i disagree with a lot of your opinions/scores but your reviews are definitely better written than mine.

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

I never liked Gorillaz. The idea was neat, and I love Jamie Hewlett's character designs. I was just never big on the kind of ugly pop/rock/hip-hop hybrid that Albarn & co. created. So I stopped paying attention after that first album and sort of considered them an annoying novelty after that. But after reading that this new album was both more pure pop and a big improvement over their past efforts, I decided to give them another shot. I have to say, I was won over almost immediately. First and foremost, the production is excellent. It's bright, crisp, and punchy and filled with hooks, and somehow it managed to tie together all the diverse musical elements and a bizarre string of guest-stars seamlessly.

Somehow even Snoop Dogg's goofy opening (technically second after an instrumental intro) rap track works perfectly. There's no Del this time around so instead a mess of guest rappers fill in the MC void. I'm no hip-hop aficionado so I'm not overly critical of their lyrics or rhyming abilities. All that really matters to me is how neatly they all fit into this big pop collage. The best vocals are probably always by Albarn himself, though, even when he's speaking more than singing, as he does on "Rhinestone Eyes". He seems the most natural and at home in this musical environment, and I guess it's little wonder since he was central in creating it all. The album hits a great streak starting with that track, continuing through "Stylo", "Superfast Jellyfish", and "Empire Ants". "Superfast Jellyfish" features De La Soul on the verses and Gruff Rhys (of Super Furry Animals) and Albarn on the sung chorus. It's one of the most catchy and fun tracks on an album full of catchy, fun songs. "Empire Ants" is one of a handful of songs in a more melancholy vein, and its melody and synth breakdown starting a little after the two-minute mark are just excellent. After that is "Glitter Freeze", the track where Mark E. Smith guests (and fits in just fine), which is also fairly strong. The worst track follows immediately after that - Lou Reed's guest spot, unfortunately. Although he sounds kind of hapless and just really old, it's not really his fault that the track doesn't quite succeed. It just happens to have one of the least inspired melodies on the album. It picks right back up with "On Melancholy Hill" and "Broken", though, both with Albarn handling the vocals himself, the latter being more downcast and low-key but equally solid. "Sweepstakes" is probably the weakest hip-hop track here, sounding like more like the dark, muddled indie hip-hop of ten years ago than the bright, ebullient pop on the front half of this album. It continues to drag a little on the title track, but it picks back up somewhat on "To Binge". Then comes the weird Bobby Womack guest spot, "Cloud of Unknowing", which I really wouldn't call bad, but his voice definitely seems more out of place here than anyone else. Finally closer "Pirate Jet" brings things back up to par, capping off the concept that unites the album, I suppose (although I couldn't tell you what that is, exactly). Overall a far better album than I expected to be and probably one of the strongest of Damian Albarn's career, Blur included.

Rating: 8/10

apparently the album is about pollution and consumption, etc. i don't really hear it that much, but i get little fragments of it. i don't give a fuck though and that's my line of work, literally.

i didn't really like this album. the good tracks are really good (rhinestone eyes, meloncholy hill, superfast) but the bad tracks are just bad. I didn't like the Snoop song nor most of the hip hop songs. I think they should almost solely be Albarn from now on. The little dragon spots are nice too.

I liked the Lou Reed song, but not Mark E Smith. Anyway, I got rid of this album.

Yeah, I mean I get that, I just don't know exactly where it's going with any of it. And like you I don't really care.

Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh

I listen to very little hip-hop, but prior to this year I don't think I listened to any current R&B at all. I mean there was Amy Winehouse and all that other retro-soul stuff, but I've pretty much completely ignored all the really modern stuff. I picked up The-Dream's Love vs. Money early this year, though, and I think my attitude towards it is starting to change. I don't know if I'm really into it in a big way, but I'm definitely interested in hearing more of the more forward-looking and individualistic takes on R&B out there, like The-Dream, Janelle Monáe, and Eryka Badu. They don't take the approach that R&B/Soul has to utilize the exact aesthetic of classic '60s and '70s soul in order to really be soulful and expressive. Anyway, I got Erykah Badu's New Ameryka Part One not long after I started listening to The-Dream, and I really liked it. It's all over the place, and is really pretty adventurous and not so radio-friendly for a mainstream soul artist. This album is a solid follow-up to that, a little less uneven and generally more coherent-feeling.

"Window Seat" is probably the best song on this album and one of the best songs of this year, I think. "Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY)" isn't far behind. "Gone Baby, Don't Be Long" and "Umm Hmm" are both great songs as well, but after that the album kind descends into super-chill territory, mostly lacking the hooks of the first half. It's a pretty smooth ride, much more so than Part One, but in a way I miss the wilder eclecticism of that album even if some it could become grating after a while ("The Cell" in particular). The second half of Part Two is still good, but I find that it kind of washes over me with little that grabs my attention other than the semi-skit "You Loving Me". It's great, though, to discover another area of music where certain people are taking chances and doing things to push it in new directions, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the next chapter in the New Amerykah saga.

Rating: 7.5/10

have you listened to faust's "faust is last"?

No, should I? I don't think I've listened to anything Faust has done since IV, unless I listened to that collaboration with Dalek. I can't remember.

yeah i don't know, i'm pretty much in that position too. halfway through two discs right now, and it's pretty good.

now i almost want to listen to that gorillaz album.

almost!!

Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot... The Son of Chico Dusty

I've kind of sworn off hip-hop multiple times, deciding I should just focus more on areas of music that will yield a higher ratio of stuff that I really enjoy. It's not like there aren't any hip-hop albums that I would count among my favorites, though, even recent ones. Outkast, Clipse, Mike Ladd, Busdriver, and a handful of others have made some music in the past decade that does mean a lot to me. It's just that the hip-hop artists/albums that I can really get into seem to be so few and far between that I've mostly given up checking out the latest new thing or even some of widely hailed classics that I missed the first time around. Lately I've even become something of a regionalist; it seems like the only new hip-hop or R&B that I really like originates from the South. Anyway, if anything is going to persuade me to lift my personal embargo on new hip-hop, it's going to be a solo album from Big Boi, basically the long overdue return of (one half of) Outkast.

This album comes with its fair share of critical accolades, and it deserves them. It's fun and accessible, and - I'm sure if I like it - broadly appealing. It kicks off with two great songs - "Daddy Fat Sax" and "Turns Me On" - both arguably as good or better than anything on Speakerboxxx. Big Boi is pretty much always great on all of the verses, but I really dislike the chorus/production of "Follow Us". "Shutterbug" is great, but "General Patton" kind of feels like filler. "Tangerine" has an awesome spooky/swampy vibe and a great hook, and then "You Ain't No DJ" is even better, a dark and aggressive diss track with some of my favorite production on the album. None of the guest rappers are up to Big Boi's level (and who is, really?), but Yelawolf does alright on this one, even if I wish there was a little less of him and a little more Big Boi. There are a few too many skits on this album (even though there are only a few), and while the David Blaine one is brief enough and always kind of amusing, the one that comes between "DJ" and "Hustle Blood" is way too long and gets pretty irritating. "Hustle Blood" is really good, though, and I'm typically not into the slower/more sentimental tracks on rap albums. The track with Janelle Monáe ("Be Still") is also pretty good, but it feels a little out of place as probably the lightest/softest track on the album. After that are a couple of dull tracks, "Fo Yo Sorrows" & "Night Night", neither of which are really bad, but they kind of feel familiar and repetitive, sort of like old Outkast leftovers. "Shine Blockas" gets things back on track, with brighter, more refreshing pop production and a really solid hook/chorus. The next track, "The Train Pt. 2", is back to filler territory, but "Back Up Plan" brings things back up to par for a strong closing track. In all, it's a welcome return and an album that I'm really happy to have, but like a lot of rap albums it's overly long and could stand to have several tracks and some skits trimmed. This could have been a nearly perfect 40-minute album. Anyway, it's no Aquemini (or ATLiens or Stankonia), but I'll take it.

Rating: 8/10

Fo yo Sorrows is one of my favorite tracks. But cool that you're doing r&b/hip hop

Well, no more of either genre for a while. Gonna do a semi-jazz album next, then a long break, and eventually Sun Kil Moon.

Build an Ark - Love Part 2

So this is the promised second part of the Love album set by Build an Ark, the first of which was released at the very beginning of this year. It doesn't really sound like a continuation of that record though, unfortunately. Instead this sounds like all the spacier, jammier, not-quite-finished stuff that the band recorded during the sessions for Part 1. That may not actually be the case at all, but if it were, I wouldn't be surprised.

So you're listening to this album for the first time, you might begin to wonder after a few tracks when this thing is finally going to pick up. And for the first five tracks it never really does. Now it could just be unfortunate that this is labeled as the second part to a much livelier and more accessible album, and that makes it tougher to appreciate on its own terms. If Love Part 1 hadn't shaped my expectations for this one then maybe I'd be more open to it and appreciative of it. I certainly like my fair share of ethereal, pretty, sort of ambling and amorphous music, especially when it's made up of a fairly rich variety of tones and timbres created by a variety of different instruments. It doesn't get much more "organic" than this. At best I'd say it reminds me of something like Jackie-O Motherfucker, albeit much more polished, but JOMF pretty much always manages to at least build some kind of tension and have some degree of dynamic range. I guess there's a little bit of tension and mystique on "Improvisation Day 8" and the near drum solo of "Cadence of the Love Messengers". And eight tracks into this thing we finally get an actual song, "What the World Needs Now Is Love", which also does have some urgency and intensity to it, but then it doesn't really have any of that warmth or sheer beauty that made the songs on Part 1 so gratifying. Then it's back to more aimless drifting on two more "Improvisation Day" tracks ("10" and "2"), but of those "2" does come fairly close to recapturing that magnetic, joyful warmth of Love Part 1. The album closes on another actual song (and by this I mean there is singing, but I don't really consider that a prerequisite for qualifying as a song), but it's an airy, ambling number that doesn't really convey the blues implied by its title ("Tryin' Times). It's just kind of light and easygoing like the album as a whole. I probably shouldn't come across so negatively, though, as I suppose there's really nothing wrong with any of this. It's pleasant, it's pretty, and if anything it really only suffers from not meeting my expectations, although I suspect those expectations were shared by many others who heard Love Part 1.

Rating: 6.5/10

whoa i don't even know that band. gotta link handy?

Not just now, but I can upload Love Part 1 sometime. If not over the weekend then definitely on Monday.

Posted it in the "Under the Obner radar" thread.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46561&p=870030#p870030

I'm going to try to finish this, but it's going to take a long time. This is the last year I'll do it for, though. No 2011.

Sun Kil Moon coming up in a bit. I may try to keep the rest of these really short, but I want to add a little back story for this one.

Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises

Prior to early last year I had never really listened to Mark Kozelek. I'd heard him and had friends who were really into him when I was in college, but what I'd heard never interested me. I can remember a friend playing some Red House Painters for me and just being really bored by it. Too slow, not tuneful enough, I guess. I refused to go see him with one of my friends one time. Anyway, due to reading a lot of anticipation for this release and general praise for this guy's body of work, I decided to finally give him a fair chance. So I started from the very beginning (I think) with Down Colorful Hill, the first Red House Painters album. At first, I didn't think too much of it. The dated production and very '90s-sounding gloomy chord progressions didn't do a lot for me. But after a while the songs started to dig their way in, drawn out and almost forcibly downcast as they were, and that once unimpressive little album started to turn into a major addiction. Suddenly I found myself looking at two decades of work by a songwriter that I had previously written off completely, and I was really eager to dive in. Rather than just go chronologically, though, I thought it would be a little more enjoyable to go from the outside in, both forwards and backwards, working my way up from the earliest Red House Painters albums and down from his newest Sun Kil Moon releases pretty much simultaneously. And so this album, his latest, is one of the first things of his that I ever listened to.

So far the only other Sun Kil Moon album I can compare this to is April, and unlike a lot of his longtime fans, I actually like this better. April is a pleasantly arranged, easy listen, especially compared to some of his more harrowing early RHP stuff, and I can certainly see why a lot of people prefer it. But I love how Admiral Fell Promises is spare but not stark, melancholy but not cold. It has all the warmth and beauty of April, but I find it to be more focused, more consistent and enveloping in its mood and atmosphere. Rather than seeming less complete or less deep - as some people have suggested, possibly because it's Mark mostly unaccompanied on finger-picked nylon string guitar - I find it to have greater depth and to have a more definitive sound. To me this is what Kozelek should sound like.

"Ålesund" is an incredible opener, and it lets you know just what you're in for. It begins with just Mark and his guitar (and remains that way aside from a few subtle background flourishes), but his playing is full and rich, his fluttery finger-picking style a real feast for the ears. This album transports me to a place that I don't want to leave - whenever I'm willing to go there which, I'll admit, isn't always - much like the best and most somber work by Neil Young, Jason Molina, and Will Oldham. In fact, "Half Moon Bay" reminds me a little bit of the kind of stuff Molina has put out under his own name, albeit played and sung more smoothly, or, frankly, a little better. The album drifts on from there pretty uniformly in mood, aesthetic, and quality. Another highlight, in addition to the opener, is "The Leaning Tree" which progresses through three distinct passages, the first probably the warmest and prettiest on the whole record, the second chilly and ominous, and the ending a sort of reconciliation between the two. Then on "Bay of Skulls", after just over an hour, the album ends much like it started, just Kozelek's guitar, intricate, plaintive, and arrestingly beautiful.

It's a fine record, truly the work of an accomplished artist and as whole and satisfying a work as I've yet heard from him. Of course, I've still got more of his catalog to work my way through, and I'm planning to extend the enjoyment of that venture as long as possible. I could certainly stand to spend a lot more time with just this record.

Rating: 8.5/10

Here's Kozelek playing "Third and Seneca" from this album at some Norwegian festival:


And here's him playing the title track plus an older song, "Like the River", at some Polish thing:

Snore Kil Moon

Julian Lynch - Mare

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with making low-key, unassuming music. It can be boring, naturally, and it can be frustrating to try to write about. But I don't think most music is or should be made to be written about so I suppose I can't hold any of that against it. It helps that this album is very warm and pretty and pleasant, and it floats along comfortably and comfortingly without ever being tiring or a nuisance. It's plenty tuneful and nicely textured, although calling it "interesting" or "engrossing" would certainly be a stretch. It adds a nice relaxing atmosphere to whatever I happen to be doing when I listen to it.

It's a little bit fuzzy and "lo-fi", and coupled with its languid pace that may make it feel a little bit half-assed and lazy. But there's a fair amount going on here, a lot of fairly complex elements blended together into a smooth, hazy concoction. Maybe a little too smooth. Even moments of feedback and noise never manage to be jarring or particularly abrasive. I like it when I'm listening to it, but I find it hard to remember any of it after it's over.

Rating: 7/10

The Books - The Way Out

The Books are back. Maybe they weren't really gone that long, but it's been a long time since I was really interested in what they were doing. The Lemon of Pink was the last thing of theirs that I really spent time with. It's a really good record, and I really enjoyed it but not in the way that I did Thought for Food, their debut. That one really bowled me over. The conversational use of vocal samples in particular seemed like a revelation to me. Repetitive, fragmented vocal samples that have been a staple of hip-hop and electronic music for the past twenty years (at least) have always been a pet peeve of mine, ranging from a mild annoyance to an absolute deal breaker in some cases. (I really hate hearing snippets from songs I know cut up and repeated over and over, for instance.) Going at least as far back as DJ Shadow, electronic musicians have played with stretching vocal samples out more, letting them tell stories, and combining and twisting them in ways that acknowledges more than just their sound or some brief, catchy phrase, but their potential in painting a bigger, brand new picture. Granted, sound collage artists going back way farther than that have probably been doing similar things, but in the current popular music context, it's somewhat new. And you could probably point to "Revolution 9" and similar such oddities, but that also would be a different context from modern electronic music. Anyway, The Books have made this treatment of vocal samples their modus operandi, and to a large extent it's what their music lives and dies by.

So I suppose the novelty wearing off is partly to blame in my general loss of interest. Musically, one could argue that they've improved although it's hard to say. It's still an earthy collage of samples, clipped beats and live instrumentation centered around guitar and cello and the duo's own vocals. The production is a little smoother, probably higher fidelity, and maybe the music is just a little more sophisticated and nuanced. It's a nice, rich headphone album, mostly good for a relaxing afternoon, but it has a couple of mildly tense moments. "A Cold Freezin' Night" and "I Am Who I Am" are probably the most anxious and uneasy The Books have ever sounded. Overall it's a worthy addition and an accomplished record and not merely just a repetition of past works. It just isn't very exciting.

Rating: 7/10

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

I was never blown away by this album, but it's been consistently enjoyable since I bought it back in July. Maybe I'm taking it a little bit for granted that it never gets old. Could be that there's so much going here that it all just sort of blends together, but whenever I focus in on any one part of it, I'm always fascinated by all of the little details. It occupies a weird sort of seemingly contradictory space of somehow being both relaxing and frantic at the same time. As background music, it's kind of soothing, but as active listening, it's fairly intense. And it can really work either way.

That describes my reaction to this music, I suppose, but I have a pretty hard time describing the music itself. That might be largely because I've ignored a lot of the "important" electronic music of most of the past decade, and this does seem to originate in large part from a lot of those prevailing trends, like dubstep, etc. But to my ears a lot of it hearkens back farther than that to certain strains of IDM and drum 'n bass and the more interesting and creative stuff from Warp Records' and Ninja Tunes' heyday. Luke Vibert (Wagon Christ, Plug), Amon Tobin's earlier stuff, Funki Porcini, Nightmares on Wax, and stuff like that. Of course, to me, this definitely does feel like a step forward, a unique and original statement, or at least as much of one as anyone seems making in electronic music these days. (Maybe that seems like a contradictory statement to my earlier claim that I've been "ignoring" a lot of it, but I have been paying more attention lately.) Flying Lotus, along with Pantha du Prince, is helping to give me hope for the future of electronic music.

Rating: 8/10

This is why I like this album. I feel like for the first time The Books managed to make me uncomfortable. It's not always pretty and soothing or sound art for the sake of making it. It's strange to me that they managed to introduce some new tension on this record without really changing what they have always done really. As you said, accomplished album for sure, but this album convinced me The Books are also legitimate accomplished composers and not just some loop junkies with field recorders and pawn shop strings.



Very much agree with this statement.

as much as i enjoy both, i'd have to think that you're not exposed to much electronic music i take it then?