Running Playlist

Playlist: Perfect Closers

2008-09-02T00:45:00.006-04:00

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

2008-08-25T16:33:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-27T22:13:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-17T13:35:00.000-04:00

*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

2008-07-11T14:30:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-09T14:21:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-08T20:16:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-07T15:07:00.000-04:00

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.

2008-07-05T19:30:00.000-04:00

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...

2008-07-04T15:02:00.000-04:00

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

2008-07-01T23:45:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-26T15:56:00.001-04:00

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

2008-06-25T01:51:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-23T22:32:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-23T01:27:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-20T22:23:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-19T23:30:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-18T21:00:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-18T18:19:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-16T15:18:00.000-04:00

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.

2008-06-15T20:35:00.001-04:00

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

2008-06-15T10:26:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-13T22:40:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Times New Viking - Rip It Off (2008)
Man Man - Rabbit Habits (2008)

Times New Viking and Man Man are both love-or-hate bands straddling comic extremes, and both are indicative of the impossibly wide range of music indie can encompass.

The obvious catch of Times New Viking is the sound quality: Rip It Off sounds like it was fan-recorded outside the band's garage on a cassette deck and left in the car over a hot summer before being handed over to the good people at Matador... who dropped it in the pool. It's excessive enough to be their gimmick; as a reference point, keep in mind that this is the same label that produced Cat Power's The Greatest. Thankfully, Times New Viking have the talent and the energy to make it work, creating a quick, poppy record. Rip It Off's 16 tracks fly by in a mere thirty minutes, and as a result, it's a blast, though something of an immemorable one. Times New Viking aren't distinctive enough to rise above the noise all the time, but they're fun enough to make the feedback worth sifting through.

Man Man, meanwhile, easily have one of the most distinctive sounds in all of indie rock. The Brooklyn outfit's third album Rabbit Habits sounds something like Tom Waits meeting up in the recording studio with Danny Elfman and a pack of banshees that just escaped from the circus--where, presumably, they'd been trained to play in the house band. Opener "Mister Jung Stuffed" gets this halloween beach party started right, full of energy and featuring backing vocals that could be ripped from the Beetlejuice cartoon. Lead singer Honus Honus (Ryan Kattner) growls through the album's heartbreak, his frightening intensity merging with vulnerability, and he's one of the band's signature assets, though he's far from the only one. The lyrics here are always inventive, full of graphic imagery and sly wit, referencing Aerosmith and David Lee Roth as they blast out song after song that blows those bloated legacies out of the water.

There's not a song on here not to love, and it all climaxes with the epic pay-off "Poor Jackie", the type of song you can tell they've been cautiously restraining themselves from the whole time. Providing the album's catchiest, simplest hook and never settling anywhere too long, it's the album's most fascinating song. Closer "Whalebones", then, provides satisfying dénouement--something you rarely find on any album--and proves, along with the title track and "Doo Right", that they can do the slower songs just as well without sacrificing a thing. Many complain that Man Man recorded material hardly does justice their live act--I was upset to have missed their early show at this year's Coachella--but honestly, I can't imagine the music getting much better than this.

Rip It Off: 7/10
Rabbit Habits: 10/10

2008-06-12T20:51:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing (2008)
Holy Fuck - LP (2007)

Is it just me or do indie bands tend to cannibalize names to delirium? Whether it's Wolf Parade, Wolfmother, Wolf Eyes, Frog Eyes, Deerhunter, Deerhoof, Crystal Antlers, Crystal Castles, No Age, No Kids, Cool Kids, Black Kids, Black Keys, or Black Lips, it can get a little confusing. Emerging in the middle of this clusterfuck last year, then, were the experimental, mostly instrumental rockers Holy Fuck and the Fuck Buttons, ready to prove to America that two expletives do make a positive.

I'll start with the more abstract noise of the Fuck Button's debut Street Horrrsing. Music like this is difficult to critique except to say when all the loops, repetitions, and feedback entrance and when they don't. It's most of the time here, and the first half of the album grips the listener. Opener "Sweet Love for Humanity" lulls the listener into a dreamy security before piling on fiery feedback, slowly building in noisy intensity to extraordinary effect. The brief "Ribs Out" is a monkey-house themed delight. And "Okay, Let's Talk About Magic" is the album's dark epic, thrilling and rich to the end. Until this point, Street Horrrsing seems destined to become a classic, but it loses its hypnotic hold midway on "Race You To My Bedroom/Spirit Race", an overlong palette cleanser whose blank feedback seems to go nowhere for an unfortunate length of time. Perhaps Fuck Buttons are something of a Rorschach test for how one listens to music, but it's a relief when the album returns with the relatively more melodic, forkcasted "Bright Tomorrow". But though this bright track does its best to suck you back in with its grimy turn around the four minute mark, it's not enough to overcome the previous track. And similarly, when closer "Colors Move" returns to the zoo noise, it feels a little fatiguing rather than refreshing. Fuck Buttons are obviously a band to watch and often brilliant, but Street Horrrsing feels frustratingly uneven.

Coming after this, Canadian act Holy Fuck--winner of cute-as-a-fuck-button Rachel Ray's SXSW approval--were a refreshing change of pace. With their shorter, easier-to-follow songs, they're more readily accessible, though not quite as satisfying. The star of their music, of course, is their goal of creating electronica without computers, and it's a philosophy more bands should consider, as the results on LP are unusually striking. Though they make use of plenty of synthesized noises, this still feels much more exciting than other electronica, and LP stands as a testament to the way that designing music through a computer can really suck the life out of it. Most of the songs here follow a palatable build-and-climax structure, and it's routinely successful. But though they come close with "Lovely Allen", Holy Fuck never quite hits it out of the park. As with the Fuck Buttons, Holy Fuck are obviously a band to get excited about, but LP does leave you wanting just a little more. Not that I'm complaining.

Street Horrrsing: 8/10
LP: 7/10

Alive 2008: Los Campesinos!

2008-06-12T13:57:00.000-04:00

A concert review...
Los Campesinos! with Parenthetical Girls (and Abe Vigoda, sorta)
The Troubadour, Saturday, June 7, 2008

The last time I went to the Troubadour, it was to see Robyn, for which there were no opening acts, so I was surprised when we got there an hour late and the bartender informed us that we'd already missed Abe Vigoda and that another opener was setting up. I was a little bummed about Abe Vigoda, but they're local, so hopefully they'll show up at another show before I leave L.A.--annoyingly they appear to be opening for Times New Viking at their Monday show at the Smell but not at the one I'm going to Sunday at the Echo. Regardless, Los Camp's other opener more than made up for it.

Parenthetical Girls opened with lead singer Zac Pennington banging drumsticks on every hard surface within microphone wire range and wandering dreamily through the disoriented crowd as he sang his melodramatic heart out. I was sold before they even announced who they were ("Hey, I've heard of them!"), and they put on a terrific set. Even if his vocals are occasionally questionable, Pennington is a born performer, his dry wit dominating the set as much as the pretty music. The band did a lot to keep the seemingly indifferent audience on their toes: audience cruising was regular, they played musical chairs with their instruments throughout, and they gave away a single Go Girl low-cal energy drink to a guy at the front before bantering about its toxic additives, remaining ironically ambiguous about whether they were hawking or mocking the product--either way, it was funny.

When Los Campesinos! came out, Parenthetical Girls remained in the front row, leaping up and down through their best songs and often pulling the lead Campesinos! down from the stage and cheering him on. It added a nice element to a set that might otherwise have lacked spontaneity, given a seven member band and a one-man stage. They were, naturally, full of angst and energy, and they sounded great live, but it was disappointing not to be able to hear the lyrics very clearly--it's one of their best selling points and something that helps distinguish many of their similar sounding songs from each other. The audience did not seem overly familiar with their material--with the introduction to "We Are All Accelerated Readers" only garnering one cheer... from me--but they were enthusiastic nonetheless; Los Campesinos! seemed to be both excited and intimidated by the full theater. It was a good set, but I suspect they'll improve it with time and more material.

7/10

Also: the Troubadour is very professional and the design is good, but if you're tall and used to standing in the back, watch out for shows this crowded. If you end up behind the balcony overhang by the bar, you've gone too far, and there's a major drop in the sound.
I didn't take pictures, but it was something like this.

Black Sheep: Weezer

2008-06-11T22:03:00.000-04:00

Black Sheep is a new feature that rethinks beloved bands' most hated albums.

On today's mix...
Weezer - Maladroit (2002)

Weezer may not be the best band to introduce this feature; at this point, they actually have more widely reviled albums than beloved ones. The point in question, though, is where it really all went wrong, and I suspect most people would point here. Anybody with ears can say that Weezer have never been the same since the post-Pinkerton hiatus, but the Green Album has already been discussed to death. If you still don't like it, you're probably incapable of enjoying pop music. So I'm instead going to focus on the underrated follow-up, Maladroit. Expectations were everything here, and everyone was secretly hoping that Maladroit would be a major return to form, or at least deliver the same incessantly catchy fun of the Green Album. When Maladroit delivered neither, it ultimately ended up getting more or less lost and ignored, suffering the same kind of misguided backlash that led Pinkerton to be underrated for so long.

Maladroit is not quite Pinkerton, but like Pinkerton, it is a heavier, more filling album than its respective eponymous predecessor. Like the Green Album, this album keeps the songs concise and wisely concludes around the half hour mark; however, Maladroit finds much more room for experimentation than the more conventionally structured Green Album songs allowed. Weezer sound much more like a true band here, and they impress by providing both an exciting riff and an earwormy hook on nearly every song. The results are much more consistent and much more visceral than nearly anything else in their discography, and in particular, "Burnt Jamb", "Keep Fishin'", and "American Gigalo" are among the most delightful things they've ever recorded. If the lyrics don't hold up to the memorable stuff of their first two albums, it's sheer energy makes up for it. Had Maladroit come earlier in Weezer's uneven career, it might be a classic.

9/10

2008-06-11T02:59:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III

It's the album everyone's talking about today, and the consensus is clear: Lil Wayne really is that good. Tha Carter III's 16 full-blooded songs--no interludes!--prove that the club-ready "Lollipop" was, in fact, Wayne dumbing down his act. He's on fire here on every track, and it's one of few rap albums ever to reach such a level of consistency.

The first few songs seem clearly poised for singledom, and as is proper, they embrace all the cliches: boasting, decadence, homophobia, misogyny. But Weezy impresses by dropping so many great lines in the process that the seemingly inevitable fallbacks are much too easily forgivable. Similarly, the music throughout is hardly breaking new boundaries, never veering far from that disposable club dreck you spend so much effort avoiding, but it's only a minor annoyance. The rapping is the star here, and his producers are at least giving him their relative best. At worst you'll be thinking, "Hey, I guess that shit's popular for a reason."

That being said, every song on this album is poised to be a huge hit. If most popular rap songs survive off of two or three great lines, every song on Tha Carter III offers a dozen or more. Even the Hurricane Katrina song and the tributes to his daughter are effective, something you might not suspect from the comic persona dominant on the majority of the album. Rap is, obviously, not my area of expertise, but Tha Carter III is an album that demands attention. I'm happy to hear that it lives up to the hype. It will easily top many year-end lists, and it may very well end up being the first rap album I've truly loved.

9/10

2008-06-10T02:46:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
HEALTH - HEALTH (2007)
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (2008)

Given that the star player on Crystal Castles' full-length debut is their remix of "Crimewave" from HEALTH's full-length debut, I decided to pair up the eponymous albums for my run today.

HEALTH's debut is simple, assured, and effective. Placing heavy drum in the forefront, the music never gets wrapped up much in conventional melody, and HEALTH functions much more as half hour experiment than as a collection of songs. The entire album was recorded at L.A. venue the Smell using basic instruments, and the dynamic, organic sound that results is key in keeping their ambitions so immediately palatable. The music is hypnotic and visceral. They're a perfect running band.

Crystal Castles are, in approach, HEALTH's polar opposite. Where HEALTH is spare and organic, Crystal Castles is busy and gleefully synthetic. The instrument of choice here seems to be old Nintendo cartridges, and while it's the band's hook, they're serious about the sound's potential and never let it become a mere gimmick. Though there are few album stand-outs, Crystal Castles are good at keeping each track unique and exciting, a task many of their electro-pop piers have yet to master. And the trick's pretty simple: it's all fucking crazy. With the exception of "1991", which apes Ratatat so closely it may very well be intended as parody, the music here is consistently rich and fresh, tailor-made for the 2008 indie scene yet distinctively their own. Perfect for a party.

HEALTH - 8/10
Crystal Castles - 8/10

2008-06-04T21:09:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
R.E.M. - Accelerate (2008)
The Breeders - Mountain Battles (2008)

90's survivors and 50-pushers R.E.M. and the Breeders both surprised with new releases this year: R.E.M. by releasing an album that wasn't terrible and the Breeders by releasing an album at all.

R.E.M.'s Accelerate isn't exactly a return to form, but it's nice nonetheless, a kind of gift to everyone who's stuck with them through mainstream blandness. The changes are simple but effective: louden up, keep up the pace, and cut down the runtime. Album opener "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" is more than a throwback to "Radio Free Europe"; it's a fierce declaration that they're not dead yet. It's also the album's best moment, though the next few tracks maintain the energy and freshness. If none of these songs stick quite like their early material, the lyrics may be somewhat to blame. "Supernatural Superserious" has a title that begs your love, but the chorus of "and you cry and you cry and you cry and you cry" isn't the most inspired. Similarly, Stipe's call to "kick it out on the dancefloor like you just don't care" on "Man-Sized Wreath" and his declarations on the closer that "I'm not gonna go until I'm good and ready" and "I'm gonna DJ at the end of the world" feel forced. Accelerate is not a great album given what R.E.M. have already accomplished, but it's an appreciated effort nonetheless. It's evidence that R.E.M. really do still care about making music and that maybe their best isn't all behind them.

The Breeders, of course, have never enjoyed quite the absolute acclaim of R.E.M. It's not to say they haven't had their fair share of love--they have--but critical reception has always been muddled by three things: 1) Kim Deal is part Pixie, 2) the output and line-up of the Breeders is so inconsistent that it's difficult to imagine them as a truly functioning band, and 3) "Cannonball", a single so spectacularly untoppable--and so wildly different than the rest of their output--that all other releases are inevitably disappointing. Forget those things. Mountain Battles is a masterpiece and might be an clear contender for album of the year were the Deal twins not so content to wallow in its reverb. At 36 minutes, the Breeders somehow manage to produce the epic masterpiece the title suggests and barely break a sweat. Where R.E.M. chose to pump up the energy, the Breeders sound like they could've recorded this album in their sleep--their really, really awesome sleep. The sound here is so familiar and spare that it's difficult at first to realize what an accomplishment this is. Their other albums were so inconsistent, the listener equivalent of mining for gold in a shapeless dreamland--usually with the end result of pilfering out the treasure onto mix cds and forgetting the rest. But halfway through Mountain Battles, it really hits you: every song here is that one you've been waiting for. Whether it's the fucked up drumbeat on "Bang On", the eerie build of "We're Gonna Rise", the chanting on "Istanbul", the German and Spanish tracks, the poppy "Walk It Off", or the nearly a capella title track, it's always exciting. And it's especially impressive because it's so spare, so unnoisy, so seemingly effortless. They don't have to pump up the amps to show their emotional range, and they don't need an orchestra either; the Deal sisters are warriors and never has it come across so strongly as on Mountain Battles. They close the album by noting that they're "thinking of things to do." Hopefully, they'll consider making another. It's nice to see a band peak at 20, and if fewer seemed to take note of this success than R.E.M.'s, it's only because they were thrown off to hear from them in the first place.

Accelerate: 6/10
Mountain Battles: 10/10

2008-06-03T21:08:00.001-04:00

On today's mix...
The Kills - Midnight Boom (2008)
The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing (2008)

UK-approved brats the Ting Tings and the equally CW-ready Kills are two flavors from the same pack of gum, and it seemed pretty logical to pair them up for a run.

The Kills declare their flavor on "Sour Cherry", and indeed, they're the darker of the two, with lead singer Alison Mosshart coming off like a sexed up Karen O. Though tracks like "M.E.X.I.C.O." and "U.R.A. Fever" hit the spot here and there, the comparison is an unfavorable one. The Kills never rock out as hard as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs--try as they might on tracks on "Tape Song" and "Hook and Line"--and as closer "Goodnight Bad Morning" indicates, they don't clean up as well either. Midnight Boom is a fun record, but you wish that the band would come alive and declare some of their own territory more than they do with this set of songs.

It's tempting, meanwhile, to say that Ting Tings lead singer Katie White comes off as Beth Ditto trying out for the All Girl Summer Band, but if the anthemic "That's Not My Name" is any indication, she would surely protest. The Ting Tings are simply having more fun, whether they're hiccuping the chorus to "Great DJ" or screaming at you to get off their shit in the Apple-approved "Shut Up And Let Me Go". While the Kills merely lament being the only "Sour Cherry" in the fruit stand, Katie White is taking some action about being treated like a "Fruit Machine"--blending Nancy Sinatra and Avril Lavigne to predictably fun results. Such a confection loses its flavor as quickly as an episode of Gossip Girl, and the charm is gone by the time you reach the overlong title track, but like Gossip Girl, it's pretty impossible to hate.

Neither the Ting Tings nor the Kills are likely bands that people will be talking about next year or even come the new fall line-up, but you could do worse for a run.

Midnight Boom - 4/10
We Started Nothing - 6/10

2008-06-02T21:18:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster... (2008)

Never has a band deserved an exclamation point in their band name as much as Los Campesinos! I heard of the Welsh seven-piece through their zippy cover of Pavement's "Frontwards"--by far the most played track on my iTunes--and they more than follow through on their full-length debut. Hold On Now, Youngster... is the sound of a band busting out the gates at full speed, doing cartwheels, flips, and somersaults as they race through the trials of the heart, never bracing themselves for the inevitable crashes, and always getting up to run through the pain before their wounds have even been properly sutured. Through it all, their lively charm never wears thin or grows overly predictable. Hold On is a wild delight, full of male-female vocal exchanges and melodic counterpoint, unafraid to switch up the pace at the drop of a hat or suddenly build up into something epic, always with good humor. Though "You! Me! Dancing!" is a gem, the album highlight is "We Are All Accelerate Readers", an unstoppable heartbreaker that bemoans the immortality of cereal box characters, shouts to the skies that the opposite of love is reality, and bitterly laughs, "I'm no Toni Braxton." Toni Braxton wishes. Los Campesinos! are even more irresistible than "He Wasn't Man Enough For Me", and I mean that as the highest compliment.

9/10

2008-06-02T02:59:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair (2008)

So my roommate recently heard this being played at Prada, and "Blind" is the free single of the week on iTunes--currently rocking an unprecedented 1.5/5 user rating (based on 2,500 votes)--so I decided now might be time to give Hercules and Love Affair a closer listen.

I'm, of course, flabbergasted by the iTunes user response to "Blind". With Antony Hegarty's incomparable voice, those horns, and its thrilling payoff, it will almost certainly go down as the best dance track of 2008. It's seriously spectacular. That being said, I read that it was recorded earlier than the rest of the album and used as a selling point to get this album off the ground, and hearing the rest of Hercules and Love Affair now, it shows. Nearly every other track on Hercules and Love Affair seems to be building off of "Blind"'s many elements; unfortunately, it's always to lesser effect.

The album opens smartly, placing Hegarty's voice front and center as he growls, "Don't lie to me!" on "Time Will". Despite being stuffed with good ideas, though, it never really gets past its convoluted melody. "Hercules Theme", meanwhile, piles on the horns and violins, but the whole affair lacks tension. By about midway, the album's Miles-Davis-meets-90's-house shtick starts to get a little monotonous. Fortunately, they then hit you with the comparatively epic "Blind", a track which makes you wonder if the other tracks might have been improved simply by elongating them and giving them more room to work their stuff.

The album's second half marks a welcome slowing down of pace for the album. "Iris" and "Easy", which follow, are easily the album's most effective non-"Blind" moments, proving that a calmer, more focused approach can also yield greatness.

But the remainder of the album is throwaway material. "Raise Me Up" puts Hegarty on the main mic again, promising another "Blind" but not really delivering. And closer "True False/Fake Real" is a fun exercise in layering with a few nice surprises, but it doesn't add up to much.

It's all pretty delightful, regardless, but it's definitely disappointing that none of the other tracks stand strong next to the album's lead single. I wanted to hear these track build a little more. Hercules and Love Affair is a sporadically great but unfocused debut.

7/10

2008-05-30T22:45:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Weezer - The Red Album (2008)
Alanis Morissette - Flavors of Entanglement (2008)

Another day, another set of albums I listen to out of obligation to my grade school self.

Weezer's latest eponymous effort isn't Make Believe, thankfully, but it's not far off. At best, it's lively and unmemorable; at worst, it's obnoxious enough to make you seriously consider why you ever liked Weezer in the first place. Cuomo and crew seem to have responded to the flack they received over "Beverly Hills" by opening their new album with four new songs about fame. Really, guys? Just because it's ironic doesn't make it right.

Musically, they at least seem to be having a little more fun than on their last outing. "Troublemaker" promises a fun ride, even if the chorus drags. Six-minute follow-up "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" gets points for effort, but all the epic frills can't disguise that it was never a particularly interesting song to begin with. By the time you get to the (otherwise appreciated) Timbaland diss on "Pork and Beans", the self-conscious charm has faded--big time--and hearing Cuomo sing about his underwear for the second time on the album is just embarrassing. Of course, it's not as embarrassing as making two choruses about angels, as he does on the Make Believe-reminiscent closers "Cold Dark World" and "The Angel and the One", but you'd be better off skipping those ones entirely.

There are few nice moments. The album's other epic, "Dreamin'", wouldn't seem that out of place on the Blue Album, by which I mean it's the album's best track. And Brian Bell's "Thought I Knew" works well enough, even if it sounds pretty out of place here. But neither can disguise the fact that Weezer needed to deliver something better if they wanted to offset people's declining interest in the band--though they swear that they "don't give a hoot about what you think" on "Pork and Beans". Despite some nice moments here and there, Weezer don't seem like they're giving their all, and the overall result is a lackluster, occasionally awful album that I'm unlikely to return to after today.

Fewer still are likely to devote their attention to Alanis Morissette's new releases, but old habits die hard, I still believe she's capable of a great song here and there, and hey, that "My Humps" parody was really funny. Her latest, Flavors of Entanglement, centers largely around her separation from long-time boyfriend Ryan Reynolds, but it's further evidence that she's still suffering from her separation from Glen Ballard. Here she teams up with Guy Sigworth--occasional Bjork collaborator, one half of Frou Frou, and creator of a pretty amazing remix of Mirah's "La Familia"--in the hopes of revitalizing a sound that's gotten pretty predictable. The appropriate point of reference here might be Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie's surprise dance-pop highlight "So Pure"--a long-shot song that melted away the heavy monotony of the rest of the album and has proved to be her best post-Jagged moment.

Unfortunately, the electro match-up is a bust, with Sigworth's production doing Alanis' idiosyncratic flavor no favors. It often seems wildly inappropriate, actually. Opener "Citizen of the World" is fun enough as a heavy rocker, but it's hard to understand why she'd be so pissed off about being well-traveled. Meanwhile, "Straightjacket" thrills as Alanis drops the f-bomb before declaring "This shit's making me crazy!", but then Sigworth turns it into a dance track. Mostly, though, the production fails by playing down Alanis rather than putting her front-and-center, and it's often hard to find her behind the pretty noise. Nowhere is this more evident than on (appropriately titled) lead single "Underneath". If the success of her "My Humps" parody proved anything, it's that Alanis has a delivery as distinct and iconic as Bjork. Layering this voice has, thus, provided some of the most exciting moments of her career--the opening of "Front Row", Under Rug Swept's hilarious "Narcissus", and of course, that chorus on "Ironic". But Flavors of Entanglement botches the effect over and over, muting the distinctiveness into a wave of bland, as on "Underneath"'s chorus. The album's best moments tend to come when the production takes a rest, as on the PCH-referencing opening to "Giggling For No Reason" and closer "Incomplete".

Of course, there's a bigger issue and a much more obvious one: songwriting. It's no secret that Alanis got some help from Glen Ballard on essentially every great track of hers, and while it's admirable for her to aim to create music that's exclusively hers, she needs help in places. Namely, all of her tracks build to a chorus, and it's never as fun as you'd hoped; it's always long-winded and awkward. And her lyrics can go too far: "In Praise of the Vulnerable Man" is just as painful as it sounds. Girl needs an editor. I'm not saying she needs to regress to Glen Ballad, but she should seriously consider joining a band (or maybe hooking up with someone who makes songs instead of Blade sequels.)

Flavors of Entanglement isn't a bad album, but it's another in a line of strikingly unstriking albums by Morissette. Of course, given that she could sing "Hand In My Pocket" for the rest of her career and die a rich woman, she probably doesn't care. But it seems like there are better avenues to explore than this.

The Red Album: 2/10
Flavors of Entanglement: 3/10

2008-05-29T23:42:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Beach House - Devotion (2008)

Beach House's music exists as in a dream state, one perpetually threatening to fall into nightmare. Devotion, the follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut, is a spare, relaxing, unhurried, and uneasy album, a good album for a nighttime drive. Highlights like "Wedding Bell" and "D.A.R.L.I.N.G." provide lovely melodies offset by backing music that never leads you quite where you expect. The many instruments throughout the album--guitar, organ, and tambourine, most dominantly--sound as though they're being played underwater (possibly at the beach?), but the sound is never muddled or overly busy. Beach House impress by delivering a distinct, hypnotic soundscape in Devotion without getting monotonous or sacrificing songcraft.

8/10

2008-05-29T02:59:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
No Age - Nouns (2008)

Is it just me and my rudimentary knowledge of music before 1995, or are No Age incredibly retro? You can certainly hear some of Animal Collective's melodicism and the delivery of tour mates Liars, but their sound much more readily recalls the dirty indie of yore: Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, the Soft Boys, Black Flag, and maybe even the Monks. This is shoegaze meets punk--all very lo-fi--and very little about Nouns suggests that it was made in 2008.

That being said, it's a lot of fun. If it seems tailor made for the critics at Pitchfork (who unsurprisingly have given it their highest rating of the year thus far) it's not a bad thing. Despite influences that could drag it down, Nouns is an energetic thrill, and No Age packs each track with some nice surprises. Opener "Miner" begins Autechre-y before crossing into shoegaze at the twenty second mark. "Teen Creeps" is a major highlight, offering a clean, playful riff before blasting into a lo-fi jam. And "Things I Did When I Was Dead" sets the rhythm to a seriously menacing loop but ends up being the album's most conventionally lovely song, adding in some unexpected piano to an album otherwise dominated by guitar and static.

The album adds up to a quick, fleeting romp, full of great ideas that No Age never dwell on for long--the album's twelve songs average around 2 and a half minutes each. Good for keeping it fun, bad for keeping it memorable. Five minutes after the finish, it'll likely have left your head entirely, but it's pretty delightful while it lasts.

8/10

2008-05-27T21:25:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours (2008)

Australian indie-electro act Cut Copy are likely the most hyped new band of the year behind Vampire Weekend, and it's easy to see why. They're fun, they toured with Daft Punk, they make cool music videos, and they're apparently unstoppable live, generating the kind of enthusiastic reactions that got Hot Chip where they are now. But Cut Copy are no Hot Chip, or not as evident on In Ghost Colours.

It's an impressive album, absolutely, full of layered songs and nice enough ideas. Like Ratatat before them, though, the whole thing can get a little monotonous. It's an album that's certainly never bad, but it's also one with few good hooks and few overall highlights. Nearly every second on this album is soaked in dreamy synthesizer, and you get the feeling that a little instrumental variation could have done wonders. "So Haunted" is striking merely because of the presence of guitars. "Hearts on Fire" adds some vocal samples recalling "It Takes Two" by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock and Britney Spears's "Piece of Me" but ultimately works by adding some "Careless Whisper"-esque horns for its climax--it's the album's most successful moment.

All things considered, while In Ghost Colours successfully combines disposable 80's pop with current indie-electro tends, its techniques and range are too narrow, ultimately at the expense of memorable music. It's worth a listen, and it's fun for the most part, but it never feels as exciting as music like this should.

7/10

electro-pop idol

2008-05-23T01:27:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Justice - † (2007)
Ratatat - Ratatat (2004)

With Human After All a distant dud, and Daft Punk ensuring their legacy by doing all but creating new music, it may be time to start looking for a new king for the electro-pop they pioneered. So in the spirit of competition--following last night's American Idol t.r.a.v.e.s.t.y.--I decided to add the debuts of Ratatat and Justice to my mix today, bands I've loved from the singles but haven't heard through a whole album. With their electric harpsichords promising J. S. Bach-to-the-future, Ratatat are great at building off Daft Punk's ambition, while the hypnotically delightful Justice are content to melt it down to its most fun elements.

Of course, fun trumps ambition when it comes to setting out on a run, so I put † first on my mix. Justice aren't afraid to make their ambitions clear: giving the first two tracks the tongue-and-cheek names "Genesis" and "Let There Be Light", they'd like to write the Bible on fun. Really, they're not too far off. The Michael Jackson homage "D.A.N.C.E." was the definitive summer '07 song and as fun as anything Jackson himself ever produced. If it's not particularly representative of the album as a whole, though, it's not a bad thing.

It's fun to piece together the various influences. Daft Punk, obviously, reigns strong. "Phantom" is a worthy follow-up to "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", again proving that the human voice can be the most exciting instrument if properly exploited. "Phantom, Part 2", meanwhile, continues with the same beat but instead evokes Discovery's "Veridis Quo". The poppy "DVNO" samples disco classic "Forget Me Nots" (or maybe just Will Smith). And "Stress" moves forward off of the beehive opening of Hot Chip's "Over and Over".

Aside from the more straightforward "DVNO", "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy", and "D.A.N.C.E.", the album mostly succeeds through their love of chopping up vocals and scattering, replacing odd beats with indecipherable snippits. And while the gimmick is enough to keep the album fun throughout, it feels arbitrary as often as not, and the album, thus, tends to fall apart the more you dissect it. However, it's impossible to deny that † simply works. It's hard to reach a verdict on Justice at this point, but tracks like "D.A.N.C.E." and "Waters of Nazareth" ensure that you'll be back for more once they release their follow-up.

Ratatat have a sound that's striking and immediate, and four years later, their debut still sounds fresh. Their glossy, Baroque electronica is impossible to resist on opener "Seventeen Years", and I was really excited to hear them expand on the sound. Unfortunately, they don't. The sound is remarkably consistent throughout, with the end result that the vast majority of the tracks are difficult to distinguish from each other. "Germany to Germany" and closer "Cherry" might be triumphs on any other album, but it's hard to escape the monotony--though, of course, it's an exceptionally awesome monotony. Anyone who enjoyed "Seventeen Years" will enjoy this album, but it's best relegated to the background. It really can't compare with † in terms of richness, but it did compel me to run an extra 3.5 miles to hear it through.

For now, I'd give Justice the edge in my imaginary race to the electro-pop throne. We'll see, though, what else Ratatat have to offer when they drop LP3 and LP4 in the next few months.

†: 9/10
Ratatat: 5/10

Alive 2008: the invasion

2008-05-22T04:30:00.000-04:00

A concert review...
El Perro Del Mar and Lykke Li, With Anna Ternheim
The El Ray, Monday, May 19, 2008

El Perro Del Mar and Lykke Li packed an excellent show, the kind of energetic, well orchestrated affair you might not expect given that the music of both tends to be rather subdued. Opener (and fellow Swede) Anna Ternheim called it the "Swedish Girls Take Over the World Tour 2008", which seemed especially fitting given that Robyn just made her second stop in L.A. in less than six months at the Wiltern this past Saturday.

I arrived just in time to see Ternheim play. She did most of her set solo, but ber best moments came when turned on some accompaniment--"my band comes with a play button." Pretty cute.

Lykke Li played next--she was technically an opener as well, though her level of fame has risen considerably since this tour began. Girl dominated. She opened quietly--accompanying herself solo on ballad "Time Flies" with some sort of bizarre mini-piano toy--before her band came out, moved into "Dance Dance Dance", Lykke banged the cymbals, and things really got things started. Girl can dance. The lush production of Youth Novels and the "your new Fiona Apple" shots of her in the "I'm Good, I'm Gone" video really don't prepare you for the energy she brought to the stage. It was immediately clear what all the hype's been about. Everything here sounded cleaner and more exciting than on the album, and she seemed to have a good sense of her stronger material. She brought out El Perro Del Mar to create a very full version of "My" that was impressive to see live from an indie act. Girl rehearsed.

El Perro Del Mar opened by doing "Party" and "Dog" solo, just her and a guitar, proving her impressive presence as well as reinforcing the strength of her debut. The girl-group production was never really necessary. Lykke is a difficult act to follow, but El Perro Del Mar brought her glamorous sadness to the stage and made it her own. Her banter--"Are you happy with the world today?"--was worth the price of admission. Also: her double-take when a girl in the audience shouted, "Your music helped my life!" She brought Lykke back out for "Inner Island" and "You Can't Steal a Gift", and they did a fun encore together--"After Laughter (Comes the Tears)". But by this point in the show, their sensibilities were so clearly different that it was rather jarring to see them together on the same stage. Are these Swedish musicians all friends? Are they all hanging out together right now at some poolside in L.A. with Robyn and Perez Hilton?

Regardless, it was two great shows for the price of one. I'd recommend it highly to anyone were this not the end of their American tour.

10/10

Also: The El Ray gets bonus points for providing amazing sound throughout. I saw Patrick Wolf here, too, and it really might be the best venue in L.A.
I didn't take pictures, but it was something like this.

2008-05-22T02:51:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (2008)

Given the cover art for their eponymous full-length debut, Fleet Foxes seem to be new entrants in an unlikely indie-minstrel movement (not the black-faced kind). It's not often that comparisons to Joanna Newsom seem particularly fitting, but the songwriting on songs like "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" and the theatrical "Your Protector" simply beg them, which I mean in the best way possible. Of course, as with any band so clearly talented, they're not quite that easy to pigeonhole. The sound here is fuller and folksier than Newsom--the instrument of choice is guitar, and lush harmonies abound--but the results are nearly as impressive.

It's actually difficult to get past the sheer pleasantness of the album's sound at first, but close attention pays off. The lively, windy "Ragged Wood" makes a strong early impression, and closer "Oliver Jones" is the album's sparsest track--making it also the most immediately accessible--but the songwriting and melodicism is sharp throughout. This is an album made for repeat listens and close ones, but it's not a difficult album. It sounds as great playing in the background as on your iPod. It's an debut to fall in love with, proving that Fleet Foxes are decidedly worth the hype.

9/10

yet another indie band is ready for their close-up

2008-05-21T02:59:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (2008)

The hype surrounding My Morning Jacket has never been greater than as they release their follow-up to 2005's Z. The blogosphere is abuzz, they were on SNL last week, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them on the cover of Rolling Stone next week. You might expect Evil Urges, then, to simply turn up the volume, streamline the production, and announce their sound to rest of the world, but they've done something more interesting than that. The eponymous opener starts out dark and edgy as the title suggests, but it reveals its true colors at the two minute mark, when the menace melts into a hooky surprise: this is an alt-country song, as much in the vein of Lucinda Williams as the Dismemberment Plan. So much is true of the album as a whole. "Highly Suspicious" is the album's major anomaly, a Korn-style amp-and-chant freak-out that reminds me of the music I spent so much effort avoiding in junior high. However, if the sudden aggressiveness turns you off, the subsequent stretch from "I'm Amazed" to "Look at You" makes up for it with its simple country bliss.

Despite the wealth of simple songs, Evil Urges is never dull. Just as one begins to pigeonhole the album's sound, MMJ slip back into rock mode for "Aluminum Park" and "Remnants". This makes an oddly balanced album, but it never feels abrupt; the transitions are always welcome, and the songs on Evil Urges fits together surprisingly well as the work of a band excited to be recording new material, trying out new sounds. The key ingredients here are simple: the songwriting is always sharp, the band sounds great, and they're having fun. They're having fun, and I'm having fun. The album is an unqualified success.

10/10

2008-05-20T02:59:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Islands - Arm's Way (2008)

If you remember Islands from the bouncy hooks of "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby" and "Rough Gem", their newest offering will come as something of a surprise, albeit a welcome one. Instead of embracing the summery pop that infused much of their debut, Islands have instead delivered the menacing Arm's Way, a full-fledged epic rock album, right down to its delightfully over-the-top cover art. Lead singer/songwriter Nick Diamonds is smart enough never to fall into parody, however, and this is thankfully much more than a Yes tribute. Though the sound is decidedly different this time around--to the point where it's surprising that Diamonds chose to hold on to the Islands moniker at all--the experimental spirit of debut Return to Sea is much the same. Opener "The Arm" begins with a sinister riff backed by violins; however, he shuts off the theatrics for the song's hooky recurring bridge, delivering some delightful indie pop before diving back into the forceful refrain. "J'aime Vous Voir Quitter", meanwhile, begins with similar gusto--with Diamonds declaring that he's been "stabbed in the face"--before ultimately breaking down into a playful island dance-off. Of course, the album's best moment is one of its most concise, the lead single "Creeper", a paranoid thriller of a pop song whose intricate texture gets more satisfying with every listen. Nonetheless, it's album's many epics that make the album; and Arm's Way is an ambitious success throughout, an album that's complex but accessible, dark but delightful, theatrical but never cartoonish, and adventurously meandering but never shapeless. It's one of the year's most satisfying efforts--and a great running mix.

9/10

2008-05-19T02:17:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us (2008)

The latest album from married duo Mates of State is a truly irresistible indie pop confection. Enthusiastic harmony, clean production, and stuttery hooks dominate Re-Arrange Us, always to excellent effect. The fast-paced ballad "My Only Offer" offers the album's catchiest chorus, but the uplifting "Get Better" and "The Re-Arranger" are its greatest assets--and likely the best pop songs you'll hear all year. When the hooks miss, however, as on many of the album's other seven tracks, the songs tend to be unmemorable. The second half of Re-Arrange Us consists mostly of lower energy tracks, and the results are always lovely and charming (even when the subject matter is relationship troubles), but they're rarely particularly compelling. Other than "You Are Free"--which builds up to a surprisingly effective conclusion--the rest of the album's tracks have the feel of polished B-sides. Nonetheless, as with Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, even the album's weaker tracks only feel weak in the context of the album's incredible strengths, and the band's sound and personality carries through to the end. The Mates of State are a couple to cherish, and the breezy Re-Arrange Us is the perfect album to kick off your summer.

8/10

where overhype meets regular hype

2008-05-14T00:35:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs (2008)

After reading Pitchfork's dismissive review for Death Cab's latest--released today--I feel compelled to come to its defense. I've always been pretty dismissive of Death Cab myself. This past Coachella, I was amused to see that anyone would bother with their set when scheduled against Hot Chip's spectacular live show; I saw them as merely a dull, overhyped indie rock relic with lyrical sentiments that reflect the emotional depth of a love-lorn 8th grader. However, two minutes into Narrow Stairs, I was converted completely. Opener "Bixby Canyon Bridge" begins like any other Death Cab song--a protagonist revisits the ridge where a lost love died--but then, well, it picks up the pace. As the song twists and turns, it soon became clear to me that this is no "New Year" or "Soul Meets Body"--this is the work of a band, and one with something to prove. This is decidedly the only Death Cab album I'd recommend running to. The eight and a half minute first single "I Will Possess Your Heart" may seem like a deliberate attempt to shed a radio audience, but it's a red herring: this is Death Cab's most radio friendly album to date. Narrow Stairs is a makeover akin to Rilo Kiley's on Under the Blacklight, but unlike that band, Death Cab accompanies the polish and shine with their most impressive, unusual songwriting yet and their most exciting playing as a band. There's not a single dull moment on this album. Every track creates a new world of disfunctional love, and for once, it's compelling. "No Sunshine" is a highlight, pairing up the story of an optimist driven down by a hard life with the album's peppiest melody. Even Ben Gibbard's lamer sentiments here, such as his story of a guy struggling not to be the remainder in a relationship's "Long Division", become endearing in light of the new energy apparent on the album. "Long Division" is also the closest this band had come to power pop, and it's a difficult confection to resist--for the record I've always loved long division. And I like to pretend that "Cath...", a story about a woman preparing to marry mourning her decision to cast away the "many men who would have loved [her] more," is about the recently married Cathy Guisewite:

But the album's best moments come from risks like "I Will Possess Your Heart" and the haunting "Pity and Fear", and they're ample proof that this is a band hitting a rich new career turn stronger than ever--like R.E.M. setting out on Warner Bros. in the 90's--rather than a last hurrah--like, perhaps, Accelerate. Narrow Stairs presents a newly accessible, much improved version of a band I'd never even realized I liked, and it's already one of the best albums of the year.

9/10

swedish girls that aren't robyn

2008-05-13T02:54:00.000-04:00

On today's mix...
Lykke Li - Youth Novels (2008)
El Perro Del Mar - From the Valley to the Stars (2008)

22-year-old singer-songwriter Lykke Li has been getting a lot of press lately thanks to the hypnotic single “I’m Good, I’m Gone” and it’s stop-motion, Shining-evoking music video; and while her debut album Youth Novels awaits a U.S. release date, she’s touring the country with fellow Swedish siren El Perro Del Mar. I’m seeing them next week at the El Ray, so I decided to pair up Youth Novels and El Perro’s sophomore effort From the Valley to the Stars on my run today.

Youth Novels is an exciting but uneven debut. Album opener “Melodies & Desires”—a spoken-word-over-ambient-noise abstraction—may not be the best place to start out. But Lykke finds her footing on the cute, sparse “Dance Dance Dance” and especially on the album’s most sharply written moment, “I’m Good, I’m Gone”. Elsewhere, though, Lykke’s music can get a little repetitive, and Lykke’s hooks often shine the brightest when she hits the “fade out” button. “Let It Fall” thrives under three minutes, whereas “Little Bit” gets a little tedious at four and a half. And when the hooks do not hook, such as on the tiresome “Complaint Department”, it’s difficult not to skip to the next track. However, it’s hard to pinpoint anything wrong in her method, as nearly every miss on this album is accompanied by a direct hit. Where “Melodies & Desires” methods seemed flawed, for instance, the same approach produces the gorgeous, Lynch-ian “The Trumpet in My Head”. Of course, the saving grace of this album is Bjorn Yttling (of PB&J) and Lasse Marten’s production, and even when Lykke’s writing flounders, the songs still soar. “My” may be a little indistinct, but it’s likely the album’s most sonically lush moment. All things considered, though, I prefer when the production creeps out a little more, as on the lively “Breaking Up” (which, unlike recent Rilo Kiley and Gwen Stefani songs of the same name, manages to skirt the cell phone metaphors) or with the haunting closer “Window Blues”. I suspect Lykke Li’s best days may lie in the future, but Youth Novels gives us plenty of exciting songs to soak in for the meantime.

El Perro Del Mar has also delivered a sonically beautiful new record, albeit a more tranquil one. Gone is verge-of-tears warble that dominated her eponymous 2006 debut, replaced by mere downheartedness, and it’s rather surprising to hear the album open with a seemingly unironic song entitled “Jubilee”— a reference to the religious hymns of her childhood that she’s stated inspired her writing on this record. Yes, while From the Valley to the Stars matches its predecessor in beauty (and possibly even trumps it), it showcases a more emotionally demure Perro. Like Cat Power’s turnaround The Greatest, this is still a somber record, but not necessarily a depressing one. Whether she’s looking on the bright side of loneliness on “Inner Island” or whether she’s advising on “Do Not Despair”, it’s clear that she’s measured out that despair of her debut into something manageable and is looking forward—albeit warily—to better days ahead. Of course, this does not make for as exciting an album as El Perro Del Mar, but it’s a more consistent one. Further, while no track sounds rushed, she’s improved her effectiveness by trimming most of the record's songs below three minutes. Taken all together, the effect is a beautiful record and a very mature one, full of tracks set to provide the type of gentle encouragement necessary to spur a person out of a rut in hard times.

I wasn’t sure that either of these albums would necessarily be great running music, but they were perfect for getting lost in an uncharacteristically gray May afternoon. I ended up recording one of my best (and most consistent) average paces yet. I hope it all sounds as good live.

Youth Novels: 7/10
From the Valley to the Stars: 7/10

CanonBall: the best album of 2007--no hear me out

2008-05-11T19:53:00.000-04:00

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

On today's mix...
Britney Spears - Blackout (2007)

Yes, M.I.A. got even the non-indies dancing to some crazy beats, and LCD Soundsystem surprised everybody by baring some soul, but the real musical triumph of last year came from the hugest music star in the world. Of course, by the time Britney dropped Blackout, her music career was totally beside the point, and the album mostly eluded critical attention other than notes that it was “better than expected, given the circumstances.” But Blackout was more than that. It’s really more than anybody could ever expect from a star as big as Britney. It’s a full-fledged, ready-for-the-dancefloor masterpiece. And it’s probably the best dance-pop album ever.

Every single track on this album is a rough, dirty gem. You've probably heard the singles. With its distorted come-ons and strip-club beat, “Gimme More” is the perfect primer for an album such as this. As this song came and went, what escaped notice was its uniqueness in this radio landscape of last year: even Madonna never made a song about how the best way to get off is to let everyone watch, and she certainly never inherited a beat this fresh. The more structurally complex “Break the Ice”—with its delightful falsetto lead-ins—might have been a safer reintroduction for the pop star onto the radio, but it would’ve hardly prepared people for this album. Somewhere, Justin Timberlake was releasing his seventh “Cry Me a River” clone and mourning. Blackout quickly follows with “Piece of Me”, smartly getting the elephant-in-the-room of Britney’s insane media presence out of the way early in a clever, memorable way. Even if the song seems a little disingenuous—anyone who walked through a grocery store checkout in 2007 could testify that Britney was decidedly not as in control of her shit as she puts on in this song—you have to admit that the “I’m Mrs. ‘Oh My God That Britney’s Shameless’” part is pretty clever. Plus… wait, was that Robyn I heard? Also, given the content, it’s also likely the most poignant use of vocal distortion you’ll ever hear on a pop hit.

“Piece of Me” is indicative of Blackout's most unusual asset: good lyrics. Thematically, we’re not exactly breaking new ground here, but the songs here show an impressive capacity for sticking to topic, and they come silly and fast throughout without getting campy or arbitrary. When Britney means to “Break the Ice” she makes sure to “hit defrost on ya” before she can “get it blazin’”. When Britney asks “Can I get a witness?” on the sing-a-long-y “Hot as Ice”, she not only gets a few but then cries out for a “preacher! preacher!”

The extraordinarily talented team of producers headed by Timbaland-protégé Danja and Bloodshy & Avant—the stunning Swedish duo behind “Toxic”—keep up the pace while delivering freshness by the barrel. On “Radar”, Bloodshy & Avant process Britney’s voice into a soaring army of cyborg hotties heat-seeking a hook-up over the album’s catchiest hook. “Freakshow” goes even crazier with the vocals while backing it up with some circus-y dubstep. And on “Toy Soldier”—likely the crowing accomplishment of the album—they pair up an incessantly danceable military drum roll with Britney’s quest to find “a really badass solder… who won’t be just ‘coming over’”. The results are irresistible.

Even with such talent on hand, Blackout packs another big surprise: Britney herself. She really got it together for the vocals here. The writing and production teams put it all together; but this is Britney’s party, make no mistake, and she’s sticking around till lights up. She’s never sounded like she’s having more fun than on “Ooh Ooh Baby”—when she hits the “baby, baby, baby”’s, you could swear this is her favorite song of all time. Even on “Radar”, where her vocals are so layered and distorted that they literally could’ve been phoned in, it’s her aggressively bubbly tone that hits the perfect note and makes the song such a rousing success. (If you don’t believe me, compare it with the otherwise comparable—but truly robotic—2008 Janet Jackson track “Luv”.) Further, not only does Britney not make an ass of herself rapping on “Perfect Lover”, she thrives. Really, I dare you, try to sing along to that bridge—it’s some tricky “Liza With a Z” shit going on there.

I could really go on and on about how every track on this album has something totally fresh to offer. Earworm “Hot as Ice” is a full on freak parade, complete with full-on soul backup singers “mm, mmm”-ing like the Supremes on Mars. As Britney rails on against all the “foolishness and fuckery”, she leaves behind a trail of the most bat-shit funk since Macy Gray dropped The Id in 2001. “Heaven on Earth”, meanwhile, takes notes from Paris Hilton’s underrated “Nothing in This World”, and the results are, well, heavenly. “Why Should I Be Sad”—the album’s sole ballad—proves that, while Pharrell’s shtick may have gotten tired when it comes to manufacturing party hits, he can still do one hell of a slow jam. And centerpiece “I’ve Got a Plan (Get Naked)” is the album’s most explicit appeal to get onto the floor and presents a strong case that student Danja may not only have outpaced teacher Timbaland, he's thrust teacher into pop music irrelevancy—following this, "4 Minutes" is, at best, a throwback to 2006.

More than almost any pop album since Aqua’s Aquarium, Blackout just wants to have fun. It’s ample proof that all celebrity trainwrecks are not equal, and that it might actually be worth it for Britney to get it all back together. Six months later, it sounds as fresh as ever, and I highly recommend giving it another spin the next time you’re plotting a trip to the clubs or maybe just looking for some new work-out music.

10/10

Dehyper: boring indie rock 101

2008-05-09T20:26:00.000-04:00

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

On today's mix...
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary (2005)

I've never gotten the fuss over Wolf Parade. Given that they have a new album coming out, I decided to revisit Apologies to the Queen Mary today on my run, and... this music still makes almost no impression on me at all. At best, they're kind of a combo of Death Cab and Man Man, but they really lack the things that make those bands truly distinctive. With projects like Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs, the members of Wolf Parade seem to have already moved on to bigger and better things. Why go back to Mount Zoomer, guys? Songs like "Up On Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days" and "They Took a Vote and Said No" are more distinctive than both Wolf Parade albums combined. Listening to Apologies to the Queen Mary, I feel like I might as well be listening to X&Y--boring!

3/10