Army of meh

Final mehcommendations: 2008's best releases

2008-12-11T00:25:00.000-08:00

Updated 12/11

In lieu of publishing reviews for the remainder of 2008, here is a list of 179 albums and EPs I believe are worthy of recommendation. I will update the list frequently, as I still have 48 albums on my iPod I haven't listened to yet. I also download an average of two or three new albums a day, which are then appended to my playlist. This list will get longer.

I also hope to publish some reflections on this year's new music over the next few weeks. I have a pretty hectic schedule ahead of my relocation, so I can't make any promises in this regard.

UPDATE: I am starting to add links to either my review or to another that more or less echoes my sentiments. If I have written a review of the release, I will link to my own review. If not, I will link to a positive review from a source I consider reputable.

Note: Some of these were released earlier than 2008 in limited tour editions, digital-only or outside the U.S. I have included them because they received their first physical release in the U.S. this year. Others were released for the first time in some form, but a domestic release is forthcoming. Expect to see these albums listed again next year.

Bold text indicates release was recently added to the list.

A Weather: Cove
Alias: Resurgam
Theresa Andersson: Hummingbird, Go!
Autechre: Quaristice
The B-52's: Funplex (AV Club review)
Nat Baldwin: Most Valuable Player (Pitchfork review)
Barr: Skogsbo Is the Place
Be Your Own Pet: Get Awkward
Beach House: Devotion
Andrew Bird: Soldier On (Pitchfork review)
The Black Dog: Radio Scarecrow (Tiny Mix Tapes review)

Black Kids: Partie Traumatic

Black Mountain: In the Future (AV Club review)
Blood on the Wall: Liferz
Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Lie Down in the Light
Brazilian Girls: New York City (Boston Globe review)
Breathe Owl Breathe: Ghost Glacier
British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music?
The Bug: London Zoo (Dusted review)
David Byrne & Brian Eno: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (Tiny Mix Tapes review)
Brendan Canning: Something for All of Us... (Delusions of Adequacy review)
Pelle Carlberg: The Lilac Time (PopWreckoning review)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
The Chap: Mega Breakfast
Vic Chesnutt: Dark Developments (Prefix review)
Cheveu: Cheveu (cokemachineglow review)
Clinic: Do It!
Cloud Cult: Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) (The Sneeze review)
The Cool Kids: The Bake Sale
Julian Cope: Black Sheep (Playlouder review)
Crystal Antlers: EP
Crystal Castles: Crystal Castles
The Cure: 4:13 Dream (Sputnikmusic review)
Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours
Dead Confederate: Wrecking Ball (AV Club review)
Death in June: The Rule of Thirds
Deerhoof: Offend Maggie (AV Club review)
Deerhunter: Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. (Tiny Mix Tapes review)
Dengue Fever: Venus on Earth (Dusted review)
Department of Eagles: In Ear Park (Delusions of Adequacy review)
Destroyer: Trouble in Dreams
Detektivbyrån: Wermland (It's A Trap review)
DeVotchKa: A Mad & Faithful Telling
diskJokke: Staying In
The Dø: A Mouthful (Drowned In Sound review)
Dodos: Visiter
Dungen: 4 (Paste review)
Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006
Earth: The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
Eat Skull: Sick to Death
Edie Sedgwick: Things Are Getting Sinister and Sinisterer
El Guincho: Alegranza!
Elf Power: In a Cave
Evangelicals: The Evening Descends
Evangelista: Hello, Voyager
The Faint: Fasciination
Firewater: The Golden Hour
Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
Flying Lotus: Los Angeles
Josephine Foster: This Coming Gladness
Dan Friel: Ghost Town
Tobias Fröberg: Turn Heads
Fuck Buttons: Street Horrrsing
Fucked Up: The Chemistry of Common Life
The Futureheads: This Is Not the World
Gang Gang Dance: Saint Dymphna
The Gaslight Anthem: The '59 Sound
Girl Talk: Feed the Animals
Glasvegas: Glasvegas
Growing: All the Way
Growing: Lateral
The Gutter Twins: Saturnalia
Hauschka: Ferndorf
Head of Femur: Great Plains
HEALTH: DISCO
Hello Saferide: More Modern Short Stories From Hello Saferide
Herman Düne: I Wish That I Could See You Soon
High Places: High Places
The Hold Steady: Stay Positive
David Holmes: The Holy Pictures
Horse Feathers: House With No Name
Frida Hyvönen: Silence Is Wild
I Scream Ice Cream: Me Too
Ryoji Ikeda: Test Pattern
Iran: Buddy
Japancakes: Loveless
Japanese Motors: Japanese Motors
Jarboe & Justin K. Broadrick: J2
Jeremy Jay: A Place Where We Could Go
Jóhann Jóhannsson: Fordlândia
Kelley Polar: I Need You to Hold On While the Sky Is Falling
Kleerup: Kleerup
Koushik: Out My Window
Kutiman: Kutiman
Lambchop: OH (Ohio)
Land of Talk: Some Are Lakes
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip: Angles
Leila: Blood Looms and Blooms
Dominique Leone: Dominique Leone
Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue
Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III
Lindstrøm: Where You Go I Go Too
The LK: The LK vs. the Snow
Los Campesinos!: Hold On Now, Youngster...
Los Campesinos!: We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Low Motion Disco: Keep It Slow
Luomo: Convivial
Lykke Li: Youth Novels
M83: Saturdays = Youth
The Magnetic Fields: Distortion
Man Man: Rabbit Habits
Max Tundra: Parallax Error Beheads You
Mirah: The Old Days Feeling
Monkey: Journey to the West
Mount Eerie: Lost Wisdom
The Mountain Goats: Heretic Pride
My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges
My Teenage Stride: Lesser Demons
Nadja: Desire in Uneasiness
Neon Neon: Stainless Style
Nomo: Ghost Rock
Conor Oberst: Conor Oberst
Of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping
Okkervil River: The Stand Ins
Oneida: Preteen Weaponry
Parenthetical Girls: Entanglements
Parts & Labor: Receivers
PAS/CAL: I Was Raised on Matthew, Mark, Luke & Laura
Pete & The Pirates: Little Death
Peter Bjorn & John: Seaside Rock
Plants and Animals: Parc Avenue
Poni Hoax: Images of Sigrid
Portishead: Third
Q-Tip: The Rennaissance
Quiet Village: Silent Movie
Radiohead: In Rainbows
Radiohead/AmpLive: Rainydayz Remixes
Rafter: Sweaty Magic
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
Robyn: Robyn
The Rosebuds: Life Like
The Ruby Suns: Sea Lion
RZA as Bobby Digital: Digi Snacks
Samamidon: All Is Well
Schlammpeiziger: Schwingstelle Für Rauschabzug
School of Seven Bells: Alpinisms
Shearwater: Rook
The Sight Below: Glider
Sigur Rós: Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
Smart Growth: Surrey
Patti Smith & Kevin Shields: The Coral Sea
SoiSong: qXn948s
Solange: Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams
Spiritualized: Songs in A&E
Stereolab: Chemical Chords
The Streets: Everything Is Borrowed
Suishou No Fune: Prayer for Chibi
Susu: Win
Syclops: I've Got My Eye on You
Thee Oh Sees: The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In
Titus Andronicus: The Airing of Grievances
Tobacco: Fucked Up Friends
TV on the Radio: Dear Science
The Twilight Sad: Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did
Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
Venetian Snares: Detrimentalist
Violent Femmes: Crazy (single)
Quinn Walker: Laughter's an Asshole/Lion Land
The Walkmen: You & Me
The War on Drugs: Wagonwheel Blues
Wax Fang: La La Land
The Week That Was: The Week That Was
The Weepies: Hideaway
Kanye West: 808s & Heartbreak
Why?: Alopecia
Wilderness: (k)no(w)here
Wolf Parade: At Mount Zoomer
Women: Women
Xiu Xiu: Women as Lovers

Hiatus

2008-11-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

I am immediately suspending new mehcommendations until early 2009. I am going to relocate to San Francisco much more quickly than expected, so I have to devote my free time to moving preparations. When I resume, reviews will be longer and, hopefully, more useful to readers.

In the meantime, I will publish a list of the best releases so far this year and update it regularly. This will include releases I've already recommended and a number that I haven't yet.

PAS/CAL: I Was Raised on Matthew, Mark, Luke & Laura

2008-10-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

As much as I love a simple, beautiful pop song, I'm a sucker for byzantine, schizophrenic compositions. I'm still scratching my head trying to comprehend just how PAS/CAL manage to accomplish both simultaneously. Their songs, regardless of length, change direction unexpectedly and frequently but seamlessly, never losing that sense of cohesion that tells you you're still listening to the same song. Imagine a sunnier Destroyer, using ELO as a touchstone instead of Bowie. It helps that PAS/CAL are interminably upbeat; their confections aren't weighed down by artiness or a sense that they're doing anything but having fun. This is an enjoyable, nuanced record with lots of twists that still surprise after many listens.

Eat Skull: Sick to Death

2008-10-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

The first immediately noticeable feature of Eat Skull's debut is the overwhelming, unrelenting noise. Blistering feedback and static dominate throughout, but tracks like "Ghost List" and "Fade to Smoke" hint that there is a secret coherence lying hidden under the squall. A second pass through the album makes the picture clearer. For all their devotion to no-fi production values, Eat Skull are astonishingly melodic. Traces of surf rock and VU-style balladry belie their apparent abrasiveness. Sick to Death is one of those rare albums that sounds like a different record each time, and each of those records has a cryptic charm.

Technical issue

2008-10-28T11:05:00.001-07:00

Today's post was delayed due to not having internet access last night at home. It will appear tonight, and tomorrow's post will appear at midnight as scheduled.

Firewater: The Golden Hour

2008-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Global influences are ubiquitous in indie music these days, and Firewater has helped make it that way. The Golden Hour is a travelogue of sorts, mining the popular musical forms of various regions for backgrounds against which stories of escape and refuge are told. Tod A. wields these cultural devices deftly, meticulously arranging them into gorgeous, gritty songs. The album vividly portrays the sensations of a weary expatriate. The Golden Hour shows that cerebral music needn't be dull or pretentious.

The Chap: Mega Breakfast

2008-10-25T17:09:00.000-07:00

I can honestly say that Mega Breakfast is the oddest album of the year so far. The Chap start on a foundation of post-punk and krautrock, two forms which have come back into vogue in a big way, and then depart from that plane at a ninety-degree angle. The strange rhythms, non-musical sounds and often whimsical lyrics on Mega Breakfast stand in stark contrast to the utter humorlessness of other revivalist bands. It would be easy to believe that Sparks have had a large influence on The Chap's songwriting. Novelty alone doesn't make an album great, though, but their ability to craft both danceable and hummable songs do. There isn't a dud on the album. Mega Breakfast is both fun and challenging, making The Chap one of the most promising bands to emerge this year.

Alias: Resurgam

2008-10-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

Resurgam finds Alias, the producer behind many of the best records released by the anticon. label, showing off his compositional skills in a wide array of electronic styles. His songs hover between the indie hip-hop for which anticon. is best known, glitch-hop, ambient and IDM. Artists always risk making a scattershot, incoherent record when trying to move in so many directions at once, but Alias deftly avoids this pitfall. Instead, his compositions emphasizes the elements the forms have in common, so the album never loses focus. Resurgam is one of the best records from anticon. in years, possibly in its entire history.

Solange: Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams

2008-10-23T20:34:00.000-07:00

Whereas most soul and R&B records made after 1967 make me want to douse myself in gasoline and light a match, Solange Knowles' new record came as a welcome surprise. A major factor in my unlikely enjoyment of Sol-Angel is its rejection of the faux-soul sound that has dominated the past twenty or so years. Solange instead embraces sounds from the acme of Motown and the girl-group genre it inspired. The album isn't purely a throughback, though, as it also incorporates influences from more recent electronic music. "This Bird" masterfully appropriates a sample from Boards of Canada and "Sandcastle Disco" reminds me of Stereolab at times. Sol-Angel is a remarkable development from a young artist who is just beginning to move out of her more famous sister's shadow.

Bonus mehcommendations!

2008-10-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I have published a couple of unannounced reviews this week. The year is coming to a close and I'd like to review as many albums as possible by Christmas. This means, hopefully, quite a few extra reviews that won't be put on the schedule ahead of their appearance.

Glasvegas: Glasvegas

2008-10-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

Glasvegas is probably the most aptly named new band to emerge this year. Their eponymous debut inflates maudlin Glaswegian-ness and the post-punk revival sound to arena-sized proportions. The bloom is off the rose for peers like Bloc Party and Interpol, due in no small part to their failure to inject soul and intensity into their music. In contrast, Glasvegas remedy this shortcoming by dispensing with the spartanism of post-punk, favoring sentimentality and Phil Spector-esque production values instead. Almost wholely successful in its gargantuan ambitions, Glasvegas is an impressive opening salvo from a band that's too loud to be contained by any venue smaller than a stadium.

Venetian Snares: Detrimentalist

2008-10-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

Admittedly, I have little frame of reference to evaluate Detrimentalist with. I usually find the more spastic and noisy genres of electronic music unbearably abrasive. Even worse, the records that aren't irritating are some of the most boring I've ever heard, i.e., the recent output of Meat Beat Manifesto. Perhaps Venetian Snares affect me differently than their peers because rhythm isn't treated as an end in itself. The time signatures are prominent, of course, but the beats often slow down or pause to make room for a fragment of melody. The tracks on Detrimentalist are distinguishable from one another in terms of tempo, mood and intensity. This alone makes it one of the superior records of drum 'n' bass and related genres, and the fact that almost all are gems puts it over the top for me.

The War on Drugs: Wagonwheel Blues

2008-10-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, having taken notice of several then-nascent musical revivals, I predicted the entire previous century would come back into vogue in the first decade of the current one. With new bands under astronomical pressure to stand out, genres would rub against one another and fuse into strange new musical forms. Nothing as dramatic as the scenario I foresaw has occured yet, but there is ample evidence that many of the more interesting bands are drawing inspiration from intersections. Wagonwheel Blues, at times, sounds like a collaboration between Bob Dylan, Brian Eno, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Guided by Voices. Despite a vastly ecclectic range of sources, though, The War on Drugs have integrated their influences into a surprisingly coherent sound. It would not severely tax the imagination to picture this solid, frequently transcendant debut becoming the catalyst for a flood of ambient shoegaze Americana imitators.

Growing: All the Way

2008-10-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

All the Way, Growing's second superb release of 2008, is measurably better than its predecessor, Lateral. Whereas Lateral was droning and austere, All the Way is more rhythmic. In a sense, the newest release is the closest thing to a pop record Growing will ever release. Repeating, arpeggiated sequences of notes sculpt something almost resembling a song, as if an extraterrestrial civilization had attempted to reconstruct music from Earth using only parts from Voyagers I and II. As the century unfurls, All the Way will either be a weird but beautifully accessible standout or the template for the pop music that follows.

Dodos: Visiter

2008-10-20T21:11:00.001-07:00

There has been such a flood of new bands offering their takes on Americana in the past five or so years that most of them have begun to sound the same. Even the more gifted musicians often fail to create anything distinctive enough to be heard over the din. Visiter, fortunately, does not suffer from this failing. Dodos possess an aptitude for hummable melodies, beating most of their peers on this basis alone. Unlike all the other bands pursuing an indie-folk aesthetic, however, Dodos also lean heavily on precise clockwork rhythms that flaunt their acumen as instrumentalists. Hopefully, unlike the birds from which they took their name, Dodos won't become extinct anytime soon.

The Cool Kids: The Bake Sale

2008-10-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Cool Kids take a simple approach to rap that hasn't been heard much in the past twenty years. Without the benefit of expensive studio production, they sink or swim on the basis of their beats and lyrics alone. It is a testament to their considerable strengths in these areas that they do much more swimming than sinking. The content and subject matter are simple, too, as The Cool Kids eschew heavy or emotional topics in favor of light fare. This decision pays off handsomely, resulting in a stellar, fun party record.

RZA as Bobby Digital: Digi Snacks

2008-10-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

Digi Snacks continues RZA's urban sci-fi meditation on the internal struggle between opposing natures, with Bobby Digital playing the Hyde to his Jekyll. While Bobby holds the reins almost completely, RZA continually hovers in the background, tempering Bobby's single-minded aggression with softness. Similarly, the album's grittiness is balanced against hazy, surreal atmospherics. In one of the album's most surprisingly pleasurable moments, a woman who sounds just like (and very well may be) one of the Cassidy sisters from CocoRosie contributes vocals to the most tender rap song about fucking I've ever heard. On the whole, what could have been a ham-handed, gimmicky album is saved by a remarkable depth.

My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges

2008-10-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

With Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket plunges deeper into R&B without losing footing in their well-established proggy Americana mode. It's a somewhat surpising move, but in retrospect it was prophesied by the adventurous genre-bending of Z. When the band gets carried away, like with the over-the-top falsetto of "Highly Suspicious", a solid Southern rocker kicks in just in time to prevent the album from jumping the shark. The schizophrenic tone of the album belies a subtle grace that takes repeated listens to perceive. Evil Urges doesn't approach the triumph of Z, but it still demonstrates a great deal of what makes My Morning Jacket special.

Illness

2008-10-15T19:56:00.001-07:00

The yesterday's and today's recommendations were delayed by illness. I will have them up soon and tomorrow's will be up at midnight, right on schedule.

Black Kids: Partie Traumatic

2008-10-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Those who claim that good music must be original either harbor some woeful misconceptions about music or just don't enjoy very much of it. For one thing, all music relies on what has come before to a great degree. For another, innovation in music is usally accidental, arising due to imperfect mimicry, much like mutations in genetic code. And artists that set out to create something completely original usually produce something interesting but unlistenable.

Black Kids' debut full-length, Partie Traumatic, is great precisely because they are skillful imitators. They strip-mine the 80s for vintage sounds and combine them with current pop culture signifiers to make fun party songs. While the seams are mostly visible, Black Kids' surprisingly broad cultural vocabulary make up for obviousness. Reggie Youngblood's frequently dead-on impression of Robert Smith, while almost embarrassingly transparent at times, works well with Black Kids' fluffier fare. Partie Traumatic won't be anywhere near as influential as the material they bite, but it's tremendously successful at what it tries to be: one of the most memorable and fun indie pop records in recent memory.

Mehcommendations resume

2008-10-12T22:21:00.000-07:00

Short-form reviews will resume tonight at midnight. I was hoping to start lengthening my recommendations, but I'm getting way behind in my writing. I'd like to finish reviewing all of this year's best releases by the end of the year, so I need to get busy. I'm still studying and thinking about ways to improve, but long-form reviews will wait until 2009.

Delay

2008-09-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I've pushed back the next set of reviews a week. I'm taking a short break for research. I'm doing some reading about techniques and tools of musical criticism. I hope to incorporate some of the ideas I find into my writing. The next set of reviews will be longer, allowing me to more fully and precisely express what I enjoy about each release. I hope that my recommendations will grow more enjoyable and helpful for anyone looking for great new music. Thanks for your patience.

Portishead: Third

2008-09-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

Third cannot exist unless everything we know is wrong. It's an abomination unto the laws of nature. And like all abominations worth their salt, it's astonishingly beautiful. Portishead have created a return to form that's also a radical departure. Paradoxically, Third recreates the mood and the aesthetic of Dummy by discarding its techniques and employing a new toolkit. Third sounds as if it were Portishead's eleventh album snatched from an alternate reality, rather than their third in this one. In another potentially universe-detroying contradiction, Beth Gibbons sounds like a torch singer enfeebled by chemotherapy, but her presence is anything but meek. I've always felt that the best music seems imaginary, though music becomes real once it is imagined. Third seems less real the more I listen to it, so by this criterion (and by many others) it's easily one of this year's best albums.

Robyn: Robyn

2008-09-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

It's actually been four years since Robyn, Sweden's former teenage "pop tart", released this astonishing comeback album in Europe. However, it didn't get a U.S. release until this year. Fortunately for Robyn and for the States, it still sounds ahead of its time. She has clearly matured beyond the teen pop stereotype and into the role of auteur. Robyn is constructed on a bedrock of impeccable electro and dance pop, but the whole affair is handled with much greater intelligence than is typical of these genres. Her winking, smirking bravado and semi-coherent appropriations of American slang are a perversely astute deconstruction of the clichés of celebrity. It's no wonder why Robyn has crusty old music snobs scratching their heads and reevaluating preconceptions of musical credibility.

Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

2008-09-17T18:30:00.001-07:00

It's quite unusual for a band to release such a sophisticated debut as that of Fleet Foxes. It's even more anomalous to hear an album that's both highly polished and unfailingly excellent. Yet Fleet Foxes have achieved both in one fell swoop. This is largely because they know their myriad strengths well and have crafted an efficient showcase for them. Their songs rely equally on unabashedly buoyant melodies, sunny harmonies and arrangements or guitar, piano, etc., played more than competently. If you haven't heard Fleet Foxes yet - and judging by its U.S. chart peak at #83, you probably haven't - you're missing one of the finest albums of the decade.

The Ruby Suns: Sea Lion

2008-09-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

It saddens me that most people's first (and probably only) exposure to The Ruby Suns will be a recent Microsoft commercial that uses about three seconds of "Oh, Mohave". I say that because the venom just beneath the surface of the ad - it implies that if you don't like Vista, the problem is you, not Vista - is antithetical to the spirit of the band. Ryan McPhun skillfully marries Brian Wilson-inspired sunshine pop to the equally good vibrations of the South Pacific. Sea Lion hasn't a single malicious note. The album is a densely layered confection of fuzzy, sunny loveliness. I hope that the songs will be licensed for more commercials, but for companies that use their powers for good instead of evil. Then Sea Lion will get the exposure it deserves without being sullied by malice.

Syclops: I've Got My Eye on You

2008-09-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

Syclops isn't the typical act for DFA Records, if there can be such a thing anymore in the wake of the label's more diverse recent signings. The funk and punk trappings ordinarily found in their releases are sparse on Syclops' debut album and there is very little cowbell. Likewise, with few exceptions, the tracks on Eye are much more landscape than foreground. The negative spaces are filled with dreamy synths and squelches. The array of tone colors floating around the middle of the mix provides ample reward for repeated listens.

Autechre: Quaristice

2008-09-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Warp Records stalwarts Autechre seem to have recovered from their slump. Heralded as the future of electronic music in the 1990s, Autechre's sound didn't carry well into this decade. It seemed that they were doomed to release the same dull, plodding record over and over again. Quaristice manages to outdo most of their recent output and some of their older stuff, too, by breaking the routine. It's their most diverse album so far, integrating the weirdo noodling of Amber with the cacophony of Tri Repetae and the nearly dancy rhythms of LP5. Most of the tracks are very short by Autechre's standards as well, around four minutes on average. Compared to the interminable repetition of the eight-minute-plus tracks of Untilted, the songs of Quaristice are a welcome return to brevity and variation for Autechre. Apparently, they've still got it in them to shape the future of IDM.

Blood on the Wall: Liferz

2008-09-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

In an era when the past is being systematically mined for dormant genres to reinvigorate modern music, it's almost a subversive act to adopt a form so recent it never had a chance to go out of style. The low-fi alternative guitar rock of Pixies, Sonic Youth, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr. and others has never lost its indie cred, so it's not a good style choice if one is trying to get by on meta-ironic gimmicks. On the other hand, Blood on the Wall do something pretty unusual for an indie band in the 21st century: solid, inspired musicianship. Liferz shows that with care and attention to detail, even the most well-worn paths can feel fresh and vibrant.

Tobias Fröberg: Turn Heads

2008-09-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

If there are any mediocre Swedish bands or musicians, I don't want to know about them. In the Sweden of my mind, the streets are crawling with pop geniuses and the wind carries impossibly sweet melodies. One day something will shatter this illusion, but I'm grateful that it won't be Tobias Fröberg. Turn Heads, Fröberg's third album, is yet another example of modest yet impeccable albums flowing out of the country these days. Nothing on this album screams out for critical acclaim or indie cred, but it doesn't need to. It wins over the listener quietly and gradually. I found it unremarkable on first listen, but it has grown on me over the past couple of months. Now I recognize it as one of the strongest, most infectious albums of the year despite its unassuming demeanor.

Quiet Village: Silent Movie

2008-09-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Quiet Village's approach to songcraft is similar to that of The Go! Team, Girl Talk, and numerous others that have emerged this decade. Silent Movie combines copious samples with original music to weave vivid atmospheres. But while their contemporaries turn their dials up to eleven, Quiet Village trade in subtlety. Silent Movie is a slow collision of Martin Denny's exotica, Ennio Morricone's film scores, shoegaze, and early 90s downtempo "chillout" music, among others. A few years ago I formulated a theory that in this decade, every form of music from the previous century would reemerge in unusual combinations, giving birth to the first new musical forms of the 21st century. Silent Movie is compelling evidence that I might just be correct.

Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III

2008-09-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

If you told me two years ago that I'd be writing a recommendation of a double-platinum certified rap album, I would have thought you were crazy. Yet, here we are. Tha Carter III retains many of the best qualities of Lil Wayne's 2006 mixtape with DJ Drama, Dedication 2, but is strangely more cohesive despite having nearly as many producers as songs. Wayne's shambolic cadences are criticized as lazy in some circles, but when paired with the relatively mechanical flow of Jay-Z and others, Wayne just seems to be having a good time. In nearly eighty minutes, Tha Carter III explores so many ideas that it might be easier to appreciate in smaller portions. However, hardly a single moment on the album seems dispensible. Tha Carter III might be somewhat demanding, but it pays enough dividends that it can afford to be.

Head of Femur: Great Plains

2008-09-06T19:48:00.001-07:00

Great Plains is a lot to take in. Copious numbers of instruments, abrupt rhythm changes and winding muli-part songs keep the listener on the verge of sensory overload. But when "Jetway Junior" starts, it becomes clear that all this complexity actually serves simplicity in perverse ways. The kernel of each song is a great melody and propulsive rhythm. Once this realization sinks in, it becomes easier to focus on each track's core qualities. The large arrangements are in sharp relief with the simple pop melodies, making Great Plains a more interesting listen as it progresses.

Sigur Rós: Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust

2008-09-06T19:34:00.001-07:00

Less than ten seconds into "Gobbledigook", the opening track of Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust, it's clear that Sigur Rós has made a long overdue change in direction. Three albums of pretty much the same sound was beginning to get a little stale. By the time Takk... was released, they were just treading water. Now it seems Sigur Rós has been paying a little more attention what's going ob outside their own insular world. The melodies still are soaring and pretty and spacy (it would hardly be a Sigur Rós record otherwise), but the instrumentation is much more complex. There are fewer strings and more varied instruments like horn sections showing up on various tracks. Rhythm is more prominent than it has ever been on a Sigur Rós album. At moments, there is even an unmistakable Animal Collective influence. Finally shedding some of the trappings that were beginning to make Sigur Rós a bit dull, they are now free to explore their undiscovered potential. If Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust is an indication, then their best days may still be ahead of them.

Kelley Polar: I Need You to Hold On While the Sky Is Falling

2008-09-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Kelley Polar, aka Michael Kelley, is a Juilliard-educated violinist and this shows in his approach to electronic music. Kelley treats his electric instruments as a means to an end, foundations of a larger structure, components of a finished product. While most of his peers aim to dazzle with the strangest sounds (many to wonderful effect), Kelley is more comfortable with the slow build and the cumulative effect. In a genre that frequently depends on instantaneous reward, Kelley's music demands a great deal more attention and is unlikely to create the kind of mass fervor that Daft Punk have. However, I Need You to Hold On While the Sky Is Falling rewards the attentive listener with a deeper experience. This is more bedroom music than dance music.

Herman Düne: I Wish That I Could See You Soon

2008-09-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Herman Düne is a French band, but it's understandable why people would think they're from Sweden. In recent years, Sweden has handily unseated Glasgow as the world capital of tongue-in-cheek twee pop of the sort that is found on this EP. While a playful giddiness typical of the genre (if it can be considered one) is evident here, it belies a deadly serious earnestness. On "When the Water Gets Old (And Freezes on the Lake)", David-Ivar Herman Düne almost entirely drops the self-effacing wit and observational humor that pervades the EP, letting the ache it conceals show through. As is the case with their Swedish non-countrymen, the tiniest measure of bitterness makes the rest all the sweeter.

Mehcommendations resume

2008-09-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

Mehcommendations will resume tonight at midnight with my review of Herman Düne's I Wish That I Could See You Soon EP.

Resuming shortly

2008-08-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

Mehcommendations will resume shortly, probably by September 2nd. I didn't get the job in Berkeley, so my planned relocation won't happen until after the new year. The good news is that the next four months will be relatively uninterrupted, leaving me time to recommend as much of 2008's best music as possible.

In the meantime, I'd like to stimulate some discussion here. I just read the latest edition of Popless at The A.V. Club website. Noel Murray discusses, among other things, his difficulty in convincing others of Prefab Sprout's excellence.

I've had many similar experiences. I've been a Peter Gabriel since I was fifteen years old - more than half my life. But persuading my peers to acknowledge his genius has always been a challenge. My friends and I were listening to Siouxsie & The Banshees, Bauhaus, The Cure, Christian Death, Psychedelic Furs, Depeche Mode, Dead Can Dance and the like. In comparison, Peter Gabriel appeared mainstream, at least superficially. But having fallen in love with Security, I knew that Gabriel was the true oddball out of the bands I enjoyed. From 1980's Peter Gabriel 3 to 1992's Us, he adeptly married pop, prog, industrial and so-called "world music" in often startling ways.

I managed to win over a couple of friends who had previously refused to believe Gabriel was anything more than an uninspired major label pop artist. How did I do it? My weapon of choice was (and still is) the mixtape. Selecting a few choice tracks from almost every album released up to that point, I carefully built an iron-clad case. My more reasonably minded friends were forced to capitulate.

So here's where the discussion comes in. I'd like to hear about artists you adore, but whom your friends (or others in general) have been reluctant to embrace. How would you make your case? What evidence of their greatness can you present? I'm opening up unmoderated comments, so please keep it civil

Hiatus

2008-08-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I have gotten a bit behind of writing recommendations and have deleted the dates from the Coming Mehcommendations sidebar. This is because I am preparing to relocate to California in about a month. I hope to start blogging again very quickly after the move is finished. There's still a lot of music to recommend so I'll try to make this break as brief as possible.

The Twilight Sad: Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did

2008-07-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

An EP primarily composed of alternate versions of songs on a previously released album ordinarily wouldn't warrant a recommendation from me. Except when, as is the case here, the alternate versions are as extraordinary as the originals. James Graham's alternating deadpan brogue and soaring croon are still present, but the arrangement are, in most cases, now slightly overshadowed by thick slabs of drone. The songs are longer and seem more orchestral in comparison to the originals from Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters. Additionally, the EP is capped off with a cover of ~~Beach House's~~ Daniel Johnston's "Some Things Last a Long Time". At more than triple the length of Beach House's version from earlier this year, The Twilight Sad brings an additional measure of gleeful moroseness to an already maudlin song. Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did is a phenomenal release in and of itself, let alone as a companion to a stellar album.

DeVotchKa: A Mad & Faithful Telling

2008-07-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

DeVotchKa first came to my attention with a recommendation from a trusted fellow blogger. Admittedly, I was more curious about their cover of Siouxsie & The Banshees' "The Last Beat of My Heart" than about anything else on their Curse Your Little Heart EP. Other than the aforementioned cover, I have to admit that I found little that impressed me at the time. I felt that the Balkan-rock fusion sound was being done better by contemporaries like Gogol Bordello and A Hawk and a Hacksaw. However, A Mad & Faithful Telling has handily won me over. The new album shows a great deal more dimension than the EP did. In particular, "The Clockwise Witness" and "Transliterator" are impressive examples of more evolved and nuanced sound. A Mad & Faithful Telling could be a critical and commercial breakthrough for this woefully underrated band.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Lie Down in the Light

2008-07-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

With its uncharacteristic (at least for Will Oldham) optimism, Lie Down in the Light can be thought of as the conceptual sequel to Oldham's 1999 masterpiece I See a Darkness. The murky production of I See a Darkness is now replaced with a clarity that Oldham began to hint at with The Letting Go. The rich horn arrangements, the harmonies with Ashley Webber, the more abundant major key melodies and the upbeat lyrics shine sunlight into long-darkened corners of Oldham's psyche. Lie Down in the Light is probably the first Bonnie "Prince" Billy album that could be considered a worthy follow-up to the finest alt-country record of the 90s.

Kleerup: Kleerup

2008-07-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Swedish producer Andreas Kleerup is clearly fond of working with an array of female vocalists, but his music is more than just a showcase for the talents of Robyn and Lykke Li. The instrumentals sprinkled throughout his debut show that Kleerup doesn't need vocalists to hide his flaws, but chooses them carefully to enhance his strengths on certain songs. Last year's single with Robyn, "With Every Heartbeat", is certainly a coup for both of them and it might have been tempting to team up for an album-length collaboration. But the song only shows one side of Kleerup's music and he apparently has many more sides to show us. Diversification is how he avoids losing his own identity among a bevy of talented Scandinavian singers.

HEALTH: DISCO

2008-07-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

To tell you the truth, I didn't really connect with HEALTH's eponymous debut. With the exception of "Crimewave", I couldn't find much on that album that moved me. DISCO, a remix album of tracks from HEALTH, however, introduces a greatly needed measure of diversity. If "Crimewave" was any indication, HEALTH's strengths are brought out by collaboration, and DISCO does nothing to dispel this conclusion. Additionally, it avoids the pitfalls that most remix albums fall into because HEALTH decided to treat it as an album in its own right, rather than a promotional gimmick for the album proper. The tracks are sequenced for listenability, avoiding the monotony that plagued the debut.

Titus Andronicus: The Airing of Grievances

2008-07-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Titus Andronicus combine the social and political defeatism of punk's early days with 60s pop tropes. The result is an unusually fun and compelling album in spite of its overwhelming pessimism. Titus Andronicus have a knack for weaving melody and low-fi arrangement to create what are essentially pop songs, abrasive as they may seem at first. Their sound reminds me somewhat of the Thermals or The Exploding Hearts, but it is actually much closer in spirit to The Pogues at their creative peak. This stellar debut at once shows off the band's talent for genre study and their own idiosyncracies.

diskJokke: Staying In

2008-07-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

If Sweden has been hoarding all the attention lately, it isn't because her neighbor to the west doesn't have anything to offer. Take, for example, Joachim Dyrdahl aka diskJokke. His debut, Staying In, is some of the best Norwegian electronic since Biosphere. It even eclipses Röyksopp's phenomenal The Understanding, which is saying quite a bit. diskJokke's style has clearly been influenced by Kraftwerk's dancier albums from the late 70's and early 80s, but it is infused with a pristine quality that could be described as glacial. Dyrdahl leaves nothing to chance, agonizing to get every last detail exactly as he wants it, with every beat and beep serving the whole. It's disco that's equally well-suited for the dancefloor and the solitude of the bedroom.

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

2008-07-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Vampire Weekend is a very rare kind of album - the kind that is actually as popular as it deserves to be. My ex-Goth instincts want to rage against the pop music status quo, choosing to pursue bands that were absurdly obscure and avoiding anything being played on even the alternative stations. I discovered Vampire Weekend's EP last year via Emusic and I was proud to have found out about a great band before having even read any reviews about them. My pride turned to indignation when I started hearing "Mansard Roof" on one of the Sirius alternative stations at my gym, of all places. I remember thinking, "Best new music? I've been listening to them since July." But transcendantly great music can never be hoarded for long, especially since Vampire Weekend's debut full-length more than delivers on the promise of the EP. Their South African-tinged college rock is literate yet sincere, with extraordinarily catchy songs that wear their Peter Gabriel influences proudly. I hope their success doesn't spoil their next effort, as it has with so many bands previously saddled with the unfair expectation of saving rock.

Honorable Mehntion #4

2008-07-19T23:56:00.000-07:00

The Postmarks: "Six Different Ways" (from By the Numbers)

In the sixth installment of The Postmarks' free piecemeal covers album, they have chosen a well-loved Cure song. Usually bands who cover The Cure end up biting off more than they can chew, attempting to emulate The Cure's style on some level. The Postmarks, on the other hand, take the song in a completely different direction. Preserving only the melody and the lyrics, they base their own version on piano and horns. It's an endearingly maudlin affair and they succeed in making the song even sadder than The Cure did.

Paavohaarju: "Italialaisella Laivalla" (from Laulu Laakson Kukista)

This song is much more down to earth than most of Paavoharju's music, eschewing experimentation in favor of simplicity. The melody is uncomplicated but heart-rending. Even for those of us that don't understand Finnish, the mood of longing for earlier days comes across loud and clear.

Beck: "Gamma Ray" (from Modern Guilt)

"Gamma Ray" captures much of what I've always enjoyed about Beck and has been lacking from his more recent work. The lyrics features superior puns and wordplay to any song he's done since Sea Change. Stylistically, it's not as schizoid as his earlier work, but it's a more than competent exercise in straightforward psych/garage rock.

Atlas Sound: "Bite Marks" (from Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel)

I haven't quite bought into the Atlas Sound/Bradford Cox mania that has overtaken the hipster crowd as of late, but I can admire a sublime track like "Bite Marks". The song is tenuous and barely manifest; it continually materializes and dissolves in a foam of static. This track reaffirms the late 80s 4AD aesthetic and cements Cox's place among his labelmates.

Bear in Heaven: "Shining and Free" (from Red Bloom of the Boom)

Weird, gauzy and dissonant, "Shining and Free" seems to fall about midway along the spectrum between Slowdive and COIL. While the percussive crescendo at the end puts me off slightly, the majority of the song is unexpectedly alluring.

Albert Hammond, Jr. "Feed Me Jack or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Peter Sellers" (from ¿Cómo Te Llama?)

While the production on "Feed Me Jack" is a little overbearing and does the song few favors, the melody rescues it from the tedium that overwhelms most of Hammond's sophmore solo album. It would have been extraordinary as a simple vocal/piano track, but the embellishments reduce it to nearly excellent. However, it's still the best track on the album.

Lykke Li: Youth Novels

2008-07-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Youth Novels is yet another in a long string of intelligent, nearly infallible pop albums to come out of Sweden in the past few years. Lykke Li's sound falls somewhere between the more bubblegum aspects of Robyn's self-titled album and the craftsmanship of Peter Bjorn and John's Writer's Block. The resemblance to the latter is no coincidence; Youth Novels was admirably produced by Björn Yttling. Yttling's production largely stands back and lets Lykke Li strut her stuff, providing more scaffolding than distraction. And unlike most pop produced in the U.S. these days, the substance of the songs is the selling point. If Lykke Li is part of a Swedish invasion force bent on world domination, let me be the first to defect.

Spiritualized: Songs in A&E

2008-07-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

After the so-so Let It Come Down and the abysmal Amazing Grace, I had become convinced that J. Spaceman's best days were behind him. I wasn't entirely sure that I would even take a chance with Songs in A&E, but I'm glad I did. Spiritualized's latest album, much their masterpiece Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, is an epic meditation on mortality. However, while Ladies and Gentlemen pondered the real danger of going too far in pursuit of a high and never coming back, A&E is about slow deterioration and eventual quietus due to illness. The specter of death hangs in the background, and in some cases the foreground, throughout. Even while singing about the fire within, Spaceman sounds as if it may soon be extinguished permanently. It is likely that the tone of A&E is influenced by Spaceman's recent life-threatening illness. It seems that his near miss has caused him to find his purpose once again.

Wolf Parade: At Mount Zoomer

2008-07-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wolf Parade's second album, while not as immediately rewarding as Apologies to the Queen Mary, is a more fleshed out realization of ideas introduced on the debut. At Mount Zoomer is a more challenging record, requiring more of the listener's attention, but it's well worth the effort. The ramshackle pop of Wolf Parade's early EPs is now more carefully honed with greater attention to detail. Each listen reveals previously unnoticed layers of dissonant tension and resolution. At Mount Zoomer is fully consistent with what I call the Great Canadian Clusterfuck sound, which includes associated acts like Frog Eyes, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, Handsome Furs, etc. However, the album represents a stylistic departure from the intersection of these groups into Wolf Parade's own unique territory.

Girl Talk: Feed the Animals

2008-07-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, Girl Talk's Night Ripper brought legitimacy to the art of mash-up and created a massive new audience for the genre out of the indie crowd. The excitement of the record was in its juxtaposition of every form of popular music of the last forty years, pushing all the buttons at once and exposing the common thread that ran through it all. Feed the Animals continues along these lines, but with less urgency. While it is slightly less exciting than its predecessor, Feed the Animals more than makes up for it with moments of genuinely sublime beauty. Many of these moments results from pairings of rap/hip-hop tracks with rock: T.I. with Sinéad O'Connor, Pras with Yo La Tengo, among others. In some ways, Feed the Animals is more daring than Night Ripper in its use of samples more likely to invite lawsuits. Hopefully Metallica, Prince and others can appreciate Feed the Animals in the spirit in which it was intended and not be as litigious as they have been in the past.

Destroyer: Trouble in Dreams

2008-07-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Destroyer's eighth album is probably one of the most straightforwardly "pop" albums that Dan Bejar has ever been involved with, as far as Bejar can be straightforward. All of the things that make a Destroyer record enjoyable are still intact: abrupt changes of direction, impenetrable lyrics, extraordinarily complex arrangements. One element present on Trouble in Dreams lacking from most Destroyer albums (or at least the ones I've heard so far) is brevity. With few exceptions, Bejar and company manage to encapsulate their ideas in under five minutes. However, it just wouldn't be a Destroyer record without epic, multi-part songs, and Trouble in Dreams has two of their best so far. "Shooting Rockets (From the Desk of Night's Ape)", in particular, seems short despite its length because of its Disintegration-like hooks.

SoiSong: qXn948s

2008-07-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

SoiSong is the newest project of Throbbing Gristle/COIL founder Peter Christopherson and bandmate Ivan Pavlov. qXn948s is their first official recording, sold initially at shows on their first European tour, but it is expected to be available for purchase online soon. In the meantime, abrieviated versions of the tracks can be heard on their Myspace page. The music reminds me of COIL's lengthier ambient pieces, such as "How to Destroy Angels", but decidedly more Southeast Asian in influence. These four tracks, particularly the breathtaking closer "Jam Talay Sai", make me eager to hear more from SoiSong.

Smart Growth: Surrey

2008-07-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

This Baltimore band has been getting a lot of well-deserved attention recently, thanks to Pitchfork Media plugging their track "Immigration Reform". Surrey is available for free download through the band's Myspace, but it would still be worth the average price for an EP, should the decide to sell it. Stylistically, it reminds me a lot of Battles, with lots of polyrhythmic synths and drum machines. Smart Growth also sample liberally from recognizable Phil Collins/late-period Genesis throughout the five tracks, but I'd argue that they handle them more competently than Collins has in twenty years.

Neon Neon: Stainless Style

2008-07-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

Gruff Rhys, of Welsh psych-pop juggernauts Super Furry Animals, is proving to be even weirder and more versatile than most thought. His collaboration with Boom Bip, as Neon Neon, was anticipated to be a straightforward intersection of their respective styles. The result, however, is much deeper than that. Stainless Style is a concept album about John DeLorean that captures more than his rise and fall. It also convincingly adopts numerous musical styles from the late 70s and early 80s to portray the culture of money and blow that ruled American business at the time. While Stainless Style is fairly consistently great throughout, Neon Neon's best moments are when Boom Bip figures most prominently, such as on greedy, lustful hip-hop tracks like "Trick For Treat".

Shearwater: Rook

2008-07-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Shearwater's rise to greatness over the past few years has been woefully overshadowed by Jonathan Meiburg's other equally awesome band, Okkervil River. Rook signals their time to step out into their own spotlight. With this album, Shearwater establishes a sound that is different enough from Okkervil River's to warrant its independence, as Meiburg leaves his former colleagues behind to focus on his own work full-time. Rook is more delicately assembled, more intense, more emotionally wrought than Okkervil River's past two albums. Also present is a more direct sense of disappointment, as opposed to the seething resentment and self-deprecation of Black Sheep Boy and The Stage Names. Rook might just end up at the top of my year-end list a few months from now.

Man Man: Rabbit Habits

2008-07-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

The biggest charm of Man Man's debut, The Man in the Blue Turban With a Face, was its ramshackle, schizoid feel. On Rabbit Habits, they seem much more organized and goal-oriented than before, much to the record's benefit. Man Man have begun to fortify their unusual niche among weirdo bands. Whereas their previous two albums seemed the result of random sketches from demented imaginations, they now more thoroughly explore territory they had stumbled into by chance before. This is still pretty much the same sound we have learned to expect from Man Man: the music of alcoholic circus contortionists, boxcar vagrants, puppeteers and arsonists. I hope this streak of unimpeachable albums continues for many years.

Radiohead/AmpLive: Rainydayz Remixes

2008-07-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

This free EP almost never saw the light of day. You may recall that AmpLive originally intended to offer this set of remixes free to anyone who had legitimately downloaded In Rainbows. A cease-and-desist letter from Radiohead derailed his plans, but luckily they were able to reach an amicable agreement to release it to everyone. A project of this sort was guaranteed to be either a coup or a disaster. The anticipation of something as crazy as hip-hop remixes of Radiohead featuring the likes of Too $hort and Del Tha Funky Homosapien had me simultaneously salivating and bracing for the worst. Fortunately, the results are wonderful, for the most part. The remixes range from decent to excellent. And did I mention it's free?

Susu: Win

2008-07-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

This EP showcases a woefully undermentioned band that's resurrecting a more abrasive aspect of the post-punk sound. Susu draw obvious comparisons to early Sonic Youth, but Public Image Ltd. might be closer to the truth. Win has been criticized for being too reminiscent of a particular sound from the past. Has it been done before? Sure, but rarely this well, even in the 80s. This might be blasphemous, but I must admit I like Win better than some of the canonical albums of the era. Susu are definitely a band worth watching.

The Weepies: Hideaway

2008-07-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Having discovered Hideaway via Emusic, I wonder why I'd never heard of them before. I'm an avid consumer of music sites like Pitchfork Media, Tiny Mix Tapes and the recently departed Stylus Magazine, none of which have published a review of any of the three Weepies albums. Even Metacritic, which collects reviews from dozens of sources, has no mention of them. It's unfortunate because, judging from Hideaway, The Weepies write more consistently solid songs than most of the current indie-rock critical darlings. As you might guess, this isn't the most cheerful music, but it isn't overly mopey either. The overtones of disappointment and heartbreak are balanced by a thread of hope. After all, break-ups wouldn't hurt unless there was an expectation that, just this once, it might have worked out.

Delays

2008-07-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

The review for the new Weepies album has been delayed because I wasn't feeling well yesterday. It will appear tonight, along with my review for the Susu EP.

Honorable Mehntion #3

2008-06-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

French Kicks: "Sex Tourists" (from Swimming)

I'm not sure what the lyrics have to do with sex tourism, largely because I can't understand most of them. This mid-tempo soul number with falsetto, tremolo guitar, a barely changing drumbeat and a monotone chorus somehow adds up to much more than the sum of its parts. Addictive.

Sally Shapiro: "Time to Let Go (Lindstrøm Remix)" (from Remix Romance Vol. 1)

Much like Lindstrøm's other works, this nearly eleven-minute track changes gradually, almost imperceptibly. Shapiro's vocal, though quite lovely in the original, barely makes an appearance here. When it does, it's just another layer. Toward the end a hook from another Shapiro track from Disco Romance shows up to surprise the listener. It's a treat to get lost in.

Air France: "No Excuses" (from No Way Down)

A lovely track from another group of Swedish disco fetishists, though it's probably not intended for the dance floor. It's more like having a dream about dancing.

Hercules and Love Affair feat. Antony Hegarty: "Blind" (from Hercules and Love Affair)

Antony should contribute vocals to every dance track from now on. By everyone.

The Last Shadow Puppets: "My Mistakes Were Made For You" (from The Age of Understatement)

I've got a secret fetish for some of the darker movie music from the 60s. This track, as well as several from the album, have a bit of a Bond theme/Andre Previn vibe. This song is probably the best of them.

Coldplay: "42" (from Viva la Vida)

No, I'm not being sarcastic. I think Coldplay is one of the most unfairly maligned bands in existence. I think most hipster critics who have never given them a decent review would love this track if they didn't know it was Coldplay. "42" changes gears almost seamlessly several times, shifting from a stripped-down ballad to a perhaps intentionally Ok Computer-esque paranoiac dirge and back again. It's probably the most well-executed song on the album.

The Mountain Goats: Heretic Pride

2008-06-27T23:18:00.000-07:00

For the first time since John Darnielle began recording albums with actual studio production, the glossy arrangements on Heretic Pride strike balance with his formidable talents as a songwriter. The production on The Mountain Goats' first couple of albums on 4AD overshadowed Darnielle, while onmuch of Get Lonely, it was an unnecessary and incongruous distraction. Finally, it seems that producers John Vanderslice and Scott Solter have provided only enough support to buoy Darnielle's melodies and accent the emotional peaks and valleys of his lyrics. Heretic Pride is the first album to confirm fans' hopes that, with the resources of 4AD at his disposal, Darnielle could be a juggernaut.

My Teenage Stride: Lesser Demons

2008-06-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

This Emusic-only EP from 80s fetishists My Teenage Stride makes me wonder why imitation is looked down upon in music. Lesser Demons strip-mines the entire decade for influences: The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Cure, and especially Joy Division. In fact, their Peter Hook-like bass form a subtle but omnipresent cornerstone to almost all the songs. On "The Loud Confessor" and "Skin Lieutenant" in particular, Jedediah Smith sounds like he could have served as a voice double for Ian Curtis in Anton Corbijn's film about Joy Division, Control. This is not to say that My Teenage Stride lack their own charms. An EP, by nature, displays a narrow range of a band's sound. Lesser Demons is a compelling enough listen that I'm now eager to hear their albums.

British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music?

2008-06-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

Do You Like Rock Music? is British Sea Power's fittingly titled but surprising turn toward arena-sized rock. After the stately and frequently meek new wave of Open Season, no one quite expected these weirdos to come out with something as loud and large as this album. This is probably why the lauded and vilified Pitchfork Media copped out of giving it an actual rating, opting instead to sarcastically compare BSP's new album to U2's most recent preenings. Once one gets past the steamroller-like choruses turned up to eleven, BSP's songs are as tender and introspective as they've ever been. This, combined with their newfound affection for bleeding eardrums, makes Rock Music much more interesting than its predecessor.

Plants and Animals: Parc Avenue

2008-06-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

As the cover might suggest, Plants and Animals' full-length debut is ambitious to say the least. The songs on Parc Avenue are giant, complex productions that bear immense rewards without demanding too much from the listener. The album is like a Broadway rock opera unfolding spontaneously in a forest, staged by strangers that have little in common except a cooperative disposition and a love for Canadian indie rock. Such lofty goals are rarely as fully realized by anyone, let alone by such relative newcomers as Plants and Animals

Pete & The Pirates: Little Death

2008-06-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Just when we thought the post-punk revival was waning, Little Death comes along. And, in fact, the fad may be in decline, as evidenced by lackluster sophmore efforts Bloc Party, The Futureheads, Maxïmo Park, and the like. Luckily, Pete & The Pirates draw as much inspiration from mid-90s Britpop and turn-of-the-millennium American indie rock as they do from Gang of Four. Their peers' follow-ups may have fallen flat because they tried to substitute style for substance, a flaw that Little Death doesn't suffer from. Pete & The Pirates' strength rests on the ability to write solid songs at any tempo on the spectrum. Let's hope they continue to rely on such fine craftsmanship on their next outing.

Breathe Owl Breathe: Ghost Glacier

2008-06-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

This Emusic exclusive EP serves as an alluring introduction to a band I look forward to getting to know better. The sound fits in well with the freak-folk/New Weird Americana movement, but Breathe Owl Breathe has a gift for crafting gorgeous melodies that makes them stand out among their peers. Even their longer songs don't outstay their welcome. Rather, the songs end about a minute or two before the listener starts to get tired of them. These eight songs could easily have been expanded into a full-length album. However, Breathe Owl Breathe are careful not to be too ambitious; a beautiful song that ends with the listener wanting more is preferable by far to one that goes on for too long. Maybe after some more experience, the band will try their hand at creating an epic. In the meantime, I can listen to Ghost Glacier twice or three times in a row to satisfy that craving.

The LK: The LK vs. the Snow

2008-06-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Usually I don't pay much attention to stereotypes. However, The LK vs. the Snow reinforces a stereotype that seems to have more than a kernel of truth in it. Based on the music that's been coming out of Sweden in the past few years (Jens Lekman, Robyn, The Knife, Sambassadeur, etc.), one can easily be led to the conclusion that all Swedes are fun, intelligent, playful and capable of writing the catchiest melodies humankind has ever seen. If only that were true, I would move there right now. In The LK's case, the fun Scandinavian melodies are accompanied by deceptively complex arrangements and electronic embellishments that belie the songs' simplicity. It's a shame that this album took a year to get released in the U.S., and even more so that most Americans will never hear it.

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip: Angles

2008-06-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

British duo Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip's debut album, Angles, still hasn't been releases in the U.S., but it may well be worth the import price. Their rock-inflected hip-hop reminds me at times of The Pop Will Eat Itself at their peak, and at other times Sage Francis, cited by the duo as a major influence. They have been unfairly criticized for supposedly forsaking hip-hop's black forebearers. Truthfully, I don't know enough about the subject to evaluate the claim, but I suspect that it's not true. Perhaps Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip are just breaking with traditions in British music that have become too ingrained and comfortable. They complain in "Fixed" that English hip-hop has become complacent and dull; perhaps Angles is strange enough to make a difference in that regard.

Crystal Castles: Crystal Castles

2008-06-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

If you enjoyed last year's collaboration between Crystal Castles and HEALTH, "Crimewave", then you are sure to like the former's debut full-length. The songs pretty much follow the template set down by "Crimewave": bizarre, erratic, punky, and above all, fun to dance to. A few songs hint at greater versatility soon to be revealed. Portions of "Magic Spells" seem like a lost Boards of Canada track. Influences from recent French indie electronic acts such as Air and M83 seep through on songs like "1991". The album even ends on an unexpectedly somber note with "Tell Me What to Swallow", in which a simple acoustic guitar is bathed in a shoegazy vocal. Considering it was assembled primarily from 7"s released over the past few years, Crystal Castles is a surprisingly cohesive listen from beginning to end.

Beach House: Devotion

2008-06-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

I'm unabashedly nostalgic for many of the musical styles of the 80s, which is one reason that I am so fascinated with a lot of the music coming out today. The post-punk and shoegaze revivals of this decade are well-known and their respective marketplaces have become overcrowded. Beach House, on the other hand, is one of only a handful of current bands that recall the mid- to late-80s 4AD sound. The songs on Devotion have an almost glacial tempo, with their dense layers of English pop trappings played at half speed. The instruments sound as if they were recorded through gauze and barely made of matter. The music envelops the listener but passes through like a ghost. For those of us that feel the 4AD sound was perfection, Devotion is bliss.

Japancakes: Loveless

2008-06-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's probably fairly clear, if you have read some of my previous reviews, that I have great affection for My Bloody Valentine and, in particular, their masterpiece Loveless. Ordinarily, I would say that it's best not to tamper with perfection. However, Japancakes' lovingly constructed song-for-song reconstruction of MBV's album is an exception. Japancakes' have assembled their tribute with as much care and attention to detail as Kevin Shields did with the original. This album manages to capture many of the best qualities of MBV while still asserting Japancakes' identity. Stripped of the oceans of reverb and feedback, the new Loveless preserves only the melodies and rhythms, reiterating the subtle but vital role these had on MBV's album. Replacing the vocals with strings is a bold decision that has paid off well, since actually understanding the original album's lyrics would probably take away some of the magic. Both as a tribute and as a work in itself, Loveless is astonishingly gorgeous.

Honorable Mehntion #2

2008-06-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

She & Him: "Sentimental Heart" (from Volume One)

I was excited when I found out that one of my favorite songwriters, M. Ward, was recording an album with one of my favorite actresses, Zooey Deschanel. The album as a whole didn't quite live up to my expections. The opening track, though, has an endearing simplicity that makes it shine. Zooey sounds a lot like Joanna Newsome here (a good thing). I hope that Volume Two has more tracks like this.

Excepter: "Kill People" (from Debt Debt)

This song sounds like You've Got Foetus On Your Breath or Cabaret Voltaire. If you don't know who these bands are, ask your cool post-goth aunt. It's nice to hear something besides shoegaze or post-punk in new music, as much as I love those sounds. Maybe the world is overdue for an early industrial (1976-83) revival.

Billy Bragg: "O' Freedom" (from Mr. Love & Justice)

I think the folk protest song is a lost art. Here we are, five years into an unnecessary and unpopular war, and the younger artists can't seem to write a direct and insightful song about it to save their lives. It makes me long for a songwriter with the talent and passion of Woody Guthrie. The four words emblazoned on his guitar, "This machine kills fascists," testify more credibly to the power of music to change the world than any song about the war in Iraq. In Woody's absence, though, it's great to hear a song like "O' Freedom". It has the classic structure of a protest song and its chorus is both a memorable slogan and a play on words. Its message is clear and effective. The younger generation of songwriters should take a lesson from Bragg.

Why?: Alopecia

2008-06-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

As far as indie acts go, Why? is a strange animal indeed. "Rap" is a label that applies to a number of the tracks on Alopecia, but it's far from the whole story. Why? considers no genre off limits to its aggressive borrowing and recombination. The album assimilates elements of the recent post-punk revival, twee, and literary songwriting similar to that of The Mountain Goats. Despite the astonishing variety of influences, Alopecia is surprisingly consistent. Why? sounds familiar yet dissimilar to anyone else making music today.

Growing: Lateral

2008-06-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Lateral is one of the most interesting avant-garde/noise releases to come out in the past few years. Static, distortion and rhythmic noise stay mostly at the top of the mix, while a distant echo of a pastoral melody slowly emerges from the foam. Listening to the whole record in one sitting is a bit like being in a sensory deprivation chamber. It's easy to let stray thoughts latch onto a single element and get pulled along with the music. At about twenty minutes, this album is just about the perfect length. Whereas other recordings with similar ambitions start to sag in the first few minutes, Lateral leaves the listener feeling like no time has passed at all.

Radiohead: In Rainbows

2008-06-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know this is review is very, very late. Everyone who likes Radiohead, and many who are just now joining the party, already have In Rainbows. So this review may only be useful to future fans not yet conceived. Nonetheless, it's one of my favorite releases of the past year and I want to comment on it.

Almost every Radiohead album since OK Computer has become my favorite within a week of acquiring it. In Rainbows is no exception. This album seems to integrate everything they've learned in the past fourteen years. Fairly straightforward rockers and ballads like those from The Bends rub shoulders with the spastic electronic experiments typical of later albums. Above all, Radiohead communicate with an air of authority and integrity. Rather than posturing and reveling in how cool they are, they just are. In Rainbows works because Radiohead agonizes over every detail, struggling to meet their own nearly impossible standards, rather than trying to guess what their audience will like. Subsequently, every new album alienates some fans, strengthens the devotion of others, and intiates more acolytes into their world.

Los Campesinos!: Hold On Now, Youngster...

2008-06-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

The debut full-length from Los Campesinos! seems tailor-made for the hipsters and internet-based music critics. Their frenetic indie pop owes enornous debts to Pixies and The Cure, along with every other band that has ever served as an entry point into the 80s indie rock canon for nascent virtual crate-diggers. This is not to minimize what Los Campesinos! have achieved here; they have succeeded in making a fun party record for a crowd that tends to take itself way too seriously. They can pull off such a knowing send-up of obsessive fan behavior because they have done it all themselves. They took a giant risk in lampooning the very audience they intended to reach, and it has paid off handsomely.

Honorable Mehntion #1

2008-06-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

From time to time I hear great songs on albums that I don't enjoy quite enough to write a mehcommendation. The songs deserve some recognition, however, so I am introducting Honorable Mehntion, in which I'm going to discuss some songs that have ended up in heavy rotation.

Ssion: "Street Jizz" (from Fool's Gold)

I just can't resist a song this filthy. Not only is it about having anonymous sex in a public park, but it's got one of the catchiest choruses I've heard this year. It's dancefloor-ready in its natural state and it makes me think about becoming a DJ just so I can play it.

Kid: "I'll Never Know" (from Kitsuné Maison, Vol. 5)

Pitchfork cited this track as one of the worst on Kitsuné's most recent compilation, probably for similar reasons that I enjoy it so much. It's kind of silly and it changes directions too frequently to be very danceable. The cheesy tricks applied to the vocals don't add much to its credibility. Still, I can't get it out of my head.

Liars: "Army of Me" (from Stereogum Presents... Enjoyed: A Tribute To Björk's Post)

One of Björk's most brutal and sludgy songs becomes even more so when covered by perennial eccentrics Liars. I have a some spot in my heart for weirdos, so it's no surprise that I'm so tickled by Liars treatment of the world's most unlikely pop star.

Baby Dee: "The Only Bones That Show" (from Safe Inside the Day)

Baby Dee is even stranger than one would ordinarily expect a tranny cabaret performance artist to be. "The Only Bones That Show" achieves an optimal balance between her outre musings and solid musicianship and songwriting. Baby Dee is a classically trained pianist, after all, and she's backed up by a cadre of Drag City's best musicians. This track shows Baby Dee's progress as a songwriter, and I hope that her next album is the critical breakthrough she deserves.

Diamanda Galás: "Interlude (Time)" (from Guilty Guilty Guilty)

Diamanda is a master of transforming standards into dirges. This old song was popularized about ten years ago by a duet between Siouxsie and Morrissey. While their version was a lovely, if somewhat schmaltzy, single, Diamanda captures a sense of futility and hopelessless lying just beneath the surface.

Junior Boys: "No Kinda Man" (from Body Language Six)

Junior Boys dug out this So This Is Goodbye outtake for inclusion on their contribution to the Body Language series. "No Kinda Man" is a bit more like the songs on their first album. It's one of their slower tracks, but in other ways it exemplifies what's great about most Junior Boys songs: its buttery synths give it a smooth texture that makes it effortlessly enjoyable.

M.I.A.: "Paper Planes (DFA Remix)" (from Paper Planes Homeland Security Remixes)

This is the only remix of "Paper Planes" I know of that discards the notorious and controversial gunshots in the chorus in favor of The DFA's signature drum machine noodling. It completely changes the mood of the track. While the original track is about M.I.A. triumphing over the haters by making her mark in spite of them, this remix takes the battle to the dancefloor.

Santogold: "L.E.S. Artistes" (from Santogold)

Santogold's first single is a statement of purpose. After sacrificing and paying her dues for years by writing other artists' hits, she finally has her moment to shine. "L.E.S. Artistes" shows off her songwriting talent with an outstanding fusion of post-punk and hip hop. While the rest of the album doesn't quite live up to the promise of this song, it does inspire hope that her struggle will be worth it after all.

Schedule change

2008-06-03T20:08:00.001-07:00

I have postponed any future mehcommendations until Monday, June 9th. I have a lot come up in the past couple of weeks: emergency dental work, illness, my dog dying, etc. I will try to continue posting one mehcommendation (or more) every weekday except holidays starting Monday.

Clinic: Do It!

2008-05-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

I never saw what all the fuss was about with Clinic until now. I'm not sure whether this is because Do It! is a superior album to their last couple of releases, or I've arrived to a state of mind that's more amenable to their sound. Regardless, I'm really digging Do It! in ways I hadn't anticipated. I have said before that the problem with most bands is that they shamelessly rip off their influences, but rather that they don't rip off enough of their influences. Clinic can't be accused of this shortcoming. Do It! brings together elements of virtually every sound in rock from the past fifty years. Every time I listen, I hear something new; a bit of Dylan here, some Spector there and lots of other stuff I'm not well-versed enough in the history of music to recognize. Maybe I should now revisit Clinic's previous albums and find out why their fan base is so devoted.

Xiu Xiu: Women as Lovers

2008-05-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

I have been worried about Xiu Xiu for the past few years. Fabulous Muscles instantly made them one of my favorite bands of the current decade. Unfortunately, La Forêt was a big disappointment and I only warmed up to a few songs on The Air Force. I began to suspect Xiu Xiu's best days were behind them, but I never completely gave up hope that they had another masterpiece in them. Women as Lovers isn't quite that masterpiece, but it renews my waning faith in Xiu Xiu. They seem revitalized by the addition of new members Devin Hoff and Ches Smith. A good chunk of the songs rank among their best, some even approaching the perfection of "I Luv the Valley OH!" from Fabulous Muscles. Xiu Xiu's next one might be the masterpiece I've been waiting for after all.

M83: Saturdays = Youth

2008-05-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

M83's latest album has been described by critics, both favorably and unfavorably, as an homage to the music of the 1980s. This is probably the most obvious aspect of the album, noticeable from the first few bars of "You Appearing" and confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt by the Kate Bush soundalike vocals on "Up". On the whole, I find the result very satisfying. In fact, I can't think of anyone who could pull off such a tribute better than M83 has. Saturdays distills the best elements of new wave, shoegaze and other musical forms that comprised what came to be called alternative by the end of the decade. This album recalls a time when economic and political strife precipitated an explosion of interesting music that was commercially viable. Twenty years on, the cycle seems to be repeating. Saturdays couldn't have come out at a more auspicious time.

Quinn Walker: Laughter's an Asshole/Lion Land

2008-05-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

Quinn Walker's debut double album finds a perfect home on CocoRosie's label, Voodoo-EROS. With the possible exception of Devendra Banhart and Andy Cabic's Gnomonsong, Walker couldn't be better suited for another label. The first two tracks give the listener the impression that Walker leans toward Iron & Wine's earnest Americana or Akron/Family's psychedelia. These sounds are interesting, but a double album that stays in that place for its entirety would get tedious. Luckily, Walker's playfulness and curiosity take the album to many strange places. Many songs manage to sound simultaneously exotic and down-to-earth. This album shows that there is still plenty of territory to explore in what critics call New Weird Americana.

Thee Oh Sees: The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In

2008-05-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In is much more energetic than Thee Oh Sees' previous work as The Ohsees and The OCS. The songs on The Master's Bedroom are caffeine-addled and aggressive. This more propulsive sound is much better suited to the band's typically sludgy production than their previous efforts were. As usual, the lyrics are completely unintelligible, but it doesn't seem to matter. The vocals are used more for melody than for content. Unlike their previous releases, The Master's Bedroom is best listened to as loud as possible.

The Magnetic Fields: Distortion

2008-05-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Distortion represents an unexpected but certainly welcome turn in Stephin Merritt's prolific career. As the title suggests, its songs are reverbed and warped to within an inch of their lives. It could be said that Distortion is Merritt's triumphant foray into shoegaze, but any resemblance to My Bloody Valentine or Ride is merely superficial. At the heart of it all is the archetypal Magnetic Fields pop song: self-effacing, witty, emotionally engaging and above all, inexorably catchy. On first listen, Distortion might be somewhat off-putting to longtime fans like myself, but it grows on you. I couldn't stand "California Girls" the first time I heard it, but I found myself unconsciously humming it later that day. The second time I listened to it, it induced rapture. The rest of the album has similarly hooked me. Distortion is at least a tenfold improvement over Merritt's previous Magnetic Fields outing, the lackluster and self-indulgent i.

Fuck Buttons: Street Horrrsing

2008-05-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

I'm hardly the first to sing Street Horrrsing's praises and I'm sure I won't be the last. Not since My Bloody Valentine's Loveless has anyone so successfully married melody and noise. Loveless blended these elements into a foamy conconction in which bits of songs would condense, float by and dissolve again. Street Horrrsing, on the other hand, keeps these elements separate but operating in parallel. The result is more like, as the cover art might suggest, a heterogeneous jumble of clouds and shards of broken glass. I don't recall if this music has been described as hypnotic in other reviews, but it surely fits. If Fuck Buttons release two or three more albums half as gorgeous, then they will easily outdo MBV's legacy.

Cut Copy: In Ghost Colours

2008-05-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

I never been able to understand what the big deal is about originality. It has its virtues, but I'd rather do something unoriginal very well than something original poorly. I mean, why make completely unlistenable music in the name of invention? Even Throbbing Gristle threw down some fierce grooves in their less original moments, which were often their best. Cut Copy have been criticized by snotty music grinches for shamelessly ripping off New Order's Technique-era Balearic sound. Who cares? It's an awesome sound and Cut Copy do it very well. I wish New Order would get back to doing that kind of music, in fact. But since Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook are too busy sniping (to be fair, Hooky is doing most of it) to make awesomely cerebral dance-rock, I'm glad that groups like Cut Copy are there to fill the void.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

2008-05-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

I hate to say it, but I think that having to refocus their efforts after the departure of longtime member Blixa Bargeld has done the Bad Seeds a world of good. Don't get me wrong; I love Blixa and I think that his other gig, Einstürzende Neubauten, has benefitted from finally having his full attention. But losing Blixa caused the Bad Seeds to reexamine and renegotiate their roles in the group. Warren Ellis has now taken a prominent role and his more direct collaboration with Cave has pulled the group out of the rut they've been in for quite a while. It's still too early to know the album's full impact, but I think that Dig is easily their best album since The Good Son and Henry's Dream.

A Weather: Cove

2008-05-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

A Weather's debut on Team Love is a collection of moody, contemplative cloudy day songs. At first listen, they remind me a bit of Low. But while Low has the gloom turned up to eleven, Cove is full of quiet resignation rather than melodrama and melancholia. Occasionally, the chorus rises with the strength and hope that comes from having lived through bad times and come out the other side. "Small Potatoes", one of the album's standout tracks, has the highest concentration of the strengths that appear in various combinations on the rest of the album. A deceptively morose guitar intro unexpectedly turns upbeat on the last two or three notes, followed by an upbeat melody that belies the devastation of breaking up. This sometimes baffling interplay of mixed emotions contributes to Cove's depth and loveliness.

Be Your Own Pet: Get Awkward

2008-04-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

Be Your Own Pet's sophmore effort, Get Awkward, ironically, sounds much more natural than their eponymous debut. At times, Be Your Own Pet seemed forced or contrived, as if they were trying to simulate aggression that they didn't feel. This has been replaced by a thoroughly enjoyable set of pop/punk songs overflowing with genuine swagger and snarl. Jemina Pearl's delivery frequently reminds me of what was so awesome about her punk and no-wave foremothers: Joan Jett, Debbie Harry, Lydia Lunch, Siouxsie, etc. Pearl's star quality originates from her lack of motivation to conceal or be ashamed or pretend. There's not a drop of poetry on Get Awkward, but it's all the better for expressing itself in the most succinct and direct way possible.

Death In June: The Rule of Thirds

2008-04-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

Death In June's latest album, The Rule of Thirds, couldn't be accused of being too scattered with any credibility. All the songs follow more or less the same template: Douglas P.'s acoustic guitar and singspeak vocals, reverb and overdubs, sparse samples and minimal embelleshment. From this description, one might be led to believe that The Rule of Thirds is a dull album. On the contrary, its stylistic homogeneity highlights the songs' subtle melodic variations. Some of the album's standout tracks are "The Perfume of Traitors", "My Rhine Atrocity" and "Jesus, Junk and the Jurisdiction". These tracks are the finest examples of the charming apocalyptic resignation and baroque imagery that permeate the album. While it doesn't quite approach the goofy, sinister pageantry of World Serpent labelmates Current 93, The Rule of Thirds shows that the neofolk still have much to contribute a decade after the sound fell out of vogue.

Inaugural post

2008-04-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog. I feel it is safe to resume blogging under my own name again, as it has been months since I've heard from the psycho ex. The original blog, pale underweight, feels stale now and blogging under an assumed name at P.U. on the Lam just felt weird. So I've started a new music blog that will be distinct from my previous blogs. I will use this as a forum to recommend new music and to write about older music that has deeply affected me in some way.

Don't expect any Earth-shattering original discoveries here. Everything I recommend will probably have been discovered by someone else first. In fact, most of the music I listen to was recommended to me by a friend with similar tastes or one of numerous music-related sites that I read. You will notice, however, that my opinions are my own and that I will enjoy records that were given bad reviews elsewhere. I'm not in the habit of writing bad reviews, as I believe in not criticizing anyone for trying to do anything to express themselves, but don't be surprised if I've chosen not to recommend records that everyone else seems to love.

I will try to get a couple of recommendations written over the next few days.