I know I haven't posted any reviews for a while. There have actually been a handful of albums I've wanted to rave about for some time but just haven't really had the time to do so.
I was hoping to do a mid-year report card back when it was actually the middle of the year but, well, it just wasn't meant to be. So here is a bit of a late-year list of music I dig a lot.
1. Microcastles/Weird Era Cont. by Deerhunter.
I'd heard the name Deerhunter when they first started blowing up but honestly, in this day and age if you're an indie band and you have an animal in your name you're going to have to accept the fact that there are many of us who will simply overlook you based solely on your name. Well I'm sorry I did. I've only heard a few bits and pieces of the band's critically lauded Cryptograms and I knew that the buzz for Microcastles was pretty strong. It's pretty well-deserved.
While it's pretty obvious where the band gets its inspiration (Velvet Underground, My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth to name a few) it should be noted, though, that by no means are Deerhunter ripping off the masters. Anyone can mimic any other band and the good ones can get away with it. The thing that Deerhunter has going for it is a frighteningly strong sense of songcraft. Microcastle works because of some very densely layered and well constructed songs.
The middle of the album consists of a handful of dreamy, abstract ambient sounding tracks that, depending on your tastes, either drags the album down or allows you to catch your breath. Either way, it keeps listeners on their toes as to what's coming next. Based on what I've heard from Deerhunter (as well as lead singer Bradford Cox's side project Atlas Sound, see below) I get the sense that they are completely of the moment and while that early 90's sound is what they sound like now, it's probably not something that their married to. I think this is an immensely talented band who will continue to thrill us for years to come.
2. Dear Science, - TV on the Radio
I don't know what more to say about TVOTR. I think they're amazing. I love the completely unexpected direction of this album. Although at this point with TV on the Radio I think the unexpected IS the expected and I think that's great. Up until now the band's music had a darkness to it. Yet some of the band's best songs are boosted not by melancholy but by exuberance. Look at the practically shouted vocals of Return to Cookie Mountain's "Wolf Like Me" or shoot, just see them live. They don't just put on rock shows, TVOTR concerts can come awfully close to goin to "chutch" (that's "church" for you yankees.) So the fact that Dear Science, is so much fun to listen to should come as no surprise. I'll admit, the record has yet to overwhelm me like Return... but it's just so vibrant and full of -- and you'll have to excuse the word I'm about to use but -- it's so full of hope.
Speaking of "hope" I realized Saturday night while listening to this on the way home that Dear Science feels more and more to me like a Bruce Springsteen record than anything else. Not that it sounds even remotely like anything the Boss and his E Street hombres have done. I just mean it's a big full BAND album full of big ideas and expressions of love and life. This is TV on the Radio's Born in the USA. It's weird, the impact the Boss has had on the indie music scene recently. Arcade Fire practically made a Springsteen album with Neon Bible, the Hold Steady has that bar band thing going for them. Jesse Malin, Ted Leo even the National regularly work Springsteen covers into their sets. But I digress...
3. You & Me - The Walkmen
I don't want to say too much about this album but if you're a Walkmen fan then this is the album you've been waiting for the band to release from the get go. This is the one that perfectly balances the hungover daze of the first album with the mean drunk vigor of the second. I use drinking analgies because that's the best way to describe the Walkmen. Their best songs remind you of or are flat out about the days of being young, broke, drunk and in lust. They make the music of your late twenties. If you're not thirty yet the Walkmen will remind you that it's right around the corner and if you've already passed that threshold then the Walkmen won't let you forget the past (or the present.)
The band is as tight here as they've ever been. Every musical decision is the exact right one, there's not a false note to be found anywhere. Nothing's overdone and nothing too understated. Nuance is the word to remember. This is an album where the little things stick out just as much if not more as the big ones.
Going back to the drinking analogy, where previous Walkmen albums were one-night stands or maybe even a f*ckbuddy, You & Me is the one you take home to meet the folks.
4. Third - Portishead
I already wrote about this and as you can see, I clearly don't stand by my initial response. Nevertheless it is November and I still find myself in awe of this album. The fact that it exists is kind of remarkable. I listen to it now and I'm still struck by its jagged edges, it's coarseness. Yes, it is a very hard to swallow Portishead album but it's still rewarding. I don't know, I wouldn't listen to it if it sounded like Dummy, I'd just listen to Dummy. If you want to hear Portishead as they sound now then this is it, take it or leave it. I just think in this case you have to take into account how much time has past since their second album. Barrow, Gibbons and Utley are all signifcantly older now and the same things don't interest them that interested them at the beginning. It's perfectly logical that with such a long layoff that there's no possible way Phead could come back with Dummy II. THAT would've been an even bigger let down.
5. New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) - Erykah Badu
I don't know if Erykah Badu will ever get the credit she deserves in this day and age. That may be a good thing because she's commercially viable enough to command the kind of creative freedom so few have. There are three names I think of when I consider the music of Ms. Badu: OutKast, Nina Simone and Bob Dylan. That's it. She's got the sensuality and attitude of Nina Simone, the otherworldy future-funk of OutKast and the restlessness and seemingly complete aversion to being put into any one box that has defined Dylan's career. In fact, that last statement can be applied to the others as well.
There's no better descriptor for Erykah Badu than her own: "analog girl in a digital world." She's 8 track in the era of the iPod. She's both old school and new school and that's exactly how she wants it.
The Best of the Rest (so far): In No Particular Order of Preference
Ghosts I-IV - Nine Ince Nails
Belly - Food for Animals
Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel - Atlas Sound
Feed the Animals - Girl Talk
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Nouns - No Age
Shallow Grave - Tallest Man on Earth (he's Swedish by the way)
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Tha Carter III - Lil Wayne (okay fine, I get it now)
The Dreamers - John Zorn
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
untitled - Nas
Fate - Dr. Dog
Rising Down - The Roots
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Mixtape About Nothing - Wale
