The weeds have begun to grow here on the old weblog. To try to get back into the swing, I am gonna do a quick bit of music reviewin'. I am - if anything - more behind on my recent CDs than I am on weblog entries, so I will be quicker with these discs than I might otherwise be. I am guessing most of y'all won't be putting up a fight on that point.
Panda Bear - Person Pitch: I have to start with a re-review. I gave this a C+ or something in July, and I totally, 100% missed it. This is going to end up one of my favorite discs this year. From the go, I loved the cut at the end for its ethereal little melody, but I never could hear the rest of it in a way that connected me to it. I am a dolt. The whole thing is awesome. It is like a smoked-out Brian Wilson played slightly out and produced by Lee Perry. I love it. Totally up my alley. Missed it totally and feel stoopit. (B+)
Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth: Another re-issue of one of the holy grail albums of New Wave - or at least that is what I am told. I don't think I needed every note they ever recorded since I already had the album. Some of the extras are ok, but this is a little excessive. The album really isn't all that great - it is just good. There was lots of minimal, synth reggatta de whitey being made back then. (B-)
Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted: No idea how I ended up with this. It is a little girly for my taste (not in the good Cardigans way either.) I think I might grow to like this more in time, but for now it just sorta feels like I need to make myself listen to it since no single song blows me away. I hope I don't regret documenting the fact that this just doesn't do much for me. (C+)
Swans - Love of Life/Ammnesia: I loved some of the later Swans studio stuff. Can't beat the Zeus-God-Of-Thunder voice on Michael Gira or Goth Girl Jarboe's warble. The title cut has always been a favorite, and I have long been looking for the other versions of it, which I also quite like. I still recall there being a quite long version of this song that I still don't have, but for now, this is enough. The other cuts on the EP are also easy additions to the Swans playlist. (B-)
Mekons - Natural: At this point, the Mekons have been around so long and are so mature in their work with each other that it is hard to imagine them producing a 100% turd. By the same token, I don't see them blazing any truly new trails. This disc is quite nice and enjoyable end-to-end, but true-to-form, breaks no new ground. I still really love Sally Timms voice, but I realized I like it more in this kind of context in which she doesn't sing every note. She also seems to give her best songs to the band, as do the other writers. If you want to try the Mekons, this is as good as any place to start, but be warned that they are in danger of going into Starbucks music territory. The old stuff has more bite. (B-)
Castanets - In The Vines: Don't misunderstand me, I like lots of the self-indulgent early albums many bands seem to make, but there is something to be said when they drop the most indulgent of their stuff and focus on something I can only think to call "more serious". That isn't what I actually mean; I mean I like it when bands finally make an album of songs that utilize all the potential you can see in them early on when they put out albums with a few awesome songs amidst snippets, noise, or elements that push form too hard. All that might be necessary, but eventually, the "settling down" usually produces better overall work. That is the case here. This is a real album of songs from a band that had some amazing songs amidst atmospherics and snippets on the 2 albums ahead of it. This doesn't have anything as thoroughly awesome as A Song Is Not The Song Of The World on it, but it is much better overall than the other albums. I love their whole mopey, organic approach, and think this could end up an album I really like. It will take awhile for me to know for sure, but so far, I dig it a lot. I hope to catch them in concert eventually. That will be most telling if they really have the goods, which I suspect they do. (B-)
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam: I am way late to the party with this bunch. I can't say they blow me away or anything, but over the years, I have taken a liking to the artier big band-type stylings they do, at least what they have done of late. The People EP that came out earlier this year was good (though I will admit I am a little weirded out by how ferocious the yelling is on the title cut - that has to do damage to more than just the vocal cords.) I can't say that this new disc makes them particularly easy to listen to in the traditional sense, but relative to what I have heard from them, it kinda does. The arrangements are more familiar (without being too stale), and I think the songwriting is significantly better. I don't love this album. I actually don't love any of their stuff (save from the Panda Bear album, but that is his solo thing); the most I can say is that I like more and more of it. If you are a "follower" (as I am - no 37-year old needs indie cred anyway), this is the easiest of their albums to get into, and probably the best starting point. (B-)
Charlamagne - We Can Be An Island: Hmmm. I am frightened. I usually love most of what Carl Johns has done with both Charlamagne and Noahjohn. I love the slack alt.country of it because I know it really isn't all that alt. or slack. The songs are tight, and dood just has good taste in country influences. This, however, is by far, the least country of the albums of his I have heard. In fact, this is pretty much a ROCK album. Hmmm. I suppose I could just judge it on its merits and ignore my feelings about his catalog. That would be the most fair, but I also couldn't say I would have bought this if I didn't love the other stuff. I will split the difference and say I like it because it is a Carl Johns project, but there is no ass-whomping song on it like Prisoner Of or Greyhound or Standing On A Snake. No one has songs that good but him actually, but is it so unfair to hope you will get one? I say nay. This disc will likely grow on me (it already has compared to the horror of my first listen), but I am not sure any one of these songs will ever reach out and throttle me like some of his greats have in the past. Unlikely. I just don't feel this one is as tight as the others; but with that said, it is better than 99% of what will come out this (or any) year. (B-)
Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills: In liking the Panda Bear album, it hit me why his retro stuff is better than the stuff the Swedes have been doing. El Perro Del Mar, Peter Bjorn & John, and even Suburban Kids With Biblical Names all have this 70s schmaltz AM radio vibe about them. They look back at musical trends that really were just mainstream pap in their time and now come with a little veneer of nostalgia because it was all kinda new at the time and some of the production & songwriting was really good. The Shout Out Louds don't look at the 50's like El Perro Del Mar, or the 60's like Peter Bjorn & John, instead they seem to have their gazes set on mid-80s Cure albums. The dood who sings sounds like a dead-ringer for Head On The Door-era Robert Smith. Musically, it sounds like that vintage as well, though perhaps with a tinge of Echo & The Bunnymen thrown in. This isn't a bad thing mind you. I loved all that stuff. I still kinda do, but enough time has passed for me to see its limits. I am not sure kiddies will always groove to In Between Days like I did, or this band seems to have. It is a little too sugary methinks. As an album goes, this is pleasant enough. The first single Tonight I Have To Leave It is totally awesome in a guilty-pleasure sort of way. I don't see myself getting this band's catalog and obsessing over it, but it has its place. (B-)
John Coltrane - Interplay: More re-packaging. This time it is a collection of stuff he did on albums for other people, or albums in which he is billed with another artist. I am not sure what I could possibly say here. He is a genius, I have never heard anything by him I don't like, and I will give his stuff top billing pretty much no matter what. Nothing to see here I guess other than to note that the last half of the alternate version of Wheelin' that is among the best things I have ever heard out of a piano - it sounds like what my brain has felt like of late. This has been on repeat a lot. (A)
Sister Vanilla - Little Pop Rock: This is the Jesus & Mary Chain + their sister. Um. Ok. The first J&M Chain album, Psychocandy, is one of the best of the 80s, if not ever. Nothing ever sounded like that then or since. It is unfair to expect anything to. Later J&M Chain revealed the very severe limits to their formula, and putting it under another name (not totally - but enough to be quite close) does little to change it. I will always grouse and say their first one is good and it began a big downhill arc from their. This album does nothing to change the arc's direction. (C)
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation: I am not sure how to categorize Blitzen Trapper. I tend to like their alt.country leanings more than their punky/indie stuff, but there are a trillion bands who mix those things. The songwriting here is what distinguishes them. I am bandwagoning by getting into this album, I admit. In fact, I liked it so much I went and got 2 old albums of theirs (which I am still trying to master.) I don't claim to have a particularly good ear, but I could just hear that Blitzen Trapper had the goods. This disc took me awhile to fully appreciate, but it was a matter of when, not if. (B)
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies: Spencer Krug of Sunset Rubdown, Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal, and Dan Bejar of Destroyer are 3 of the most talented rock artists I have heard in decades. That Misters Krug & Bejar work together on Frog Eyes and Swan Lake doesn't mean that those bands represent the best of everything they do. Not so. Dan Bejar is perhaps a little more high profile for New Pornographers, a band I think is just fine, but I think Destroyer is where his best work is. Yes, the vocals are a little affected. Yes, the Canadian-ness of Mister Bejar adds a level of belabored caucasiandom to the proceedings, but this all is very easy to let pass. That this guy has SO MANY incredible songs - dense, complex, and tough to untangle songs - is jaw-dropping. I was trying to explain to a colleague who thinks good music ended in the mid-80s that music is better now than it has been in well over 20 years, and in fact rivals the burst of creativity that came from punk and the years after, but she didn't believe me. I would have told her "go out and get a Sunset Rubdown disc, or Destroyer's Rubies or Hissing Fauna and let them go to work on you", but I fear it would be for naught. I guess the Talking Heads or Devo or PiL's Metal Box were hard on the ears at first and took some doing, but in time, they all became familiar, and it was easy to understand what was going on. I think this album, and the other peak stuff by Mister Krug & Mister Barnes, is going to go the same route. There is enough new and counterintuitive here to keep one occupied awhile in getting comfortable with it, but once you do, you realize just how good they are. This band likely needs SPF 90 to walk from the garage to the front door, but they actually make a case for it. I am glad to real art rock come out of Canada, especially stuff they can easily be said to own. If you are old and think music has passed its prime, but you're willing to try, this disc is a good starting spot. If you don't like it, I hear Huey Lewis Sports is being reissued in a triple-disc box set with a whole booklet of photos from their tour of the upper Midwest around then. I would say look for me in the shots from the Cedar Rapids show, but it sold out and I didn't get to go. (B)
Destroyer - Your Blues: I guess this is an album of their old stuff done acoustic. Most of it is new to me, so I can't judge the old versions. However, when you deal with artists who can write like mofo's, the style matters little. This stuff is perhaps a little sedate and straight-forward relative to what else I have heard, but the creativity is no less strong. From Oakland To Warsaw is new to me this year, but will likely be among my favorite songs I heard this year. It is so good - and I am usually not inclined to such over-wrought whitey-rock. The title cut and Don't Become The Thing You Hated are also in very heavy rotation. I am amazed at how prolific and necessary that output is from Dan Bejar. Dood is an alpha. That said, you can get the new REM live album. I hear it has Orange Crush on it. (B)
Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil: I can easily believe this album is awesome, but I just don't have a long history of digging this sort of thing. I like that greasy, sixties guitar thing in small doses; and in fact I have come to love some of it (the Cramps come to mind - though it isn't quite a clean analogy.) This is good enough and I can imagine a few cuts here and there making mix-playlists til well into the new year, but I am not sure I will ever "just have it on". I suppose that would be a waste of it anyway. Let me rephrase - I won't be having any parties, so I am unlikely to "just have it on". Nothing wrong with it. Good for what it is. Just not my thing. (C+)
Posted by rudayday at October 24, 2007 09:33 PM