Remember how Versions was a really cool record, that just ended up not being that good? Well, Tropic Rot is a really cool record that rivals The Opposite of December as being their most focused and aggressive, and You Come Before You as their most interesting and accessible. Besides the mediocre "Celebrate the Pyre", every song here is a hit, in particular...well everything. The light country aesthetic is more fully integrated in the clean sections, which meld seamlessly with the heavy metal sections. It's tough to call this a real metalcore album, but whatever the hell it is, it is ****ing great. Could bump up to a 4.5 if it stays on this level of excellence with time.
It?s unfortunate that a substantial amount of people will get into Yonlu primarily because he killed himself at the age of sixteen. If history is any indication, the buildup for his only record, A Society In Which No Tear Is Shed Is Incredibly Mediocre, will only be astronomically heightened with the infamous ?posthumous? tag that turns mediocre albums into intriguing ones and great albums into legends. Still, with Yonlu (aka Vinicius Gageiro Marques), it?s practically impossible to talk about A Society In Which No Tear Is Shed without mentioning his imminent suicide. The record is drenched with a stark loneliness and melancholy that defines Marques? work and foreshadows his fate. Toying with every style from Elliott Smith aping doubled-vocals folk to breakbeat techno, Yonlu creates an impressively diverse work with the kind of ****-to-the-wind mentality and experimental approach one would expect from a well-listened teenager. Cross that with his exceptional ability to articulate emotional turmoil and the results speak for themselves. A Society in which No Tear Is Shed Is Incredibly Mediocre is a sprawling and yet unmistakably unified collection of intensely personal songs by a gifted artist cut down before he even approached his prime.
Taylor Swift is the latest in a long line of artists to effectively capture the trials and tribulations of youthful life and love. Do not write her off as an airhead country starlet or pop diva - she's just a songwriter building a repertoire laced with outrageously perfect pop hooks. Fearless is a first-hand account of teenage optimism, apprehension and heartache cloaked in infectiously melodic pop. Swift writes like a teenager, there is no doubt, but it nonetheless thoroughly suits the album. Witnesses compositions like Fifteen, You Belong to Me and the hit single Love Story that surely foretell a remarkable future for Swift.
Try Future is a highly unique and somewhat paradoxical album. While vocalist Germen's nasally, tweaked out Cedric Bixler-lite delivery can be at times grating (and frequently polarizing, I predict), his vocals never fringe too close to plagiarism. This reigns true for much of the album, as Try Future succeeds because of its near seamless blend of influences without actually sounding a lot like any of them. This is post-At the Drive-In played by the Melvins using Krallice's sense of tonality with Gospel's drummer behind the kit. And what a drummer he is. Guile is like Damon Che on steroids; the man is relentless and quite possibly an octopus. The rest of the band are no slouches, either. Try Future is a remarkable success, but what holds it back from being truly special is that its sometimes relentless nature can be a little overbearing, though to it's credit it clocks in at a modest 41 minutes. If you're curious, be sure to check out the pummelling title track and the Krallice-like, tremolo-heavy "Embers", both of which can be found on their official MySpace.
For all intents and purposes, Flowers and Fireworks is the type of record sputnik should eat up. It's magnificent entry into skramz, longer than the average record, but just as consistent and solid. On Flowers and Fireworks, Spires are exciting, methodical, and mesmerizing all at once. Sure, a general homogeneity hangs over the record, but if that is the record’s most egregious flaw, then Flowers and Fireworks must be heralded as a success, for it takes a band in a stagnant genre offering something mostly unoriginal, and yet on almost every level, it works. Here’s to hoping Spires stick around, because if there’s one thing emo doesn’t need, it’s another promising act calling it quits after their first record.
Yeah, everyone complaining about the overtly Christian nature of this record needs a head check. This is ****ing mewithoutYou. Look at their ****ing band name for G-d's sake. I think everyone is just pissy because Weiss stopped writing about girls and started writing every song about potatoes. And insects. Record rules.
I have to admit that I'm a big fan of hers, there is just something about her music and that semi-depressing style
mixed with the pop elements that I really enjoy. Also, she has a great voice that fits her music perfectly.
What must have been going through The Decemberists' heads as they came up with the idea for The Hazards of Love? Colin Meloy tried to put it in a clear and simple light - 'there’s an odd bond between the music of the British folk revival and classic metal, a natural connection between, like, Fairport Convention and Black Sabbath,' and sure enough that rings true. But surely there's more to it than that - this is an album of such diversity, passion, grandeur, and vision that only a band determined to grab the world by the scruff of its neck could have made it. And as a demonstration of exactly why The Decemberists are one of the best bands in the world, it's a spectacular success. I will put this in no uncertain terms: The Hazards of Love is clearly the band's best album, and it will be a disgrace if it doesn't at least see them earning Album of the Year accolades. On this showing, they surely deserve the kind of reputation and success that Arcade Fire, The Shins, and Vampire Weekend have found. A top, top album.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were never so bad that you could really call them worthless, but even so, It's Blitz! is enough to make their previous two albums look a little bit silly. Gone are the irritating vocal tics, the indulgence in noise, and most of the guitars, to be replaced by a batch of mostly electronic songs that offer the kind of depth so sorely lacking on tracks like "Gold Lion" and "Date With The Night". "Runaway" and "Frantic" are likely to be two of the best ballads of the year, while even the more upbeat likes of "Heads Will Roll" and "Zero" sound like the work of a much more mature band. It's not quite the same shock that albums like Death Magnetic and Because of the Times have provided in recent years, but It's Blitz! still deserves to be commended in the same way those albums were; for being far better than anybody could have reasonably expected.
If You Are There didn't convince you that Mono deserve a spot among post rock's upper echelon, Hymn to the Immortal Wind certainly will. In pretty much the pulverizing record released so far in 2009, Mono deliver seven gorgeously orchestrated gems bookended by the two best songs of their career, "Ashes in the Snow" and "Everlasting Light." It's sometimes dragged out by the sheer hugeness of it all, but Hymn To the Immortal Wind consistently amazes with beauty and heaviness while staying on the good side of pretentious.
Since his 2001 debut, Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again, Tim Hecker has been one of Canada's most prolific electronica musicians. The Montreal based Hecker's sound has taken on a variety of different forms, from the subtle drone of his aforementioned debut, to the dark dissonance of Mirages, to the more engaging characteristics of Harmony in Ultraviolet. An Imaginary Country takes Hecker's droning electronica in a new direction, introducing elements of noisy shoegaze in tracks like "100 Years Ago", subdued minimalism in "Utropics", and an overlying sense of naturalism to the album as a whole. That An Imaginary Country is Hecker's most accessible release can be attributed to its free-flowing, natural ambience, which is as effective as it 's been on previous releases, if not more.
The most focused Trophy Scars outing yet (EP or otherwise), epic in scope yet smooth and incredibly listenable, "Bad Luck" shows the band treading into a slower groove, and creating more noteworthy "crescendos". While "Anna Lucia" is the most obvious standout, the trio of songs "Toronto", "Nola", and "Years so Much" (All six minutes plus) are excellent forays in odd song structures and musical and lyrcial tones. Straight off from "Bad Dreams" through "Good Luck", "Bad Luck" is the culmination of what one small punk band from Jersey can do with enough time and vision.
I had extreme anxiety coming into "Mama, I'm Swollen". On one hand, the two studio songs I had heard were amazingly catchy and well written, and the live version of "What Have I Done?" was astounding. On the other hand, this is now their 6th full studio record, and I was scared that perhaps Tim Kasher would run out of things to write about. He did. This album is still amazing.
Its critics might argue that math rock is arty music for serious people, but Irish three-piece Adebisi shank make a pretty good case for brining instrumental rock back onto the dancefloor. This Is The Album.., the group’s first full-length effort, exudes a rigid, robotic quality, the sort that seemed to be in vogue among indie rock/dance crossover acts a couple years back and became law at James Murphy’s DFA Records, i.e. “robotic” in sense of the silly dance that everybody tries to do badly. As an album, it’s reassuringly retro: guitarist Lar Kaye is a virtuoso, pulling his tricks as liberally from the shred guitar cannon as the experimental hardcore playbook, while kitschy electronic bleeps come courtesy of bassist Vinny McCreith (a.k.a. The Vinny Club). It lasts just 23 minutes, but This Is The Album... might just be the party record of 2009, but it’s among the most thrilling 23 minutes in music this year.
Released under the moniker DJ Sprinkles, Midtown 120 Blues reflects Thaemlitz’s experiences in almost every aspect of its construction. The album presents an unabashed view of the commercialization of the New York house scene, and the mix of ambience, deep house and melancholy throughout the album embodies this disenchantment. Though scathing when on attack, Thaemlitz produces great warmth in the soft ambience of songs like House Music is a Controllable Desire You Can Own. Yet the album does not get lost in emotion, often taking an analytical approach to the topics covered. Underlying the lyrics though is the emotion he conveys. By no means grandiose, Midtown 120 Blues excels for the simple fact that it takes a part of Thaemlitz and expresses it consistently throughout all aspects of its construction.
