Spent some time listening to the first two Caribou albums, released under the name “Manitoba.” The first, Start Breaking My Heart (2001) is just a rather generic electronica album. It’s just sort of a collection of different types of beats. There are some nice atmospheric textures, but nothing as immaculately beautiful as some of the other bands I listen to for “texture” (Sigur Ros, Four Tet). Nor is there anything that moves from point A to point B in such an interesting or dynamic way as bands like Explosions in the Sky or Holy Fuck.
The second album, Up in Flames (2003) hints at the direction he would follow on his later, more acclaimed albums. This is a poppier album, not least of all because he uses vocals in a more melodic way. It isn’t necessarily a verse-chorus-verse thing, but many of these songs seem like they were constructed in such a way that a pop song could be written around them. I hear spaces for verses and spaces for choruses. “Bijoux” does this in kind of a roundabout way. I hear a clear chorus that repeats, although the song sort of detours into various instrumental breaks. I get the sense that I’m hearing a more structured body of work, on this album.
I would recommend both albums to electronic music fans, but Up in Flames is the place to go if you were seduced by Andorra (2007) and are looking to get into his earlier albums.
The People’s Key is easily the most rock ‘n’ roll project Conor Oberst has worked on, at least since his pre-Bright Eyes days. I have to say I’m a little dissappointed by the direction he took. I think he can write a wonderful folk song. He’s a gifted lyricist and had learned to hone his vocal delivery so that he no longer sounds like a vain teenager. The People’s Key explores electric guitars a lot more, in a rock way, not a folk-rock way. Also, synthesizers are all over the place, taking this in a direction more poppy and less spacey than his last significant experiment with synths (2005’s Digital Ash in a Digital Urn).
He’s coming right off his two releases with the Mystic Valley band and his album with Monsters of Folk. I thought the Mystic Valley albums were among the best things he’s done; I thought his songwriting really developed. He’s shown flashes of brilliance since he was 20, most often in the lyrics, but somewhere between Cassadaga (2007) and Conor Oberst (2008), he figured out how to put it together for a full album.
The biggest problems with his work, as I see it and as people I talk to seem to indicate, are his vanity and his self-indulgence. His personality doesn’t matter much except for the fact that the way he sings has sometimes come across as whiney. He also had a habit of putting his personality on full display, with minimal or insignificant instrumentation or melody, earlier in his career. I didn’t tend to care for his slower songs through his first few albums for that reason. He really needs strong melodies to go along with his lyrics, because often his vocal delivery communicates a sort of frailty.
I expect this album will take some getting used to. I like the single, “Shell Games,” quite a bit. It’s got a catchy chorus and it progresses nicely. The melody (in the beginning) reminds me of “If the Brakeman Turns My Way” from Cassadaga.
My goal now is to turn this blog into more of a diary and make it less about the standard, long-winded reviews. There may still be the occasional review, but my interest is mainly in documenting whatever it is that I’m listening to at the time, both new and old. I spend a lot of time discovering older music, or even relatively recent stuff that isn’t necessarily “going on” right now and I’d like to talk about things other than fresh-off-the-press releases. I think my postings from here on will resemble snippets of reviews, and be more off-the-top opinion than in-depth looks at the music.
Yuck’s self-titled album is their second LP and it’s garage rock that borrows from shoegaze at times and also has a grungy aspect to it as well. The guitars have tons of reverb, sometimes to a fault, and the vocals have a grungy quality that I found quite annoying. On the album opener, “Get Away,” the guitars are a swirling mess of reverb, which is good because the vocals on that track and others sound a bit like Billy Corgan, who I can’t stand. The female vocalist is far more pleasant, but nothing to write home about. Some tracks, like “The Wall” and “Holing Out,” despite the shoegazing guitars, remind me of some of the most uninspired 1990s alt rock.
Yuck make me think of Radiohead’s Pablo Honey in some ways. This is a rather inconsistent album that shows promise in places but has some songs that are absolute clunkers. Unlike Pablo Honey, the annoying songs kind of outweight the promise the band shows.
The bad songs are too rooted in grunge, but there are times when they turn down the volume, tone down the distortion, and show some diverse songwriting. I much preferred these slower, quieter songs. The acoustic guitars on “Shook Down” provided a much needed break from the guitar onslaught of the first two tracks, though the song itself is not really anything special. “Suicide Policeman” used xylophone and some muted brass instrumentation just to spice things up. The guitars on “Suck” wail in a pleasant way and the almost-whispered vocals on “Stutter” are much better than the aggressive ones. Even still, these songs get old too.
“Rubber” ends the album with seven minutes piece of droning guitars and vocals buried way down in the mix. It carries on for the final three minutes, with just the guitars blaring, and it’s not the worst moment on the album, but it feels a little arbitrary to me. The highest point on this album, for me, was “Georgia” which is a perfectly pleasant noise-pop tune.
The low points of this album are too bothersome to overlook. I’d recommend this to fans of bands like Smashing Pumpkins, but this feels a lot more anonymous than the better grunge or alt. rock acts of the recent past. There’s promise here, but the guitars and the vocals just wore on me too much for me to want to spend any more time with this album.
I’ve enjoyed Cut Copy since I first heard them shortly after the release of In Ghost Colours (2008). They’re just a light, fun, synth pop group, and they have a way of making their music catchy as hell. In the past there has been more to them than just dance beats and hooky vocals. They’ve used guitars to great effect, on tracks like “Feel the Love” and “So Haunted” (in very different ways).
The only thing that bugged me were the interludes that really interrupted the action (“DD-5”, “Voices in Quartz”). In addition, it felt like sometimes they snuck interludes into the actual songs (the end of “Autobahn Music Box”). These tended to have little to do with the actual songs, and made the albums feel a little bit longer than they were otherwise.
Zonoscope is not as blatantly danceable as their past work. It isn’t dominated by that bubbly, cheery, attitude that defined my favorite songs from their last two albums. It presents a wider array of moods, from sunny pop right out of the Beach Boys playbook (“Where I’m Going”) to the unabashed dance pop (“Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat”) to a more somber new-wave style (“Need You to Know”) to a light funky style (“Take Me Over”).
There’s a lot more that I like about this. Cut Copy are unafraid of exploration, whether within or outside of the confines of synth-pop music. “Pharaohs & Pyramids” sounds like there’s some influence from Autechre—with whom I would never have thought to associate Cut Copy. “This is All We Got” reminds me a lot of Panda Bear, just in the way the vocals are buried under tons of reverb-laden guitars and keys. Cut Copy have written a diverse album and everything they try works nicely for them. There’s nothing awkward, trite, boring, or cliché here.
But at the end of the day, it’s the hooks that make me want to listen to this, and this album delivers in spades. It is arguably less immediately gratifying than In Ghost Colours and Bright Like Neon Love (2004), but it feels more mature, more artistic, and ultimately more interesting without sacrificing their pop sensibilities. They’ve done a wonderful job on this.
If you were violently opposed to Cut Copy’s past work, Zonoscope isn’t going to do anything to change that. If you were on the cusp of fandom, however, the evolution they’ve taken might reel you in.
Fujiya & Miyagi are a British electro-indie band whose fourth album, Ventriloquizzing, is due out on the 25th. This album seems to borrow equally from the new wavey post punk of Joy Division and the rigid, repetitive electronic music of bands like Holy Fuck. On this album, they keep the tempos low and really emphasize the low end with the bass and understated drumming. Synthesizers lend this a bit of color in places as do elements like backing vocals and a piano.
I think Ventriloquizzing will alienate people for one of two reasons. Either people will find the lyrics and the band’s general ethos kind of obnoxious or they will wish the band dove further into the dance elements of their music. Obviously, there are other reasons not to like this, as is the case with anything, but I’m enjoying it. I admit the lyrics often come across as silly, juvenile, nonsensical, or some combination of the three, but for me the way the music complements the words makes it seem as though it isn’t meant to be taken very seriously. My favorite song here, “Sixteen Shades of Black & Blue” is literally about beating someone black and blue. I love the way he sings “I’ll beat you black, I’ll beat you blue,” but it looks so silly on paper.
I’m hearing that sort of depressive gloom in the vocals (think Interpol’s first album), the downtempo melancholy in the melodies (think Portishead), and the dancey beats (think the afformentioned Holy Fuck), all stuffed into a blender. The last track on the album, “Universe,” makes a phenomenal use of airy background vocals that just go “ah-ah-ah-ah” over the course of the track. Fujiya & Miyagi do little things to spice this up, and it’s kind of amazing that they have the effect they do.
I’m relieved that this album doesn’t explore its dance aspects further. If anything, I would argue that the danceability is incidental. I think this really wants to be a brooding post-punk album. The low end is just too undeniable to think these guys didn’t care at all about the mood. There are a few tracks I have trouble characterizing as “dance” music at all. “Spilt Milk” has no percussion, being built around the piano melody instead. “Taiwanese Roots” doesn’t have the propulsive rhythm I keep hearing elsewhere. On “Minestrone,” I find it easier to focus on the narrative than on the beat.
So, I’m totally on board with this, and truth be told, I did not expect to like this at all. I’ve given two of their three previous albums multiple listens and didn’t care for them, but right off the bat I found Ventriloquizzing an inviting listen and it’s growing on me as I discover little intricacies in the songs. This is my favorite thing I’ve heard this year, so far, at least up to this point. I don’t think it will be among my favorite albums of the year, but for now I’m having fun with this.
“One Hundred Other Lovers” is a single from DeVotchka’s upcoming album, 100 Lovers, due out February 15. As is typical of band, lots of strings and other instruments more common in folk or world music make an appearance, and it gives DeVotchka a rather unique flavor.
This song has a very warm atmosphere to it, with a very lush keyboard backdrop, but it picks up some energy in the choruses. It makes great use of strings throughout. I’m excited to hear this album.
Valhalla Dancehall continues British Sea Power’s trend of not blowing me away while not completely alienating me. The problem I have with this band is that everything they’ve done up to this point, Valhalla included, sounds very plain. The songs on this album have nice melodies, especially the guitar melodies, but I don’t think they sell it very well. This is probably because the vocals don’t communicate enough emotion, at least not to me.
This album has the most in common with the band’s 2008 album Do You Like Rock Music? as it seems to be shooting for the same sort of arena-ready rock ‘n’ roll. It’s just guitars all over the place. The vocals and percussion are audible but they play second fiddle to the guitar most of the time
Many British Sea Power songs, though different in various ways, tend to lack much in the way of personality. I would never say all of their songs sound the same, even on this album, on first listen, they all sounded distinct in their own ways. There’s nothing here that really bothers me. British Sea Power are a competent guitar-pop band but that’s it and they don’t do it well enough to keep my attention. It’s well-written stuff, catchy at times, but always seems to want to recede into the background.
A few exceptions:
“Observe the Skies” is extremely catchy, in fact it might be my favorite thing the band has recorded yet. “Who’s in Control” is also a fine song. “Once More Now” is a nice experiment with hazy guitar pop, but at eleven minutes it overstays its welcome by about half its runtime. The song more or less ends around the 7-minute mark and from there it’s just atmospheric echoing that is pretty but doesn’t really do much for me.
Minks are a duo of shoegazers from New York and By the Hedge is their debut album. I’ve been on a bit of a shoegaze kick of late and I’ve found that many of these artists employ the shoegazing playbook to varying degree. Minks are among to most true to the genre, with guitars that ring and buzz at such a pitch that I have to keep the volume below a certain point lest they hurt my ears. The percussion and especially the vocals are buried way down in the mix—further than most bands I’ve heard—to the point where you can’t really tell what is being sung. It seems futile to try to focus on anything other than the guitars, and that’s fine because I sort of expect it with this genre.
The thing that bothers be about By the Hedge is that I felt that the band’s aesthetic kind of masked some dull songwriting. A lot of these songs are completely uninspired and just sort of plod along, hazily and murkily as they are meant to, but without any real personality to them. Tracks like “Kusmi,” “Our Ritual,” “Boys Run Wild,” and “Arboretum Dogs” are entirely skippable.
A few of these tracks are pretty catchy, most notably “Cemetary Rain” with its acoustic guitar strumming and vocals that can actually be understood. The single, “Funeral Song,” has a nice flow to it but I didn’t like the vocal effects in the verses. “Juniper” was also a pleasant listen, because I could hear the trade-off between male and female vocals and there was a degree of emotion there that I didn’t really get anywhere else on this album. The song felt very conversational, as if the two narrators (still can’t tell what they’re saying, but I might prefer it that way) have a good rapport.
So, there are moments of really tuneful shoegaze here, but these moments were very few and far between and not enough to make By the Hedge something I expect to listen to very often. This album is too much an exercise in shoegaze guitars and it really masks any melodies that these songs may offer, which sometimes weren’t especially interesting in and of themselves.
The Streets’ “Going Through Hell” has already been out for the better part of a year, which almost defeats the purpose of my writing about it here, but since it was put out as a single only a few days ago, I’ll give it a go. After all, I completely missed out on his latest album Computers and Blues (2010), and haven’t really liked anything of his save for several of his early songs. I found myself appreciating his aesthetic more than any of his actual songs.
The cool thing about Mike Skinner’s project was that it was a unique spin on hip-hop. His attitude, his voice, and the backing tracks were all very much unlike mainstream hip-hop, or even most acclaimed underground hip-hop. His voice is very disarming, with a thick British accent. It benefits from its presentation, with him almost talking rather than barking or howling at you. He doesn’t come at you with an aggressive or threatening ethos, nor does he tend to boast, self-aggrandize, or put anyone down. In addition, his fondness for the acoustic guitar, piano, and actual instruments for that matter is endearing.
My problem with “Going Through Hell” is that it sounds kind of phoned-in. “Going Through Hell” features Rob Harvey, vocalist for The Music, and his contribution really brings the song down. I love The Music, and Harvey’s voice is part of the reason for that, but here he needs to sing with some more emotion, more energy, and more volume. Harvey sings the chorus, which is overly simplistic (“If you’re going through hell, If you’re going through hell, If you’re going through hell, Keep going”) and he does so without the sort of anguished holler that makes his own band stand out. The Music’s hi-fi, electronically-aided style isn’t really The Streets’ game, so I understand why he doesn’t sound like himself, but I found the end result rather dreary.
Skinner’s lyrics are also fairly dull. He’s rapping about how you need to dust yourself off and move on when life gets you down, but he doesn’t say anything especially compelling on the topic (that is, if there remains anything compelling to be said). Gems like “If you fall down five times, rise up six” and “If you can’t join them, beat them” are not at all inspiring.
Harvey also sings on the bridge, and his voice is again the problem. The two vocalists should stand in stark contrast, but since neither seems to be putting much enthusiasm or emotion into the song, the differences in their voices aren’t as striking as they could be. As a result, the whole song just fades into the background. The beat, which is centered around slabs of distorted electric guitar, is at least adequate.
So, not only does this song fail to do anything hip-hop is supposed to do (inspire, energize, intrigue), it also fails to do anything I think music is supposed to do (communicate something of substance). It doesn’t have anything especially catchy, as it is rigidly midtempo, and so I can’t even call it a fun listen. The Streets may be a breath of fresh air in some ways but on “Going Through Hell,” Mike Skinner proves that sometimes being unique isn’t enough.
I’ve enjoyed Cut Copy since I first heard them shortly after the release of In Ghost Colours (2008). They’re just a light, fun, synth pop group, and they have a way of making their music catchy as hell. In the past there has been more to them than just dance beats and hooky vocals. They’ve used guitars to great effect, on tracks like “Feel the Love” and “So Haunted” (in very different ways).
Minks are a duo of shoegazers from New York and By the Hedge is their debut album. I’ve been on a bit of a shoegaze kick of late and I’ve found that many of these artists employ the shoegazing playbook to varying degree. Minks are among to most true to the genre, with guitars that ring and buzz at such a pitch that I have to keep the volume below a certain point lest they hurt my ears. The percussion and especially the vocals are buried way down in the mix—further than most bands I’ve heard—to the point where you can’t really tell what is being sung. It seems futile to try to focus on anything other than the guitars, and that’s fine because I sort of expect it with this genre.
Walking is Still Honest 