Although it will inevitably frustrate non-fans of Brand New, especially in the midst of incessant discussion surrounding the group’s finale Science Fiction, there is no better time to reflect back upon one of the most important indie-rock bands of the new millennium. I say it not as a hyperbolic exaggeration designed to garner interest, but just for what it is at this point – a pretty indisputable fact. If Science Fiction reaching Billboard’s #1 chart spot isn’t an indicator of the cult following that Brand New has accumulated, then I’m not quite sure what would serve as evidence of their far-reaching influence. This pair of articles will likely end up reading as a eulogy, although that isn’t really my intention. I’d prefer that it be taken as a retrospective – a look back at the band’s noteworthy accomplishments, defining moments, and an overall distillation of what it all meant. The band has made it clear that 2018 marks the resolution of this almost two-decade long run, and as dramatic as it sounds, it’s a void that a lot of listeners won’t know how to fill.
As far as I’m concerned, Brand New’s existence can be separated into two distinct eras. Certainly, their progression was more intricate and fluid than that, but in terms of splitting up their anthology, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me was the clear divider. I’m not going to talk much about that record here though, because it resides on the other side of the line. Before Brand New…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 15, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
–Featured Release: Foo Fighters: “Concrete And Gold”
Genre: Rock/Grunge // Label: RCA Records
Background:
Foo Fighters are one of the few traditional 90’s rock/grunge bands whose relevance and longevity has extended all the way into 2017. That alone speaks volumes about the quality of their product, as they’ve remained the best and most consistent mainstream rock band around for well over two decades. Never groundbreaking yet almost always impressive, Dave Grohl and company return with their ninth LP – and for those who have taken a long vacation from Foo Fighters, this may mark a good point to start listening again. Easily their most enthralling and adventurous record in years, it is more Wasting Light than it is Sonic Highways, and there’s an exquisite balance between their trademark rock roots and a more sonically explorative curiosity. There’s a long list of reasons why these guys sit atop the throne of contemporary rock n’ roll, but Concrete and Gold is more than just another bullet-point; it’s a highlight.
September 2017 is a time of great change and uncertainty for me. Life-long friendships have dissolved, I’ve potentially been at the heart of intense pain for more than a few, and my own state of existence is being called into a flickering, wavering contention between worth and worthlessness. And, I suppose, most evidently out of this maelstrom of misjudgment and mistakes leaves the question that lingers at the edge of my mind every single night as I struggle to sleep: where will I live in three weeks’ time?
I have to keep myself living by a mantra that has defined the past few years of my life: “Take things one day at a time.”
This mantra often leaves the future in a constant blur that I reject the existence of, and while this blur helps shelter the fragility of anxiety that lures me into the oncoming traffic of sentience, it also allows me to make poor judgments and decisions — often in the heat of the moment — so as to not shatter the illusion that I have no idea what or where I’ll be one or three years from now.
In the aftermath of poor decisions, that illusion is usually shattered regardless, as the immediate nature and repercussions of my decisions don’t allow me to disregard thought beyond today. And when life begins to crumble over the poorly structured fail-safe I devise to keep myself going, I usually turn…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 8, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
–Featured Release: The National – “Sleep Well Beast”–
At this stage in their career, The National are established leaders in their scene. They have yet to produce an album that was not critically well-received, and they boast an array of masterpieces to their name: particularly Alligator, Boxer, and High Violet.With Sleep Well Beast, we see them on the verge of continuing their trend of excellence, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Introducing a few new wrinkles to their sound, like the vibrant electric guitars in “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness”, only serves to whet the appetite of an already hungry fanbase. So at this point the only thing to really say about this is that it’s The National; they are in and of themselves their most boastful asset. Here’s to another incredible outing by one of indie-rock’s most consistently flooring artists.
Listen to “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness” below:
Hello staff/non-staff users and welcome to the first of these posts that will analyze not how sputnik users rate albums, but what they write about them. Reviews are the focus of this site. User written reviews and their prominence are what distinguishes this website from other music database websites. Somehow/someway the reviews on here by the most deft among us were deemed prestigious enough to be sometimes included in the Reception/Release sections of album pages on Wikipedia and aggregated by metacritic. The promise of sputnik, and that of the country of its weary servers, is that if you write enough reviews and if they are good enough, you can be a god among men/(some)women and have a spiffy tag next to your name.
Text analysis has been in the news a lotrecently so I thought I would throw my very amateur hat into the ring. To start, I wrote code to scrape the review text from every user listed in the staff page including contributors, staff writers, and emeritus users. Metadata from the review pages, including the number of views and comments, date of review, and ratings of the album were also scraped. If you would like to do it for yourself, go into R and copy the following into the console and hit enter to install the necessary packages:
Editorial Note: This was originally written and posted as five separate album reviews. It functions as a retrospective and a discography review.
Link to Matt Aspinwall’s side of the split: https://bandcamp.com/download?id=2141216390&ts=1504398671.1591462948&tsig=2dbe75dc5beab0611396d08fe9aa5dbc&type=album
Demo?
The Brave Little Abacus is hard to pin down. They were eclectic, energetic, experimental, odd, off putting, and above all else, they were remarkable. What The Brave Little Abacus is not, however, is well known. Self-releasing almost all of their music, playing in legion halls, and forming slightly ahead of the emo revival scene, TBLA were mostly overlooked and underappreciated during their time. Creating some of the most challenging, intimate, and delightful music ever put to tape for half a decade somehow wasn’t enough – the band never broke out of their local New England scene, and sadly released their last record and played their last show in 2012. Combining mathy, sporadic, and unorthodox music ripe with complex song structures and a distinctive use of keyboard, TBLA filled a niche that The World Is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid To Die would later capitalize on. But outside of the fact that both bands are from New England, and have a keyboard player, there really isn’t any way to compare TBLA to The World Is… or any other band for that matter – they occupy a space all to themselves. Since their demise in 2012, The Brave Little Abacus has since been discovered by many internet music listeners hungry…
There’s been a lot already said about the latest Taylor Swift single from critics and fans, and not a lot of it has to do with the actual music. There’s been drama expounded upon and personality quirks analyzed, but I unfortunately keep as many tabs on celebrity feuds and lifestyle happenings as I do my cat’s bowel movements – and to be honest they mean about the same to me. Thus, this little blog post has less to do with what fiery quip Katy Perry just came back with and more to do with a flawed, but pretty good, pop single. I’m sorry to disappoint the frequenters of Consequence of Sound, who are no longer capable of actually writing about music.
(What did Sowing just say about another popular music website ? Click here to read more!)
Anyway – the music.
So Taylor Swift has sort of run out of places to go already. She’s played the innocent country girl and the pop star, and unless she soon decides to whip out an electric guitar and start shredding, her scope is sort of self-limiting. She could, of course, revisit the success of 1989 – but that record was so overwhelmingly successful on a commercial level that writing a new piece in the same voice would effectively begin to stale her appeal. It’s the same reason that Red forced her to start wading into pop waters, because Fearless and Speak Now covered every…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of September 1, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
American Dream is LCD Soundsystem’s first album in seven years, following 2010’s This Is Happening. Featuring the band’s most vibrant and colorful album artwork to date, American Dream also feels warmer and more expansive than past records. A lot of the tracks, especially the lead single ‘Call The Police’, seem to be heavily channeling James Murphy’s inner David Bowie/U2. In a year filled with high-profile comebacks, LCD Soundsystem stands proudly near the top of the totem pole, boasting a must-hear record for fans of electronic-influenced rock and post-punk.
Listen to “Call The Police”, below:
– Full List of Releases: September 1, 2017 –
Anubis Gate: Covered in Black
Genre: Progressive/Power Rock & Metal // Label: Nightmare Records
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Cloud Control: Zone
Genre: Indie-Pop/Psychedelic, Dream-Pop // Label: Votiv Music
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Epica: The Solace System
Genre: Power Metal/Classical/Goth // Label: Nuclear Blast
Thousands upon thousands of albums, EPs, mixtapes, compilations, and songs are released weekly. You might not be aware of the existence of 99% of those releases, but they’re there. So when each song released to the public is simply a drop in a pool that dwarfs even the Pacific Ocean, it can be hard to navigate the current music scene: it’s always moving and impossible to keep up with its speed. That’s where Share Some Singles comes into the picture. This series was formed to highlight songs released in 2017 that might not have been discovered by other listeners otherwise. I, alongside other Sputnikmusic users, have pulled together dozens of singles released in the recent past that we felt needed to be heard by the world. Or at least the Sputnik reader base.
Artists are listed in alphabetical order with corresponding YouTube, Soundcloud, and/or Bandcamp links. A Spotify playlist is also embedded below if the singles are available through that service. Enjoy! –wtferrothorn
Blue Hawaii – “No One Like You”
Not even the slightly out of place vocals could dampen the wonderful instrumental conjured up on “No One Like You”. Everything from the funky synth bubbling under the main ingredients for the entirety, to the grade-A bass grooves, to the disco-soaked strings that chime in quite a few times to remind you how stellar of…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 25, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
–Featured Release: Leprous – Malina–
Genre: Progressive Rock/Experimental/Electronic // Label: Inside Out Music
Background:
Leprous is a Norwegian progressive metal band formed in 2001 in Notodden, Norway. They originally made their mark as Ihsahn’s (Emperor vocalist/guitarist) backing band in live situations. Don’t let that mislead you, though, because Leprous don’t play progressive black metal. Their first four albums could broadly be categorized as the kind of quirky progressive metal that only seems to come from Norway, but even that doesn’t describe Malina. On Malina, Leprous has dropped any pretense of simply being a progressive metal band and opened their sound to elements only hinted at before –mainly electronic music. It shouldn’t surprise fans of the band that this has finally happened considering the band count Radiohead, Massive Attack, and The Prodigy among more standard influences such as Porcupine Tree and The Dillinger Escape Plan.
Listen to “Illuminate”, below:
– Full List of Releases: August 25, 2017 –
Akercocke: Renaissance in Extremis Genre: Progressive Death Metal // Label: Peaceville Records
For The Sake Of Heaviness: The History Of Metal Blade Records
By: Brian Slagel with Mark Eglinton
Released: August 29, 2017
192 pages
Publisher: BMG
Presenting a time when there was still some mystery behind your favorite bands, and discovering new music took some hard work and dedication. For The Sake Of Heaviness: The History Of Metal Blade Records isn’t just a book about a record label, it’s also the story of the metal scene that was springing up around it. Well worth picking up for anyone interested in the birth of the metal genre, and one of its defining labels.
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Metal Blade Records was founded at a time when the burgeoning metal scene was just beginning to emerge. It was a time when being a fan of underground music required hard work and dedication. This was a time well before the internet with its instant access to music on a global scale. Instead, most people learned about new music through word-of-mouth and tape trading, and discovering a new band required money and faith in equal parts because there wasn’t a way to ‘try before you buy’. People had to find their music in catalogs in the back of independent music publications, and then wait the weeks it required to mail an order and get the music in return. This is where the story of Metal Blade Records begins… with a teenage Brian Slagel trying to do everything he could to discover new bands and…
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of August 18, 2017. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors. As our staff post reviews of these albums, links will appear below the art work so that you can read about the release, see how we scored it, and more.
–Featured Release: Steven Wilson – “To The Bone”–
Genre: Progressive Rock/Experimental/Psychedelic // Label: Caroline International
Background:
Steven Wilson is among the most consistent artists and producers in the progressive rock scene. Having worked with Opeth extensively, and not to mention spearheading his own successful outfit in Porcupine Tree, Wilson’s most impressive feats may have actually come on the solo front. To The Bone marks his fifth full-length solo LP, coming on the heels of 2015’s Hand. Cannot. Erase and 2013’s The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories). To The Bone is, thematically, a grave look at modern times – however, it is also a nod to the musical influences of his youth. Regarding To The Bone, Wilson has gone on record stating: “My fifth record is in many ways inspired by the hugely ambitious progressive pop records that I loved in my youth…I grew up listening to a lot of very smart pop records by artists like Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Peter Gabriel, Prince, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, The The…It struck me that there aren’t too many albums made like that these…
It’s not like we needed any additional reasons to crown Ella as the queen of pop. At just 20 years old, she’s stolen that crown from Ariana who stole it from Carle Rae who stole it from Taylor. Well, that’s if you ask me.
But personal and irrelevant opinions aside about who owns pop (when it’s really the record companies and producers), Melodrama was – and is – a stone cold classic. If you try and find a poorly constructed or unimaginative tune on it, you can’t. It’s art-pop at it’s best, and it is everything that the industry should be striving for.
…And then there’s moments like this that go even further above and beyond what you’d expect. Lorde must already be bored getting showered with accolades, because she has gone to work creating six incredible live re-imaginings of some of Melodrama‘s best songs: “Hard Feelings/Loveless” (see above), “Writer In The Dark”, “Sober”, “Supercut”, “Homemade Dynamite”, and “The Louvre.” The above is one of my early favorites – there’s just something about the way she gets down to her own music that is both adorable and admirable. You can tell she loves what she does.
In a brief interview with Vevo, Lorde states,
I don’t really do, like, acoustic sessions or anything, but with this record, it had roots in acoustic instruments and live musicianship.”
She also discusses working with Jack Antenoff (of Bleachers) and how the record centered…
Public Enemy… what can be said about them that shouldn’t already be known? They’re one of the most influential Hip Hop artists of the 80’s and early 90’s, due in large part to being one of the first Hip Hop groups to really focus on politics, and the plight of African Americans in general. Their lyrics were often controversial, and through it all the group remained unapologetic. If it wasn’t for them there probably wouldn’t be a lot of the politically charged music that exists today, from modern Hip Hop artists to metal bands such as System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine. Public Enemy’s first four albums are all widely regarded as classics, but there has been some discussion about which one is really the defining PE album, in my opinion the answer is easy; Apocalypse 91 is PE’s definitive album.
Another reason that this album is such a classic is due to one of the most capable Hip Hop production teams in the Bomb Squad, and an equally capable DJ in Terminator X. Apocalypse 91 features some of the most dense and innovative music that I’ve ever heard in any genre. The beats are complex by Hip Hop standards, and the music includes a large number of samples, sounds and influences all layered over each other in such a way that even sixteen years later I can still pick up new sounds. The Bomb Squad would take things such as screams (By the Time I…
Anyone on this site is, by now, well aware of my affinity for melodically-inclined music. There’s just something effortless and uplifting about songs that don’t require you to completely submerge yourself within them – and dedicate considerable time and emotional resources to – in order to understand. That isn’t to say that I haven’t spent tons of time getting lost in music with real, gritty depth and meaning, but lately the line between the genres I’d expect to pack that punch and those that I’ve traditionally viewed as reprehensibly artificial have actually begun to blur. From my perspective it feels like pop music is getting better, but that’s pretty clearly a hypersensationalized hot-take based on the opinion of someone who has ignored quality pop music for the better part of his life. As recently as three years ago I recall scoffing at the genre, aligning myself to a more elite standard as I’d quickly turn off the car radio to plug my ipod in and get lost in the music of The Antlers or The National. The reality, of course, is that quality pop music has always been there…I’ve just been isolating myself from it out of a fear of being subjected to the worst that the genre has to offer. But that’s no way to critique music, because by the same standards I ought to be repulsed by indie-folk considering the remarkable attention that bands such as Mumford and Sons and The Lumineers attract.
Or maybe I’m just getting old and my music taste has regressed to…
![Concrete and Gold [Explicit]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WmOGprqnL._SS500.jpg)
