Radiohead
The King Of Limbs
XL
2011
Rating: 8 royal elbows out of 10
Part of me would like to make fun of Radiohead, be one of those cool kids denouncing then as the emperor without any clothes. But fuck it, I like their music...and while I've only spent a little time with "The King Of Limbs", I really like this record.
I've honestly been a little ambivalent on their last couple of releases, preferring their material from the late nineties and early aughts. Luck for my ears, this album sounds like it should have come out right after "Amnesiac", as if it were recorded during the same sessions of that album and "Kid A". Lots of glitchy techno-pop with Thom Yorke wailing over top of it, songs that get stuck in your head even if they aren't stereotypically catchy. Plus that is what almost amounts to a ballad, "Codex", that instantly catches the ear. I can just see some kids with sharp angular haircuts slow dancing to it. These kids I'm picturing may or may not look like cartoon characters from the show "Daria".
I can already tell I'm going to listen to the shit out of this album...it's going to be one of those that gets left in the CD player of my car for weeks on end. I like already knowing that. I like already knowing I'll have a good friend riding around with me for the next few months, and for years after that.
Apex Manor
The Year Of Magical Drinking
Merge
2011
Rating: 7 Magic Hat beers out of 10
A friend had a stack of free CDs on his table last I visited him, and I grabbed this Apex Manor disc on a whim figuring it's on Merge, and worst case scenario it would at least be an okay album. I can't think of the last time Merge put out anything that was actually bad. I didn't know shit about this band but it turns out it's the new outfit for the man behind the Broken West, Ross Flournoy. And I liked that act pretty well, but I find myself much more drawn to Apex Manor.
Not that the music is all that terribly different between the two bands - it's still very much a clean pop sound, not overly dependent on hooks and sing-a-long verses. It is what I think of as "adult pop", making me think of Nada Surf or Teenage Fanclub or some of Spoon's offerings. Not that Apex Manor really sounds like any of those bands, they just all attend the same social functions and have a lot of friends in common. Every track on this record feels like an old friend the first time you listen to it, sounding like everyone and no one all at once. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who will find this a bit boring, but straight forward pop rock done this well sounds pretty good to these ears.
Fleet Foxes
Helplessness Blues
Sub Pop
2011
Rating: 7.5 slow coyotes out of 10
My first impression on this new Fleet Foxes record - more of the same. And I view that as a good thing, because I really liked the same. With some bands you might be looking for growth, exploration, all that shit - but this is a band firmly implanted on bringing the harmonies and melodies of sixties pop folk to the new century, and they do a really fine job of it. I've had too many bands I love wander off into new territory, looking to expand their sound, only to end up inhabiting a space that I want no part of. This description fits a number of acts, but I'm looking hardest at you, My Morning Jacket. And certainly it's understandable that groups would want to explore new sounds, but if you're really damn talented at something why fuck with a good thing?
I'm quite certains this is going ot get a lot of spins in my car, especially this time of year, when you can drive around with the windows down and enjoy a nice spring breeze. Fans of the first record should rush to pick this up, because it picks up right where the last one left off.
Acid House Kings
Music Sounds Better With You
Labrador
2011
Rating: 6.5 Daft Punk side projects out of 10
Here I was thinking I'd just lost touch with the Acid House Kings, cause the last thing I heard by them was 2005's "Sing Along With Acid House Kings". But nope, that was the last record they released, and my record of being perfectly in touch with everything and all bands remains untarnished.
This release didn't strike me as instantly sweet and precious as their last album, but that would have been difficult to pull off - that record would make a sugar factory taste sour. It's still very twee and poppy like you'd expect, but a little more of a grower. Perhaps as the years have passed since their previous releases, they've developed a more nuanced sense melody and hooks. It's still a damn decent listen, but I probably prefer my Acid House Kings songs to hit me over the head with cuteness.
Lower Dens
Batman 7"
Gnomonsong
2011
Rating: 6.5 robin eggs out of 10
I saw Lower Dens play live a few months back and stylistically they were all over the map. This seven inch is no different. "Batman", the front half of the record, is a summery lo-fi pop song that sounds nothing like anything I heard them play live. The flip side, "Dear Betty Baby" is a mellow Beach House-type dirge that sounds even less like their other material than the A-side. I think these guys are trying to fuck with my head by not letting me box them into a "sounds like" category. This makes me a little mad because my mathematical side likes to break everyone down to a simple equation. Whatever, the songs are both pretty good - I actually prefer the B-side the most. Worth seeking out.
Destroyer
Kaputt
Merge
2011
Rating: 8 sudden endings out of 10
I've been listening to Destroyer so long, I don't even really know how to review it. Destroyer has become a touchstone for other reviews, like a basic building block of life. How do you review helium or carbon or unununium? They just are. Destroyer just is.
I guess you compare it to other Destroyer records. It's not really like anything else he has released, but it doesn't feel out of place in his catalog either. The main man behind the band, Dan Bejar, has moved through a few different phases in his career. He started with off-kilter folk aka "albums I don't listen to very much", and then around "Thief" he started exploring his glam-pop David Bowie/T-Rex side. This culminated in his best work "Streethawk: A Seduction", a collection of some the greatest pop songs of the last 25 years. Then he decided to make a synth-pop record all by himself with "Your Blues", and then later re-recorded some of those songs live with Frog Eyes for the "Notorious Lightening" EP (my second favorite release, if you're keeping count). After that, it was a slow transition through a couple of records to the mature-yet-experimental adult pop that is "Kaputt".
Outside of "Savage Night at the Opera", there aren't a lot of hooks here like with most of Destroyer's records. These songs are slow burners, taking multiple listens before they worm their way into your brain like a case of herpes left untreated. It's a record for late-night solo drives down country roads, just you and one musical madman's musings. He ends the release with the song "Bay of Pigs" from the self-titled EP from 2009, an eleven minute long self-described "ambient disco" track that perfectly bleeds out of this sophisticated pop opus. And bleeds back into it, if you're listening to it on repeat like I have been.
Best Coast / Wavves
Summer Is Forever
Mexican Summer
2011
Rating: 7 happy couples out of 10
Like most red-blooded Americans, you put a cartoon picture of a vomiting cat on the cover of your record and you've got my attention. It looks like the real-life couple of Nathan Williams (Wavves) and Bethany Cosentino (Best Coast) decided they would make record sex and put out a split EP, and here it is. It's a good release - all of the songs get a thumbs up, particularly the first track by each band - "King of the Beach" by Wavves and "Crazy for You" by Best Coast. Though both of those songs are not only featured on their latest albums they are also the title tracks, so I'm not sure why they got released again. Money is money, as the kids say. I think some kids say that at least.
Oh, and there's also a No Joy song at the end of the EP which I am completely indifferent about.
Iceage
New Brigade
Dais
2011
Rating: 6.5 cheese danishes out of 10
Let's hear it for hype, cause Iceage has been getting tons of it! Anytime a band gets a ton of hype, I have two reactions - one, I probably won't like it. Two, I've gotta hear it anyways just to be sure.
I've read in a few spots that this is "new punk", which I can only assume they mean in the same way that Refused were "new hardcore". It didn't make any sense then and it doesn't really make any sense now. I guess there are elements of punk here - the pace of the songs, their approach to writing and performing songs - but you're never going to confuse this for the Clash or the Ramones. The instrumentation is really discordant and all over the map and there are zero "hooks" to the music that I can hear...and this is a huge dis-qualifier to the "punk" moniker being attached, because most punk to me is just really aggressive/sloppy pop songs. I'd say these guys are a lot closer to Frog Eyes or the pre-industrial punk of Magazine.
Oh, by the way, this band is all a bunch of really young teenagers from Denmark. I'm not sure if that really matters, but there you go. They definitely get a thumbs up for being this musically advanced at that age, but they've still got a ways to go before they justify the hype for me.
Best Coast / Jeff the Brotherhood
Split 7"
Infinity Cat
2011
Rating: 7.5 out of 10 for Best Coast, 6.5 out of 10 for Jeff the Brotherhood
Another incredibly catchy pop song from Best Coast. They always make me want to sing along to their songs, even when I listen to them for the first time and don't know the lyrics and have to make shit up. Their fans will not be disappointed in their contribution here.
As for Jeff the Brotherhood - I'd never even head of them before checking out this platter. It's good though, very mid-nineties fuzzed out alterna-pop...I'd probably compare them to Pavement a little bit, though the vocals are set back in the mix a quite bit more than Stephen Malkmus ever was. Looks like they've released a ton of material (almost all of sold out), so I may have to let the internet find me some more of their music to see how this song measures up to the rest of their catalog.
Robert Pollard
Space City Kicks
Guided By Voices Inc.
2011
Rating: RobertPollard RobertPollards out of RobertPollard
Hey, Robert Pollard released a new record! I had literally been holding my breath since the last release, but luckily that was so recent there was no real danger of suffocation.
Shit, what's even the point of writing a review for Robert Pollard anymore? It's a good record if you like Robert Pollard, and probably disposable if you don't...like pretty much all his releases. It's not overly catchy like his early material, but still pretty damn enjoyable to this fan. And if somehow you've magically never heard this man, go but Guided by Voices "Alien Lanes" and thank me later. Pop perfection.
Kurt Vile
Smoke Ring for My Halo
Matador
2011
Rating: 6.5 Philly Fanatics out of 10
In the time it took me to write this first sentence, Kurt Vile released two records, three EPs, and a split 7 inch with a band that does not exist yet. Matador, accustomed to years and years of Robert Pollard releasing eighteen records a year, decided they needed another artist that could single-handedly double their output each season.
One thing is for sure, Vile really upped the production this time around. The songs still feel and sound lo-fi, but they clearly weren't recorded on shit equipment, and they might have even been mastered. Vile does his best indie-kid-loves-the-blues impression, reminding me a bit of Beck's first record "One Foot in the Grave", but wit ha slightly more high-pitched voice. This is excellent rainy day music, good for moping about the house in your slippers on a Sunday afternoon, avoiding house chores but looking for something to do.
Cloud Nothings
Cloud Nothings
Carpark
2011
Rating: 5.5 nasally voices out of 10
I was reading a few reviews of this Cloud Nothings record and I saw a few comparisons/references to power pop. For god's sake people, this isn't anything close to power pop...have you even heard 20/20 or The Nerves or Shoes? I mean, it's definitely poppy, but this is more lo-fi jangly punk pop than anything else. It reminds me a lot of Husker Du actually...a really really sloppy Husker Du. The songs are downright fuckin' frantic, like he was in a hurry to get the record recorded before his mom got home and discovered him fucking around with her four-track. It feels so hurried it actually makes me feel a little anxious...I'm not sure listening to this while driving in a car is advised.
This is not a great record, and not awful either...not sure I'll be listening to it very much, but you can hear some building blocks of potential great pop songs here, and I'll definitely check out the next offering to see how they've grown.
MonotonixNot YetDrag City2011Rating: 6 tiny pairs of sweaty shorts out of 10Last time I saw these Israeli nutbags the singer, Ami Shalev, was "singing" from inside of a trash can while crowd surfing. The actual music of Monotonix is kinda beside the point. Not that it's bad music - a sort of stompy garage sound that owes a lot to pre-punk Detroit - but it's nothing special. It doesn't get stuck in your head. You don't yearn to hear it. You do want to see the band live though, assuming they go back on the road as they are currently on a family "time out", aka somebody had a kid and the wife is probably tired of doing all the work herself. Listening to the record is no prerequisite to enjoying their live show either, as the music produced in that sweaty, beer soaked setting is an utter mess. A super fun, total and complete mess.
Lovers
Dark Light
Badman Recording Co.
2010
Rating: 9 paper sailor hats out of 10
This might have been my favorite record of 2010, or at least top 3, had I gotten around to listening to it in 2010. Instead, I've spent the first few months of 2011 obsessively soaking in these songs like a teenager seeing his first pair of boobs.
First and foremost, this entire record is one of the best collections of catchy, stuck-in-your-head-for-days songs that I've heard in ages. Considering that the music would best be described as dark electro-pop with female singers, a genre I usually avoid, it' all the more surprising that I took to this like I did. In recommending this record to my friends I've referred to them as "the new Berlin" on more than one occasion...it's unclear how this comparison was received. Confusion mostly, I think.
Second and not foremost, this band is from Portland, despite the fact that I had convinced myself they were from England. What does this have to do with anything? Nothing. But I really really thought they were from England.
Anyways, just buy this record if you like catchy music. It's goddamn fantastic.
The National
High Violet
4AD
2010
Rating: 6 morose Midwesterners out of 10
The National probably could have Just named this record "'Bloodbuzz Ohio' and a Bunch of Other Songs You'll Be Indifferent About", or maybe that is just me. Granted, it's a really fuckin' good song, probably their best since "Lit Up", but it's not enough to raise the whole album above "ho hum" status. It's a very National record though, sounding like a depressed former steel town, full of crumbling factories and faded dreams.
