Cloudland Canyon - Fin Eaves

When I'm driving, I like to listen to music that I know or at least music that I can get to know quickly. I like songs with memorable hooks and choruses, those one-liners that stick out, nice riffs that I can jam to and tempos that change at a pace that isn't quite exhausting but keeps things interesting.

The funny thing about that is that I've found that "Fin Eaves" works best when I'm driving my car during my daily commute and it is an album without any of those traits. On this release, Kip Ulhorn has kept the guitars in towards the front, but has brought back the electronic pulses and drones of early works, creating music that is at once harsh but still featuring many pop elements.

For the first time, Cloudland Canyon seems to have left their German-influence behind and instead have decided to focus on Jesus & Mary Chain. The music is loud, the vocals are indistinguishable and unless this music is listened to loud, it is hard to find anything to enjoy.

But alas, this is an aural experience - and as I've said, one that I've found works best in the space of my car. I don't have a good sound system in there, not nearly as good as my home, but the effect the music has on me alone in a small space, my head being filled with all the different sounds, underlying pulses, everything. It puts me at once in a trance, but keeps it exciting enough that I want to tap my feet. I forget that I'm stuck in traffic on the way home, but not so lost that I forget I'm driving.

In Summary: It's a solid album, the best under the Cloudland Canyon name. It just needs the right setting in order for the sounds to permeate your skull and capture you.

James Blackshaw - All Is Falling

James Blackshaw missed the point.

In the last couple years, and last few releases, James Blackshaw had begun transitioning from his traditional instrumental folk-guitar music to music that had "more" to it. He was beginning to play piano, was adding electronic ambient flourishes to back his guitar, there was sitar and medieval style instruments. While Jack Rose was appearing to continually get more and more primitive and indebted to Appalachian folk, Blackshaw's path was taking him closer and closer to a new astral plane. And that was ok. His last album, "The Glass Bead Game" might have been his very best, featuring a near-perfect blend of his traditional finger-picking and new sounds.

But suddenly he wants to be a composer, a folk-influenced Phillip Glass if you will. But the music on "All is Falling" never reaches the heights of a classic composer nor Blackshaw's earlier, more focused work.

The music supposed to be minimalist, and they're played well enough while the pieces come in succession. But what has made Blackshaw great has always been his virtuostic performance. By toning it down, and incorporating other stringed instruments: piano, violin, etc., it all comes off as a dour Yann Tiersen performance. And I LIKE Yann Tiersen.

It's just by the books boring. It's like you know what each successive movement is going to sound like before you hear them. It is as predictable as the quiet tracks from a GYBE! release, without the paranoia that makes those decent. By the time the entirely ambient track comes at the end, and fails to bring anything new or interesting to that style of music, the listener should be throwing their hands up in frustration. James Blackshaw has the talent to become one of the most important and revered musicians we have - but in trying to expand his sound so fast, he's lost everything that ever made him interesting.

In Summary: One of my favorite musicians tries too hard and fails. Deleted.

wow, i don't know whether or not to check out james blackshaw now.

It's worth hearing I suppose to make your own judgement, but dude should definitely stick with the earlier Fahey style

I think I've heard all but one of P4K's "best new music" albums this year, so I'm gonna go through that list and review what I still have. I've already deleted these:

Surfer Blood - Astro Coast (given this one a lot of chances and it just didn't win me over, might try again)
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Liars - Sisterworld
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Fang Island - Fang Island
Delorean - Subiza
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
BSS - Forgiveness Rock Record
Sleigh Bells - Treats
ceo - White Magic
Matthew Dear
Das Racist
How To Dress Well

Only one I haven't heard is Julian Lynch I think, so I should review all the rest.

Two of those albums are great, but you know

Yeah and I'm sure Dalen and Shiv will disagree with me on a lot of those as well. I don't like Joanna Newsom anymore. I liked it when she was quirky and funny and fey a lot more on the first album, but I've never been a huge fan.

Anyway OPINIONS!

Yeah. I'm with you on Hot Chip, and I'd probably agree about ceo and Delorean, too, if I'd bothered to listen to them.

Gorillaz is the other one I really like.

I would say the liars album has something, though I only heard it two times or so. maybe I return to that some day. fang island has some great songs, but the production kills it.

I've never been a huge Liars fan, though I really like the sounds on Drums Not Dead and the insanity of some of the earlier releases. Funnily enough, the album that I tend to listen to the most (which is almost never) is the self-titled from a few years back - which seems to be regarded as their worst.

Nah, it's not their worst. The s/t is their second best. The new one is probably their worst. It's not bad, though.

If it makes any difference (it doesn't), the albums I really wanted to like and listened to A LOT in order to try to like them are:

Surfer Blood
Hot Chip
Liars
Gorillaz
BSS
How To Dress Well

I was surprised that I liked that Gorillaz album, honestly. I've never liked them, but it clicked immediately for me.

I think that the good songs on that Gorillaz album (the ones that rely more on Damon Albarn singing) or that at least have a more dreamy feeling are among some of the best songs of the year, but the dancey ones or things like the Snoop intro or whatever are just terrible. I like the De La Soul track though. I might give it another chance, see if I have come around, but I don't know.

I sort of agree with that assessment, actually. Most of the guest spots don't really work that well, and those make up a large portion of the album. I just think that the production/Albarn are good enough to carry it.

The silly stuff like Snoop I just sort of laugh off, I guess.

only ones i haven't heard from this list are gorillaz, bss and das racist.

i couldn't get through that joanna newsom album. liars, surfer blood, how to dress well and delorean were kinda meh.

i need to listen to that matthew dear album again because i might go see him tomorrow night. i should probably hear that ceo album again too.

hot chip, crystal castles, sleigh bells and fang island might make my top 20.

what specifically would you recommend instead?

you mean older james blackshaw?

Vampire Weekend - Contra

I'll never truly understand why Vampire Weekend is as divisive to music listeners as they are. Sure they went they're Ivy league grads, dress like bros who have recently discovered J. Crew and write lyrics that are often so coy, they can be uncomfortable - but I really don't understand how their music is unenjoyable. I mean it. They could be the worst guys in the world - real total assholes with Ryan Adams-esque breakdowns and Joaquin Phoenix hype problems, and their music would still be enjoyable. Even while continually pushing the "Graceland" aping to the max.

"Contra" is a step down from their debut LP and demo before that, but it's still among the best pure pop music being produced right now. The music calls for sunny skies, windows down driving. It remains the nostalgia of youth which made them so fun in the first place, but tries to expand the sound a little bit. Yes, you've heard about the autotune, and it's their and when it hits on that ONE LINE, it's really distracting and not necessary, but it got people talking.

The slow songs don't work nearly as good as the more upbeat ones and some of the strings arrangements that I loved so much from the first album aren't as memorable here, but the songs are still there - they just end up sounding like B-sides more than a true move forward. I don't know where they can go from here, if they can go anywhere or if they are instead going to stick the same formula for the duration of their career. Any more fun and upbeat will just sound bizarre and cheesy, any more experimental and moody will likely result in music that doesn't hit the mark.

Whatever you think of Vampire Weekend - they probably won't have a long career and we likely won't be praising them for artistic genius at any time, but for two albums they have made wonderful pop music and I don't really need anything more.

In Summary: Not as good as the last record, some low moments for sure, but still some pretty fun, upbeat tracks.

Now you have their attention.

I'm just downloading that Quest For Fire album, so cheers for that.

its rad.

yes. i'm enjoying "glass bead game", particularly the piano pieces. it may take me longer to come around to the nuances of his take on the guitar.

Notes:

Broken Social Scene - yeah, just not good anymore, and if I'm being honest with myself, out of their last few projects I only really only liked You Forgot It In People.

Bill Frisell - will have to listen first, but I listen to Frisell as chill-out, mood music, so you're "bland" description doesn't really deter me. The meandering you're hearing might be because this trio was born out of jammy, improvisational live shows and they're trying to capture that on record. That doesn't always work out. Ask every jamband ever.

Cadillac Sky (Nashville represent) - they are good live, and your comparison as 1/2 way btwn Avetts and Nickel Creek is pretty much spot on. The guy who founded the band and wrote and sings half the songs on the album just left the band cuz Christ was calling him back home. This guy Levi who has been opening for Zac Brown Band is now joining the band. Sidenote: David Mayfield of Cadillac Sky is from Akron, OH (home of Black Keys) and brother of Jessica Lea Mayfield.

Quest For Fire - need to listen more. e-stone sent me this a little while back and I've liked the snippets I've had the chance to listen to.

thanks for the response stu and the information on cadillac sky. Like I said, I basically know nothing of the band, but saw that release praised as one of the best albums of the year on an americana/country blog i follow from time to time so I checked it out.

And I listen to Bill Frisell to chill out as well. And I have like 2 dozen Frisell related albums, but yeah the music on this one just doesn't grab me nearly as much as the stuff on his last 3-4 releases has.

ok, round 2 of BNM rated.


Surfer Blood - Astro Coast

There are very few "indie rock" releases that I fall in love with. We can go to the albums that are praised as the classics in the genre, throughout the late 80s and early 90s and only a small handful would be likely to even make it into my top 100 albums of all time. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the Pixies, I enjoy Pavement, I enjoy Built to Spill and I of course join their grandfathers like The Replacements and Dinosaur Jr., but I'm rarely moved to put on a record from these bands and just completely jam out to it as I would with even something like a Jimi Hendrix record (as rare as that is as well). I just missed the boat on the 90s alternative music scene, and while I'm slowly starting to delve into a lot of these great artists, I'm much more likely to continue exploring old bluegrass and funk records.

The much-hyped Surfer Blood's debut, "Astro Coast" was one of the very first 2010 albums I got this year. I didn't know anything about them, but I saw comparisons to people like The Pixies, Weezer and lots of mentions of guitar. Based on description (and album cover), I was sold.

But I've had a very difficult time with this record as the year has gone on. In my downloading fury and quick trigger to delete music that doesn't immediately appeal to me, Surfer Blood has left my hard drive about a half dozen times. It was as though I wanted to like it - but if it didn't completely win me over and leave me enamored, then it just wasn't good. I've felt like this all year. "Ok, yeah the guitar is pretty good, the melodies are fun and there are a enough pop elements for me, but it's just not enough."

And because it is harder for INDIE ROCK to win me over, Surfer Blood was already backed up against a wall.

Well I decided to give it another chance in the last few days and I'm glad I did. It's still not music that I would consider among my favorite of this year or any year, but I am finding joy in it. I'm noticing little subtleties in the music that I didn't notice before, the songs are getting stuck in my head (particularly "Swim"). This record is good, I'll admit that now and for people who are more heavily into the guitar-based stuff than I am, this record SHOULD be one of their favorites of the year.

It's not quite up there for me, but I don't think I'll be deleting it again.

In Summary: This is like driving on an oceanside cliff music when the sun is out, but the weather is cold. Some really interesting bits here. Not my favorite thing in the world, but I am beginning to see why others think so highly of it now.