards" follows as another political track, and agains delivers scathing lyrics such as "you're mistaken if you think will just forget". As Stipe continues "you can thump your chest and rattle... but we know what's going on" it's difficult to assert if Mr. Richards represents a political figure or if he is similar to 'Mr. Jones' from Bob Dylan's brilliant "Ballad of a Thin Man" in that he represents anyone who refuses to acknowledge their surroundings. Either way, it's a thought-provoking and well-executed track.

The band returns to rockers with "Sing for the Submarine" and the gloriously loud and distorted "Horse to Water". The latter is as heavy as nearly anything off of "Monster". The album closes with "I'm Gonna DJ". "Death is pretty final" remarks Stipe in the song's opening line, before continuing "I'm gonna DJ at the end of the world". These should hint to you the black humor which makes up a majority of the song. It's a fun, smile-inducing rocker to be sure, but it's not the same quality as many of the other songs on the album and thus isn't necessarily the best closing track.

Still, if I'd been told six months ago that my biggest complaint about R.E.M.'s latest album would be that the closing track is only above-average compared to the nearly across-the-board quality of the ten tracks preceeding it I wouldn't have believed it. R.E.M. are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they have arguably the most impressive catalogue of any band to come out of the college rock era of the 1980's, and they have a worldwide following of millions of fans. They didn't have anything to prove to anyone. Yet they still delivered one hell of an album just to prove they could. Let me be one of the many to offer my thanks.

Rating: 8.6

Gnarls Barkley / "The Odd Couple"

2008-03-25T19:37:00.009-05:00

Danger Mouse first entered the public conscious in 2004 with the brilliant "Grey Album", where he famously (and illegally) put the rhymes from Jay-Z's "Black Album" over beats composed from sampling the Beatles' "White Album". The next year, he produced successful and acclaimed albums for MF Doom (under the combined alias DangerDoom) and Gorillaz. However, his fame hit new heights when he combined with soul singer Cee-Lo Green to form funk/soul/pop duo Gnarls Barkley.

The group hit the ground running with the outstanding single "Crazy" helping their debut "St. Elsewhere" to chart success and critical acclaim. It was an album where it seemed both members held nothing back. It was this willingness to openly experiment which lead both to the pop brilliance of tracks like "Crazy" and "Gone Daddy Gone", but also made for a record that was overall very scattershot.

Now returning with their sophomore effort, Gnarls Barkely seem to have sedated what made them "Crazy" in the first place. "The Odd Couple" is a far departure from "St. Elsewhere", a darker and more soulful affair, but at the cost of energy, hooks, and immediacy. This approach makes the record more consistent, true, but it also makes it more consistently boring.

While the album is not a failure, it's also far from a success. The duo, in a very surprising move, appear content to create the set-up for numerous great songs while failing to generate any. The closest they get to the heights of the best tracks from "St. Elsewhere" is "Run" (video above). That's not to say it's a very impressive song; it isn't. The beat is simple, and it never builds to much more than Cee-Lo shout-singing the refrain. Some of the other better songs are also less impressive when thought about in the context of their producer. Soul song "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" sounds like a "Demon Days" (the Gorillaz album which Danger Mouse also produced) outtake with Cee-Lo replacing Damon Albarn on vocals.

Gnarls Barkley got themselves stuck in a catch-22. If they didn't tweak their sound at all, the album would be written off as a re-hash. In this case, they changed it and the change was for the worse. I'll give it to them that the soulful approach succeeds on "Neighbors", but if a change produces two good-not-great tracks and eleven average-or-worse ones was it really a change worth making? Is it really an album worth investing time and money in? Right now, I have to answer no to both questions.

Rating: 5.2

Protest the Hero / "Fortress"

2008-03-19T15:22:00.011-05:00

Positive Review: Did you like Protest the Hero's first album, "Kezia"? Do you think DragonForce kicks ass? Do you just want to rock the fuck out? If you answered yes to any of these questions, congratulations! You'll love "Fortress," the second album from Canadian metal outfit Protest the Hero. Throw it on, enjoy the flawless instrumentation (I mean, the guitar and drums in "Palms Reads"? Holy shit!) and the Dio-meets-DragonForce vocals and treat yourself to easily the best metal album since "Blood Mountain."

For 45 minutes, Rody Walker is your high-energy guide through arguably the most technically stunning album of the decade. Luke Hoskin is a master of the guitar and plays his riffs so fast you'll swear the tape was mixed at double speed, but even his performance pales in comparison to Morgan Carlson's jaw-dropping drum work. The lyrics are your standard metal affair, but who gives a flying fuck about lyrics? The point of this album is to rock out like a metal album with the technical proficiency of a mathcore album, and it succeeds magnificently!

Rating: 8.8

Mixed Review: Protest the Hero really reviewed themselves on "Goddess Gagged," the closing track of their sophomore album "Fortress": "A wilderness of sound and movement repeating itself." While the album is impressive, it also gets very repetitive. There's only one speed: brutal. The only time the band slows anything down or turns the volume a bit quieter is on the occasional outro. The vocals are nothing new. Either he sings like DragonForce's lead singer or screams like one of the Blood Brothers.

This album is full of metal clichés. You have the meaningless lyrics about beasts, goddesses, and sword battles; you have the sing/shout/roar vocals; you have the relentless onslaught of guitar, effects, and drums. There's a lot of talent in this band and displayed on this album. It's just too bad they spent all their time getting their guitars to sound as impressive as possible and not enough thinking about expanding upon the metal genre rather than making an album which so frequently settles in the genre's norms. So sure, it's a better metal album than most of what I've heard lately, but that doesn't mean it's that great of an album overall. You have a lot remarkable noise saying very little.

Rating: 7.4

Composite Rating: 8.1

(video is "Bloodmeat")

"Sweet Love for Planet Earth"

2008-03-17T11:57:00.002-05:00

I don't know what to say. Consider this song to have left me speechless. The band is Fuck Buttons, and I realize I'm a Pitchfork-reading sheep for liking them. I don't care. This song is too fucking good to ignore.

I'll offer up a full review once I have the entire album and some time to think about it.

Bon Iver / "For Emma, Forever Ago"

2008-03-01T09:50:00.005-06:00

Peaceful, beautiful, and transfixing, "For Emma, Forever Ago" is the first great album of 2008. The debut album for the alias of Justin Vernon, it's an entirely new breed of folk music, coming across as a pitch-perfect blend of Califone, Iron and Wine, and TV on the Radio. What's even more surprising than the varied influences, is that the one it most resembles is TV on the Radio. Vernon's voice ranges from a soulful baritone to a falsetto similar to that of Tunde Adebimpe, TV on the Radio's lead singer. The other similarities lie in the vocal arrangements and harmonies. The beginning of "The Wolves (Act I and II)" could easily pass for an acoustic version of a track from the "Young Liars" EP.

What's all the more impressive is the way Vernon merges TV on the Radio vocals with a stripped-down (pre-"Woman King")Iron and Wine aesthetic. On "Lump Sum" the vocals rise into a rich, swirling harmony all while done over a minimalistic arrangement. The impressive, spralling vocals placed over basic harmonies allows the vocals to truly take flight and leave the listener in awe. Simply put, by holding back Bon Iver makes their music take on an even more magnificent sound.

"For Emma, Forever Ago" will almost certainly be in my top five or ten albums at year's end. Listening to this album front-to-back is the musical equivalent of retreating to the solace of the woods for an hour to reflect on life and take in the beauty of nature. The album is a pastoral gem, taking on the placid nature of a walk through the woods while offering enough sights and sounds to keep the journey interesting and ever-changing. It won't change your life, but it might just make you appreciate the little things in life more.

Rating: 9.0

Times New Viking / "Rip It Off"

2008-02-27T10:35:00.006-06:00

Look, I have no problem with lo-fi music. "Bee Thousand" remains one of my favorite albums, and I am a big fan of releases by artists such as Pavement, Sebadoh, and Captain Beefheart. I have few reservations about noise music. I'll throw on Sunn O))), Boris, and the Boredoms from time to time. However, Times New Viking completely redefine the terms. The album is packed front-to-back with tape hiss, is mixed louder than Merzbow, and quite frankly has so much going on in each track besides the song that it becomes a major detractor. Long-time fans of the band might be satisfied that they didn't adjust their sound for a larger label, but I feel it is the one aspect that prevents this album from being one of the year's early best.

Songs like "(My Head)" are already brilliant as written and composed. There's no need to turn what could be a brilliant pop song into an exercise in noise rock. Background noise aside, it's a brilliant track reminiscent of "Doolittle"-era the Pixies with powerful, earnest lyrics such as "I need more money cause I need more drugs." That's what this album basically boils down to: a great collection of pop songs inspired by the best artists of the 80's and early-90's (Pavement, the Pixies, Guided by Voices), but unfortunately recorded in a fashion that does the tracks no favor. It's as though the band were performing and it were being recorded outside the building by holding a microphone against the concrete walls of the establishment, then during the mastering they turned the volume as high as possible so that the song itself could be heard. Bootlegs would be embarassed to carry this sound quality.

Try this experiment: listen to a song off Iron and Wine's "Creek Drank the Cradle". Then play this album's "Off the Wall". You'll swear your speakers/headphones are broke. Other people may find this the charm of the band. It really depends on your expectations and preferences as a listener. I just prefer to actually hear the songs on my favorite albums without having to deal with near-nauseating levels of feedback. Who knows, maybe their debut was "Vampire on Titus", this album is "Bee Thousand" (though nowhere near as brilliant), and next they'll clean it up and release their polished "Alien Lanes". At least I hope so, for the sake of both my speakers and my ears.

Rating: 7.0

Vampire Weekend / "Vampire Weekend"

2008-02-24T17:33:00.002-06:00

Listening to Vampire Weekend's debut, I wasn't reminded of Paul Simon's "Graceland" (though the comparisons are easy to draw). I was reminded of 2004, when I first listened to Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut. It was fun, catchy, and all its best characteristics were exemplified and amplified in its first single, "Take Me Out". I listened to it all the time those first few weeks, enjoying it enough to put it in my year-end top ten.

I don't think I listened to it more than a handful of times in 2005.

That's the feeling I get with Vampire Weekend. It's an album that's easy to like right away, especially stand-out single "A-Punk". The song moves quick, and operates as the best example of all the band's strengths. They have an over-abundance of energy, catchy guitar lines, and creative interludes within songs. It's nothing you haven't heard before, but that's not the point. Vampire Weekend aren't out to overwhelm you with their scope, ambition, or brilliance. They just want to craft a short album that you can enjoy, and come back to whenever you wish.

Like Franz Ferdinand, none of their arrangements are at all terribly complicated, but contain enough shifts to prevent the listener from succumbing to boredom. They get by more on charm and energy than talent. So, sure, come July I might be left asking "Vampire who?" Until then, however, I'll lose myself every so often in this simple little pleasure.

Rating: 7.5

(On an unrelated side-note, I started this review on February 2nd. Now that's slacking.)

Is R.E.M. Back on Track?

2008-02-14T08:54:00.004-06:00

I'm going to be honest, I haven't enjoyed an R.E.M. record since the departure of Bill Berry following "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" (which I felt was arguably the band's finest album). Hell, I even put their first-ever live album on my most disappointing albums of 2007 list. They might not be artistically dead yet though. Their forthcoming "Accelerate", which arrives April 1st, has been proceeded by one of their best singles in recent memory, "Supernatural Superserious" (video below). Sure it's not "Drive", but let's be reasonable here.

Also of note: I have three (!) half-written reviews, which explains why A) there haven't been any new ones in two weeks and B) the upcoming boom that will occur in posting next week.

Dengue Fever / "Venus On Earth"

2008-01-26T12:33:00.001-06:00

Sudden fever, severe head, muscle, and joint aches, and an unsightly rash covering great amounts of your upper body; these are the symptoms of dengue fever. Wondering what the point of what you're listening to is, unintentional laughter, and annoyance; these are the symptoms of listening to Dengue Fever. Dengue Fever is a six-piece band from Los Angeles who thought it would be a brilliant idea to blend Cambodian pop music and 60's psychedelia.

On this release, the group's third full length, they include an approximately even ratio of songs sung in English and Khmer. Here's a general summary of every song, regardless of language: start with a sonic technique that basically amounts to a blend of Jefferson Airplane, traditional eastern Asian music, and shit. The key here is to make sure it never sounds original or good. Now add vocals from Chhom Nimol, whose vocals more frequently turn-off than tune-in the listener. They are nasally, off-key, and never convincing or gripping. It's the equivalent of adding salt to an already painful wound.

Sure, there's moments on this album that are worthwhile, but these moments never continue through an entire track. I'm not sure if they even add up to an entire track. While it's true I'd rather listen to this album than be infected with dengue fever, it's also true that I'd rather listen to damn near anything else than Dengue Fever.

Rating: 2.8

Sigur Rós / "Ágætis Byrjun"

2008-01-22T11:04:00.000-06:00

It was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who wrote "music is the language spoken by angels." Such a statement, while beautiful, rings of hyperbole. After all, music, in particular pop music, is written, composed, and performed by people little different than anyone else. The differences among all humans are seemingly minimal, with genetic variation of less than 1%. How incredible, though, the difference one percent can make.

Sigur Rós must lie a nearly impossible number of standard deviations from the mean. Sure, this is certainly music made by humans, able to release and create the most human of emotions. However, it transcends humanity, despite the limitations created by it. When the first key is struck on "Svefn-G-Englar", though it is as simple of a musical action as one can think of, it races up your spine and immediately makes entrance into your mind. As Jónsi Birgisson slowly glides his bow across the string of his electric guitar while the sound gradually swells to a crescendo, it obliterates your conscious. There is only one thing, the music, and it is beautiful and all-encompassing. You close your eyes, and in that moment, the angels begin to speak to you. Birgisson's falsetto rises up and he coos words which, outside this context, mean nothing. They are in a fantasy language, Hopelandic, resembling any real language by coincidence only. However, within the environment created by this album, they paint a picture of magnificence and devastation. They carry you through a quiet Utopia, a world you inhabit internally.

Just as the soothing melodies bring you to the paragon of tranquility, Birgisson changes front. The cool relaxation of his vocals is supplanted by one of power and urgency, lowering his tone and bellowing out a siren cry, throwing you off while commanding the entirety of your attention. It's a blunt reminder of the ephemeral nature of this state, that Utopia will never permanently exist. The brief interlude slowly bleeds out, returning you to the arcadia you arrived from. The band imperceptibly fades out to a quiet static. In ten minutes, your mind has been opened, explored, and returned with an increased awareness of the world around you. This is just the first song. That eight more tracks remain carrying similar, but never repetitive, voyages makes this an album that is comprised of songs in name only. These aren't "songs", they're epiphanies and moments of self-realization. A reminder of all that is glorious in this world.

Surely Jónsi Birgisson is one of the most fortunate beings on this planet. After all, as Eileen Elias Freeman wrote, "how wonderful it must be to speak the language of the angels."

Rating: 10.0

Lupe Fiasco / "The Cool"

2008-01-17T17:00:00.000-06:00

When Lupe Fiasco's debut arrived in 2006, he was a definite emcee to watch. His delivery was confident, his rhymes and similies were unique, and it was an all-around solid album. Championed by Kanye, and riding success with both critics and fans, he was in place to prepare to deliver on his promise.

Fast forward one year, and he finds himself in trouble for comments made regarding A Tribe Called Quest (read the details here). The controversy, as trivial as it was, distracts attention from Lupe releasing two outstanding singles in preparation for his sophomore album. However, with "Fiascogate" (the trend of using the -gate suffix needs to end, but that's beside the point) all-but-forgotten and the album having had a chance to settle in, the results are less climactic than the events preceeding them. "The Cool" is by no means a bad album or a glaring disappointment, but it's not going to put Lupe in any position to move to the forefront of 21st century hip-hop either.

The album opens with an introductory track, more or less amounting to many of the world's bad deeds done in the name of being "cool". It's followed by another Fiasco-less track before leading into the uneventful "Go Go Gadget Flow". It's not until track four, "The Coolest", that he offers up anything at par with his earlier work. It's a great track, and also demonstrates the maturation of Lupe hinted at in "Dumb It Down". The theme is again dirty deeds done in the pursuit of being cool, but it comes across as much less preachy than on the introduction. Lupe's delivery and storytelling are remarkable, and it's one of the albums best surprises. After the stellar single "Superstar" (featuring Matthew Santos), he unfortunately fails to ignite much over the next three tracks (even a Snoop Dogg guest spot can't save "Hi-Definition"). He returns to form with "Hip-Hop Has Saved My Life". It's a story told in a hundred songs: kid goes from the streets to superstardom by chasing his rap dream. Fortunately, Fiasco, along with a catchy hook from Nikki Jean, give it enough originality to avoid coming across as a retread.

He follows it with "Intruder Alert", a song about trust issues, misconceptions, and troubled individuals. It's a fine song, but almost twice as long as it needs to be. It's followed by another Santos number, which (unlike "Superstar") fails to ever take off. It's certainly not Lupe's fault. He delivers well-written rhymes without falter. It's just that the production is, quite frankly, boring. It also suffers from over-length, like so many other tracks.

In fact, that's the album's crippling flaw as a whole. By the time you get through the six-minute lackluster "Little Weapon" to the album's highlight ("Dumb It Down"), you're too tired to get through the rest of it, and only a couple of the remaining tracks ("Hello Goodbye [The Uncool]" and "The Die") even warrant getting to in the first place. Sure, a lot of things are exceptional about this album: Lupe's rhymes are better than ever, he's addressing real issues with a greater sense of maturity (surprising for someone who apparently knows little about politics), yet he hasn't lost the originality and flair that made him endearing to begin with. Unfortunately, because of production that fails to even surpass that from his debut, and a running length of 19 tracks stretched out over 70-plus minutes, it's a little bit disappointing. Sure, it's for the best that he hasn't "dumbed down nothin'", but it's sure exhausting that he elected not to cut out anything either. Shorten this album down to the dozen best tracks, and you could've added a full point to my rating.

Rating: 7.6

Velvet Underground / "The Very Best of the Velvet Underground"

2008-01-14T13:04:00.001-06:00

In my opinion, the five most important artists in the history of pop music are The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, Elvis Presley, and Jimi Hendrix, in that order. Of the five, I think only Elvis can have his career summed up within the context of a greatest hits compilation. He was never really an album artist as much as a singles artist. The others all are much better explored by hearing the entirety of their best albums. In the case of the VU, that would be their first three LPs: "The Velvet Underground and Nico", "White Light / White Heat", and "The Velvet Underground". Those three albums are extremely different, in sound, lyrical content, and experimentation. That this collection was even issued to begin with is its first mistake. (In addition, there are already numerous greatest hits albums for the band prior to this collection's 2006 release.)

While the quality of the sixteen tracks is without debate, as everything released by this band is among the finest work in American rock history, the song selection does little justice to the band's albums. Essential works from each album, which defined the albums themselves, is omitted. While omitting anything from their debut would be a tall task in creating this album, one has to think there would be a place for "Run Run Run" and "There She Goes" as they are among the band's most famous work.

The most obvious omission from "White Light / White Heat" (and the most essential track missing) is that album's closing track "Sister Ray", which was the heart of that album in both length and quality. The compilation does a decent job handling the tracks from the band's more subdued self-titled third release, though an appearance of either "Candy Says" or the album's most ambitious track, "The Murder Mystery", would seem appropriate.

Somehow it manages to miss "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll" from "Loaded", even though they were the band's biggest hits, and does a horrible job handling the album overall. Now when I look back, some of these mistakes were either unavoidable or else understandable. Every track from their debut (with the possible exception of "The Black Angel's Death Song") is absolutely essential in understanding and embracing the band. "Sister Ray", with a running time of over twenty minutes, would take up far too much time on a best of album, especially with as much great material as the VU had. Similarly, while "The Gift" is an outstanding track and one of the ban'd most interesting songs ever released, it doesn't lend itself to a collection like this. The same problem with "The Velvet Underground" is that it is so different than anything else in their catalogue, because of the band's quieter sound resulting from John Cale's departure prior to its recording. While the omissions from "Loaded" are unforgiveable, the album's importance as a whole pales in comparison to their previous releases. At least they had the sense to not include any tracks from "Squeeze", which was a VU album in name only, with Doug Yule (the band's least important member in the creative process throughout their prime years) the only remaining member.

This all begs the question, why release the disc? The answer is that their is not a reasonable answer for this, except to try and make money off the band's recognition. No fan of the band would step near it, only those who have heard them mentioned and were perhaps curious, or else listeners who only want to try and gain a vague understanding of the band to pose as fans. This is a document for posers and non-fans only. If you want to understand the band, go online and either purchase or download their three initial albums. All of them are available online for under $10. The content that is on the disc is 10.0 material, make no mistake about it. However, the crafting of the disc and its existence at all warrant a dubious 0.0. Which leaves me with a...

Rating: 5.0

The 2007 Generic Awards Part Two: Albums of the Year

2007-12-19T15:48:00.001-06:00

These are the albums that marked 2007. Many are the year's finest releases. However, due to a surprising amount of records that let me down, I also added a list of the most disappointing albums of the year. Again, I'll offer up one video per album where possible. With apologies to LCD Soundsystem, here's part two of the Generic Awards...

MOST DISAPPOINTING ALBUMS

5) Wilco / "Sky Blue Sky" - The latest release from Jeff Tweedy was by no means a bad album. Its problem was that unlike the group's previous five releases dating back to "Being There", it wasn't attempting to do anything new. They accomplished the goal of making a great Eagles record (something even the Eagles couldn't do in 2007), but what was the point of it all?
*Video is "Impossible Germany" (from the accompanying DVD)

4) R.E.M. / "R.E.M. Live" - I really got into R.E.M. this year, and was excited for their first ever live album. I should've looked at the tracklist first. Six songs from "Around the Sun" while only two from "Murmur", "Reckoning", and "Document" combined? Even if the execution wasn't mediocre (which it is), this album would've been.

3) Eagles / "Long Road Out of Eden" - 28 years without releasing any new albums, and this was the best they could come up with?
*Video is the title track

2) Devendra Banhart / "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon" - Most years this would be #1. Banhart somehow thought it would be a good idea to attempt every genre within the musical cannon, whether he could pull it off or not. It's not until tracks 15 and 16 ("I Remember" and "My Dearest Friend") that we get anything equivalent to his earlier work.
*Video is "Seahorse"

1) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah / "Some Loud Thunder" - Not since the Stone Roses has there been a sophomore slump like this. Not everything on it is horrible, but after such a self-assured and masterful debut it sure seems like it. Alternative Press put it best: "'Some Loud Thunder' isn't without its successes--but it is defined by its failures."
*Video is "Satan Said Dance"

BEST ALBUMS

10) The National / "Boxer" - After two very good albums, Matt Berninger and his bandmates have finally released their masterpiece. The lyrics are much more direct than the stream-of-conscious verses on "Alligator", while maintaining a level of mystique. Sonically, it's tighter and more accomplished. I don't know if they can top this album, but if they prove me wrong they'll have released one of the decade's finest albums.
* Video is "Mistaken for Strangers"

9) Josh Ritter / "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter" - Josh Ritter is one talented singer/songwriter. He jumps through various genres, puts his own spin on them, and never falters. Whether it's the Spoon-esque "Mind's Eye", the country stomp of "The Next to the Last Romantic", or the simple acoustic elegance of "Still Beating", everything he touches turns to gold.
*Video is a live version of "Mind's Eye"

8) Dizzee Rascal / "Maths and English" - What it lacks in consistency, it makes up for with its high points. For every lousy track like "Suk My Dick", he throws down three tracks like "Sirens", "Where's Da G's", and "Hardback (Industry)". His beats are still the most original in all of hip-hop, and even Kanye could learn from his use of sampling on "Pussy'ole (Old Skool)". It might not be up to the level of "Boy in Da Corner", but to expect an album of that caliber would be ridiculous and unfair.
*Video is "Sirens"

7) Pale Young Gentlemen / "Pale Young Gentlemen" - Pale Young Gentlemen didn't set out to be this year's ultra-indie buzz band. One listen to their self-titled debut reveals a band just out to make music that's enjoyable to listen to and play to their strengths. They balance out fun tracks like "Saturday Night" and "Clap Your Hands" with slower ballads such as "My Light, Maria" to prevent the album from becoming homogenous. Their music is still raw enough, however, that I believe their best is yet to come. They're the band to watch in the coming years.

6) Arcade Fire / "Neon Bible" - Rather than retread the sound they mastered on 2004's "Funeral", the Arcade Fire adopted a more straightforward sound for their latest album. The numerous Bruce Springsteen comparisons seems especially accurate on songs like "Keep the Car Running". Even with the more rock-oriented sound, they weren't afraid to slow things down and build up to a climax on tracks like "My Body is a Cage". "Neon Bible" was the best kind of sophomore album. It successfully tried new things, while keeping the band's signature sound and strengths intact.
*Video is "My Body is a Cage"

5) Panda Bear / "Person Pitch" - A warm blend of Beach Boys inspired psychedelia, sounds of nature, and Animal Collective's originality. It not only painted a picture of summer, it created an environment of the season so convincing it could be inhabited. Unlike his Animal Collective partner Avey Tare's fans-only document "Pullhair Rubeye", "Person Pitch" was an album that could be enjoyed by those unfamiliar with the Collective, casual fans (I'd fall in this category), and die-hards alike.
*Video is "Comfy in Nautica"

4) Menomena / "Friend and Foe" - In 2007, Menomena moved from the unknown Muuuhahaha! label which had released their debut album to the much more relevant Barsuk label (which released most of Death Cab's albums, and is home to artists such as They Might Be Giants and Nada Surf). It was a perfect fit. The new equipment and studio technology available to them allowed them to make an album similar to their wonderful debut ("I Am the Fun Blame Monster!"), only bigger and better in every aspect. Every track is overflowing with instruments, vocals, and ideas, building to an exhilirating crescendo. Menomena took an already high bar and raised it right through the ceiling.
*Video is "Evil Bee"

3) Radiohead / "In Rainbows" - It's a new Radiohead album. It's already made nearly every top ten list. What else can possibly be written about it? In short, they exceeded fan expectations by finally meeting them.
*Video is "Reckoner"

2) Spoon / "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" - I seriously underestimated this album initially. It just didn't sound as impressive as "Gimme Fiction". I don't blame myself either. On the first few listens, Britt Daniels and company sound so effortless. It sounds nice and all, but it doesn't make you stand back in awe like "The Beast and Dragon, Adored". However, after subsequent listens you realize just how outstanding it is. You realize how flawlessly executed it is. You realize how impeccably produced it is. You realize it not only might be the band's best album, it is the band's best album.
*Video is "The Underdog"

1) Battles / "Mirrored" - The vocals are too weird. It doesn't have any emotional shifts, or really any emotions tied to it period. The songs are either too short or too long. It doesn't make any great cultural statements. There are a lot of reasons to believe Battles' debut is not the album of the year. I just don't buy into any of them. It was the first time an album had left me completely floored since Sigur Rós' initial American release, "Agaetis Byrjun". It sounded like nothing I had heard before or since. Hate it or love it, "Mirrored" was the most original album of the year. In your humble reviewer's opinion, it was also easily the best.
*Video is "Tonto"

The 2007 Generic Awards Part One: Songs of the Year

2007-12-15T17:41:00.001-06:00

All apologies for nearly three weeks of hiatus. I listened to the new Ghostface Killah album ("The Big Doe Rehab") and had begun a review, but due to a hectic schedule it will be pushed back (along with Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool" and poll-winner Kid Rock's "Rock and Roll Jesus") to January.

2007 was a strong year for music, particularly in the indie community. Indie standouts Feist, The Shins, The Arcade Fire, and Okkervil River saw chart success for the first time. Hyped artists either came through on their promise (Menomena, Battles) or else faced a sophomore slump (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bloc Party). UGK miraculously returned this year to top the album charts, only to have one of their two rappers (Pimp C.) die tragically later in the year. All and all, it was the typical year of surprises, both pleasant and disappointing. Here are the songs that made highlighted the year, with videos where feasible.

BEST SONGS

10) Blonde Redhead / "SW" - "23" demonstrated a band in full control of their sound. It saw the band more polished and executing better than ever before. Nowhere was that demonstrated better than on "SW". It explodes out of the gate with full force as guitarist Amadeo Pace takes his first turn on vocals, declaring "it's not what you give, but what you kept." The band kept nothing back, and the move pays off as the highlight of one of the year's stronger albums.
*From the album "23"

9) Jape / "Floating" - It's so simple that it's genius. Take a simple acoustic guitar line, insert brief and clever couplets, and hint it with an electronic background pulsing throughout the entire song. "I said 'fuck dancing all night', but that's just what we did" sings lead singer Richie Eagan. Not only is it one of the best, most straight-forward lines of the year, it's also a pretty good idea of what will happen if you throw this track on repeat.
*From the album "The Monkeys in the Zoo Have More Fun than Me"

8) Pale Young Gentlemen / "Saturday Night" - The rollicking piano, the strings, the enthusiastic vocals, and the relentless energy. It hits all the right pleasure centers. When Mike Reisenauer cries out "Oh Saturday night, take me in your arms!" it brings back memories of weekends spent with friends, having fun. "I'm happy where I am" he later remarks, before the song hits its final crescendo and you can't help but smile even bigger.
*From the album "Pale Young Gentlemen"

7) Menomena / "Rotten Hell" - It starts out simple enough, just a single guy singing over a piano backing. Then it adds another singer, another instrument, another instrument, and another and another until it becomes a many-layered thing of beauty. They know when to restrain though, as they do during the bridge when they "beat through this mess together" before building up to arugably the most rewarding pay-off on a track all year. When they declare "it's high time we step outside, drop the gloves, and settle this thing like a man!" it rings through like a battle cry.
*From the album "Friend and Foe"

6) Battles / "Atlas" - Flawless execution. Innovation so frequent it becomes routine. A sound unlike any other. These phrases only begin to describe math-rock outfit Battles. Their music sounds as though it has been broadcast to Earth from another planet, from a future time. It is a thing of strange beauty. Never is it demonstrated better than on "Atlas", the second track of their masterpiece "Mirrored." I'm still surprised, and even suspicious, that man could compose sounds like these. (Note: the song in the music video is over two minutes shorter than the album version.)
*From the album "Mirrored"

5) Josh Ritter / "The Temptation of Adam" - Love finds us in many different places and situations, even in missile silos during the Cold War. That's (obviously) the setting for "The Temptation of Adam", the most romantic song of the year. Ritter writes of the speaker wondering if the world will end, and if he'd even mind, since he isn't sure if he could be with the one he loves outside of their unusual love nest. When he sings of wishing he could "pretend this giant missile is an old oak tree instead, and carve our name in hearts into the warhead" it comes across as poignant, rather than comical. As the song concludes, he sees the button that would launch the missle and destroy the lovers (and more importantly, his choice whether to live with his love in the silo or move on and try and find someone with easier circumstances) and he states he is "tempted", leaving us to wonder what ever did become of the two.
*From the album "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter"

4) Explosions in the Sky / "The Birth and Death of the Day" - With a title like that, it has to either be mind-blowing or else it's over-selling itself. As this ranking suggests, it's certainly the former. As the guitars build and swell, it is awe-inspiring. No use in trying to describe this song, just watch the video.
*From the album "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone"

3) UGK / "International Players Anthem" - Reasons to be genuinely excited about this song: 1) Andre 3000 actually raps again! I can't overstate how big this is! 2) The beat is the best by far in hip-hop this year. 3) It's, sadly, the last time we'll here Pimp C. and Bun B. together unless they happen to have a Tupac Shakur size catalogue of unrecorded tracks and verses. The best hip-hop song of the year, and it's not even close.
*From the album "Underground Kingz"

2) Spoon / "Don't You Evah" - Spoon makes pop music look way too easy. Britt Daniel's effortless voice, a simple guitar riff and drum line, and some handclaps and they've got a song that sounds like a hit. Throw in the over-dubbing harmony and guitar solo, and you've got something even a tiny yellow robot can dance to.
*From the album "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"

1) Feist / "My Moon My Man" - It's perfect, honestly. The beat is seemingly (deceitfully) simple, but full of flourishes of genius experimenting. The guitar comes in at the perfect times, and makes the song that much stronger. Then there's Leslie Feist's voice. My God, not since early Madonna has anyone sounded this sexy on a record. "The Reminder" may have had its set-backs, but this song has none. It's better than anything released this year or last year, and my money is that it will be better than anything released in the upcoming year. It's that good, folks.
*From the album "The Reminder"

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's one other award to give out...

THE WORST SONG OF THE YEAR

1) Soulja Boy Tell Em / "Crank That" - This was the most inescapable song of the year, while simultaneously being the one I most wanted to escape. It was basically a really shitty dance move expanded into a full-length "hip-hop" song by adding a shitty faux-island beat, a bunch of shitty lyrics, and a bunch of "ohhhhhs!" I give up. I thought "The Macarena" was the last time I'd see a one-hit wonder (because if there really is a God, there's no way Mr. Tell Em has another hit) based off a shitty dance and little else become a nationwide smash. I can only pray that this time really is the last time.
*From some shitty album

Albums of the Year coming on Wednesday (12/19)

A Series of Quick Reviews

2007-11-29T22:10:00.001-06:00

The Raveonettes / "Lust Lust Lust":
I love the Jesus and Mary Chain enough that "Psychocandy" is one of my 15-20 favorite albums of all time. My love for JAMC, however, pales in comparison to that of Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo of the Raveonettes. They love the band enough to make an entire album (and career, for that matter) out of making sound-alikes of the band. It all sounds good enough musically, especially if you'd never heard the source material. Unfortunately, it obviously ultimately lacks creativity. My recommendation is that any perspective listeners of the Raveonettes skip out on this (or any of their other albums) and instead invest their time in "Psychocandy" and "Darklands" instead. (Rating: 4.8)
Download: "Aly, Walk With Me"

Les Savy Fav / "Let's Stay Friends":
Les Savy Fav faces a similar situation to the Raveonettes. They have had to suffer through comparisons to another legendary band throughout their entire career, in this case Fugazi. However, here's the difference between Les Savy Fav and the Raveonettes: Les Savy Fav is much more original in their compositions and especially their songwriting. "Let's Stay Friends" is packed from front to back with catchy pop-punk tracks. In fact, there wasn't a song on this record I didn't enjoy. Les Savy Fav may not be reinventing the wheel, per se, but when the tunes are this solid should anyone really mind? (Rating: 8.6)
Download: "What Would Wolves Do?"

Burial / "Untrue":
Burial is an enigmatic figure. So enigmatic, in fact, that he's an anonymous dubstep artist, known seemingly only through his music. Even his music seems to carry that sense of mystery. He mixes genres and styles effortlessly, applying Indian music, traditional dubstep tunes, ambient instrumentation, and glitchy electronica to form hypnotic and intriguing miniature dance epics. While there are times when it is absolutely captivating, there are other times when it fades out sonically and causes the listener to lose attention, or else adds one additional element that spoils the sound as a whole. It's bizarre, but I feel the album actually would've worked better as a non-dubstep album. The consistent and heavy bass actually subtracts more than it adds, as do the vocals. Remove these two elements and it could've been a masterful instrumental record. As is, it is a good, though not great, dubstep album that is garnering more praise than the music itself truly warrants. (Rating: 7.3)
Download: "Near Dark"

Lupe Fiasco: Chicago's Finest MC

2007-11-19T02:58:00.001-06:00

Sorry Common. Sorry Kanye. Lupe Fiasco has taken over the Windy City. "Food and Liquor" witnessed Lupe sucessfully finding his identity and niche as a rapper. Early singles from his forthcoming "The Cool" suggest he is now expanding upon that identity and setting himself apart further, with a sound and rhyme flow unique to himself.

"Superstar"

"Dumb It Down"

Unfortunately, he still is victim to second-tier production. When he finally is able to escape low-budget beats, and is able to actually get production up to the level of his rhymes, we'll be looking at a triumph on the level of Clipse's "Hell Hath No Fury" and Cannibal Ox's "The Cold Vein".

Jay-Z / "American Gangster"

2007-11-13T20:05:00.000-06:00

So much for leaving the rap game. Jay-Z is back with his second post-"retirement" album (and tenth overall), hoping to improve upon the mostly forgettable "Kingdom Come". If you weren't hinted off by the title, Jay was inspired to create the album based on the Ridley Scott film of the same name. The album ideally chronicles where the rapper would be had be chose to continue moving drugs (as he did prior to achieving fame) instead of becoming a rap entrepreneur, you know, like Denzel Washington's Frank Lucas character does in the film. Within this context, he still manages to name drop Roc-a-Fella records, sing about the life of parties and purchasing products too expensive for you to have heard of, and of course bitches. In other words, it's a Jay-Z album, but this time he's cross-marketing with a movie.

While the album unfortunately fails to differ topically from anything else in his post-"Reasonable Doubt" catalogue, listeners can at least find solace in the fact that it's at least a good Jay-Z album. It opens with possibly the best introduction track I've ever heard on a hip-hop album. It utilizes synths, strings, Spanish guitar, and various sound bytes and effects from the film. It leads brilliantly into the album's first song, "Pray". The production is grand, filling all possible space with sound and effects, as Jay lays down a crack rap good enough to be on par with Mobb Deep's "The Infamous". Opening with a number like this functions as both a blessing and a curse. As the track concluded, I felt that if he can keep this level up throughout the whole album he would produce something better than even his debut. Problem is, it's easily the best track on the album, so even great tracks like "American Dreamin'", "No Hook", and "Say Hello" seem slightly lesser in its wake.

The aforementioned "American Dreamin'" follows "Pray" and is great in its own right, enough so that the drop off from the previous track is minimal. Riding a quiet string backing, Jay continues to rhyme in the crack rap vein, albeit with an original twist based off his hypothetical story. Unfortunately, the lackluster "Hello Brooklyn 2.0" follows. The production features a frequently repeated and grating "Hello Brooklyn!" yell that sounds like it'd be more at place on the Beastie's "Check Your Head" than on a Jay-Z album. The song never gains momentum, and does little to advance the album. With fifteen tracks already on the album, I think it would have worked better had it been left off. At least it's followed by "No Hook" another track featuring film sound bytes, minimal production, and great rhymes.

It's after this track that Jay seemingly decides he isn't content to make a great album harking back to the days of his debut. "Roc Boys (And the Winner Is...)" is much more glossy than the preceding songs. "Sweet" shows signs of being a radio-friendly horn-based hip-hop track, and leads into the without a doubt radio-ready "I Know", which slows down to make way for the chill-out "Party Life". While all three are fine songs in themselves, they don't fit with the opening five numbers, and throw off the flow of the album. He opens the next track declaring "just the sound of this voice is a hit!" over a easy-going beat, before bizarrely entering a refrain that could never in a million years find its way to radio. An exerpt: "This is that ignorant shit you like. / Nigga fuck, shit, ass, bitch, trick, plus ice." The contradiction, in particular the vulgarity of the chorus, makes it hard to get into the song. However, it's followed by another great track, the aforementioned "Say Hello". Jay-Z recalls "Scarface" as he raps about being the bad guy, even though he came "up from the bottom" to become "mad fly". It's a testament to Jay-Z's talent that he's able to rap about such an over-used topic and still make it so interesting.

The next two tracks, "Success" and "Fallin'", are up to par with most of the album, even if they aren't exceptional. The album is improved by the inclusion of two bonus tracks following "Fallin'": "Blue Magic" and "American Gangster". "Blue Magic" is a banger, featuring contributions from Pharrell Williams and creative use of sound effects. It's arugably the best production on the album since the opening three numbers. "American Gangster" is lead by horns recalling "Encore" from "The Black Album" as Hova smoothly executes verses as soul vocals form behind him. He makes damn sure the album ends on a high note, as a majority of the lines relate to riches acquired and 'American Dreams' achieved.

As piano and violin lead to the denouement of the album, I didn't care that he only really applied half these songs to the concept behind the album. I didn't care that halfway through, he dropped a series of songs more related to "The Blueprint" than anything else on the album. Because I was just glad that he'd helped me forget about "Kingdome Come". I was glad I could appreciate this album for how good it was, rather than simply because it's Jay-Z coming out of a rut, like the vastly over-rated "The Black Album". All I cared about at that moment in time, was that I had just finished listening to his best album in almost a decade. The next moment, I was pressing play again.

Rating: 8.4

Jens Lekman / "Night Falls Over Kortedala"

2007-11-05T12:03:00.000-06:00

Jens Lekman is extremely talented. His voice is easily one of the most pleasant in the indie scene. His production on his latest album is over-flowing with jubilation. His lyrics are tender, delicate, and sweet. Everything seems perfect, until you realize how nauseous his whole happy-go-lucky act makes you after more than ten minutes. For better and worse, everything about Lekman's style is amplified on his latest release, "Night Falls Over Kortedala".

Lekman's vocals are always pitch-perfect. He never comes up short and he never strains. That's precisely the problem. Great vocals aren't about being on-key so much as emotionally affecting. I would rather listen to Jeff Mangum (of Neutral Milk Hotel) over Michael Bublé any day of the week. Pick any song on the album. They all sound pretty of course, but unfortunately his vocal precision leads to them sounding pretty empty as well.

The production, while again lovely at first listen, eventually stagnates. It seems he produced the first track so perfectly that he decided it would be best if he produced nine others with remarkable similarity. Acoustic guitar, drums, a hint of flute and strings, and the occasional high-pitched accompanying vocal. A Hershey's bar tastes great at first too, but I wouldn't eat ten of them with equal satisfaction. Cleary, Lekman has never been tutored on the Law of Diminishing Returns. His only exceptions are the final two tracks: the doo-wop of "Kanske Är Jag Kär i Dig" and the brass-based lounge number "Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo".

His lyrics so overzealous with romantic sentiment even Hallmark would tell him to tone it down a bit. "If I had to choose a moment in time to take with me into eternity, I would choose this moment with you in my arms" or "I would never kiss anyone who doesn't burn me like the sun, and I remember every kiss like my first kiss." There are many people who would find lyrics such as these romantic and passionate, but I simply don't have the sweet tooth for them myself.

That really sums up the album as a whole. Quite a few people have fallen in love with this album, and surely more will follow as the year continues. Despite my personal indifference, I recommend you give it a listen. After all, it's so well polished it shines. However, what it lacks in dust and scratches it also lacks in emotional power; it fails to stay with you once the disc stops spinning. Perfection is boring.

Rating: 6.4

Coming Attractions:

2007-10-31T12:27:00.000-05:00

Albums slated for review in November:

1. Sigur Rós - Hvarf/Heim
2. Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends
3. Jay-Z - American Gangster
4. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
5. Echo and the Bunnymen - Crocodiles (classic review)
6. (the winner of the current poll)

Keep listening.

(Note: Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool" had its release date pushed back to December 18th, so I obviously won't be reviewing it this month.)

Babyshambles / "Shotter's Nation"

2007-10-28T13:11:00.000-05:00

Babyshambles' lead singer Pete Doherty has found himself in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. He's served frequent stints in rehab, come under tabloid scrutiny due to his high-profile relationship and subsequent split with Kate Moss, had pictures emerge of him appearing to inject heroin into an unconscious girl... you get the idea. That he's also one of the UK's most popular artists (both with Babyshambles and former band the Libertines) has become practically an after-thought. He now again emerges, following his least acclaimed album (the Babyshambles' 2006 release "Down in Albion") and still a hot commodity to tabloids. Yet, despite recent artistic struggles and all of his distractions, "Shotter's Nation" is surprisingly not a bad album.

Doherty continues to borrow heavily from the Britpop sound of Oasis and Blur on this album. The opening number "Carry Up the Morning" (or any track for that matter) could've been pulled from any post-"Parklife" Blur album. Once you get over the fact that there's little musical originality to be found though, you have to stop and remember: Blur released some very good albums after "Parklife". Doherty may not be fresh, but that won't keep you from enjoying the album. Lyrically, the album is okay. Passages like "here comes the delivery / straight from the heart of my misery" from second track "Delivery" are about as deep as a crack in the sidewalk, but the band drowns them out in enough guitar and keeps an uptempo pace most of the time to keep the album enjoyable. That's the key to "Shotter's Nation", and its most unexpected gift: it's fun! Songs such as "You Talk" and the excellent "Crumb Begging" give the listener the feeling that Doherty, despite all the directions his life has gone in lately, is genuinely enjoying making this music.

It's not always fun and games though. Doherty throws in his best Oasis ballad (with decent results) on "Unbilotitled" and goes acoustic on the album's closing track, "The Lost Art of Murder." "Murder" is an interesting track, much more than anything else on the album. Here, on the final track, we finally hear the band sounding like themselves. While the track itself is nothing great, and lyrics like "stop smoking crack" come off as humorous rather than harrowing coming from Doherty, it gives indication that perhaps Doherty and the band are moving toward something new. Honestly it would be for the better. While this album and his previous work with the Libertines are all enjoyable to listen to, they remain nonetheless unoriginal work from a musician whom I continue to believe is capable of more. Hopefully this is his last album as "Blur Jr.", since if it is he'll have gone out on nearly as good a note as a title like that can allow.

Rating: 6.8

Frog Eyes / "Tears of the Valedictorian"

2007-10-15T14:31:00.000-05:00

Carey Mercer is one crazy mother-fucker. His band, Frog Eyes, has been making some of the most bizarre, yet compelling, music on the indie scene since 2003's left-field gem "The Golden River." One thing which has always been true of Frog Eyes' music is that is an acquired taste, and while that remains true on their latest release "Tears of the Valedictorian", it is also the group's most accessible album to date. This is not to say it is entirely accessible to first-time listeners though.

"Valedictorian" sounds like a bizarre hybrid of Berlin-era Bowie (best example: "Bushels") and Xiu Xiu (best example: "Idle Songs"), all while maintaining Frog Eyes' like-no-other-band-on-Earth sound. It opens with the aforementioned "Idle Songs", a relentless push of keyboards, drums, and Mercer using the voice-as-instrument technique to the best of his ability. It's a good song, but it sounds like it could be put right on to Xiu Xiu's "Fabulous Muscles" and consequently loses points for lack of originality. It's followed by "Caravan Breakers, They Prey on the Weak and the Old". The band is much more in form this time out. Vocal harmonies, guitar solos played behind heavy distortion, keyboards, and drums; nothing is spared, and all of it is excellent. The excitement and energy coming from the band and their leader is nothing short of inspiring. Next up is "Stockades", which sounds like Bowie on cocaine. The vocal sound is unmistakeably Bowie-esque, but the rapid-fire speed of both the guitar line and the vocals makes the song all Mercer's.

It fades out before "Reform the Countryside" comes pounding in. Mercer is seemingly unaware of his backing band much of the time. He speaks/sings/screams his lyrics throughout the song at his own will, with the exception of the occasional vocal harmony. However, the song is strangely beautiful, though hampered by a bizarre ending where Mercer repeats a single phrase with his only accompaniment as hand claps before a short keyboard chord cuts off Mercer and the track.
"The Policy Merchant, The Silver Bay" is a short, minimal track which covers very little ground. Luckily "Evil Energy, the Ill Twin of..." is a frenzied, wonderful song with Mercer rambling off lyrics so quickly they have no time to be understood. His voice again serves better as an instrument than means of delivering lyrics, and along with the guitar and rising/falling piano line, it is one of the most high-energy songs on the album.

It's counterpart, "... Eagle Energy", is vastly different. Mercer sings slower and in his most traditional voice. The sonics are more relaxing, a floating guitar line backed by light drums and faint keys. Though in a completely different style than "Evil Energy", it is equally as effective. "Bushels", a behemoth 9-minute song which sounds as though it were a Bowie tribute (think Berlin-era), follows. Mercer does his best to carry the song and keep it from becoming repetitive, but it still ultimately lags following the quick one-two punch of the "Energy" tracks, which together were under five minutes. The album closes with the extremely bizarre, but somehow relaxing "My Boats They Go". The song lasts only one minute, and consists of Mercer sing-speaking in a tone that's virtually impossible to decipher with soft accompaniment before fading out and closing out the album.

"Valedictorian" is certainly a grower. At times, it aims so high it trips over its own ambition ("Bushels"). Other times it doesn't aim high enough to create interest ("The Policy Merchant, The Silver Bay"). When it does aim and strike properly, as is the case on many of the album's tracks, it is a thing of beauty to behold. It's the kind of album, that while not a masterpiece itself, shows all the signs of a band and its leader ready to unleash one.

Rating: 8.3

Radiohead / "In Rainbows"

2007-10-12T12:36:00.002-05:00

Radiohead have soared to being frequently recognized as the best band on the planet. In fact, they've been there ever since "Kid A" got the recognition it deserved as one of the best and boldest albums released in the past ten years. Unfortunately, thanks to the three-album string of perfection wherein they mastered stadium rock ("The Bends"), alternative rock ("OK Computer"), and electronica ("Kid A"), Radiohead have become superhuman. This is why hype built up the release of "Amnesiac" as Radiohead's return to guitar... which is the opposite of what it turned out to be, and why it was seen as such a disappointment to many critics. Even "Kid A" itself, now seen as arguably the decade's defining album, was not met with universal acclaim upon its release. Radiohead have always challenged their listeners, and it has always paid off.

Now it seems the band is trying to destroy its superhuman image, or at least contain it. The band remained mum on any album details, released no singles/videos, and made note that an album would be coming out via their website less than two weeks before it arrived. Now it has arrived, and 1.2 million fans have already "purchased" it by downloading the album from the band's website and paying (or not) an optional donation. This technique serves multiple purposes. It prevents the band from creating a formidable period of hype, where mental prejudices are formed by listeners before they've even heard the album (prejudices like these are why everyone seemingly loved the Strokes' first album, and everyone seemingly was disappointed by their second). It also prevents leaking of the album, so all 1.2 million downloaders heard the album at (roughly) the same time, as their guitarist Jonny Greenwood pointed out in an interview with Rolling Stone. What it amounts to is this: for the first time since "The Bends" in 1995, we can listen to Radiohead without grandiose expectations in the way.

And what of the music? After all, the point of this review is not a history lecture, but a critique of the music on "In Rainbows". To put it simply, "In Rainbows" is the best Radiohead album since "Kid A". It addresses the major issues which made "Amnesiac" average and prevented "Hail to the Thief" from attaining greatness. "Amnesiac" was plagued by over-experimentation and songs that seemingly served no purpose on the album ("Hunting Bears" anyone?). "Hail to the Thief" meanwhile, was poorly sequenced to the point that when songs did connect, it seemed more by chance than choice. "Rainbows" experiments with new sounds in the "Idioteque" vein while managing to tie them together with songs that were originally created during the "OK Computer" sessions, all without sacrificing continuity and flow.

The album kicks off with "15 Step". Propelled by a hard drum line and a hint of guitar, Thom Yorke floats lyrics like "did the cat get your tongue?" over the top of the driving music. Indeed I was left speechless, especially by the brief falsetto bridge. It leads well into "Bodysnatchers", which is similar to an inverted "15 Step" in that it's led by a hard guitar line and a hint of drum. Yorke barks his lyrics this time out, and they are hardly discernable at times, but the snarl in his voice is effective at conveying the dreadful mood of the song. It's the best guitar-based Radiohead track since "Paranoid Android". That should be all you need to know about it. The band is able to then transition in the beautifully-orchestrated "Nude", a song akin to "How to Disappear Completely" from "Kid A". Yorke's echoing falsetto carries the tune as it breezes over keys, violin, and drum. "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi" follows, and is one of the album's more interesting tracks. Led by keyboards, and featuring the first horns on the album. It's another great track, featuring wonderful use of build-up. The building is done with such subtlety that you don't notice it happening until it's already all the way up. The song closes with an amazing breakdown and we move on to "All I Need".

The love song, long seen as abandoned by the band, makes a return here. "You are all I need" softly coos Yorke, as the band becomes bigger and more powerful than on any other part of this album. As Yorke begins to wail and the sound crashes through wall after wall, you realize two things: 1) This is a really, really great album and 2) It just hit its climax. The simple, short violin-based "Faust Arp" follows. It's a good way to settle down after the conclusion of "All I Need", but little more. With "Reckoner", the band returns to form. Yorke's falsetto is magnificent and the track is good, though not a stunner like some earlier on the album.

"House of Cards" is a very enjoyable song, featuring the opening line "I don't want to be your friend; I just want to be your lover." Another love song? Another great one, complete with orchestra, celestial guitar, and excellent atmospherics. It closes with a whirl of sound and arrives at "Jigsaw Falling into Place", an immensely enjoyable song. Yorke speaks the vocals, but the swirling and hypnotizing background harmonies more than allow for that. With great use of horns and guitar, Radiohead crafts the last thing I thought this album would produce: a perfect pop song, complete with a breakdown catch-phrase: "and the beat goes 'round!" Album finale "Videotape" begins with just a piano accompanying Yorke as he sings of "when [he's] at the Pearly Gates..." as he continues to craft an introspective about religion, love, and time. It's the ideal close.

Having waited two days and two dozen listens, I can finally write that this is the Radiohead album I'd been hoping for. It has only one lesser track, and even that only lasts two minutes. It manages to do what every Radiohead fan had wished for, but never thought they would see: they combined elements of all three of their previous masterpieces (albums #2-4) and arrived with their fourth. Ladies and gentlemen, the best band in the world is back again.

Rating: 9.3

Dethklok / "The Dethalbum"

2007-09-28T20:10:00.001-05:00

(Erik sits in front of keyboard, all senses obliterated by the sonic assault of Dethklok's unrelenting "Dethalbum". He attempts to type review only to find himself unable to focus on the keyboard when he is constantly head-banging to what is shockingly the best metal album he's heard since Mastodon's "Leviathan". The band may be a joke, this review may even be seen as a joke, but goddamn "The Dethalbum" is not.)

(Just as the album is ending, Erik suffers a stroke from an over-dose of manic guitar to the brain. Scientists and medics are baffled by this previously unseen phenomenon. This is Dethklok. They create their own mother-fucking physics and you just have to deal with it or else get the fuck out of their way.)

(Elsewhere, Ronnie James Dio himself plugs into the album and proceeds to piss himself before backing into a corner, shaking, and muttering "my God" over and over again.)

(At some point, Hell opens up on earth and demons and hell-fire destroy all of civilization. Dethklok are appointed the 'Dark Lords of Metal' by Lucifer himself. Lead singer Nathan "Tonto" Explosion then punches Satan in the face for not coming soon enough.)

Rating: 11.o...

(Erik wakes up from his stroke and is finally able to think in a non-metal state of mind. He looks up at the score he originally gave the album, an obvious and unfunny reference to "This is Spinal Tap". He stops, thinks, and then awards the album a more fitting [but equally metal-referenced and unfunny] score)

NEW Rating: 6.66

New Pornographers / "Challengers"

2007-09-26T15:08:00.000-05:00

The New Pornographers have been the definitive indie-pop group of the decade. They manage to pack more hooks into every song than most artists can fit on an album. It's simply amazing, though I'm sure it's easier when you have three of the best minds in Canadian indie music working for you: Dan Bejar (of Destroyer and Swan Lake), Carl Newman (aka A.C. Newman, formerly leader of the now-defunct Zumpano), and Neko Case (known best for her solo work). "Challengers" marks the group's fourth album, and the early word was that it was a more difficult affair than their previous albums. I couldn't disagree more.

"Challengers" is exactly what I expected it to be: another enjoyable, consistently strong album, with good lyrics and excellent execution. It opens with "My Right Versus Yours", which is also the album's lead single. It's admittedly more simplistic than some of their earlier works, but Newman's lead vocals drowned in Neko Case's backing vocals is still as thrilling as pop music gets, especially when the sounds swell as the song continues. They follow it with another great track, "All the Old Showstoppers". It is similar to "MRVY" in that Newman handles lead vocals and Case backs him while a pulsing beat rides underneath, but different in that it relies more on instrumentation rather than vocals to carry the song. The song "Challengers" may be the reason critics are lazily tossing around the word "difficult". It's much more low-key than usual, with the only instrument behind Case (who handles lead) and Newman's vocals being an acoustic guitar and bass, until more instruments begin to discreetly enter. The song is nothing outstanding, but Case's lead vocals sound incredible. "Myriad Harbour" is the first Bejar track on the album. Perhaps it's my bias toward Bejar, but for me this was easily the best track on the album. Sung-spoke vocals, guitar solos, a great acoustic lead guitar line, and splashes of three-part harmony; this is the perfect Dan Bejar Pornographers track.

The next two songs, "All the Things that Go to Make Heaven and Earth" and "Failsafe" are enjoyable listens, demonstrating different skills. "All the Things" is the most rapid-fire song on the album. Newman works frantically to get all his ideas and lyrics into the song as quickly as possible. "Failsafe" is another Neko Case song where she takes her sweet time and lets the song build up behind her vocals. What's interesting with this song (and many on this album) is how instead of ending the song with a loud and joyous bang, it ends with a relatively modest note. It bothers less on repeated listens, but you can't help but feel a little more crescendo would've made this album so much more.

The album's second half begins with a song that is a full two minutes longer than anything else in their catalogue, the six-and-a-half minute "Unguided". While a Pornographers song being this long seems like a recipe for disaster and overkill, it's actually an excellent song. It's carried by a loud, zealous chorus and enough energy to keep the listener attentive throughout. Another trick applied is the Case and Newman alternate on lead vocals from verse to verse so as to prevent the track from becoming redundant. The following song, "Entering White Cecilia", is a fine track on its own, but is a sequencing mistake being placed after "Unguided". To put a simple and straightforward Bejar track after an outstanding Case and Newman epic demeans it and it winds up coming across as as disappointment. Neither "Go Places" nor "Mutiny, I Promise You" are standouts, but they do well enough to advance the album to another more low-key effort, "Adventures in Solitude". It's begins as a simple and charming little song, before instantly transforming into a rich track complete with a strong orchestral backing. Case again nails the vocals (she sounds better on this album than any previous Pornographers disc), but the song surprisingly (and ineffectively) ends with a delicate acoustic chord rather than ending on the aural explosion that it would've been best suited for. Final track "The Spirit of Giving", another Bejar number, is lyrically the strongest track on the album, but the lyrics of "I was sick of America and her screaming decay" don't exactly match up with the arena-pleasing sing-a-long vibe of the production and Case's backing vocals. Another missed opportunity.

"Challengers" is, by all means, a fine album. Don't be thrown off by the tag of "difficult". Carl Newman isn't exactly Scott Walker. Ultimately, however, it's only a fine album when it could've been a classic. Throughout the album, they demonstrate how to build a pop masterpiece, but rarely seal the deal. This flaw is all the more frustrating because of their outstanding ability to close tracks memorably on their previous three albums. Compared to other pop albums, this is a very, very good album. Compared to the band's previous efforts though, this is nothing special. It approaches greatness, but never reaches it.

Rating: 8.1

Kanye West / "Graduation"

2007-09-22T18:19:00.000-05:00

Listening to "Graduation", I experienced something I had previously never felt while listening to a Kanye West album: boredom. On initial listen, only one song caught my attention ("Can't Tell Me Nothing") and even that track was nothing exceptional, especially when compared to the best tracks from West's previous two albums. There's no "Jesus Walks". There's no "Gone". In fact, there's nothing close. Not only are the peaks not as high, there are far fewer of them. There's the aforementioned "Nothing", but nothing else captivates at all, though "Champion" and "Stronger" are interesting failures for attempting to incorporate dance music into the West arsenal.

Not only are the strengths lacking, but his failures are as evident as ever. Kanye has never been a great MC. In fact, most times he's a below-average one, and "Graduation" not only fails to be an exception, it's his worst rhyming to date. Take "I'll never be picture perfect Beyonce / Be light as Al B., or black as Chauncey. / Remember him from Blackstreet? / He was as black as the street was." or this gem: "Heard they'd do anything for a Klondike. / Well I'd do anything for a blonde-dike." His gift, and what had made his two previous albums outstanding, was his ability to create a variety of outstanding beats. It just doesn't happen here. He even notes at the beginning of "Everything I Got" that Common rejected the song's beat (assumably on his latest album "Finding Forever").

The question now posed is what's next for Kanye? With the exception of Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, critics were seemingly less favorable to Chicago's top-selling MC. Sure, he won the sales battle with 50 Cent and moved nearly a million units in the process, but is he on track to become another rapper reduced to artistic mediocrity after a phenomenal start (see: Mobb Deep)? For a rapper who claims to know "what it takes to be number one", he's starting to sound pretty generic. It's a shame. It was fun while it lasted, Ye.

Rating: 5.8

The Bastard Fairies / "Memento Mori"

2007-09-20T14:53:00.000-05:00

"A Day in the Life of Bastard Fairies' Singer/Songwriter Yellow Thunder Woman."

(Upon waking up) : "In the morning I take my pills, I wash my hands, and I panic and do it again." (from "Habitual Inmate")

(She finishes her morning coffee) : "I have drank all my sadness." (from "Everyone Has a Secret")

(She heads to her doctor) : "I'll have a hysterectomy and we'll live our lives problem-free." (from "Memento Mori")

(However, later on...) : "I can't sleep and I can't eat... the complications that these things bring." (from "Guns and Dolls")

(Her insomnia leads to her calling her boyfriend) : "Won't you just understand that the real me is too much for you?" (from "A Venomous Tale")

(Which leads to a confession!) : "I've slept around. When you thought I was yours, all that time I was with the boy next door." (from "The Boy Next Door")

(She hangs up, feeling simultaneously stressed and relieved) : "I need a beer." (from "We're All Going to Hell")

FIN.

There's really nothing to say on this album. I inserted the skit to A) showcase the banal lyrics, but mostly B) to fill the space to make this a "full" review. In short, "Memento Mori" is an album of predictability. The lyrics are more or less insipid high school poetry. The song structures are all similar and sonically dull. The closest any of them get to progressing or developing is the occasional bridge or breakdown, and even those are relatively indistinct from the normal harmony. There's a simple way, really, to tell if you'll enjoy the Bastard Fairies' music or not:

Do you think "Little boys that choke the chicken, you are going to hell. / It’s the nature of evolution, the dinosaurs went to hell." designates a meaningful lyric? If so, you'll love these guys.

Unfortunately I don't.

Rating: 2.6

Josh Ritter / "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter"

2007-09-18T16:37:00.001-05:00

You know, James Blunt's new CD comes out today. You can hear him "sing" cliches in an unconvincing whimper. You can hear him try and pass off "you can hear the sound of my breaking heart" and "I really want you to really want me" as genuine, heart-felt lyrics on a song pathetically titled "I Really Want You." Then again, instead of going back to "Back to Bedlam", you could try on a little Josh Ritter. His fifth full-length, "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter", is what all the shitty pop singer/songwriters wish they could be.

After all, what is it that makes a pop album great? First off, it has to be listenable. Pop music, at its core, is based on memorable melodies and a tight structure. "Conquests" is certainly listenable and certainly tightly-structured. Only two of the songs go beyond the four-minute mark, none of them top five, and whether it's the Spoon-esque guitar/piano stomp of "Mind's Eye" or the heavy drums and county-folk sound of "The Next to the Last Romantic", these are hooks and songs that stay with you.

The next ingredient to a great pop album is variety. While some artists are content to make the same song 13 times over to fulfil their duties as an artist, the best albums of the genre aren't afraid to switch up styles, sounds, and influences. Ritter brings us sing-along folk ("To the Dogs or Whoever") to radio-ready pop ("Right Moves") to delicate acoustic ("The Temptation of Adam" - one of the year's best songs) to power pop that would make even Carl Newman step back and stand in awe ("Real Long Distance"). Ritter is not afraid to tackle a plethora of styles, and he handles each with the ease of a true pop virtuoso.

The final key ingredient to a great pop album is replay value. How often will you return to this album before you tire of it? In the case of "Conquests", I have been listening to it for two weeks now, and while that in itself is a short time, I can't envision myself tiring of this album for quite some time. The lyrics are good enough to deserve and reward exploration, the music is varied enough to not become repetitious and tedious, and Ritter has an outstanding and appealing voice to make this not only an album to stick to, but also an album for everyone. If this isn't a great pop album, it's damn close.

Rating: 8.9

Bonnie "Prince" Billy / "The Daytrotter Sessions"

2007-09-03T20:35:00.000-05:00

Will Oldham is the best singer/songwriter alive not named Bob Dylan. I can write that over and over again with confidence. His recordings as Palace Music (or Palace Brothers), in particular "Viva Last Blues", are Appalachian alt-country of the highest possible caliber. Since moving on to a new name, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, his stature has only grown. His initial recording under the BPB moniker, "I See A Darkness", was a masterwork. It's the sound of music that's so human, it's as though he wrote it only for you. Yet it's so haunting, it couldn't have possibly been made by a mortal man. He hasn't captured that zenith yet since, but "The Daytrotter Sessions," a four song session available for free (legally!) online, is the closest he's come yet. Every one of the songs is a classic in his catalogue. He re-records three songs from his past ("The Seedling", "The Sun Highlights the Lack in Each", and "New Partner") and one new track (which he had previously performed in shows, but never recorded) "Goodbye Dear Old Stepstone".

The new version of "The Seedling" is jaw-dropping! The tension and slight quiver in Oldham's voice gives more force to the lyrics than they ever possessed on their original spot on "The Letting Go". It's actually a great way to be introduced to Oldham's style and delivery, as it is an extraordinary example of both. "The Sun Highlights the Lack in Each" is a mellow, effective track. With the only backing as a lightly strummed guitar, Oldham again pens a beauty. It's minimalism allows Oldham's voice to take the lead. It doesn't come up short. His always exceptional ability to sound human is seen in its truest form. Close your eyes and it's as though he's singing it right in front of you in a sleazy bar, presenting you his entire soul to you in exchange for four minutes of your time. The final re-recorded track, "New Partner", is a love song as only Oldham could do it. The passion and need displayed as he cries "you were always on my mind" in the refrain (again over delicate guitar) is touching. He sings of how he now has a new partner, but yet cannot remove himself from the love of his past. When he claims he has "a new partner now", his attitude is not one of pride and happiness, but rather is bittersweet. He appreciates a new person being so involved in his life, but knows he can't give her his heart. His expression conveys this perfectly. The only completely new track, "Goodbye Dear Old Stepstone", is the most traditional folk song on the set. It could've been written by a young Bob Dylan (think "Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" era) and you'd never know the difference. He tells of how fondly he'll look back at all those who helped him along his way as he prepares to take on new adventures and new places in his life. It's the fourth consecutive perfect song.

"The Daytrotter Sessions" is a great way to introduce yourself to Oldham. Not only is it free to anyone with an internet connection, but it's also four of the finest works of his illustrious career. I couldn't recommend it highly enough to those who are either new to Oldham or longtime fans.

Rating: 9.8

...

All apologies for the lack of a "Mix of the Month" for August. I'll get back to the feature at the end of September.

Dizzee Rascal / "Maths and English"

2007-08-21T16:51:00.002-05:00

Let's get straight to the point: "Maths and English" is Dizzee Rascal's worst album. The good news is that it still might turn out to be the best hip-hop album of the year. That statement speaks not only of the hip-hop drought thus far in 2007, but also of the strength of Rascal's catalogue. So what is it that makes this inferior to "Boy in Da Corner" and "Showtime"? It lacks both the consistency of "Da Corner" and the energy and hunger of "Showtime." How is it still the best hip-hop album released so far this year? First of all, it's Dizzee Rascal, and I still don't believe that this guy can make a bad album. When the songs work, nobody can match him in either production or delivery, and despite the scattershot nature of the songs on "Maths" there are still a great deal of future classics.

The album opens with the lackluster "World Oustide". The beat is straightforward and relatively simple, and Dizzee doesn't exactly strain himself on the verses. It's an uncharacteristically ambient track. Just when you're about to be discouraged, however, Rascal delivers and outstanding four-track tour-de-force. "Pussy'ole" rides a sample from the 80's song "It Takes Two" and Dizzee rhymes as the beat incorporates more and more layers, until it explodes into the album's best track (and first single) "Sirens". Behind a beat heavy on cymbal and (obviously) sirens, Dizzee spits as good a verse as almost anything in his catalogue. Next up is "Where Da G's" featuring Houston rap duo UGK. Rascal lays down some very good rhymes in a slower drawl than usual. The decision to slow down works brilliantly as it plays extremely well off the drawl of UGK's outstanding guest verses. "Paranoid" comes in and the lyrics of paranoia perfectly suit the acid beat.

Unfortunately the next three songs ("Suk My Dick", "Flex", and "Da Feelin'") are nothing special, especially by Dizzee's standards. He returns to form with "Bubbles" which goes with a relatively minimalistic beat and lets him carry the song with his verses. He doesn't disappoint, sounding off rhymes like "Best to believe I keep it tight, / Best to believe I'm movin' right, / Keep my business on the low, you best to believe I'm outta sight." Follow-up "Excuse Me Please" is an effective political rap, as Rascal questions the logic of the world: "Sometimes I think the whole world's gone crazy. / The shit I see, it don't cease to amaze me."

The album closes with another four-track attack. "Hardback (Industry)" has a orchestral tint to the beat which gives it the sound of a noir film combined with a hip-hop banger. Rascal promises "if you take [his] advice, you'll be ballin'." He comes with such confidence, you can't help but believe it. "Temptation" has a frantic beat and Dizzee's fastest rapping combined with an effective hook from, of all people, Arctic Monkey's lead singer Alex Turner. "Wanna Be" features the oddest guest spot of all, Lily Allen (!). It's similar to "Wot U On" from "Boy in Da Corner" in that it deals with kids thinking their gangsters when they really aren't, but instead of a hip-hop hook, the one Allen provides is straight bubblegum pop. It's also hilarious! "What you know about being a hardman? / You mum buys your bling" taunts Allen. He closes the album with one of its finest tracks, "U Can't Tell Me Nuffin'". Dizzee hits hard and effective with both the beat (which sounds as though it were incorporated from a horror film) and the verses.

So, yeah, it's not up to the bar set by his decade-best "Boy in Da Corner" or hard-hitting "Showtime", but so what? By the time the disc ends, you're not thinking back about what the disc wasn't. You're starting it over and listening to it again and again, and wondering how the best hip-hop artist in the world remains a relative unknown in the U.S.

Rating: 8.7

...

On an unrelated side-note, I was right about M.I.A.

M.I.A. / "Kala"

2007-08-14T23:49:00.000-05:00

M.I.A. is a female Sri Lankan hip-hop artist. She struck it big in 2005 with "Arular," an album that garnered a great deal of critical acclaim and was ultimatley named to numerous end of the year lists and shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. It is at this point I have a confession to make: despite reading all of the accolades and recommendations, I never listened to the album even once. With the early reviews again very positive for her sophomore release (and the album being entirely streamed on her MySpace page) I decided it was time I gave her a chance. Here's the bottom line: I'm glad I was able to stream it, because had I purchased it I would be immensely regretting it.

It fails as a hip-hop album due to amateurish production, poor delivery, and the mixed quality of the lyrics. On paper, mixing Timbaland-esque beats and layering with a jungle sound would appear to be a great idea. However, when executed it is frequently too much and trips over its own ambitions. When it is scaled back, like on the relatively simplistic (and album best) "Mango Pickle Down" it can be very effective and likeable. It's unforunate how rarely that occurs though on this album. The delivery, meanwhile, is simply awful. Her voice isn't appealing, it is far-too-often double-tracked and consequently rendered nearly unlistenable at times. Let me put it this way: It's exactly what you'd expect a female Sri Lankan rapper to sound like, and that's not a good thing. The lyrics, at times, are fantastic. Take this rhyme from "The Turn": "I'm trying to do my best, / Get my head up out the stress. / When the money turns the world / Your lovin' turns to less." It's a shame the album is instead mostly comprised of junk like "Live in trees, chew on feet / Watch 'Lost' on cable. / Bird flu gonna get you." from "Bird Flu."

"Kala" wants to be a politically-charged hip-hop album with heavy dance influences. It ends up being a mostly forgettable album with a few highlights ("Mango Pickle Down" as a hip-hop song and "XR2" as a dance track). The Streets proved with "Original Pirate Material" that an incredibly unorthodox hip-hop delivery combined with a dance influence could produce surprisingly great results. Perhaps it's because Mike Skinner knew his limitations and rather than trying to ignore them, played to them to create a sound that was all his own and kept things relatively simple and effective. M.I.A. only knows how to set everything to kill and because of going too-far too often, this album is a convoluted mess. No doubt when August 21st rolls around, she will again receive excessive critical adulation and I will sit in my tiny corner of the internet and listen as my negative few of this album is drowned out by the sounds of all those pretending to enjoy this album as to create an image of being hip and edgy. Consider her the Joanna Newsom of hip-hop.

Rating: 3.1

(all apologies to fans of "Ys")

Okkervil River / "The Stage Names"

2007-08-12T22:13:00.001-05:00

In 2005, when Will Sheff and his Okkervil River bandmates released "Black Sheep Boy," it was released to glowing reviews and a nice buzz in the indie community by those fortunate enough to have heard it. In the time since, that album has only grown in stature to the point that many now consider it an indie rock masterpiece. Sheff was able to combine the literacy of Meloy (Colin, of the Decemberists) with the vocal passion of Mangum (Jeff, of Neutral Milk Hotel) along with the alternative folk rock (yes, such a genre exists) of his bandmates. At its best, on songs such as "For Real," "A Stone," and "Black," the combination is one which captivates and draws the listener further and further into the world of the Black Sheep Boy with each successive listen. It's an album I still return to with great frequency.

Now with expectations increased and their name having gained a good deal of recognition in the music community, Okkervil River returns with the follow-up, "The Stage Names." The bad news is that this album is unlike "Black Sheep Boy" both sonically and topically. The good news is it will leave only the harshest of critics disappointed. Sonically, "BSB" went with a less-is-more approach, moving the instrumentation to the background as to let Sheff's vocals and lyrics carry the album. This time around, the band brought in Jim Eno (of the group Spoon) to help with the production and mixing and his influence is apparent. Guitars, piano, organ, coronet, xylophone, maracas, tambourine, mandolin, and even a mellotron are brought in to the studio, creating a much bigger sound than on the album's predecessor. Even the more subdued numbers, such as "Savannah's Smile," are complete with a full orchestra and Sheff's vocals breeze over the waves of sounds.

Topically, while Black Sheep Boy was largely a narrative of a fictional character (though some accounts claim it was based upon folk musician Tim Hardin), "Stage Names" is autobiographical in nature. It deals with Sheff's (who again wrote all the lyrics on this album) observations of character ("Girl in Port"), his relationship angst ("Plus Ones"), and ultimately his failure ("John Allyn Smith Sails"). Though the changes are certainly a change from the much beloved "BSB," the band makes them work. This is because of the strength and vulnerability of Sheff's songwriting.

The best example is the aforementioned (and album closing) "John Allyn Smith Sails." Sonically it sounds like it could fit right on to "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" with its strong horn section, anxious vocals, and layers of music. However, what most stands out is the lyrics. In it's opening lines, the speaker promises "by the second verse, dear friends, my head will burst and my life will end." He condemns himself a failure, envisions his death and funeral, goes to a bar, gets drunk, and just as he's about to go through with his suicide he thinks of the impact upon his family the action will have. He still prepares to go through with it, but at the very last second witholds. The power of the act is amplified by the speaker feeling as though his inability to kill himself is not an act of courage or overcoming, but rather one of failure. He failed to go through with his plan.

This is "The Stage Names." It's depressing. It's the sound of an artist realizing he can't do it. Whether the inspiration for the album was personal termoil or an feeling that the band wouldn't be able to top its previous album is open to interpretation. Much like Nirvana's "In Utero" some 14 years ago, Okkervil River isn't out to try and one-up it's masterpiece. Sheff is human, after all, and it's that humanity which makes "Stage Names" a more connecting and immediate album than "Black Sheep Boy,"even if it may not be a better one.

Rating: 8.2

Pale Young Gentlemen / "Pale Young Gentlemen"

2007-08-03T22:50:00.002-05:00

Thank God for debut albums. The feeling of hearing a new band, a new voice, for the first time can be one of the most exhilirating in music. It's the sound of a group making its first presentation to the public (for the sake of argument, I'm not including EP's. I've only bought one in my life and that's probably as many, if not more than most people). The first possibility is failure, and Lord only knows when your next chance will be... if it even comes at all. It's a difficult situation, but one many bands ultimately face before being reduced to returning to the garage circuit. The second is an inconsistent album, one which shows the highs of outstanding potential, but is mired by poor surrounding tracks and/or too much experimentalism. The third is the rare treat, the debut that seems to get it almost all right. The CD you listen to constantly when you get it; the one you spread to as many friends as you can via word-of-mouth. That gem that makes you simultaneously never tire of it, yet long for it's successor. Friends, "Pale Young Gentlemen" is that album.

It's clear from the first song, "Fraulein," that these guys are special. The song screams theatrics, but not in the annoying over-the-top vein of The Veils or (God forbid) My Chemical Romance. Over rolling piano with a hint of cello, Mike Reisenauer lets everything go in a highly-dramatized accent clearly not from his native Madison, Wisconsin. He doesn't sing songs, so much as tell stories. These stories flow over with warmth, personality, and above all else, fun! The prime example is "Saturday Night." While Mike's brother Matt beats away on the drums and the cello fades in and out, Mike shouts out "Oh Saturday night! Take me in your arms!" It's not so much as a plea, as it is a fantasy and desire for the weekend to come. The background vocals chime in perfectly "Saturday night!" in between his phrases and if only for that three-and-a-half minutes, this band is all you need.
They follow the song with one of the slower, more melancholy ballads: "My Light, Maria." The twin vocal attack (cellist Elizabeth Weamer provides the haunting accompanying vocals) registers poignant before Reisenauer and company reignite the party with "Clap Your Hands." The second half of the album, shows no fall-off in quality, and actually passes even smoother than the first. "A Shadow on the Wall," might be the best track on the entire disc. In just over two minutes, the speaker begins talking of being in a cave with the shadows of his parents on the walls and is able to get outside, enjoy a laugh, and escape their presence over him... with the help of a woman, of course. The soft, minimalist "As a War," the thumping "An Appeal to St. Peter," and the elegant, light-hearted "Single Days" close the album on a very high note.

What lies ahead for Pale Young Gentlemen is anyone's guess. Given this is a self-released album with little media attention, PYG may have to wait for their commercial and critical breakthrough. For now, they may rest satisfied that five unknowns from the Midwest managed to craft the most beautiful album of the year, and what would be the debut of the year in almost any other year. A score is perhaps redundant, seeing as I've praised this album ad infinitum in this review without a single glaring flaw. However, for the sake of consistency...

Rating: 9.1

Mix of the Month - July 2007

2007-07-31T00:23:00.000-05:00

At the end of every month, I'm going to post an 80-minute sequenced playlist that you are more than welcome to download and assemble. It will be comprised of both new and old songs, but I will put at least one song released in the previous month on each list (bolded). If you wish to create the mix, but can't find all the tracks, email me at strikerstud005@hotmail.com and I will send you anything you couldn't get on your own. Here goes the inaugural list:

1) Sonic Youth - Teen Age Riot (from the album "Daydream Nation")
2) Spoon - Don't You Evah (from the album "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga")
3) Interpol - Untitled (from the album "Turn on the Bright Lights")
4) TV on the Radio - Hours (from the album "Return to Cookie Mountain")
5) Dismemberment Plan - What Do You Want Me to Say? (from the album "Emergency and I")
6) Wolf Parade - Dears Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
7) Wolf Parade - I'll Believe in Anything (both from the album "Apologies to the Queen Mary")
8) Silver Jews - Night Society (from the album "American Water")
9) Swan Lake - Are You Swimming in Her Pools? (from the album "Beast Moans")
10) Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes (from the album "The Mysterious Production of Eggs")
11) Menomena - Rotten Hell (from the album "Friend and Foe")
12) The National - Mistaken For Strangers (from the album "Boxer")
13) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Details of the War (from the album "Clap Your Hands Say Yeah")
14) Bright Eyes - Something Vague (from the album "Fevers and Mirrors")
15) Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Death to Everyone (from the album "I See a Darkness")
16) Wilco - Ashes of American Flags (from the album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot")
17) Guided by Voices - The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory (from the album "Bee Thousand")
18) Band of Horses - The Funeral (from the album "Everything All the Time")
19) Neutral Milk Hotel - Two Headed Boy Part Two (from the album "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea")

Normally I wouldn't put the same artist on a mix twice (nevermind back-to-back), but I love the transition so much between the two Wolf Parade tracks that I felt compelled to bend the "rules" a bit.

Interpol / "Our Love to Admire"

2007-07-28T23:54:00.000-05:00

It's sad, but true: Interpol have become the Strokes. The timeline:

2001: Amid a wave of hype, the Strokes release "Is This It?" to critical adulation and widespread fandom. Overzealous comparisons to legendary band The Velvet Underground are made.

2002: Amid a wave of hype, Interpol releases "Turn on the Bright Lights" to critical adulation and widespread fandom. Overzealous comparisons to legendary band Joy Division are made.

2003: The Strokes release "Room on Fire," which basically amounts to the same album as "Is This It?" only worse. Critical review and fan consensus are both generally positive, but far less glowing than the debut.

2004: Interpol release "Antics," which basically amounts to the same album as "TotBL" only worse. Critical review and fan consensus are both generally positive, but far less glowing than the debut.

2006: The Strokes release "First Impressions of Earth." Does anyone care? They again cover no new ground, take a step backwards, and have become symbolic of the hype machine. What once looked like a promising career appears to have dwindled into a one-shot rock fix that temporarily connected underground rock with the mainstream. The Strokes are, for all purposes, finished.

2007: Interpol releases "Our Love to Admire." You know where this is going...

Rating: 3.5

Viktor Vaughn / "Vaudeville Villain"

2007-07-28T23:12:00.000-05:00

To pass the time until I can receive and review the new Okkervil River album, here's a look back at one of my favorite hip-hop albums featuring one of my favorite emcees (MF Doom). 2003 was a great year for Daniel Dumile (aka MF Doom, aka King Geedorah, aka Madvillain, aka Danger Doom, aka...). His recording "Take Me to Your Leader" under the alias King Geedorah was one of the most bizarre yet compelling hip-hop albums of the decade; he was just finishing up "Madvillainy" as Madvillain, which would go on to be one of the most acclaimed albums of 2004. But the real highlight was his debut under the alias Viktor Vaughn: "Vaudeville Villain."

Unlike most of Doom's recordings up to this point, he did very little of the production work on this album. He instead handed those duties over to legendary underground hip-hop producer RJD2 and an accompanying group of little known producers (King Honey, Heat Sensor, Max Bill). The aim is clear: Dumile wanted this album/alias to be distinct and separate from his previous work. Instead of his production being the focus (he famously used made a beat using the theme song to "Scooby-Doo" on his landmark album "Operartion Doomsday" under MF Doom) of the album, his delivery is front, center, and drawing all possible attention. He drops more classic lines on each track than most rappers can pull off on an entire album or more.

"V bring the beef like a trucker to Fuddrucker / Delivery to all y'all motherfuckers and bloodsuckers."

"Holy Moses, my old earth know me closest / On how I played it back and stayed bent like scoliosis."

"It's like a barbecue all swine cookout / To fuck up they plans like a blind man look out."

Dumile has long-stood as one of rap's finest (yet most bizarre) lyricists, and he takes both to another level on "VV." He even takes a rare serious turn on tracks like "Let Me Watch," which deals with a young girl (young enough that her mom thinks she's "too young to date") falling quickly in love with Vik, only to find out that he isn't the man she thinks he is and that his maturity is actually substantially lower than her's. The guest spots, particularly on the two "Open Mic Night" tracks are generally hits though there are admittedly a miss or two. As an added bonus, the skits are kept to a minimum, always a pleasant surprise on a hip-hop album.

"Vaudeville Villain" is the highest point in the consistently great catalogue of Daniel Dumile and I cannot recommend it strongly enough. Whether you are a strong hip-hop fan, a casual listener, or even mostly indifferent to the genre, this album will have you listening to it many many times, with each listen trying to catch yet another swift and intelligent wordplay you'd missed the time before.

Rating: 9.3

The Erik Review

2007-07-17T22:04:00.000-05:00

Rather than write/post random shit which has become the bulk of IHOB posts, I would prefer to simply write my musings on albums. The majority of these posts will be recently released material, but I will throw in tributes to some of my favorite albums from time to time. Enjoy!

To kick-start the blog, here is my ultra-prestigious list of my favorite albums thus far in 2007:

10) White Stripes / "Icky Thump" (rating 8.2/10)
9) LCD Soundsystem / "Sounds of Silver" (rating 8.3/10)
8) The National / "Boxer" (rating 8.4/10)
7) Blonde Redhead / "23" (rating 8.4/10)
6) Peter Bjorn and John / "Writer's Block" (UK release 2006; US release 2007) (rating 8.5/10)
5) Spoon / "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" (rating 8.6/10)
4) Arcade Fire / "Neon Bible" (rating 8.8/10)
3) Panda Bear / "Person Pitch" (rating 8.9/10)
2) Menomena / "Friend and Foe" (rating 9.2/10)
1) Battles / "Mirrored" (rating 10/10)

However, there are many releases I either haven't gotten around to hearing in their entirety or else have not yet come out. Some of the highlights:

* Frog Eyes / "Tears of the Valedictorian"
* Dizzee Rascal / "Maths and English"
* Kevin Drew / "Spirit If..."
* Interpol / "Our Love to Admire"
* Common / "Finding Forever"
* Okkervil River / "The Stage Names"
* Caribou / "Andorra"
* New Pornographers / "Challengers"
* Kanye West / "Graduation"
* Super Furry Animals / "Hey Venus!"

2007 has been a fairly strong year in music and it looks to continue! Hopefully these artists can avoid dropping disappointing duds (Wilco, NIN, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bloc Party). I'll have my fingers crossed...