Monday, January 28, 2008
No Stake Required
This Review has been moved. You can view it here: http://indie-rock-music.suite101.com/article.cfm/album_review_vampire_weekend
"I was a sailor first..."
Ringo Starr - Liverpool 8
Liverpool 8 is Ringo Starr's fourteenth studio album. It's been two years since his previous effort, but those two years seemed to loosen Starr's grip on the Beatle inside him. All 13 of Ringo's previous studio albums exhibited some sort of Beatle's-esque influence, but Liverpool 8 is somewhat of a new beginning.
Kicking off this album is the title track, which has the feel of a song you'd expect to hear at the end of an album. "Liverpool 8" is a goodbye song, reminiscent of days spent rocking "with George and Paul/and my friend John" as well as a reference to Rory Storm (lead vocalist in one of Ringo's pre-Beatles bands, Raving Texans), and is decorated with endearing thoughts of his hometown that clearly influenced a reluctance to leave ("Destiny was calling/I just couldn't stick around/Liverpool I left you/but I never let you down"). I take this as an almost journal-like personal work of Ringo's; you would need to read a biography in order to fully understand every reference in this track.
From there, Starr seems to experiment with several different styles of musicality, my only complaint being that it sounds so intentional. For instance: "Think About You" and "For Love" are pretty solid blues/rock tracks, "Gone Are The Days" is heavily influenced by Indian music, making it sound like a track from Ian Brown's Solarized, "Harry's Song" sounding like a cross between a southern honky-tonk worthy piece crossed with a march-like variety show entry (that is not as bad as it sounds), "Pasadobles" being strongly influenced by Spanish music, so on and so forth.
The concept is good, as it exemplifies Ringo's long-overdue break from the Beatles motif. However, the layout could do for a bit more subtlety. Track after track makes jumps between styling: "If It's Love That You Want"'s Duran Duran-esque 80's rock/southern fusion setup to the low-fi, indie-rock love song sound of "Love is", to the record-closer "R U Ready?" which sounds like a bluegrass band accompanying a group of working slaves singing a spiritual.
The influence the Beatles had on virtually all music post-1963 was seismic, but it's refreshing to see Ringo Starr break free of that stranglehold, despite the fact that his fourteen album solo career falls low on the radar for a member of such a monolithic band.
The vocals are clean. The musicality is clean. It's a solid record. A lack of cohesiveness keeps it from being a great album, but it's certainly a very good collection of songs.
6.5 out of 10
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Fuzzy!
This review has been moved. You can read it here: http://indiepoprockmusic.suite101.com/article.cfm/album_review_distortion
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Top Ten (pt 2)
This is it, ladies and jellyspoons. The moment you've all been waiting for.
5. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
5. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Contributed by The Audiophile
Anyone who has seen the documentary film "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" understands the turmoils that Jeff Tweedy, as well as all of Wilco, underwent during the creation of 2001's groundbreaking record Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The turmoils reflected in the musicality of that record are but a mere remnant on Wilco's newest effort, Sky Blue Sky. Littered with the familiarity of phrases that reference love lost, love found, so on and so forth ("on and on and on/we'll be together, yeah"), Sky Blue Sky is a step back to pre-Ghost is Born Wilco. As opposed to the inverse formula for GiB and YHF, Sky Blue Sky is only one part experiment to three parts rock, including smooth, yet often drastic, transitions from song to song as well as from verse to chorus (see: "Shake it Off"). Not to mention the guitar solo in "Impossible Germany", which equates to nothing short of pure aural sex (pun 100% intended).
4. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer
Whoa. Apparently, after releasing The Sunlandic Twins, frontman Kevin Barnes went batshit crazy. Not that that's a bad thing, as Hissing Fauna, one of Of Montreal's finest records to date, is utterly stellar. Ostensibly about Barnes' breakup with his wife and subsequent transformation from himself into his glam-rock alter-ego, Georgie Fruit (The change occurs during the epic 12 minute "The Past is a Grotesque Animal"), Barnes uses every trick, instrument, lyrical turn, and electronic tweak he can muster to chronicle his decent into depression, search for meaning, and transformation. With lyrics that no one else could come up with, let alone pull off ("Somehow you've red-rovered/The gestapo circling my heart"), and styles that haven't seen the light of day in some time (see the disco-funk-new wave-pop-rock "Gronlandic Edit", or the pure groove-funk of "Labrinthian Pomp"), Of Montreal has created a layered masterpiece that not only deserves but demands repeat listening.
3. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
The Field's debut album turned a lot of heads this year, and with good reason. After almost five and a half minutes of grooving along to the slowly building thump and the gradually expanding sonic textures of "A Paw in My Face," Axel Willner (aka The Field) releases his hold on the track, only to (staggeringly) reveal Lionel Ritchie's "Hello". Willner uses minimalism to explore and expand on every musical concept he advances, stretching it to the point where you might think "Hey, this is a little repetetive," and the moment you think that, BAM!, something changes. A modulation, the addition of another rhythm, or perhaps a one note sample of a woman's voice, looped and repeated, creating depth, and, to a point, melody. This is an astounding album, and "sublime" is definitely the word for it.
2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
James Murphy just seems to be getting better with age. LCD Soundsystem's first album namechecked every important band of the last thirty years that you've never heard of ("Losing My Edge"), and took stylistic cues from most of the ones you have ("Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up," "Tribulations"). On this album, he ups the ante by adding more rock instrumentation (not that this is a rock album) and indeed, sounds like he's taking things a little more seriously (for a guy who used to make up the lyrics in the studio, this is kind of a big deal). From the pride he takes in being "North American Scum" to cherishing his friends ("All My Friends"), Murphy has produced one of the finest dance-rock albums to ever grace the scene.
1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Radiohead is number one? How cliché , how tedious, I hear you cry. Well, fuck you. There were a lot of superb albums this year, but none of them can hold a candle to In Rainbows, the best album Radiohead has released since, well, the last one. The stutter-step beat of "15 Step", joined by Yorke's always entrancing warble as he queries "How come I end up where I started?/How come I end up where I went wrong?" grabs a hold of the listener and pulls them in. The very next track, "Bodysnatchers", has Yorke wailing about paranoia over some of the most straightforward rock Radiohead has produced in some time, carrying you into the beauty of the ballad "Nude". The gentle beat behind Yorke and the guitar effects gives the impression of vulnerability, and as the instruments gradually come in, Yorke's pained croon only becomes more desperate.
Like any great album, In Rainbows stretches the genre. There is no other band that does the things that Radiohead does. This album is an almost seamless amalgamation of everything that Radiohead has done before, from the minimalist sampling and instrumentation of "Nude" to the shades of "Karma Police" heard in the album closer "Videotape", to the screeching thump of "Bodysnatchers". And like every Radiohead album since The Bends, it does not disappoint.
4. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer
Whoa. Apparently, after releasing The Sunlandic Twins, frontman Kevin Barnes went batshit crazy. Not that that's a bad thing, as Hissing Fauna, one of Of Montreal's finest records to date, is utterly stellar. Ostensibly about Barnes' breakup with his wife and subsequent transformation from himself into his glam-rock alter-ego, Georgie Fruit (The change occurs during the epic 12 minute "The Past is a Grotesque Animal"), Barnes uses every trick, instrument, lyrical turn, and electronic tweak he can muster to chronicle his decent into depression, search for meaning, and transformation. With lyrics that no one else could come up with, let alone pull off ("Somehow you've red-rovered/The gestapo circling my heart"), and styles that haven't seen the light of day in some time (see the disco-funk-new wave-pop-rock "Gronlandic Edit", or the pure groove-funk of "Labrinthian Pomp"), Of Montreal has created a layered masterpiece that not only deserves but demands repeat listening.
3. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
The Field's debut album turned a lot of heads this year, and with good reason. After almost five and a half minutes of grooving along to the slowly building thump and the gradually expanding sonic textures of "A Paw in My Face," Axel Willner (aka The Field) releases his hold on the track, only to (staggeringly) reveal Lionel Ritchie's "Hello". Willner uses minimalism to explore and expand on every musical concept he advances, stretching it to the point where you might think "Hey, this is a little repetetive," and the moment you think that, BAM!, something changes. A modulation, the addition of another rhythm, or perhaps a one note sample of a woman's voice, looped and repeated, creating depth, and, to a point, melody. This is an astounding album, and "sublime" is definitely the word for it.
2. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
James Murphy just seems to be getting better with age. LCD Soundsystem's first album namechecked every important band of the last thirty years that you've never heard of ("Losing My Edge"), and took stylistic cues from most of the ones you have ("Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up," "Tribulations"). On this album, he ups the ante by adding more rock instrumentation (not that this is a rock album) and indeed, sounds like he's taking things a little more seriously (for a guy who used to make up the lyrics in the studio, this is kind of a big deal). From the pride he takes in being "North American Scum" to cherishing his friends ("All My Friends"), Murphy has produced one of the finest dance-rock albums to ever grace the scene.
1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Radiohead is number one? How cliché , how tedious, I hear you cry. Well, fuck you. There were a lot of superb albums this year, but none of them can hold a candle to In Rainbows, the best album Radiohead has released since, well, the last one. The stutter-step beat of "15 Step", joined by Yorke's always entrancing warble as he queries "How come I end up where I started?/How come I end up where I went wrong?" grabs a hold of the listener and pulls them in. The very next track, "Bodysnatchers", has Yorke wailing about paranoia over some of the most straightforward rock Radiohead has produced in some time, carrying you into the beauty of the ballad "Nude". The gentle beat behind Yorke and the guitar effects gives the impression of vulnerability, and as the instruments gradually come in, Yorke's pained croon only becomes more desperate.
Like any great album, In Rainbows stretches the genre. There is no other band that does the things that Radiohead does. This album is an almost seamless amalgamation of everything that Radiohead has done before, from the minimalist sampling and instrumentation of "Nude" to the shades of "Karma Police" heard in the album closer "Videotape", to the screeching thump of "Bodysnatchers". And like every Radiohead album since The Bends, it does not disappoint.
The Top Ten (pt 1)
Drink every time you see the word "pop".
10. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
The shimmering indie-pop sound that James Mercer has worked so hard to create comes to full fruition on Wincing the Night Away, an album that is by turns about relationships, drugs, and Nietzschean ideal of the Übermensch. Mercer's lyrics are almost constantly murky, but the music that accompanies it is full of shimmering guitars and drum machines, making it impossible to really care how bizarre the words are, because the music is just so damn upbeat. This is, by far, The Shins most cohesive album to date, and I look forward to seeing how they develop with subsequent releases.
9. Get Set Go - Selling Out & Going Home
What Mike TV lacks in subtlety (there's a track on this album titled "Fuck You (I Want To)"), he more than makes up for in pure songwriting finesse. And while his subject matter is rarely deeper than drugs, sex, death, or music, he's never at a loss for words to describe those things. Get Set Go excel at making pop music, the kind that you'll be humming along to no matter how obscene ("Come on fuckers/Everyone get movin'!", TV chants at one point), the kind that makes you wonder why it makes you feel so happy, even when the songs are meditations on being someone's heroin (in all the worst ways) and or venting off a bad relationship ("Get What's Coming to You"). Infectious pop music, impeccably created and produced.
8. Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
7. The White Stripes - Icky Thump
I've gotta be honest: I really don't care for The White Stripes. I mean, okay, White Blood Cells and Elephant were both pretty good albums, but not until Get Behind Me Satan did I really care what Jack and Meg White did. Icky Thump is a step back to the blues-heavy rock that made them famous, but with the inclusion of the styles on GBMS, the Stripes have created an unbelievably solid rock record. "Conquest," with its' Spanish influences sounds like a bullfight, the music pounding away as White sings of sexual conquest turned on its' head, and "Rag an Bone" is a hilarious ode to trash gypsies (as my mother calls them). With heavy 70s rock influences and a record collection that has a lot of Rolling Stones, The White Stripes created the rock record of 2007.
6. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Panda Bear, of Animal Collective, released his debut solo album this year to pretty much universal praise. There's not a lot that I can say that hasn't been said elsewhere: it's an unspeakably pretty album, it features a lot of Brian Wilson as a major influence, and it's a damn fine album, damn fine. If gorgeous, eloquent, happy pop music doesn't interest you... see a doctor. You might be clinically dead.
10. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
The shimmering indie-pop sound that James Mercer has worked so hard to create comes to full fruition on Wincing the Night Away, an album that is by turns about relationships, drugs, and Nietzschean ideal of the Übermensch. Mercer's lyrics are almost constantly murky, but the music that accompanies it is full of shimmering guitars and drum machines, making it impossible to really care how bizarre the words are, because the music is just so damn upbeat. This is, by far, The Shins most cohesive album to date, and I look forward to seeing how they develop with subsequent releases.
9. Get Set Go - Selling Out & Going Home
What Mike TV lacks in subtlety (there's a track on this album titled "Fuck You (I Want To)"), he more than makes up for in pure songwriting finesse. And while his subject matter is rarely deeper than drugs, sex, death, or music, he's never at a loss for words to describe those things. Get Set Go excel at making pop music, the kind that you'll be humming along to no matter how obscene ("Come on fuckers/Everyone get movin'!", TV chants at one point), the kind that makes you wonder why it makes you feel so happy, even when the songs are meditations on being someone's heroin (in all the worst ways) and or venting off a bad relationship ("Get What's Coming to You"). Infectious pop music, impeccably created and produced.
8. Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
Contributed by The Audiophile
Explosions in the Sky resurfaced this past year with their first full blown effort since 2004's soundtrack for Friday Night Lights. Unlike a solid majority of the albums mentioned in this list, the word 'pop' (you don't have to drink for this one...) would be an inappropriate way to describe any musical aspect of this record. As quite possibly the most emotional musical work I have ever laid ears upon, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone steps up the groups maturity, taking the quiet-loud-quiet format and making the quiets more detailed and calculated, while making the louds more intense and overwhelming. Every atmospheric utterance of the ambient instrumentals weaves a tale in a way that words never could: drawing you in with nuanced intricacy before shattering your perception through sonic explosion (see band name). The record reaches is apex during the 13-minute epic "It's Natural To Be Afraid" which contains a charged guitar duet over top a soul-crushing piano ostinato.
Now that we're through all that, this would be a good time to mention that this album is best taken with a full-screen Magnetosphere iTunes visualizer. Do it.
7. The White Stripes - Icky Thump
I've gotta be honest: I really don't care for The White Stripes. I mean, okay, White Blood Cells and Elephant were both pretty good albums, but not until Get Behind Me Satan did I really care what Jack and Meg White did. Icky Thump is a step back to the blues-heavy rock that made them famous, but with the inclusion of the styles on GBMS, the Stripes have created an unbelievably solid rock record. "Conquest," with its' Spanish influences sounds like a bullfight, the music pounding away as White sings of sexual conquest turned on its' head, and "Rag an Bone" is a hilarious ode to trash gypsies (as my mother calls them). With heavy 70s rock influences and a record collection that has a lot of Rolling Stones, The White Stripes created the rock record of 2007.
6. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Panda Bear, of Animal Collective, released his debut solo album this year to pretty much universal praise. There's not a lot that I can say that hasn't been said elsewhere: it's an unspeakably pretty album, it features a lot of Brian Wilson as a major influence, and it's a damn fine album, damn fine. If gorgeous, eloquent, happy pop music doesn't interest you... see a doctor. You might be clinically dead.
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