Before I officially begin this review, I would like to take a moment to note the difficulty inherent in critiquing a work of art that a friend has submitted to me for consideration. I have only previously done this once, in January 2010, here http://flyinghouses.blogspot.com/2010/01/justyn-with-y-swansong.html. This album received a positive review in spite of the fact that I generally do not like to listen to "folk" music. The genre of that album was arguably "folk +" but I found it interesting, and I enjoyed the production: being recorded in a natural setting, the mostly quiet acoustic strumming gave the album a warm feel.
Now I move onto BELT. BELT is the band of a friend of a friend--or I might say is the band of a friend. I went to the singer's birthday party at his house. That was fun. However I do not think we would hang out but for my friend that invited me to that party. Ironically, however, this singer was also part of another band previously referenced on Flying Houses here http://flyinghouses.blogspot.com/2010/07/wolf-parade-expo-86.html. That band was Mercury Landing. Wolf Parade has nothing to do with Mercury Landing but the song "Yulia" seemed to be related to that band for reasons (another side project of that band?) that I cannot recall.
Mercury Landing was a "funk" band. Much like "folk," I do not care much for "funk." However, I would go to shows (when convenient) in order to show my support and also because other friend's bands would generally be on the bill as well.
Thus when I first put BELT onto my iPod and played it, I was expecting "funk" but got something else entirely, which is very hard to pin down.
Some notes from BELT's press materials may illustrate this: they have been an "underground" band in Brooklyn for 10 years. This might give rise to the presumption that they play music like, oh, say, the Dirty Projectors, TV on the Radio, Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Black Dice, !!!, Fiery Furnaces, LCD Soundsystem, and Oneida--either all mish-mashed together into one sound, or like one band specifically.
However, they sound like neither. Associating themselves with Brooklyn is therefore misleading, but one cannot say that just because one happens to be a musician that lives in a city heavily associated with a particular "scene" that has a particular "sound" (but also, to be sure, is quite populous) one has to sound like one's peers (or heroes, as the case may be for "amateurs"). It is not fair to say to someone, "you should move to Omaha because you sound like you belong on Saddle Creek."
BELT doesn't sound like they belong on Saddle Creek, but it does inch more closely to their sound. Perhaps this is all beating around the bush and I should just get to the point--is the album worth hearing?
I do have to say that it makes me more comfortable, as a critic, to be able to pin down a band's sound. But the short answer is yes (if you like the bands I will be comparing them to shortly).
Unfortunately when I try to pin BELT down, the comparisons I draw will probably prove distasteful to everyone. There is one comparison I can make with which few would complain: Wavves. BELT sounds like Wavves to the extent that weed is amongst the primary lyrical subject matter. This is no more apparent than on "Priorities" (the second track) and "Maria Juana" (the third), and particularly the latter, which is arguably the most professional sounding song on the album - though also the most juvenile. Some bands (apart from Wavves) have built entire careers around writing songs about weed (the Grateful Dead and their progeny and Phish come to mind). However I do not think it is easy to make a really great album with this template. BELT does not attempt to do that, but at times flirts with the idea.
It is impossible to avoid mentioning the comparisons which will draw complaints, and it is easiest, unfortunately, to focus on the singer's voice to pin them down: Barenaked Ladies and Blues Traveler.
Now, it is important to put this in context. Few Generation Y'ers will find much to like about these two bands. They were popular when we were young. I distinctly remember "One Week" being popular on MTV (before reality shows became de rigeur) and thinking it was a quirky, fun, creative song at first but made me want to puke by about the fifth time I heard it on the radio. The video added more to the song I guess, though the song itself did demonstrate lyrical skill and melodic savvy.
Blues Traveler is harder for me to remember. I remember John Popper being fat, and apparently he is no longer fat (according to my older brother, who met him a few years ago), and I am sorry to say this but I think his band is only going to be popular if he gets fat again.
Now. My two oldest siblings are Generation X'ers (presently 42 and 39) and both liked Blues Traveler and Barenaked Ladies--and the latter way before anyone else did. This may be going far afield but my point is that Generation X can appreciate those bands, but Generation Y generally has a negative attitude towards them, from what I can tell.
So if I say BELT sounds like those bands it's going to piss everyone off, and they'll say, we don't sound like that, and if I say, "they're a band whose time has already passed," it's going to sound like they've missed their opportunity to explode. But it's the opposite. If there is anytime they are primed to explode it is now.
BELT will play on Friday, October 19th, at 9 PM at Wicked Willy's as part of the CMJ Music Marathon.
Let me take a little tangent and say that I used to manage a band and I know what it is like to "produce" an "amateur" album. I "managed" two records, or 8 songs between two bands. Two EPs, or "demos" or whatever you want to call them. The first one cost a few hundred bucks and seemed like it had a professional sound, recorded at a studio on North 8th St. in Williamsburg. The second was recorded for free at NYU music studios by a friend who later joined the band after I left NYC and could not continue on as manager. The second arguably sounds better than the first.
The point is this: sometimes when you try to sound "professional" you end up sounding more amateur than if you actually recorded it in an amateur fashion (see also, Wavves).
Disquietude was released on April 22, 2011 and is almost 18 months old. It was apparently recorded during a turbulent time and some of the songs on the album are actually a bit dark. One imagines that their sound has changed, particularly since, in the press materials, they state that their new album (which is untitled as of yet so far as I can tell) is "grittier." Disquietude is considered to have a "pristine" sound. Now, my stereo speakers have deteriorated quite a bit, but when I played my bands (Plastic Faces and Phosphates) through my iPod on them, or BELT through my iPod on them, both sounded extremely distorted. This may be because the albums--all 3--are recorded loudly. The volume is just high on the album automatically (unlike, say, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, which is considered one of the loudest records of all time, but which is actually recorded very quietly--you really need to turn the volume up to hear it).
Getting to play a CMJ Showcase is a big deal, and I hope that BELT finds a bigger audience through it.
The album goes through many different emotions, but what remains most memorable about the band is their sense of humor. However there is also a sense of sarcasm and darkness and pessimism about it. It's a disquieting effect (!) and leads me to the conclusion that BELT is a "singles band" and not an "album band." Some of the songs on the album are clearly more "worked-over" than others, and it can show.
Also, this may be a technical problem, but the song "God on the Couch" is silent, at least from the zip file I downloaded. I do not think this is intentional. But if it is I fail to see the point other than to make an "actual" secret song--which the last track clearly sounds like.
The last track is the best track on the album. The ending of the first track on the album is one of its best moments, but it is a pretty standard "noise jam breakdown." I do like the song "Are You Gonna Be OK" when it gets to the heavy part. And I do find the lyrics across the entire album generally interesting.
The last track is three minutes long and extremely strange. It is almost what the "Brooklyn sound" might be for this band. It is just weird noise and feedback. However I found it more interesting than anything else on the album because it comes out of left field: you are not expecting BELT to have an experimental side.
In conclusion, I come to no conclusion regarding BELT. I cannot say that I will play Disquietude every single day for the next two or three weeks (as I did with, oh, Centipede Hz. (Brooklyn again!) or This is Happening) but I would be interested in seeing them live. They would seem to be a fun live band, and though many may find the comparisons I've made to be odious ones, those bands also built their reputation on being "fun live bands." Sometimes it takes a while to put out the album (or the single) that catapults them into stardom. For BELT it has been 10 years. But as far as I know, the gestation period for a band like them to hit it big is very close to 10 years (see also, The Hold Steady).
There. You have a comparison that most people won't complain about. Terrence B. sounds nothing like Craig Finn, and their subject matter is only arguably related, but they are both Brooklyn bands that unabashedly do not sound like Brooklyn bands. It took a while for Craig Finn to get known, but once he did he ran with it, and while I personally may feel that The Hold Steady has declined since the departure of Franz Nicolay, they are still a band that I will pay attention to and try to see live--if they're not charging too much.
It's entirely possible that BELT's forthcoming album will be their Almost Killed Me and their album after that will be their Separation Sunday and come summer of 2014 they will be asked to play the Pitchfork Festival. Entirely possible.
But the music industry, like most industries, is a cold one. It is a long and harrowing climb to the top, and few can make it. I wouldn't exactly put my money on BELT to playing Pitchfork in a couple years, but while it would certainly surprise me, it would not shock me. They have the skill; it is only a matter of execution now.
Showing posts with label The Hold Steady. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Hold Steady. Show all posts
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
In the promotional packet for the student life section of my future home (*and the impetus for a prolonged hiatus coming up here on Flying Houses*), the Hold Steady is pictured, with the caption, "Brooklyn Band." I am sure this particular institution had their share of options (were I in charge of marketing, it would be Animal Collective), but I suppose the Hold Steady does bring a wider appeal to the potential law student than the usual experimentation going on in the Brooklyn music scene. That said, they're not that experimental, and this album is no different from Stay Postive.
Franz Nicolay left the band, and this is perhaps the major turning point in the band's sound up to this point: no more keyboards. It's back to the same basics as Almost Killed Me. But, Almost Killed Me is about twice as good as Heaven is Whenever. What gives?
Nicolay will be missed, live at least. But Heaven is Whenever is not much different from Stay Positive in terms of its general quality, and as has always been the case for this band, in terms of its general subject matter. Craig Finn does still find ways to bring cleverness into his lyrics, which saves the album from being totally reductive. Not that the songwriting is bad or anything, but on at least a few songs I am driven to comparing riffs from previous albums.
If anything is different, it's that a few of the songs (the first track and last track stand out in this sense, but something idiosyncratic may be coming up...) sound country. These aren't the albums weakest points either, they're just unsettling. "Soft in the Center" and "The Weekenders" and "Our Whole Lives" all pretty much deliver in the same way a bunch of other not quite as memorable HS songs have in the past. Sadly, this isn't half the album that any of their first three were. It's Stay Positive, without Franz Nicolay.
OKAY, maybe Almost Killed Me isn't "twice as good" as Heaven is Whenever, but Separation Sunday and Boys and Girls in America both are. Since we've written about a few bands that have had career trajectories like this (BSS, New Pornographers) perhaps we need to have this conversation:
Is it worthwhile for a band to go on if the inspiration has seem to run dry? In most cases, I would say yes. It is worthwhile, because they can still deliver a powerful live experience. If any of these bands were to hear that accusation, however, they would be incensed (I assume). To accuse them of not being inspired. But this conversation has a different origin, found in my own frustrated attempts at art in a different field, and I have asked the question, do you need inspiration to write, and I heard the resounding answer ("NO"; "it's a job like anything else") and I do not buy it. But being in a rock band is different than being a writer. The Hold Steady are one of the better live bands that still don't truly have national notoriety (though they have more than fellow Brooklynites Les Savy Fav, who have the best live show) and I wouldn't miss the chance to see them. I just wonder about the sort of albums they mean to put out. They recognize their appeal as a "live band" first and "studio band" second, and they tour relentlessly, and they seem like they are having more fun than 90% of their colleagues, and so life must be a dream, that's all. Life must be great for them, and when things get too comfortable, I think art can sometimes suffer. I'm not saying you need to suffer to make good art, I'm just saying you have to know the place it comes from. Craig Finn knows the place it comes from, and he has repeatedly mined it for the last six years, and as "experimental" or "less anthemic" as they've purported to be over the last two, they sound like a band spinning its wheels, waking up every day and going to work, saving up for the futures of their families, and getting drunk, but within reason. I think Craig Finn needs to make the next Hold Steady album an homage to Zen Arcade or Pleased to Meet Me or some other hardcore Twin Cities band's opus. It would be interesting to see his capabilities when aiming for a higher mark. Otherwise I'm afraid I'll be writing the same review four years from now.
Franz Nicolay left the band, and this is perhaps the major turning point in the band's sound up to this point: no more keyboards. It's back to the same basics as Almost Killed Me. But, Almost Killed Me is about twice as good as Heaven is Whenever. What gives?
Nicolay will be missed, live at least. But Heaven is Whenever is not much different from Stay Positive in terms of its general quality, and as has always been the case for this band, in terms of its general subject matter. Craig Finn does still find ways to bring cleverness into his lyrics, which saves the album from being totally reductive. Not that the songwriting is bad or anything, but on at least a few songs I am driven to comparing riffs from previous albums.
If anything is different, it's that a few of the songs (the first track and last track stand out in this sense, but something idiosyncratic may be coming up...) sound country. These aren't the albums weakest points either, they're just unsettling. "Soft in the Center" and "The Weekenders" and "Our Whole Lives" all pretty much deliver in the same way a bunch of other not quite as memorable HS songs have in the past. Sadly, this isn't half the album that any of their first three were. It's Stay Positive, without Franz Nicolay.
OKAY, maybe Almost Killed Me isn't "twice as good" as Heaven is Whenever, but Separation Sunday and Boys and Girls in America both are. Since we've written about a few bands that have had career trajectories like this (BSS, New Pornographers) perhaps we need to have this conversation:
Is it worthwhile for a band to go on if the inspiration has seem to run dry? In most cases, I would say yes. It is worthwhile, because they can still deliver a powerful live experience. If any of these bands were to hear that accusation, however, they would be incensed (I assume). To accuse them of not being inspired. But this conversation has a different origin, found in my own frustrated attempts at art in a different field, and I have asked the question, do you need inspiration to write, and I heard the resounding answer ("NO"; "it's a job like anything else") and I do not buy it. But being in a rock band is different than being a writer. The Hold Steady are one of the better live bands that still don't truly have national notoriety (though they have more than fellow Brooklynites Les Savy Fav, who have the best live show) and I wouldn't miss the chance to see them. I just wonder about the sort of albums they mean to put out. They recognize their appeal as a "live band" first and "studio band" second, and they tour relentlessly, and they seem like they are having more fun than 90% of their colleagues, and so life must be a dream, that's all. Life must be great for them, and when things get too comfortable, I think art can sometimes suffer. I'm not saying you need to suffer to make good art, I'm just saying you have to know the place it comes from. Craig Finn knows the place it comes from, and he has repeatedly mined it for the last six years, and as "experimental" or "less anthemic" as they've purported to be over the last two, they sound like a band spinning its wheels, waking up every day and going to work, saving up for the futures of their families, and getting drunk, but within reason. I think Craig Finn needs to make the next Hold Steady album an homage to Zen Arcade or Pleased to Meet Me or some other hardcore Twin Cities band's opus. It would be interesting to see his capabilities when aiming for a higher mark. Otherwise I'm afraid I'll be writing the same review four years from now.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Top Ten Albums of 2007
Sometime in January or February, I was asked to provide a list of my top 5 favorite albums of 2007 for the website I used to write for, http://www.downtownmoneywaster.com/ , on which you can read reviews of the newest Sunset Rubdown and Fiery Furnaces records, as well as a review of the Les Savy Fav/Blonde Redhead/LCD Soundsystem/Arcade Fire mega-concert at Randall's Island in October of 2007....As you can see we have some catching up to do.
Later I will cut and paste the Top 5 albums I prepared for that feature, which was disincluded due to management oversights. Also not ever included was a review I wrote of the film "Control" which will be added shortly thereafter to this blog.
#10
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Did this come out in 2007? It did right? Early in the year maybe, March or April at the latest. While not as tight and focused as 2006's Separation Sunday, BAGIA has an abundance of great songs which played live as well as the rest of their oeuvre. It is a slightly more ambitious offering than they've attempted in the past, and highly successful. Still not their best in my opinion, but evidence that they are certainly one of the best (and most prolific) bands currently at work.
#9
Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
Aforementioned in the DMW.com preface, Widow City holds up better than the Furnaces previous offering, Bitter Tea. Whether Blueberry Boat is better, I cannot say (but it probably is). Still, Widow City is almost like if their "EP" (arguably their single strongest release) were stretched out to a whole-album's length. "Ex-Guru" and "My Egyptian Grammar" and "Duplexes of the Dead"/"Automatic Husband" all point in a pop direction, while album opener "The Philadelphia Grand Jury" riffs on the typical FF songwriting approach (read: descriptions of weird jobs, Eleanor Friedberger making inane threats, paperwork and requirements at the municipal, state and federal level). "Uncle Charlie" might have been something on "EP" if they had written it earlier, a crazy drum-solo-opening scorcher which might be the best single song on the album (it is at least definitely the shortest). "Wicker Whatnots" contains my favorite single line on the album, which if you read my full review, will be referenced.
#8
Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
I gave this album 5 stars and said it might be better than OK Computer when I reviewed it. Okay, I may have been exaggerating a little bit, but it's epic and beautiful from beginning to end in the same way. Barely a wasted track, barely a wasted minute, still very long, very dense, not worth explaining any further, just listen to the first track and if you like it, buy the album. Likewise for the previous review, additional comments will be found at the full album review on the previously mentioned website.
#7
Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
While it is not exactly "You're Living All Over Me" or what I used to regard as the best Dinosaur album "Where You Been," "Beyond" is an exercise in setting up a new template for an old band with an original lineup that may have never fully realized its potential. "Beyond" delivers on some of that-notably containing what must be Lou Barlow's best songs in the Dinosaur catalog. "Back to Your Heart" could pass for a Sebadoh song, but "Lightning Bulb" is the undisputed standout from this album, a vicious sarcastic vocal performance carrying the track into the catharsis zone. J Mascis's tracks are standard quality, "Almost Ready," "Been There All the Time," "Pick Me Up" are all very good, but it is not like listening to "The Lung" or "Out There" or "Freak Scene." You understand, but vs. Mission of Burma's The Obliterati (which could have nearly cracked the top 10), this new album from an old band wins out.
#6 (tie)
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; Interpol - Our Love to Admire
These albums are tied as they came out on the same day, are the most commercial releases from two indie rock powerhouses yet, I bought them at the same record store visit, and they are both very high quality albums (if you want to berate me for including Interpol, just be happy I didn't include the third crazy album to be released that same day in July last year, Smashing Pumpkins's "Zeitgeist," which may have been better than Machina, and I may have called it the best thing since Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, but which has proved a bit boring after just a few months). Spoon's album received praise for being their best yet, and in a way Spoon are just a very consistent quality band that doesn't put out bad albums. Oeuvre rule: I don't have "Kill the Moonlight" (except for the song "The Way We Get By" which is probably the best song for me to have off it), but "Girls Can Tell," "Gimme Fiction," and "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" solidify Spoon as an act deserving of the mainstream, but one which is clearly uninterested, as evidenced by their partnership with Merge.
Interpol, on the other hand, are no longer on Matador, but Capitol, and "Our Love to Admire" is the major-label debut. When Sonic Youth put out their first album (Goo) on a major label they wanted to call it "Blowjob," and in the same way Interpol put out their most lyrically subversive album. The upfront subject matter of "No I in Threesome" is kinky sex and "Rest My Chemistry" is about doing cocaine and groupies that are "so young." However, unlike Spoon, Interpol is not going to shy away from ambitions to reach the masses. Seeing them live at Lollapalooza last year proved the point, with thousands singing along to every line of every song played. Pitchfork may have slammed the album with a mediocre review, but they also said "Turn on the Bright Lights" was the best album of 2002 (which it wasn't). Their review of "Antics" was spot on, and in my opinion, like Spoon, Interpol is an extremely consistent high-quality band. This album does drag in a couple of spots, and to be honest "Antics" is probably a better album from top to bottom (and it is also probably better than TOTBL though people will castigate me for this belief), but it is just as fresh and original as Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Maybe it is heavier and sadder and more bloated, but that just makes it a big, messy, overstated clunker of an album that is better than it actually seems. It's just too bad that "The Heinrich Manuever" wasn't secretly a song about Bulls point guard Kirk Hinrich.
#5
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
A very personal album, filled with fragility and bitterness, strained down into a mad pop album. It comes complete with one of the hallmark singles of 2007, "Heimdesgate Like a Promethean Curse," and the furious epic "The Past is a Grotesque Animal." This is a very over the top album, but successful for being completely unique in its own regard. The companion piece EP, "Icons, Abstract Thee" is equally as good as the album.
#4
Deerhunter - Cryptograms
Certainly one of the most interestings bands to come out in recent years, Deerhunter played some of the most crushing flat-out noise rock, some of the druggiest ambient instrumentals, and some of the saddest, sweetest pop songs of 2007. The stomp of "Cryptograms" and "Lake Somerset" sits alongside the ebb and the flow "Providence" and the "White Ink" and "Red Ink" pieces, while "Strange Lights" and "Hazel St" take the album to its highest peaks. The companion EP "Flourescent Grey" is equally as good as the album, and it contains what is probably their best song, "Wash Off."
#3
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Well any Radiohead album is bound to be good, right? But in truth I found "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" to be a bit boring, and while I thought "Hail to the Thief" was a step in the right direction, there were still a lot of songs I'd skip on it. I don't want to do that as much with "In Rainbows." Every song is nearly perfect in its own way. "Bodysnatchers" reclaims that nervous crazy loud rock that Radiohead used to play on occasion and is probably my favorite song by them since "Paranoid Android." "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" and "Videotape" put Thom Yorke at his clearest and most fragile, and surprise surprise, he pulls it off perfectly. "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" sort of sums up the best parts of the album--it's not dumbed down, it just rocks more, and its more fun to listen to.
#2
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Panda Bear has eclipsed all the work Animal Collective with "Person Pitch" easily the year's most beautiful album. It is difficult to say much about the album without representing it incorrectly. Many people say it is very Beach Boys, but it is completely its own thing to me, and if there is one word that could sum up the album it would be: warmth.
#1
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
The consensus choice for 2007 album of the year, and it totally deserves it. I'm not going to say something different just to be different. This album deserves to be recognized as the best thing that came out this year. "All My Friends" is arguably one of the greatest songs of all time, and many people seemed to say "Someone Great" is great (but I find it annoying that the exact same song, minus the words, is part of "45:33"), no matter, "Get Innocuous" is an amazing album opener, and "North American Scum" is still a very popular single (I heard it on the radio yesterday morning 103.1 in L.A., at 6:50 AM) a year after its release. The lyrics are excellent, the beats are flawless, the musicianship is superb, and in general the only thing that sucks about this album is that you can listen to it a lot and then want to listen to it more and then decide that you're listening to it too much, and finally you're sick of it, and you only care about it again when mentioning that it was your favorite album in 2007.
Later I will cut and paste the Top 5 albums I prepared for that feature, which was disincluded due to management oversights. Also not ever included was a review I wrote of the film "Control" which will be added shortly thereafter to this blog.
#10
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Did this come out in 2007? It did right? Early in the year maybe, March or April at the latest. While not as tight and focused as 2006's Separation Sunday, BAGIA has an abundance of great songs which played live as well as the rest of their oeuvre. It is a slightly more ambitious offering than they've attempted in the past, and highly successful. Still not their best in my opinion, but evidence that they are certainly one of the best (and most prolific) bands currently at work.
#9
Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
Aforementioned in the DMW.com preface, Widow City holds up better than the Furnaces previous offering, Bitter Tea. Whether Blueberry Boat is better, I cannot say (but it probably is). Still, Widow City is almost like if their "EP" (arguably their single strongest release) were stretched out to a whole-album's length. "Ex-Guru" and "My Egyptian Grammar" and "Duplexes of the Dead"/"Automatic Husband" all point in a pop direction, while album opener "The Philadelphia Grand Jury" riffs on the typical FF songwriting approach (read: descriptions of weird jobs, Eleanor Friedberger making inane threats, paperwork and requirements at the municipal, state and federal level). "Uncle Charlie" might have been something on "EP" if they had written it earlier, a crazy drum-solo-opening scorcher which might be the best single song on the album (it is at least definitely the shortest). "Wicker Whatnots" contains my favorite single line on the album, which if you read my full review, will be referenced.
#8
Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
I gave this album 5 stars and said it might be better than OK Computer when I reviewed it. Okay, I may have been exaggerating a little bit, but it's epic and beautiful from beginning to end in the same way. Barely a wasted track, barely a wasted minute, still very long, very dense, not worth explaining any further, just listen to the first track and if you like it, buy the album. Likewise for the previous review, additional comments will be found at the full album review on the previously mentioned website.
#7
Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
While it is not exactly "You're Living All Over Me" or what I used to regard as the best Dinosaur album "Where You Been," "Beyond" is an exercise in setting up a new template for an old band with an original lineup that may have never fully realized its potential. "Beyond" delivers on some of that-notably containing what must be Lou Barlow's best songs in the Dinosaur catalog. "Back to Your Heart" could pass for a Sebadoh song, but "Lightning Bulb" is the undisputed standout from this album, a vicious sarcastic vocal performance carrying the track into the catharsis zone. J Mascis's tracks are standard quality, "Almost Ready," "Been There All the Time," "Pick Me Up" are all very good, but it is not like listening to "The Lung" or "Out There" or "Freak Scene." You understand, but vs. Mission of Burma's The Obliterati (which could have nearly cracked the top 10), this new album from an old band wins out.
#6 (tie)
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; Interpol - Our Love to Admire
These albums are tied as they came out on the same day, are the most commercial releases from two indie rock powerhouses yet, I bought them at the same record store visit, and they are both very high quality albums (if you want to berate me for including Interpol, just be happy I didn't include the third crazy album to be released that same day in July last year, Smashing Pumpkins's "Zeitgeist," which may have been better than Machina, and I may have called it the best thing since Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, but which has proved a bit boring after just a few months). Spoon's album received praise for being their best yet, and in a way Spoon are just a very consistent quality band that doesn't put out bad albums. Oeuvre rule: I don't have "Kill the Moonlight" (except for the song "The Way We Get By" which is probably the best song for me to have off it), but "Girls Can Tell," "Gimme Fiction," and "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" solidify Spoon as an act deserving of the mainstream, but one which is clearly uninterested, as evidenced by their partnership with Merge.
Interpol, on the other hand, are no longer on Matador, but Capitol, and "Our Love to Admire" is the major-label debut. When Sonic Youth put out their first album (Goo) on a major label they wanted to call it "Blowjob," and in the same way Interpol put out their most lyrically subversive album. The upfront subject matter of "No I in Threesome" is kinky sex and "Rest My Chemistry" is about doing cocaine and groupies that are "so young." However, unlike Spoon, Interpol is not going to shy away from ambitions to reach the masses. Seeing them live at Lollapalooza last year proved the point, with thousands singing along to every line of every song played. Pitchfork may have slammed the album with a mediocre review, but they also said "Turn on the Bright Lights" was the best album of 2002 (which it wasn't). Their review of "Antics" was spot on, and in my opinion, like Spoon, Interpol is an extremely consistent high-quality band. This album does drag in a couple of spots, and to be honest "Antics" is probably a better album from top to bottom (and it is also probably better than TOTBL though people will castigate me for this belief), but it is just as fresh and original as Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Maybe it is heavier and sadder and more bloated, but that just makes it a big, messy, overstated clunker of an album that is better than it actually seems. It's just too bad that "The Heinrich Manuever" wasn't secretly a song about Bulls point guard Kirk Hinrich.
#5
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
A very personal album, filled with fragility and bitterness, strained down into a mad pop album. It comes complete with one of the hallmark singles of 2007, "Heimdesgate Like a Promethean Curse," and the furious epic "The Past is a Grotesque Animal." This is a very over the top album, but successful for being completely unique in its own regard. The companion piece EP, "Icons, Abstract Thee" is equally as good as the album.
#4
Deerhunter - Cryptograms
Certainly one of the most interestings bands to come out in recent years, Deerhunter played some of the most crushing flat-out noise rock, some of the druggiest ambient instrumentals, and some of the saddest, sweetest pop songs of 2007. The stomp of "Cryptograms" and "Lake Somerset" sits alongside the ebb and the flow "Providence" and the "White Ink" and "Red Ink" pieces, while "Strange Lights" and "Hazel St" take the album to its highest peaks. The companion EP "Flourescent Grey" is equally as good as the album, and it contains what is probably their best song, "Wash Off."
#3
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Well any Radiohead album is bound to be good, right? But in truth I found "Kid A" and "Amnesiac" to be a bit boring, and while I thought "Hail to the Thief" was a step in the right direction, there were still a lot of songs I'd skip on it. I don't want to do that as much with "In Rainbows." Every song is nearly perfect in its own way. "Bodysnatchers" reclaims that nervous crazy loud rock that Radiohead used to play on occasion and is probably my favorite song by them since "Paranoid Android." "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" and "Videotape" put Thom Yorke at his clearest and most fragile, and surprise surprise, he pulls it off perfectly. "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" sort of sums up the best parts of the album--it's not dumbed down, it just rocks more, and its more fun to listen to.
#2
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Panda Bear has eclipsed all the work Animal Collective with "Person Pitch" easily the year's most beautiful album. It is difficult to say much about the album without representing it incorrectly. Many people say it is very Beach Boys, but it is completely its own thing to me, and if there is one word that could sum up the album it would be: warmth.
#1
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
The consensus choice for 2007 album of the year, and it totally deserves it. I'm not going to say something different just to be different. This album deserves to be recognized as the best thing that came out this year. "All My Friends" is arguably one of the greatest songs of all time, and many people seemed to say "Someone Great" is great (but I find it annoying that the exact same song, minus the words, is part of "45:33"), no matter, "Get Innocuous" is an amazing album opener, and "North American Scum" is still a very popular single (I heard it on the radio yesterday morning 103.1 in L.A., at 6:50 AM) a year after its release. The lyrics are excellent, the beats are flawless, the musicianship is superb, and in general the only thing that sucks about this album is that you can listen to it a lot and then want to listen to it more and then decide that you're listening to it too much, and finally you're sick of it, and you only care about it again when mentioning that it was your favorite album in 2007.
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