Best Album [of the week]

October 14, 2009

Best album: The Big Pink - "A Brief History of Love"

At first glance, one might want to compare the English electro-rock duo, the Big Pink, to the '80s one-hit wonder [Soft Cell]. But be warned, there is "Tainted Love" and then there's the Big Pink's black leather, grainy photographed version of love. For their video, "Velvet," we get a more shots of scantly-clad women tied up than a Boy Scout handbook. For the video, "Dominos," we see ice sculptures of naked women explode into snowflakes around the band. Sounds edgy? Sounds uninviting? Well, here's the trick -- "Dominos" has one of the catchiest, most confident choruses of the year. And the rest of their debut album, "A Brief History of Love," lives up to the swagger and cockiness of its singles.

Now that Trent Reznor has put Nine Inch Nails on hiatus, the Big Pink's debut record should fill the void for catchy hard-rock laced with a bracing shot of electronica. From the hypnotic title track to the radio-ready hooks of "Tonight," the Big Pink show that while their image might go for the darkest corners of love, their music shoots for the stadiums. It's one thing to name a song, "At War With the Sun." It's an something else entirely to sound like they could put up a good fight if they needed.

-Andrew Mitchell

Review: My Dear Disco - Dancethink LP

Published: December 21, 2008

Pensatos.com

**1/2

Shakespeare has that line from Romeo and Juliet about a rose and the meaningless of names, but even as I’m reminded of that cliche, I can’t help but feel some added resentment toward My Dear Disco’s debut album, Dancethink LP. For all intensive purposes, dance music is one of the most utilitarian genres out there. Sure there are exceptions, but primarily speaking, it is not out to provoke deep thought. Why else would most people need to get drunk before they even think of hitting the floor?

My Dear Disco, a septet from Ann Arbor, will not make you think. In fact, the less you think about them, the better. Don’t think of this an insult so much as an admittedly backhanded compliment; they’re nothing transcendent, but if you need a big four-to-the-four disco beat to dance to, you could do much worse.

My Dear Disco at least has the songwriting chops for classic sounding hooks. “For Your Love’s” repeated mantra and keyboard lick sound straight off a 1980s dance compilation. Elsewhere, “Amsterdam” maintains a headfirst frantic pace and some catchy boy/girl harmonies.

But when there are amazing, forward-thinking and layered dance artists out there, like the Bug, Gui Boratto and much of DFA’s roster, it’s hard to really take Dancethink’s skin-level pleasures for more than what they really are. While greater bands will find time to be sonically inventive, My Dear Disco stick to the tried and true buzzing synthesizers, complex guitar riffs and auto-tuned siren vocasl via lead singer Michelle Chamuel.

Which is a shame, because My Dear Disco have enough energy to make even their clichéd ideas sound a bit welcoming. But energy or not, they’re still clichés. Perhaps in a live setting, they rise above their boxed-in sound. They sound like they could be a lot of fun for a late-night dance party. Just be sure to have a few drinks beforehand; wouldn’t want to be embarrassed trying to do the robot.

BSS Bud Revisits Origins on EP Before Uprooting With Imminent Album

Published: November 26, 2008
Pensatos.com

Gentleman Reg - Little Buildings
* 1/2

The best question one can ask of Little Buildings, a nine-song compilation ep album from Canadian singer-songwriter Gentleman Reg, is “why?” Why repackage eight previously released songs from two albums? I know Cinderella and Hanson have “20th Century Masters” greatest hits records, but this is ridiculous.

OK, there is semi-worthy reason for this; Gentleman Reg Vermue put out three albums on the recently defunct Canadian label Three Gut records, so maybe Vermus’s new label Arts & Craft - yes, he is also a part-time Broken Social Scene member - wanted to re-introduce him to a wider audience and hype his upcoming fourth album, Jet Black (which is an ironic name for a man who played an albino in the movie Shortbus, but I digress.)

Unfortunately, judging from Little Buildings, there’s not really much to hype about Reg. As far as indie pop/rock goes, Vermue feels pretty orthodox. Depending on your generosity, the music’s either very modest or just plain dull which may go to show how far he’s really come. Arrangements never seem to veer far from that Starbucks-ready air of inoffensive passiveness. And just when things do start to pick up, Vermue’s vocal delivery takes things down a peg. It’s so breathy and affected that it makes the light-hearted and gay sing-a-long “The Boyfriend Song,” sound annoyingly precious. The lone new song on the compilation, an outtake Vermue’s originally recorded for 2004’s Darby & John called “Something to Live For,” benefits from brooding and tense mix of electric guitars and a subtle string quartet, but it’s still so passive that it hardly has time, weight or hooks to be memorable. So what’s to expect on Jet Black? Well, a visit to his myspace page actually shows some promise, with a couple of songs that veer more into power-pop and synth-pop. Maybe his friends in Final Fantasy, the Constantines or the Hidden Cameras have come to his aid and add some much-needed energy. Or maybe the fourth album will blow the rest of his catalog away. At any rate, this stopgate release is so easily skippable, it makes the prospect of starting over on a new label sound a lot more appealing.

Sugar Buzz Band Crashes Thanks To Maturity & Heartbreak

Published: November 18, 2008
Pensatos.com

Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

****

When people first talked about Los Campesinos!, the Cardiff-based septet, they often brought up their child-like energy (we’re guilty). But underneath their early singles and debut full-length Hold On Now, Youngster…, beneath the giddy and Crayola-colored homage to American indie rock, there was a darker almost militant edge to their pop tunes. They started the debut with a song called “Death to Los Campesinos,” and looked for solace in an “International TweeX Underground.” Even their breakthrough single, “You! Me! Dancing!,” could be misinterpreted as an order instead of a sugar high.

That darkness is on full display resting upon the band’s sophomore album, released only eight months after they gave us their proper debut of adrenaline. What started as an innocent Seattle studio sesh with John Goodmanson (Sleater-Kinney) to record some B-sides instead saw the band coming away with an albums worth of material: 10 songs more angry and cathartic than anything they’ve released thus far.

The catharsis is primarily directed at - what else - a relationship gone sour. Doesn’t sound too original, but what makes this collection so compelling is its sudden, off-the-cuff bitterness. For a band who usually paints in bright and broad strokes, it’s surprising to hear lead-singer Gareth screaming darker, more violent images; “He got his teeth fixed / I’m gonna break them”  he bellies on the title track. Elsewhere, on the wounded ballad “You’ll Need Those Fingers for Crossing,” the glockenspiel and violin weave together melodies of a bitter breakup kiss as Gareth and Aleksandra harmonize, “I’m sucking your last words from the back of your throat.”

It’s comforting to know that even when tackling a subject rich with clichés the band can maintain its hookiness and wit; I like now having a name for those post-breakup keepsake - “Miserabilia.”  Los Campesinos! have always been compared to Arcade Fire (comes with the territory when your band has strings and bells incorporated in almost every song) and I suspect that raw emotions ofWe are Beautiful, We are Doomed will only further validate that for some. But it will be interesting to see what the third album will sound like; their sophomore is either a step in a new direction for group or a much needed therapeutic detour.

Colourmusic - F, Monday, Orange, February, Venus, Lunatic, 1 or 13

Published: November 17, 2008
Pensatos.com

*** 1/2 

Once upon a time there was a band called the Beta Band. They were Scottish, sarcastic and absolutely psychedelic. But they never got their due and four years after their breakup, they’re primarily known for being name-checked by Rob Gordon in “High Fidelity,” and opening for Radiohead.

The reason I bring them up is that on it’s best moments, Colourmusic’s exhaustingly titled debut record manages to sound awfully similar to some of the Beta Band’s best rambling, genre-hopping EPs. Take the vocal harmony breakdown of the otherwise throbbing “Put in a Little Gas,” or the folky sex-romp “The Gospel Song.” Listening to the simple dirge beginning of “Try,” suddenly feels like early 2000 again.

Not that Colourmusic take every cue from one band, so much as they take nods from a lot ’60s psych-pop touchstones: a Beatles-esque chord progression and beat here, a Zombies horn arrangement, a bit of the Kinks and Bowie for good measure. But they manage to make it sound more fun and a lot less boneheaded than, say, the Aliens. Lyrically, the band doesn’t measure up to the convincingly creative music underneath it, letting slip a few hippie standards on “Circles” (”We live in cycles…”) and the saccharine love cry “Winter Song.” But they’re delivered with such a playful sense of whimsy, it’s easier to let them fade into the background. And while the Aliens were one to drag on and repeat their band name, Colourmusic never overstay their welcome. While they don’t sound as ambitious or outworldy as some of their peers, Colourmusic strike right at the heart instead of the head. You can practically hear them smiling as they sing “Deedlely deedlely dee” during the chorus of “Moolah.” They’re worth a smile back.

Cali-fornified Alt Rockers Summon Yorke-esq Sounds

Published: November 12, 2008
Pensatos.com

Audrye Sessions - Audrye Sessions EP
Black Sea ; 2008

3 stars

In a world filled with bands aiming for Radiohead’s level of transcendent gradeur, it’s a bit unusual to hear someone go for it by sounding like Pablo Honey instead of OK Computer. But surprisingly enough, Audrye Sessions manage to make that notion sound quite pleasing on their self-titled EP.

The Oakland based quartet start off their four-song release with a whopping dose of Big Star-esque power pop on ‘Turn Me Off’. It sounds a bit basic at first, but when Ryan Karazija’s nasal voice goes into a Yorke-like falsetto, it ushers the songs to a more expansive and - pardon the pun - higher place. The rest of the Sessions start to flex their muscle on ‘Awake’, creating an ominous atmosphere for Karazija’s snakey melody and pounding out a familiar-sounding yet just as exhilarating chorus on ‘Where You’ll Find Me’. Perhaps it’s not surprising then that the weakest track, the acoustic guitar ballad closer ‘New Year’s Day’, suffers until the band starts to crescendo half-way through. Karazija’s voice sounds awesome on top of Audrye Session’s bombast, but the more its stripped down, the more distracting it becomes.

Still, the Audrye Session EP displays a band that impresses not with particularly innovative sounds, but with competent ones; hitting the right spots at the right time without sounding forced or trite.

Less Chicken Soup And More Soul Needed

Published: November  11, 2008
Pensatos.com

Matisyahu - Shattered EP
Sony/BMG; 2008

2 stars

Is there an easier target for atheist cynics than Matisyahu? Probably not as far as pop music is concerned. That gives me an odd sense of sympathy for the only suburbanite turned hasidic Jew reggae-rap star in existence because throughout his Shattered EP, a precursor to his upcoming album Light, it’s hard to say that Matisyahu does not - in fact — believe and mean everything he says.

Unfortunately, like the vast majority of spiritually-guided musicians, all we get for his passion is typical, big-picture, low-vocabulary mid-tempo message songs, like ‘I Will Be Light’. Matisyahu shows some signs of trying to expand his sound on ‘Two Child One Drop’ - a six-minute song that moves through ideas like a suite - but doesn’t offer much of a hook outside of the usual, “World is dying, children are morning the father … the world keeps turning,” stuff. Then there’s ‘So Hi So Lo’, a U2 sized rock number which answers the question, “what would it sound like if Matisyahu guested on a Coldplay song?”

Perhaps a more sympathetic listener will give Matisyahu points for trying to mix things up musically. The main problem with modern spiritual music is the way it settles for mediocrity, letting the sermon be the driving force. Matisyahu is a long way from making a Seven Swans, but even in Shattered’s own blandness, there is an odd sense of promise that maybe he will see the light.

Over Sweetened Perez Hilton Approved Pop Can’t Find Roots

Published: October 31, 2008
Pensatos.com

The biggest surprise about The Orion Experience is that they’re from New York. Perhaps that is understating the band. But after listening to their four-song Heartbreaker EP, in all its shiny, sunny, power-pop bombast, you’d bet your life on Los Angeles. After all, it makes sense since the band is best known for its spots on Laguna Beach and endorsements by Perez Hilton. I’ve got nothing against pop bands wanting to make a polished, highly produced recording; that’s the nature of the beast and the Heartbreaker EP is so polished you can see yourself in it. This wouldn’t even be a predicament its girth had some weight or uniqueness to them. But really, how original can you be in this day and age with a song called ‘Heartbreaker’?

Tracks like ‘Sugar’, plows through with gimmicky hair-metal chord progression, ho hum guitar solo and sex-as-candy metaphors. Or perhaps its drugs-as-candy, since the sugar seems to flow through his veins…  It’s arguable, I suppose, if you want to waste your time on such arguments.

At least the EP ends well with the sarcastic and smarmy, ‘You’re so Cool’, in which band leader Orion Simprini back-handedly compliments a prima donna named Alex. (Just a guess - I bet it’s the dude from Phantom Planet.) Simprini - who could easily win a Carl Newman sound-a-like contest - is in top form when he’s at his cruelest; like when he tells a girl how bad he’ll treat her to win her love on ‘Nice Guys Finish Last’. But even still, he seems more concerned with delivering clever rhyme schemes and aping the pop standards rather than subverting them. And those rhyme schemes aren’t even clever sometimes. On ‘Nice Guys’, Simprini rhymes “baby” with “crazy,” and then “phase me.” We aren’t looking for a lexis winner but some dichotomy between grammar and vocabulary would do wonders.

But The Orion Experience, in all fairness, is a “fun” band.  They’re not out to change your life or blow your mind, they just want to give out a catchy song to get stuck in your head and make you dance. But depth is lacking and surface dwellers need only apply.

Midwest Group Conjure My Bloody Valentine In Near Miss

Published: October 29, 2008

Pensatos.com

3 out of 5

No Tempo, the debut record from six-piece Boo and Boo Too, feels like the kind of record Ride could have made if they were from the Midwest. The band’s four guitarists alone layer their noise riffs into dense sonic clouds for Allen Guinn’s angst-ridden howls to cut through. When it works, it’s reminiscent of Trail of Dead’s healthier early recordings - matching their direct lyrics with equally pointed squalls of post-punk feedback.

Occasionally, the melodrama is laid on pretty chunky. After all, the band is from Lawrence, Kansas, home of post-rock emo favorites Appleseed Cast. Much of No Tempo is a balancing act between pained vocals and overflowing music underneath it all. Take ‘I Know Nothing’s All Right’, wherein a slinky, mid-tempo bass line underscores the 3 a.m. drunk dial plead, “When I die / I don’t want you wondering why / I never cried out for you at night,” before evening out into a straight indie-rock chorus - dissolving into layers of shoegazer clatter.

Much of this experience paints as a relentless sound recording - and that’s both compliment and condemnation. When the simple melodies and baselines lock in, (most notable on ‘Obviously,’ and ‘Sometimes at Night’) the persistence tips in their favor. But when the air is thin, songs like ‘KGB’ and ‘White Light, Dark Sheets’, breathe more like previously explored terrain. By the four minute coda of closer ‘Alleys in Whitechapel’, the band appears content in a box, save for the mid-album would-be anthem, ‘Black Buggy’.

Still, No Tempo is a promising start for a band with a (let’s be honest) terrible name. Alongside bands like the Twilight Sad, they show how the pummeling guitar work of My Bloody Valentine can fit with earnest (not emo) emotion.

Clifton Roy & The Folkstringer focuses on singing, songwriting

Published on Friday, May 9, 2008
The Northern Star

"Where the Rock Meets the Rail" - Clifton Roy & Folkstringer
Rating: 6 / 10

There are “retro” bands, and then there are bands like Clifton Roy & Folkstringer.

The group, centered on singer and guitarist Clifton Roy, doesn’t use any electronic instruments, opting out of any pop/rock formulas. Instead, with NIU alumnus Craig Hauge on upright bass and Gregory Morland on mandolin, Roy has honed a time-honored style.

After cutting its teeth at open mic nights and house parties, the band has picked up a few new members: NIU senior David Rothenberg on drums and backup vocalist Christie McClure, along with their debut album.

With such little emphasis on studio frills, “Where the Rock Meets the Rail,” focuses mainly on Roy’s singing and songwriting. Roy’s traditional sense of song structure and melody occasionally makes some of the songs blend together, but his band’s keen sense of musicianship helps differentiate the highlights.

Rothenberg’s tasteful drum fills on “The Well” really emphasize the folk-shuffle rhythms on the album’s key track. Elsewhere, on “Uncharted,” Hauge carries the song with an enchanting bass line.

Roy’s expressive singing and lyrics are often the focal point on the album. On the gothic-country tinges of the opening track, “Herod’s Blues,” Roy sings “Write these words on my tombstone / I never meant to die alone / but there’s only room for one in the grave.”

As an entire piece, the album lags with too many longer, mid-tempo folk songs in between the upbeat jams like “I Only Wanna Be Your Man,” and “Salty Dog.” The band is still a lot of fun to watch live – that much seems clear from listening to their efforts in the studio. But it feels like any strength on the album would be only enhanced with an audience present.

New Portishead album worth the wait

Published on Thursday, May 1, 2008
The Northern Star

“Third” - Portishead
Rating: 9 / 10

After 11 years, Portishead, the best band to have never written a James Bond theme song, returns with its third album, appropriately titled “Third.”

You’d think with the simple title and artwork that the band is trying to create as little fanfare as possible about their long-awaited return to recorded music.

Regardless, after crafting one of the ’90s most acclaimed albums, “Dummy,” many fans are paying close attention to “Third” and asking whether or not it was worth the wait.

And the answer: Yes.

Many have already pointed out that “Third” is a reinvention of sorts for Portishead, as trip-hop standards like record scratching and jazzy beats are gone.

However, these changes are merely surface-level aspects. The core of Portishead’s sound is still in tact with darkly sparse electronic arrangements underneath Beth Gibbons’ haunting vocals. Departure or not, “Third” is a Portishead record through and through.

As the album plays, one can pick up bits and pieces of other modern bands: a bit of PJ Harvey here, some Postal Service there. Yet the album’s greatest strength is that makes these elements all their own.

On the bleak “Nylon Smile,” Gibbons’ desperate singing invokes real pain as much as it invokes a romantic kind of dependence.

“I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you,” she sings, “and I don’t know what I’ll do without you.” It’s a brilliantly delivered line that reminds listeners of their classic single, “Sour Times” (“Nobody loves me, it’s true / Not like you do”).

Elsewhere on the album is “Deep Water,” the album’s clearest departure from the band’s signature sound.

As a short, mournful song, performed nakedly with just a ukulele and Gibbons’ vocals, it’s sure to be divisive among fans – either being praised as the eye of the storm before single “Machine Gun” or as Portishead’s weakest moment yet.

Nonetheless, the fact that Portishead sounds as brave and unaffected by its long absence as it does on “Third” is astonishing.

The years in the studio have helped make it a cohesive statement of the band’s place in pop music’s history books. No longer a relic of the ’90s, “Third” welcomes Portishead back to the best kind of relevance – the kind that has produced classics and could produce more in years to come.

The Patience EP offers strong group of songs

Published on Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The Northern Star

"Dans Nads" - The Patience
Rating: 8 / 10

When one first encounters The Patience, the all-female rock trio from DeKalb, there could be some low expectations. The three have rambunctious, sugar-high kind of personalities that, by all logic, should produce music of the same caliber.

Yet, on their demo last year, they showed a surprising amount of craftsmanship and maturity in their minimal rock arrangements. Now, The Patience have released a three-song EP tentatively titled “Dans Nads,” via their MySpace page.

“We’re still thinking of an official name,” said singer Angel Pfrommer.

According to Pfrommer, the sessions are the product of a single 14-hour session at Uptown Recording in Chicago.

Kicking things off with their live-favorite, “Shadow,” which nicely showcases the vocal chemistry between guitarist Taylor Ochoa and singer Pfrommer. While it was hard to tell who was singing what on their debut last year, Ochoa’s sultry alto now harmonizes almost perfectly with Pfrommer’s, for lack of a better words, sassy falsetto.

Following that song is “T,” which departs from the groups usual guitar-and-drums arrangements. Over a poppy organ and guitar lick, Pfrommer chides a friend’s bad choices with the group’s cleverest lyrics yet
.
“You used to be too cute for coke / but your friends don’t get the joke / and what your mother doesn’t know / I bet would break her heart,” sings Pfrommer with a confident, rock ‘n’ roll swagger.

Closing the EP is “Too Old for the Cold,” a more experimental sounding song with drummer Logan Ochoa (Taylor’s younger sister) keeping time by hitting the rims of her drums before launching into an instrumental coda that sounds like a completely different song tacked on for no reason at all.

Though it’s still a strong group of songs, there are a few wrinkles the band has yet to iron out. Their infectious energy helps keep things fun, making the tacked-on final chorus of “Shadow” enjoyable, even if a bit unnecessary. It’s as if they were having too much fun to simply do a three-minute pop song.

Still, for a free download on MySpace, there is much to be impressed with on “Dans Nads.” The trio is not even old enough to drink, and the drummer is still in high school, but one hopes that they break out of DeKalb and at least become a band that could headline venues here at home.

The Hives deliver with catchy anthems, fall with filler tracks

Published on Thursday, November 15, 2007
The Northern Star

“The Black and White Album” - The Hives
Rating: 6 / 10

Background: After three albums of playing fast and loud garage rock, including the hit, “Hate to Say I Told You So,” the Swedish quintet, led by the “Howlin’” Pelle Almqvist, expand their sound with help from producers Dennis Herring (Modest Mouse, Elvis Costello) and Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes.

The Good: Songs like “Hey Little World,” “Bigger Hole to Fill” and “Return the Favor” are catchy, stadium-sized anthems worthy enough to be played by a band as hell-bent on world domination as the Hives.

The Bad: The album has tedious filler tracks. Also, The Hives are best experienced live – and they’re not due back in America until February or March of 2008.

The Lowdown: When the Hives first broke through in 2002 with “Veni Vedi Vicious,” they were lumped together with the Strokes, the White Stripes and the Vines as garage rock revivalists.

But anyone who saw them live knew they had much bigger ambitions. Not since Oasis began telling people they were the best band in the world had a group so unapologetically declared themselves as “Your new favorite band.”

Five years later, the Hives seem to be getting closer to their goal. In support of “The Black and White Album,” their fourth overall, the band has toured with Maroon 5, slightly changed their sound and worked with some big names, like Pharrell Williams. Earlier this year, they even collaborated with Timbaland on his solo album, “Shock Value.”

Because of this, “The Black and White Album” spends much of its time with New Wave-style dance songs. One of the Pharrell-produced tracks, called “T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.,” is the most straight-up disco song they’ve put out so far.

“The Black and White Album,” clocks in at 45 minutes, which isn’t long by any means, but still sounds stretched in Hives terms. It causes the band to succumb to the sad cliché of a slow, middle-of-the-album-instrumental song called, “A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors.”

While their experiments cause the album to lose focus and momentum, it doesn’t completely ruin it. With their matching black and white suits, The Hives are out to get as many people dancing as possible.

All the added production can’t hide the fact that it’s only rock and roll, and pretty good rock and roll at that.

New album from Jimmy Eat World fails to impress

Published on Friday, October 19, 2007
The Northern Star

"Chase This Light" - Jimmy Eat World
Rating: 4 / 10

Jimmy Eat World’s sudden rise to fame is the kind of story that both the music industry and the press love.

Essentially, four remarkably average looking guys from Arizona caught lightning in a bottle with a catchy single that promised its listeners, “Everything, everything will be all right, all right.”

But since “The Middle” became a radio and movie trailer staple in 2001, the band has yet to recapture the magic found in their much-loved 1999 album “Clarity” or their pop-rock hits from the early decade.

If their fifth album, “Chase the Light” is any indication, there is still a long way to go before that magic is rediscovered.

Jimmy Eat World’s best songs combine big, arena-sized rock sound with angst, earnestness and most importantly, big, catchy hooks that stay in your head for weeks.

Unfortunately, most of the songs fail to live up in the catchiness department.
Instead, they sound unimaginative. By the end of the record, each song becomes boring on a good day, annoying on a bad day and formulaic everyday.

One thing Jimmy Eat World can’t be faulted with is a lack of sincerity, but in the years since “Clarity,” the group hasn’t come up with a compelling way to mature.

The closest they come is during the bridge of the album’s moody centerpiece, “Gotta Be Somebody’s Blues.” The string arrangement changes its pace and layers melodies together into something interesting.

Unfortunately, that moment is too short and the strings go back to being wallpaper for a hook-less ballad.

The band gets a little closer to reclaiming their glory with the brief and breezy rocker “Feeling Lucky,” as well as the disco-infused “Here it Goes,” but much of the record is still cheesy and banal.

The track “Big Casino” doesn’t even produce a chorus catchy enough to hum. It’s amazing they managed to cram such clumsy prose into a melody in the first place.

With production help from Butch Vig, the man who produced Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” “Chase the Light” sounds like any number of arena-rock bands that are overplayed on the radio.

But what the production can’t take care of is the songs, which lack distinction, making Jimmy Eat World sound mediocre at best.

Radiohead releases album to the masses

Published on Monday, October 15, 2007
The Northern Star

"In Rainbows" - Radiohead
Rating: 8 /10

As easy as it is to love and admire Radiohead, it’s very difficult to envy them.

For more than a decade, the Oxford-based art-rock band has made a career of exceeding expectations, both commercially and artistically. There isn’t a name in all of popular music today that invokes as much reverence and respect.

For their seventh album, “In Rainbows,” Radiohead makes a statement through marketing. Instead of announcing a release date months in advance and waiting for the album to leak on the Internet, the band leaked it themselves and asked its listeners to pay whatever they felt like paying.

But does the music live up to the hype?

“In Rainbows” is indeed worth it. For much of this decade, Radiohead has embraced computerized music, adding electronic textures and beats to their own work.

“In Rainbows” is surprising because of how understated it is. Instead of a hook-filled sprawl like “Hail to the Thief,” Radiohead gives us a comparatively stripped-down and organic-sounding album.

Among the surprises is the notion that Thom Yorke fancies himself a bit of an R&B singer. Obviously, he hasn’t turned into R. Kelly, but his performance on “Nude,” along with Colin Greenwood’s jumping bass line, emphasize a soulful rhythmic groove that hasn’t been explored by the band until now.

“15 Step” kicks the album off in a similar way, juxtaposing a jittery 5-4 beat with Yorke’s croon and soft guitar line. Later in the record, “Reckoner” showcases the falsetto range of Yorke’s effervescent voice, which amazingly has not weakened with age.

Throughout all of “In Rainbows,” the band’s arrangements show a tasteful sense of restraint and poise.

Drummer Phil Selway doesn’t get enough credit for keeping the band together during live shows, recreating the complex beats live. That might change with “In Rainbows,” as his percussion fits each song without drawing attention.

In fact, most of the arrangement and instrument playing on the album can be described in that way. From the subtle strings and guitars of “House of Cards,” the mantra-like piano line from “Videotape” and the finger-picked acoustic guitar on “Faust ARP.”

There is of course one exception to this rule, a song called “Bodysnatchers.” With its heavy guitars, Rolling Stones-esque beat, and Yorke’s banshee wail, the song feels looser than anything the band has produced in this decade.

The problem that comes with reviewing Radiohead is the inevitable comparisons to their back catalog. Fans constantly argue whether “The Bends,” “OK Computer,” or “Kid A,” defines the group’s crowning achievement.

“In Rainbows” is a different beast all together. Like their 2001 album “Amnesiac,” it doesn’t try to sound monolithic or epic.

Anyone who says they were “wowed” by this album would probably be wowed by anything Radiohead does. It’s worth pointing out that this is not “OK Computer 2” or the return to “The Bends” style bombast.

“In Rainbows” scales Radiohead back, giving them a more human sound.

Their body of work shifts styles and sensibilities from album to album, but each piece always sounds remarkably like Radiohead. “In Rainbows” may not “wow” audiences, but it will fascinate and intrigue fans.

PJ Harvey goes from rock to creepy in latest release

Published on Tuesday, October 9, 2007
The Northern Star

"White Chalk" - PJ Harvey
Rating: 7 / 10

PJ Harvey belongs with an elite group of musicians.

Like The Beastie Boys and Beck, she’s considered an influential and original artist who has sustained a lengthy career without repeating herself.

But even her hardcore following will be checking their speakers upon the first listen of her latest and seventh album. “White Chalk” is not rough blues and punk guitars – this album is led almost entirely with piano. Instead of Harvey’s unique banshee wail of a voice, she has transformed into a high, wilting tone.

None of this is unheard of for Harvey, but rarely has it been heard so prominently on one of her albums.

The album’s unusual sound makes for a difficult first listen. I was almost ready to give up on one of my favorite artists by the time it was over. But to say this is an experiment gone awry undersells a unique entry in Harvey’s already remarkable catalog.

Returning to the producer Flood, who helped make her critically and commercially successful album, “To Bring You My Love,” as well as albums by the Smashing Pumpkins and U2, “White Chalk” is far and away one of the creepiest and eeriest sounding records of the year.

Harvey’s falsetto voice sounds like it’s coming from a ghostly little girl on “Grow Grow Grow,” asking her mommy to teach her “how to catch someone’s fancy.” Over the reverb-soaked piano, the effect is enjoyably unsettling. It’s the aural equivalent of an old horror movie.

Then, there’s the moment where she croons, “Oh, grandmother, I’m so lonely,” during “To Talk to You.” It sounds as if she’s a ghost from beyond the grave.

The album is not Harvey’s best. While the sonic textures certainly get more interesting the more they’re dug into and replayed, this record is slightly monotonous. Harvey usually hits more emotional tones, but here seems stuck in this gothic mode of thinking.

There are also some days – warm, sunny, carefree days – where this album probably will be far from the top of the CD pile. Anyone who has felt that reverb is the death of pop music should steer away.

But despite this, Harvey creates an interesting and startlingly resonant album. While I appreciate and admire this effort now, it’s very possible that when Halloween comes and goes and we experience our annual week of deathly cold, “White Chalk” will slip itself further under my skin and onto my year-end list of great albums.

The key to fully appreciating this album comes from repeat listens.

“White Chalk” doesn’t amaze so much as it gets under the skin.

'Strawberry Jam' solidifies band's stance as creative, innovative

Published on Thursday, September 13, 2007
The Northern Star

"Strawberry Jam" - Animal Collective
Rating: 9 / 10

The New York based psychedelic, indie-rock quartet known as Animal Collective have been steadily building their fan base since they formed at the beginning of the decade.

First playing an arty combination of folk and noise, the group didn’t start to turn heads until 2004, with their acoustic guitar, campfire-freak-out album, “Sung Tongs.”

The following year, they released a more fleshed out effort called “Feels,” which sounded like the Beach Boys if Brian Wilson had decided to go tribal, melding together polyrhythmic drums and ecstatic shouting with soaring vocal harmonies.

Now they’ve come out with their seventh album overall, entitled “Strawberry Jam,” and it is not only one of the year’s best; it also further solidifies Animal Collective’s stance as one of the most creative and innovative bands of the decade.

On this album, the group has traded in their guitars for electronics and samplers. This switch in instrumentation may lack the organic feel of their previous albums, but the group makes up for it with the energy of children playing with their Christmas presents.

Take the album’s first single and lead-off track, “Peacebone,” which starts with a spastic mess of keyboard noise that slows down to reveal a sugar-high pop song that sounds like it’s coming from a strange carnival.

Yet, the weird arrangements of their music would mean nothing if it wasn’t for the melodies that the band’s two singers Dave Portner and Noah Lennox (who record under the stage names Avey Tare and Panda Bear, respectively), craft over them.

In comparison with the rest of their discography, "Strawberry’s Jam" greatest accomplishment is that it pushes their inventive and catchy melodies higher in the mix.

“Peacebone,” succeeds as much as it does because of Avey Tare’s octave jumping vocal performance as well as the bouncy music underneath.

On Panda Bear’s songs, like “Chores,” and “Derek,” he contrasts his bandmate’s vocal acrobatics with his warm sounding tone, which sounds as much in place in the context of the band’s work as it did on his extraordinary solo album, "Person Pitch," released earlier this year.

Perhaps the best song on the album to exemplify the group’s overall talent is “For Reverend Green.” As one of the album’s more raucous sounding songs, with its abrasive guitars, 7/4 timing and Avey Tare’s own rhythmic screaming, it never wavers away from its excellent melodic foundation.

It’s hard for me to decide which of the three last albums I like the best, but it is clear that "Strawberry Jam" is the band’s most accessible. By beefing up the vocal melodies, the songs sound more muscular.

The album lacks many of the ambient, slow-building moments on previous records in place of pure, ecstatic and emotional pop.

Even though it was released the same day at Kanye West’s, 50 Cent’s, and Kenny Chesney’s latest albums, it would be incredibly naïve to predict this album will make a huge dent on the Billboard charts. In fact, I am sure the band is too weird for many listeners.

That being said, “Strawberry Jam” has the potential to bring the band even more fans, including those who admired them from a distance and those who may have never even heard music like this before.

Summer Music Recap '07

Published on Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The Northern Star

"Boxer" - The National

Upon first listen, The National do not feel like a large-sounding band, but on their fourth and most accomplished album, they defy that notion amazingly through restraint and refinement.

This is one of the best grower albums of the year, one that reveals itself a little bit more with every listen. I’ve listened to it so many times that the weight and repetition of “Start a War” is almost overwhelming.

With a propulsive but never bombastic rhythm section, intricately arranged guitars, horns and strings and singer Matt Berninger’s distinctive baritone croon, Boxer became a staple for warm, late-night drives.

"Kala" - M.I.A.

After “Arular” made her a household name for hipsters in 2005, M.I.A. proves she’s more than a one-album fluke thanks to her ambitious, experimental and dangerous sounding sophomore album, “Kala”.

Listening to the rhythmic assaults of “Bird Flu” and “Boyz” should further establish the London-by-way-of-Sri-Lanka singer/rapper/producer as the leader in making dance music for anarchists.

As a summer album, it makes for a great soundtrack to the oppressive heat and humidity.