Weezer w/o personality is an apt description. But I disagree with you that Cuomo's personality holds Weezer back. If anything, I think it is the foundation of their appeal and, especially on the early work, there only saving grace. Which is why I find Surfer Blood really boring.

I do like PdP a good bit more. I'll be getting to that one in a few weeks, probably. Caribou I haven't heard yet, but I was pretty disappointed in Andorra.

I was gonna write more about the technology thing, but I don't really have time to organize my thoughts on it right now. I feel like a lot of the electronic musicians of today have it both easier and harder than the ones of the past. It's technically easier to create just about any sound or effect, but conceptually and creatively much harder to create something that really matters. The doors have already been opened for them and the boundaries have already been broken. The only limitations are their own imaginations, and so there's more conscious effort involved in choosing an area of focus or self-imposing some kind of limitations to keep their music from going all over the place. And a lot of them do go all over the place without ever really creating any kind of musical personality of their own.

perhaps it's fodder for a thread entirely its own, and i'm sure we've had at least a few over the years, but it's certainly no less poignant now as we're a couple years deeper into sonic stagnancy. i totally agree in any case. we're supposed to have a limitless palate to create new sound and style with, but what's going on is severely compartmentalized and there is a cap on any sort of progression. if anything, electronic practices are advancing non-electronic (genre) musics at a slow but quicker rate than in the actual field of electronic music.

yep.

The Auto-Tune on "California English" doesn't bother me that much, A. because it's not too over the top and could just as easily be like a megaphone or harmonica mic or some other vocal effect and B. the drums/lyrics/melody of the chorus are so kick ass that they overshadow the auto tune anyway. I also think "Run" and "Giving Up The Gun" are two of the best tracks on the album; ""Cousins" and "Holiday" were early favorites but they grew a little stale for me.

At least we can agree that "Horchata" is garbage.

I've still never heard their debut and am pretty happy to keep it that way.

Really? If you like this album, then that really doesn't make sense.

actually, i kind of agree with bloor. it's weird. i like contra. i feel guilty liking it. and i don't feel compelled to dig backwards.

Yeah, I'm not sure why I need to listen to their first album to justify liking this one (and make no mistake about it, I like Contra a lot) If anything, it will make me like BOTH albums less.

Not to justify it. I just meant, you like this one so you'll probably like that one. That's all.

No, I got your point, I was just being flip.

Just trust me that I'm being 100% honest when I say I have no interest in hearing it. That may change down the road, but not now.

Please explain your decent review for Surfer Blood and mostly negative review for Four Tet yet they both get 7/10?

Alright.

First, the number rating isn't like a grade I'm giving out. It's simply a number roughly corresponding to how much I like something and how much I want to listen to it. So it may not directly correspond to whatever analytical criticisms I have.

For Four Tet, the review came across as mostly negative because I want more from him. It is a pretty good headphone album and a nice mood/atmosphere record, and that's all fine and good. It's expertly put together and technically impressive. I just wish there was more. I wish it was more distinctive and had more character to hook me in and make me really care about it. As one of the most celebrated electronic musicians around right now, I feel like Four Tet should be capable of that, but so far I don't think he's done it. It's still a pretty good album, though.

For Surfer Blood, I feel like they're about as good as they can be given what they're working with. It's competent but barely distinguishable indie rock with some decent hooks here and there. I can't really find fault with it other than that general lack of character or any risk-taking. That's similar to the problem I have with Four Tet, I guess, but I probably come across as more positive when talking about Surfer Blood because I don't really expect anything more. I don't equally fault rock bands and electronic acts for being unambitious, I guess, and maybe that's not fair. But then again, that doesn't really affect how much I actually enjoy the albums in question when I listen to them, and that's what the number is supposed to represent.

ah ok. that cleared it up a bit.

keep on with this.

Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM (CD purchased 2/9/10)

I knew that this was a collaboration with Beck - a big part of why this caught my interest - but I had no idea how big a part he played here until I actually looked at the album credits. He wrote pretty much the entire thing, produced it, and played several instruments on all of the tracks. This is, essentially, a stealth Beck album. It seems like Beck's been in a generous mood lately, creating all of those cover albums and giving them away free to fans, and here, releasing an album under someone else's name, the daughter of one of his biggest idols, no less. Unfortunately I haven't really been able to get into anything Beck has put out in the past ten years, and this isn't really an exception.

I don't really know what it is, but there's just something incredibly stale about his whole sound now. Maybe I'm just played out on it, but I think that when I go back to all of his older work up through Midnite Vultures, I can still hear what I used to find to be so fun, exciting, interesting, and fresh. Maybe it's just the overuse of strings here. I mean I get that this is probably his most overt homage to Serge Gainsbourg, but they just have the effect of making the whole thing feel so much more staid. I'm not crazy about a lot of the production, really, especially the clipped, thudding drum sounds. Lyrically, Beck seems to have lost all recognizable wit or tangible emotional content. And what about Charlotte in all of this? She's here, singing all the songs, but they aren't her words. And her voice doesn't really seem to be anything special (I've never listened to her prior to this). So is it all bad? Well, not really, but I'm actually surprised at how hard I'm finding it to come up with good things to say about this album. Could be that this is just an aesthetic I'm really not into. I don't know, but thus far this is the weakest album I've spent any time with in an otherwise very strong year for new music.

Rating: 6/10

Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me (3xCD purchased 2/23/10)

Two full hours of ambitious, complex music by one of the more divisive artists around right now - this is a big one to tackle. But I guess I have to at some point, and I'm not sure I'll ever get a completely thorough handle on this whole thing. I've never sat with the lyrics in front of me and followed the album attentively start to finish, but I suppose I could. I can certainly think of worse ways to spend my time. It doesn't hurt that I feel like this is the best album she could possibly have made at this point. Where her first album could seem overly cute and her voice overly affected, here the lyrics are grounded in greater emotional experience and significance, and her voice is considerably smoother, softer, and more natural. And where Ys. was weighed down by complex lyrical symbolism, epic song structures and dense, ornate arrangements to match, here things feel simpler and more direct. Yet the song structures still don't follow the typical verse-chorus-verse format, and the lyrics are still verbose to the point of seeming to ramble. But the underlying concepts come across much more clearly, I think. The accompaniment ranges from a full ensemble to none - just Joanna on harp or piano - whatever best suits each song. And it's much easier to find emotional resonance in these songs, mostly in the form of palpable melancholy. Not that this is a sad-sack record, but I think her saddest songs to date are contained here. Altogether it comes across more as the work of a songwriter I can really identify with than any of her previous work did.

It's perhaps a little uneven, as its many detractors will be quick to exaggerate, but mostly I find this gives a little space between the heavy-hitters. Rather than feeling tedious or like filler, I think that the lesser tracks here just reinforce the ones around them. And the strongest tracks are real home runs. After the steady build-up of the first three songs, "Good Intentions Paving Co." is the first one that really gets me with its jaunty, galloping pace and jazzy inflections. Then comes "No Provenance", a heartbreakingly beautiful song which contains an odd line about a "poor little dog-sized horse" but is no less poignant for it. The second disc, probably the strongest of the three, features the excellent four-song run of "In California", "Jackrabbits", "Go Long", and "Occident". "Go Long" in particular is a tour de force of her lyrical and compositional skills, not to mention her voice. The highlights of the third disc are probably "Esme", "Kingfisher", and closing track "Does Not Suffice" which seems to cement this as being something of a break-up record. It's certainly her most emotionally accessible - and powerful - album to date while also managing to be as formally creative and interesting as her earlier work. It's quite an accomplishment, one that I thoroughly enjoy every bit as much as I admire.

Rating: 9.5/10

Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago (CD purchased 2/27/10)

I'm pretty sure that any time I've ever written anything about Shearwater, I've mentioned that I was won over by seeing them live, particularly by seeing them play a cover of Talk Talk's "The Rainbow". This was in 2005, I believe, so it would be a few years before that Talk Talk influence would really manifest itself on 2008's Rook. I was pretty excited about that record when it came out, but ultimately it didn't quite live up to my hopes. It wasn't Talk Talk, that's for sure. But it was an improvement and a nice expansion on their sound, and perhaps it's with more grounded expectations that I feel like I'm able to enjoy The Golden Archipelago a little more than its predecessor.

Shearwater have pretty clearly defined their sound now, I think, and it's airy and dramatic. The easy standout is "Black Eyes" which is full of drama and intensity set to a driving rhythm and a memorable melody. "Corridors" is stormy and fierce and loaded with anxiety. The songs continually intertwine the fragile and the majestic, and overall this functions as a powerful mood album. It's a wonderfully executed, if somewhat tame, art rock record that has rewarded repeat listens. Quite an improvement from the indistinct folk-rock they were putting out several years ago.

Rating: 8/10

Local Natives - Gorilla Manor (emusic download 3/3/10)

Local Natives remind of a whole lot of other indie rock bands, particularly Fleet Foxes. Fleet Foxes meets Arcade Fire should give you a pretty good idea. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to figure out exactly what aspects of Local Natives' sound are at all unique, or even how their particular combination of influences is unique. It just isn't. They should sound immediately familiar to anyone who's been paying attention to indie rock for the past decade. But there are certainly worse things a band can do than be blatantly derivative of their contemporaries, like writing crappy songs. Luckily, Local Natives' songs are uniformly pretty good. The record bounces along pleasantly with plenty of catchy melodies that will work their way into your head and stay there.

The first of the three major highlights on the album is "Shape Shifter" which really does sound for all the world like it could have been a meeting between Fleet Foxes and Arcade Fire. But the big chorus and propulsive rhythm make it memorable and worthwhile enough in its own right. The second is a cover of Talking Heads' "Warning Sign". This cover seems to divide people - I think a lot just feel it's heresy to attempt to cover it, for some reason - but I think they really did a great job. It's fairly faithful cover that retains the essence of the song minus, of course, David Byrne's distinct vocals. It feels reverent and yet not unnecessary. Little flourishes here and there help Local Natives make their version matter. In fact, I think they could teach Arcade Fire a thing or two about how to do a Talking Heads cover. And finally, the third highlight is "Who Knows Who Cares", just an expansive, cathartic, beautiful song. So I think there's definitely something to this band, something that could possibly mean great things to come, but I just wish I had a better feeling for who they are.

Rating: 7.5/10

I hear Fleet Foxes too, but FF sound nothing like AF to me. More like MMJ and Band of Horses

I dunno, I could pinpoint several specific places in various Local Natives songs that recall Arcade Fire.

I don't think FF sound like Arcade Fire, either, but Local Natives combine elements of both pretty seamlessly.

BoH I could see, too, and maybe MMJ but definitely not so much. I'm sure there are many others, too.

Liars - Sisterworld (CD purchased 3/10/10)

Liars' sound has become so familiar and been so thoroughly absorbed by the indie world by now that it's kind of hard to remember what it was that seemed so different or innovative about them four years ago. The implication there is that they've settled into that sound at this point and have mostly ceased to explore and experiment. There have been little tweaks and variations on these last two albums, but nothing like the transformation that took place between their first album and Drum's Not Dead. It seems now as if that album was their creative peak, and they've been slowly coming down from there and settling into being a career indie rock band with their own little niche. Of course there's the possibility that Sisterworld is just a different valley from whence Liars will ascend a different peak, but I don't hear any hints of a new direction here.

That's not to say that this isn't a very good album. It'd be a remarkable accomplishment coming from most other bands. The first two tracks aren't anything exciting (one sounding a little like TV on the Radio and the other a little like Beck), but by the third track, "Here Comes All the People", Sisterworld begins to find its way into a nice, sinister groove. That continues pretty much the rest of the way through, highlights being "Scarecrows on a Killer Slant", "Proud Evolution", and "The Overachievers". The last two tracks, however, much like the first two tracks, aren't particularly strong, giving it a sort of unsatisfying finish. And that's what sticks with me. I wanted this band to continue to provide intriguing ideas and interesting new sounds, but it looks like I'll have to look elsewhere for that now.

Rating: 7.5/10

Fang Island - s/t (CD purchased 3/24/10)

I thought this was going to be right up my alley, but sadly, it isn't quite there. Not that it isn't fun - some of the time - but it turns out that arena rock (Journey, Kansas, et al.) filtered through semi-spazzy indie rock doesn't suddenly become something (unironically) awesome. Somehow all of the energy and enthusiasm on display doesn't end up being very infectious and can become fairly headache-inducing if I'm not totally in the mood for it. They really seem to pull out every cheese-rock trick in the book on this thing, in some cases all within the same song and all in the span of a single minute. Fortunately, on the latter half of the album, they tone down the cheese mostly lighten up on the spazz.

The little breakdown in the middle of "Sideswiper" is where I find it hardest to believe that these guys are serious. Yet they seem so completely earnest - the vocals are the most indie rock and least arena rock thing about this record - that I can only assume there's no intended irony. To top it all off, the lyrics seem to contain some sort of hippie-ish peace/love/music exuberance, not too different from Akron/Family. Akron/Family's lyrics are definitely not their strong point, but they do often have an interesting weirdness that seems absent here. There's just something missing overall from this record, but it's not without some degree of charm.

Rating: 7/10

Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer (CD purchased 3/24/10)

I was initially really disappointed in this. It seemed fairly interesting from the samples I had heard, but once I started listening to the whole album, I was really unimpressed with Gonjasufi's voice and the grainy, distorted production. While his voice still doesn't seem like anything special (or even very good at all) to me, the production became more endearing as the songs started to sink in. Now I find myself really relishing the immersive, hazy atmosphere and picking out new details with each listen. This is a long album, but I think it benefits from its sprawling format. It manages to maintain a very consistent sound across all nineteen tracks while also covering a broad range of styles. It's both eclectic and coherent with a lot of surprising twists and turns but an overall unifying aesthetic.

But that generally garbled sound does still get a little frustrating at times (a lot of good ideas and interesting sounds seem halfway buried) just as the vocals and lyrics often leave a lot to be desired. The guy's voice seems so muffled and distorted that I'm not even sure I know what he really sounds like, to be honest. You could say that he's sort of like Tricky in that he sounds thoroughly stoned and severely smoke-damaged, but unlike Tricky's measured, cool aloofness, Gonjasufi seems manic, frayed, and paranoid. But as I said, it's really hard to get clear feel for it given how he's produced. Still, it's a good record that I'd recommend to anyone with a reasonable amount of patience and a taste for Madlib-type indie hip-hop production.

Rating: 7.5/10

Pantha du Prince - Black Noise (emusic download 3/25/10)

Pantha du Prince seems to get a lot of mileage out of a fairly simple aesthetic formula: deep base + chimes. It creates a very spacious, open sound that I find really refreshing and addictive. It also helps that his compositions tend to slowly metamorphose over their course rather than just riding a groove into the ground or building up and releasing in typical dance music fashion. He doesn't just add and subtract the same layers but gradually shifts and transforms the melodies and the rhythms of the tracks. Maybe his focused sound palette could be referred to as "minimalist", but there's definitely a lot more going on than that would imply.

The second track, "Abglanz", may best exemplify the kinds of exciting twists and turns Pantha du Prince is capable of. I feel like most electronic producers would try to squeeze three or four different tracks out of all the ideas that he has rolled together - seamlessly and coherently - into one. The album begins on an impressive streak, continuing through the collaboration with Panda Bear, "Stick to My Side", one of only two tracks with vocals on the album and one of the most immediately catchy and memorable. After that it falls into a weaker stretch (really just two songs) over its middle portion, coasting somewhat but not so much as to be overly boring or bad. "Behind the Stars", the track just coming out of that where the album starts to recover, initially sounds more like familiar dance music than probably anything else here. (It's also the other track with vocals, and these are very, very German.) But PdP's brilliance as a producer and composer lies as much in the sonic details as it does in the subtly shifting compositions, and like this album's strongest moments, this track is captivating on both fronts. From there it continues at a consistently high level, gradually unwinding a little until its close. I feel pretty confident in saying that it's one of the very best electronic albums that I've heard in several years (at least as good as Pole's Steingarten, if not better), and it actually gets me excited about electronic music in a way that I haven't been in a really long time.

Rating: 8.5/10

Autechre - Oversteps (CD purchased 3/25/10)

You either like Autechre or you don't, and it seems to me that at this point, most people should already know where they stand. I don't see how any new Autechre album is going to polarize their fanbase or listeners in general. If you've stuck with them for this long, then you've made it past their shift away from their more accessible, straightforward early material through the knotty experiments of Confield and back to more structured beat- and melody- oriented music. From now on they're either going to venture back out into edgy, experimental territory or continue to dial it back into more ambient or beat-oriented work. The new Autechre album may not be your favorite, but it's undeniably Autechre, and you can't fault them for being themselves. Which is just what they are here, leaned more away from the beats and more toward synths, but in a far more typically structured and calm way than Confield and some of their more difficult stuff. In many ways Oversteps could be seen as a fairly logical outgrowth from the more ambient tracks on Quaristice, just as pretty much all of their albums can feel like a natural progression from some element of the previous work. It's not one of my favorites, and I probably like it about the same or a little less than Quaristice. I can hardly say I'm disappointed, though. I got more or less what I can for, and I'm glad that Autechre's still around doing what they do.

Rating: 7.5/10

Pantha Du Prince demands more listens. I just keep putting it off because listening to it on my Altec Lansing computer speaker system doesn't do it justice, and I keep hearing only the beat and not everything else going on. At times it sounds too unce-unce-unce for me.