dimanche 23 Déc 2012, 18h34m
Albums of 2012http://i.imgur.com/NNoDZ.gif
80 – 71
80
Kindness - World, You Need A Change Of Mind
http://musosguide.com/public_html/musos.wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/kindness-world-you-need-a-change.jpg
Thank you.
The world tends to fall for electronic artists faster than they should but regardless of public opinion, there truly is a 'right' and 'wrong' way to go about doing it. I'm not going to get into a battle of semantics, arguing for or agains the term IDM or not (a quick ticket to pissed-off town), but it is not arrogant to say that there exists art without merit and art with merit. A musician creates the former while an artist creates the latter.
This? Yeah, this is probably art. You can dance to it and analyse it, which is a wonderful decision to be stuck in. It's not the most groundbreaking release of the year, of that you can be sure, but it's still a groovy collection nonetheless.
It's filled with these really neat lifted vocals and insanely funky basslines, it's like a weird form of soul growing off of some tree that Daft Punk planted a few decades ago. Not that this blatantly transparent inspiration hurts the release, it's still an incredibly lovely record.
And let me tell you kids about House. This song, straight-up, no doubt about it, is love epitomized. If you believe that you've ever loved someone, put that emotion against what you feel listening to this song. That's how you calibrate yo' sensors, baby girl.
It's just a wonderful LP, full of smooth jazz, soul, electro, and a just a dash of NEW YORK CITY FUNK. I had a lot of fun listening to this, and I feel as if anyone with even the slightest bit of musical competency is in the same boat.
If I was married, and my wife said, "I don't really care for this," the only real response I'd have is questioning her if she wants to go drive down to the courthouse for the divorce papers or if I should.
Not going to lie though, the combination of this album title, artist name, and cover art makes me cringe.
79
Norah Jones -
Little Broken Hearts
http://nsa21.casimages.com/img/2012/04/23/120423042456430972.jpg
After being featured on Rome, Jones picked up Danger Mouse to produce her next LP. And why wouldn't you? The man is arguably the best producer working today.
Aside from everything else that goes into an album, I've always just liked the sound Jones' voice. It's bashfully pretty. And then she throws these basic-yet-sharp lyrics into the fray and it's usually more than effective. This case continues here, she's on form and it's powerful. She broke up with her boyfriend prior to writing the tracks on this album and it shows, they're each like an emotional boxing glove to the face.
For the sake of time and tidiness, let's just lump all the other aspects of composition into 'instrumentation.' With that prologue we can say that the instrumentation in this album is absolutely fantastic. It's so solemn and meaningful and delicate and deliberate. It has more than a few of those "Wow…" moments in it, usually a few per song.
Alone, her vocals wouldn't be quite enough to completely sell this album. Alone, the instrumentation wouldn't be quite enough to insure a complete experience. But together, oh together, they are more than enough to provide you with a brutally-honest forty-five minutes.
It's literally an awesome record. And not awesome in the definition that teenage boys have been using for a few decades. Awesome in the sense that it literally inspires and provokes awe from the receiving party. All of the songs correctly fill the requirement that they 'sound the same' all while being 'completely different,' like being siblings from the same family.
Oh Norah. She's one of those girls that gives me hope in the female population. Most girls break up with their boyfriends and take it out on their Facebook walls with stupid and trite song lyrics, Jones is stuck with channeling that emotion into original words and melodies of her own. Pfffttttt, what a concept, too bad it'll never catch on.
78
Right Away, Great Captain! - The Church of the Good Thief
http://blog.earbits.com/online_radio/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/rightwa.jpeg
Let's get some things straight:
1. I'll never criticize an album cover as lovely as this.
2. I'll never criticize the notion of a concept album.
3. I'll never criticize a trilogy of concept albums.
Right Away, Great Captain! is the solo project of Andy Hull, frontman of Manchester Orchestra. I don't really have a problem shrugging my shoulders and throwing rocks at Manchester Orchestra albums, because they're incredibly cliche and unoriginal. But I can't say the same about Andy Hull solo releases, they're usually everything but.
Musically, it's not the most unique thing I've ever heard, but that's not the point. It's a storytelling album, and a good one at that. Lyrically and vocally, it's encapsulating and engrossing. A delight, unlike it's indie-folk "peers."
This is what I imagine when I picture a perfect indie folk world (contradictions aside). The notion that simple instrumentation is kept humble while lyrical content runs wildly abstract in a world of grounded reality. That's indie, that's folk. Not what we have today. But I digress, for this album definitely fits into a great canon of quality, yet again unlike it's peers.
I would strongly suggest listening to (and inevitably enjoying) The Bitter End and The Eventually Home before indulging in this though, so as to grasp the entirety of the scale this operates on. Not to say this doesn't stand on it's own, but it's a bit like reading The Return of the King before even knowing about The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. You're still going to enjoy it (and it's thirty different endings) but not as much as you would after being presented with a nice platter of context beforehand.
It almost presents itself as a weird Jeff Tweedy/Band of Horses hybrid, which sounds like a lovely collaboration actually. But unlike that daydream, this actually exists. The weirdest thing in the world is that this entire record is only about thirty nine minutes long. I could have swore it was two hours, in a good way. It doesn't drag on or take forever to finish, no, it's just very dense and there's more than enough language to dissect. Which makes me blush and giggle, covering my mouth in a Japanese-school-girl grin, "Oh Mis-ter Hull, you've given me quite the chore."
A great end to a wonderful trilogy, major commendations to him for starting, continuing, and finishing what he said he would…
…cough cough Sufjan Stevens cough cough cough…
77
Orbital - Wonky
http://img.ceolte.org/pic_f/7147e0f86067411f7da65d41ca55eb1f_1333113997_cover__.jpg
Let's just break this down like a nervous guy giving a Powerpoint presentation:
Hi everybody. Here are a few reasons why I am really excited for this album:
1. It is Orbital's first album in about eight years. Super neat.
*click*
2. Look at that cover. Just look at it.
*cough*
*looks around room*
*click*
3. It's titled 'Wonky.' Come on, get out of my house.
*force awkward laugh*
*click*
Thank you.
*apprehensive applause*
The Hartnoll brothers are back and it sounds as if they've gone back to their roots. It's more of a dance-pop record than what they've done the previous few albums, which is nice. Not a good change, not a bad change, but an appreciated one.
You definitely have to commend them for keeping it under an hour as well. Pretty much every dance group on the face of the planet has a hard time keeping their album under an hour and a half, but this clocks in at a cool fifty minutes. Definitely a strike in the 'pro' column.
It's got such simple and effective melodies that you almost want to hear some vocals over them. But I get it, it's a dance release, not a pop one. It's okay, makes sense.
To be fair though, there is a point listening to this album where anyone at least somewhat knowledgable in music can say, "…I could literally do that on a tone-matrix in five minutes." There's not a lot of complexity to this, which in the case of dance albums, is usually something that should be added to the mix. Because anything can be pretty easily danced to, it's up to dance albums to actually really work hard on the intricate wiring of their song structure due to the lack of vocals. But it appears this one…didn't?
Don't get me wrong, it's all great, but it certainly feels like I'm listening to musicians and not artists. Sure, New France (feat. Zola Jesus) is otherworldly, but there's not enough moments throughout this album that truly capture your mind like that song does on a consistent basis.
It's fun. It's nice. I enjoy it. I can't prance around saying it's wonderful, because I don't really prance, but it's no where close to the worst thing I've ever heard. It's not a waste of time, I don't think anyone would be painfully offended by its presence. I have fun with it, it's fine.
76
Patrick Watson - Adventures in Your Own Backyard
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7c15xMMJC1qfqwm5o1_500.jpg
Woah…
This is really, really good. Sorry for being so blunt but wow, what a show. Watson just doesn't know how to put out a bad album, that's slowly becoming a fact.
We aren't even going to talk about the instrumentation, it's practically faultless. It's simple enough for the masses while still being ecstatic enough for the eccentric. It really does an incredible job of escaping that really discrediting lo-fi sound that it's constantly skirting by.
And it's very fun just to listen to his voice, skipping across the melodies and climbing up and jumping off of the neat little phonetic peaks and valleys. Is the subject matter a bit cliche? Yeah, it's got that whole 'indie in love' vibe to it, but it's approached with a relentless orchestration to it, so it's okay. It's a very general theme, but he wants to make sure that this version of it is his own. And it is.
This is one of those, "Gather round, everyone, this fills pretty much all of your demographics, except for you, punk, sorry, maybe next time" albums. It's not necessarily game-changing and innovative or inventive, but it's definitely not safe either. It's a great little release suitable for pretty much anyone who's willing to give it a listen.
Is it enough to earn another Polaris Prize? Probably, probably (I still miss Shortlist).
75
Public Image Ltd. - This is PiL
http://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/covers/this-is-pil.jpg
The last Public Image Ltd. album came out a few months after I was born. So this is great to be able to review, it's not a 'rite of passage' but it's still a fun notch to put in your belt.
I caught a lot of flak a while ago when I said that the Sex Pistols were just a boy band, but I still maintain that stance one hundred percent. If you look at the context The Sex Pistols were formed under and the context the Backstreet Boys were formed under, you'd find that they're remarkably similar. That's not an insult, it says nothing about the music, it's simply stating that you need to peel away the bias and look at it objectively: they're one in the same.
So while I enjoy The Sex Pistols, I prefer Public Image Ltd. Conventional punk band or experimental post-punk band? Let's go with the latter, especially considering they're both fronted by the same man.
As for this release, it's in that extremely difficult zone to reach, where it's so similar to their previous works but so different at the same time. Which, on paper, is exactly what an album is supposed to be. John Lydon bit the bullet of his morals and participated in a butter commercial just to earn the funds to reform Public Image Ltd. and make this album. So it's incredibly refreshing to hear an effort that doesn't render the act of selling out to be in vain.
To be fair, it's not absolutely the most innovative release in the world, I could easily see high school bands covering most of the songs. But, at the same time, it's very simple and direct, so it's not necessarily going down the road of complexity. Which is nice, it means we're essentially getting a release that consists of nothing but nice tunes. Not heavy listening, but nothing to shrug off either. Neat.
Lydon's voice and words bounce and stab through the brooding instrumentals so well, it's like a fun tragedy. It's actually just really cool, this album has such a unique atmosphere that it carries around. And if your album is competent enough to create an atmosphere, logic would lead us to the notion that it can support life. Which in turn lets us conclude that it is a profound entity. So it has that going for it.
A very fun release with great moments. It's not the most ground-shaking LP of the year, but it creates its own zone of emotions, which is tough enough to do while keeping the structural integrity of the album intact. So I'm not going to give it a relentless recommendation, but I would be ever so happy if you told me you gave it a shot.
Heck, it's not even too long, and it's over an hour in duration. That's a rare combination of notions, which should really say all that I haven't.
74
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Aufheben
http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/016/718/0001671828_500.jpg
We have to be fair: technically this is the best album cover in existence. It may not fit the music at all, but it is the single most significant image in the history of mankind, so we can't mark 'em down for that.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre have way too many albums but at the same time they are way too witty, so I'll let the former slide. I laughed way harder than I should have at the notion of naming a song Blue Order / New Monday.
As for this particular album, come on, it's super nice. How could it not be? They pretty much all are, for pretty much the same reasons. The notion that the lyrical content is anything worse than superb is simply blasphemous. Instrumentally, it's insanely simple and just as catchy and equally as complimentary to the vocals, which are constantly delivered in a more than satisfactory manner.
They're always somewhat inventive with the concept of homage as well, which is so much fun to observe. On one hand it's very much inspired by more well-known musicians, but on the other it's always shot out in such a unique and unexpected way. Which really should provide an example for younger, dumber bands to follow.
It's constantly splashing around in some weird genres as well. It's not lo-fi, or alternative, or shoegaze, or garage rock…it's a bit of everything, which is super cool. It's a little repetitive for being fifty one minutes long, but that's no so much of a bad thing if you just imagine it as atmospheric music…with great lyrics. Why I never, and I wish I had.
73
The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet
http://sacvs.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/volta2012.jpg
First off, this is the perfect album art for a Mars Volta release. The music is always technically proficient and a bit skewed, so what better way to communicate that message subtly and upfront than to show oscillation at a forty-five-degree angle? It's good, I like it. And trapezoids dude, trapezoids.
This is very fun and very good. This is kind of what I wish post-hardcore had evolved into. Each and every track here is advanced enough to come across as profound, instead of being forced by the artists into a land of pretention.
The vocals are absolutely top-notch and super addictive, the instrumentation (which I will group into one broad category for ease language, not insult) is superb and wonderful, and the combination of the two is magic, not math.
I have a lot of fun just listening to this. I know they want to be taken seriously and everything, but I have a little Japanese-school-girl 'cover your face with your hands' smile every time I listen to this. Every time a song ends I'm just, "Ohhhhhh snap, now THAT'S a transition. Oh Mars Volta, you so nice."
This is lovely, but it is an hour long. Which, really, is fine for music this great. But, just keep that in mind. You should be listening to it in one sitting, so just know that it's going to take a little over an hour to hop out of this spaceship once you've hopped aboard.
Normally, a post-hardcorish release that's an hour long would get some sort of bull-crap, "It's too repetitive" remark from me, but that doesn't apply here. It's a diverse and expansive hour to take out of the day and reflect on matters bigger than yourself. Which is always mad fun, yo.
And it's self-produced, news of which always receives an uncomfortably forceful high-five from me.
Get outta here, you crazy kids. Go listen to this and eat your vegetables, thank me later.
72
Punch Brothers -
Who's Feeling Young Now?
http://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/covers/whos-feeling-young-now.jpg
Mother of God…they're finally here.
You see, there are many bluegrass/folk artists in this world and many of them (most) seem to have a hard-on for Radiohead. Which is okay at first, but then it's slowly revealed that they're all just rubbing baby oil on their bodies and jumping into a OK Computer circle-jerk. Which is never okay. I've been asking for YEARS for a folk-tard band to indulge in covering the band's other material. The problem is, most of them are too stupid and untalented to cover anything else but the most basic chords.
Until now.
Yep, we finally found a band with the balls and the talent to cover both Packt Like Sardines In a Crush'd Tin Box (“after years of waiting,” amirite?) and Kid A.
That's right, they covered Kid A.
Which makes me ecstatic.
(But there are lyrics to the song, and you're kind of supposed to sing them. Even John Mayer knows the words. For shame, Hermanos de Punch.)
But getting to Punch Brothers actual compositions that they can call their own, this is exceptional. Sure there are a few moments where it feels like they've switched to autopilot and taken the easy and stereotypical bluegrass route to songwriting but they sure do stick to an interesting and original approach. Songs like Patchwork Girlfriend are as trite and cliché and overdone as balls but then songs approached in the same vein as Clara are anything but.
I love it, and if you're reading this review at its original source you're probably more than well aware of my stance on this subgenre (it objectively sucks). This is great, I love it, listen to it. It's not exactly breaking down any walls, but by God are the cracks starting to form.
Plus they've covered Wilco's Poor Places. Which is, like, evidence that they're solely set on winning me over or something.
Oh, that's it. It only took me a few days after publishing this one to figure out what's going on here. They're cheating. It's not very difficult to figure out exactly what they're doing and the loophole they're exploiting. It's not clever but it works. I won't spoil the fun for you tweens, but your band isn't exactly pulling out all the stops.
Hint, hint:
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwcrkiHDUj1qb8u8to1_500.gif
(Danke, Nikki)
71
Burial - Kindred
http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/016/071/0001607134_500.jpg
You have no idea how ecstatic I was when I learned this EP was three tracks, making it eligible for the list. High-fives were had.
This is just phenomenal though, a half an hour has almost never been utilized so perfectly. It takes an explicit amount of finesse to create a song over six minutes that doesn't collapse under it's own weight, but all three of them almost feel too short. Yeah, that's how great this is.
Wunderbar, in every way. That's all, nothing more to say.
For a sample of each album, click the picture below.
http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_leg7vzNCYq1qe0eclo1_r4_500.gif