May Music

Downloaded a bunch of albums in May.  I just haven't had time to mention them here.  So I figured I'd do a speed round version, thus shortening even further an album-capsule concept that was already ridiculously short to begin with.  If you don't mind, I don't.  This blog is turning out to be an excellent way for me to keep track of new music.

Mikal Cronin

MCII

78/100

Solid album by a guy who reminds me of a number of different dudes--Matthew Sweet especially.  Retro sound to it.  Standouts are "Turn Away" and "Peace of Mind."  Excellent sounding guitar, with the slightest hint of Beach Boys melodies.  It's the kind of album that invites multiple replays.  The biggest weakness seems to be Cronin's singing on some of 

the slower songs.

*     *     *

The National

Trouble Will Find Me

87/100

If you love the National, like I do, then you'll be happy to hear that they haven't done a lot to change their musical formula, inspired in equal parts by Leonard Cohen and the Tindersticks.  Trouble Will Find Me continues the band's excellent four-album streak of truly excellent music, from Alligator to Boxer to High Violet.  No active band captures disillusionment and world weariness like this one, especially when it is carried by the darkly humorous baritone of Matt Berninger.

*     *     *

Deerhunter

Monomania

85/100

Deerhunter moves in a new direction with this album, with rougher production and harder rocking songs, each song a nod to a different influence.  It'll strike the listener as off putting and a bit scatter shot on the first few listens, so it's not likely to gain a lot of new fans.  But the album is solid.  If you already like Deerhunter, then throw away any expectations you might have of dreampop fed by looping guitars.  The band has moved in a new direction--actually a dozen new directions, all at once.

*     *     *

Savages

Silence Yourself

89/100

This is the most exciting, hardest rocking female band since Sleater Kinney.  Others might be inclined to call them a female Joy Division.  It's been a long time since I've heard such a forceful, assured first album.  Lots of fun.

*     *     *

Patty Griffin

American Kid

82/100

Good contemporary folk album.  If you like Lucinda Williams or Nancy Griffith, you'll like this one.  It's not an album that I'll play very often, because it's not one of my favorite styles, but it's beautiful Americana.

*     *     *

Daft Punk

Random Access Memories

91/100

Unless you've been stuck in prison, you've probably heard "Get Lucky" a few hundred times by now.  My favorite track from the album is "Lose Yourself to Dance."  This is nothing short of an awesome tribute to disco.  One of the best albums of the year. Even if you hate disco, you'll probably like it.

*     *     *

John Grant

Pale Green Ghosts

81/100

Funniest yet saddest album I've heard so far this year.  I offer as evidence these lyrics from "GMF" (linked below): "Half of the time I think I'm in some movie / I play the underdog of course / I wonder who they'll get to play me, maybe / They could dig up Richard Burton's corpse."  These lines are soon followed by the chorus, in which Grant calls himself "the greatest motherfucker / That you're ever gonna meet."  In other parts, he sings about contracting HIV.  So it's a real rollercoaster.  Grant's got an incredible voice.  The only thing the album suffers from is sameness.

*     *     *

Vampire Weekend

Modern Vampires of the City

89/100

Vampire Weekend takes a mellower turn with this one, an album which the band calls an end to a trilogy starting with Vampire Weekend and continuing with Contra.  This album has some excellent moments, in particular the end of "Hannah Hunt," the geeky funk of "Diane Young," and the gemlike "Step."

*     *     *

Eight down, eight to go.  As if this post wasn't long enough, here's the update of 2013 music so far, with new additions in bold:

The Knife--Shaking the Habitual (94/100)

Daft Punk--Random Access Memories (91/100)

Koze--Amygdala (90/100)

Savages--Silence Yourself (89/100)

Vampire Weekend--Modern Vampires of the City (89/100)

Youth Lagoon--Wondrous Bughouse (88/100)

Foxygen--We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic (88/100)

My Bloody Valentine--MBV (87/100)

The National--Trouble Will Find Me (87/100)

Yo La Tengo--Fade (85/100)

Deerhunter--Monomania (85/100)

Kurt Vile--Wakin' on a Pretty Daze (84/100)

Atoms for Peace--Amok (84/100)

Devendra Banhart--Mala (83/100)

Matmos--The Marriage of True Minds (83/100)

Wooden Wand--Blood Oaths of the New Blues (83/100)

Waxahatchee--Cerulean Salt (83/100)

Rhye--Woman (82/100)

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds--Push the Sky Away (82/100)

The Haxan Cloak--Excavation (82/100)

Autechre--Exai (82/100)

Patty Griffin--American Kid (82/100)

Nosaj Thing--Home (81/100)

Grouper--The Man Who Died in His Boat (81/100)

The James Hunter Six--Minute by Minute (81/100)

John Grant--Pale Green Ghosts (81/100)

David Bowie--The Next Day (81/100)

Mogwai--Les Revenants (81/100)

Parquet Courts--Light Up Gold (80/100)

Steve Mason--Monkey Minds in the Devil's Time (80/100)

Jim James--Regions of Light and Sound of God (80/100)

Iceage--You're Nothing (79/100)

Indians--Somewhere Else (79/100)

Mountains--Centralia (78/100)

Bilal--A Love Surreal (78/100)

Local Natives--Hummingbird (78/100)

Mikal Cronin--MCII (78/100)

Autre Ne Veut--Anxiety (77/100)

Phoenix--Bankrupt! (77/100)

Ex Cops--True Hallucinations (77/100)

Toro Y Moi--Anything in Return (77/100)

Low--The Invisible Way (77/100)

No Joy--Wait to Pleasure (75/100)

Broadcast--Berberian Sound Studio (74/100)

Night Beds--Country Sleep (74/100)

Johnny Marr--The Messenger (73/100)

Josh Ritter--The Beast in Its Tracks (73/100)

Justin Timberlake--The 20/20 Experience (72/100)

The Men--New Moon (72/100)

Young Galaxy--Ultramarine (72/100)

A$AP Rocky--Long.Live.A$AP (72/100)

FIDLAR--FIDLAR (71/100)

Foals--Holy Fire (71/100)

California X--California X (70/100)

Chvrches--Recover EP (70/100)

Bonobo--The North Borders (70/100)

Four Tet--0181 (70/100)

Suede--Bloodsport (69/100)

Phosphorescent--Muchacho (68/100)

The Flaming Lips--The Terror (68/100)

Pantha du Prince & The Bell Laboratory--Elements of Light (67/100)

Widowspeak--Almanac (67/100)

Jacco Gardner--Cabinet of Curiosities (66/100)

Frightened Rabbit--Pedestrian Verse (66/100)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs--Mosquito (65/100)

Sally Shapiro--Somewhere Else (64/100)

James Blake--Overgrown (64/100)

Suuns--Images Du Futur (64/100)

Chelsea Light Moving--Chelsea Light Moving (64/100)

Brokeback--Brokeback and the Black Rock (57/100)

Various Artists--Trance (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (56/100)

Clinic--Free Reign II (48/100)

Everything Everything--Arc (46/100)

Depeche Mode--Delta Machine (29/100)

Jamie Lindell--Jamie Lindell (16/100)

The Strokes--Comedown Machine (7/100)

Album Capsules--No Joy

Got a bunch of albums downloaded recently that I haven't had time to listen to, and today is the first day of relaxation that I've had in a while.  Things get hectic when you're getting ready to stop working abroad and return home.  The university's human resources department has a bunch of hurdles to leap through.  Then you've got to sell all of your shit.  Those things alone would make things busy enough, but now this semester has become my busiest, with by far the most work.  But enough whining . . .

No Joy

Wait to Pleasure

75/100

If you're a fan of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Lush, or any other major shoegaze band, or if you're a fan of noise pop, or if you like music that gives you a reason to feel miserable, or if you just like to weep for no reason at all--say, in the pasta aisle at the local grocery store--then you'll probably enjoy this album.  Hello, reverb.  Welcome, distortion.  Atop this ocean of sound, you can occasionally try to make out a word or two of Jasamine White-Glutz and Laura Lloyd's vocals.  "Prodigy," below, is the closest thing to a pop song that you'll find on this album.  This is the kind of insecure, morose album that doesn't seem to mind being background music.  I like it.

2013 Music So Far

Just a quick update and summary.  All new additions in the last month or so are in bold.

I keep noticing music reviewers who are claiming that 2013 is the best year for music in quite a long time.  I hope it keeps up.


The Knife--Shaking the Habitual (94/100)

Koze--Amygdala (90/100)

Youth Lagoon--Wondrous Bughouse (88/100)

Foxygen--We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic (88/100)

My Bloody Valentine--MBV (87/100)

Yo La Tengo--Fade (85/100)

Kurt Vile--Wakin' on a Pretty Daze (84/100)

Atoms for Peace--Amok (84/100)

Devendra Banhart--Mala (83/100)

Matmos--The Marriage of True Minds (83/100)

Wooden Wand--Blood Oaths of the New Blues (83/100)

Waxahatchee--Cerulean Salt (83/100)

Rhye--Woman (82/100)

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds--Push the Sky Away (82/100)

The Haxan Cloak--Excavation (82/100)

Autechre--Exai (82/100)

Nosaj Thing--Home (81/100)

Grouper--The Man Who Died in His Boat (81/100)

The James Hunter Six--Minute by Minute (81/100)

David Bowie--The Next Day (81/100)

Mogwai--Les Revenants (81/100)

Parquet Courts--Light Up Gold (80/100)

Steve Mason--Monkey Minds in the Devil's Time (80/100)

Jim James--Regions of Light and Sound of God (80/100)

Iceage--You're Nothing (79/100)

Indians--Somewhere Else (79/100)

Mountains--Centralia (78/100)

Bilal--A Love Surreal (78/100)

Local Natives--Hummingbird (78/100)

Autre Ne Veut--Anxiety (77/100)

Phoenix--Bankrupt! (77/100)

Ex Cops--True Hallucinations (77/100)

Toro Y Moi--Anything in Return (77/100)

Low--The Invisible Way (77/100)

Broadcast--Berberian Sound Studio (74/100)

Night Beds--Country Sleep (74/100)

Johnny Marr--The Messenger (73/100)

Josh Ritter--The Beast in Its Tracks (73/100)

Justin Timberlake--The 20/20 Experience (72/100)

The Men--New Moon (72/100)

Young Galaxy--Ultramarine (72/100)

A$AP Rocky--Long.Live.A$AP (72/100)

FIDLAR--FIDLAR (71/100)

Foals--Holy Fire (71/100)

California X--California X (70/100)

Chvrches--Recover EP (70/100)

Bonobo--The North Borders (70/100)

Four Tet--0181 (70/100)

Suede--Bloodsport (69/100)

Phosphorescent--Muchacho (68/100)

The Flaming Lips--The Terror (68/100)

Pantha du Prince & The Bell Laboratory--Elements of Light (67/100)

Widowspeak--Almanac (67/100)

Jacco Gardner--Cabinet of Curiosities (66/100)

Frightened Rabbit--Pedestrian Verse (66/100)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs--Mosquito (65/100)

Sally Shapiro--Somewhere Else (64/100)

James Blake--Overgrown (64/100)

Suuns--Images Du Futur (64/100)

Chelsea Light Moving--Chelsea Light Moving (64/100)

Brokeback--Brokeback and the Black Rock (57/100)

Various Artists--Trance (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (56/100)

Clinic--Free Reign II (48/100)

Everything Everything--Arc (46/100)

Depeche Mode--Delta Machine (29/100)

Jamie Lindell--Jamie Lindell (16/100)

The Strokes--Comedown Machine (7/100)

Album Capsules--Three More New Albums

Phoenix

Bankrupt!

77/100

This French band really took off with their last release, 2009's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.  After that kind of success, almost anything that Phoenix released afterwards was bound to be a bit of a letdown.  There's nothing here as catchy, enthusiastic, or memorable as their last album, but the songs are still fairly solid.  If you don't have anything by these guys, though, Bankrupt! is not the place to start.  That would be like introducing yourself to Pink Floyd by listening to A Momentary Lapse of Reason.  Here's "Entertainment."

*      *      *

The James Hunter Six

Minute by Minute

81/100

This album is a fun collection of retro soul that evokes--as allmusic.com points out--Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, and Bobby Bland.  Really fun stuff.  If you like "Drop on Me" (below), then I can't see how you won't like the album.  I also like it because it adds a little more variety to my music collection.

*      *      *

Young Galaxy

Ultramarine

72/100

Slick, sunny electronic pop music.  The album seems to be overwhelmed by the opening track, "Pretty Boy," which seems far superior the other tracks on the album.  So even if you like that song--and I'm not sure that I do--you still might not like the album.  It's a good collection of songs nevertheless.  At its best, it creates a wistful, uplifting mood.  At its worst, it's forgettable.

Album Capsules--Several New Albums

This will be a longer post than usual.  I've been pretty busy the last couple weeks, and I expect May to be even more busy, but luckily I have some relaxation time this weekend.  I got so caught up in Constanza'ing basketball that the new albums had really started piling up.  And some of them are quite good.  Here are four of them.

Kurt Vile

Wakin' on a Pretty Daze

84/100

This mellow rock album is unexpectedly good.  On first listen, you get the feeling that these songs were just tossed together.  The more you play it, the more you notice how strong a mood he creates.  An early April release date seems like a solid choice, because this is the perfect album to play on a lazy summer car ride.  Kurt Vile doesn't restrict himself to typical 3-4 minute pop-song length either.  You'll be surprised at how many songs feel a bit longer than usual--only to realize that they're almost touching on the ten-minute mark, like "Wakin' on a Pretty Day" (below).  Really good album--the kind that you want to replay as soon as it has finished.

*      *      *

The Haxan Cloak

Excavation

82/100

How can I say this?  This experimental album is an exploration into what happens to us after we die.  If Excavation comes anywhere close to the truth, then our afterlife is going to be filled with anxiety, surprise, and random bursts of horror.  The second track is carried along by an electronic heartbeat, but since we're already dead, this must be our mind thinking of it from habit's sake.  Dark stuff.  As allmusic.com puts it, "'Creeping' and 'funereal' [are terms that are] not just accurate, they're complimentary."  Bobby Krlic, the man who is Haxan Cloak, wanted to make an album that would flip your shit, and he did just that.  It's music that you'll only play a couple times a year, when you get into the weird mood that Excavation requires.  You know, the weird mood that has forgotten just how horrible the afterlife might possibly be.

*      *      *

Bonobo 

The North Borders

70/100

This is the fifth studio album by Simon Green as Bonobo.  He's been making ambient downbeat electronica for twelve years now.  His career reminds me of the law of diminishing returns.  How many examples can you think of an artist who starts off with a so-so first album, improves on the second, makes his breakthrough on the third or fourth, and then by the fifth or sixth has either plateau'd or else has clearly declined?  That's what I think of when I play The North Borders.  It's a skilled album, without surprising or impressing the listener.  If you like downtempo electronic music, you'll play it.  But it'll rarely be your first--or second, or third--choice.  Better albums by Bonono, if you're curious, are Dial "M" for Monkey and Black Sands.  "Cirrus," probably the best song on The North Borders, is below.

*      *      *

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Mosquito

65/100

The music is better than the album cover, which isn't saying much, considering the fact that this is the shittiest album cover I've seen in a long time.  You know what I really miss from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs?  Their earliest songs that sounded rough and edgy and gave you everything you wanted to hear from a garage punk band--songs like "Bang," which start off:

Bang, bang, bang, the bigger the better

and led into this chorus:

As a fuck, son, you sucked.  As a fuck, son, you sucked.  As a fuck, son, you sucked.  As a fuck, son, you sucked.  The purpose of the song was nothing more or less than to insult the lead singer's former lover.  It was thrilling to hear Karen O sing so derisively.  Anyhoo, this album has 1/4th of their earlier energy, which happens to be just enough to create "Sacrilege," by far the best song on the album and just about the only one worth multiple replays.  But no, this isn't a garage punk band anymore.

Album Capsules--Josh Ritter

Josh Ritter

The Beast in Its Tracks

73/100

A review of this album in the Boston Globe really hit the mark by comparing this album to Beck's Sea Change.  Both are post-breakup albums full of intensely personal acoustic songs.  Aside from that observation, the only other thing that comes to mind is that the music is less odd than the cover art.  Good album, but really, what's up with this picture?  Is his shirt on fire?  Or are some body-dwelling plants sprouting from his shoulders?  In any case: why?  Terrible.

Album Capsules--James Blake

James Blake

Overgrown

64/100

I just don't get this dude.  He's reviewed well on numerous websites, and he's got a unique-sounding R&B-inflected voice.  When he's backed by piano, he verges on gospel.  When he's singing over a drum  machine, the music tends to have the moody, haunting sound of dubstep.  But there aren't any hooks.  There just seem to be lots of stand-alone moments when you think, What an interesting voice this guy has.  But where are the songs?  Is this guy allergic to anything catchy?  I guess you could argue that this music is super mellow, late-night fare, and so therefore the listener will be too tired to tell the difference.  If so, I guess I'm just not a fan.  Here's "Retrograde."

Album Capsules--Steve Mason

Steve Mason

Monkey Minds in the Devil's Time

80/100

If you're like me, you learned about the Beta Band when John Cusack announced that he was going to sell a half-dozen of the band's Three EPs during the movie High Fidelity, at which point he started playing "Dry the Rain," and everyone in the record store began to bob their heads in unison.  Steve Mason was the unspoken leader of that band.  With this solo effort, you can spot Beta Band's imagination, variety--from rap to gospel to "folktronic"--catchy hooks, beautiful melodies, and solid, introspective lyrics.  "A Lot of Love" is probably the album's best song, but it's not available on Youtube--wtf?--so here's "Lonely," a solid tune backed, apparently, by gospel singers.  What a fun album this is.

Album Capsules--The Knife

The Knife

Shaking the Habitual

94/100

This album is confrontational, experimental, and scary.  It is amazing.  The only album I've ever heard that seems remotely similar to this one is their last album, Silent Shout, which came out seven years earlier.  Led by a female lead singer who howls like an alien in a language that resembles English only remotely, the music is carried along most of the time by tribal beats and an assortment of unnerving keyboard sounds, a frightening amusement park ride that is suddenly interrupted in the middle of the album by a 20-minute ambient drone fest that, like a quiet Hitchcock scene, builds tension rather than releases it.  At the end of this double-albums 77(!) minutes, you might end up feeling like you just experienced a horror movie, one of the few well-made ones.  "Full of Fire," below, is one of the best songs, even though the video is boring.

Album Capsules--Low

Low

The Invisible Way

77/100

In some ways, Low is like Yo La Tengo.  They both make indie music; they've been together for a long time; they are anchored by a husband-and-wife team who take turns with vocals; and they are strong bands.  Produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, The Invisible Way puts the vocals firmly in the forefront, to excellent effect, especially on tracks like "Plastic Cup" (Youtube clip below) and "Just Make It Stop."   Described on allmusic.com as "an institution in slowcore" and as "the slowest of the so-called 'slowcore' bands," Low is better described as a mellow band known for its excellent harmonies.  That's it.  Why make up shit like "slowcore" and "sadcore?"  A good starting point for this band is the excellent Things We Lost in the Fire from 2001.

Album Capsules--Bilal

Bilal

A Love Surreal

78/100

I did not expect to like this album.  It falls under the label "Adult Contemporary R&B."  I figured that if they mean Sade, then it could be fun.  But all kinds of crap gets the label "Adult Contemporary R&B."  Use your imagination and you can come up with 180 examples without much effort.  This album isn't crap.  Bilal normally does guest vocals for other albums, without spending much time making his own.  In this case, it's mellow, "cool" music that withstands--and grows with--multiple listens.  He's the only musician I know that layers his vocals more than Kate Bush.  Neither of these tracks gets mentioned in other reviews, but I favored "Lost for Now" and "Never Be the Same," the latter of which is below.