Five years after "Take Me Out" burst into the mainstream on the strength of its rough, post-punk guitars and high-hat disco beats, becoming perhaps the biggest indie-to-mainstream rock hit of the current century, it's evident that very few indie bands nowadays really, really rock. Certain explosions in popularity stand in stark contrast to the raw, in-your-face rock of Franz Ferdinand, the last true rockers to break out of the indie ghetto.
They've been chomping at the bit to expand their palette since "Take Me Out" made it big. You Could Have It So Much Better is littered with a desire to change the band's direction, although the results when they did were thoroughly lousy. ("Eleanor Put Your Boots On" is irredeemably awful.) There was much to love, but those departures really, really didn't work.
So I was understandably saddened by the rumors, two years ago, that Franz Ferdinand would be going heavy on the synthesizers for their follow-up. Goddammit... MORE changes. One of the few bands that really understand how guitars work, and who had as of that moment done no wrong, had announced their intention to ditch what worked for them. My response at the time was that it was "not good news until proven otherwise."
Tonight is otherwise.
Turns out that Franz Ferdinand's signature sound works as well on keyboards as on guitars. Just as Dear Science proved that TV On The Radio's identity can be felt across lots of different sonic landscapes, Tonight proves as much for Franz Ferdinand.
Though their intention to abandon the guitar was a bit jarring, but their changeover from funky guitar to disco synths really isn't. In practice, it's more that they've made an entire album of tracks based on You Could Have It So Much Better standout "Outsiders." It's laced with colorful funky, disco-ish flourishes, but it's still rock.
The track ordering shrewdly integrates their departures into what we hear as the album progresses, avoiding any feeling of what could have been jarring changes. Early tracks "Ulysses" and "No You Girls" are more heavily dependent on guitar stomps. "Twilight Omens" and "Bite Hard" are the first synth-driven songs we hear, and we've been prepared by the time they arrive. By the time full-blown disco tracks "Live Alone" and "Lucid Dreams" come around, you barely notice or care. That gradual progression helps sell us on the expansion of what works for them, letting us come around slowly if need be.
This change isn't always a good thing, though. Pre-release track "Lucid Dreams" as presented here late last year is a rollicking, classically Franz track. The track as found on Tonight has been transformed and digested into a techno epic that lacks the sheer awesomeness of the leak, despite its charms. The differences evident in this one song are a microcosm of the entire changeover... you yearn wistfully for the old thing when they're mostly just doing the new thing.
But in the end, this is still an excellent, excellent pop album. After being somewhat randomly associated with The Killers for so long simply because their arrivals came at the same time, Franz Ferdinand has made the Killers album we've all been waiting for since Hot Fuss.
I give Tonight: Franz Ferdinand a rating of four assassinated archdukes out of five. Well done.
Picking a best album from this crop was an unenviable task. I'm still not entirely happy with my selection, nobody else has much of an argument to make against it. Meanwhile, I ended up with too many contenders for worst album. That's what happens in a consensus down-year, I guess.
What better way to salute 2008 than to start at the ass end? In a bizarre fit of Christmas generosity, I have decided to rename the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Award, only because it's really just the singer who drives me bonkers. So they are hereby rescued from the unbearable hell of some guy on the internet talking shit about them. For now.
So from now on my shit list has a new name:
The Grizzly Deerhoof Collective
Has a ring? No. Forced? Yes. Accurate? Also. Three irredeemably awful bands, coming together to form a Voltron-like musical Golgothan that would probably destroy humanity, just like that meteor destroyed the dinosaurs. And the less said about its parts, the better. Allow these piece of shit songs, if you dare, to speak for themselves:
God help you if you like any of that trash.
In order to stop myself from comparing the above bands to recent poops I've taken, here are this year's booby-prize winners:
No Age - Nouns
No talent, either. This is exactly the kind of non-music Pitchfork LOVES to insist is artistic progress, and not just two bozos making an "atmospheric" wall of noise and hoping some jackass works hard enough to derive some musical qualities from it. (To clarify, Pitchfork is the jackass in that situation, and No Age are the bozos.)
When I consider the untold numbers of talented folks who bust their asses to educate themselves about music history, work on their craft, and conceive something creative and unique to share... and then consider "experimental" garbage like No Age being touted by influential people... depressing.
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
This album sounds like shit tastes. What I said for No Age goes double for Fuck Buttons, which is clearly short for "Just Fucking Around With The Buttons On My Macbook." I saw these two dopes in person, and thought they were garbage. I checked out their album, thinking maybe they had a bad audio set up. They did not. It was even worse.
They set out upon the difficult tightrope-walk that is blips-and-bloops electronica, but they fall onto a group of tourists below. It's neither the composed brilliance of Burial nor the rollicking fun of likewise filthily-named Holy Fuck. Fuck Buttons is just a bunch of nothing. I hope they're enjoying acclaim while they have it, because their cunning attempt to trick us isn't going to go over twice.
The Walkmen - You & Me
Unlike the above, this just plain sucks. My irritation with The Walkmen is that they are emblematic of all the things I hate about "indie" rock: purposeful awfulness. The singer puts on this awful fake Dylan drawl, the songs are decidedly uncatchy, and the end result of each song is filtered needlessly through a tin can in order to make it impossible to hear, apparently. It's not visionary, it's not hard, it's not rough. It just sucks. There's only one good reason why you would purposely make your music impossible to hear: if it's utter shit.
The Murderer's Row of Disappointments
The Killers - Day & Age
Day & Age marks the end of The Killers as relevant artists. They are no longer ripping off quality musicians like Interpol and Bruce Springsteen... now they're ripping off Maroon 5, themselves a rip-off. We are clearly not getting another Hot Fuss, not unless there's an American Idiot-type return from the depths in their future. But I highly doubt that. The most damning thing I can say is that every time I try to listen to Day & Age from start to finish, I wonder why I shouldn't just put Hot Fuss on instead.
of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
Skeletal Lamping is the skillet-to-the-face imagery of Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, without any of its hooks, its focus, or its relentlessness. It has some great moments on it, notably "Id Engager," but the superlative, endearing pop ingredients from Fauna are gone. Kevin Barnes's urgency on Hissing Fauna, seen perfectly in the sublime "Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse," is what drove that album to its heights, but it's unseen on Skeletal Lamping. Here, he's just wandering aimlessly up and down each track, no purpose or direction. There are flashes of brilliance here and there (the opening of "Nonpareil of Favor," or his alter ego Georgie Fruit's admonitions in "Wicked Wisdom") but "Id Engager" is the only song that really works in its entirety... and even then, not as much as any track on Hissing Fauna.
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Not up to snuff by MMJ standards... none of the sinister undercurrent of their other, better work. It plays like an Allman Brothers ripoff more than anything. An example of a band escaping the indie ghetto and drawing new fans by going completely blah. I bet it's fine live, but it sure ain't that great in my apartment. Evil Urges is okay, but definitely not unnecessary. I'm guessing they will right the ship next time around.
Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
After being teased by a pair of too-short EPs in two years, I expected their proper album to be longer than 27 minutes. Getting basically just another EP, one that is only sometimes brilliant at that, is not acceptable. Very disappointing, though not so much that I dislike it.
It isn't all bad. "Tesselate" and "In A Cave" and "Your English Is Good" stand up to their best. But it's sad to hear them finally record some filler tracks. Given the choice between getting Elephant Shell when we did and waiting for a proper LP, I would have waited. In fact, irony of ironies, I would have preferred to get Elephant Shell pared down to a six-song EP worthy of their talents.
Tapes n' Tapes - Walk It Off
After the superb "Hang Them All" started to make the rounds, my hopes got up. Not one other song approaches it. There are so many down-tempo, tiresome, blah songs that you wonder whether they indulged their "moody" side a bit too much. The beauty of The Loon, as with so many other lo-fi albums, was that they simply rocked out as best they could. "Hang Them All" was a step forward, but nearly everything else was a step back. (I will grant that album closer "The Dirty Dirty" ends things on a rollicking note that should have been more prevalent in the tracks preceding it.) Still, one of the bigger disappointments personally.
The Roots - Rising Down
They've drifted away from what they're good at in order to recover their street cred. Game Theory and Rising Down both attempt to make the band darker than they actually are. The great tracks on here ("Criminal" and "75 Bars" come to mind) are the tracks with no axes to grind, musically speaking. I just wish they'd go back to making the music they want to, instead of trying to be the cool kids on the corner.
Commuted Sentences
Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
It broke my heart to list this under disappointments, and it really did belong there, but I just couldn't. Still, this usually bombastic group deserves a slap on the wrists for turning in their smallest and least essential album since their debut, Von. Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust has its bright points up front, but the album drifts along into total boredom by the end. How can the band responsible for this turn in such a tepid record?
They've purposely sapped themselves of their power, their biggest asset by far, to make something more intimate, but I don't want that. The only song that kinda-sorta approaches the style of their previous successes, "Festival," in fact proves my point better than anything else: its structure mirrors "Untitled 8"/"Popplagið" and other Sigur Rós gems, but with no bite to the rock-out part at the end, it just doesn't work.
Their acoustic abilities were proven on Hvarf/Heim and the film Heima; dedicating yet another piece to the softer side was not necessary. The most powerful band on the planet should go back to being powerful.
Bloc Party - Intimacy
For a long time, I had them first in line for a beating. Intimacy should have been called Laziness, or Hurry, or something else that mirrors the amount of effort they put into it. But it's still Bloc Party, so ultimately it's still good.
However, subscribing to the slapdash recording methods that The White Stripes used so successfully for Get Behind Me Satan does not suit them nearly as well. They're probably as good as anyone has ever been when it comes to B-sides... so it's pretty disappointing to hear an album of C-sides. Even the best of Intimacy, "Halo" and "One Month Off" and "Talons," reminded me more of "Cavaliers and Roundheads," "The Once And Future King" or "Hero" than any track from Silent Alarm or A Weekend In The City.
All in all, the sloppiness plays as an apologetic reaction to the increase in composure evident on A Weekend In The City. Personally, I didn't need them to prove they could still be wild. It's great that they're so prolific, and want to get stuff out to fans ASAP. But a less hurried band would have kept "Flux" in the can until Intimacy's release, would not have put the digital version out without "Talons," would maybe have cropped a track or two out of the filler, and would have seen Intimacy welcomed a lot more warmly from the get-go. They're better than this.
Good Enough To Name-Drop, Not Good Enough To Discuss
Destroyer - Trouble In Dreams
The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
Portishead - Third
Hercules And Love Affair - Hercules And Love Affair
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
The Best Of What I Encountered From Other People's Best-Of Lists
Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It
This year's retro-soul entry, following in the tradition of Nicole Willis And The Investigators and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. But this is the best of the bunch. Mr. Saadiq is a seriously talented dude, feeling less like a throwback and more like a man in the wrong century.
Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster... / We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Very fun. Potentially annoying, but pretty fun on a first impression. Unfortunately their having released two separate albums this year means that I haven't really gotten through it all yet. But I can say that We Are Beautiful is a large step forward, in quality if not anything stylistic. As amazing as the swiftness of their follow-up's release, the extent of growth is just as amazing.
Good Stuff
Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
It's missing the instant hits, but it's also far more consistent. Even more Motown than St. Elsewhere.
A return to impish form after dabbling in soft-rock territory with Songs For Silverman. Although Silverman was far better than generally thought, it's nice to hear the clearest lyricist in pop music up to his old tricks, writing songs like "Bitch Went Nuts" and a song about falling off a stage. It's not essential from front to back, but it's certainly no disappointment.
Girl Talk - Feed The Animals
You want an indication of how weak a year it's been? Until very, very late in the year, a mashup album, albeit an awesome one, was in my top 10. I purposely left Night Ripper out of contention in 2006, and I very nearly had to break that rule this time around. Sheesh.
But as for the album, same deal as Night Ripper, second verse same as the first. Instant dance party. But more importantly, it made me remember how awesome "Gimme Some Lovin" is.
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
[nsfw lyrics]
Best mainstream rap album in ages, certainly since Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. But what's so remarkable is that he didn't go pop, as OutKast kinda did... he dragged pop to him. His talent is so superlative that people are drawn to him without him having to take one step away from what he's doing. For Wayne to be as unique and weird as he is without his beats following suit... for him be as critically acclaimed as he is without sacrificing any street cred... that is just a monstrous achievement, one that mostly explains the diversity and size of his fan base.
R.E.M. - Accelerate
And now here's the best mainstream rock album in ages. They've regained the fastball they had during the Monster years. Basically, Jacknife Lee should stick to dead bands and leave the ones I like alone.
Blitzen Trapper - Furr
Now this gets a huge thumbs up. Embarrassingly, it took a surreal fan-made video setting "Saturday Nite" to Alf footage to get my attention. But it worked. And I'm glad it did, because the entire album is awesome. Reminiscent of The Band or Lynyrd Skynyrd, and more immediately the FAIL-ridden-but-once-great My Morning Jacket. Worthy of each comparison. And far better in the retro category than Dr. Dog, which bores me for some reason.
A quick but illustrative sidebar: a month ago, during a shopping spree at Newbury Comics, I encountered the most drug-damaged acid victim I've ever seen. Holding a gigantic Foo Fighters vinyl box set, he was quizzing the man behind the counter about its contents. Imagine the following exchange happening at the most excruciatingly slow pace imaginable:
Acid Victim: What kind of music is this? Store Cashier: It's rock. AV: Yeah, but what kind? SC: I don't know, just regular rock. AV: So it's like the Dead? SC: No. AV: What instruments do they play? SC: Um... I dunno, drums, a bass, a couple of guitars. AV: What, no keyboards? SC: No, not really. [AV looks at the box set] AV: Do they jam? SC: No.
At that point he looked quizzically at the box set again, confused at how this band could play rock music but be nothing like the Grateful Dead or Phish. I have no idea what possessed this man to pick up the set, other than the word "Foo" sounding like something a pothead Communist from Burlington would name his band. I also cannot imagine why the epitome of late-90s rock would be so impossible to quantify. I have thought about that story several times since it happened, and I don't know what the cashier should have done differently.
My point? That guy should have picked himself up some Blitzen Trapper.
Kanye West - 808s And Heartbreak
I thought this would be #10, but it's not, thanks to a late-breaking curveball.
The general tone of criticism has been that Kanye departed a field in which he was the undisputed master, pop hip-hop, and entered a field in which he is mediocre, neo-soul. However, as I've documented frequently in the past, he's not much of a rapper, but he is an unparalleled musical conceptualist. 808s is no exception, proving both that West is good enough to do anything he wants and weird enough to drag the mainstream towards him. From the bare electro of "Say You Will," through clear highlights "Love Lockdown" and "Robocop," and on to concluding track "Coldest Winter," 808s is a complete success.
The List
10. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Show
This album inspired the "best albums from other people's lists" category, then graduated from it.
My first reaction, when digging into the deeper tracks in here, was that they were a Scottish version of Crowded House or Tears For Fears, or even U2 in their sense of drama and the wholesale thievery on "Head Rolls Off" of every rhythm guitar trick The Edge invented.
But after listening to Scott Hutchison's Mangum-style vocal work, particularly on "The Twist," it struck me that the heart of their appeal is the same as that of Neutral Milk Hotel... there's a deep resonance that absolutely hammers you if you let it. Sounding genuinely like a cross between U2 and NMH is one hell of a compliment, but it sure feels true to me.
I have a feeling I'll be listening to this a hell of a lot next year.
9. Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
A big jump forward after 2006's The Warning. They're missing a "Boy From School" to tie it all together, but track for track this one is a lot better. They're really pushing the formula with a lot of these goofy songs ("Bendable Poseable") where the song is weird, but there's a purpose.
8. Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs
A more than respectable effort from a band that is clearly in search of greener pastures. Not a perfect album from beginning to end, but given the sappier, smoother direction that Plans pointed towards, for better or worse, Narrow Stairs is a welcome reintroduction of some edge and jangle. "Cath..." and "Long Division" are hard to argue with; "No Sunlight" isn't so hard to argue with, as was seen earlier, but it is nonetheless the latest in a series of Death Cab songs that juxtapose cheery and bouncy music with depressing, defeatist lyrics ("The Sound of Settling," "I Was A Kaleidoscope") with great results.
7. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
Most underrated album of the year. A letdown only because it couldn't possibly follow up one of the greatest albums of recent memory, Apologies To The Queen Mary. But by a) allowing Dan Boeckner to take the reins from Spencer Krug for most of the album, and b) forging a more unified album from start to finish, Wolf Parade make the best of it. Boeckner's emergence is particularly encouraging; while the Krug brilliance everyone hoped for wasn't quite there, Zoomer high point "California Dreamer" excepted, Boeckner rose to Krug's level and established that Wolf Parade has more than one superlative creative force behind it.
6. Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns
I am truly, legitimately shocked to have placed this so high, and above such good work from bands who never stumbled the way Snow Patrol has. After the abuse many of us endured at the hands of "Chasing Cars" and its overexposure, I marked them as either washed up or high on their own stardom. But they've earned it.
So how the hell did this happen? It may not be much of a departure from Eyes Open (which, by the way, looks a lot less crimes-against-humanity bad now that it doesn't signified the demise of the band) but it is mostly bereft of the goofy "put Sufjan Stevens on" lyrical indulgences that made that album so impossible to like. Gary Lightbody's return from the foreground to the level of his bandmates, happy to contribute rather than distract, serves Snow Patrol well.
This return to excellence only bangs home another bizarre truism about Lightbody: he is maddeningly consistent in his inconsistency, alternating brilliance and turditude. Songs For Polar Bears is great. When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up is terrible. Final Straw is coming with me to my desert island, as convincing an album as there is. Eyes Open, though better than I originally thought, is openly lazy to the point where you wonder if Lightbody even cares. A Hundred Million Suns proves that he does. How does this keep happening? He's supposed to have a phenomenal creative period in the middle, flanked by mediocrity. It's a Snickers bar with alternating layers of nougat and caramel, and no chocolate shell. Is this alternating yes-yes-yes/oh-God-no situation more encouraging or more frustrating? Even his Reindeer Section output alternates between genius and boredom (Son of Evil Reindeer, which features one great song).
I guess this means the next one will blow, cause this one is really, really good.
5. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
One of the most fun albums of the year. Bright Like Neon Love was good; this is excellent. It's hard to describe Cut Copy without invoking the obvious New Order comparisons, but they certainly stand up to the comparison.
4. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
This album won Great Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize, and justifiably so. The filler isn't particularly compelling, but the best work on here is deeply moving. As I said in my review, "One Day Like This" is an amazing song that deserves more (or some) stateside attention.
3. TV On The Radio - Dear Science
I was supposed to pick Dear Science. It should have been easy. It's indeed brilliant stuff, their best and most fun work to date. And it certainly makes the best rational argument for the #1 spot, deep and subversive and masterful even through its low points.
But I want to have some irrational love for it as a whole... I need to have some obsession with this album, the inability to take it out of my CD player, the ability to sing along with every song. And that's not really true.
It just feels unreal to me. Return To Cookie Mountain, for all its totally original post-apocalyptic noise, nevertheless still felt very human and organic... my reaction is to wonder how humans could come up with those sounds. Dear Science's detached smoothness leaves no such wonder about the music's synthesis; it's all constructed and processed and digested, stripping away its urgency in the process. Normally I'd be fine with that; here, though, I think they lose sight of what's important.
There's no one defining song on Dear Science, no "Wolf Like Me," to tie the album together. Much as I love "Crying," it's so clean and meant for dancing that it reminds you of bands who do the dance-rock thing a whole lot better. Much as I adore the Africa-infused "Red Dress," it feels more like an Antibalas song (they provide the horns) that TVOTR guests on than the other way around. "Golden Age" is weak. "Dancing Choose" is fun but airy. Where is the song that we all would think of when thinking of Dear Science? I don't hear it.
Dear Science is far and away their most cohesive and least difficult work. It is evidence of a band that has Gotten It. The slick feel across each track takes away from the band's rough strengths, making it sound at times like what New Age really should have sounded like. I certainly don't think it's undeserving. But the bottom line is that Dear Science just didn't win my vote.
2. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
I'm not surprised that Stay Positive wasn't the upper-echelon breakthrough it should have been, given that it's a redux of Boys And Girls In America that narrowly misses its mark. But Boys and Girls shouldn't prevent us from holding the deeply skilled work here in high regard. If Stay Positive had come along without Boys and Girls preceding it, it would blow people's minds.
They're not plowing any new musical soil, but they do what they do better than anyone else. The band rocks harder than anyone else. Craig Finn's always-tragic words hit harder than anyone else. You really don't need much more than that.
So many upper-underground bands of their caliber failed. It's a shame that The Hold Steady haven't been applauded more often for succeeding so thoroughly.
1. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
I seem to have dealt with internet buzz bands really well this year. I'm indifferent towards Fleet Foxes, and I love Vampire Weekend to death. This would never have happened five years ago.
Vampire Weekend was probably the most uncool choice possible as my favorite album, but there it is. They didn't rock as hard as The Hold Steady, show the genius of TV On The Radio, hit with the same emotional punches and drama as Elbow. But at the end of the day (year?) none of that matters. Because I just flat-out like their album better.
It's not like I don't get the backlash. Their unabashed bourgeois preppiness and their delicate Ivy League aesthetic open them up for all sorts of criticism. And I hate privileged people as much as anyone I've ever encountered. I should despise them.
But I don't, because they made a fucking fantastic album. High quality, tons of creativity and originality, pop sensibility to spare. They wore those sweaters and loafers, and made a classic album in spite of it. So I can't say shit, other than nice job.
And with that, I'm done. It may only be just over 4000 words, but to me it felt like a milli.
The comma-laden Dear Science, is a surprisingly positive and immediate effort from a band known primarily for a distinctively brooding sound that is typically described as post-apocalyptic. While each song on Return To Cookie Mountain, their 2006 breakthrough, is shrouded in a unique fuzz that inspires visions of broken machinery and rust, the entirety of their follow-up is shiny, clean, and, most shockingly, a lot of fun. If their debut Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes was the apocalypse, and Cookie Mountain was the first sprout from beneath the rubble, then Dear Science, is the party.
That new brightness is a double-edged sword. The primary source of fun with Cookie Mountain, and to a lesser extent Desperate Youth, is in the discovery of musicality in the untraditional elements used to build not just atmosphere ("Playhouses," "Tonight," "Don't Love You") but front-and-center hooks ("I Was A Lover"). That aforementioned distortion-heavy signature sound of theirs is gone, replaced by drum machines, funky guitar lines, clean reverberations, and (gasp) hand-clapping. It's not really a better-vs-worse thing... one part of me had been looking forward to hearing what kind of crazy shit they'd come up with next, and the other part is just digging the new hotness.
If there is a clear disadvantage, it's in the smaller emotional punch Dear Science, packs. Their biggest songs, "Wolf Like Me" off Cookie Mountain and "Staring At The Sun" off Desperate Youth, are so strong because they're so immediate, urgent, and terrifying on the surface. The best work on Dear Science, doesn't carry the same rage or spite... by contrast, it's sleek and composed. More intimate, maybe, but not as effective in stirring up a deep response.
But at the same time, that best work is really excellent. Their mastery of rhythm is on full display, particularly on the faux-rap intro to "Dancing Choose" and the faux-African horns of "Red Dress" (contributed by, er, non-faux Afrobeat band Antibalas). "Crying" is slowly becoming a favorite, its choruses becoming increasingly thick with horns and synths on top of the main guitar riff. "DLZ" has a heavy, almost Zeppelin-ish stomp. "Lover's Day" is a strong, call-to-arms closer that leaves you with the kind of explosion that every album should end with.
Even their filler is better than ever, far superior to that of Cookie Mountain and Desperate Youth. "Love Dog" and "Family Tree" aren't as deep or unique as "Dirtywhirl" or "Let The Devil In," for example, but they work a whole lot better, both as complements to the stronger tracks and on their own.
When I last wrote about Cookie Mountain, I suggested that TVOTR was capable of more. While Dear Science, is not quite what I had in mind, and while it won't Represent Something Important the way that Return To Cookie Mountain did, it's easily one of the top releases of the year. It stands as evidence that TVOTR are realizing how good they are, gaining confidence in their abilities, and relying less on sonic trickery to make compelling music.
My reaction to 2005's Plans hasn't softened much over time. My opinion of the band never changed, especially after seeing them, but my disappointment in Plans remains clear. It's a toothless move towards the adult-alternative Starbucks/Grey's Anatomy crowd -- a crowd that would have come to the band on their own anyway -- by a band that knows better. Despite having come to enjoy the album quite a lot, Plans still stands out as the weak link in an otherwise outstanding alt-rock catalog.
Luckily, everyone's allowed a mulligan. They got it right this time. Apparently recognizing the sore-thumb softness of Plans, Death Cab have reacted by making an album much more in their idiom, placing a premium on spaciousness and the sensation of instruments being strained to their breaking points. The end result is far closer to what one expects from a Death Cab album. We may not get much in the way of uniqueness or originalilty within the band's catalog, nor anything that places Narrow Stairs firmly amongst its classic predecessors, but fans of the band will be hard-pressed to hold this record in disdain. The "major label" finger-pointing levied at Plans holds no water here.
Much as Modest Mouse's last release, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, tipped its cap to several points in the band's catalog, likewise does Narrow Stairs remind us of We Have The Facts ("Cath..." and "Talking Bird"), Transatlanticism ("Bixby Canyon Bridge"), The Photo Album ("Long Division"), and even Plans ("I Will Possess Your Heart") throughout. With all those shout-outs to past success, the album as a whole isn't all that cohesive. And there are plenty of pleasant-but-forgettable tunes like "Grapevine Fires." But it's a nice reflection of the band and its capabilities.
What's remarkable to me is that they've done this without being blatant about it, without the sense of desperation that one can read into something like R.E.M.'s Accelerate, where they're practically screaming to us, "hey, remember when we used to sound like this? Come back!!!" Narrow Stairs plays more like "this is what we sound like." It's no standalone masterpiece, but it stands as proof that Death Cab haven't lost their fastball.
I haven't had a big musical mea culpa lately. Modest Mouse is the only major one in quite a while, as far as I can recall. So this would be a big one, given that when I've posted the words "Arctic Monkeys" on this blog, the words that follow are usually "poser," "fakes," "d-bags," or some confluence of the three.
I took another listen to the still-horrendously-douchebaggily-titled Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not tonight. And I have to admit, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I came to three realizations:
They are a seriously, seriously powerful band. Maybe not that catchy, but they pack quite a punch.
I'm not convinced by the sincerity of the fellow delivering those ascerbic, sarcastic, misanthropic lyrics... but I'm not sure I care anymore. It's the thought that counts, right? Besides, I was thinking about the kinds of songs I'd write if I were a singer/songwriter, and concluded that "all you people are vampires" and "what a scummy man" are not too far off from the sentiments that I myself would want to express. So I'll give them a break on that count.
Pretty sure I hated them strictly because of the album title. (It's still on the all-time worst list.) And the hype, that too. But now, more than a year separated from the feeding frenzy, I can reflect upon the music and judge it rationally.
I feel that's fairly accurate. And for the album title thing, I think that's entirely valid. If you're gonna name it something so dreadfully obnoxious, and THEN give us this assclown as your cover boy...
...what else do you expect? Anyway, I'm sure the band regrets this grievous mistake. (Since I'm a forgiving guy, apology accepted in advance.)
The truth is that Whatever People Say I Am is, in fact, a pretty tight album. Not the instant classic it was made out to be, but still good. (I'm reminded of the time the Bluth Company was upgraded on Jim Cramer's Mad Money to a solid "Don't Buy," touching off extravagant celebrations.) Time will tell if I fall in love with the album after all this. But for now, I'll buy that the band is indeed a big deal, and that Whatever is worth a listen.
Apples In Stereo New Magnetic Wonder Rating: 21 interstitial tracks out of 24
I love, love, love this album. I had never listened to them before, but they had my attention right away. Instantly catchy, totally classic. I've had so many different tracks stuck in my head at different times... "Skyway," "Sun Is Out," "Sunndal Song," "Can You Feel It?"... they've all had turns.
Modest Mouse We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank Rating: 5 former Smiths guitarists out of 5
It's only been a couple weeks, and I already have no qualms calling it my favorite album of theirs. Completely and utterly excellent. Another band that is undeniably working at the height of its powers. They've shed the meandering, wandering, spacious noodling of The Moon & Antarctica. They've done away with cutesy experimentation of Good News For People Who Love Bad News. And they've applied those lessons to a more accessible, focused work on We Were Dead.
Is it less challenging? Perhaps, but not really. In their case, it's a sign of maturity and craft more than a pre-meditated cash-grab... a refinement, not a dumbing down. The result is their most consistent, most accomplished, and most rewarding album to date.
Ted Leo + Pharmacists Living With The Living Rating: 3 1/2 sin eaters out of 5
More of the same good stuff from Ted Leo. Like The Roots, I'm starting to think we'll never hear him make a bad album. Perhaps that's because he rarely needs to depart from what's done him well in the past... or perhaps it's because he knows those rascally Pharmacists will beat the shit out of him if he does. (No, not really.)
The thing is, even though the new album is structured like his masterworks (Hearts of Oak, The Tyranny of Distance), its songs lack the urgency of those previous albums. But on the other hand, where Shake the Sheets is instantly accessible and lovable, Living with the Living also fails the test. Living is neither a "grower" nor immediate. What songs really stand out and distinguish it amongst Leo's prior accomplishments?
I don't mean it as a slight against the album itself, because it's still good stuff. I recognize he's got a tough act to follow. But it isn't really up to par with the unbelievably good stuff that preceded it. It boils down to this: if I want to hear Ted Leo, why would I choose to pop in Living with the Living over Hearts of Oak?
Peter, Bjorn and John - Writer's Block Solid. They have a laid-back vibe about them, despite being a standard three-piece rock group. "Young Folks" is the clear standout on the album, but the rest is pretty good too.
Brendan Benson - The Alternative To Love Throwback! This album would have been a huge hit back in the Matthew Sweet era. It's too bad that it feels so uncool and unhip right now, because it's really good.
Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future I go back and forth on this. When I first listened to it, I flipped out. The singles ("Atlantis to Interzone," "Gravity's Rainbow", "Golden Skans") are awfully good. But they also don't have a whole lot of depth. I get a flavor-of-the-month vibe from them, like they're just this year's version of Arctic Monkeys or something. (That's far too harsh an insult, but the UK hype machine seems to be out in full force.) Definitely worth a listen either way, but I wonder how much staying power they have.
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible It's the goods. The extent to which it's good is unclear, but it certainly lives up to expectations. It's refreshing to hear the band do its thing without operating under the specter of the deaths that inspired Funeral. As classic as its predecessor? Probably not, but at least we know they're not a one-hit wonder.
Justice vs. Simian - We Are Your Friends (single) I almost never consume music in single tracks (since I only rarely listen to the radio) but this is so catchy I can't help it. Found it here on a Top 50 Videos countdown. (YouTube link here.) This tune is friggin awesome.
[UPDATE: Apparently I never used the phrase Bloc Party in the original post. D'oh! And that's why bloggers aren't taken seriously. Well, amongst other reasons. There's the lack of impartiality... overly enthusiastic and reactionary reviews... an affinity for gerunds and immature discourse... hmm, this is a pretty long list. OK, so aside from all those reasons, and about a hundred others that I can't think of right now, the absence of Bloc Party's name in my post is the main reason why blogs aren't taken seriously.
Anyway, I added a bunch more structural stuff, in the name of pleasing one important subset of my readership. And a picture.]
Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City RATING: 4 possibly gay black lead singers out of 5
I had a hard time figuring out where this one should land. It's an excellent album, but given the album that precedes it (the instant-classic Silent Alarm) it's impossible to evaluate in isolation.
For all that Silent Alarm sounds good, its starkness muffles the band's energy and leaves rock-out potential on the table. They have more fire than anybody, and it doesn't come across as well as it could have on Silent Alarm. Further, their change-of-pace tracks ("Blue Light," the closing two tracks) are clearly inferior to the album's faster-paced lead tracks ("Helicopter," "Banquet"). On the whole, it's an uneven, imperfect album.
Not so with Weekend. The momentum they build in each track explodes like it's supposed to, finally showing the band in its natural, maxed-out state. "Uniform" is a prime example; that track needed to explode for it to work, and it wouldn't have on Silent Alarm. And where their earlier downtempo work comes off as boring, their slower tracks here ("On" being a standout example) prove to nobody's surprise that they can do more than just floor it. In that sense, Weekend is superior.
On the other hand, they suffer from the every-song-is-the-same syndrome. "The Prayer," "I Still Remember," and "Hunting For Witches" are the only songs that don't open with a calm vocal, add drums and a riff, and climax with an emoish chorus. Nearly every track works this way. This structure doesn't exist on Silent Alarm anywhere besides "This Modern Love," where it works so well primarily because it's idiosyncratic with respect to "Helicopter," "Banquet" et al. Here, so many tracks follow the formula that the subpar tunes of the bunch ("Kreuzberg," for example) are almost entirely forgettable. They have juice, but they fall short of the mark.
Not only that, but the power doesn't feel as organic as Silent Alarm's does. The songs all start... out... soft... and... thentheyGETREALLYLOUD!!!! While the production upgrade was sorely needed, as I pointed out earlier, I also can't criticize anyone who thinks Weekend is inferior because it's over-produced. It's a fair enough point, although I believe the inconsistency of the songwriting is at fault more than the production.
Further, I doubt "I Still Remember" would be as effective as it is without that production. What a perfect song... far and away their best work to date. The hook is so memorable and evocative, so classic, that you can't help but get suckered in. The subject matter (unrequited love between schoolboys) is extremely rare in what is fast becoming the mainstream of rock. While I stand in awe that Kele Okereke has the balls to put homosexual lyrics into the band's most instantly accessible pop song, the sincerity of his words are what makes "I Still Remember" work so well: the marriage of content to hook.
Anyway, I don't know that the superior/inferior argument can be resolved. It all comes down to taste. If I had to pick one, I'd still probably pick Silent Alarm. But there's so much to love about A Weekend In The City that it doesn't deserve to be considered a second fiddle. It's brilliant, well-executed, and a major leap towards prominence and legitimate stardom. They may be able to do better, but this album also removes any doubt that they will.
A few celebrated albums from the past year that I only got around to recently...
Band of Horses - Everything All The Time I didn't think too much of this at first. I've always liked "The Funeral," which is a great song, but the rest of the album put me to sleep. It's tough for down-tempo rock to get my attention. But after closer inspection, I think it's just the initial track ("The First Song") that bores me. I liked the guitar arrangements a lot, something I missed when not listening to the album in the proper environment (read: loud). So apparently my negative reaction was a matter of sound fidelity. Who knew? Anyway, they're the real deal.
Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope I heard one song off this album a while back and liked it, but never listened to the album. It's good stuff. Not exactly original... she's working in the same general area that Tori Amos, Sarah MacLachlan, Fiona Apple and others have worked for years, though she's been labeled otherwise ("piano folk"). But she definitely stacks up. She's got a light, sweet, simple touch that just plain works. And her take on the pixie/fairy voice is so much better than Joanna Newsom's, it's not funny. At the very least, she's earned an invitation to the International Piano-Babe Conference.
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass I've now listened to a few of their albums (this, I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out) after having never heard them before. I'd put them in the same class as Stereolab, where I appreciate them and have a feel for them, but they aren't a big deal to me on a personal level. Regardless, I sure like the opening track on I Am Not Afraid. Good stuff. I'm still chewing on this one though (80 minutes per album is an awful lot to handle).
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale Lo and behold, everyone was completely right about this. It's so good. "The Champ" is perfect. Anyone person who chooses that song as his or her personal theme music would hear no complaint from me. Nothing much more to say about it... except that I love onions on my steak.
Myth Takes, the new album from !!!, is awesome. It's just as good as Louden Up Now, but more consistent. The band sounds as spiffy as ever. Layers of percussive rhythm... that menacingly spacious guitar... and, of course, bass in your face. "Bend Over Beethoven" and "Heart of Hearts" are epics. I don't know that either of them approaches "Me and Giuliani" on an individual level, but only history and repeat listens can determine that. All in all, an impressive follow-up, one that I didn't think would be nearly as good as it is. Fun fun fun.
The only catch, and it's a big one, is that frontman Nic Offer still hasn't learned his lesson yet about not writing moronic lyrics for the sake of it. It's not funny. I mean, it's not just that he has nothing of any consequence to say, because folks have succeeded with that formula for centuries. But at least someone like Scott Weiland has written something innocuous. When your lyrics are along the lines of "I've got some words / here they are / ooooh, yeah, got words right here" then you're not even doing your job, really. Kinda ruins things.
For example, feast your eyesticles on this excerpt from the tune "Sweet Life":
A A B B C C D D C C D D C D
An adult wrote that. Those are the lyrics. To a song. A song that makes the "ramma-lamma ding-dong" guy look like Robert Frost. Actually, I found a picture of Nic Offer's word processor:
So that's what happened. Now I get it! It was actually an incisive examination of the current political underpinnings of the legalization movement, but it came out all A A and C C C because of the hardware. Stupid hardware.
Aaaaaaanyway... pretty shitty, right? Now, this isn't a huge deal to me. !!! and their album are still friggin awesome. But tell me, how am I supposed to spread the !!! gospel, as I want to do, with this "B B B" crap? I need words. Nic, please... help me help you.
Realized I ought to do one of these too. Heed the usual wishy-washy claims, wherein I'm merely summarizing what works for me, totally subjective level, blah blah blah.
Also worth noting is that I don't listen to radio. KEXP once in a while, but that's it. Point being that I'm not getting music outside of an album context, so I don't really get into single songs without grabbing the album too. So this list may look strikingly similar to yesterday's.
Without further ado:
Top 10 10. The Rapture - Whoo! Alright - Yeah... Uh-Huh 9. Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Ain't Nothing Wrong With That 8. Neko Case - Star Witness 7. Thom Yorke - Black Swan 6. Midlake - Roscoe 5. The Decemberists - The Island 4. Hot Chip - Boy From School 3. Belle & Sebastian - Another Sunny Day 2. TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me 1. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Next 10, In Alphabetical Order Basement Jaxx - Hey You Ben Harper - Morning Yearning Calexico - Yours and Mine Elbow - Forget Myself The Flaming Lips - Free Radicals Ben Folds - Bruised The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations OutKast - Morris Brown The Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes Sufjan Stevens - Adlai
And Just Because I Want To Andy Samberg & Justin Timberlake - Dick In A Box (arguably NSFW) Spank Rock - Lindsay Lohan's Revenge (definitely NSFW)
Everyone else does it, so I'm doing it too. I haven't listened to every album out there, so I won't pretend that these are the best albums. Besides, there's plenty of candidates out there that are "better" than lots of the ones I picked (Neko Case's Fox Confessor Brings The Flood comes to mind) but which just aren't my style. And then there's all that subjective horseshit that comes into play when you talk about "best." So I've instead assembled my ten favorite albums of the year. Those come later.
First, I make no bones about saying what the worst albums of the year are.
Worst Album Of The Year Grizzly Bear - Yellow House No contest. After several tries, I remain entirely confused by Yellow House's critical success. It's a boring, meandering, unremarkable turd. Even their idea (beautiful lo-fi pop) is a piece of shit, never mind the fact that they failed to execute it. Since when did Beach Boys harmonies become the indie scene's top priority? This band sucks.
Put it this way. Car trouble caused them to miss a gig here in DC. opening for TVOTR, back in October. Their absence on that night ranks as one of the luckiest things that happened to me all year. Album Diss Jeff Is Most Likely To Regret Joanna Newsom - Ys What a uniformly frustrating album. I don't have as much rancor for this as I do for Grizzly Bear, but the people going nuts about it are way, way off-base. Again, when did the lo-fi crowd become experts on "beautiful" music? Of course it's beautiful next to the four-track crap you listen to all day. Take away that phony-baloney faux-Bjork affectation, and she's chamber music. And if I read one more review praising Van Dyke Parks and his pointless, distracting, non sequitur string arrangements, I'm going to buy a cello just so I can smack him in the chops with it.
At the same time, it's not an ineffective album. I get why her music affects people. And I appreciate the talent on display. She's got this magical, "Peter And The Wolf" thing going on... you can imagine yourself floating around in Narnia with talking rabbits and squirrels and shit. It's more a matter of whether I feel I'm missing out on something. Which I don't. She may slap together something praiseworthy later on. This isn't it.
Dishonorable Mention Jurassic 5 - Feedback I got your feedback right here: Cut Chemistwas your sound. His skills allowed us to forgive your corny rhymes. If you can't get him back, spare us the derivative Black Eyed Peas crap. Depressing.
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, Because Even Though I Pretend Not To Care What You Think, Really I Do, Because I'm A Complete Fucking Douchebag Who's Manipulating The Grass-Roots Publicity System To His Advantage Instead Of Making Music Good Enough To Speak For Itself These guys are fuckin' fakes. Except their drummer. That guy's a fucking demon. I'll grant them that. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - So Divided ...And you will know them by the trail of stupid horn and string arrangements. I have no idea what the point of this album is. It's neither as ingenious as Source Tags & Codes nor as mainstream-fabulous as the unfairly savaged Worlds Apart. And it rocks a lot less than either of them. There's good stuff here and there, but why bother? If I want piano rock, I'll listen to Ben Folds' scattershot Supersunnyspeedgraphic for a few minutes, not your heavy ode to whatever indignant shit just upset you. It's a shame that Pitchfork chose to hatchet Worlds Apart when they could have torn So Divided a new one instead.
Top Five Disappointing Follow-Ups That Are Merely OK None of these are bad albums, but they are notable turns for the worse. 1. The Streets - The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living It's not that bad, but he makes the dip to irrelevance with this. His whole thing is that he's gritty and evocative! This is just a bunch of whining.
2. Snow Patrol - Eyes Open I've made my feelings abundantly clear on this.
3. OutKast - Idlewild They get a mulligan for this, since it's not supposed to be a proper album, and they were clearly focusing on the movie more than the songs. But lackluster nonetheless, with the blazing exception of "Morris Brown." God-damn.
4. Guster - Ganging Up On The Sun Keep It Together is one of my desert-island albums. This has none of the bounce, and little of the charm. Not worthwhile. 5. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium So instead of just giving us one carbon copy of By The Way, they gave us two carbon copies at once? They could have saved the second disc for 2010 and called it San Francisco Disco or something.
Partial Credit Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther Great stuff. They're not a "special" band, nor are any of them individually that brilliant. But they make a nice sound, and Van Occupanther is a mellow, pleasant, and highly likable album. That said, the excellent lead track "Roscoe" elevates the rest of the album to relevance. Without "Roscoe," I doubt the rest of the album would be noteworthy. Still, I really like it.
Thom Yorke - The Eraser "Black Swan" is one of my favorite tunes of the year. If it were more radio-friendly (its chorus doesn't just contain an F-bomb, it balances upon it) it could have made a significant impact on above-ground pop. But that's more a problem with the radio scene than the song. The rest of this loop-fest of a solo project I can do without. All the songs are pretty much the same format, with eight misses surrounding the lone hit. At the very least, Yorke gets props for not subjecting us to any of this for the upcoming Radiohead album. But for my money, "Black Swan" is indispensable on its own.
Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Colorblind I'm no fan of the blues or gospel, but RRFB is one of those cases where a musician's genius transcends his genre (or genres). The songs are little more than constructs for showcasing his singular musical ability with the Sacred Steel, but this is a group whose collective talent renders the songwriting process unnecessary. Give them a riff, and they will burn it into the ground. On Colorblind's up-tempo numbers, specifically "Ain't Nothin' Wrong With That" and "Deliver Me," the band comes as close as possible to reproducing their legendary live energy (and irrepressible joy) in the studio. Unfortunately, the studio albums also subject us to a series of disposable, cookie-cutter ballads that have more in common with The Jets (or, less flatteringly, Franklin Comes Alive!) than Robert Johnson. It's their prerogative, but I think they'd do well to stop wasting their massive talent on that garbage. Ben Folds - Supersunnyspeedgraphic Re-worked versions of songs from the EPs he threw together from 2003-04. More a collection of songs than an album. I give partial credit because the best songs were in pretty good shape as they were, making this LP kind of unnecessary. But I still like a lot of it. And I like it better than Songs for Silverman. Honorable Mention Spank Rock - YoYoYoYoYo Speaking of penetration (hey-ooo)... the ass-and-boobs obsession on display here is equally awe-inspiring. He makes 2 Live Crew look like a bunch of whiny Morrissey-style asexuals. And the beats are as filthy figuratively as the lyrics are filthy literally; you're immediately transported into a car full of people driving home from the club at 4 AM. Unfortunately, I can't discuss this album without using a lot of "buts." Spank is a compelling MC, and pretty talented... but he trips over that fine line between "ribald" and "perverted" a bit too often for my taste. I enjoy listening to it... but I feel like I need a shower and a shot of Pepto afterwards. It's a fun album... but how can I love an album that I'm ashamed to listen to in public? You get the idea. I think he should call his next album "NSFW," just so everyone's clear.
LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 This Nike-commissioned 46-minute concept track is further evidence that James Murphy is better suited to long-form tracks, like 45:33 and "Beat Connection," than the shorter efforts such as those found on the self-titled LP from last year. He can fill an extended track to the brim with ideas and variations, such that it avoids monotony and entertains from start to finish; in that sense, short tracks don't really allow him to do what he does best. The upcoming Sound of Silver, a collection of longer tracks that will certainly appear on any list I make next year, supports this theory. But in the meantime, 45:33 is pretty sweet.
Elbow - Leaders Of The Free World I really liked this album. They've caught some flak for emulating Coldplay, but I think Elbow's rollicking take on the sound is much more fun. The title track, lead track "Station Approach," and best track "Forget Myself" are brilliant.
10 Favorite Albums Of 2006 10. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies Rubies is catchy and appealing in an ADD kind of way. But the ADD thing prevents it from affecting me much... it's enough of an achievement just to keep up with Dan Bejar, let alone connect with him. Still, there's plenty to like, even if it's not all that penetrating. And I do have to stand in awe of Bejar's maniacal poetry.
9. The Rapture - Pieces of the People We Love They're the disco version of !!!... less funk and techno, more high-hats and cowbell. "Whoo, Alright..." is an amazing song. If there's a weakness to this album, it's that their sound feels very small and unassuming, despite the boisterousness of the songs themselves. Another case of "if they ever manage to capture their live presence in the studio..." syndrome. But Pieces is still a fun listen.
8. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics Most underrated album of the year. It's not as mind-blowing as Yoshimi or The Soft Bulletin, maybe, but for all that those records are brilliant, they are equally inconsistent. The Lips don't have to redefine themselves and their music every time out. Mystics is no slouch.
7. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere The most relevant album of the year, and certainly the pop album that will identify 2006. But it didn't have much staying power with me. When I get my fill of candy, I usually don't want much more. But anything that makes Cee-Lo Green a superstar is worthy of inclusion.
6. The Roots - Game Theory Still at the top of their game, and still pumping out criminally underrated music. Game Theory is the kind of focused effort that makes you wonder why it took them so long to figure out that 15-minute spoken-word soliloquies don't play so well with general audiences. I listen to Game Theory and wonder what could have been, had Things Fall Apart or Phrenology been this tight.
5. Calexico - Garden Ruin Another great, straight-ahead rock album. This one, however, comes from a band that had previously been more interested in evoking Mexican mariachi music than rocking out. That stuff is okay and all, but I'm glad they toned down the expansive multicultural thing this time around. Garden Ruin is deep, mature, and rich... still clearly grounded in the Southwest, but without the ersatz bandito stuff. It's an extension of what they accomplished with Iron & Wine last year on the excellent In The Reins EP.
4. The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America Between this album and Sam's Town, accusing bands of ripping off Springsteen has become the new vogue in music criticism. It used to be "this guy thinks he's the new Dylan, but he's so not." Now it's The Boss. Please. Since when is it a crime to follow in a tradition? Bar rock is simple and derivative in its nature, but that simplicity is what makes it so much fun. Besides, they get extra brownie points for being the first NYC band to buck the Joy Division/Interpol/Franz Ferdinand trend in indie pop. And you know what? Good for them.
3. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain TVOTR are as relevant and important as it gets. The only valid comparison Cookie Mountain inspires in my mind is to Radiohead. That's how big they are. Tunde Adebimpe is a major vocal talent, and their sound is one of a kind. Ultimately, though, I think they have better songs in them. I eagerly await those songs, because they'll fucking blow everyone away.
2. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit I only recently stopped listening to it on a regular basis; it came out in February. It's absolutely brilliant stuff. If something this good had come from an unknown band, one that hadn't released If You're Feeling Sinister and didn't have the "they're so different now" stigma attached to them, The Life Pursuit would have been a runaway success. Instead, it carries the extra baggage of having to accept B&S for what it is... which I could give a shit about. I, for one, welcome our new chamber-twee overlords.
1. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife I cannot, and have not, shut up about how much I love this album. The songs are simple, but simple in a "making it look easy" kind of way. I'm not hedging with this one... this is both my favorite and the best.
Slight variation for the second installment of IRTRTCMM, but only inasmuch as I feel my opinion about this subject metamorphosing daily.
I'm not a huge fan of The Killers, as previous posts can demonstrate. I go back and forth on them. Hot Fuss was way overrated. Sam's Town is the kind of half-assed concept album you'd expect from a band that hasn't really got anything to say. And Brandon Flowers is a genuine, Grade A dick; his candor is the only aspect of his public persona worthy of respect. All of this vitriol culminated in a generally anti-Sam's Town sentiment amongst reviewers.
I'm here to call bullshit.
Sam's Town is a far more consistent record than Hot Fuss. Sure, none of the songs are as good as "Mr. Brightside" or "Somebody Told Me," but it's got the same glitzy, danceable pop sound as before. It's still a Killers album, and identifiably so. It may have deviated from the first verse a bit, but how does that make it any different from every other follow-up to a multi-platinum debut ever? Can't we, as a nation, find at least one new angle for criticizing sophomore albums?
The thing that I find most off-target is this Bruce Springsteen obsession. Apparently all you need to do to get a message out there nowadays is provide it in your press kit, because half the reviews out there make some mention of Springsteen as B-Flow's primary influence. Of course, they weren't amused. "Euhhh, well it's not Springsteen." Oh, you think so, Doctor? Was it the dance beat that tipped you off, Monsieur Poirot, or was it the disco high hats? Did anyone seriously confuse "Don't you want to feel my bones on your bones / It's only natural" with anything in Springsteen's catalog? The connection isn't as big as it looks.
If anything, it's the lyrics that caused all of this outrage. But it's not even about sounding like Springsteen as much as it's about Flowers' persona. He got cocky beyond what he should, and now in failure the critics are letting him have it beyond what they should. Sam's Town wasn't even the biggest Springsteen rip-off to be released that day, and yet Flowers gets crucified for failing to reach The Boss' level. But he doesn't need to write good lyrics. He's a radio star. Does it even matter what he's talking about? So he throws in the odd ham-handed reference to a back roads or Jesus, or both, instead of being sarcastic about shiny transvestites or whatever. Who cares?
If you're gonna break Sam's Town down that far, you'll find that the real problem isn't a Springsteen complex, but a Sgt. Pepper complex: they think they've been more theatrical than they actually have. That's primarily due to the intro/outro tracks. Both deviate from the musical feel of the surrounding tracks, break the fourth wall, and get overly cute, but in the end they just sound stupid and graceless. "We loved to have you with us / even if it's just for the day," eh? Good lord. Despite being brief mistakes, they are prominently-placed mistakes, accomplishing little besides distracting from all the things they did so well between the two bookends. Sigh.
Regardless, pop albums don't need to withstand that level of scrutiny. The truth is that Sam's Town still works... mostly. It's fun, it's still The Killers, and it will succeed enough to keep The Killers at the top of the A-list. I'm just sick of the backlash.
