Playlist: Perfect Closers

In nearly all things, the key to a good conclusion is a summary of points with a twist, something to remind you where you've been and to keep the content ringing in your ears. Here, then, is a list of some of my all-time favorite album closers, songs that not only polish off key albums in the artist's oeuvre but totally expand upon what I saw the artist as capable of accomplishing:

5. Bjork - "Unison" (Vespertine)
In the hands of anyone else, an album like Vespertine might has been the beginning of the end, a late-career slide into a lush, sentimental comfort zone where a once endlessly inventive songstress could rest her tired head. Bjork's decision, then, to close the album with her most straightforward love song to date was a risky one. Fortunately for all of us, Bjork knows what she's doing. "Unison" is an ecstatic high note for the artist, an unqualified, seemingly effortless success. More than anything, it seems to prove that it's merely her own relentless ambition that keeps Bjork from dominating the mainstream.

4. Madonna - "Easy Ride" (American Life)
Speaking of dominating the mainstream, Madonna's American Life nearly shoved the artist out of the picture entirely. It's commercial failures aside, though, American Life was, in all likelihood, Madonna's most musically consistent outing. The real problem was a general downheartedness and some obnoxious lyrics (even the most die-hard Madonna fans likely found the album's endless diatribes on the shallowness of the media to be a little much coming from, well, Madonna.) Nonetheless, you can't argue with results like album closer "Easy Ride". Beautifully orchestrated, then chopped and edited to dirty precision, the end result sounds like Carole King got eaten by Autechre--which I mean in the best sense possible. It's one of the best songs of a rich career, making this whole excursion more than worthwhile.

3. Pavement - "Carrot Rope" (Terror Twilight)
Maybe it's just a four minute joke about Stephen Malkmus' penis, but Pavement were never more charming or incessantly catchy as on their final track as a band.

2. M.I.A. - "Paper Planes" (Kala)
Even as I mourn the definitive end of the era in which I could consider M.I.A. a personal love rather than a mainstream phenomenon, the very fact that this song's brief inclusion in a single ad campaign was enough to catapult it into the iTunes Top 10 is a testament to the irresistibility of "Paper Planes". A song that cements into your mind from the first listen, it's both an anomalously undancy track for M.I.A. and, as Kala's closer, an ironic entry point for mainstream audiences into the work of the woman who may well turn out to be the most notable musician of the decade.

1. PJ Harvey - "We Float" (Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea)
Restraint has never been PJ Harvey's strong suit, and the attempts to file down her edges for a top-40 push like Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea resulted, unsurprising, in a mixed bag of an album. There's good and there's bland, but it isn't until the very end that we get the true pay-off--and it's way more than bargained for. Bolstering lyrics both sentimental and, uh, sharp as knives, "We Float" was a major, long-time-coming climax for the artist: the track that finally merged her larger-than-life facade with her underlying vulnerability without going overboard on either end. Rarely has moderation been so satisfying.


And just for fun, my least favorite album closer of all time:

R.E.M. - "Find the River" (Automatic for the People)
Automatic for the People is, in many way, America's great "group therapy" album, an album of turmoil and recovery that everyone can find some nice advice in. But it's at album's end, when Michael Stipe flows into an excessive river analogy over a country harmonica, that it all ends up feeling more like a regrettable night of drunken commiseration with someone totally inappropriate. That the incomparable "Nightswimming" had already effectively closed the album only frustrates the situtation.

Playlist: Awful Band Names

May the untimely demise of Be Your Own Pet and the CBC debacle over Holy Fuck be a fair warning to indie-kind: consider the band name for just a moment. Is your name a confusing imperative or an offputting exclamation? Is it a blatant rip-off of another notable band? Are your fans embarrassed to recommend you to friends?

Behold then my list of the worst band names I can imagine off the top of my head...

10. Counting Crows
If your band name involves a plural noun, people are going to add "the" automatically. Regardless, this is a stupid name.

9. Cat Power
Did anybody not think this was going to be the lamest thing you've ever heard?

8. The New Pornographers
An effective way of avoiding otherwise inevitable mainstream commercial success.

7. The Dirty Projectors
Why is your projector dirty? An obtuse stab at achieving LCD Soundsystem-like irony.

6. Eminem
I guess naming oneself after a childhood icon worked for Snoop Dogg?

5. !!!
A cute way to end up on the top of every alphabetical playlist, but when was the last time you had a conversation about them?
If you're unconvinced, try Googling them.

4. My Bloody Valentine
Honestly, can we please pay attention to imagery?

3. Neutral Milk Hotel
Do these words have any relationship to each other?

2. N' Sync/*nsync/Nsync/'N sync
Among seemingly countless offenses, it's the least iTunes friendly band name of all time.

1. Herbert
Seriously, why do you embarrass me every time I try to tell people how great you are?

Dehyper: Santogold

Dehyper is a feature that highlights bands and albums that don't really match up to their growing reputations.

On today's mix...
Santogold - Santogold (2008)

Some comparisons are unavoidable, so in the spirit of the summer box office season, I'd say Santogold is Two-Face to M.I.A.'s mad genius Joker. There's a lot more CGI and a lot less personality. At best, the entire act is a superfluous confection; at worst, it threatens to reduce a once promising new direction for the form into a shtick as vapid and empty as the one it's meant to replace. But to stretch the Two-Face thing out further, Santogold does have another side to her--and it's this side that's thankfully finding success.

Let's start with the ugly, though: the first half of this album is awful. The first six tracks here range from empty soundtrack fodder like "Say Aha" and "My Superman" to full-on stylistic abominations like "Shove It". It's like hearing M.I.A. as interpreted by the Police and Avril Lavigne, and it's not a happy sound.

It's a shock, then, when she suddenly drops the whole awful act on track seven and delivers "Lights Out", an irresistible, sexed-up ballad that sheds the M.I.A. pose for something more like Cyndi Lauper, delivering what may well turn out to be the mainstream crossover track of the year. It's a track that melts away so much of the awfulness that preceded it that it's easy to warm to the remainder of the album. Though "I'm a Lady" is the only other track to follow in the airy footsteps of "Lights Out"--it's a knockout as well--tracks like "Starstruck" and "Unstoppable" at least rise to the level of Kala B-side. And closer "Anne" isn't particularly memorable, but it also isn't obnoxious.

Though Santogold would so clearly like to be an edgy groundbreaker like the friends she so closely apes, it's when she embraces her commercial-ready roots on songs like "Lights Out" and "I'm a Lady" that she really sparkles as much as that glitter's she's vomiting on the album cover promises. Given the money she's making off "Lights Out", let's hope Santogold chooses to pursue the path of mainstream pop in the future rather than spending more time salting M.I.A.'s terrain.

4/10

*nidiosync: Mandy Moore

*inidiosync is a regular feature on embarrassing albums I love.

On today's mix...
Mandy Moore - Mandy Moore (2001)

I'm on vacation for the week, so no running and no blogging, but here's something shameful to digest in the meantime...

At 16 I was probably too old still to be falling prey to teen pop, but really, who doesn't love Mandy Moore? Sure, her film career has proven to match the quality of her pop career, but hey, so has Diane Keaton's. And on that note, I'd say that Mandy Moore's eponymous third album is the musical equivalent of How to Deal--it's not breaking away from the genre, but it's surprisingly successful in its modest aims.

With their relatively edgier production and middle-eastern flair, Mandy Moore's first four tracks--"In My Pocket", "You Remind Me", "Saturate Me", and "One Sided Love"--were obviously intended to be its hits, and it's worth noting that they were not. However, what Mandy Moore lacks in show stoppers, it makes up for it in consistency, both with its hooks and with its production values. Though "In My Pocket" lacks the sing-a-long vocals necessary for a teen pop song to hit, its fast pace and menacing horns make it a delightfully delirious lead single. With it's seductive layering, "Saturate Me" is indeed a song worth soaking in. For better or worse, any of these songs would've fit in a teen movie in 2001--perhaps the greatest testament to that being that the album's weakest track, "Cry", was indeed released to promote Moore's leading role in A Walk to Remember.

What's most surprising on Mandy Moore, then, is how the album keeps the pace until the end. Filler "Yo-Yo" matches a cute metaphor with a lively hook, and "Turn the Clock Around" is an irresistible confection that would've easily been a hit were it not for the production, which felt dated even in 2001. However, it's hard to complain about the production when the same team produces the glossy "Split Chick" or the Moore co-written album closer "When I Talk to You"--a track that strips things down to Moore, a violin, and some acoustic strumming to excellent effect.

Making an album like this isn't rocket science, but judging from the cultural garbage of Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Willa Ford, and Jennifer Lopez--to name a few--it did require a charming persona and some consideration for the actual age group being targeted. The album's most effective moment is certainly single #2, TRL favorite "Crush", which indeed nails the feeling of a high school crush. And a song like "17" is delightful especially because Moore was still at an age where it seemed relevant to sing about her age. Ultimately, Mandy Moore is an album that succeeds by coloring in the lines, never veering too far from its modest teen heroine and never working itself into a dirty sweat. Mandy Moore got Britney's leftovers and made herself a solid album, one that stands as an artifact to turn-of-the-millennium teen pop before Pharrell came along and popped its cherry.

8/10

Disco!graphy: EP Feast

On today's mix...
Air France - On Trade Winds (2007)
Beck - A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight (1994)
Air France - No Way Down (2008)

I don't really like getting to know bands via EPs, but Air France have been making some noise (pleasant, ambient noise) with their two recent ones. On Trade Winds is the band's proper introduction, with the track "Beach Party" in particular getting a lot of attention last year. On Trade Winds is a calm, lush, and hypnotic debut. As has become clear this year, Swedes really know their indie, and Air France may actually recall France's Air, though they're not as memorable in terms of melodic content. A relaxing grower.

A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight is another formerly rare, pre-major label Beck release turned accessible through the magic of the internet. Like Golden Feelings, it's another more experimental record, though he wisely pars it down to half of that album's length. Unfortunately, the EP catches Beck in an awkward phase, ready to focus more than he has on past releases but still more interested in creating ideas and sketches than fully fleshed-out songs. As a result, the mad thrill of Golden Feelings is gone, but it's not yet replaced by much that is as interesting as what would soon follow. Though full-length opener "Totally Confused" is worth tracking down, the rest of this EP is more interesting as a document of the artist's growth rather than as a fully formed release.

Though On Trade Wends was certainly nice, No Way Down is a marked improvement for Air France, a more engaging and distinctive release from the band. The music is still all very lovely and soothing, but the band is obviously more comfortable in the studio this time around. The resulting tracks feel more spirited and vital, and they now come off less like Air's calm cousin and more like the Go! Team's seductive exchange student. It's a good thing. Another grower, but more accessible this time around.

On Trade Winds: 7/10
A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight: 5/10
No Way Down: 8/10

Disco!graphy: Beck, Part 1

Disco!graphy is a regular feature that catches up with bands by exploring their entire full-length output.

On today's mix...
Banjo Story (1988)
Golden Feelings (1993)

Beck's eighth major label album, Modern Guilt, is out this week, and from what I've listened to, it's one of the best of his career--though, given his consistency, the critical consensus hasn't branded it a special event. Of course, every time I hear a new Beck album, I think it's a career best, so I figured now might be the time to look back and assess his rich discography to see how an album like Modern Guilt fits into the picture.

If you include all his unofficial, pre-Mellow Gold releases, Beck's musical output gets rather sprawling--Wikipedia lists eight bootlegs between 1991 and 1993, and that's excluding Golden Feelings. So in the interests of conserving time, effort, and general interest, Banjo Story is the only bootleg I'm going to assess here. Recorded when he was still a teenager, Banjo Story is distinctly the Beck who went on to make albums like Midnite Vultures--the Beck who's comfortable reveling in any genre, even as he skewers it. The target here is folk, and hearing young Beck Hansen spinning a freestyle narrative in the classic structure of a song like "Detonate" might recall early Bob Dylan were the narrative not about how he has "all kinds of devices I'm gonna detonate" and how he's used them to kill his boss and "every pop star in the top-twenty charts". Similarly the opener, which has Beck declaring that they should "moon some cars", "steal some beer", and "shoot some pigs", positions Banjo Story as a distinctly anti-folk album--apparently there's a whole movement. But even if the tracks here sink into parody as often as they rise above it, there's a lot to love: it's fun to hear Beck's stream of consciousness lyrics, something he'd prove particularly gifted at with "Loser" and Odelay. Further, songs like "Goin' Nowhere Fast" and "Woe" do a lot to indicate that Beck's songwriting gifts were intact from a pretty young age. Banjo Story is ultimately something of a novelty, but it's an interesting, never dull one, giving the listener a fun look at Beck's talent and persona six years before it emerged fully-formed with Mellow Gold.

1993's Golden Feelings is Beck's first official full-length, though it might not get that distinction were it not remastered and (very briefly) re-released on CD after Beck became a major-label star. Like Banjo Story, Golden Feelings indicates Beck's immense talent more in bits and pieces than in full-form, with Beck revealing his more experimental nature here. Other than the anomalous epic "Heartland Feeling"--a track that follows the logical progession of Banjo Story, though the target this time is John Mellencamp--there are few full-fledged songs on Golden Feelings to speak of; but it doesn't make this bizarre mess any less intriguing. For the most part, the album sees Beck having a field day at the studio, packing each track with a lot of vocal experimentation, distortion, layers, and good humor. At seventeen tracks, it does all start to bleed together, making Golden Feelings a little tedious if consumed whole; but taken in pieces, the results are rough, infectious fun. Worth tracking down for Beck fans.

Banjo Story: 6/10
Golden Feelings: 7/10

On today's mix...
Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances

As the Shakespearean band name might suggest, Titus Andronicus aren't out to conquer new territory--and yet their debut, The Airing of Grievances, is one of the most refreshing rock albums of the year. Of course, firstly, they're talented musicians with a mastery of their punk influences and a flair for the dramatic, but perhaps the selling point of the album is how they masquerade in a lo-fi setting. Opener "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ" begins like any other lo-fi punk song might, beginning slow before yelling "fuck you!" and cutting loose. But the surprise is that it's actually an epic. When the noise fades for a guitar solo, for once it comes as a welcome twist, and when the guitar solo leads into an energetic horn section, you'd never have guessed they had it in them. It's a standard song structure, but Titus Andronicus play it like they just invented it. Similarly, the double epic of "No Future" and "No Future Part Two: The Day After No Future" might feel plodding presented in another format, but it feels positively vital here--you're unlikely to even notice that it goes on for nearly fifteen minutes. Titus Andronicus fill up the majority of the album with pretty straightforward numbers that wear their influences (most notably the Clash and the Replacements) on their sleeve, but the band's raw, assured delivery keep it fresh and exciting, and the steady skill that lies underneath it all makes The Airing of Grievances an album worth returning to.

8/10

mid-year in review

Top 20 Albums of 2008.5:
(Click links for full reviews)

20. The Dodos - Visiter
19. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster...
18. Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us
17. Islands - Arm's Way
16. No Age - Nouns
15. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
14. Beach House - Devotion
13. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
12. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
11. Ratatat - LP3
10. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
9. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
8. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals
7. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
6. The Breeders - Mountain Battles
5. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
--Ignore the backlash and take it for the silly, unassuming, and consistently catchy pop record it is. (Plus: Columbia!)
4. Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
--Better than The Warning, actually.
3. Man Man - Rabbit Habits
2. Be Your Own Pet - Get Awkward
1. Stephen Malkmus - Real Emotional Trash
--Malkmus branches out into more guitar-centric work, and thankfully, instead of delivering a self-indulgent jam-fest, he delivers his sharpest batch of solo work yet.

On today's mix...
The Dodos - Visiter (2008)

Visiter is an intimately quiet album and yet one of the liveliest you're likely to hear all year. Using few elements other than acoustic guitar and persistent percussion, the focus here lies mostly on the Dodos' routinely excellent songwriting. Though nearly half the tracks here would qualify as epic in length, they never fall prey to a predictable build-and-climax structure, instead choosing to linger on their most effective hooks or instead change melodies entirely. They move on as soon as they're ready, and the results are always unforced and organic--none of these songs feel "long". Though most of these tracks are experimental in structure, they're also accessible: it's never necessary to have a grasp of where these songs are going to enjoy them. If the album is flawed, it's mostly in the consistency of their sound. A track like "Ashley", for instance, stands out not because the songwriting is any better or worse than anything else on the album but because of the sudden presence of a female voice. Futher, most of the songs lack any lyrics that stand out, which would be a fatal flaw for an album like this were the music itself not so engaging. Visiter presents the Dodos as an impressive band with room for improvement.

8/10

Also... they're pretty great live.

Because it's extra indie to have a side-project...

On today's mix...
Albert Hammond Jr. - ¿Cómo Te Llama? (2008)
Shearwater - Rook (2008)

Being the Strokes' second guitarist and having never dated Drew Barrymore, Albert Hammond Jr. would probably be the band's most obscure member were it not for his recent solo output following the band's post-Impressions hiatus. Though Julian Casablancas has always been the lead songwriter for the band, Hammond's solo records indicate that, despite his seemingly slight duties for the Strokes, his contributions to it are perhaps the most critical in defining their sound. Which is to say, on a superficial level, ¿Cómo Te Llama? sounds like (if you will) classic Strokes material--the sound that made their debut so much fun and the rest so much less exciting.

However, the record also highlights what Julian Casablancas brings to the Strokes: songwriting and vocal presence. Hammond here almost never achieves much more than ambient Strokes noise here, and even the album's most delightful songs ("Victory at Monterey" and "G Up") still aren't quite up to par with that band's material. The only song here that really breaks away from the Strokes b-side flow is the instrumental "Spooky Couch", which is lovely but, indeed, as much of a throwaway as its title would imply.

Speaking of lovely throwaways, Shearwater has made a whole album of them. Shearwater boasts Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff and recently exited member Jonathan Meiberg, who takes on lead singer/songwriter duties here; but despite the talent onboard, the band never achieves any sort of distinction from its influences. It's difficult to listen to this album and hear much more than a little Sigur Ros here, some Arcade Fire there, and a whole lotta Talk Talk. They're all bands worth emulating, but Rook never merges them into anything particularly fresh or exciting. The key element in songs like these is restraint, but by album's end, Shearwater don't sound like they have anything left to hold back. In the end, Rook feel like more of an exercise in style than a full-fledged album. It goes through all the motions--and well--but it's never particularly satisfying.

¿Cómo Te Llama?: 4/10
Rook: 5/10

Dehyper: Atlas Sound

Dehyper is a feature that highlights bands and albums that don't really match up to their growing reputations.

On today's mix...
Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (2008)

As a gay virgin afflicted with Marfan Syndrome, Bradford Cox makes for an intriguing indie figure, and his Stefani-ish lyrical obsession with Deerhunter bandmate Lockett Pundt only adds to the equation. Unfortunately, unlike Stefani, personality is less relevant on his solo project Atlas Sound. There's very little wrong with the project's debut full-length, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, but its universal acclaim is hardly befitting of such a slight album. At best, it's a terrific record for "relaxation time" background. As Cox himself has indicated, this was a largely improvised record, and it shows: there's rarely much going on within these tracks other than a whole lotta reverb and loops. Though Cox creates plenty of engaging atmospheres, there's not much songcraft to speak of, and the end result is that these songs are never quite as evocative as they wish to be. Atlas Sound does a lot to signify Cox's enormous talent, but there's little to show for it once this ephemeral record ends. For better or worse, it's the indie Pure Moods.

6/10

CanonBall: Liz Phair, Post-Guyville

CanonBall is a feature that highlights left-field items in my individual music canon.

On today's playlist...
Whip-Smart (1994)
whitechocolatespaceegg (1998)

Maybe it's a generational thing, or maybe it's a male rock critic thing, but I've never met an actual Liz Phair fan who makes a particularly major distinction between her debut and its two follow-ups, Whip-Smart and whitechocolatespaceegg. Now that Exile in Guyville is back on everyone's radar thanks to a new 15-year-anniversary deluxe edition, I hope people will reconsider her two differently styled but nonetheless impressive pre-eponymous follow-ups.

I recently saw Whip-Smart being sold for $2.99 at at second-hand record store--$2.39 on their website--and I'd really like to think that it has more to do with the state of compact discs than it does with qualitative judgments. Coming a mere year after Exile in Guyville's release, Whip-Smart is that album's sunnier counterpart, featuring all of the wit and skill that made that album so impressive but eschewing the heavy ambitions, clocking in at a relatively brisk 41 minutes. It really is a perfect follow-up, even if the critical consensus was too caught up in analyzing what Liz Phair was supposed to represent to recognize it.
Like Guyville, there's nothing that isn't great to be had here. Of course, as with any Liz album, a good deal of the material is not entirely new at all. Opener "Chopsticks" is a filled-in Girlysound track, a one-liner-fest that has Phair giving the people what she assumed they wanted, given the ever-present focus on her sexuality. In terms of the other Girlysound material: "Whip-Smart" adds flair and animal noises, "Shane" gets rearranged with a haunting new ending, the semi-new "Jealousy" borrows some lines from "Thrax", and Phair merely cleans up "Go West"--one of her best tracks, period. However, fun as all of these are, it's the new material that reveals what an excellent direction this album was for Phair, if only she'd been encouraged to follow it.
Every new track here displays vitality, growth, and experimentation, both in songwriting and in production. "Supernova" is the lead single, a top-40 push that seems both better considered and more effortless than anything on her heavy-handed pop makeover. Closer "May Queen" might also have been a hit, an instantly catchy builder that calls out her "rock and roll Ken doll," womanizing ex as a homosexual--though not in so many words. Radio would be a less depressing world today if young women were smiling about lovers who "fuck like a volcano" over bright riffs rather than fiercely defending their decisions to kiss girls and bluntly comandeering the term "gay" for cheap name-calling over recycled studio noise.
The two-minute "X-Ray Man" revels in its effortlessness, a track that has Phair seething over a distractable boyfriend in her lower vocal registry; and "Support System" only appears effortless, an adamently lo-fi track that layers itself to heaven over an unusual structure. "Nashville" is a hugely successful leap into balladry with all the bells and whistles--although after a few listens, it turns out that the song is actually about her own image. "Cinco De Mayo" features Phair rocking her most exciting riff to date, and "Alice Springs" carries off the feat of sounding spontaneous, tight, and haunting all at the same time--and she gets major props for performing it on Good Morning America:
Individually all the tracks are great, but most importantly, it all adds up to a really fun time, a perfect album to pop on when summer rolls around. There's a reason it's still her highest seller.

Perhaps more controversial than Guyville sequel Whip-Smart is the glossed-up follow-up she waited four more years to record. Given the lengthy recording process and the many changes Phair's life underwent over that time--she got married and had a baby--it's not a huge surprise to find that the 16-track whitechocolatespaceegg features the artist in a lot of different modes.
On the one hand, we have a collection of vignettes, several of which have Phair adopting a male perspective. "Uncle Alvarez" is an exploration of empty executive existence over a simple, irresistible pop hook, and "Only Son" is a rare Phair epic, an impressive track that tackles parental expectations. Of course, Phair is more at home in female form, as she displays on "Perfect World" and "Polyester Bride", intensely female and almost uncomfortably personal songs that, yet, aren't necessarily about Phair at all. "Perfect World" sets its hook to a laundry list of qualities Phair wishes she could own to get the guy of her dreams, while "Polyester Bride" relates an exchange about love, marriage, and disillusionment between a young Ally McBeal-type and her local bartender. "Polyester Bride" is, notably, actually a Girlysound track that's only surfaced in the past few years, and what's impressive here is both how little Phair actually changes and yet how exponentially more effective the glossed-up, lead-single version she made here is. Of course, Scott Litt's gentle-but-hi-fi production seems incredibly tame in comparison to the Matrix explosion that was to follow, but it was a major shift in sound for Phair, and "Polyester Bride" is the best evidence yet in her career that a little spit and polish is, sometimes, the best way for her to shine.
whitechocolatespaceegg also offers a lot of the Liz Phair we've come to know and love, the girl with all the frank sex songs and the acidic wit. "Johnny Sunshine" is all about the joys of rough sex, "Ride" turns a bedtime prayer into an ode to being a, uh, rider, and "Headache" has Liz suffering an electro-hangover to shockingly good results--a testament to what great form she's in on this album. The only weak spots here are the co-written moments: the Scott Litt contribution "Baby Got Going" is soundtrack fodder, while "Big Tall Man" offers some good lyrics and nice harmonies but never really turns into much. However, the "dust me off" title track does make the occasional collaboration worthwhile.

Phair's best mode, naturally, is the straightforwardly personal one, and the best tracks here are the ones that tackle life's major changes--namely, marriage and motherhood. "What Makes You Happy" relates the dialogue of Phair telling her mother about her fast engagement and her mother's concerned reaction, while "Love is Nothing" puts her disillusionment with married life on the table with a bouncy, c'est la vie! pop. "Go On Ahead", especially, kills with its seeming ease. A track that forthrightly chronicles the disintegration of her marriage under the stress of having a baby and her decision for a trial separation, it's one of the most powerful songs Phair has ever recorded.

Though one might've expected Phair to come out a little rusty from four years inexperience, whitechocolatespaceegg is a triumph, an album as intensely personal and thoughtfully crafted as Exile in Guyville but for a slightly older set of problems.

Whip-Smart: 10/10
whitechocolatespaceegg: 9/10

On today's mix...
Girl Talk - Feed the Animals (2008)

Two years after Night Ripper shattered people's perceptions of what a mash-up could be, Girl Talk has finally delivered a follow-up, and it's more of the same--by which, I mean it's the party album of the year. I could make an arbitrary list of my personal favorite moments--"Work It" combined with Nu Shooz, "I'm a Flirt' meets Bizarre Inc's "I'm Gonna Get You", etc.--but it's really counter to the fun of Girl Talk. Once again, Greg Gillis takes hits from all over the mainstream American consciousness (plus a few notable indie songs for good measure) and turns the tables on the listener, offering an impossibly good time, an idiosyncratic experience, and an challenge. It's immediately accessible in a way that's almost cheating--you already know these songs--and yet it mixes them up in a context that's both disorienting and a little enlightening. It asks the listener to compare decades, genres, and genders--everyone here has that same unnaturally high, sped-up voice--and get down to what really makes all this music similar and, further, what keeps them all from blending together. Listening to Feed the Animals does not match the incomparable thrill of hearing Night Ripper for the first time, but really, few things can. Feed the Animals is Night Ripper's equal in quality, and it's an instant classic.

10/10

On today's mix...
Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (2008)
Coldplay - Viva la Vida (or Death and All His Friends) (2008)

Sigur Rós and Coldplay are both bands who came to the logical end of their sound with their last albums, Takk... and X&Y respectively. Consequently, both now face the challenge, with their new material, of reinventing themselves or finally turning into the background music both have always threatened to become.

The cover to Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust says exactly what this album wishes to be: stripped down, running, free. Opener "Gobbledigook" meets the challenge head on, offering the most organic, spontaneous-sounding music the band has ever made--music so different from the Sigur Rós sound that you might worry it's not the same band at all. Track 2, "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur", is more typical of the band, though similarly bright and exciting.

But then, well... they finally turn into the background music they've always threatened to become. They stick with the stripped down sound of the first two tracks, but they're no longer running. The rest of the albums keeps the theatrics more or less at bay, but they don't make up for it with anything striking or memorable. Several tracks here bring the melody to the forefront, but for the most part, they meander far too much to jell into something exciting, and in conjunction with the stripped down sound, this makes for some pretty dull tracks. Nonetheless, "Gobbledigook" and "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur" at least keep the album worthwhile, so hopefully this is merely a misstep in their career rather than an indication of fading talent.

Viva la Vida (or Death and All His Friends), shocking to say, is actually a little more exciting. Superficially, it's all a little desperate: the overworked title, the totally inappropriate cover art, and the histrionic song title choices--only with a band as tame as Coldplay could a track like "Lost!" deserve an exclamation mark. But they are really trying here. Songs are just a little less conventional in structure, a little more focus is put on ensuring that the band itself doesn't get lost in the pretty noise, and the results thankfully don't all sound exactly the same--even if they're still not overly distinctive. Unfortunately, what will plague Coldplay here is that the album's few memorable moments can be attributed elsewhere. Aside from the plagiarized lead single, "Strawberry Swing" cops its hook from Frou Frou's "Hear Me Out", while "Yes" borrows heavily from "7/4 (Shoreline)" by Broken Social Scene. If only Coldplay had an asset as great as Feist. Nonetheless they've pulled themselves out of the blandness of X&Y, and it's a start.

Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust - 4/10
Viva la Vida (or Death and All His Friends) - 6/10

Disco!graphy: Sigur Rós, Part 2

Disco!graphy is a regular feature that catches up with bands by exploring their entire full-length output.

On today's mix...
( ) (2002)
Takk... (2005)

A friend once related that he liked to listen to Sigur Rós on airplanes because it made him feel like, well, maybe it'd be ok to die. ( ) is almost certainly the Sigur Rós album most fitting of that sentiment, and by that, I mean it's their best. It's divided into two rather distinct halves, with the first four tracks offering the most direct, unfussy music of their career, while the second half veers toward the more subtle, quiet, and ambient.

The first half is easily the most striking music of Sigur Rós, something made possible by the enormous amount of restraint displayed on this disc. Gone (well, mostly) are the theatrics. Opener "Vaka" puts the focus on eight piano notes and a spectacular Vonlenskan vocal performance by Jónsi. Similarly, "Fyrsta"'s joys come from calm guitar work, and both tracks might rank as career highs were they not immediately followed by "Samskeyti" and "Njósnavélin".

"Njósnavélin" returns to the more epic structures of Ágætis byrjun, but manages to keep things clean and unbusy, rarely straddling more than two elements and wisely keeping the focus on the melody's complex beauty. And "Samskeyti" is the track that most stuns in its simplicity: purely instrumental, it rides on a short, slippery piano melody in an odd key signature, one that builds intensity through the variation of a single note on each repetition and ultimately climaxes by moving an octave higher. It needs to be heard to be believed, really. I once tried to map out the variations on pen and paper (in, well, an airport), and there really seemed to be no logical pattern. It's purely visceral. It's actually the track that really hooked me onto Sigur Rós in the first place, due to its key placement in Mysterious Skin. I'm, incidentally, happy to say that no movie could deserve it more (I'm less sure of the band's decision to license out "Starálfur" to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.)

( )'s second half is significantly less accessible than the first, full of difficult-to-decipher melodies and darkness. Though none of these tracks are ultimately as memorable as anything on the first half, they do nothing to betray it, and at this point, Sigur Rós have earned the right to more difficult material. If anything, you can always hold on to Jónsi's routinely beautiful vocal performances.

Following two very different experimental albums that defined Sigur Rós as a band to pay attention to, Takk... ("Thanks...") is the sound of a band ready to refine their sound. Combining the accessibility of ( ) with the grandeur of Ágætis byrjun, it's, naturally, pretty perfect. "Glosoli" takes a conventionally pretty melody for the band but rocks out at the end rather than cuing the violins. "Hoppipolla" places "Samskeyti"'s hypnotic draw within an epic builder, and the resulting climax is so satisfying that they devote a whole extra track ("Mea Bloanasir") to revel in it. "Se Lest" keeps things light and easy by breaking out some horns and a music box--a move that might recall certain other Icelandic musical accomplishments. And lead single "Seaglopur" is the album's centerpiece, the type of track that you'd trade a million Chris Martins for--and throw in Gwenyth, too. If the album has a flaw, it's merely in the fear that the band has nowhere else to go. It's a fear I hope will soon prove unfounded.

( ) - 9/10
Takk... - 9/10

Disco!graphy: Sigur Rós, Part 1

Disco!graphy is a regular feature that catches up with bands by exploring their entire full-length output.

On today's mix...
Von (1997)
Ágætis byrjun (1999)

Sigur Rós release their fifth album on Tuesday--or today, if you live in Ireland, Germany, or Belgium. In any case, it's currently streaming on their website, but before I immerse myself in new material, I wanted to step back and look at their existing oeuvre, much of which I've never gotten around to giving focused attention. As you've probably assumed given the length, this isn't an actual running playlist, but Sigur Rós really aren't the best band to be competing with the noise of L.A. traffic anyway.

Sigur Rós's 1997 debut, Von, was totally new to me as of yesterday, and it's surprising to learn that it didn't see international release until 2004. Though the band has not yet discovered their signature sound yet on Von, the album is a full-fledged epic in line with their other releases, full of exciting, atmospheric tracks. The album was years in the making, and it shows. Each track here is grand and cinematic, scoring an imaginary movie the band invites the listener to invent. The band-titled opener invites the lures into a classic horror territory, while centerpiece "Hafssól (The Sun's Sea)" indeed sounds like it would fit well in something more space-exploration themed (Sunshine?)

The majority of Von's tracks eschew melody almost entirely, preferring instead to build the atmosphere through quiet noise and percussion, and the results are exciting, though not especially memorable. If Von is flawed--the band themselves have indicated that they were not entirely pleased with the final results--it's only because these tracks neither feel quite as distinctive or personal as their later work. Ultimately, Von gives a solid impression of the band's talent, if only an incomplete picture of what's to come.

Though the intro of Ágætis byrjun continues in the same footing as Von's outro--backwards--the album is a significant change of direction for the band. The intense focus on atmosphere is still in place; however, here they're more content to fill it in with melody, and the album features some of the band's best tracks.

Despite sounding a little bit like Radiohead, "Svefn-g-englar (Sleepwalkers)" is a haunting ballad--dirty, insistent, and epic, a song that's become perhaps their most recognizable. The track does turn out to be something of an anomaly on this album, though, as most of the songwriting here works within a relatively narrow spectrum, starting off slow and spare but ultimately building up to an explosive, gorgeous finale. Usually there are violins. Though it's a bit formulaic, Sigur Rós make it work, and nowhere is this approach more effective than with track three, "Starálfur (Staring Elf)", which offers the album's hookiest melody, marries acoustic guitar with electro glitches, and ultimately soars away on violins. It's the album's best moment.

Despite such a solid start, Ágætis byrjun ultimately ends up a little top-heavy with the remainder of the album never quite matching up to the greatness promised by its opening. Though the chorus of "Flugufrelsarinn (The Fly Freer)" does do some flying, the track spends most of its time brooding. "Ný batterí (New Batteries)" skirts by thanks to the abstract atmosphere created by its hesitant horns and falsetto, but "Hjartað hamast bamm bamm bamm (The Heart Pounds)" does more trudging than pounding, as though its heart is having trouble with each "bamm". "Viðrar vel til loftárása (Good Weather for Airstrikes)" wisely cleanses the palette with a minute of ambient noise before launching into more conventionally lovely terrain, taking a welcome country-western twist before building up to an abrupt "Day in the Life" clusterfuck of noise. It's not a knock-out success, but it's the type of experimentation you'd like to see a little more of on this album. The title track, meanwhile, rides on the kind of repetitive-yet-meandering piano melody that they would later perfect on ( ).

Though Ágætis byrjun is always a lovely, worthwhile album, the Volenska-introducing "Olsen Olsen" is its only other truly great, distinctive track--a builder dominated by a haunting, fluted melody. Despite having a reputation for being their best, Sigur Rós's second album is an occasionally great but inconsistent effort, the work of a great band testing out a new, more ambitious sound and very much still growing.

Von: 7/10
Ágætis byrjun: 8/10

On today's mix...
Ratatat - LP3 (2008)
Tilly and the Wall - O (2008)

I'm still limping along the road to full foot recovery, so this really isn't a running playlist at all, but there are too many things coming out right now that I want to take a look at, starting with Ratatat's and Tilly and the Wall's third respective full-length efforts.

I've complained in the past about Ratatat's sound getting monotonous, and LP3's Crystal Castles-lite lead single "Mirando" (and the album's title, for that matter) gave me little to get excited about heading into their third effort. This massive leaps they make on this album, then, came as quite a shock. Their signature electro-baroque is still there, but they've learned how to mix it up this time and deliver a truly satisfying set of tracks, each distinct yet distinctively theirs. In a key twist, they've added far more instruments and noises this time around, digging deeper into their Casio presets with each track and rarely repeating or falling into the predictability of their debut. Every track has a few tricks up its sleeve: "Imperials" mediates between sparse, frantic harpsichord, and a deep, rolling beat; "Brulee" literally drives away a thunderstorm with bright piano chords; and "Mumatz Khan" is the album's big-screen summer blockbuster wrapped in electro-woodwinds. The tracks here seem to be in ascending order of greatness, which can make for an incohesive album at first, but it's hard to complain when you're left with "Black Heroes", the impeccable closer you never knew they had in them. Ratatat have work hard on LP3 to live up to their early hype, and it shows.

Tilly and the Wall are another indie band with a pretty delightful shtick--in case you haven't heard, their drummer's actually a tap dancer--but their studio outings have never quite matched the joy of catching one of their shows. They put themselves back on the map this year by releasing what is easily one the year's most delightful songs (and music videos), the bright, silly "Beat Control":



It's strange, then, to hear that they've left "Beat Control" off their latest full-length. Of course, other than the delightfulness, it's a pretty atypical Tilly and the Wall song--namely, the beat in question is being controlled by a machine--and its exclusion does make some sense upon listening to the relatively darker, more organic O. Unfortunately, the album could use a stunner like "Beat Control". Opener "Tall Tall Grass" is lovely, and the band have never sounded like they're having more fun than when they're trashing a rival on the spoken-word bridge to "Pot Kettle Black", but the rest of the album leaves you wanting a little more. It's not that I would ever want Tilly and the Wall to settle down, but you do wish they could focus a little more on some of the melodies here and produce something a little more substantial than the choppy repetitions that dominate the album. They're best, in fact, on the relatively more straightforward "Chandelier Lake", and hopefully in the future, they'll find a better balance between their uncontainable energy and their songwriting. Tilly and the Wall have an irresistible sound, and I can hardly imagine a person not enjoying this or any of their albums, but I'm still waiting for more.

LP3: 9/10
O: 7/10

Alive 2008: Everyone Loves Lists

Running Playlist Mid-Year Review:

Top 10 Concerts of 2008 (Thus Far)

10. White Rabbits, w/ The Happy Hollows
The Echo, Wednesday, May 28, 2008 (video)

This honestly wasn't the most exciting concert, although it's not really the White Rabbits' fault. They sounded great, but the audience wasn't really feeling it. I went to this more because it was $10 and I wanted to see local act the Happy Hollows again before I leave Los Angeles. What really made this memorable for me was that Michael Stipe was randomly there, standing in front of us the whole show--and on the night before he began his Accelerate tour. Maybe he's shopping for newer, hipper opening acts? Oh, L.A.

9. Los Campesinos!, w/ Parenthetical Girls
The Troubadour, Saturday, June 7, 2008

8. Times New Viking
The Echo, Sunday, June 15, 2008

7. Islands
The El Ray, Tuesday, June 17, 2008

6. Prince
Coachella, Saturday, April 26, 2008
There were some issues here: everyone was already tired, he spent the first twenty minutes killing time with the gospel funk that's watered down everything that was ever interesting about Prince, he destroyed "Little Red Corvette" by turning it into a ballad and removing the second bridge, and "Creep" really isn't the best choice for a cover if you're going to take out the expletives. But he's Prince. He brought the energy and some very impressive guitar skills, and, really, it's Prince.

5. Lykke Li and El Perro Del Mar
The El Ray, Thursday, May 22, 2008

4. Robyn
The Troubadour, Saturday, February 9, 2008 (video)

This was her first show in L.A. since she was like 14 or something, and it was really fun to see her in such a small venue, espeically given that I've been waiting for her to come back since, well, 2005. If she's not higher, it's only because her set was so short (though she still managed to fit in the wonderful, Katsuya-approved "Dream On") and because she's now the European opener for Madge's vadge on her Hard Cashola tour, which I really can't support.

3. Architecture in Helsinki and the Ruby Suns
w/ The Happy Hollows
The Echo, Wednesday, April 23, 2008

I was honestly just excited to see the Ruby Suns when Architecture in Helsinki randomly announced that they'd be playing with their fellow Australians the day of the concert. Pretty exciting.
Echo house band The Happy Hollows may have been the big surprise of the night, though. Lead singer Sarah Negahdari draws obvious comparisons to Karen O--if Karen O were unbelievably awesome on guitar. My friend and I complimented her after the show, and she said she was taking lessons via YouTube, which was pretty funny. I can't wait for them to release a full-length album, but for now I'll indulge on the studio recording of "Lieutenant" streaming on their myspace.
The Ruby Suns were naturally very good. Apparently Ryan McPhun is hot? They played a short set, though, and really let Architecture in Helsinki steal the show--McPhee actually joined them on stage for most of it. Loved their cover of "Break My Stride" and loved Kellie Sutherland even more. Their studio albums really don't do justice to the fun they bring on stage.

2. The Dirty Projectors
The Echo, Saturday, April 12, 2008 (Photos)

The Dirty Projectors have a sound that you would really not expect to see replicated live, especially at such a low-key venue as the Echo. But they do replicate it live, and they do it impeccably. They nail all those bizarre harmonies, and it all sounds much more exciting and vital than it ever has on their records. Their live act is truly an achievement, something rare in indie rock.

1. Hot Chip
The Mayan Theater, Monday, April 28, 2008 (Photos)

My friends and I caught Hot Chip's show at Coachella, but it was so ridiculously crowded that we decided to redo it a few days later here. Hot Chip have a live presence that's shocking for an electronica act, though easy enough to describe: they turn the beat way up, Alex Taylor struts his nerdy stuff, and hey, they actually play guitar and stuff. I've never danced so much at a concert.

Alive 2008: Islands

A concert review...

Islands w/ AWOL One and Crayonsmith
The El Ray, Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I injured my foot on Sunday, so I can't go running for another day or so, but I can still go to concerts, right? I already saw half of an Islands set this year at Coachella, but they'd gotten delayed and ended up playing opposite Kraftwerk, so we left halfway through. As it turns out, Kraftwerk are an entirely pointless band to see live--the concert equivalent of chilling out and watching tv--but I was glad to have an excuse to go to a real Islands show.

We deliberately arrived late to miss local opener AWOL One, but ended up missing the bulk of psychedelic Islands tour-mate Crayonsmith instead. The Dublin-based artist's attire was half chicken costume, half Greek soldier, and the whole thing seemed fun enough--plus cute accent--but what was most surprising was how jam-packed the El Ray was. I'm guessing it had to do with its being an all ages show. School's out for summer?

Missing AWOL One might've been nice. It was an insultingly inappropriate opener, a spare hip-hop show that highlighted his elementary rapping skills over mostly recycled beats, throwing water on an underwhelmed audience and dwelling on elementary hooks such as "Everyone used to be a baby," "It isn't what I'm smoking!" and "Don't let anyone bring you down." Really, sometimes you need to be brought down, if only as constructive criticism. An older man in front of us sat down after the first ten minutes and shook his head for the remainder of the set. I concur. At one point his massive sidekick referenced Pinkerton's "El Scorcho", which made me think they really did think that their material would work for this audience--hey, Nick Thorburn does have a hip-hop side-project--but then, as said sidekick exited the stage, he insinuated that this audience would rather be listening to Panic at the Disco. I wasn't sure if it was a reference to the audience's average age (16) or a depressingly misguided jab at indie, but Panic at the Disco would actually have been been a whole lot better. Perhaps there's a time and a place for this, but it's not before an experimental, six-piece rock band.

Islands wisely chose to wait another half-hour before taking the stage, opening with Arm's Way epic closer "Vertigo (If It's a Crime)" before launching into the album's spectacular opener "The Arm". What's most striking here is how impressive they are as a band. The stage is full, but everyone there has a purpose. Aside from Nick Thorburn, the drummer, the lead guitarist, and the bassist, Alex and Sebastian Chow impressed by playing dual violins, doing back-up vocals, taking on all those extra instruments during the band's signature tropical interludes scattered throughout the songs, and adding a little bit of humor and lightness to an otherwise serious set. As at Coachella, they stuck almost exclusively to the new album, interrupting only to do "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby" and saving "Rough Gem" and "Swans" for the encore. It may seem like an odd choice at first, given the mixed reception that Arm's Way received; however, it makes much more sense once you hear how impressive this album sounds live, especially in comparison to the less band-heavy "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby" and the keyboard-centric "Rough Gem"--songs that I'd otherwise consider their best. If Arm's Way is a flawed album, it's only that despite all it's experimentation, most of the songs, on a basic level, sound alike, something that become a problem in concert--although never a big one, considering the band. In terms of songwriting, it's a somewhat awkward stage for Islands, but given Thorburn's considerable melodic and lyrical talent, I'm convinced that it's an approach destined to yield some amazing results in the future (assuming Thorburn does decide to continue the project.) Good job, guys.

8/10

Also: I didn't take pictures, but it was something like this, although a little less ridiculous. Thorburn chose to eschew the mime make-up this time around, instead donning an equally dramatic, "Creeper"-appropriate blood-soaked tee.

Alive 2008: Times New Viking

A concert review...
Times New Viking
With Fabulous Diamonds and Psychedelic Horseshit
Presented by Part Time Punks
The Echo, Sunday, June 15, 2008

We got to the venue just in time to hear that we should've gotten there early enough for Fabulous Diamonds, especially given the initially low turn-out. Times New Viking referenced follow-up Psychedelic Horseshit as their "best friends in the world," and they were pretty good--I was particularly digging the drum-heavy sound. I have to say, though, that the best thing about Psychedelic Horseshit was their professionalism: they demanded good sound quality, something generally necessary at the Echo, and took the time and effort to get it right.

Times New Viking not so much. Maybe they intended this--bad mixing is a vital part of their sound--but singer/drummer Adam Elliott's vocals were mixed at ear-bleedingly high levels, an especially odd choice given that the same did not apply for the band's other vocalist (and keyboardist) Beth Murphy, whose mic noise was just pleasantly muddled. It's one thing for the guitar or the drums to be turned way up, but the ear is really not designed to hear dissonant human vocals so loudly, and it cries out in pain at the prospect of something that might deafen it to those critical frequencies. Short story: wear earplugs.

Otherwise, their live sound was an improvement over the muddled Rip It Off, keeping all the feedback--essential in making their dissonant melodies work--without getting totally lost in it. Even though their seeming lack of a set list led to a lot of dead time of debating about which songs to play, even as they apparently forgot how to play a song here and there, even though Adam Elliott seemed on the verge of a heart attack throughout the whole set, even though the vocal volume was majorly irritating, and even though they couldn't have been on for much longer than half an hour, it was a really fun show. Times New Viking have a great sound and a good live presence, and it's no wonder they got signed to Matador. Hopefully they'll land a producer who knows how to make the noise a little more effective for their next batch of songs, and hopefully Elliott will tweak the sound from his mic a little more for the rest of their just-begun North American tour. I sound old, but really it was a one of the better concerts I've been to in a while.

8/10

Also: The show was presented by Part Times Punks, which I mention only because it was that much more fun. The between-set music was way more interesting than usual venue fare, and it was really fun to see the bands competing with the audio-less video of Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend being projected above the stage.
I didn't take pictures, but it was something like this.

On today's mix...

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (2008)

Tuesday sees the official release of one of indie's most anticipated albums of the year, Hold Steady's follow-up to 2006's universally loved Boys and Girls In America--though you can stream the new album now in its entirety on the band's myspace. It's difficult to assess Stay Positive, given the near flawlessness of its predecessor, so it may be unfair to say that it pales a little in comparison. However, other than being a little heavier on the gospel-rock sound, it is an album so similar to Boys and Girls in America that it's difficult to assess its merits except in comparison. Stay Positive is, for the most part, a consistent, unsurprising collection of the Hold Steady's trademark vignettes and meditations on the disappointment, substance abuse, and overall mental health of the partying set in small-town America. However, these boys and girls seem to be a little older, bleaker, and less striking than their successor's counterparts. Few would consider Boys and Girls in America a light album, but at least its seriousness was relieved by bright hooks, more bits of humor, and lighter stylistic switch-ups like "Chillout Tent". Here the darkness begins to feel a little relentless, and despite its similarities to its predecessor, it's a harder album to love. That being said, it's still a new Hold Steady album, and if you've ever liked the band, you will undoubtedly like this album, too. In attempting to replicate Boys and Girls in America, the Hold Steady have delievered a darker, blurrier copy; but really, there are worse ways to go.

7/10

Disco!graphy: Be Your Own Pet

Disco!graphy is a new feature that catches up with bands by exploring their entire full-length output.

On today's mix...
Be Your Own Pet (2006)
Get Awkward (UK Version) (2008)

Be Your Own Pet is an easy enough band to start off this feature: the young act only have two albums to their name. Their eponymous debut, however, was met with enough praise to establish the act at least for another few albums, and it appears that they're up for the challenge.

Be Your Own Pet's critical acclaim may have been a little overstated, but it's an energetic effort and a very endearing one. Like Times New Viking, they blaze through its fifteen tracks in around half an hour, and the results are exciting but unmemorable. Most of the songs blend into each other, but really, they're pretty cute.

All the hype that surrounded Be Your Own Pet would not, however, prepare you for the leap they make on follow-up Get Awkward. The band lets lead singer Jemina Pearl write her own lyrics here, multiplying her presence by about a billion, and the results are enough that it's hard not to dismiss their debut as a mere warm-up. A lot of critics were quick to declare how fast the band's growing up, but if anything, this is an album decidedly more fitting for the 20-year-olds. It's the logical progression of "Boyfriend" by Ashlee Simpson, which I mean in all seriousness in the best way possible: Get Awkward is hooky, pissed off, and very specific. The lyrics, which drop fast as lightning, are the album's greatest asset, finally asserting the type of attitude most acts can only dream off--Avril Lavigne would kill for this--and the Pearl's vocals are more melodically adventurous to match her newfound wordiness. On top of all of that, the band is in even better shape this time around, and the fifteen tracks that result are each catchier and notably more memorable than anything on the debut--though they come just as fast.

In a rather gross twist, the immensely palatable Be Your Own Pet's more assertive style was rewarded by major label Universal cutting three of the album's best songs ("Becky", "Black Hole", "Blow Yr Mind") for the state-side release--on fears that they were "too violent". It's the artistic equivalent of releasing the Marshall Mathers LP without "Kill You", "Stan", and "Kim". Yeah, they are pretty violent, but what sense does it make to censor an artist's personality? I'd heavily advise tracking down the UK version, as Americans are missing out on quite a lot. "Becky" is the album's best track, an immensely catchy freak-out that narrates an after-class knife fight with a backstabbing friend. It's the type of song that really defines a band like this, with Pearl bemoaning that she wishes those things Becky said about her in her yearbook had been true as she does time in a juvenile detention center for teen homicide, with the backing band stopping mid-way to chant, "We don't like Becky anymore!" Other highlights are "Heart Throb", a track about flirtatious eye contact with someone other than her boyfriend, and lead single "The Kelly Affair", whose chorus is unlikely to leave you anytime soon. There are no duds here, though the cutting of "Becky", "Black Hole", and "Blow Yr Mind" does soften the effect. The full thing is easily one of the year's best albums.

Be Your Own Pet: 7/10
Get Awkward: 10/10