I haven't listened to High Violet but I still don't understand why people love The National.

And yeah, this dude's no Leonard Cohen.

he's obviously not leonard cohen and neither is bill callahan.

I'd choose the latter over the former.

well if i was writing bill calahan reviews i might have likened him to cohen as well. who gives a fuck

Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts

I don't know why it took me so long to actually listen to this record. I'm usually on top of my game when it comes to hyped up new bands who release acclaimed releases across the field like "Nothing Hurts", but for some reason I threw this band into a category that I didn't even know I was biased against - the brand of indie noise rock people who are more annoying than actually fun. Yet I've been digging on this lo-fi scene for a few years now and somehow, someway this release slipped by me, and I feel like it's probably one of the best releases in this new lo-fi punk revival yet.

Male Bonding aren't anything new and you shouldn't go into listening to them expecting something new, but the way they execute these old influences is really...fresh. The songs are mostly fast, frenetic punk songs, but the vocals are distant, like recorded 20 feet away from the band in some echo-laden room. Not only that, but the songs are catchy. This is more Vivian Girls and Teenage Fanclub than Times New Viking. I'm hesitant to consider it part of the lo-fi movement at all, because some songs just sound like great punk songs with the feedback and fuzz kicked up just the right amount. This is the type of record I've been jonesing for in the indie rock/punk world. It's got pop, punk, and enough "artiness" to make it feel a bit unique.

It's 29 minutes, you won't get bored listening to it, it's just a blast. It's not my favorite thing this year, and I still might prefer a record like Superchunk's new one to this - but it's worth having, it's worth playing in the sun, worth playing with your buddies and worth supporting these guys. This won't go down as some legendary record, it will probably be forgotten about by 2011, and you're probably not going to connect on a deep level with any of these songs, not the way you did with the indie movement of the 80s.

But we need records like this. Records that just want to rock out, want to be quick, fun and combine a lot of successful rock n roll formulas into one big cohesive whole. This is the type of record that makes listening to music fun again, allows me to stop looking for the next big thing and just enjoy the sound of guitars thrashing against one another.

In Summary: Was not expecting to like this, but really enjoy it. Totally fun record.

I'm just saying.

And that Male Bonding review is spot on.

i didn't listen to that record until today (and i listened to it like 6 times because it was a blast)

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

I guess since his breakthrough, I've always appreciated James Murphy more than I've actually enjoyed him. Back when the DFA compilations were coming out, I thought it was cool that the internet was in a frenzy over dance music, but I didn't really understand the significance. When "Losing My Edge" and "Yeah" popped out and were endlessly remixed, with their tongue in cheek lyrics and new take for what we should dance to (really a throwback), that was pretty neat. LCD Soundsystem's debut was good, but I've maybe listened to it 10 times in 5 years. "Sound of Silver" alternated between the best thing ever and some stuff that I didn't really like. "All My Friends" and "Someone Great" were like the most exciting thing to happen to pop music in quite a while, "North American Scum" was a lot of fun (if not annoying), but I was really figuring out the the whole brand of dance music Murphy was creating just wasn't for me.

Now, on "This is Happening" it's actually reached a point where a lot of it is starting to annoy me. Not all of it, and I wouldn't go through here and state that anything on this record is "bad" - but as a whole, I'm just tired of the sound. Once again, his influences are everywhere to be found: Berlin-era Bowie/Eno/Iggy, David Byrne, lyrics that bring to mind those self-aware British folks of the 80s. You take anyone who was deemed "hip" but is ultimately a weirdo/nerd/regular dude, and that's James Murphy. It's a sound I like or rather - the original sounds I liked, and Murphy brings some new things to the table, but unlike his previous two records, this one plays more like a tribute to his influences than something truly unique.

Let me start off with the good:
"All I Want", "I Can Change" and "Home" are all a bit more based in Murphy's pop aesthetic than pure dance, post-punk groove and that's why they succeed. I like LCD songs that have a few less words, have actual singing and have a pace that's mid-tempo rather than a crazy dance party. You can dance to these, but they're actually a joy to listen to. I don't want to think about the cleverness of the lyrics when I'm dancing or bobbing my head, I just want to enjoy the music. And while none of these three tracks reach the greatness of the best things on "Sound Of Silver", they're all pretty good.

The decent:
I enjoy the way "Dance Yrself Clean" suddenly busts open at the 4 minute mark - but I don't think the song needs to be 9 minutes long and apart from the music and the thick synth that makes it so intriguing, the rest of the track sort of just bugs me. "You Wanted a Hit" is the track found on all albums where Murphy sings about being a musician, his first-world problems of not quite reaching the levels he wants, etc. It's fun, it's clever and it has some good lines, but it sometimes reaches the point that some of his self-aware songs do where it's almost uncomfortable.

The Bad:
"Drunk Girls" and "One Touch" really aggravate me. Maybe I'm allergic to this type of fun or dance music or something, but it's just annoying. He's done similar things before that I've enjoyed a little bit, but I can hardly stand these songs. They sound like they were just made to soundtrack some quick-cut montage for the next big indie-comedy. And "Pow Pow" well. Same shit, another name.

Listen, I understand people who like this album, who love LCD Soundsystem, but this album is a big disappointment for me. I was hoping he would forego the dance stuff for more outwardly, experimental pop music. Take the Eno path a bit more. The dude no doubt has skills and knows and loves music, so he's always going to be worth keeping an eye on, but I just want something else and not this.

In Summary: It's fun, sure, but it's also annoying. I'll keep it around for now, but I am really considering getting rid of this album.

one touch is my favorite song on the album.

but yeah, pow pow is awful.

i want to punch pow pow in the face

Janelle Monaé - The ArchAndroid

When I stumbled upon Janelle Monae's debut EP in 2007, amidst failed marketing attempts, I fell in love right away. A high-concept, futuristic r&b album from a person with a fabulous voice? Check one, two - it's on. The EP was a godsend and has since been one of my most listened to releases in the last few years. I love it, my girlfriend loves it, seeing her live cements her as an artist and it's a good thing to throw on for guests. But I waited (im)patiently for her to finally release the 2nd and 3rd suites from this "android" concept , and when "The ArchAndroid" was finally released this year, I couldn't help but be a little let down initially. Let me explain:

Now first of all - I still love Janelle Monae and am so stoked that she is getting quite a bit of press and television appearances and performing to sold out crowds and big venues now. The girl is a star, was likely born a star and it has taken entirely too long for her to finally reach "star" status. I still rarely hear her on the radio (her songs are still high concept quite often), but she should be in constant rotation. If Lady Gaga is the biggest pop star in the world, Janelle Monae should be the biggest r&b singer in America. But even with this prevailing feeling, I still wasn't in love with this album initially, and am not in love with it as much as I feel I should be right now. I feel like this should be my favorite album of the year, instead I merely like it a lot.

Now I've basically lost the narrative of the plot through these two suites, whereas I could understand what the first one was back in 2007. That's ok, the songs still stand up on their own: but the strong narrative voice and crazy as fuck story was one thing that made that initial EP so strong, I'd never heard of anything like that in R&B. Suite 2 on "The ArchAndroid" are the pop songs through and through. This sounds most like the EP we had before. Rapid-fire percussion, background vocals, fast delivery, rock-style crescendos. These are the songs where Monae is going James Brown on the dance floor. When she delivers, she really fucking delivers the best songs out there. And Suite 2 has a bunch of these songs. I'm guessing it's about the Android being forced by society to do certain things, trying to escape, stating it's love for a human again, fighting for herself and everything. It's a blast and if you've somehow managed to escape "Tightrope" this year, you're a magician. Great song, great single. And "Oh, Maker" and "Mushrooms & Roses" are like the best Beatles influenced things I've heard in years.

Suite 3 slows things down considerably. Monae is more than a capable ballad singer, but with fewer songs in this suite, while each one a little longer in length, this is where I can start to get a bit disinterested. "Neon Valley Street" is a great song, reminds me of early 2000's r&b that I really loved and shows Monae's likeness Lauryn Hill's good stuff. The song with Of Montreal is bouncy, but at this point I can't fucking stand Kevin Barnes and want to skip it. "Wondaland" is another track I don't really care for. The voiceover sort of annoys me, just because it's not what I expect from Monae. It reminds me of Annie or Kylie Minogue whom I both love, but this isn't really territory Monae needs to explore. The album closes with 3 long, forelorn songs that are the slowest of the album, and while all are decent for what they are, they just make me lose interest by the end, which is not how a truly ambitious album should end. They'd probably feel out of place somewhere else in the album, but all tacked on at the end, regardless of story - it just makes the album drag, the exciting, frenetic pace is gone.

I still love Janelle Monae and I still think that she is probably the most interesting pop star right now. I wish her all the success in the future and will follow her career intently, but "The ArchAndroid" is only mostly brilliant. Some things are a bit annoying and some things just don't measure up to that incredibly strong front end. The story, the blending of genres and the different tempos are three things that make Monae so unique and fun to listen to: but at an hour (and 18 tracks), it gets exhausting by the end.

In Summary: Still love this woman, but the album has places where it just doesn't work. It's a bit much at times. It's not going to be my album of the year, but I'll still listen to it a lot now and in the future.

Tame Impala - Innerspeaker

I've been repping Dungen and other modern psych-rock bands as long as I've been into indie rock. I love guitar solos, hazy lyrics, changes in pace, music that sounds like it's on drugs, even if the listener isn't. Many of my very favorite rock albums of the past decade are these types of albums, they might be louder or they might be folkier, but I just love psychedelia done right.

Tame Impala do it right and have been getting press and praise from all corners of the globe as one of the most exciting new acts in the underground rock world, which they are. I just can't really get into this album. It's another case where I can't really explain what isn't clicking and it's probably useless to attempt to quantify my discrepancy, but I'll try.

I think it primarily has to with the fact that the album sounds very much the same to me. I don't know if I haven't delved into it enough to enjoy it the way that some fanatics do, but I've listened to it about a dozen times by now and most of the songs sort of blend in together for me. Now, it's a sound I like - I love it when Dungen is doing it - but it would be awesome to add something really heavy here or something totally stripped down there. Maybe change the effect on the vocals once in a while, give me a cleaner riff, some sort of jazz leaning. I don't know. But I listen to a track like "Lucidity" and it's a fun track, but the groove just sounds tired by the time I get to it - and it's only the 4th track! It's another one of these albums where if I were to take any of these songs and put them on a mix or just listen to them on shuffle, they'd probably be pretty good (though only a couple great), but as a whole 56-minute album, it starts to sound a lot like a 56-minute long song.

And this is a weird thing for me to complain about because I listen to and love entire genre's where every album contains songs that are basically the same thing rehashed 12 times in an hour (metal, noise, ambient, lots of indie rock), but this one just doesn't work as well. Upon listening right now, it might be the drums. Why not? Let's blame the drummer.

"Solitude Is Bliss" is still a great track though.

In Summary: Definition of lukewarm. It's not an album I'm going to get rid of anytime soon, but it's not one that I'll be yearning to listen to anytime soon either. It's there, it's better than most indie rock, but the band seems like they have the potential to be way better.

I'm gonna hold off on reviewing Robyn until all 3 are released which is in a couple weeks. I think they're compiling them (or at least the first two and then a 3rd part is packaged with it or something). Anyway, I hate a couple tracks on each of those short albums and I plan on basing that review around repackaging the tracks in a way that I like better.

Still really liking that stinson. I haven't seen anything else you've reviewed that i'm remotely interested in but I keep reading because I really like that Stinson which I think is the point of the thread. Really what I'm trying to say is carry on. We need more threads like this even if there isn't much I feel like commenting on.

yeah i think you probably haven't found much else of interest because i've been doing the pitchfork approved best new music lately. almost done (happy about that though) and then i'll move into other things.

and thanks!

Wild Nothing - Gemini

With The Radio Dept. expanding their sound and aesthetic this year into slightly new territories, there was room for another act to jump into the foggy pop revival that's been going on for the better part of the past decade. Bands that take some of the best acts from the 80s and 90s and basically combine those sounds into something that is familiar and retro in feeling, failing to bring a whole lot of new to music, but still producing pop music that is absurdly enjoyable.

Wild Nothing's debut sounds like early Radio Dept., sounds like Cocteau Twins at times, features some of the same programmed drums as Jesus & Mary Chain and has enough stutters and distant vocals to even be lumped in with some of these new "chillwave" bands. Take a pop band with a bit a pretty, rainy day sound and you can find that influence in "Gemini".

This is an album that anyone with a passing interest in 4AD or Slumberland or Sarah Records is going to find enjoyable. There is really nothing here to dislike or find annoying if you have any sort of attachment to the indie-pop of yesteryear. But that's also why the album isn't amazing. It's something I'll have around for a long while, something I'll pull out every now and then when the weather starts to get cold, but I'm never going to consider it a masterpiece, because it's nothing truly special. Maybe it'll grow on me, but for now it's just indie-pop revival done well. Chiming guitars, drum patterns you know, pretty vocals and harmonies, enough keyboard driven songs. Get this record and have fun with it.

In Summary: Totally fun, charming record but not ground-breaking. Something to have on hand and will sound good almost all the time, but you're probably not going to fall in love with it.

To me that album is just completely unnecessary. It's fine, I guess, but I feel like I've heard and own so many things like it that I really don't see why I would ever listen to it over any of those other things.

yea but as far as the stuff that's come out in recent years, i think it's among the best.

Yeah maybe I was never really into that sort of thing in the first place.

The summary of your last review and the three posts that succeed it some up a lot of recent music for me.

I saw James Blackshaw here the other night. It was a good set, but I found his playing - although impressive, obviously – to come off a little clinical. There were redundant moments even for a short performance.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti - Before Today

When Ariel Pink was the first musician to release something on Paw Tracks 5 or 6 years ago, it was really exciting to me. I felt like I was the only one listening to Animal Collective at the time (obviously not true) and my obsession with them was in full swing, so I was sure that if someone else was releasing music on their label, it had to be amazing.

Problem was that it wasn't amazing. To this day I still know people who praise those early collections as pure genius and some of their favorite music of the past decade. Even with Ariel Pink being one of the most influential musicians to seemingly countless indie genres over the past 5 years and being cited all over the place, even with the mystery of who this dude is and what he's all about, about who is playing with him and where his influences lie, I just couldn't get into the music at all. There's been plenty of Ariel Pink collections and singles and albums from related musicians, but I've never enjoyed anything. I can see some ideas here and there, but most of it just sounded like pointless, ultra lo-fi noodling from a grimey bedroom.

But on "Before Today" - the band has become solidified, the budget has increased, the sounds have cleaned up a bit the pop elements have been turned up. This is the first album that is just that - recorded to be an album, rather than just a compilation of songs recorded here and there, and it shows. The whole thing is cohesive in it's otherworldy, odd sounds - even those tracks that existed a decade ago. With everything being cleaned up, being a little louder, with the harmonies being that much prettier, "Before Today" is a true testament to pop music and something that is truly unique in it's sound.

I want to sit down with this dude and this album and have him tell me where all his influences come from for each track. Everything sounds familiar, yet is totally new. It's like corny 70s and 80s pop music filtered through the slacker generation and hip-NY shit but you can't quite put your finger on what songs take from what hits you already know. On "Round & Round" when the vocals repeat "break down, break-break-a-break down" in a muted voice, you JUST KNOW you've heard that before, but who knows where. And then it just busts open and continues to expand. All these songs do that. They all have multiple parts, incredible choruses and just so many things going on, yet not in a proggy way. It's like lo-fi Hall & Oates and then a million other things. Everything sounds like it was easy and I'd love to see the process of making this record, because while everything still sounds pretty cheap, when you REALLY listen to each track, you notice all the different things that are happening. Little things here and there, just creeping on that really make the song work, but you don't notice unless you take the time. Maybe an added backing vocal, maybe the instrumental changes just slightly on one verse, a sound effect, maybe it gets louder. It's insane how all over the place every single track is and how bizarre every single track is and yet how good this is.

I was really reluctant to even give this a try considering my relationship with previous Ariel Pink releases, but I'm glad I've given "Before Today" a try. It's weird, it's definitely going to alienate some people, but the more you listen to it, the more the melodies are gonna be stuck in your head.

He might just be genius after all.

In Summary: Totally surprised to love this record.

This is shtick, right?

So which albums this year are actually necessary and were not influenced by other artists? Lisbon? Teen Dream? Seriously? Those are both fine albums, but no less derivative or less necessary than Gemini. C'mon.

you don't like credit or alisa? i don't think he's ever put out a totally solid album before this but he's had some really great songs on them.



i feel about the same way as drinky. i've probably heard this album 5-6 times and can't remember a single thing from it.

Shut up, fuck you, etc.