Considering the fact that many casual listeners, and even fans, of Emilie Autumn often criticise her vocals as somewhat off putting and can come across a bit trite, the Laced/Unlaced (2007) double disc album must be a dream come true.  This album is completely devoid of vocals, and focuses only on Autumn’s superior skills on the violin and her production wizardry.

Prolific and generous as always with her material, there are twenty-two tracks on this album. They come in two discs. The first disc is simply a re-release of the extremely rare first album of her On A Day… only, it has five unnamed live bonus tracks (though I name them below). This first disc is purely classical, based around her violin, most of which are compositions by well known composers such as Bach. Five of the tracks are her own compositions which sound very much like they go hand in hand with the other timeless classics on the album. These tracks were recorded when she was merely seventeen years old and showcases what a young talent she was.  Autumn throws her own arrangement and interpretation into the pieces. Whilst she plays the baroque violin with charm and style, she is backed up with her distinctive other sounds of the lute, harpsichord and the baroque cello - just to make sure you get the full Emilie Autumn experience. She is distinctive, even with pieces that have been played by so many others.

Two of the twenty pages from the booklet in the Limited Edition of Laced/Unlaced

The first disc was recorded in 1997. So ten years on, what does the new disc, recorded in 2007, have to offer that is different from her first? Out with the old, in with the new. Emilie abandons the baroque violin in exchange for the electric violin. This time round, everything you hear on this disc is down to Emilie, she plays all of the instruments (including that distinctive harpsichord she is so well known for) and produced and composed the disc single handedly. I may be bold in saying, this is a disc that you have heard nothing like before. Genius in composition and flawless in their execution, Emilie delivers a sound to excite the mind. It opens with ‘Unlaced’ which was a sampler for this album on her last EP which is dark, brooding and atmospheric. The albums continues in the same vein, there are no weepy violin solos here. All packed with energy; some dark, and some just plain bouncy such as ‘A Cure?’ ‘Face The Wall’ is probably the most fascinating piece on here as it is solo electric violin and is the demonstration of Emilie’s refreshing technique with the violin.

Both discs take some listening in order to appreciate the talent on display here. Some tracks may immediately jump out, whilst some are subtle.  If you love the violin, then there should be nothing stopping you here, as this is a new fascinating way for it to be heard.

The Limited Edition has the discs contained in a hardback book like cover, with a generous amount of artwork, and most notably, has the sheet music for the ‘Unlaced’ track.  There were only 2000 copies of this edition, which has sold out since.  Luckily the album has been re-released in a jewel case edition which is still readily available.

The Limited Edition Book Edition of Laced/Unlaced. This edition is now a rarity and can only be found on trading sites like eBay.

Disc One:
1. La Folia
2. Recercada
3. Largo
4. Allegro
5. Adagio
6. Tambourin
7. Willow
8. Revelry
9. On A Day…
10. Prologue (Live)
11. Sonata for Violin & Basso Continuo (Live)
12. Chaconne (Live)
13. La Folia (Live)
14. Epilogue (Live)

Disc Two:
1. Unlaced
2. Manic Depression
3. Leech Jar
4. A Strange Device
5. A Cure?
6. Syringe
7. Cold
8. Face The Wall

Cred că am găsit albumul cu cel mai frumos artwork. Cel puţin aşa mi se pare mie. Din fericire, şi muzica din spatele lui este la fel de frumoasă.

Albumul se numeşte La mécanique du cœur şi aparţine trupei franţuzeşti Dionysos care în ciuda faptului că nu sunt foarte cunoscuţi activează de 15 ani. Îşi citează ca influenţe pe Tim Burton - lucru care de altfel se şi observă în cazul de faţă - şi crează prin muzică o lume doar a lor. Albumul ăsta mi se pare ca o poveste despre inimi şi cum bat ele, spusă unui om mare înainte de culcare.

Don’t you wanna sleep don’t you wanna sleep
My motherfuckin’ heart does clic-cloc-ding dong !
My motherfuckin’ heart does clic-cloc-ding dong !
Love is dangerous for your tiny heart
Even in your dreams, so please, dream softly
You mean without sex
I mean without passion

(La berçeuse Hip Hop du Docteur Madeleine)

De altfel, albumul chiar se bazează pe o poveste, prezentată în cartea cu acelaşi nume a solistului trupei, Mathias Malzieu, o poveste deosebit de frumoasă. Un băiat se naşte în Edinburgh în 1874, în cea mai friguroasă zi. Inima i-i îngheţată aşa că moaşa i-o înlocuieşte cu un ceas cu cuc, care funcţionează perfect atâta timp cât nu-l atinge şi nu se îndrăgosteşte, făcând astfel ceasul să explodeze. Evident lucrurile se complică, dar eu nu mai dau spoilere.

La mécanique du cœur se poate asculta integral pe last.fm, aici, şi merită din plin.

Mai au alte 5 albume înaintea ăstuia, dar încă nu le-am ascultat. Cu singuranţă o să o fac.

“Shake it off” by Wilco is filtering its way through my computer’s speakers. For all of the disappointment conveyed by critics who seemed to think that 2007’s Sky Blue Sky was a step backward, this record was one of my favourites of the year.

Check out this clip of the band playing ‘Shake It Off’.

To view the clip, hover over the image and click the ‘play’ icon. To enlarge the viewing screen, click the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner. Alternatively, click the image directly to view the clip in a new browser window. Enjoy!

I can see why the Pitchfork set might have felt a bit let down. It’s not a noisy, off-kilter, left of centre release like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or A Ghost is Born are. It’s a record which is a bit less haunted, with more emphasis on melody, and on band dynamics (with some new members being broken in to great effect…) rather than sonic textures. And leader Jeff Tweedy, with a voice that ranges from Paul Westerberg on one end of the scale and John Lennon on the other, strays more on the Lennon side with Westerberg’s grit still making it’s presence known.

As a result, it strays on the side of rock classicism, rather than indie cool. If that works for you, and you’ve not bought the album, the question is not whether you should, but is rather: what are you waiting for? Go buy.

2007 has ended, and with it, I’ve lost my chance to listen to 2007 albums while they’re still fresh and new. This is a problem because 2007 was a year packed with music in a way that many recent years haven’t been. It felt like almost every top band in independent music (broadly construed) had an album that got released this year. It was my first year really attempting to track down every release I thought might be interesting and listen to them all. I failed, but it was a noble effort.

So I’m going to jot down my top albums of the year. There are a few caveats. For one, this was one of the strongest years in recent memory for metal, yet I did not get much metal onto this list. My listening habits have changed, and metal releases that would ordinarily have enthralled me seemed more distant this year. Additionally, the year was so strong for independent rock, that even fantastic metal releases did not make the cut.

Further, this is all just my opinion, and my opinion is biased by a love of experimental shit and angry motherfuckers. There’s a variety of stuff here, including some pretty twee pop, but that’s the exception not the rule. Of course, I would argue that I’m right to enjoy experimental and badass music. But some people don’t and they should not hate me for this.

Without further ado…

30. Jens Lekman — Night Falls Over Kortedala

TWEE. But I don’t hate it, which means that if you’re the right sort of person, this is your album of the year. This album was not made for me, or for people even vaguely like me (death to capitalism! jk), but I can still appreciate it for its craftsmanship and the little pop moments that hit me with hooks which affect me even as I groan…

29. Deerhunter — Cryptograms

I gather that the history of the record explains its total inconsistency of mood and sound. The record was done in a couple recording sessions, each with very different goals. The first half of the record alternates between hard-hitting experimental rock and ambient noise. The second half sounds like gentle psychedelic rock. Anyway, the fact that the album is a mess does not prevent its being brilliant. The Fluorescent Grey EP is even better, actually (I didn’t put EP’s on this list), but this has “Cryptograms” and “Octet,” their best songs. I’m really looking forward to more from these guys, because I feel like with a bit more consistency, this would be my favorite record. Although, actually, I’m not sure if they want to make records with more consistency, or if they want to make my favorite record. Still, whatever they do next is going to be cool.

28. Blitzen Trapper — Wild Mountain Nation

A whirlwind trip through a bunch of different styles. Eclectic and always interesting, it’s hard to say what about it makes it a success other than that it continually surprises you with a new trick. It’s just a band getting together and sounding like they’re having a lot of fun and have kinda forgotten if they’re aping Pixies or Southern rock. Sweet.

27. Bon Iver — For Emma, Forever Ago

Superficial analysis: It’s acoustic folk music with the loneliness jacked up to 11. It echoes a lot. The falsetto vocals are haunting. Pretty melodies galore. But no, seriously, it’s one of the few albums that reminds me of Nick Drake’s Pink Moon without the comparison immediately making me laugh.

26. Sunset Rubdown — Random Spirit Lover

The first 4-5 tracks are pretty standard indie pop. Higher quality than you might expect, really catchy, but they’re not phenomenal. Then things start getting really weird. The music takes off, gaining a dream-like quality and forgetting itself and its limitations. The arrangements cease making any sense at all, instruments break the flow in surprising ways, and yet by doing so create a greater flow, an overarching sense of… mystery? Only, it’s all, like, in march time. Um… I don’t really understand this album, but it’s definitely good…

25. Radiohead — In Rainbows

Duh. “All I Need” and “Reckoner” would be enough by themselves to put this on the list. I will not try to say anything about Radiohead.

24. Jay-Z — American Gangster

Again, I’m seriously unqualified to talk about Jay-Z. All I know is that this record’s pretty catchy. Makes me smile.

23. The Besnard Lakes — The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse

This one has jumped all over my list, from the bottom to the top and down and up… Here’s the problem: It’s phenomenally memorable, with moments that are just brilliant, and I keep finding myself going back to it. Also, a lot of its awesomeness is due to really long arcs: crescendos to enormous climaxes. That’s all very cool. But I’ve got enough musical ADD that I feel my mind fighting the artists, wanting those brilliant moments a little sooner than they happen. The tension built up here can be phenomenal, and I’m going “RELEASE, DAMN IT”. Of course, that means that when it finally explodes, it’s sublime. Anyway, music this good deserves a more patient listener than me.

22. Yeasayer — All Hour Cymbals

The closest thing the year had to a new release by TV on the Radio. They got the whole ‘world music + indie rock’ thing down, and they sound fuckin’ celebratory and spiritual. It’s a strangely relaxing album too, despite a strange kind of tension running through it. The highs here are extraordinarily high. “Get in the Sunrise” and “2080″ are shockingly good.

21. Panda Bear — Person Pitch

You have to listen to this record multiple times. I listened to it at least three times with it falling completely cold each time before it even started to open up to me. It’s still a tough record for me to parse. But I’m now officially in love with the first four tracks, and not just individually, but the way they flow together. I’ve actually tried to listen to “I’m Not” before and failed to enjoy it, but it always makes sense following “Bros”. This is another record which I feel suffers unfairly due to my lack of patience… But I enjoy the challenge.

20. Burial — Untrue

Just listened to this on a plane. It’s such fantastic travel music, although the noise from the plane interfered with it a little. Really, it’s walking music, for late at night. It’s like the sound of lonely voices in the rain. Darkness and uncertainty reign. But when I say it like that, I think of what darkness meant for pre-moderns: Think big predators and muscular men doing battle. This is about darkness in the modern world: There’s nothing to fear, really, except that you won’t ever meet someone to love you back.

19. Menomena — Friend and Foe

The music here is bursting with ideas. The piano line in “Wet and Rusting”. All the horns. And “Evil Bee”, which is the standout track. Each track develops in a really weird way, due to the method of song construction: Everything is a loop which gets turned on or off. What other elements are present in the music recontextualizes each line, so that sometimes you hear a musical tune, and then it’s repeated, sounding entirely different. Creative as fuck.

18. Parts and Labor — Mapmaker

A friend of mine listened to this and said that it was too ‘post-something’, a little unsure what it was post-. I kinda have to agree, while still noting that I love the album. “Fractured Skies” pretty much captures the album: It’s fractured and disoriented, but always looking up. Drums are fast and furious, and the whole band sounds like they’re having a great time doing whatever it is they’re doing. And somehow there’s nothing cooler than a band that sounds like they’re making up what it means to be a band as they go along.

17. Les Savy Fav — Let’s Stay Friends

A great rock album, which is surprisingly universal for a band which I usually think of as a fringe indie Fugazi-aping sort of band. Great pop melodies anchored by strong rhythm work and guitars. “Patty Lee” is the best track here, with its ringing guitar line, but it’s all pretty consistent.

16. Holy Fuck — LP

I could swear I’ve heard this before, not because it sounds like other music, but because it’s the sound my id makes. Seriously, there’s something really primal about this music. Which makes sense, as I guess all their music is improvised and then edited. They just grab a bunch of keyboards and noise generators and see what happens. I kinda really want to see these guys live now (and they are coming to San Francisco! With A Place to Bury Strangers!). Anyway, the sound is raw and powerful and makes me want to beat on my desk whenever I hear it. That and “Lovely Allen” is fantastically beautiful.

15. The Shocking Pinks — Shocking Pinks

A great laid-back, slacker sort of album. Reminds me of Pavement classics like “Here,” and like Pavement, the album is very varied. There’s some light shoegaze influence too, and I gather that they do a bunch of dance stuff too, which is why they’re running with the DFA. But that isn’t largely what’s on this album, which is fantastic comfort music even when it surprises. The singer’s voice is really… warm, contrasting with the often icy (and occasionally confrontational) guitars. I don’t usually enjoy albums that sound like they’re about the singer’s sad sad feelings, y’know? So the fact that I like this one definitely argues in its favor: It’s emotional without being morose.

14. Muscles — Guns Babes Lemonade

“Sweaty” is easily one of my favorite tracks of the year. I can easily expound for quite some time on just how good I think it is. Its use of dissonance and vocal harmonies is absolutely unique. But anyway, the whole album is full of joy and hurray. It’s a gigantic celebration of good things like ice cream, unity, and love. Glorying in its own dumbness and maximalism, it’s easy to miss how smart it is. I’ve been noticing more and more people talking about how criticism is overrated: What’s underrated is appreciating good things for their good bits. This album is like that, reminding us that no matter how smart we may be, we still like happy things, and that’s damn cool.

13. Kanye West — Graduation

No filler. Kanye’s easy to like. There’s nothing very deep here to discuss, but there shouldn’t be either. Just a bunch of singles that are enjoyable and occasionally shockingly good. “Flashing Lights” is a masterpiece in my opinion, although others prefer other tracks here. But I haven’t found anyone who doesn’t like something about this music. Universal in the best sense of the word.

12. Iron & Wine — The Shepherd’s Dog

I never much liked Iron & Wine: I had kinda lumped them in with all the many bands that are trying to do more and more acoustic folk music than anyone could ever need. But here, they sound like they got a band together and decided to experiment with a breadth of cultural and musical influences that I did not expect. Unlike a lot of folk music, it doesn’t sound generic, and doesn’t sound ‘pleasant.’ It goes places, sees things, enjoys itself. I’m gonna have to go back and listen to their older material and see if I like it more. Regardless, this is good stuff.

11. Animal Collective — Strawberry Jam

Speaking of bands where I did not always enjoy their older material (although here for the opposite reasons)… I always respected Animal Collective, but never really loved them. Insert a generic statement or two here about how when bands try to be experimental, sometimes their experiments don’t work. Seriously, these guys are all over the place, with “Banshee Beat,” some great pop songs, and a lot of WTF. But this album is a cohesive statement with new inventions like intelligible lyrics. And I totally connect with it, especially songs like “For Reverend Green” and “Fireworks.” Nor is the album a cop-out to accessibility: It’s only accessible relative to Animal Collective, but is still doing something radically new.

10. Liars — Liars

Liars sound different on every record, but have been pretty consistently brilliant. Here they sound like an angrier Jesus and Mary Chain, who are very in right now (Scarlett Johansson sang with them during their reunion, The Magnetic Fields are trying to sound like them, I’m about to reference them again 5 albums down the list, etc.). But they don’t just sound like the JAMC, they also sound like themselves, and that means that they are pissed off, and beating tribal drums, and making layers of cacophonous dadaist noise. Frankly, the newest thing to their sound on this album is not the occasional JAMC-aping bit and murky production, but the revelation that they can be laid-back a la “Houseclouds,” “Sailing to Byzantium,” and “Protection.” That and the badass “Clear Island”, which I have a serious crush on.

9. Future of the Left — Curses

“Violence solved everything” is the mission statement of this album. Violence is the modus operandi: Shock the listener with that great post-punk sense of disorientation. Something is not right. Solving everything is perhaps an overstatement, but solving SOMEthing, that’s the goal. There are people who don’t want things to be solved, hence the violence, but don’t doubt the good intentions. These guys sound like total assholes, but they’re assholes because they have to conflict with the rest of mankind to make things better. Well, I’m not sure about that really. Maybe it’s more a rationalization than a rationale. Not important. The point is that this is a catchy-as-fuck glorification of violence and everything bad for you. Did I mention that it’s really funny? And wants to fuck capitalism? Of course I love this.

8. El-P — I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead

This album is a masterpiece of production fitting the mood. The artist wants you to feel paranoid and tense. So he makes a record that is abrasive and cacophonous and messy. It makes sense, but no one has done it quite like this, and it’s not what I expect from hip-hop, where often production is squeaky clean. This album is fucked up. Funny too. But mostly fucked up. “Habeas Corpses” “I found love on a prison ship” “go on a raping spree” fucked up. Sometimes things are better, sometimes they’re worse, but they’re inevitably going to Hell in the long run. A beautiful sort of sentiment.

7. LCD Soundsystem — Sound of Silver

This is a hard one to place on a list because it’s so uneven. “Someone Great” and “All My Friends” are clear classics, and among the best songs of the year. Other tracks (especially “Get Innocuous”) are great. But still other tracks are just not that special. Without the two tracks mentioned at the beginning of this review, the album would be nothing at all. But I’m not rating that album, I’m rating an album that includes those two tracks, and any album like that is going to stand the test of time.

6. Electrelane — No Shouts No Calls

This album is so underrated, it’s obscene. Electrelane here totally step out from the shadow of Stereolab and create a masterpiece of little moments: Simplicity and beauty are contrasted with droning guitar work in surprising ways. This is easily the most feminine album on the list, and it’s a deep embarrassment to me that I like it as much as I do. But shit, “In Berlin” is one of the most gorgeous pieces of music I’ve ever heard. Usually, I hear a piece where singers sing “You are all that I love/You are all that I need/You are all that I long for…” and other plaintive lines and think ‘oh, music for Jr. High girls to masturbate to. Cool.’ At best, I think ‘not for me, but I could see how someone else would like it.’ Not here. Here, I have to admit that I really want to fall in love with the singer.

I think that the reason is that the album perfectly mixes the desires of each gender. There’s some research out there somewhere indicating that women love melodies, and guys love harmony and rhythm. The Stereolab/rock influence means that there’s harmony and rhythm and always something interesting going on here, but the melodies are gorgeous too. And the album confuses what exactly the melody/harmony is, with many interlocking melodies and sections. So anyway, the result is that I like it for a feminist reason that’s better (I hope) than ’see, women can rock too’. Music is male-dominated, but I feel this album provides a glimpse into what a gender-neutral music world might look like. And it’s a damn good world.

5. A Place to Bury Strangers — A Place to Bury Strangers

When shoegaze happened in the 90’s, it was actually kinda punk. It’s really hard to remember that: I tend to remember Loveless and think of beautiful pop melodies hidden behind layers of static and huge production budgets. Most of the people doing neo-shoegaze today seem to remember shoegaze much like I do (hell, see Blonde Redhead below), forgetting the Isn’t Anything’s of the world. But A Place to Bury Strangers are not just punk, they’re fucking metal! They’re fucking industrial! They’ve got a pop melody in there somewhere, for sure. But the obscuring static is not beautiful lush static, it’s pummeling static that will break you like a twig. I think it was Pitchfork that mentioned Ministry, and I have to agree that that’s the reference to make. Really, the Jesus and Mary Chain would be the primary influence, except that where JAMC merely shock and awe, this shit kills.

If this were a list of what music this year excited me the most, this would win by far. It’s their debut, though, so I’ll get to hear a lot more from them, which excites me to no end. If they grow from here, they’re going to become one of my favorite bands ever. Even if this is their high water mark, I still fucking love it. “To Fix the Gash in Your Head” is my most-listened track of the year (by far) because it has both depth and immediacy. The first breakdown into static and destruction is so powerful, it blows my mind every time I listen to it. It makes me want to dance a kind of nihilistic death dance. Fuck yeah.

4. !!! — Myth Takes

This album’s pop hooks immediately made it one of my most-listened albums of the year. Before “Myth Takes”, I had been used to the idea that !!! were bad at making albums: Always too much filler — a few shockingly good singles and a bunch of trash. This album changes all that. While “Heart of Hearts” and “Yadnus” are powerful dance tracks, “Must Be the Moon” and “A New Name” are pure pop, “All My Heroes Are Weirdos” has become something of an anthem for me (as might be guessed from the title), and “Bend Over Beethoven” is simply one of the best things that !!! have ever done.

The music has gone through the full pop music trajectory for me. At first, it was new music, and thus the simple hooks were exciting. Then, it was familiar music, and the depth and details of the tracks made me happy. Eventually, I had overplayed everything, and the hooks seemed distant instead of primal and immediate. The shocking thing, though, is that even now, I hear new things every time I listen. !!! are fucking smart, so each line, each hook, each detail, appeals not only to the body but also to the brain. Thus, they have succeeded at what they have always been trying to do: Making really intelligent music glorifying idiocy and good times. It’s the sonic equivalent of “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, where “Be excellent to each other and party on dudes!” becomes the founding insight upon which all of our future society will be based. Yeah, that’s a stoner mentality. But what else would form the basis of a utopia? Stupidity can be smart, and here !!! put that theory into practice.

3. Blonde Redhead — 23

This album redefines the word over-produced. Every human element seems secondary to the creation of a beautiful atmosphere, a perfect sonic universe. I can see why Pitchfork ignored it. Its artistic project is so different from most music. But it succeeds: It creates something so beautiful that it’s jaw-dropping. It’s no Loveless but it definitely begs the comparison in both production values and in the sense that it’s creating something where Art transcends the merely human. It’s not Loveless because it’s not as deep: It’s all surfaces, immediate impressions, hooks…

I hate making Loveless comparisons by the way: shoegaze was more than that one album goddammit. But I mention it here because I feel like Blonde Redhead were actually trying for that: Previous albums were looser and punker. This is an attempt to make a fucking statement. And it’s gorgeous and moving.

2. Shining — Grindstone

Weirdest album of the year. Yay. Utterly unique. In a nutshell, it’s a record that understands both the appeal and the joke of metal. Because it understands the appeal, it includes big jarring riffs, drama, buildups, tension, etc. Because it understands the joke, it includes little jazzy piano and bell interludes, and sometimes lets the tension release in ways that deliberately fall flat just for fun. Reminds me of what Kant has to say about the sublime. No joke, but I’m not going to talk about pretentious bullshit here, I swear. Anyway, it basically always works, which is more than you can say of 99% of prog records, and 99.999% of records which think they have a musical sense of humor.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything else that I could compare favorably to early Boredoms, but mostly because I can’t think of much else that I would compare to early Boredoms. This album makes me wonder if there’s more space there than I thought for music to deal with emotions like immaturity and bombast without falling flat. On my first few listens, it was the first three tracks that I loved best, because they were relatively straightforwardly exciting. Now, though, I’m increasingly drawn to “Psalm”. What an amazing piece of music. But every listen to the album reveals the reason why some track I used to find forgettable is there. They’re all so fucking deep, and there’s little I like more than being deep about immaturity.

1. Of Montreal — Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

It’s my album of the year, but explaining why is difficult due to its sheer obviousness. It’s a great pop album with copious musical creativity. And it’s a shitload of fun: Melodies that stick with you, lots of rhythmic action, etc. But it’s more than that. A couple reasons why: First, the music isn’t just about relationships, drugs, religion, and everything else, it’s also consistently clever about such topics. It has a point of view, and is unafraid to share it (”oh, the church is filled with losers / psycho or confused!”) and the views make a bit of sense. I saw an interview with Kevin Barnes where (I forget exactly what he said) he talked about wanting pop music that’s more daring to advocate new lifestyles and such. I mean, the dude performed naked. What I’m trying to say is that the music is consistent in its worldview: It wants you to use love and relationships and whatever else to achieve fulfillment in defiance of tradition. And that’s a fucking cool worldview: Neither the pussy free love of the hippies or the confrontational fuck-you hate of the punks. Empowering.

Second, there’s “The Past is a Grotesque Animal.” 12 minutes of the singer overcome with tension and sadness making vague allusions to art as he describes how his relationship fell apart. Has to be heard to be believed, but it works. The lyrics hit really hard, and the music prevents any emotional release until the very end. A few samples of brilliance: “The sun is out / It melts the snow that fell yesterday / Makes you wonder / Why it bothered.” (Beautiful metaphor for a relationship that’s over.) “It’s so embarrassing to need someone like I need you / How can I explain? / I need you here / And not here too.” “We want our film to be beautiful / Not realistic.” The rest of it is similarly brilliant. Maybe even more so, in context. And its charisma carries it.

But mostly, the great thing about the album is that every song sounds like what other albums wish their singles could sound like. Tracks that I didn’t love on first listen are better than I thought. Tracks I loved on first listen are better than I thought. Everything works. Creativity is present in everything: the lyrics, songcraft, and performance. Don’t get put off by the squeaky vocals, like I was at first, and it’ll blow your fucking mind.

I did it in 2004.

I did it in 2005.

What happened to 2006? I was so slack.

Not to worry. It’s time for Micks’ Top 5 Albums of 2007!

I have relished being back in the country and listening to all of the new stuff that has come out this year.

So many good song, artists and albums, proven by the list of nominations for the J Award post.

But there can be only 5, so with no further ado and in no particular order, here are Mick’s Top 5 Albums of 2007:

Regurgitator - Love & Paranoia
I am unable to hide my love for this band. Any new album they release become an instant favourite and this one was no different. They push the boundaries, they make it fun and they make you dance like no other. The inclusion of a female voice (and keyboardist) on this album gave it that something extra that made it even more refreshing to see The Gurge kicking on in 2007

Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
It’s rare for a band to produce hit after hit after hit, but the Fooeys can do just that. I seriously can not think of one Foo Fighters song that I dislike. This album seriously blows any other Rock album out of the water. ‘The Pretender’ is easily one of my songs of the year and the texture of the album works from start to finish. Can’t wait to see them perform this live in May and already can’t wait for their next release.

Midnight Juggernauts - Dystopia
The ‘Juggers’ have taken Australia by storm and soon, the world. I like to call it ‘Cosmic Dance’. They have a great feel to their music as it is melodic, rhythmic but also able to put you in a trance. I forget that they are Australian sometimes because it sounds like something you’d hear from The Chemical Brothers or Mody. They are ours and deserve all the international accolades they get.

Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future
When Triple J started playing Golden Skans earlier this year I thought, “Who the Hell are Klaxons?”. I’m sure lots of others thought the same thing. They have produced this cracker of a little album, that not only scored them the coveted Mercury Music Prize in the UK, but also a sell out tour of Australia, (plus a broken leg for the lead singer). Here’s hoping they manage to follow-up this album with something equally as fun, but I can tell you first hand they are a talented bunch when they put themselves to it and well worth listening to.

Josh Pyke - Memories & Dust
It started with the cute, almost novelty like, ‘Middle of the Hill’ in 2006, but Josh Pyke is so much more than a novelty. This album is tender, exquisite, full of love and fun. It has easily had the most plays in my iTunes out of any album in 2007. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily my favourite, but it means that I have been in the mood to listen to Josh more than any other band in this list. Why? Because he speaks to me and in the end that is one of the biggest talents a singer/songwriter can have.

——–

There we have it. It was a bloody hard choice, but these 5 definitely stand out for me this year. I thought about doing 10 this year. I have included The Editors, Kaiser Chiefs, John Butler Trio and The Shins. There were so many good albums!

What are yours?

Pentru cei care s-au gandit la prostii, regret sa va informez ca postul de fata este despre cu totul altceva.

Vreau sa mentionez aici cateva trupe care anul asta si-au lansat primul album si le-a iesit din prima. Cei carora - contrar superstitiei - le-a iesit si prima clatita. Ramane de vazut ce vor face cu restul.

1. New Ruins - The Sound They Make

Un album droney acoustic/electric rock fabricat in Illinois, SUA, de catre Elzie Sexton si J.Caleb care canta de ceva vreme impreuna. Mie imi aduc putin si a post-rock in anumite momente

Mare plus pentru vioara si contrabas. Ritmul albumului e foarte catchy si vocea foarte placuta.

Au fost comparati - printre altii - cu Talk Talk si Iron & Wine

Highlight-ul abumului: Flowers

2. Radical Face - Ghost

Omul din spatele acestui proiect se numeste Ben Cooper si a reusit pe Ghost sa creeze un sound unic, foarte soothing, catalogat drept indie/folk/experimental. Piesele de pe albumul asta au luat nastere incepand cu 2004 si formeaza impreuna un concept. Ben este de parere ca fiecare isi lasa fantomele intre peretii unde a locuit, iar acestea ii vor bantuii pe oamenii care vor pe viitor acolo. Piesele sunt fiecare scurte povesti avand aceasta tema in comun.

Highlight-ul albumului: Winter Is Coming

3. Solar Powered People - Solar Powered People

O combinatie foarte reusita de shoegaze, post-rock si ambient. Si ei tot americani, de data asta din California.

Imi place foarte mult ca pe fiecare piesa fiecare instrument pare sa fie exact la locul lui. Desi nu-s fana in mod deosebit a bateriei ca instrument, pe albumul asta suna incredibil de bine.

Albumul are o atmosfera aparte, fie te indragostesti de el, fie te lasa rece.

Highlight-ul albumului: Picture Fade

4. Byron - Forbidden Drama

Dap, uite ca se regaseste si o trupa romaneasca pe aici. Astept albumul asta de cand i-am vazut live pe 1 dec 2006 in Laptarie, la concertul de debut. Mi-au placut instantaneu, si de cand au lansat acest album parca imi plac si mai mult.

Ce nu-mi place e copeta, but I can live with that. Era mai aiurea daca era coperta misto si muzica naspa

Highlightul albumului - aici am trecut prin multe stari dar cred ca in sfarsit am ajuns la o concluzie - No Man’s Land.

5. Puscifer - V Is For Vagina

Doar inca unul din multitudinea de proiecte a lui Maynard James Keenan. Desi stiu de ceva vreme de existenta proiectului astuia, doar anul acesta s-a lansat oficial pe piata primul album.

Se pare ca a dat din nou lovitura, albumul este unul foarte reusit, aducand cand a industrial, cand a alternativ sau chiar spre trip hop. A mai amintit Marius de el aici

Highlightul albumului: Momma Sed.

6. Kate Nash - Made of Bricks

Daca nu v-ati dat deja seama dupa accent, Kate Nash vine din Anglia, si anul acesta a lansat un album tare simpatic de indie.

Mie mi-a atras atentia in primul rand vocea ei, apoi simplitatea pieselor si pe alocuri versurile.

Plus pentru pian si pentru tonul foarte vesel pe aproape intreg albumul, minus pentru unele versuri.

Highlightul albumului: Mouthwash

7. Mika - Life In Cartoon Motion

Dap, stiu ca pe multa mule enerveaza acest Mika si al lui album dar mie imi place.

Imi place vocea, muzica e foarte dansabila - de fiecare data cand aud vreo piesa a lui incep sa ma misc indiferent ce altceva fac.

Am ascultat si restul albumului nu doar piesele ce se difuzeaza pe la radio si TV, si da, imi place. Spre deosebire de altii eu si recunosc asta

Highlightul albumului: Relax, Take It Easy.

8. Two for the Road -The Perfect Kiss

Despre acest proiect al lui Marc Collin am mai pomenit aici asa ca nu ma mai intind la povesti.

Highlight-ul albumului - desi e cam greu si nepotrivit sa scoti o piesa din context, fiind un album conceptual - Two For the Road.

Evident, ceea ce am trecut la Highlight-ul albumului reprezinta piesa mea preferata de pe albumul respectiv.

Cam asta e lista mea pana acum. Inca sper ca o sa lanseze Bellman albumul de debut anul asta, dar daca se prezinta cu piese la fel de misto ca cele 4 de pana acum, o sa-l laud intr-un post separat.

Probabil mai sunt si altele - de care nu am auzit, care nu mi-o placut, sau care nu stiam ca-s la debut -, feel free to draw my attention.

You know that Art Brut song “Emily Kane” about how the singer is still in love with his middle school crush? It’s pure unchained irrational exuberance (thanks, Greenspan) about naivete: Holding hands, thinking crushes will last forever — you know, sunny emotions, happiness, that shit. Somehow, Muscles has found a way to distill those things and stretch them out over an entire album. Well, actually the mood varies a bit more than that. But in general, the songs are about: ice cream, dancing; holding hands; ‘peace, love, ecstasy, unity, respect’; seizing the day; and having Muscles’s babies. Essentially, if the LCD Soundsystem wrote the great electronic/dance album about being old (nostalgia for old friends, love for New York), Muscles have just written the great electronic/dance album about being innocent. Perhaps just ‘a’ great album because there’s more competition (think Daft Punk: “Digital Love”). But it’s a damn good album.

The music uses synthesizers, but the memorable compositional thing is the use of vocals: Background voices yelp and glide at high pitches, with nothing close to ‘good’ singing technique; calls are responded to; vocal bits circle in and out of the mix; and the frontman yells his heart out at the top of the mix, sounding like he’s continually exhausted but orgasming. It’s so charismatic that it almost hides the artistic worth of the underlying material. And yeah, after all that discussion of the music’s mood and fun, I do need to mention that it’s seriously artistically valid. Jarringly so, in fact: You can tell it’s an indie-sort of record by the fact that things like ‘harmony’ are often seemingly ignored: Willful dissonance is not often associated with dance music, but here it’s brilliantly done. And as I say, the sheer charisma means you might not notice.

The best track is “Sweaty”. It’s hard to mention all the stuff that this track does right. The big shit is obvious: Both ‘peace, love’ etc. and a big refrain about holding hands with someone special are used successfully and will not make you barf. It’s unbelievably charismatic. And you could hypothetically dance to it, although it has totally the wrong emotional content and comes off as unbelievably irritating on the first listen… Anyway, the details are awesome too: Somewhere deep in the mix are tinkling synths waiting to be loved. And it’s SO dissonant. I love the way that the voices speak naturally, as though there are no notes that they’re trying to reach. Sometimes they’re hitting notes that fit the key of the surrounding music. Sometimes they aren’t. What, you care?

Hype Machine: Muscles

posted by nerdbound

So: Two general blog things of note.

First, both ninjajabberwocky and I have been really busy of late, and both simultaneously dropped the ball on getting posts up on this blog. This is a bad thing, so I’m putting something up.

Second, we’ve noticed that one of the reasons why our blogging has dropped off is that our posts have tended to be too formal. Thus, they take too long to make, and we don’t actually spend time doing it because it’s too… well, ‘intimidating’ is not quite the right word, but some word like that. Thus, this post is going to take me like 20 minutes to make. Hehe. But it’s still going to be good, I swear.

There have been a bunch of good albums which have come out in the past couple of months. A couple of them are pretty generally known: Kanye West’s Graduation, Radiohead’s In Rainbows, etc. I wanted to put up a few more albums that I’ve been listening to which not enough people are talking about:

First and foremost: Les Savy Fav’s Let’s Stay Friends. It’s some fucking great post-punk styled indie rock. Les Savy Fav have often been compared with Fugazi, who are one of my favorite bands ever, and it’s usually a good comparison. But here they don’t sound like it: They’ve gone really pop, compared to their other stuff. And it’s great news, which is rare. “Patty Lee” is a truly great pop song which is kinda a perfect example of how the album sounds: The angular guitars are still there, but they’re hidden under melodies and good singing. There are still some more aggressive tracks though, which are still awesome. And the rhythm section is fucking awesome, of course. That’s basically why the album matters: The rhythms are so tight that the songs will be driven into your head.

Sunset Rubdown’s Random Spirit Lover is amazing, and it’s hard to explain why. The songs are a mess. They don’t sound like anything else I’ve heard, which is a plus. But if I heard any of these songs alone, I would find them annoying and scattered. However, the album generates its own particular mood, within which the songs makes sense. The first third is just good pop music, but in the middle third of the album, starting with “Colt Stands Up, Grows Horns”, the songs become really experimental. And I keep thinking: I wish I knew why this is good music.

There are a couple of other great albums I want to at least mention, although they’re both very not-mainstream-listenable. A Place to Bury Strangers are this new band whose self-titled debut is brilliant. It’s basically shoegaze/Jesus and Mary Chain-style music, but along with beautiful lush pop feedback, it has a bunch of industrial noisy angry feedback. “To Fix the Gash in your Head” is one of my favorite tracks of the year. It’s almost danceable, but is about kicking someone’s head in. Between the Buried and Me are the other band I feel that I must mention, because their Colors is the best metal album of the year. For a lot of people, that’s like saying ‘the best knife to the stomach’ but if you give it a chance, there’s so much innovation behind the screaming. Seriously.

The other album I want to mention is not a new release, but some 90’s stuff I’d never heard before. It’s the Boo Radley’s Giant Steps. Highest recommendation possible for this album, I swear. The stylistic variety is so great, it’s mind-boggling, but the songs all fit together too. It ranges from Beach Boys to 90’s alt rock to jazz to psychedelia to Britpop to guitar noise. And it’s all uniformly excellent. Best thing I’ve heard in a long time.

I’m not really feeling like uploading a lot of tracks, but here’s Hype Machine/YouTube:

Hype Machine: A Place to Bury Strangers - To Fix The Gash in your Head
YouTube: The Boo Radleys - Lazarus

posted by nerdbound

After the first listen, this album was good. By the second or third listen, it was one of the best of the year, and it just keeps climbing in my estimation with each time I play it. It’s a very vulnerable and delicate sort of album, which is not the sort of thing I usually go for (understatement). But there is power here too, and creativity. Never before have I heard an album that so ably blurs the lines between melody, harmony, and texture. Bass lines are hummable, vocal parts are used for harmony, and these and other musical elements alternate and rotate control of the melody, which is always central. These are not the kind of melodies you’re thinking of though, precisely because melodic voices often dive into harmony and repetition. The album’s minimal, natural sound and fantastic arrangements makes little things that otherwise might fade into the mix sublime. The sound uses droning, propulsive rock as a technique, but not as a controlling element. Previous albums have been accused of copying Stereolab, but this one, to me, sounds nothing like any Stereolab I’ve ever heard. Even the droning guitars are usually just a part of the system of interlocking melodic lines. This is no droning rock record with some pop bits mixed in: the droning is merely the often-brilliant texture beneath a shockingly melodic sound (or sometimes, the melody itself).

I’d never heard Electrelane before this album, but hearing it inspired me to go listen to their older material. At least on a first listen, nothing else is the achievement that this record is, although that’s not really fair, because never before have they seemed to be trying to make this record. Axes really is a droning rock record, strongly influenced by Kraut-rock. While The Power Out is more pop-influenced, it doesn’t have the natural, free sound and strong sense of identity that this record has (although “Enter Laughing” and some other tracks come close). Instead, it sounds like Stereolab (French pop drones) made a bit more punk. That’s a cool sound too of course, but No Shouts, No Calls is a brave step away from their influences. The sound isn’t entirely accessible, but more because it’s so personal and thoughtful than because its genre is drone or punk, and not pop.

“The Greater Times” did not impress me on a first listen, but it’s a grower, like many of the songs here. It builds very slowly, and beautiful melodic moments often occur only once or twice, as the melody continually meanders. The quantity of ideas here is impressive, and I think that might be why the song has grown on me so much. The lyrics also make this song a success: references to childhood and romance create a friendly atmosphere of innocence. The song really becomes superb around the two-minute mark: “You say you don’t know / What love means / Any more” is a beautiful “Modern Romance”-esque statement which grounds much of the rest of what is said on this album. It’s a call back to romantic comedies. You know, the ones where a cute guy and a cute girl who aren’t very personally compatible (they’re complete opposites, and hate each other at first) are drawn together by this inexplicable ‘love’ stuff. I’m not exactly a romantic, but the sentiment here is powerful, perhaps because, like “Modern Romance”, it doesn’t so much describe how this ‘love’ stuff is supposed to work as criticize its absence. The modern world is a big thing to criticize, but the album creates a little space where dreams of love seem grounded in reality. Which is kinda nice.

“To the East” is the single, and it is brilliant. The melodies are so well-arranged that every few seconds there’s another fantastic moment. When they sing “The East’s not so far away. / It could be home!” at 2:25, or “Come back / Come back / COME BACK / oh, to me!” a minute and some later, the emotion and beauty are both very real. “After the Call” follows, and is the first track that speeds up the pace and increases the sound of the guitar in the mix. It rocks, even beneath the fragile cries of “What can I do?” The contrast between the insistent rock guitars and the beautiful bedroom vocals makes for an incredible sound. The sense that the band really cares about the music shows through in the music’s insistent propulsion and emotional depth.

“Tram 21″ is one of those tracks that’s almost an instrumental: vocals are present, but not lyrics, and instead the voices are used as texture and harmony. A great riff, then a guitar melody (I think that’s the ‘real’ melody, to be honest, and the vocals are just faking it), suddenly gaining in force. Then a chorus of ooh’s and ah’s forming a second melodic line. Then a second set of ooh’s and ah’s for more harmonic force. It’s a completely brilliant mood piece, full of ups and downs. The following track, “In Berlin” is perhaps the best track: it builds on a delicate arpeggio, adding strings, and slowly crescendoing to a brilliant climax: “You are all I long for this winter / and you are all I need”. The blend of sounds is intricate and seamless. “At Sea” is the joyous follow-up: “They say / There’s always tomorrow”, they sing, and then the guitar just starts bouncing.

“Between the Wolf and the Dog” begins as the hardest rocker on the album with an awesome riff, but when the vocals come in, they contrast strongly, somewhat softening the piece, and completely altering its feel. “Saturday” follows, creating a mood of innocence and wonder with a very simple yet gorgeous piano melody. However, it’s “Cut and Run” which really takes that mood and runs with it, achieving near-perfection. Acoustic (w/ ukelele!), it sounds like nothing else on the album, but is small, thoughtful, and ridiculously sweet. It’s a beautiful piece of bedroom sing-along indie pop, and the fact that it is this good is a testament to Electrelane’s song-writing.

Often, music about romance fails because it’s too delicate and wimpy, or because it’s over-emotional to the point where it glorifies destructive emotions (like the feeling of despair following a breakup). Either way, it can come off as brainless or whiny. This is highly successful music about romance, because it’s based on calls for strength and intelligence, with strong and intelligent music to back it up. It argues for romance, not because romance is a cure-all, but because romance is something worth working hard to achieve. And that’s a sentiment that even a real cynic can’t help but admire and treasure.

9.0/10

MP3: Electrelane - In Berlin
MP3: Electrelane - Cut And Run

posted by nerdbound

ninjajabberwocky and I used to disagree on the issue of whether or not Animal Collective was really all that good. The disagreement is now officially at an end: I have finally come around to seeing that they’re pretty damn good. The reason is their new album, Strawberry Jam, which is a revelation, sounding totally new and fresh. On a first listen, it’s pretty fucking phenomenal. I re-listened to their older stuff, and it still doesn’t really fully click with me, but this album is a pretty clear classic, I have to say. It’s a bigger, louder record than any they’ve done before. Yeah, that means that it can be a bit annoying in places… But by and large it miraculously isn’t. It’s a record that needs to be listened to.

Just thought I’d post that brief note. A review will probably follow from one of us later. We’re both really swamped right now, so less is getting written here than we would like, but it’ll pick up again in a couple days, I feel. Meantime, do yourself a favor and give this album a spin.

MP3: Animal Collective - Peacebone
MP3: Animal Collective - For Reverend Green

posted by nerdbound

People don’t want to listen to ‘derivative’ music because sounds that they’ve heard before get boring, and because for some reason (artistic integrity? a connection between sound innovation and other musical abilities and talent?), those who first develop a new type of sound are often the best at that sound. This Interpol album is derivative, just like all past Interpol albums, but it’s neither boring nor without talent, so it’s not really a problem, any more than [insert indie band here] sounding a bit like the Pixies makes them suck.

Yeah, they sound a bit like Joy Division and the Cure. Sure. But Interpol keep expanding their sound, and this is their most varied album yet. Indeed, while bits of it sound like Turn on the Bright Lights, and bits of it sound like Antics, most of it sounds totally fresh. Both previous albums had only one sound, repeated with slight variations across the album, but this album has several different, strong styles. Our Love to Admire moves from influence to influence, thought to thought, better than any of their previous work. It has its own emotional and stylistic arc, created by some great sequencing. It’s no Closer, and it isn’t as good as the A-side of TotBL either (few things are as good as either of those), but it’s a very talented piece of work.

And to be honest, Interpol now sound less like their supposed influences than ever before, and sound more like U2 and arena rock. So, by any good indie logic, Interpol have gone from being derivative to being derivative sell-outs. Sigh. Regardless, my point is simple: Interpol use their influences well, just as they have in the past, and combine them with real song-writing talent. There is a backlash against them which I think stems not from this album, but from Antics and the move to a major label. The first album made them sound like they were geniuses, and the second just wasn’t as fresh. Rather than growing on people, it shrank under close inspection: The obvious conclusion is that they’re overrated. Now they’re on a major label sounding more like 80’s U2. Uh-oh. Time to talk about how some supposed ‘magic’ is gone from their sound.

But they’ve got a great sound here: “Pioneer to the Falls” is moody, and builds from a slow riff to keyboards, horns, and choirs while never sounding fake. “No I in Threesome” is great fun with a stylish keyboard bit that just collapses under massive guitars. This is a good time to mention that the lyrics are no longer as gloomy and existential. If what you loved about Interpol was the sense of ‘urban decay’, or whatever, conveyed by their lyrics, well, it ain’t here (or at least not until the end of the album). But honestly, I’ve always felt that Interpol were overrated as lyricists: A few good songs, and a large number that are just awful. I mean, “NYC” is considered brilliant by some, but it’s not a song you can sing along to without feeling like an idiot (”subway is a porno?”). It’s good to hear Interpol expanding their vocabulary, even if a song about a threesome is perhaps a bad direction for them to be heading (the last thing Interpol needs is more tongue-in-cheek hipster irony… at least not until they develop a sense of humor).

Both “Heinrich Maneuver” and “Mammoth” are fantastic tunes. “Heinrich” sounds too much like every other Interpol song (damn catchy though), but “Mammoth” is brand fucking new: “Spare me the suspense” repeated over a jumpy bass and guitars that drone hypnotically if dissonantly in a song of surprising grace and thoughtfulness. The switch to major key at 1:45 and again later is pretty welcome too. It’s a truly awesome track. The middle of the album drags a bit. “All Fired Up” makes me happy though, with its great bass line, and “Rest My Chemistry” is a good albeit slightly too slow and repetitive album centerpiece. The last two tracks, though, are both excellent. They’re a return to the gloom, but with more pop elements than Interpol has ever used with that sound before. Both are also structured interestingly, with a lot of action happening in the small details: Quiet keyboard lines enter and exit, guitars bend and wave, moments of silence stretch, tension and sorrow mix. Good shit.

7.7/10

MP3: Interpol - Mammoth
MP3: Interpol - Wrecking Ball

posted by nerdbound

Liars are one of the best rock bands producing music today for one simple reason: They are not bound by anyone’s expectations, any particular style, or any one attitude, modus operandi, set of influences, etc. They create a concept for a sound, flesh it out, come up with ideas that that sound is good for expressing, and make an album. Afterwards, they wipe the slate clean and start from scratch again. Name another band that does that and get a gold star. And please tell me who they are so I can listen to them, as no one is that original. Seriously.

But Liars are that original. Their first album (They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top) was famous for its fuck-you attitude: Dance-y Gang of Four-influenced punk rock that was purposely dissonant and harsh. Yet behind the nasty sounds was something accessible and funky. The album is a lot of fun. Their second album (They Were Wrong, So We Drowned) is made up of atonal noise arranged with little care for logic or accessibility. It was music that lived for one purpose: To make you hate it (Yeah, it’s their weakest album by far. But yeah, it’s still highly interesting if you can handle it). Their third album (Drum’s Not Dead) was all about Krautrock-style rhythm and propulsion, focusing on tribal drumming and an artsy vocal/story concept: A high voice representing doubt (Mt. Heart Attack), and a bass voice representing confidence (Drum) clashing and conversing. Don’t laugh, it totally works, and doesn’t even come off as all that pretentious.

So: dissonant dance-punk, atonal noise, tribal Krautrock opera, and here comes album 4, a self-titled album (a declaration that this is the real sound of the band, rather than an artistic project with a specific purpose? Maybe we’ll find out if album 5 is similar… but I doubt it), and the question is, what kind of record is it? Well, the record uses sounds and techniques that the band has gained familiarity with on each of its three records, but the main thing that sets it apart is its variety: This is the first Liars record that is not one concept, but many songs with many different sounds. There’s plenty of noise and dissonance to go around, but it also sounds like a fucking rock record. And the fun, so long absent, is back. It sounds like Liars trying to make an early Sonic Youth record but discovering that they’re too schizophrenic: both too mean and too chill. It’s like they’re on a pendulum swinging from Big Black through Sonic Youth to the Jesus and Mary Chain and back.

The first track is incredible: “Plaster Casts of Everything” retains the propulsive beat and repetition of Drum’s Not Dead but transports it away from psychological drama and the avant-garde and returns it to music that sounds more human. It’s fucking exciting and loud and cool, and that’s before the breakdown three minutes in, after which, holy shit.

“Houseclouds” is the biggest shift for Liars: It’s chilled-out! Who knew that Liars could pull that one off? “I won’t be gone” and “We’ve just begun”, they sing over a funky beat and wandering bass, as the song’s use of instrumentation and voices shifts from bare to filled-out and back. While “Leather Prowler” is a more typical (although excellent) banging noise-drama, “Sailing to Byzantium” returns to a laid-back sound, and is a fantastic track. I really have to compliment the sequencing of the album: Where Liars’ use of noise used to be overwhelming, it’s now more evenly spaced out between numbers that don’t try to bash the listeners’ brains out. And the more relaxed sound is a huge success, spawning some of the best tracks on the album.

The next tracks are the confluence of the two sounds: “What Would They Know” alternates a happier atmosphere with shrieking dissonance, while “Cycle Time” breaks into a great pop hook half-way through, although it’s obscured by feedback. “Freak Out” and “Pure Unevil” sound like a near-direct lift from the Jesus and Mary Chain: Happy pop, guitar noise, and all that. That’s not a bad thing really, and there is one major twist: If the Jesus and Mary Chain sounded like they were too cool to really try to make music, the taut Liars rhythm section leaves no doubt that want their music to affect you.

But the next track is the highlight of the album. “Clear Island” is so non-derivative that it’s hard to describe. Chanting vocals set atop guitars that remind me of nothing so much as the earth shifting and rotating beneath the foundations of the piece. The tension is incredible: Despite multiple breakdowns, it never feels like the piece gives you a chance to take a breath. And there’s this rising guitar line about 1:15 in which just kills, leading into the frantic chorus: “Come save me!/ Come save me!/ Come save me!/ My heart.”

“The Dumb in the Rain” is a typical atmospheric piece of noise, but “Protection” returns to the “Sailing to Byzantium” sound (although it’s less about a cool vibe and more about strangled beauty), ending the album majestically. The verdict: It’s perhaps the easiest Liars record to listen to, but is still hugely demanding, and requires that you can really like dissonance and see beauty in ugliness. But if you have the necessary mental and physical stamina, it’s a rare record that manages to be both exciting and propulsive, and affecting and deep. A powerful meeting of everything that makes Liars great.

9.2/10

MP3: Liars - Houseclouds
MP3: Liars - Clear Island

posted by nerdbound

They say that Challengers is the New Pornographers’ most ‘mature’ release yet. I suppose this makes sense if your vision of a ‘mature’ sound consists of songs that are – there is no other way to say this – just plain boring: less energetic and more contemplative, high on reflective repetition and low on the ornate frenzy that the Pornographers have become known for.

All this talk about New Porn and ‘maturity’ actually worries me a bit. That word has been bandied about so much lately when talking about the Pornographers, its constant and repeated use apparently signifying that the band have finally come into its own as a musical force, fulfilling the promise of their early work. But ‘mature’ for New Porn is not the same as ‘mature’ for other bands. When Twin Cinema came out, it was called ‘mature’ because it took their jangly, unfettered pop to whole new levels, filling out their sound and demonstrating a new variety in their songwriting. And yes, this did mean some more slow songs, but that wasn’t the heart of Twin Cinema’s maturity. The maturity in Twin Cinema was an ability to seamlessly mix the calm with the frenetic, and to boldly march out the killer melody lines while keeping the soundscape soft and settled when called for by the song. Yet because the tempo of songs is the most obvious difference between Twin Cinema and the previous Mass Romantic and Electric Version, it seems as if everyone has equated ‘maturity’ and ’seriousness’ with slow, ploddingly contemplative songs.

Well, if that’s maturity, then Challengers is certainly a product of adulthood. The album sounds as if the Pornographers read all those reviews of Twin Cinema and then decided, “Hey guys, let’s make a REALLY mature-sounding album by writing lots of quiet, contemplative songs inspired by our life experiences!”, forgetting that loads of gentle, dainty acoustic strums do not an album make.

This approach doesn’t merely fail on the album level either. In fact, what makes Challengers so incredibly frustrating is that every song has the potential to be an amazing showstopper tune. There are great riffs embedded in almost every track, but instead of unleashing them to fulfill their full primal glory, primary songwriter Carl Newman simply deploys them as endlessly cycling riffs that rotate and grind away beneath melodies with no direction and no climax.

Take for example “The Old Showstoppers”, the album’s second track – it seems primed for success at the beginning, with a riff that ranks among the Pornographers’ catchiest while still maintaining a unique, almost Western sensibility, but the song never takes that tense energy anywhere. Eventually the catchy riff switches off to a chorus that fails to strike the listener or appeal in any way, and by the time the riff returns, it’s a tired sound that only tells the listener that this song has no place else to go. The 3.5-minute title track, “Challengers”, offers a simple, pretty tune that would have worked much better on a track half that length, and even “Myriad Harbour”, the album’s most fun and electic song (though maybe that’s only because it sounds a little too similar to the Pixies’ “I Bleed”), only manages to rouse itself for a couple of stanzas before slumping back into a groove that is entirely too settled. In fact, “My Rights Versus Yours” and “Mutiny, I Promise You” are the only songs that have anything resembling a build-up of energy and tension, but even those level off about halfway through and rest at a lazy crest for the remainder of the tracks.

None of this is a slight to the band, which is plugging away with as much proficiency as ever – tight harmonies, steady guitars, and beautiful pop vocals. The trouble is that these songs just give them nowhere to go. It’s almost heartbreaking to hear all these elements being steadily layered on in the hopes of creating a full aural atmosphere, only for all the parts to sink into a malaise of sound with no direction or purpose.

If nothing else, the lyrics seem to have improved, but I have to admit that even this is somewhat of a disappointment. While it’s nice to see some poetics of substance (especially on “Myriad Harbour” and “Unguided”, Dan Bejar and Carl Newman’s respective odes to New York City), the sheer joy of Newman’s nonsensical word pudding on the previous albums was part of what made the New Pornographers such fun to listen to. The lyrics still work (especially on “Unguided” and “Adventures in Solitude”, among the best of the explicitly reflective tracks), concocting a sense of wonder and adventure unique to the Pornographers style, but that old glee is missing. Sure, it’s mature, but it’s also weary, and weary does not suit the Pornographers well.

You’re less liable to notice all this if you listen to the album by itself, but in light of New Porn’s past achievements, this album is a disappointment. It’s frustrating to me, as a huge fan of the band; I wanted desperately to love this album, and the listening experience was only made worse by the fact that everywhere I looked I could catch the edges of little diamonds of incredible pop riffs and musical moments peering out, wanting nothing more than to escape the mud that obscured them. Challengers is pleasant to listen to and even moving at times, but it’s a frustrating step back for the band from their Twin Cinema glory.

“We thought we lost you,” croon Newman and Kathryn Calder in “Adventures to Solitude.” “We thought we lost you. Welcome back.” Here’s hoping that on the Pornographers’ next outing, we can say the same to them.

5.6/10

MP3: The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour
MP3: The New Pornographers - Unguided

posted by ninjajabberwocky

I feel the need to write about this album for one simple reason: It’s being ignored.

Pitchfork gave the previous Shining album In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster an 8.3 and a “Best New Music” mention. They gave this one 7.6 and not even a “Recommended.” Other sites have followed suit in giving this Shining album a slightly lower rating than the last one. And the reason is clear: The last album was kinda weird, a hybrid of jazz, metal, post-rock, synthesizers, classical, prog rock, etc. It was a mess, although a very creative mess. But this new album is MESSIER: Bigger, louder, more structureless, less like jazz rock and more like prog rock in every sense of the word. You know, the good senses, like creativity, even brilliance; and the bad senses, like unbelievable pretension. To your average Pitchfork or blogosphere reader, the last album was a very weird bit of instrumental rock from an unheard-of band that is fun to name-check. You can keep it in your iTunes and feel superior. But this new album is SO weird that you actually have to LIKE the music. Shit. Besides, if you wanna name-check a progressive rock band, Battles are so much sexier right now.

The truth is this album is the most brilliant, original music I’ve heard this year. It is the unambiguously better album, both when compared to their previous album, and when compared to that new Battles LP. Perhaps the best reason why is the first track, which has the same name as their Kingdom of Kitsch album. It is so high-energy, so intense… And it just keeps piling on the hooks and adding new sections until you are blown away by the shear visceral pull of the song. It’s one of the most incredible moments in music of the year, sounding somewhat like the Boredoms playing with Fugazi.

The next two tracks keep up that energy, but are wisely peppered with a few moments where the music slows and the noises are quieter (track 3 includes a Bach harpsichord bit). These are contrasted with giant climaxes built on top of huge chugging riffs in the bass and squealing varied instrumentation up high. The music is indescribable, really.

The album is split neatly into three sections, because there are two tracks, spaced through the album, which are moments of near-silence with beautiful tinkling bells. The second section of the album is clearly the weirdest (and the weakest, although it remains consistently interesting). “Moonchild Mindgames” is essentially the sound of a horn and piano combo, while “The Red Room” is the jazziest metal (with saxophones! er, I think) you will ever hear. “Asa Nisis Masa” has some vocals that sound like humans trying to howl like wolves, and others that are heavily filtered. It’s easy to list weirdnesses like this, but I want to mention here that that’s not because the album is unfeeling: On the contrary, every song brings out specific emotional responses. The weirdness is just a necessary component to make you feel different emotions than you usually do. That’s why the music isn’t comfortable, but also why it’s great.

“Psalm” is another absolutely perfect musical moment on this album at the beginning of the third section. It begins so minimally and quietly, but it just keeps building. Two minutes in, a drum starts, and the music just grows, with mechanical and organic sounds all mixed in: beeps and boops and tense static set against the human voice and a chugging bass. At around 4:45, it breaks down, and sounds defeated and dead, barely managing to get out of the static. But by 5:10, it explodes and then KEEPS BUILDING, breaks down again, comes back EVEN BIGGER. It’s incredible.

It’s followed by an accelerating Bach solo played on a synthesizer. In case you were starting to take music seriously. I have to mention the Boredoms again, as this is music about immaturity and making noise for fun. It’s music to make you smile, and to make you think about Art and giggle. It’s Dada. It makes me say pretentious things like this and then laughs at me for it. Damn it.

“1-4-9″ appears to be free improvisation with synths and everything else they could find. It creates a dense, strangely cave-like atmosphere, building into the riffs of the finale “Fight Dusk with Dawn”, where the fusion of rock, jazz, and artistic breakdown WTF moments could not be better. The emotions here are real and powerful, but so is the sense that emotions are ephemeral. It’s quite the mindfuck and definitely required listening.

9.2/10

MP3: Shining - In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster
MP3: Shining - Psalm

posted by nerdbound

So, it works like this: We’re starting a blog in July of 2007. Given that we’re going to probably make comments like ‘ooooh, this is the best thing I’ve heard all year’, it makes sense to start by reviewing some of the things we’ve already heard this year. However, I’m not sure if I’m going to have the time to go back and review everything I’ve already heard. Thus, I’m going to put in some brief reviews for some albums I think are absolutely top-notch. If I do have time, I’ll make more beautiful and detailed reviews later.

Blonde Redhead — 23

This is my favorite album of the year so far. One of those really rare albums that works on two levels: You can enjoy it by letting all the beautiful textures wash over you, as the album creates its own ambient mood. Or, you can enjoy it by listening to it attentively. The songs work in this way too, and are filled with an enormous attention to detail. “23″ is the standout track, with its strangely unpredictable melody and intense forward motion. “The Dress”, and “SW” are also excellent because of their beautifully dark moodiness. “The Dress” also is the home of one of my favorite downbeat lyrics of the year: “I love you less/ Now that I know you”: Wait, you mean no one has used that lyric before? Brilliant! “Publisher” is a fantastic piece as well, one that doesn’t sound that impressive on a first listen, but which gets under your skin. Frankly, the first 7 tracks of the album are just about perfect: the four above are the darker tracks, but “Dr. Strangeluv” and “Silently” are beautiful pieces of almost-happy pop, and “Spring and by Summer Fall” is huge, dramatic and moving. The album borrows from My Bloody Valentine and the shoegaze movement generally, both the use of vocals as a texture, rather than to communicate meaning, and the enormous swirling guitars. Yet it hardly feels like an homage to shoegaze: Instead, the methods of shoegaze are used to do something different. Despite the wall of sound, the songs have an astonishing clarity, used to create a sense of space and emphasize the freely meandering melodies. Gorgeous. 9.5/10

MP3: Blonde Redhead - 23

!!! — Myth Takes

This was my favorite release of 2007 before I heard Blonde Redhead, although it’s completly different. It’s an irrepressibly loud and happy album that longs to make you move — and to make you put it on repeat. “Heart of Hearts” is completely brilliant: I’ve listened to it over and over, much as I listened to “Pardon My Freedom” and “Guiliani” on previous !!! releases. The bass line fucking moves, and there’s this one bit at the end where ‘heart of/heart of’ is repeated until it sounds like ‘harder/harder’. That still cracks me up. Yeah, tracks 1 and 9 are just short transition pieces. But every other track is shockingly good. “Must Be the Moon” and “Bend Over Beethoven” also need to be individually mentioned as being totally addictive, the former because it’s the happiest, poppiest thing here, the latter because it’s the funkiest: eight minutes of pure dance-able gold. Basically, every track is fascinating, unlike previous releases, and a few are completely perfect in a way that !!! has rarely if ever achieved before. 9.3/10

MP3: !!! - Heart of Hearts

El-P - I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead

What an amazing album: The first 8 tracks are all excellent, as is the last one. And several in between. Albums with a mood of political anxiety and bad-assitude do appeal to me much more than to some. I’m that kind of guy: I worry about politics and poor people and think it’s great when musicians actually get it right. And the overly masculine nature of the modern music industry, while not necessarily a good thing, often appeals to me more than it should: Fuck yeah, I wanna rip the fuckin’ system to bits, because violence is cool, y’know? So for me, anyway, this is one of the most interesting albums of the year because it so perfectly sums up that sense of dystopia that makes ‘1984′ and other political works so fascinating, and sounds so MAD about it. I put on the album, heard the beginning of “Tasmanian Pain Coaster”, and I was sold on the album: “This is the sound of what you don’t know killing you/This is the sound of what you don’t believe, still true”. It’s more pop than El-P’s other stuff in the underground hip-hop world, but that’s not a bad thing, and the production is too edgy for it to be completely accessible. This is both innovative music and a call to action, which is damn cool. 9.2/10

MP3: El-P - Tasmanian Pain Coaster

posted by nerdbound