A Terrible Signal/A Gentle Collapsing

Super 8 review

2011-06-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

Super 8

I've always enjoyed movies told from the point of view of children, The Sandlot (1993) was one of my favorite movies as a child and as I got older, I fell in love with Carol Reed's brilliant film The Fallen Idol (1948). There's something magical about the innocence of a child's eyes. Unfortunately, though, these types of movies have all but been abandoned lately, replaced by animated movies or depthless comedies and fantasy adventures. Super 8 is a return to movies starring kids where the kids aren't performing super-human feats like in the Spy Kids movies and Chronicles of Narnia or caricatures of kids as adults view them, instead they act like kids, doing kid things with a kids heart.

Much will be made about how director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg are trying to harken back to movies like E.T. (1982), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) both directed by Spielberg, and The Goonies (1985), written and produced by Spielberg, which is true. But to end it there is cop-out writing. The key to the direction of Super 8 can be found in the credits when the movie the kids have been making, "The Case" is shown. It's a zombie movie and the director, Charles (Ryan Griffiths), who has a Night of the Living Dead (1968) poster on his wall, throws in a reference to George Romero, the king of zombie movies, by having the zombie-creating chemical be produced "the Romero chemical company". This is a child's way of showing an influence (though some might say Quentin Tarentino also does it this way). Abrams also fills his movie with tributes to the films that influenced him, however he does it in a much subtler fashion. I'm not just talking about the Spielberg children/alien movies, either but a plethora of movies ranging from the B-movies to blockbusters.

Super 8 is set in the small town of Lillian, Ohio and revolves around a group of kids, who while making a movie on their Super 8 camera, become involved with an escaped monster and an attempted military cover-up. To give away much more of the plot would be a disservice to someone who hasn't seen the movie, but there's a lot about this movie that can be dissected without spoiling the plot. The "monster lose in a small town" and military aspects hearkens back to the big bug movies of the 50s such as Them! (1954) or Earth vs. the Spider (1958). Part of the joy of this kind of movie is how Abrams doesn't show you the monster until much later in the movie, instead we're only shown fleeting glances, a technique Abrams used in Cloverfield (2008), but one that reminded most of how in Alien (1979), Ridley Scott keeps the Xenomorph more of an idea, a shadow, or a dot on a scanner until the very end of the movie. M. Night Shyamalan's Signs (2002) is another movie that uses this tactic and was clearly an influence on Abrams. This heightens the suspense and induces true excitement, not just cheap thrills based of monsters jumping out of closets that have taken over horror since the slasher movement began. Even blockbusters like Jurassic Park (1993) makes an appearance, with the monster attack on a bus echoing the T-Rex's on the jeeps and the King Kong "sympathetic monster" angle is explored. So when I hear that Super 8 is just a repackaging of E.T. and The Goonies, I'm understandably incredulous of how much the reviewer formed their own opinion. Yes it's true that those movies are a big influence on Abrams, but he also brings a lot more to the table and offers a return to the time of moviemaking when movies were about a feeling and had a heart, not being beaten to death with special effects an d flat characters.

Is Super 8 a perfect movie? No, but any movie that brings back that true, warm feeling of childhood adventure is a welcome return to movie making these days.

4.5/5

Song of the Day: June 9th

2011-06-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

Red House Painters: "Wop-a-Din-Din" from Old Ramon

There's a lot of subtlety in the work of Mark Kozelek, whether it be the progression of chords in a slow building ballad or the boxer metaphors found in Ghosts of the Great Highway. However, no Kozelek song is written with more of subtle wink than "Wop-a-Din-Din" which, despite seemingly being a straight-forward love song, could easily go misunderstood by most of the people who listen to it. It starts out simply enough, with an opening stanza like "she's got big green eyes and a long Egyptian face/she moves across the floor at her own pace" it's seem to be pretty clearly a love song. Later, however, you may wonder at a line like "and if I role an kick around, I might knock her to the ground/but she'll come back anyhow" or "she'll yawn and stretch, and stare me down expressionless/and lay back down in her nest" but you may just chalk that up to some rough times and a little artistic expression. You'd be wrong, however, as this song, though never acknowledged anywhere in the lyrics (not even in the parts in Spanish), is about Kozelek's cat. That's what makes his work so interesting, he doesn't have to spell it out for his audience with a *wink-wink* at the end, he just lets the song speak for itself. This isn't lowest common denominator songwriting. If you get the joke, good for you, if not it's just a love song to human instead of a cat. And make no mistake, this is a love song.

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X-Men: First Class review

2011-06-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

X-Men: First Class

Of the major superhero film franchises, X-Men hasn't had a universally acclaimed groundbreaker like The Dark Knight or a unmitigated stinker like Spider-Man 3 or either Fantastic Five movie. The X-Men movies have been continually solid, sometimes leaning towards excellent (X2) while other times dipping to just merely okay (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) while always remaining entertaining and watchable. I've never left an X-Men movie disappointed, though I admittedly enter with the expectation of being entertained and that's it. For a comparison, if I got an X-Men type experience when seeing The Dark Knight Rises, I'd be disappointed because I expect more than just entertainment from that franchise. X-Men: First Class continues this trend of singles and doubles without swinging for the fences.

The differences between First Class and the other X-Men movies is clear by just looking at the cast list. Past X-Men movies have featured such stars as Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Liev Schreiber and even early roles by young future stars Anna Paquin and Ellen Page while the biggest star in First Class is arguably Kevin Bacon. This actually works to the movies advantage, instead of reacting to a new character by saying "oh hey it's Halle Berry!" you think "sweet, it's Havok!", making the movie a more engrossing experience and less of a E! red carpet special. But the cast of First Class is B-list in fame only, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender both give excellent performances as main characters Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr (aka Magneto) respectively, while Jennifer Lawrence (Raven), Rose Byrne (Moira MacTaggert), and Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy) all shine in supporting roles. Kevin Bacon, as usual, is great as main villain Sebastian Shaw, though he isn't given a death worthy of the performance (more on that later). The one flaw in the cast is January Jones, she's a pretty face to be sure, but to call her flatter than a piece of paper is an insult to the acting skills of paper. She just shows no life at all, even when she's being choked by metal bars and quizzed for information she can't muster up much more than a pout. It doesn't help that she's given some of the worst dialogue in the movie ("Oh, and I wouldn’t call it a war, since that suggests both sides have an equal chance of winning.") or that her character is little more than eye candy in many scenes.

Story-wise, First Class suffers from the same problem almost all origin films do: too much to tell and not enough time to do it. The main plot revolves around the discovery of mutants by the C.I.A. and Xavier's attempt to bring together mutants to fight Shaw's "Hellfire Club", which wants to destroy all non-mutants. Other storylines include Lehnsherr's quest for revenge and the struggles Raven and McCoy face with mutations that make them stand out from normal humans. All of this is entertaining, but it takes up too much time and distracts from the heart of the story. What is the heart of the story? It's the same thing that makes all X-Men stories great, the friendship and rivalry between Xavier and Lehnsherr and their neverending debate about how mutants and humans should co-exist (or in the case of Lehnsherr, not) but we don't get much of the friendship aspect because things are rushed so much in the early stages. In a matter of minutes, their relationship goes from first meeting to fast friends with only one scene with them in between. This would have been a much better movie if more time had been spent on their relationship and less on the Lehnsherr/Raven/McCoy love triangle, which not only isn't really resolved but doesn't really carry any emotional weight. That's the other problem, because there are so many characters and storylines, the truly emotional scenes like Lehnsherr facing off with Shaw, who killed his mother are rushed and he dies with hardly a fight despite spending the previous 15 minutes to his death building up vast amounts of nuclear energy to power his mutation. There are other missteps along the way, such as despite the movie being set in 1962, little to nothing of the world at that time is shown. If not for some Russians, short dresses, and an occasional "groovy", the movie could be easily set in modern time. But the core problem with First Class is the core problem with all X-Men stories, we don't have a strong emotional response to the prejudice against mutants because we're not mutants and there's no such thing as mutants so it doesn't, deep down, ring true. Sure, you feel a little pang when the young mutants are called "freaks" but it doesn't grip you the same way say, To Kill A Mockingbird does.

With all that said, however, First Class is an enjoyable summer movie that you can go see with little chance of feeling like you wasted your money while being thoroughly entertained throughout. If you're expecting a movie that will challenge you mentally and emotionally, you'll be disappointed, but if you go hoping to be entertained by (mostly) great acting with colorful characters, action, and the nostalgia only superheros can bring, you'll be happy.
3/5

Song of the Day: September 15th

2009-09-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

Shearwater: "La Dame et la Licorne" from Palo Santo
Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg has an amazing voice. There's no debating that; it's a piercing, pure voice that can't be compared to any other vocalist because it's so unique, only words like sharp, searing, soaring can describe it. But one of the reasons that it is so spectacular is that the band know so perfectly how to use it; in the beginning of his voice starts as a gentle purr over a light piano chords, but suddenly it explodes over the top, then just as rapidly, it returns back to gentle slowly building towards a massive closing crescendo. The piano mirrors the vocals, growing louder and more decisive in its chords; which is really the thing with Meiburg's vocals, they're another instrument.
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Live video

Song of the Day: September 14th

2009-09-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

Broken Social Scene: "Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl" from You Forgot it in People
For a bunch of people in their twenties or older, Broken Social Scene nail the feelings of teenager pretty well here, but it's the style at which they are delivered that really drives things home; Emily Haines' wavering, effects laden vocals display the indecision of youth and the gentle repetition of "park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me" begins slowly, but then reaches an unbelievable height of intensity. The song is basically a banjo an strings with a little percussion, which create a light background that Haines' voice fills like a instrument in itself. The song maybe folkish, but the melody is pure pop. Which suits a band like Broken Social Scene, which has never done what it was supposed to.
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Live version!

Playing for Change

2009-09-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

Playing for Change is a project that covers "peace" songs using separately recorded musicians from around the world. If that doesn't make any sense, just watch their video of Bob Marley's "War/No More Trouble" and try to ignore Bono ruining it.

The version of "Stand by Me" is also highly recommended.

Song of the Day: September 12th

2009-09-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

Belle & Sebastian: "Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying"
from If You're Feeling Sinister
For a songwriter with some of the best one liners in music, Stuart Murdoch really out does himself on this song. From the very first line through the whole song, Murdoch is very self-aware, something more songwriters need to be: "nobody writes them like they used to, so it may as well be me", "think of it this way, you could either be successful or be us" and that's just in the first couple lines. He shifts gears from self-referential to fantastical, telling a fairy tale: "Said the hero in the story, 'it is mightier than swords, I could kill sure but I could only make you cry with these words'". Each line is painstakingly crafted to lead into the next continuing the winding story; usually in songwriting you get great one liners or a great story, Murdoch does the rare and has both.
Listen
Great live version

Beck covering Leonard Cohen

2009-09-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

Currently on Beck's website (beck.com) there are two covers of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and "Master Song" (both originally from Cohen's Songs of Leonard Cohen) and while there's nothing groundbreaking here, it's a pretty fun listen as one of the most interesting musicians around covers one of the best songwriters ever. These are part of the "Beck's Record Club" series that already covered The Velvet Underground & Nico and Skip Spence's Oar and apparently intend to cover all of Songs... too. Beck's band this time includes MGMT, Devandra Banhart, and members of Wolfmother and Little Joy. They update with a new song every Thursday.

Song of the Day: September 11th

2009-09-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

The Magnetic Fields: "I Wish I Had an Evil Twin" from i
Stephin Merritt likes to write about fantasies; namely songs about people who want to act out of their situation ("The Nun's Litany", "Busby Berkley Dreams", "Love in the Shadows") and his crowning achievement in this department is this song. No other song I've ever heard more clearly or blatantly expresses repressed human emotion. Who, at some point in their life, wishes they could act with responsibly? Who doesn't want to punch some person they dislike, or talk confidently to a girl they're nervous around? Now some of these feelings are not something we should be experiencing, but we all have them and lines like "sometimes the good life wears thin, I wish I had an evil twin... all men would writhe beneath his scythe" while violent, shows clearly just how despicable humans can be when they get worn down by this world. The gentle stings and plunking keyboards make the song seem ever more consumed with and under current of suppressed frustration and rage.
Watch live!

New Clinic song: "The Lion Tamer"

2009-09-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

Vintage keyboard obsessed garage rock band Clinic has released a new song "The Lion Tamer" as part of the Mass Freakout Sampler for the eponymous concert series. The song which features distorted vocals backed by Clinic's typical face paced rhythms, muddy guitar and prominent use of synthasizers. The song has a very low-fi early garage rock feel to it. Clinic is one of those bands that will change the production values and feel of their songs a lot, but the keep the same general style to their music.
Due to how it was released it's impossible to tell if it's part of a new release or not. Stay tuned!
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Song of the Day: September 9th

2009-09-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Akron/Family: "I'll Be On the Water/Running Returning" from Akron/Family
Today I'm cheating a little and doing two songs that appear back to back on Akron/Family's self-titled debut. Though one leads into the other, both musically and lyrically, so well that they really could be considered two parts of the same song.
"I'll Be On the Water" musically is very simple, it's a simple lo-fi acoustic line with ambient bird and wave noises that build ups up into the twangy banjo and clattering, rattling percussion of "Running, Returning". Lyrically, the first song is about realizing you're in love with someone, though written in typically bizarre Akron/Family style ("thinking of you, there's lightning bolts in my chest") while "Running, Returning" is about realizing just how much you love them ("love is on it's way, and it's more than I can see"). That's what's so interesting about the songs, not just how beautiful the music is, but that the songs actually continue not a story, but an emotion. And the band doesn't even bring attention to it, it's simply there. This isn't some prog-rock opera about a robot that thinks it's a human and falls in love with a cat, it's a progression of emotion, of feeling.
Listen: "I'll Be On the Water"
Listen: "Running, Returning"
Bonus: Amazing video of a live version of "Running, Returning" set to a mirrored scenes from Bambi. I know it sounds weird, but it's awesome.

New Los Campesinos! song

2009-09-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

"The Sea is a Goof Place to Think of the Future" is a new song from Los Campesinos!, presumable from their already completed, as yet to be titled next album due to be released in early 2010. Though it's entirely possible this is a leftover that won't actually appear on the album, since the band has been know to do that (see: "The International Tweexcore Underground", "How I Taught Myself to Scream").

As for the song... It's interesting. They've slowed down a bit, though they still yell and shred a little at the end, for the most part it's much slower and subdued. Lyrically they're also a little different, less tongue in cheek humorous and more dark and serious. While I'd hate to see them go this direction significantly, they do it pretty well and one or two songs would be nice as a change of pace.

Song of the Day: September 8th

2009-09-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

The Avalanches: "Frontier Psychiatrist" from Since I Left You
The Avalanches are collage artists, and "Frontier Psychiatrist" is their masterwork. All their songs seamlessly blend together different samples from countless different sources, most of which no one has ever heard of, which separates them from most other sample happy party artists. This song however, is a different creature than any of their other songs, the music aspect is much like their other songs; sampled beats, strings, horns, and guitars form the background to an insane string of couple word spoken samples so you get a wacko lines like "he was white as a sheet" read by what sounds like some children's book author followed by "and also made false teeth" by some 50s actor. It's just and insane collage of wacky audio samples stuck together perfectly into a coherent song. Throw in horse noises and gunshots and an amazing vinyl scratch breakdown of bird and parrot noises and you've got the craziest sample based song ever. And also the best.
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Song of the Day: September 7th

2009-09-07T16:08:00.000-07:00

Animal Collective: "The Purple Bottle" from Feels
"The Purple Bottle" is a love song. And since it's written and performed by Animal Collective, it's a love song quite unlike any other. The interesting thing about the song is just how genuine it is, there's real happiness and joy in this song. From the gigglish "do da do do do do's" to lines like "I talk too much about you" and "I've got a big big big big heart beat, I think you're the sweetest thing" speak of a real love, but also a childlike love. Or perhaps I'm mistaking childlike love for a innocent love. A love not complicated by adult issues, but all about what love should be about: you and your love sharing life together.
Musically the band's style uses their signature rhythm driven sound with rapid click and thumping from the percussion with dreamy guitar bubbling over the top. The band again uses vocals as an instrument, with chanting and a closing vocal breakdown freakout. By that kind of stuff is to be expected with Animal Collective.
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Song of the Day: September 6th

2009-09-06T18:06:00.000-07:00

Portishead: "Sour Times" from Dummy
This is a song that hard to forget, which is odd because it's so unassuming. A simple hip-hop beat, a creeping, and slight guitar are all that's really there musically, but perhaps the reason the song is so unforgettable is because of Beth Gibbons. Gibbons mirrors her band in that she, while a phenomenal vocalist, is somewhat unassuming, she doesn't stand out style or talent wise, but the emotion and inflection she puts in her delivery is out of this world. This especially, she really takes things to another level, when she sings "nobody loves me", it sounds like she's really feeling depressed, but then you hear the next verse "like you do" and she genuinely sounds in love. This song, for how simple it appears on the surface, is a complex experience to take in.
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Song of the Day: September 5th

2009-09-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

The National: "You've Done it Again Virginia" from Lit Up
Matt Berninger has never been known as cheerful songwriter; he's made his living writing dark, self-deprecating songs about losers and lost loves but "You've Done it Again Virginia" is perhaps his saddest song. It tells of a real tragedy, not heartbreak, but something that really destroys you're life: hopelessness and alcoholism. As the title character Virginia tries to navigate the labyrinths of adult life and love she becomes increasingly desperate and lonely and more and more reliant one alcohol. After a failed date she goes home and consuls herself with drink; eventually her life devolves into nothing but stagnate lifelessness: "if you had another wish to wish, you'd be fun and moving" and blame and self-loathing: "Well you've done it again Virginia, made another masterpiece... how does it feel to be you?".
You may think that when your boyfriend or girlfriend says something mean to you, it's a tragedy, but it's important to have perspective about what real tragedy is and how it can destroy lives, and how important caring and love is. You never know what state someone may be in inside.
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Song of the Day: September 4th

2009-09-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

Iron & Wine and Calexico: "16, Maybe Less" from In the Reins
Calexico and Sam Beam were made for each other; both excel in creating music that makes an unobtrusive background that meshes perfectly with the vocals, enhancing them instead of distracting from them. Calexico simply does this on a larger scale with a full band, while Beam does it with just a guitar. As a backing band here, Calexico create a murky country-folk soundscape that fits the songs references to trees and ponds perfectly. Twangy electric and acoustic slide mix with shimmering pedal steel flow over John Convertino's signature hollow drums seamlessly.
Lyrically, the song is one of Beam's best because it's one of the few times he drops his poetic, hyper-literate shtick and writes true human emotions in traditional, American folk song style. The song bleeds regret and nostalgia as Beam begins relating a story of first love, but then changes gears to the climax of the song... "I met my wife at a party when I drank too much, my son is married and tells me we don't talk enough, call it predictable, yesterday my dream was of you". In truly heartbreaking fashion, he contrasts the innocence of youth and the complex sadness of adulthood. The message is this: love is simple and joyful as a child, complex and painful as an adult.
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Best albums of 2009 (so far...)

2009-09-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

20. Clark: Totems Flare
19. Woods: Songs of Shame
18. The Pains of Being Pure of Heart
17. Patrick Wolf: The Bachelor
16. The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love
15. The XX: XX
14. Dinosaur Jr: Farm
13. Wild Beasts: Two Dancers
12. Bibio: Ambivalence Avenue
11. Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
10. The Antlers: Hospice
09. Circulatory System: Signal Morning
08. Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs
07. Mos Def: The Ecstatic
06. Annie: Don't Stop
05. Fever Ray
04. Camera Obscura: My Maudlin Career
03. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!
02. Mew: No More Stories...
01. The Twilight Sad: Forget the Night Ahead

Click here for brief write ups.

Best albums of 2008

2008-12-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

click the link: Best albums of 2008

Shearwater: Rook

2008-07-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

Shearwater is one of my very favorite bands, and one of the few bands that I can confidently say will be remembered a long time from now, so it seems odd that it's taken me nearly a month to write anything about it. The reason for this is two-fold; the first reason is that this is the type of album that takes time to digest, to understand in whole. The second reason is that I wanted to wait until I could acquire the album on vinyl and listen to it that way, before I wrote my final thoughts on the album. My thoughts are this: this is one of the best albums of the year and the best full-length album the band has released (the Thieves EP is in a different category all together). It may not have the dynamic, standouts that Palo Santo had, or the contrasting in singers and songwriters that Winged Life has, but it is the band's most consistent, mature, elegant, and best constructed album. The Talk Talk influence that lay beneath the surface of previous albums is brought to a head here, with almost every track save "Century Eyes" having the stamp of Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock on it. That's not to say that this is a Talk Talk tribute album, indeed not. Besides the band's own considerable original input, there are traces of Nico, John Cale, and even Van Morrison in here. And besides, Talk Talk is a band that is incredibly under referenced by non-instrumental groups. However, all the staples of a Shearwater album are here, Jonathan Meiburg's stunning, otherworldly, choirboy vocals, and the blend of piano, banjo, electric guitar, bass, and drums that forms the foundation of so many of the band's songs. Each song is also accented with multitudes of strings, horns, harps, woodwinds, and even the world percussion instrument or two, in such a way that balances perfectly the dark, organic base of the songs with grand, sweepingly majestic flourishes. It's a dense, albeit painfully short album, that places Shearwater firmly in the upper-echelon of mature, professional bands.
Note: the album's b-sides "North Col", "So Bad", and "The Rainbow" (a Talk Talk cover) are all worth checking out, and are available as bonus tracks on the itunes release of the album.
Listen ("Leviathan Bound")

Grails: Take Refuge in Clean Living

2008-07-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last years release by Grails, Burning Off Impurities, was an amazing psychedelic through world cultures, down the silk road and on into the far east. It mixed Arabian, Indian, and Oriental influences and instruments with the style of American folk, blues, and drone that the band had developed on earlier releases. The band's latest album, Take Refuge in Clean Living is a supposedly a full-length release, but since it only has five tracks that amount to about a half an hour of music (last years album was 8 songs, fifty minutes) I'm more inclined to view this as an EP. It's this fact that makes me less disappointed in the album, that, while still an excellent collection of music, doesn't quite live up to the bar set last year by the album. The album starts strongly, "Stoned at the Taj Again" ranks among the band's best material, with it's subtle sitar accents and a sweet drone guitar, throbbing bass combination. The next songs don't fare quite as well, "PTSD" is a directionless, rambling electric guitar mess and "11th Hour", while interesting, really doesn't draw you back for more listens. "Take Refuge" improves on the last two tracks drastically, with a similar style to the opening song, but it lacks the subtle exotic instrumentation that makes the band so great. "Clean Living" closes that album on a puzzling note, with a nearly six minute long ambient drone track that is mostly strings and piano and sounds more like something from The Kilimanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble than from Grails. Again, it's not that this is a bad album, it's just that, the opening track aside, it doesn't have the dynamic tunes that it's predecessor had. There's no creepy banjo waltzes like "Soft Temple" or aggressive romps like "Dead Vine Blues", just some unfocused, meandering songs that have potential, but fail to deliver on them. But again, I see this as an EP, not a full-length, and EPs are notorious for experimentation, so let's hope that's all this is.
Listen ("Stoned at the Taj Again")

múm: Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy

2008-07-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

Let's talk underrated albums of '07; I was a fan of múm's fourth album, Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy when it was released, but there wasn't much separating me from the album's detractors (it has a 66 on review collector website Metacritic). But after having the album for nearly a year, it's grown on me considerably and my incredulity at all the negative reviews has increased mightly. Pitchfork's review contained this line "While this is certainly not a great record, it probably has broader appeal." which really puzzles me. What exactly, about a weird psychtronic album with lots of bizzare samples and traditional instruments is more appealing than the band's early albums, full of warm and gentle electronica and the gorgeous vocals of Kría Brekkan? (who left the band before Go Go was recorded) Nothing, what makes this album great is it's mix of joyful pop moments, and abstruse, artsy sequences. Is it múm's best album? No, but is it at all a bad album? Absolutely not, it's a charming, occasionally otherworldly sounding album that is a good listen no matter who you are.
Listen ("Dancing Behind My Eyelids")

Okkervil River: The Stand-Ins

2008-07-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

The best band of the 21st century is back less then a year after their last album was released. The Stand-Ins is a collection of tracks left over from The Stage Names sessions (it was originally supposed to be a double-album) and much like the Black Sheep Boy Appendix, it continues on the themes of it's sister album with a similar music style. Unlike the aforementioned EP, The Stand-Ins is a full length album. That's right, 40 more minutes of folksy rock and roll awesomeness! The album has 7 new songs, 3 short interludes, and a previously released (and totally amazing) b-side "Starry Stairs". Much like The Stage Names, the songs are split between slow burning mid-tempo tracks and rollicking, upbeat jams. The former includes songs like the organ-laced "Blue Tulip", the piano/guitar led "On Tour With Zykos" and the lovely closing track "Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed On the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979", these tracks really highlight Will Sheff's songwriting (which is incredible on every track anyways) and the band's ability to stay out of the way, yet still create beautiful arrangements that eventually unfold into some fantastic instrumental break. The upbeat tracks include the Sheff/Jonathon Meiburg duet "Lost Coastlines", the pounding, beat influenced "Singer-Songwriter", the synth (SYNTH!) and guitar dueling "Pop Lie", and the folky "Calling and Not Calling My Ex". These songs are Okkervil River at their loosest, and really show the band just having fun. They are a lot more detailed than the faster tracks on The Stage Names, weaving in more instruments with more complex arrangements. All in all, it'll take many listens to find where this album fits in with Okkervil River's catalog. It's certainly no Black Sheep Boy, but it's much more promising than The Stage Names, and more mature than the band's first two albums. We'll just have to see...
Listen ("Lost Coastlines [Live]")

Portishead: Third

2008-04-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

Much is made about the fact that Portishead hasn't released an album or done any touring to speak of in ten years, and the main concern about this that was held by many was that the band would make a release a crappy album. Apparently they forgot that IT'S FREAKING PORTISHEAD, the world's greatest trip-hop group!! Their new album proves that there are some band's that are just head and shoulders better than the rest, and Portishead is one of them. Third is a logical progression from 1998's self-titled album, refining their sound by stripping it down to the bare essentials: Geoff Barrow's beats, Adrian Utley's jazz guitar, and Beth Gibbons' stunning vocals. All you really need to know about this album is as follows: it's Portishead, listen to it.
Listen ("The Rip")

Ladytron: Velocifero

2008-04-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

It’s been a bit of time since Ladytron released their last album in 2005, and as all good electro bands should, they’ve advanced with times but also plumbed the depths of the past to refine the sound they truly established as their own with Witching Hour, the album that took them from a good band to a great band way back in ‘05. That album’s follow-up, Velocifero, is a non-stop electroclash barrage with a thicker, fuller sound then its predecessor. The formula is same for Ladytron however, programmed drumming, throbbing Joy Division-esque bass, atmospheric synths, and swirling, effects laden guitars. But, whereas Witching Hour is an electroclash album with strong shoegaze influences, Velocifero is the opposite. If you could possible imagine what a Rio-era Duran Duran and My Bloody Valentine collaboration would sound like, you’d be at least in the right mindset to get this. The atmosphere is laid on heavily, and the layers of sound wash over one another like a Cocteau Twins song, but is driven with propulsive rhythms and jagged electronics. The other big change to Ladytron’s sound is actually a change back to the duel vocalist set-up used on their first two albums (604 and Light & Magic), so fans of Bulgarian vocalist Mira Aroyo will be pleased to know she shares the spotlight with Helen Marnie almost equally.
Listen ("Black Cat")

Islands: Arm's Way

2008-04-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

Composed former of members of short-lived, much-loved indie pop The Unicorns, one might expect Islands to follow at least slightly in their footsteps, but a radical shift came with Islands first album, Return to the Sea and this change has been cemented completely on their second album. Arm’s Way takes the tradition of Canadian orchestral rock and blows it up to ridicules proportions; from the over-dramatic lyrics, punning titles, verbose sounds, and even the insane and disturbing cover art. In truth it has more in common with symphonic prog bands such as Electric Light Orchestra than with, say, Arcade Fire. Bombastic guitars screech and rumble in ascending lines while crystal clear strings do more than accent, they carry the songs in many cases. Another large factor in the album is the quite obvious glam influence to be found at the core of many of the songs; the outlandish eccentricities of David Bowie, the experimental string work of Brian Eno, the wicked pop of Roxy Music, the swagger and grit of T. Rex can all be found within Arm’s Way. It’s this mixture of glam era styles and bombastic prog leanings with modern indie rock sensibilities that makes the album so intriguing, and it’s a surprising sound album, whose only arguable fault is the length; 12 tracks at 68 minutes can tend to be somewhat of an overload.
Listen ("The Arm")

thirty albums from 2008's first third

2008-04-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

Once April ends, we'll be a third done with 2008 (already!) and so far it's been a pretty good year in music. I've narrowed down the best releases to thirty essentials, I now present them to you in no particular order:

Boris: Smile
Never a wanting to do remotely the same thing twice, Japanese trio Boris has once again shifted their style, abandoning for the most part the hard-hitting guitar rock of Pink and, with the help of former collaborators Michio Kurihara and Stephen O'Malley, embracing a more abstract, beat centered psych-metal.
Listen ("Message")

Hercules and Love Affair
They're being called this years Justice, and if any dance album is going to be a crossover hit, this will likely be it. The duo mix progressive dance techniques and classic disco with ease, while guests, most notably Antony Hegarty, whose is featured on several tracks, provide the vocals.
Listen (Myspace)

Brethren of the Free Spirit: All Things Are From Him, Through Him and in Him
A collaboration between 12-string guitarist James Blackshaw and lute player Jozef van Wissem, Brethren of the Free Spirit sounds a lot like Blackshaw's other work, but with a little more medeval sound, courtesy of van Wissem.
Listen ("Garden")

Flight of the Conchords
Though the words "comedy music" may fill you with thoughts of horror and Weird Al, Flight of the Conchords are actually funny, as well as skilled musicians who, except for "Innercity Pressure", don't simply steal music from other and re-write it, unfunnily. It's probably because they're not American, unfunny and unoriginal are American trademarks.
Listen (Myspace)

Kelley Polar: I Need You to Hold On While the Sky is Falling
Though they're vastly different, Kelley Polar and Patrick Wolf both share a love for electronics and classical music. And while Wolf's love manifests itself as folktronica, Polar's comes off as a sort of electro-disco with string touches used to bring a groove to the songs, though he does get a little more ambitious with his arrangements as the album goes on.
Listen ("Entropy Reigns in the Celestial City")

The Tallest Man On Earth: Shallow Graves
First full-length from a very Dylanesque folk singer from Sweden. His lyrics are full of imagery and he's a pretty proficient finger-picker on guitar and banjo. His voice might not be for everyone, as it's a sort of cross between Dylan and Tom Verlaine, but if his voice doesn't bother you, there's plenty for folk lovers to enjoy here.
Listen ("Pistol Dreams")

Leandra: Metamorphine
A truly chilling combination of electro and gothic classical, that, even when the arrangements fall fall flat, is carried by Leandra's powerful and compelling vocals. She can blow you away with strong strains, or seduce you with soft whispers. Sometimes the music borders on cheesy, but if you're feeling melodramatic, you won't really notice.
Listen(Myspace)

The Mountain Goats: Heretic Pride
This album really should be titled, Heretic Pride or How Darnielle Got His Groove Back because this album marks John Darnielle's breakthrough from albums that were startlingly average. His lyrics have never been stronger (and for those of you who have listened to older Mountain Goats' albums, you know that's no mean feat) and the arrangements surrounding them find a comfortable place between the band's early lo-fi and later hyper-produced sound.
Listen ("San Bernardino")

Retribution Gospel Choir
Fan of the guitar who know enough about the instrument to know exactly how great of a guitarist Alan Sparhawk is, have been waiting for years to hear him break out and play some good old fashioned rock music. Retribution Gospel Choir is your chance and, with Mark Kozelek, a master of the guitar jam himself, producing, you know the results will be amazing.
Listen ("Breaker")

Sun Kil Moon: April
Back with his first new material since 2005, Mark Kozelek's third full-length under the Sun Kil Moon moniker (and ninth overall) takes things back more to his Red House Painters days, slowing down and extending songs and focusing more than ever on his songwriting, which was already some of the best ever. Not as immediately appealing as past Sun Kil Moon albums, April is someone of a grower, yet still a masterpiece.
Listen (Myspace)

She & Him: Volume One
Most people by now should know that She & Him is a collaboration between actress/singer Zooey Deschanel and folk artist M. Ward. Deschanel provides the vocals (and does she have a set of pipes) and a little piano while Ward does the music. Together they create an album with a timeless sound that's sure to please music fans of all ages. Hopefully Deschanel won't be the only successful actress/singer crossover this year... (Scarlet Johansson here we come!)
Listen (Myspace)

Black Mountain: In the Future
Black Mountain's self-titled debut was a fun album, but it lacked depth and didn't entertain you for very long, but with their sophomore release they've fixed all that. In the Future is still as retro psych-rock as their debut, but it's now infused with higher level of energy, passion, and creativity. As well as some seriously epic jams, those always help.
Listen (Myspace)

British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music?
If you answered yes to the question above, then you very well may enjoy British Sea Power's third album. It's not quite as good as their first two (both of which were certified classics) and the band has dropped some of post-punk Joy Division in their sound and gone with more straight-forward, well, rock music. Even then, a band like British Sea Power can only be so straight-forward...
Listen ("No Lucifer")

Clinic: Do It!
Clinic has never been able to top their debut Internal Wrangler but they come close on their fifth full-length album. The band's signature vintage keyboard obsessed sound and their rotating male and female vocal duties are still the foundation of the band, but a new heavier use of guitars, both guitar and acoustic, are enough to breathe life into the band and give them the second best album of their career.
Listen (Myspace)

Destroyer: Trouble in Dreams
Dan Bejar's eagerly anticipated follow-up to Destroyer's Rubies fails to disappoint in any way except that it fails to disappoint in any way. Bejar seems to have found a formula he likes and decided to stick with it. There's no major changes, no real risks, just Bejar's bizarrely awesome lyrics and the same indie blues sound that he used on Rubies perhaps it's a stupid quibble, but coming from a guy who followed up a distortion soaked album with one that wasn't much more than acoustic guitar and MIDI strings, it's kinda disappointing.
Listen ("Dark Leaves Form a Thread")

El Guincho: Alegranza
El Guincho has become known as the "Spanish Panda Bear" and while this comparison is valid because of both artists extensive use of samples and vocal samples, El Guincho has a lot more character than Panda Bear. I like Person Pitch, but I found it to be kind of bland and repetitive and times while El Guincho has a lot more personality and zest in his music, it's full of ethnic flavor and booty shaking rhythms; while Person Pitch is a sit and listen record, Alegranza is a get up and live album.
Listen ("Antillas")

Los Campesinos!: Hold On Now, Youngster...
The perfect combination of witty, sarcastic lyrics and catchy indie pop, Los Campesinos! first full-length album is a thing of beauty. Vastly orchestrated symphonic guitar-pop and lyrics that pick apart every little bit of ridicules indie culture and mock it. Not since If You're Feeling Sinister has indie pop been this intelligent and this fun.
Listen (Myspace)

The Magnetic Fields: Distortion
Stephin Merrit once again proves himself the songwriting genius that first showed itself on the classic 69 Love Songs and i, but here instead of the symphonic indie pop of before, The Magnetic Fields have adopted a distortion heavy lo-fi surfer rock album (hence the title) that brings about thoughts of the Beach Boys meets My Bloody Valentine.
Listen ("California Girls")

Subtle: ExitingARM
Subtle's albums always sound different, and ExitingArm is no different, instead of the upbeat and in-your-face electro hip-hop of For Hero: For Fool this time around the band has gone with a much mellower, spacey sound, that make a large use of effects and multi-tracked vocals. Doseone's bizarre lyrics and delivery have never been better, and the band has never been more creative with their arrangements.
Listen ("The Crow")

Supergrass: Diamond Hoo Ha
Supergrass is one of the most underrated bands in the last the history of music, while fellow 90s Brit bands like Radiohead, Oasis, and Blur have all gone on to have huge success, Supergrass barely makes a scratch in America, regardless of all the critical praise their delightful albums get. Diamond Hoo Ha forgos the intimate classic folk rock sound of Road to Ruin and returns to the bombastic riff-centric glam rock of their early albums.
Listen ("Bad Blood")

Plants and Animals: Parc Avenue
A very promising new band who have progressed dramatically from their early EPs which we're really not much more than instrumental folk, into a band the reminds me of an American folk version of Beirut. Both make complex indie rock with lots of instruments and plenty of string work and Warren Spicer shares a similar vocal style as Zach Condon, but with less melodrama.
Listen ("Good Friend")

The Ruby Suns: Sea Lion
If Akron/Family were a New Zealand indie pop band, they might sound something like this, but that's not being fair to The Ruby Suns, who are a incredible band in their own right. This is a really special little album, all the little rhythms and mass vocals singing in some other language come out beautifully. Every little detail on this album is perfect, it could not be improved on in any way.
Listen ("Tane Mahuta")

Silver Jews: Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
I'll routinely hear people refer to Silver Jews as a "Pavement side-project" which is complete bullcrap, and it's time that Silver Jews were given their own place in music. David Berman is the genius behind Silver Jews and he's one of the most underrated lyricists in music, he's also been living in the shadow of American Water for a long time, but with Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea I think he's at least come close to equaling that album, and anyone who's heard it knows that's a big, big deal.
Listen (Myspace)

Haale: No Ceiling
The debut album by Persian singer-songwriter Haale is an intriguing affair, a sort of dark rock album with tons of regional influences, think Patti Smith of Arabia. Swirling walls of guitar and tinkling percussion surround Haale's voice which is strong, but sounds disappointingly American.
Listen ("Middle of Fire")

Spritualized: Songs in A&E
It's Spiritualized and it rivals Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. What more is there to say?
Listen ("Soul On Fire")

Genghis Tron: Board Up the House
Genghis Tron, all grown up. Well, not quite, but their sound certainly has grown. While the bands base is still grindcore mixed with electro, the band has a new prog element to their sound that really livens things up, it's not quite the crazy force that Dead Mountain Mouth is, but it's a more interesting listen for sure.
Listen ("Board Up the House")

Goldfrapp: Seventh Tree
Goldfrapp is one of only a handful or pop musicians who are true artists. They aren't satisfied with the norm and they don't rest on their laurels, they push each album in a new direction, and in the case of Seventh Tree they've taken their sound somewhere very new and different: folk. Well, folk influenced ambient pop anyways. Alison Goldfrapp's heavenly vocals are as strong as ever and the music swell and flows serenely with acoustic guitars and swaying over light-as-air beats.
Listen ("A&E")

Lykke Li: Youth Novels
Lykke Li is another one of the years most promising new artists, her brand of mellow indie pop with a just the minutest touch of African music and jazz is a breath of fresh air to the indie pop scene. Her breathy vocals at first don't seem to match the poly-rhythms, but after a bit it falls into place.
Listen ("Dance. Dance. Dance.")

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band: 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
If you've never heard A Silver Mt. Zion or Godspeed You! Black Emperor, then they're probably not for you. If you've disliked either of those bands in the past, this album isn't going to convert you. I love it though.
Listen ("blindblindblind")

Valet: Naked Acid
I don't know if this album's title is a suggestion of how best to enjoy this album, but I certainly seems like some kind of illicit narcotic were freely used in the creation of this album. This is one of the most trippy albums I've heard in a long time, it's one part slowcore, one part ambient, and all parts psychedelic.
Listen ("Kehaar")

Best Albums of the 00's: 10-1

2008-04-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

10. The Mountain Goats: The Coroner's GambitI don't think I could put The Mountain Goats' discography into any ranking, there's just too many gray areas and similarities to get any kind of hierarchical order. The only thing I know for sure is that The Coroner's Gambit would far and away be number one. It's just that much better of an album compared to the Goats' 18 other albums, all of which are no slouches in the quality department themselves. This album is the best lyrically and the best musically, songs like "Jaipur" and "Family Happiness" are perfect examples of John Darnielle's skill as a songwriter and his ability to mix the trippily fantastic and the disturbingly real. Musically "Island Garden Song" shows of his ability to write memorable and surprisingly complex acoustic guitar parts, while tracks like "Baboon" show the first signs of Darnielle's expanding palet, with it's accordion and drums, but for the most part he lets the lyrics own the show and keeps the accompaniment simple and lo-fi on his acoustic, just the way we want it.

9. James Yorkston: Moving Up Country
While most of the folk world is embracing "freak folk" and "New Weird American" and distancing themselves more and more from the listener and the lyrics, James Yorkston struck back into the traditions of artists like Nick Drake and other big figures in the British folk movement with lush arrangements and deep lyrics. Guitars and pianos provide the base, while fiddle and accordion swell and light percussion give things a little rhythm and other touches such as harmonica, pedal steel and various other folk instruments help Yorkston avoid the great folk pitfall, that such acts as Iron and Wine have fallen into, that is laziness which leads to boring arrangements. Lyrically Yorkston also does a great job of keeping things interesting, whether the subject be love ("I Know My Love"), loss ("St. Patrick"), or faith ("Sweet Jesus") or all three ("Moving Up Country, Roaring the Gospel") Yorkston balance cleverness and realness perfectly, always seeming like the every-man going through hard times, albeit and every-man who can turn a phrase with the best of them.

8. Jens Lekman: Oh You're So Silent Jens
Jens Lekman, much like Paul Simon (an acknowledged influence), has a nact for clever lyrical twists and pop music with lots of surprising instrumentation and arrangement. Lekman balances piano ballads and chamber-laden twee-pop perfectly, wearing his heart on his sleeve and infusing loads of witticisms, throwing you of balance with lines like "I can't say that you are pretty, that would make me a liar but you turn my my legs to spaghetti and set my heart on fire" that you can't tell if he's being insulting or sweet. His view of love is so simple "Now there's nothing left but love enough to feed a family, but I just want to feed Emily, with lukewarm English beer and vegan pancakes" but it stresses home a point that love isn't grand or magical, it really is simple and plain, but that makes it even more special. Much like the way Stephin Merritt can break your heart with just his voice, Lekman can make you melt in you shoes, and it doesn't help when he's singing stuff like "I killed the party again, I ruined for my friends". No Jen, you didn't kill the party, you are the party.

7. Belle & Sebastian: Push Barman to Open Old Wounds
Push Barman to Open Old Wounds spans 4 years in Belle & Sebastian's career, but you can't tell. That's because the band's sound is timeless. If I could compare them to anyone it would be Love, they both make complex yet catchy pop masterpieces, but Belle & Sebastian get the slight edge lyrically, since in Stuart Murdoch they have one of the most clever and skilled crafters of memorable melodies and intimate lyrics. The first five tracks of the album make up one of the best five song runs in music history, and ending it all is the best song the band's ever recorded; "Lazy Line Painter Jane" is a retro sounding track with it's handclap rhythm, humming guitar, throbbing bass, and shimmering organ, while other songs like the seven minute "This is Just a Modern Rock Song" display all three of Belle & Sebastian's singers in their full glory. The whole album is almost two hours in length, a tall order for a pop album, but the band's shifting focus and downright skill make it completely enrapturing the entire time.

6. Islaja: Palaa aurinkoon
Psychedelic music played itself out pretty fast in the 60s, and though it lives on in some artists like The Flaming Lips, for the most part it's gone except for as an influence added to other styles. And even then, most of what's being made isn't really very psychedilic, but listen to just one Islaja song and you'll never call The Mars Volta trippy again. The opening track on the Finnish singer's album is made up of clanking bells and gentle horns, and that's about it, except for Islaja's voice, which is a treasure all it own. Her voice is hypnotic and otherworldly, (think Björk meets Vashti Bunyan on acid) and when it's combined with the downright weird arrangements (panpipes and clarinet?) it makes for a downright otherworld experience. Islaja is really an artist you must hear to understand, there's not any real reference points to her music, except a lose tie to Finnish folk music, but even then that's just surface. The title track is has something that sounds like poorly recorded stomp music with recorder and off-kilter piano accompanying. Like I said, you really just have to hear it.

5. David Thomas Broughton: The Complete Guide to Insufficiency
David Thomas Broughton's debut album follows a pretty simple formula: single acoustic guitar, voice, loop pedal of vocals and guitar being played over and over while more guitar and vocals are being added. He does it on all of the album's five songs, each of which average around eight minutes, and it works perfectly every time. The small amount of songs allows Broughton to create five memorable guitar melodies that are easily recognizable from each other, but it's not the guitar you're focused on for the most part, it's Broughton's vocals and what he's singing that fascinate so much. His voice is as melodramatic (nearly operatic) as they come, but it doesn't sound at all put on, it sounds completely natural and the lyrics, well they're something very special. Perhaps the greatest love song ever written "Execution" consists of only a few lines: "I wouldn't take her to an execution. I wouldn't take her to a live sex show. I would piss or shit on her, would I? Because I love her so." while one of the saddest songs I've ever heard, "Unmarked Grave" will tear your heart. The album was recorded live in a church in Leeds, and during the climax of the aforementioned song, you can hear the church bells ringing; though incidental it sounds perfect, as does the whole album.

4. Broken Social Scene: Broken Social Scene
To me, this album is the pinnacle of indie rock in the 21st century, and Broken Social Scene the Pavement of this generation. They already defined the scope of the decades slant with You Forgot it in People, but instead of resting on their considerable laurels, they pressed forward into new experimental territory, lining up colossal trip-hop beats, multiple fuzzed-out guitar layerings, throbbing bass, and horn section freak-outs all around the vocal work of the likes of Feist, Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell of Stars, Emily Haines of Metric, Andrew Whiteman of Apostle of Hustle, Jason Collett, as well as Broken Social Scene's two core members Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, and that's not even counting guests like K-OS and Murray Lightburn of The Dears. The size and loose make up of Broken Social Scene allows the band to use as many instruments or as few as they want in the songs, for example "7/4 Shoreline" has five guitars in it, while "Bandwitch" is little more than guitar and percussion. "It's All Gonna Break" closes out the album as a reminder of why the album is so great, it's ten minutes of crunchy guitars, pounding rhythm section, a multi-part vocal track, and a final triumphant horn crescendoing coda, blaring like the herald of the new indie rock.

3. Sun Kil Moon: Ghosts of the Great Highway
The human voice is a powerful thing. Think about how a simple three-letter word like "yes" can have radically different meanings depending on the tone of the voice saying it; such is the power of the voice. God must have given Mark Kozelek's voice a little extra or something because his is a voice that can sell any song. The term "selling" however, does not apply here, since these are songs straight from Kozelek's heart and the ring as true as true can be. When he sings about being lonely, empty, heartbroken, and tired he sounds like he is those things, and you in turn feel lonely, empty, heartbroken, and tired. Kozelek also has a particular talent for fusing vocals, lyrics, and music such that he makes the music match what and how he is singing, so when he's sad the music swells with mournful guitars and strings behind him, furthering the affect of the already incredibly affecting song. Kozelek can even make five minute guitar solos sound sad, now that's talent.

2. Patrick Wolf: Wind in the Wires
Considering my love of electronic, classical, and folk music, it should come as a huge surprise that one of my most treasured albums is a perfect mix of the three. Take just the music of Wind in the Wires, violins and violas play not as an accessory to the music, but as a solo or lead instrument, the electronic beats are fuses of normal electronics and organic sounds such as birds, twisted together, pianos tinker while ukuleles, mandolins, and dulcimers are plucked or strummed. The whole album is unlike anything ever made, it's mixture of things modern and antiquated is unprecedented and honestly, there's nothing that sounds much like it. And the just the music, Patrick Wolf himself is an eccentric figure, a sort if character from the past who brings with him tales of folk tales of old and recites them with a dark melodrama. His delivery of lines like "Today I woke and my spirit was gone; still on the shore where he truly belongs" might sound stupid coming from anyone else, but from Wolf they sound frighteningly real. He fills many of his songs with such a longing that you really begin to believe that he, to quote Brian Wilson "just wasn't made for these times".

1. Okkervil River: Black Sheep Boy
What really, is there to write about this album? What can be said about it that won't sound stupid when compared with music? How does one describe such brilliant and inspired songwriting? What words are there to give an idea of how perfect each instrument, each note, each word, each syllable, is? Is it possible to say how perfect "A King and a Queen" is? When the strings start to swell just a little, the trumpet comes in, and Will Sheff starts to launch into his final declaration of love, will anything I say really matter? No, my words can't do one iota of justice to this music, so instead of doing it a disservice, I'll simple stop and tell you to go listen to it.

fin.

Best Albums of the 00's: 20-11

2008-04-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

20. Scott Walker: The DriftThe Drift is a nearly indomitable album. It took me many listens and hours of contemplation to get my head around it. It sounds nothing at all like Walker's first four masterpieces, all spectacular pop albums, but has more in common with the abstract experimentation of Tilt and Climate of the Hunter than the orchestra-laden folk-pop of his early work. Dark and haunting melodies coupled with Walker's deep, drawling voice that can sound drunk or operatic at a moments notice while the music can be ambient and serene then burst into a "solo" from some jungle horn or a wall of synthesized noise. Lyrically lines like "I'll punch a donkey in the street, then run away" hardly lend themselves to easy interpretation, and most of the album follow in that abstract route. There are not breaks from the drudgery of this album, like a black-hole it sucks in everything and leaves you with a barren wasteland of bizarre music. Thankfully, once you're sucked in, you won't want to leave.

19. Deerhoof: Apple O'
Apple O' is, I consider, Deerhoof's peak of their noise/math rock style, after this album the band started to experiment more with broader arrangements and more instruments. The beginning signs of this change is found on the album with things like the horns in "Sealed With a Kiss" or the acoustics of "Adam+Eve Connection" but for the most part the band stays true to their dueling tech-crazy guitar and wispy female vocals. The most incredible thing about this album is how the band can go from quiet, ethereal tracks like "Apple Bomb" and "Blue Cash" and then on the very next track explode into riotous guitar jams. This is amazing because on paper, the bands noisy, oddly structured arrangements combined with Satomi Matsuzaki's high vocal delivery shouldn't even work one way, let alone two. But it does.

18. Yo La Tengo: And Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
Of all the many things Yo La Tengo are lauded for, lyrics are usually absent from the list, which is a shame, though in some ways slightly understandable since you can't always understand what's being said over the washes of distortion and feedback, but whatever the reason, it's a shame since the band has considerable skill at laying down interesting lyrics. Take the hushed male/female harmonized "Last Days of Disco" for example, the lyrics capture perfectly that time of your life when everything influences you, when you're young and heartbroken and a song can either make you happy thinking about your girlfriend, or sad thinking about your ex. It's all in your head how you want to interpret it. Musically, with a few exceptions such as the ultimate Tengo rocker "Cherry Chapstick", the album is a lot quieter, with more emphisis on ballads than on distortion, but that just gives the bands lyrics a chance to shine.

17. mewithoutYou: Catch For Us the Foxes
Before the first song of this album is a quarter over, you know that you're experiencing an album unlike any other. Sure you've heard indie rock before, and you've heard post-hardcore before, and you may have even heard them both coming from the same band, but the type of music found on this album is truly one of a kind. The waves of droney guitars mixed with pounding riffs, throbbing bass, propellant drums switch from atmospheric ambiance to aggressive punk at the drop of a hat, and lead singer Aaron Weiss sings, screams, shouts, yells, and talks to recite his writing, which are more poetry in the classical sense than lyrics in the modern, but even then he has a strong sense of melody and flow within these poetic ramblings, which range from death and murder to God and love and are full of obscure Christian, Jewish, and Muslim ideas as well as influence from people like Rumi, Oscar Wilde, Kierkegaard, and Jack Kerouac, which Weiss recites without reference whatsoever, but simply ties them all together and then yells them while the rest of the band noodles and jams.

16. Circulatory System: Circulatory System
Circulatory System is Olivia Tremor Control minus Bill Doss, but not minus any of the awesomeness. That might seem a knock on Doss, but it's not. Instead of trying to make another Olivia Tremor Control album Will Cullen Hart decided to try something a little different. His patented layered sound is still there, and his penchant for noise collages is still there, but there's significantly less of the 60s pop that was his former band's trademark. Instead he's created a bizarre and introspective lo-fi psychedelic album chock full of abstract sounds and buried melodies. It's trippy fairyland that owes a lot to Indian music, such as the raga banjo track "Time or Dateline" as well as more modern psych artists. Just like the Olivia albums, this one flows perfectly, so perfectly that it all seems like different movements in a grand symphony, with each track flowing into the next seamlessly with Cullen Hart's patented interludes paving the way to as cohesive and wild an album as you'll ever hear.

15. Deftones: Saturday Night Wrist
Coming from a music scene that glamorizes the image and deemphasizes content and experimentation, Deftones are a true anomaly. Instead of being satisfied with simple alternative metal and rock tunes, which certainly would have brought the band more success, Chino Moreno and company bring in a wide variety of influences, ranging from trip-hop and electronica to dreamy shoegaze and even turntablism. Opening track "Hole in the Earth" is a pounding rock tune, while the next song "Rapture" is a distorted screamo track, but the really interesting songs are the ones where Moreno does trippy experimental songs like "Beware" and the divine "Cherry Waves". These songs are loaded with washes of effects-laden guitar, light beats and ambient electronic blips, and Moreno's own surreal and trippy vocals cutting through the swirling noise. Saturday Night Wrist is a dense album, full of unexpected twists and left-field twists, that make Deftones much more of a experimental band than and alternative one.

14. The Samuel Jackson Five: Easily Misunderstood

There's been a movement afoot in post-rock in the last couple years, though some might just say it's just the genre expanding and becoming more popular, but I'd call it "dilution" or "lameness". There are countless instrumental acts out there these days that are just plain boring, they follow in the dull and repetitive path of Explosions in the Sky by creating "epic" songs that are really just simple melodies repeated over and over that grow slowly in volume. This can be done interestingly and well, however, but artists that can do it are rare. Into this landscape of uninspired tedium come The Samuel Jackson Five, a group of guys with serious chops that make music that is just plain fun to listen to, as well as extremely well made. They have free-jazz guitar jams like "Charlie Foxtrot Queen" and "If You Show Off the Milk, Who's Gonna Buy the Cow?" piano and string duets such as "Michael Collins Autograph" and the title track, as well as progy experimental tracks like "No Name". The band can slow things down if they want and do the "atmospheric" thing if they want to, but the don't slow down for long and before you know it there's more psycho riffs coming your way. One thing that is clear throughout the album is that these guys are really having fun with their music, and not crying in the bathroom or trying to be a classical composer with no where near the skill, they are just making the music they love, and also happen to be geniuses at creating.

13. The Knife: Silent Shout
If you hadn't already figured it out by my constant use of "ominus" "gloomy" and other such words, when describing a lot of the albums on this list, I love dark music. Whether it be dark in lyrics, tone, atmosphere, everything. The more the better. I also love electronic music, and The Knife's third album happens to have a lot of darkness and be electronica, so the fact that it's so high on the list shouldn't come as much of a surprise. The opening and title track mixes minimal beats and arpeggiating synth lines with vocals that sound like vocalist Karin Andersson is singing a duet with Lucifer. Other tracks provide complex dance structures, while still others have pounding beats and tinkering metallic samples. All the songs find Andersson's vocals being given dramatic changes with effects and pitch-shifting, to the point that she sometimes sounds like a beefy man, but all this just adds to the twistedness of the album's entire sound. Like demons from the forests of Sweden, Andersson and her brother Olof, the DJ in the duo, create archaic electro music, best described by another reviewer as "haunted house".

12. Joanna Newsom: Ys
The Milk-Eyed Mender proved that Joanna Newsom could create intimate and complex freak-folk on a small scale, Ys shows us that she can do so on a grand scale, with even better results. With an average song length of around ten minutes, one might expect that Newsom's harp and voice style might grow a little tired, but that's so far from the case it's scary. Newsom's otherworldly, fairytale lyrics are make listening to the album worth it even if you hate the music, but there's not much to hate in the music either. Newsom's untraditional and detailed harp playing is a pleasure to listen to, and the addition of huge string and arrangements by baroque master Van Dyke Parks as well as little touches such as little bits of bass, jazz guitar, mandolin, and banjo. The truth is, the opening track is 12 minutes long and you don't want it to end by the time it's done; the rest of the album runs along those lines as well.

11. The National: Alligator
If someone were to ask me to recommend one album and one album only, Alligator would be my choice every time. The albums great appeal comes from just how well constructed it is. Matt Berninger's baritone occasionally sounds soothing while it can also emulate a drunken drawl, which suits Berninger's hopeless, depraved, barroom lyrics perfectly. Musically, the band keeps things simple, but tight with dueling electric guitar riffs and occasional piano, with everything being tied together with Bryan Devendorf's propulsive drumming, something that really anchors the album. Each song here is meticulously crafted, yet sounds so spontaneous and breezy in performance. Alligator really put The National on the map, and put them in contention to knock of The Hold Steady as "most literate bar band ever".

Best Albums of the 00's: 30-21

2008-04-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

30. James Yorkston: The Year of the LeopardJames Yorkston's third album is really about perfection. On it, Yorkston has perfected his songcraft, his lyrics, and his arrangements. Everything here is just right, every note fits perfectly in place and each word is meticulously thought through to give it just the right sound, flow, and inflection. But does that give it a cold, mechanical sound? Not at all, this is the lushest album he's released, it's chock full of all guitar, banjo, strings, and piano but also with other, odder instruments like bells or clarinet. "5 AM" is probably the triumph of Yorkston's career, music-wise, while spoken-word track "Woozy With Cider" is probably, from a purely lyrical standpoint, is the best song he's ever written. It makes you feel like you struggling with life in the city, just like the character. That's the genius of Yorkston's songs, he presents stories that you can relate to and character that are losers, with clear faults and struggles.

29. The Fiery Furnaces: Gallowsbird's Bark
The Fiery Furnaces' catalog is a product of evolution, with each successive album they have add more complexity and layers, but their first and most stripped down album is their best. Though synths and electronics occasionally appear in the album, it's mostly just gritty electric guitars, drums, and piano. Unlike the ten minute epics on latter albums, there's no songs over four and a half minutes, in fact most of them in the two minute range. The songs hit hard though, packing tons of Mathew Friedberger's blues riffs while his sister Eleanor's strong vocals keep you on your toes as she twists through odd phrasings and pronunciations. It's odd that, besides the amazing "Asthma Attack" and "Tropical Ice-Land" there aren't very many standout tracks, the album as a whole flows perfect to the point that you sort of forget that you're listening to a bunch of songs instead of a whole piece of music.

28. Okkervil River: Black Sheep Boy Appendix
Though an EP of "leftover" tracks may seem like it would be hit-or-miss, this is Okkervil River we're talking about, and for them nothing is impossible. This isn't an album so much of castoffs but one of songs that wouldn't fit on the Black Sheep Boy, the full-length that preceded it. There are no weak tracks on here, in fact all the songs are amazing, but take any of them and try to stick them on Black Sheep Boy and it wouldn't work at all. The pacing and flow of that album is perfect, and anything else in there would mess it up completely, so the Appendix was born. This one finds the band sounding more like the six-piece they are, with every musician playing on every track; the overall sound is a lot fuller and weightier as well as in some cases darker. "Another Radio Song" rest squarely in the middle of the EP, anchoring it as one of the very best songs the band has made while rockier songs like "No Key, No Plan" and "Last Love Song For Now" turn up the energy while "Black Sheep Boy #4" and "Missing Children" slow it down some. But either way the band decides to go, it always works.

27. Björk: Vespertine
Where, honestly, does one begin with a Björk? She's accomplished so much in her career, and changed the face of music; essential revolutionizing electronic music and paving the way for albums as diverse as Kid A and It's a Feedelity Affair. Her two defining albums are Post and Homogenic, which both preceded the release of Vespertine. How does one live up to the hype? How does one recreate the magic of two one-of-a-kind albums? The answer is you don't if you have talent. If you have true talent you push forward to conquer the next challenge, and for Björk that challenge was to make a more personal album. And that's exactly what Vespertine is. Each song is it's own microcosm of minimalist beats and maximum emotions. Everything in the album seems closer to you, the music is much more subdued and Björk's lyrics allow you a hazy window into her life, which is about the best you're going to get with her.

26. Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit
After 6 albums and loads of EPs, Belle & Sebastian's twee-pop days were starting to run out. Though the band has never released a bad album, of late the quality was slowly declining in the music department, so what does a band that wrote the book on modern indie pop do? Why, they dig back through their record collection for other pioneers of pop for influence. And that's just what Belle & Sebastian did on The Life Pursuit, you can find pop from every era in the last four decades on this album, everything from beat to Motown to folk-pop to glam (especially glam), to synth-pop is stuffed into the album and sealed together with some classic Belle & Sebastian twee-pop to hold it all together. This the loudest Belle & Sebastian album you'll hear and the actually could be called a "rock" band for come of the songs, but the you come across tunes like "Dress Up in You" and you remember that the band will always be a chamber-pop band at heart, and I'm not complaining about that.

25. Shearwater: Thieves
Thieves is a tiny little album, but inside these 5 songs are the best work Shearwater has ever released. The three Jonathon Meiburg led songs are dark and chilling. He uses his exquisite vocals perfectly with the music; as guitars and drums drone ominously, his choir-boy vocals slice through is with a resounding clearness. Will Sheff's two tracks, on the other hand, are take a more traditional folk route, while giving his unmatched lyrical ability a chance to shine in their full glory. Honestly though, even if "Mountain Laurel", Meiburg's smoky banjo and fiddle stomp, and "Near a Garden", Sheff's witty take on the fleetingness of life, were the only tracks on the album, it would still be the best in the band's catalog. Though, tracks like the slow-burners "You're the Coliseum" and "There's a Mark Where You Were Breathing" or the cold and gitty "I Can't Wait" don't hurt the case at all.

24. Low: Things We Lost in the Fire
There's only a certain type of people that can listen to Low for more than just a few minutes. If you lack patience or comprehension of talent, then you probably aren't one of those people. For most, bands like Low or Red House Painters are boring, they can appreciate the beauty of the music and lyrics, but they couldn't take a whole album of it. It's true that Low's albums aren't always the most exciting affairs, but the band's understanding of song structure, their affinity for beautiful male/female harmonies, their stark sonic landscapes, and their morbid with a hint of sunlight lyrics more than make up for it. Low isn't for everyone, but for those people that do enjoy them, they truly strike a deep chord. Certainly deeper than most bands.

23. Wilco: Kicking Television
Kicking Television is essentially a greatest hits album of most of Wilco's best songs being performed by the band in their best incarnation. This lineup features Wilco's only constant members singer-songwriter/guitarist Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt along with drummer Glenn Kotche, keyboardist Mikael Jorgerson, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone and most importantly guitar guitar Nels Cline. Together, the band rips through some of their classic songs while simultaneously breathing new life into them. Key to all this is Cline, a certified master a guitar, his solos and riffs are outstanding, and he brings clearity to some of the murkier songs from A Ghost is Born, turning an abstract overlong song like "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" into undulating guitar jams with twin, feedback drenched solos and pounding chord stomps. The only thing that could make this album better would be most Summerteeth tracks. Much more.

22. !!!: Myth Takes
This is an album that really grew on me, but not in the traditional sense. I loved it when I first heard it, but I didn't appreciate it's depth and genius until over a year after I first heard it. On the surface it's booty-shakin' dance-punk, but underneath all that lies a dark beast, full of demonic urges, and mythic sound. Much like the album's cover art, the album is immediately pleasing yet incalculably complex. The album's only weak track is "Sweet Life" and Though it's not really because the song is actually bad but because it's not as good as the rest of the album. That's just how good this album is, it literally makes good songs sounds awful in comparison. There's a lot of Talking Heads in here, from the poly-rhythms to the funk infused art-punk, !!! takes Remain in Light and puts it through a meat-grinder with odd voodoo accents and jungle boogie.

21. Girl Talk: Night Ripper
Night Ripper is the complete opposite of cohesive albums like Since I Left You and Endtroducing... albums that don't flaunt the fact that they are made completely of samples, and instead sound like they could be original recordings. Night Ripper is so obviously a collage of samples that you know it within seconds of the first song, but what you don't know at that point is just how many different "songs" you're going to hear. There's over 200 used in the albums forty-odd minutes, and they come fast and furious, to the point that sometimes it just sounds like you're flipping through the radio stations. Though hip-hop and pop make up most of what you'll hear, there's samples from the likes of Elton John, The Pixies, James Taylor, Sonic Youth, the list goes on... And even though it lacks the cohesiveness of the aforementioned albums, it flows perfect and each transition if flawless, just like the album. Flawless and the best party album of all time.

Best Albums of the 00's: 40-31

2008-04-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

40. Wolf Parade: Apologies to the Queen Mary
"indie rock" is such a ridiculously broad term. It's essentially pointless except give something hipster appeal. Wolf Parade is labeled "indie rock" but does that mean that they sound anything like Yo La Tengo or The Pixies? Nope. Wolf Parade do, however share some similarities with Modest Mouse, yet run through a more imaginative filter infused with the merest hints of punk enthusiasm. Songwriting and vocals are split between guitarist Dan Boeckner (of Handsome Furs) and keyboardist Spencer Krug (or Sunset Rubdown and Swan Lake); both bring their own individuality to each song, Boeckner's tunes have a strong sense of melody and construction, while Krug's are more urgent seem poised on the edge of completely falling apart. Together, their interplay and the variations between the two leaders styles make the album a eclectic listen, but the band keeps it all together with a unified musical sound.

39. James Yorkston: Just Beyond the River
Just Beyond the River has a stark and empty feeling to it compared with the lush arrangements of Moving Up Country, but regardless of this step down in volume, James Yorkston's second album is a complex and abrasive journey through the heart, with backing music that echoes the sentiments perfectly. Yorkston, as always, is an outstanding lyricist and he's never sounded as heartfelt as he does on songs like "Heron" and "Time Tomorrow". His quiet, but in no ways weak vocals are assertive, such as on "Shipwreckers" which proves he can do more than the standard quiet folk vocals. The greatest thing about this album is Yorkston's new direction in arrangements, the album has a much more traditional sound, with banjo and fiddle playing much more prominent roles, and in some cases driving the songs. Though this is the worst of Yorkston's three albums, it's still one of the best folk albums ever.

38. Olivia Tremor Control: Singles and Beyond
It's hard to believe that this is a collection of songs that never even made it to a major album released. Every song on this album is excellent, and some stand up with some of the greatest indie rock songs ever. Perhaps even more unbelievable is how old some of these songs are, opening track (and an all-time favorite of mine) "Love Athena" was recorded in 1992 and released on the band's very first release, yet it still stands up, regardless of it's age of the poor quality of the recording (as a young band, they couldn't afford anything better). The songs on this album follow the patented Olivia formula, mixing indie pop masterpieces with intricate, and occasionally noisy, musical collages. The interplay between these two is seamless, as 60s psychedelia flows perfectly into starkly modern ambiance so easily that you don't even notice the jump of decades of influence.

37. Bonnie "Prince" Billy & Matt Sweeney: Superwolf
Though this is the first fully realized evidence of it, Will Oldham (aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy) and Matt Sweeney (of Chavez and Zwan fame) have been collaborating together from quite some time. Sweeney has played on several of Oldham's albums, as well as being a fixture of his live shows but for the first time, they both share the stage. Though Oldham is reponsible for most of the lead vocals and lyrics, Sweeney's lead guitar is never put to the side and always plays an vital part in every song. It can be delicate and soothing, or break into a shrieking solo at a moment's notice. Oldham's own backing guitar is solid as well, providing a foundation for Sweeney to twist and turn his intricate lines in. Both artists sing, though Oldham does the bulk of it, though that too works to the album benefit, for when Sweeney does pop up, it's gives the flow a refresh, keeping us guessing and interested in more than just he main attractions: Oldham's lyrics and Sweeney's guitar.

36. Animal Collective: Feels
In retrospect, Feels is clearly a bridging album between Sung Tongs and Strawberry Jam. It has the unhinged energy and folk backbone of the former and the beginnings of the pop experimentation of the latter. Albums like this are usually regarded as either half-baked or missing the mark, but in the case of Feels, it's the exact opposite. Instead of being an uneven mix of styles, it is the perfect mix of two things that are taken to too much of an extreme on the albums that precede and follow it. This is Animal Collective's self-professed "love album" but for the most part it's not the lyrics that will keep you interested (unless you actually read them, "Purple Bottle" ftw!) it's the unique tuning and bizarre song structures that you are immediately presented with. The album is by far the densest the Collective has ever made, and though the massive ambiance in the renderings may annoy some at first, those who allow the album to grow on them, will surely come to love it.

35. The Fiery Furnaces: Blueberry Boat
As bizarre of an album as it is, there is something so charming and lovable about Blueberry Boat. Perhaps it's the childlike, fairy-tale songs written with a broad, over-literate hand or the quirky music that takes prog-rock and indie pop and fuses them together with a healthy dose of synthesizers, but whatever it is, it's utterly irresistible to me, though not everyone shares my opinion. The album is the ultimate divider, with some calling it unlistenable tripe (most-likely for the very same reasons I love it) while others hail it as a masterpiece of experimentation and song-craft. I tend to fall into the second group, I find Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger's music as interesting, intriguing, and challenging to the conventions of what is acceptable in pop music. There's hooks and catchy lyrics, but there's also 10 minute synth songs, massive guitar wankery, and odd noise passages. The Fiery Furnace push to and beyond most listeners breaking points by the first song, but if you have it in you to like this album, then it's sure to be one of your very favorites.

34. The Knife: Deep Cuts
Let's get down to bare bones without beating around the bush at all. "Heartbeats", the opening song on The Knife's second album, is the best pop song of the 21st century, and could be the best of all time. Everything in this song is perfect, the way the synths sway back and forth to the beat, the vocal inflections and shifts, the little steeldrum touches, all of it is just divine. And though the rest of the album is a step down from "Heartbeats" it's still an incredible electro-pop album. The Knife know how to mix the pop and the electro to just the right combination of wavy synths and catchy vocals tracks. As always with The Knife Karin Dreijer provides the vocals and lyrics while her brother Olof, who clearly is more a fan of techno and house than pop creates the beats. This is still a step away from the band's defining album Silent Shout, but it's a step in that direction, as well as an incredibly enjoyable pop experience.

33. Death From Above 1979: You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
It's sort of an odd thing that an album that rocks incredibly hard and brings all the cock-out attitude of punk and classic rock and roll doesn't have a single electric guitar on it. Everything you hear on the album that sounds like a guitar is really Jesse F. Keeler's bass. Keeler does stuff on the bass you couldn't imagine in your wildest dream, he riffs like Slash and he works the frets like Eddie Van Halen, all with two less strings than those guys had. Besides bass, the only other thing on the album is vocalist Sebastien Grainger's propulsive drum as well as some subtle synth touches. With the mixing of the riffs and Grainger's half-dance, half-punk rhythms create a sweaty mess of rock and roll, dance, and punk. There's genius in many of these songs, but half the fun is finding it. At the very least, this is a impossibly fun album to listen to, and really hard not to love.

32. Patrick Wolf: The Magic Position
Coming after twisted and brooding albums like Patrick Wolf's first two albums, The Magic Position is a explosion of color and joy. There's always been some hints of pop in Wolf's music, buried beneath all the folk instruments, noise, and melodrama, but with this album he finally lets it out in all its glory. Make no mistake, this isn't any cheesy pop album, this is one the most intricate pop albums since Forever Changes. Wolf's genius for melding folk, electro, and classical is perfectly apt for crossing classical and pop to create a chamber pop album full or pianos, beats, strings, synths, horns, most of which are played by Wolf himself, who also produced the album. The kind of talent Wolf has (started at 12, and is classical trained on violin and viola) makes him stand out from the rest of the pop music world like no other, which is fitting because he creates music that is like no others.

31. The Blood Brothers: Young Machetes
I've always been of the opinion that with genres like screamo and hardcore, which can tend to be rather bland, that the more outside influences you bring in, the better. Perhaps that's why The Blood Brothers' albums just get better and better, because they just get more daring and experimental. All that climaxed with the band's last album (an album that, ironically ends with a song called "Giant Swan") Young Machetes, an album that brought the pop of Crimes and the harder edge of early albums and mixed them together with all kinds of bizarre rhythms and influences ranging from funk to 60s beat music. As always, some are gonna hate the Brothers' high-pitched vocals and weird harmonized screams, but if you don't mind that then you have gold mine of talent, creativity, and originality, something you can very rarely say about any artists in the genre.

Best Albums of the 00's: 50-41

2008-03-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

50. Okkervil River: Down the River of Golden Dreams
Before I praise the heck out of this album, let me just say one thing: you can really tell it's self-produced and I can confidently say that if Okkervil's normal producer Brian Beattie had produced this one, it would be a higher on the list, significantly perhaps. But with that said, the production isn't that bad, in fact it's quite good, just not up to the level of other albums. Will sheff's songwriting is, as always, spectacular and his growth from Don't Fall in Love With Everyone You See is considerable, both as a lyricist and as a singer. Perhaps the singer part is the most important to this album, there's no awkward notes on this album, in fact there's some amazing ones. The band as a whole perform their songs perfectly, "Blanket and Crib" and "Seas Too Far to Reach" being the standouts musically (and lyrically) as the band blends many different instruments and weaves them together seamlessly. The album falls into an unusual place in Okkervil's catalog, not quite up to the level of the Black Sheep Boy sessions, but clearly superior to their other LPs.

49. Bonnie "Prince" Billy: The Letting Go
Will Oldham has never released a bad album. At least, not a bad one by anyone else's standards, but that's not the point. Anyways, though he's never released a bad album, he hadn't really released any new solo material between 2003 and 2006 (that may not seem like a long time, but for Oldham it's ages) but instead produced collaborations and cover albums, even a cover album of his own songs. But all that changed with the release of The Letting Go, Oldham's twelfth LP. The album is more less lighthearted then Ease Down the Road but much brighter than I See a Darkness or even Master and Anyone. It's still his signature alt-country folk, but with the addition of steady female vocals by Faun Fables and massive string parts courtesy of producer and frequent Björk collaborator Valgeir Sigurðsson. Combined the two of them give the album a big boast, separating it dramatically from Oldham's recent albums, which were growing more and more simplistic in approach.

48. Subtle: For Hero: For Fool
The terms "concept album" and "hip-hop" don't seem to go together very well. Subtle's second album is definitely a concept album, but is so much more than simple hip-hop. It's abstract hip-hop mixed with strong electronic elements, some indie rock, and plenty of experimentation. Adam Drucker's bizarre lyrics follow the footsteps of an unnamed hero as he goes on a journey, but overall the "concept" doesn't amount to much more than a theme tying the songs together. The album's lyrics as a whole aren't that great, but individually they are perfect, with a theme loosely tying things together for cohesion. Drucker (or Doseone, as he's known) shuns normal delivery techniques in favor of strange multi-syllabic slurs and speedy polyrhythmic raps. Everything about the album is abstract though, so it fits in nicely with jagged beats and lyrics like "Hence the intergalactic presses have been halted accordingly. Their consummate plug – been kicked from the outer-space wall
and then and only then does the nightclub's only spotlight get to st-st-stuttering".

47. Múm: Finally We Are No One
"Green Grass of Tunnel", the first real song on Múm's second album, begins with a little ambient twittering and some very light keyboard. I wouldn't say it was boring, just slightly tedious, but all of a sudden the song swells with beats and a breathtaking synth melody. You instantly forget the tedium and are drawn into the song, but the love affair isn't comsumated until you hear Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, aka Kría Brekkan's divine vocals. They really are something special, almost childlike in their wonderment but with all the strength and range of a trained woman. Like most of Múm's work, the electronica never sounds very electronic on this album, it all sounds very natural and organic, though most of it actually electric. This is a pretty mellow album, and not one you can listen to any time but if you're in the mood for it, it's perfect.

46. Angels of Light & Akron/Family: Akron/Family & the Angels of Light
Though the tracklist says that there are seven Akron/Family tracks and five Angels of Light tracks on this album, the reality there are twelve collaborative tracks by the two bands together. Whether it be Michael Gira producing the Akron/Family tracks or Akron/Family acting as backing band for Gira on the Angels of Light tracks the two are in actuality one. The Akron/Family side of the album is the strongest, however, and it contains the best work the band has ever done, as well as one of the greatest songs ever recorded "Raising the Sparks", and that's no hyperbole! The first Family song is like an electric version of something of their self-titled debut, it's quiet and simple, much like that album but after that "Moment" completely destroys that with its insane guitar shredding and the album really flies from there with hardly any slowups. The Angels of Light half isn't as good, but is still pretty outstanding. Gira's lyrics are as bizarre as ever and his amazing voice carries the songs perfectly. Together the two artists create a diverse album that still sounds like it could have been recorded by just one artist. In fact, if you mix the tracklist up, it does.

45. Boris: Pink
One of the tragedies of modern indie rock is the loss of the great guitar rock album. There just aren't very many great massive riffs and lightning quick shredding to be found anymore, everything these days is tamed and all about melody. Of the few great guitar rock albums being released in this century Boris' tenth full length album Pink is the best. There's all kinds of craziness going on here, and lead guitarist Wata does something for me that no one since Ira Kaplan in the mid-90s could do: be a guitarist that's just a plain old pleasure to listen to. Her fretwork is outstanding but it's really her riffs that get me. Thankfully Boris' guitar work is never cliched and the don't fall into the trap of extended guitar solos or wankery. Instead they create wholly original riffs and effects, mainly because of the clear hardcore punk influence. They also tap into drone ("Afterburner") and shoegaze ("Farewell") and tackle them with ease.

44. Antony and the Johnsons: I Am a Bird Now
There are some singers that just take your breath away, singers that could sing a song about picking your nose and make you love it. Antony Hegarty is one of those singers, but thankfully his lyrics are almost as good as his voice, so we never have to put it to the test. I Am a Bird Now is an interesting album musically, it's a little bluesy, a little baroque, a little indie but it doesn't really fall into any of those categories too well. Piano is the main instrument, and guitar makes an appearance briefly, and so do things like strings and horns, but nothing really sticks except Hegarty's spectacular voice, which is the album's only constant. I'm not the only one thinks he's one of the best singers in all time, Björk's a big fan, and Hegarty's got enough pull in the music scene to get Rufus Wainwright, Devendra Banhart, Boy George, and the great Lou Reed to guest on the album. Quite a supporting cast.

43. Calexico: Garden Ruin
I know Calexico purists will hate me for this, but Garden Ruin truly is the bands most complete, mature, and accomplished record. Feast of Wire is a great album that narrowly missed this list, but it just doesn't quite have what Garden Ruin has; namely, no weak tracks. Maybe that's because it's shorter, but there's something to be said for knowing when to cut material. Unlike past albums, this one lacks as much of an obvious mariachi influence and instead goes for a more pop structured approach to their borderland folk-rock. "Cruel" opens the album with a horn and guitar driven song loaded up with pop hooks while "All Systems Red" closes it with an epic guitar shrieking track, that stand up as one of the greatest album closers of all time. In between the band shows it's prowess in many styles and instruments, but the root of the band has always been Joey Burn on guitar and vocals and John Convertino on drums. Together they combined hooks and innovative rhythms for the rest of the band to fill in around.

42. Annie: Anniemal
Anniemal is the best straight electropop album of the 21st century; "Chewing Gum" and "Heartbeat" are in the ranks of the best electropop songs of all time, and Annie is one of the best singers in pop music. Ok, with all my massive-crush-wankery out of the way, we can get down to bare bones. You just don't hear pop albums like this, at least not from a single individual. Occasionally electro duo will creep into pop territory and have a couple of pop hits, but never a full albums worth like you have here. Annie vocals could carry many a song, but with the amazing production and beats provided to her (and in some cases produced by her) she doesn't need to. Take the bouncy beats contrasted with the string plucking of "Always Too Late", there's hardly any beef to the beat, it's the strings that do all the work, yet it sounds nothing at all like a chamber-pop song. This kind of innovative thinking is one of the things, along with Annie's vocals, that puts the album so far ahead of the rest.

41. Kraftwerk: Minimum-Maximum
Where does one begin when talking about Kraftwerk? If it wasn't for them, all the electronic music we enjoy these days would be entirely different. Their innovations and ideas provided the spark and the fuel for the the conflagration of electronica we enjoy today. Minimum-Maximum is a live album, but it's almost like a re-imagining of the best Kraftwerk songs in a different setting and with even more advanced technology. Each song is given it's own lush arrangement that sometimes stays with the original and sometimes doesn't, but no matter what they do or don't do to the songs they turn out perfectly. Whether they're creating pounding beats that sound like cars, computer, and trains or spacey synth suits, the quartet keeps everything in place and perfect in the mix. Even weak studio tracks like the Tour de France Etapes sound great here. This is just another sign, as if we needed one, that Kraftwerk are just as proficient as they were nearly forty years ago.

Best Albums of the 00's: 60-51

2008-03-20T14:10:00.001-07:00

60. Ladytron: Witching Hour
The first adjective that comes to mind when I listen to Witching Hour is icy. The album is a dark and brooding affair, full swirling glacial effects and textures, which doesn't seem that special until you find out that it's also an electroclash album. But then again, Ladytron has always had a lot of dream pop in them, and maybe even a little shoegazing mixed in their too, but all that is just a little seasoning for the main ingredients. Some tracks go along at a haunting pace, like "High Rise" with its creepy organ parts, while others are upbeat but still gloomy and robotic like "Weekend". Lyrically, the band uses a lot of futuristic imagery but not to the point of dorkyness like Styx or the likes. Witching Hour is a many layered and intriguing album, and one that contains some of the best and most innovative keyboard work in recent history, though much of it isn't up front.

59. Lightning Bolt: Hypermagic Mountain
Hypermagic Mountain is Lightning Bolt's fourth album, and although it doesn't change the bands signature drum and bass setup, it's a lot more experimental than past albums. And although some of you might be thinking "More experimental?!? Is that even possible?!?" but rest assured it is. The whole album is recorded live on a 2 track DAT master tape, and there are very little production or effects used, if any. The reason the album is Lightning Bolt's best is because it emulates the band's live "guerrilla gig" live shows perfectly. All the chaos of their insane sets is here in spades and it gives the album such irresistible energy that you can feel it flow through you when you listen to it. As always, Brian Gibson's insane bass playing is a pleasure to listen to and Brian Chippendale's tight drumming and tongue-in-cheek vocals always bring a smile to your face. If Hypermagic Mountain is anything like this album, it's probably the place I belong.

58. Los Campesinos!: Hold On Now, Youngster...
Perhaps this is a bit of a premature selection, seeing as the album has only been out for less than a month but I'm willing to risk that since I can safely say there hasn't been this perfect a mixture of smart, witty songwriting and irresistible poppiness in a long time. This is also perhaps the most quotable album on this list: "Send me stationary to make me horny" "And every sentence that I spoke began and ended in... ellipsis" "This is how you spell 'HAHAHA, I've destroyed the hopes and the dreams of a generation of faux-romantics' and I am pleased. I am pleased" and the ultimate "I'm not Bonnie Tyler, and I'm not Toni Braxton, and this song is not going to save your relationship. Oh no shit! And if this sentimental movie marathon has taught us one thing It's the opposite of true love is as follows: Reality!" to name a few. Laced with sarcasm and indie pop goodness, this album will certainly stand for years as one of the funnest and smartest albums of all time.

57. Akron/Family: Akron/Family
If you stripped down Akron/Family's self-titled debut, you'd have a pretty standard freak-folk album, but once you add in all the gospel and Appalachian influences plus all the other little touches, you get a one of a kind album. It's the little left-field things that really stand out: the blips in "Before and Again" the peaceful ending of "Suchness" after a guitar freak out etc. Each track has something (or somethings) in it that makes it stand out from most run of the mill acid folk tracks and I think that, though most of the credit certainly goes to the band, some of it can be attested to Producer Micheal Gira, the prolific maniac behind Swans and Angels of Light. If you listen to the band's pre-Young God demos, the lack a lot of the aforementioned little things. But that doesn't really matter. What really matters is the finished product, which is one of the best albums of the folk revival era.

56. Joanna Newsom: And the Ys Street Band
There's not really much you can say about Joanna Newsom. Everything that makes her amazing, everything that makes her revolutionary, everything that makes her Joanna Newsom, can only really be accurately relayed by listening to her. This may be a simple EP, but it's also concentrated dose of two of her best songs (and an absolutely fabulous new song) performed in some of the most exciting arrangements you'll hear from Newsom. The two old songs are put in more solid arrangements courtesy of her touring band; "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie" from The Milk-Eyed Mender and "Cosmia" from Ys swell with banjos, guitar, accordion, tambourine, percussion, and of course the signature harp. But the true standout is "Colleen", a new song that, if it's any sign of things to come, will make Newsom's next album the best yet. Which is really saying something.

55. The Decemberists: Castaways and Cutouts
Of The Decemberists albums, Castaway's and Cutouts is the oldest and best. It was before the band decided to get fancy with their sound (not that that's a bad things) and it's their most pure songwriting album, which is the band's strongest asset by far. Colin Meloy's songs are actually songs, not ballads or stories like that he became obsessed with in later albums. Again, that's not a bad thing, but in this stage in Meloy's career this is the type of songs he needed to be writing and when combined with the band's stripped down, but no less complex albums, you get some classic songs: "Leslie Anne Levine" "July! July!" "Grace Cathedral Hill" and "Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect".

54. Architechture in Helsinki: In Case We Die
In Case We Die really came out of nowhere. Sure, Architechture in Helsinki had already released an album, Fingers Crossed, but it didn't really gain much attention until after In Case We Die came out. But perhaps it's more an illusion that they came out of nowhere perpetuated by how great the album is. How on earth could a band hardly anyone had ever heard of release such a perfect indie pop album? Unlike most young indie bands, Architechture in Helsinki didn't need several albums of practice to get their formula down right (they didn't even need one, Fingers Crossed is another great album, and it narrowly missed this list) they already had it all: great songwriting and structuring, plenty of bizarre instruments and just the right kind of experimentation. It's a densely fun album that will make you think, a dying breed.

53. Broken Social Scene: You Forgot it in People
Broken Social Scene's second album is infinitely more complex than their debut, but it lacks the extreme experimentation of it's follow up; it falls in the middle, but instead of siting around there, it pushes forward and perfects it's baroque indie rock sound to the point of a nearly flawless album. Broken Social Scene's two main members, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, orchestrate the band's other, more famous, members perfectly, using them in exactly the right situations and songs. Take the choice of Feist instead of Amy Millian (of Stars) or Emily Haines (or Metric) in "Almost Crimes" for example; Feist's strong set of pipes are perfect for the upbeat, guitar jam, while Millan's or Haines wispy vocals would get lost in the distortion. Conversely, album standout "Anthems For a 17 Year-Old Girl" wouldn't work with anyone but Haines singing it. The whole album is full of perfect choices for songs; to the tune that the album has no weak tracks.

52. Angels of Light: We Are Him
Michael Gira has been in the music business over 25 years yet he still keeps finding ways to stay fresh and relevant. Starting out with the incredible No Wave group Swans, then moving on to his own solo folk work before founding another group, The Angels of Light. We Are Him is the sixth Angels of Light release and though it owes some of it's sound to those albums, it really branches of on its own for the most part. Much of the albums new freakout sound it due to Gira's backing band on the album, Akron/Family. The opening track, "Black River Song", is a psychedelic rock stomp while other tracks drift into alt-country territory, and even bluegrass in "Goodbye, Mary Lou". Gira's lyrics draw on new things to, for the most part it's spirituality though sometimes love creeps in the equation. This is Angels of Light's most exciting album, that occasionally slows down like Gira's solo work and has the blackhole dark flashes of Swans.

51. Shearwater: Winged Life
Shearwater has always been Jonathon Meiburg's show. Sure it was started as a way for both him and Will Sheff to record some gentler tunes than the ones they make in Okkervil River, but even before Meiburg took over all songwriting and singing duties on Palo Santo, and things were split between the two, Meiburg still lead the show with seven songs to Sheff's five. It's interesting because if you compare the duo's tracks, Sheff's are better overall, but Meiburg's not quite as mature songwriting is equaled out when he's given more tracks. Both men's songs are excellent, from the Meiburg's dark banjo waltz "Whipping Boy" to Sheff's lyrical masterpiece "Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up...", which is the clear album standout, along with the magnificent closer "The Set Table" which starts and ends simply but swells to epic proportion in the middle.

Best Albums of the 00's: 70-61

2008-03-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

70. Menomena: I Am the Fun Blame Monster
Every thing about Menomena seems so fun; their name, their album titles (I Am the Fun Blame Monster is an anagram of "The First Menomena Album") and their upbeat drum n' bass driven pop all exude a sunshiny experience, that's a gross over simplification of the band. Menomena's music has a strong trip-hop influence in it's construction of beats and bass, but non of the sampling or turntablisms of other trip-hop artists. Instead they fill their songs with various instruments, sometimes it's pianos, sometimes it's saxophone,guitars, keyboards, or various combinations of them. The album is strong the whole way through, but it's the nine-minute closer "The Monkey's Back" that brings it all together, mixing things you've heard throughout the album with funk and jazz, a sort of chilled out New Orleans trip-hop-pop track that sums up the whole albums eclectic fun.

69. The Blood Brothers: Burn Piano Island, Burn
With their first two albums, This Adultery is Ripe and March On Electric Children!, The Blood Brothers produced some solid, well executed hardcore punk, but with Burn Piano Island, Burn the Bros push themselves so beyond any of their contemporaries and and predecessors it's not even funny. The album signals a major shift for the band, and from this point on they continue to push the envelope and be way ahead of the curve. Their are two things I absolutely love about this album, the lyrics and how much groove the whole thing has. The Bros are at their best when their being weird, sarcastic, and critical: "Happy birthday gelatins smearing bruises on your chin. There's cake but no mouth, conch but no sound, glossy skeletons boyfriends but no friends." Each song has it's own little touch the set it apart from the rest, whether it be a funk bassline, piano, or angular rhythms, each song is it's own piece, something neigh unbelievable for a punk album.

68. mewithoutYou: Brother, Sister
It may seem unbelievable but I think Aaron Weiss became too perfect a songwriter on this album. There's just so much here, so much substance, so much detail and depth, so many references that one easily becomes overwhelmed by even the first song. This album is a couple years old and I still haven't gotten completely through all its meanings. The albums is really about changes; lyrically it changes to a much more overt deep spirituality, musically the band has shifted from the cold, dark sounds of Catch For Us the Foxes to a warmer, almost summer album, although the albums got it's share of thunderstorms like any summer does. Other notable changes are the addition of a better bassist, giving the band already exceptionally tight sound a boost and the use of guests, including Psalters, Anathallo's horn section, and emo founding father Jeremy Enigk, although mwY outshines all of them easily.

67. Goldfrapp: Supernature
Pop is a tricky thing, no matter how catchy the beat or how awesome the hook is, nine times out of ten it's substancless, both musically and lyrically. Goldfrapp is that one in ten, and they've never sounded better than on Supernature. The album is like Black Cherry taken to the max, overloaded beats and polished up with a glistening sheen. Alison Goldfrapp's vocals are a pitch perfect and as silky as ever while Will Gregory's beats and synths are creative and strong without being inaccessible in any way. The best part of the album is how they mix in other styles all under the production and unified sound, glam and electroclash abound and can be found in almost every track while other styles as differing as new wave and cabaret pop up here and there. Supernature isn't everybody's favorite album, and I think it's because it challenges the listeners view of pop, but does it so subtly that it's easy to miss what exactly it is, if you're not on your game.

66. of Montreal: Satanic Panic in the Attic
of Montreal have a pretty large discography [8 proper albums, 7 compilations albums, 5 EPs, 12 singles, ok this is just overkill, anyways...] so picking my favorite seems like it would be a difficult task; could it be the early lo-fi acoustic of the first albums? The dancey rock of Sunlandic Twins? The twisted disco-pop of Hissing Fauna? Nope, Satanic Panic in the Attic is easily my favorite of Montreal album, from first to last it exudes such a undeniable charm of perfect indie pop. Kevin Barnes, who essentially made the entire album himself, is really on for the whole album, his lyrics are as witty as ever and his arrangements are pure genius in some spots. Take "Will You Come and Fetch Me" for an example, Barnes keeps the rhythm section going, but goes hyperactive with the other parts, jumping from string section, to pop, to glockenspiel, to harpsichord, within seconds of each other. This shouldn't really surprising though, since Barnes has always been ADD, he just turned it up a notch this time, if that's possible.

65. Destroyer: Destroyer's Rubies
Sometimes I wonder is Dan Bejar knows what the heck he's writing, or if he just writes at random. As a lyricist he owes a lot to the stream-of-consciousness, rapid delivery of Bob Dylan, but Dylan is relatively decipherable, whereas Bejar's lyrics seem like they have a really deep meaning, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what they are. They sure are fun to listen to though. Musically, the band loses a lot of their Pavement-worshiping distortion and get a more laid back, David Bowie playing the blues sound, though the aforementioned Pavement-isms are still there, to be sure. Combined the lyrics and music are perfectly suited to Bejar's bizarre but enchanting voice. In fact everything on this album just plain works, there's nothing tried that does not succeed, and that's the best description of the album I can give.

64. Yo La Tengo: I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Yo La Tengo have always been a really diverse band, and each of their albums has had a variety of sounds to it, but on their eleventh(!) full length album, they take this facet to a ridicules extreme. The opening track "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" is a nearly eleven minute noise jam that's mostly guitar solos while the very next track, "Beanbag Chair" is driving horn and piano pop song, which is in turn followed by a quiet chamber pop track, then a 60 motown sounding tune, then a dark love song, then male/female vocal duel over bluesy pop, then a psychedelic organ stomp, and that's just the first half of the album. The aforementioned opening track and the closing song "The Story of Yo La Tango" (not a typo) bookend the album perfectly, and the latter is one of the best songs the band has ever written, it's another epic length noisy jam, but it's much less abrasive and more tuneful than the former. The whole album is a sonic adventure spanning decades, styles, and moods.

63. Daft Punk: Discovery
To me, it's a testament to the talent of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter that a group as goofy as Daft Punk ever became popular, let alone the huge status they have now. I mean let's face it, the name, the logo, the robot helmets, and even in some cases the music doesn't exactly scream hipness. Perhaps that makes them endearing, I don't know, all I do know is that Discovery, and in fact most of Daft Punk's music, freakin' grooves. They know how to make dance music unlike any other current electronic group to the point that I don't think there's a single person in the world who could listen to one of their songs and not like it. I mean, how can you not fall in love with world's greatest vocoder solo, "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"? Or the band that actually put a vocoder solo in their songs? I rest my case.

62. Sigur Rós: Takk...
I've always viewed Jónsi Birgisson's voice more as another instrument then as conventional lead vocals. When he's singing in a not made up language, I still have no idea what he's saying, but that's no different from the hundreds of other non-English language artists, except that Birgisson has a voice unlike any other. He uses his extremely high range as a magnificent solo instrument that can float above the band's arrangements, which they can make joyous, such as "Hoppípolla", dark and organic like "Sé lest". It's often said that the band's sound reflects the landscapes of their home country of Iceland, and never is it more so than on "Sæglópur", which builds with piano and drums until it finally explodes with Birgisson's bowed guitar that sounds exactly like what I think it would sound like inside a volcano. But that's the kind of trascendent quality all of the band's work has.

61. Triosk: The Headlight Serenade
The words "experimental jazz" might bring dread into the hearts of some, but rest assured, this isn't anything remotely like Kenny G jamming with The Mars Volta, since I think that would bring about violent death for anyone who listened to it. No, Triosk isn't smooth meets pretension, it's instead and album that has it's roots, and owes much of it's sound to the great jazz trios but also throws a large amount of samples and beats into the mix. There is a strong representation of electronics in this album, but unless you were looking for it specifically, you wouldn't notice it wasn't natural to the song. Everything that's electronic on the album is completely organic sounding and is best described as the band itself says like "throwing broken glass into a piano".

Best Albums of the 00's: 80-71

2008-03-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

Part 3!

80. Midlake: The Trials of Van Occupanther
Midlake is one of those bands that really don't sound like they should be releasing albums in this decade. Everything about the band screams 70s folk rock: the vocal harmonies, the lush keyboards mixed with folky guitars are all straight out of Crosby, Stills, and Nash's playbook. But unlike retro-rock acts Jet or Wolfmother, Midlake doesn't sound like they're just recycling riffs and stealing other bands material (although the irony of Wolfmother apeing Led Zeppelin, who in turn blatantly stole from blues artists should not be lost) but instead creating their own little antique world using the influences of classic folk rock artist and mixing it with their own prog-rock tendencies that they really embraced on their first album, but dropped significantly since then. Lyrically the band continues their theme of antiquity, all of the songs could be about any time in the worlds history. There is rumor that the album is a concept album based on the Oregon Trail computer game and if that is true it just make the album that much more awesome.

79. Björk: MedúllaMedúlla is a really difficult album in many ways. It's difficult to process, difficult to understand, and especially difficult to write about it. It's easy to get caught up in the "music made entirely out of human voices" gimmick, but even if Björk created the same album using her normal methods (if you could call any of Björk's methods normal...) it would still be a fabulous album full of ethereal soundscapes and massive, innovative beats and structures. The thing that really stand out in this album is just how amazing Björk's voice is, "Show Me Forgiveness" is just her voice, nothing else, and it's one of the albums most haunting and stunning tracks. Elsewhere, she show how flexible she is, such as in the opening seconds of "Where is the Line" where she stuttersteps her way through words, taking a short, simple word like "line" and making it soar. Her voice is the star of this album, and it's an album of just voices. That says something.

78. Jack Rose: Kensington Blues
The blues can take many shapes, there's straight ol' B.B. King type blues, there's delta blues ala Muddy Waters, their's blues rock like Cream, the Allman's brought us southern blues rock, there's rhythm and blues (which sadly today has just become pop with a black singer) and now we even have "indie-blues" in bands like The White Stripes but the oft unjustly overlooked branch of acoustic blues is one of the most interesting. Kensington Blues is a instrumental album full of some of the wickedest finger-picking you'll ever hear and though it has it's base in blues, and for the most part sticks to that it has some other interesting surprises up it's sleave, such as ragas, straight folk, and swirling, droney melodies that are more ambient than anything else. It's obvious Jack Rose owes a lot to Robbie Basho and John Fahey, but his talent and compositions, as well as his interesting other little influences, makes him a worthwhile listen without a doubt.

77. Lightning Bolt: Wonderful Rainbow
Ahh Lightning Bolt. Could you be any more ridicules? Crazy technical, spastic noise rock comprised of just drums and bass, with the bass sounds like a guitar 90% of the time. There are vocals, kind of, most of the time you can't understand a word they're saying, sometimes to the point that you're not sure whether it's some ones voice or a feedback being tortured to death. They don't really embrace the "advantages" of studio recording, but still use it for the most part in their recordings, albeit in their own twisted way. Bassist Brian Gibson's bass could hardly be called a bass, it's tuned wacko and has two banjo strings replacing the A and E strings. If you haven't formed an opinion on the band band yet, go listen to "Assassins"; if you like that song you'll like the rest of their work. If you don't, you won't. It's as simple as that.

76. Shearwater: Palo Santo
At some point in our lives, we all must make a break from something and come into our own in whatever it is we’ve broken from. For Jonathon Meiburg that break was from the background and sharing the stage to be the full blown, one and only star of the show. Meiburg never truly got his own project, half the time he was playing behind Will Sheff in Okkervil River and the other half the time he was sharing the spotlight with him in Shearwater. But as Sheff got too busy to make and big contributions to Shearwater, Meiburg got to step in and take complete control. His approach is different from Sheff's, and it shows. Whereas in the past Shearwater was folk heavy, now they're atmospherical and piano driven indie rock. The music is dark and it matches Meiburg's stunning vocals perfectly creating a pitch-perfect album full of dread and chills.

75. Sigur Rós: ( )
( ) has got to be the most minimal album in the world. The album really has no title, all eight songs have no titles, the album comes with a booklet that has a bunch of blank pages in it, and the lyrics (when they are any) are comprised of just two or so lines that are repeated throughout the album, plus they're in a made up gibberish language ("Vonlenska") that has no meaning. But besides all that, the album is stunningly beautiful. If you've never heard Sigur Rós the it's not really easy to explain, since no one really sounds much like them. Sufficed to say that the band plays darkly ambient music with touches of neo-classical and even rock, albeit very slow, gentle rock. To say the vocals are ethereal is an understatement, Jónsi Birgisson voice floats above the music with tense strains and high crescendos, and coming off more like a droney solo instrument than a human voice. But nothing about the band really seems human, so it fits.

74. Grails: Burning Off Impurities
Grails really have everything going for them as far as making awesome music is concerned, they have the creativity to bring in all kinds of wild influences into their songs, they have the talent to write songs that use all those influences fluidly, and they have the chops to play the songs above and beyond perfectly. The band's shifting themes and influences make the album a pleasure to listen to, you never know what's coming next: "Soft Temple" opens the album with a creepy banjo dirge that gets joined halfway through the song by a twisted piano waltz and "Silk Road" takes the influence suggested by its title and twists it around into an acid trip meets a caravan ride. Energy flows from the songs like "Dead Vine Blues" and "Origin-Ing" and the title track, while elsewhere "More Extinction" and "Drawn Curtains" hardly rise above a drone. Just another proof that Grails can do anything they set their mind to.

73. Patrick Wolf: Lycanthropy
The fact that Lycanthropy was written and recorded over eight years (1994-2002) while Patrick Wolf was between the ages of 11 and 19(!) is remarkable, but shouldn't surprise anyone whose heard the album and compared it to Wolf's following albums. The fact that Wolf is growing as a musician and person while throughout this album is readily apparent; taking the first two tracks as an example: "Wolf Song" is a complex folk song with viola, panpipes, ukulele, and earth percussion samples all performed by Wolf, and the lyrics are some of his most interesting and literary, whereas "Bloodbeat" is little more than a electro song with repetitive lyrics, it's not a bad song, just not on the level of it's the song that precedes it, nor of the one that follows it, the stunning "To the Lighthouse". This trend continues throughout the album, with spectacular songs being followed by average ones, well average for Wolf anyways, which is pretty freaking good non the less.

72. World's End Girlfriend: The Lay Lie Land
Katsuhiko Maeda's music is really very much like his home country of Japan. His blend of electronica with classical and jazz mirrors Japan's cultural blending of futuristic technology and the traditions of their vast history. His music also displays that sense of wonder and excitement that Japanese folk tale are just rife with, as well as a penchant for using children's voices and laughter, another theme in the legends of Japan. But that comparison can only take us so far in talking about this album, it's such a vast, wordless endeavor (ten tracks clocking in at around 78 minutes) that really comes off as a beautiful and jarring piece of music. The beautiful part are the lonely strains of strings and horns, and the jarring part is when the beats and noise comes in, ripping the beautiful sections to shreds in their fury. It startles you when you first hear it, but you get used to it very fast.

71. The Avalanches: Since I Left You
DJ Shadow paved the way for artists like The Avalanches, Girl Talk, and Soulwax, with Endtroducing....., the first album made entirely out of samples. It's not worth anyones time trying to compare any of their work with Shadow's, so I won't. Comparing between the artist themselves, however, is another matter. When you listen to Girl Talk, you know that it's all samples from the get-go, it's obvious. But with The Avalanches, it's not so clear what's going on. You could easily listen to the whole album and never know that there's no new material here. Girl Talk's transitions work completely, but sometimes it's only because it's so ridicules that you accept it while laughing your head off whereas with The Avalanches, everything flows naturally. Girl Talk is made for the dancefloor, but Since I Left You sounds much more organic, like it was built for a summer drive in the country with beats shinning like the sun and keyboards floating along like breeze through fields.

Part 4, coming soon!

Best Albums of the 00's: 90-81

2008-03-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

Part 2!

90. Mew: And the Glass Handed Kites
Man, is And the Glass Handed Kites is a dark record. I don't mean it's full of death and depravity, in fact the lyrics are very fairytale-like, but the music. The effects on the guitars seem to be expressly engineered to resemble a black hole of sound. As far as mood is concerned, this is one of the best written and produced ever. All the arrangements, with their layers of keyboards and synths piling on top of jagged guitar riffs and throbbing bass, are perfectly attuned to each other to create the albums morbid sound. It's the indie prog-pop version of I See a Darkness, musically at least, since Will Oldham's certified masterpiece is dark lyrically as well. Perhaps the only fault with the album is the lyrics, most of the songs ("The Zookeeper's Boy" and "Apocalypso" particularly) are fine, but a few like "Why Are You Looking Grave?" sound like maybe something was lost in translation.

89. Mono & World's End Girlfriend: Palmless Prayer/Mass Murder Refrain
I've long debated with myself about exactly how much neo-classical is worth. Some modern composers are, of course, excellent but a lot of them don't do anything much worthwhile. And when you compare them to Beethoven, Motzart, Tchaikovsky, etc. they seem even less significant. But there is a branch of neo-classical that create some of the most interesting and beautiful music this side of Phillip Glass. This as-yet unnamed branch (neo-classical ambient? droneoclassical?) is perfected on this collaboration, though it has 5 "Parts" it's really a giant 73 minute movement comprised mostly of violin and cello, but with some ambient noise and light guitar work here and there, lest it become a World's End Girlfriend solo project. The whole album is a very dismal affair, but there's so much beauty in it you won't mind feeling a bit down.

88. The Samuel Jackson Five: Same Same, But Different
Same Same, But Different is a prelude to greatness. Like calm before the storm, but a calm that bears all the signs of the storm, leaving no one in doubt as to the cataclysm ahead. Not to mince words, Easily Misunderstood, SJ5's follow-up album is the best instrumental release of the 21st century and second only to TNT and f♯a♯∞ (infinity symbol) all time and the album that preceded it, while not up to its level, is still one of the best. The album is a toned down version of Easily Misunderstood, taking a more standard post-rock approach to the songs, but injecting them here or there with some livelier elements. For example, the undulating funk bassline in "Brittany Spears 4 President" the echo-happy "Honest Abe" and the tremendous jazz drumming found throughout the album. On their next album SJ5 full embrace their sound; they haven't quite yet here, but they're getting close.

87. The Mountain Goats: All Hail West Texas
If you start an article of a pre-Tallahassee Mountain Goats album by describing John Darnielle's technique of recording all his song on a boombox with just himself singing and playing guitar, you're going to have to talk about the lyrics for the rest of the article. Because there's nothing more to the actual music on these albums than that. And that's ok, because it works perfectly with Darnielle's lyrics. They are the best when they are telling stories and pushing feelings. Some lines like "Selling acid was a bad idea, selling it to a cop was worse one" make you laugh at first, but within the songs they're really quite tragic. Elsewhere "Hi-didle-le-de, goddamn, the pirate's life for me" sound ridicules, but again within the songs they work so perfectly well. This isn't Conor Oberst's childish lyrics with lots of one liners going absolutely nowhere, this is a master songwriter and storyteller relating events, large and small, in the lives of people.

86. Islaja: Meritie
I don't know if Islaja does acid, but if she did, as far as I can tell from her music, it was probably after this album and before the next one. Compared with what's to come in her career, this album is relatively tame, breathy folk. Occasionally a jagged instrument or two will pop in, but for the most part the album lacks the crazy surrealness of Palaa aurinkoon and Ulual yyy. This album shows a different side to the Finnish goddess, and seems much more personal for it. While "personal" doesn't seem like a term you can use with an artist who sings in a language you don't understand, the placement of Islaja's hypnotic voice above most of the arrangements gives it that close feel.

85. The Magnetic Fields: i
I think for anyone but Stephin Merritt, trying to follow up an album like 69 Love Songs would be a nerve racking task. But Merritt is such a prolific songwriter and oddball in music that I can be pretty sure that no such thought entered into his mind. i is a much more personal album, with not only ever song's title starting with "I" but most of the lyrics do as well: "Nobody wants you when you're a circus clown. I should know, I looked all over town". Also, Merritt's talent for pop hooks is just as potent, he sings lines like "Love or not, I've always got ten guys on whom I can depend. And if you're not mine, one less is nine, get wise" with such bouncy hooks you'd think it was written for pop princess. The biggest difference between this album and past ones is it's almost entirely indie chamber pop, where as previous albums would mix in different styles, most prominently synthpop, this album contains none. Which is a good thing since previous synthpop tracks were some of the weakest.

84. Supergrass: Road to Rouen
Road to Rouen was a big change for Supergrass, gone was the playful glam-rock, replaced with elaborate indie rock and serious lyricism. It's not quite the masterpieces their first three albums are, and it's significantly better than Life On Other Planets. It does, however, contain some of the bands more creative work, as well as some of their best songs. "St. Petersburg" is one of the band's gentlest song, with it's strings and piano, while on the other hand "Kick in the Teeth" is as aggressive, musically and lyrically, as the bands ever been. "Roxy" flirts with glam rock, and the title track is a elasticy retro rock jam. The album really suffers when it's flow is broken up twice by "Coffee in the Pot" and "Low C" which are essentially throw away tracks. Regardless of that, the other songs make up for it fully and completely.

83. Destroyer: Notorious Lightning and Other Works
I love the songwriting on Your Blues, I really do. I mean the first two lines of the album are "Oh notorious lightning, yes I had to ride you" and it just gets better from there, but I was never a fan of the acoustic guitar/MIDI orchestration. But thankfully, some of (in fact most of) the best songs on that album get redeemed and reworked on this EP. The songs are done more in the Pavement-esque style of Destroyer's other albums, but with the MIDI still intact in some songs, but this time it works. The album puts the blues back into Your Blues, with Dan Brejar's angular guitar work twanging in some places and shrieking in others. Brejar's voice also goes from hushed to unhinged at a moments notice. The versions of the songs seem so much more complete and proper, whereas You Blues sounds like a demo album.

82. Caribou: The Milk of Human Kindness
Caribou is a tough act to classify. Although they're generally put in the "electronica" catagory, that's not really that fair, sure the opening track "Yeti" bleeds analog synths, and "A Final Warning" comes close on it's heels with even more intense synths, but oddball songs like "Lord Leopard" and "Pelican Narrows" are unabashedly instrumental hip-hop while on the completely opposite of the spectrum you have the 60 psyche-rock of "Bees" and the throbbing apocalyptic folk of "Hello Hammerheads". But how does all this variation affect the listening experience? One might think it would throw the flow of the record off, but it doesn't. The reason it doesn't is because Caribou's sole member Dan Snaith, he unifies the whole album with his production style. No matter how many different styles he uses it's clear to hear that they're all recorded on and using the same equipment; unifying the albums sound.

81. Espers: II
By the end of the first track on II, "Dead Queen", you have a pretty good idea of what you're in for with the rest of the album. British folk guitars, wispy freak vocals, jarring waltz violins, and acid-laced psyche guitar solos. That's pretty much the way the rest of the album goes, but the band's songwriting is so solid and their skill at constructing arrangements and moods in music is so strong that you really don't care. Espers is one of the premier driving forces in the psyche-folk revival and they make music of such quality and grace that you can't help but enjoy it. Each member is a master at their respective instrument and it's no surprise that the band has work with some major folk legends. Obviously this isn't music for everyone, but if psyche-folk is your thing, you can't do better.

Part 3, coming soon! stay tuned!

Best Albums of the 00's: 100-91

2008-03-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

This marks the first of ten installments chronicling what I consider to be the 100 best albums of 2000-present. I'll post a link to the complete list at rateyourmusic.com when the whole thing is finished. Enjoy!

100. Alcest: Souvenirs d'un autre monde
Alcest is really a remarkable band. Beginning as a female-fronted black metal trio before losing two of its members and becoming a one-woman project. Everything you hear on the album, except guest vocals on one track, is performed by French musician Neige. The sound is a mix between harshly produced shoegaze and dreamy folk. Heavy riffs are interspersed with gentle passages and layers of distortion pile up endlessly. Neige's wispy vocals are pretty standard fair by themselves, but combined with her spectacular and odd vocal melodies, they become one of the albums strongest points. The sound amounts to what the heavy side of Mogwai would sound like playing shoegaze with a female singer.

99. The Twilight Sad: Fourteen Autumn & Fifteen Winters
Whenever I hear James Graham's vocals, I always think what a perfect barroom voice he has. That's not to say that I think he has an amateurish voice only good for serenading drunks, far from it, what I mean is his voice is has that somber singer-songwriter voice of someone whose talented, but plays for the common folk and not the critics. And by doing that, he and his band have gained the favor of critics. On the line of singer-songwriters, the band does a good job of never being too flashy but instead accenting the vocals and the lyrics, but doing so in a way where they clearly show their songwriting talent and setting themselves apart from most bands.

98. Pamela Why Shannon: Courting Autumn
Courting Autumn really has the makings of a timeless record. It's appealing enough to keep garnering new fans, it's intriguing enough to keep people interested, it's fairytale lyrics resound with anyone with an imagination, and the albums combination medieval and modern folk has a lasting power. It's only been released for a few months and it's already a record I return to constantly. Though Pamela Wyn Shannon is a pretty much unknown musician, she is a very talented singer and very interesting songwriter and someday, you can bet on it, she'll be much better known and music fans worldwide will be investigating her back catalog and getting a pleasant surprise.

97. Akiko Shikata: RAKA
Ethnic music is really a tricky thing to analyze. Rock music is universal, but ethnic music varies from country to country and unless you are born in that country or invest an incredible amount of time, you'll never know what's really good. I can't tell you if Akiko Shikata is a great Traditional Japanese performer, since no matter how I know about the Japanese psychfolk and noise genres, it helps me nothing with some that is so localized. All I know is I very much enjoy what I hear and I can tell that Akiko Shikata is a great composer and singer in comparison to American singer-songwriters. Her arrangements, the combination of pounding world percussion and a full orchestra, are massive while her vocals, assisted by a group of background singers, evoke ancient Japan and immediately remind one of a wuxia film.

96. Gregor Samsa: 55:12Gregor Samsa perfectly bring together, post-rock, slowcore, and shoegaze on this album. The reverb heavy, post-rock arrangements mesh perfectly with mid-tempo beats, droning strings, and the best male/female harmonies short of Low or Yo La Tengo. There's also a lot of ambiance going on here too, the first couple minutes of "Even Numbers" sound like something from a Set Fire to Flames of even Stars of the Lid album. The whole album wrestles between ambiance and grand explosions of sound. Which I suppose is standard fare in the post-rock genre, but it's the gorgeous vocals and interesting structures of that style that make everything sound so perfect.

95. LCD Soundsystem: LCD SoundsystemJames Murphy may borrow most of his ideas from other sources and influences, but he does a darn good job of piecing them all together. I mean, anyone who argues that James Murphy is original needs only to listen to the end of "Losing My Edge" to hear him list the artists where most of his ideas come from, but since 99% are from before 1990, he serves as an updater, using the technology that the 21st century gives him to make an great, undulating dancefloor album full of classic dance and rock ideas with some of Murphy's own little twists put in. Just try not to shake it while listening to either version of "Yeah" or to not bob your head to "Daft Punk Punk is Playing at My House". But also recognize where it's coming from. It's the beat connection, as Murphy himself says.

94. Stars: Set Yourself On Fire

Set Yourself On Fire is a pop record. Nothing more, nothing less. But it is a brilliant pop record. Here are collected some of the best pop songs on in the 00's. "Celebration Guns" "Set Yourself On Fire" "Reunion" "What I'm Trying To Say" to name only a few, are all chock full of everything that makes a great pop song: beautiful harmonies, driving rhythms, massive hooks, and witty lyrics. The albums true gem, "Ageless Beauty" is without a doubt the best song on the album and one of the best songs of the decade. Amy Millan's vocals have never sounded better and the music, though outwardly simple, hides depths that never make it sound repetitive. Even after many listens. Something the song share with the entire album.

93. Deerhoof: Friend Opportunity Deerhoof is, and always will be, one of those special bands. There one of those bands that you sit around and talk about with your friends about how awesome and ridicules they are. From album to album this mystique has grown. From noise rock, to their odd song structures, to "Panda Panda Panda", to Satomi Matsuzaki oddly memorable vocals, and finally to Friend Opportunity's indie-nowave-post-noise-prog-pop. The variety of sounds produced here are incredible. It's by far the bands most diverse album with no song sounding quite like any of the others, and in some case no song sounding anything like the others. The album is just a pleasure to listen to and really must be experienced in full to be understood.

92. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife
Colin Meloy is a storyteller in the guise of a songwriter. In previous albums he had shown us this, but he had never full committed to it. He'd always held back for a song or two, never truly giving in to it until The Crane Wife. Perhaps it was the idea of forming a multi-part story in an album that allowed him to completely indulge, but regardless of why, ever song on The Crane Wife is a story. The obvious one is the three part Crane Wife story, but there is also "When the War Came" about The Siege of Leningrad, "The Island" cycle, inspired by The Tempest, and "Shankill Butchers" based on real life serial killers. Meloy draws from his imagination as well as real stories with "Summersong", "Sons & Daughters", and "Yankee Bayonet". Perhaps it is this that make the album so lasting, it's a perfect mix of reality and imagination, presenting us with things we know about and things we can only dream about.

91. Clinic: Internal WranglerClinic is a rather ironic band; one might say they were ahead of their time by going back to old things before everyone else. Clinic predates the mainstream post-punk revival by a few years, but unlike the bands that followed in their footsteps following in others footsteps, they refused to be tied down in the basic post-punk, new wave, and "dance rock" genres ala bands like Franz Ferdinand or The Killers. Indeed not, Internal Wrangler may have a base in post-punk, but listening to the first two tracks you could never tell it. They sound more like 60s psychedelia mixed with African tribal rhythms. Elsewhere, "The Second Line" is dry funk-punk and "2/4" sounds synth-pop. The band messes with all types of styles that unified by their use of classic keyboards and vague post-punk roots.

Stay tuned for 90-81, coming soon!

Top 30 Okkervil River Songs

2008-03-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

As a sort of challenge to myself, and as a way to dig back into some gold mines, I decided to list and write a bit about my favorite songs by my favorite band, Okkervil River. Without further ado, the list:

30. “No Key, No Plan”
Black Sheep Boy Appendix
Perhaps Okkervil River’s most straight-forward song and certainly one of their most accessible, “No Key, No Plan” is the Appendix counterpart to “Black”, following the some driving drum/bass/keyboard setup but with more light-hearted lyrics that fit more into the ‘musician’s biography’ themes of The Stage Names. With lines like “You float up high and it isn’t a sin/and there isn’t a hell where we’ll be sent/it’s only now” the song is the closest Okkervil has ever come to an anthem and is has the stadium-sized keyboard lines to match. It’s sort of an anomaly in the Black Sheep Boy saga because of its carefree and pretty straight-forward lyrics that make it stand out as one spot of joy in an otherwise tragic story.

29. “Listening to Otis Redding At Home During Christmas Time”
Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See
A tragically overlooked song in Okkervil River’s catalogue, “Otis Redding” stands out as startling compared to the rest of the bands debut. It really fits in better with Black Sheep Boy’s material, starting of like many of Okkervil’s tunes, especially those on BSB, with just Will Sheff and his guitar but eventually building up to full band overlaid with a full string section. It does for the most part, however, lack the dark and antiquated tone of BSB, instead it has a homey quality that reminds of the fact that it is a Christmas song. Well almost, it’s more a forlorn love song at its heart, set at Christmastime.

28. “The Latest Toughs”
Black Sheep Boy
Jonathon Meiburg’s contributions to Okkervil River are often forgotten behind Will Sheff’s lyrics, compositions, and vocals but every once in a while his brilliant contributions become unavoidable for the listener to notice. On “The Latest Toughs” his background chants of “We were hiding from the sun/it was burning everyone” really steals the show. Well, for some of the time anyways. In other parts Sheff’s overlay of “We were hiding from the sun” after a massive buildup inspires chills as well as his lyrics for the entire song. They’re bitter, angry, dissonant, even for Sheff: “Ask for proof, because if you're dying to be led they'll lead you up the hill in chains to their popular refrains until your slaughter's been arranged, my little lamb, and it's much too late to talk the knife out of their hands.”

27. “Dead Faces”
Down the River of Golden Dreams
“Dead Faces” is such a simple, lovely little song from an album comprised of simple lovely, little folk songs and bizarre, cathartic experimental folk songs. There’s not much mystery in the lyrics, as is the case with many of Will Sheff’s song, but it’s the beauty and poetry in the lines that give it is overpowering shine “Embarcadero Train Station's empty, and I just cannot believe how long it takes to go all the way home through the city. And everyone's looking - at least, it's nice to believe that everyone's looking.” The one feature of the song, musically, about the song that impossible not to notice is the clattering buildup of instruments to the stirring accordion melody, a high point in an album full of them.

26. “Last Love Song For Now”
Black Sheep Boy Appendix
Although Okkervil River isn’t especially known for their ecstatic jams, they’ve actually have a few of them, and “Last Love Song For Now” is, if not the best overall song, is at least the best jam they’ve written. From the very first moment you can feel the energy flowing that never doesn’t let up for five straight minutes. From a pounding rhythm and handclaps to rumbling guitar and blaring trumpet the band is in rip-roaring form, weaving a vibrant and intense cloth of excitement. Will Sheff’s vocals are aggressive but not entirely devoid of melody and his lyrics are full of cryptic imagery from the very start: “Love, take my sword from the slaughter. Melt it down into vapor, and my armor, too. I hear hot blood flap and flutter from your temple to shoulder, and all through you.” Which I all well and good, but in a love song? Only Will Sheff could make it work.

25. “The President’s Dead”
Overboard & Down EP/The President’s Dead 7”
“The President’s Dead” is one of Okkervil River’s most accessible songs and in some ways it’s a novelty for them. It’s really more reminiscent 70s folk-pop than the rest of the bands work. The first two-thirds of the song are driven entirely by Will Sheff’s lyrics, since the music isn’t anything more than an acoustic guitar. The lyrics are a nonstop stream-of-consciousness detailing the reactions of a common man after hearing the news of a hypothetical President’s assassination. The song isn’t political at all but instead a commentary on America’s obsession with disasters and traged: “In the media tent where they spin and they slant, they just foam at the mouth and they champ at the bit. Those bloodsuckers can wait. Tell those vultures to cool it.” As well as our tendency to blow people out of proportion after they die tragically: “the early obits say he was a good man - you can’t argue with that. Not today you can’t. Not now you can't”. The whole song is a decidedly clever and relevant look at one of America’s worst faults coming from a band whose work is rarely outwardly focused, making that much more meaningful.

24. “Red”
Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See
“Red is my favorite color, red like your mother's eyes after awhile of crying about how you don't love her” and so began my love affair with Okkervil River. This is the first song I ever heard by them and the first song on their first real album; it’s also one of their most unique songs. At first it may not seem all that special but the structure of the song and the impersonal lyrics when compared with the rest of the bands catalogue shows it off as surprisingly different. There is a depth to this song that resounds the more you analyze the lyrics, in under four minutes it tells more several tragic stories all apparently told to the same person. The most tragic of these is made distressfully apparent with the lines like “I took a dancer home, she felt so alone. We stayed up all night in the kitchen doing my dishes, on and on until the dawn. She said ‘I know it's easy to have me, but I have seen some things that I can't even tell to my family pictures,’” that stands up with the saddest things Sheff has written, but I think it gets lost in the shuffle because people tend to see it as not quite as sad due to the fact that it isn’t told from a first person perspective and therefore loses some emotion in the delivery.

23. “The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion”
Down the River of Golden Dreams
There is a distinct feel to all of Golden Dreams songs, perhaps it’s because it’s the band’s only self-produced album, perhaps it was just what suited the songs best, I don’t know but whatever it is it clearly sets the songs from all those in the bands catalogue. What makes the songs work so well is that they are for the most part pretty simple, and instead of layering on the instruments and production, they let Will Sheff’s vocals and lyrics take center stage, while guitars, accordion, and keyboards simply give them a background. Sheff’s vocals are rather unique on this track; they stretch much thinner melodically. He stays singing when the song builds in intensity whereas in other songs he would scream or yell. It’s an interesting thing because it fits the lyrics well, in the song he’s a troubled man, but not and insane one like in “For Real” or “Black” and the vocals help to convey this.

22. “A Girl in Port”
The Stage Names
A live version of “A Girl in Port” was the first taste I got of the lyrical quality of The Stage Names and it’s safe to say that it’s one of Sheff’s storytelling triumphs. It really perfectly demonstrates his ability to tell a story clearly but incredibly artistically. It reminds me of the American Southern Gothic writers who wrote stories about boring things like living alone on an island, buy did it so brilliantly and beautifully that you could help but be entranced by it. Musically, the song sounds distinctly like the songs on Overboard & Down, comprised of acoustic, drums, bass, but really given flair by trumpet, piano, pedal steel, and even some of the bands signature mandolin. The song never gets crowded though, they all fit together perfectly paint of perfect background for Sheff’s lyrics.

21. “For Real (There’s Nothing Quite Like the Blinding Light)”
Black Sheep Boy
If you had to pick one song to describe what makes Okkervil River great; what their heart and soul is, it would have to be “For Real”. The psychopathic lyrics, the insanely contrasting vocals, the clattering drums, the crashing guitars, the spine-tingling guitar solo, all of it are what Okkervil River is all about. You might say that they don’t have any other songs like it, and that’s true, but it’s not how the song sounds that makes it that, it’s what the song represents. The songs demonstrates how the band pushes the envelope both lyrically and musically and struggle to do something actually different without losing their hold on what makes music great. The song opens with “Some nights I thirst for real blood, for real knives, for real cries. And then the flash of steel from real guns in real life really fills my mind. Then I really miss what really did exist when I held your throat so tight”, lines that hold up against some of the most disturbing ever written, and they’re make more so by Will Sheff’s screaming vocals and the bands spastic musical renderings, all of which come together and turn the song into a nightmare circus of violence and insanity.

20. “You’re Untied Again”
Sleep and Wake-Up Songs
The double punch of “You’re Untied Again” and “And I Have Seen the World of Dreams” are really the heart and soul of Sleep and Wake-Up Songs. The drifts in a sea of hallucinatory images and descriptions and the latter confirms the fact that it’s really all a dream. Lines like “And to some silent bird, I sang ‘have you heard that icicles hang from your feet?’ What passed as fine, you'll think back on that sometime; when in the darkness of the mine a few last diamonds lined your beam” convey this dream-like state but display it as somewhat real, like a phantasmagoric mixture of dreams and real things, something of an oddity in a mostly distressingly real Okkervil River catalogue.

19. “The War Criminal Rises and Speaks”
Down the River of Golden Dreams
Will Sheff’s lyrics could never be called light or shallow, he deals with some serious subjects and sometimes in some disturbing ways. “The War Criminal Rises and Speaks” is no exception, it’s graphic descriptions of a murder of an entire village of women and children is enough to shock anyone and it clearly takes the center stage of this epic song, but it’s really a common man’s feelings that are at the center of the song. In the way that many of Okkervil River’s song do, the music in the song is pretty relaxed and laidback while Sheff’s vocals and lyrics are clearly on the manic side. It’s a contrast that the band has used many times to great affect and this is no exception, it makes Sheff seem even crazier since the song itself isn’t at all.

18. “Just Give Me Time”
Sleep and Wake-Up Songs
Will Sheff has a rarely used but very clear talent for writing beautiful acoustic guitar melodies (see “In a Radio Song” and “A Leaf” among others) and “Just Give Me Time” is perhaps his best. The whole song is just him and his guitar serenading a lover and pleading for, well, time; but it’s not the lyrics that make this song stand out. Listen to how Sheff’s vocal melodies and the guitar melodies coincide and overlap before twisting around one another perfectly. There’s something unnerving in how perfectly it works, just listen.

17. “Westfall”
Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See
“Westfall” is probably Okkervil River’s best known song and one they’ve played and very nearly ever one of their hundreds of sets. It’s the song that everyone is yelling for during song breaks at live performances. It’s the song that people listen to over and over and that makes them fall in love with the band. But why? I think the reason is how Will Sheff and company relay primal urges in a way that we see and dark and beautiful but also deep down we know is evil. It allows us to taste what it is like to sink into manic evilness. Take for example how Sheff breaks into joyful “la la la’s” after describing the characters murder of an innocent that he killed for no reason. This isn’t a crime of passion, it has no motive, it’s just killing for killings sake. But see how he it’s also clearly stated that it’s evil later on, that’s where our sinking minds get redemption and we don’t feel horrible after listening to it.

16. “Plus Ones”
The Stage Names
By the time The Stage Names was being writen, Will Sheff had already be hailed as one of this generation’s best songwriters and with “Plus Ones” he’s not only solidified as the very best but is taunting the others with his skill. Really, only a genius would be able to reference so many old songs with numbers in them (plus one, of course) and still weave them into a coherent song. The joy in this is the songwriting and Sheff’s delivery, the music is pretty standard for Okkervil River and it does a good job of staying out of the way of the brilliant lyrics and Sheff’s perfect enunciation. The only way to really understand this song is to listen to it.

15. “A Leaf”
Julia Doiron/Okkervil River Split EP
“A Leaf” is an interesting little song tucked away on a little known and listen to EP. Musically it bears a resemblance to Golden Dreams in the way that it is rather simple but still beautifully composed. Only Will Sheff could follow a violent murder-ballad like “Omie Wise” with even more gore (“Jeremy Lee - at an ice-creamery on the evening of October 10 - lost 55 dollars and 70 cents, was shot twice in the chest and again in the head.”) and never sound like he’s forcing anything. The lyrics remind me of “The President’s Dead” in the way that they are outwardly focused and about the media vultures: “So lower your cameras and switch off the spot. You shouldn't be proud of the footage you got, because there won't be an end to the similar shots that have happened, are happening, and can't be prevented from endlessly happening again.” It’s interesting to hear Sheff, whose lyrics are introverted 99% of the time pleading with people to stop killing each other. It makes one wonder just how much of his seemingly endless genius we’ve yet to see.

14. “Black Sheep Boy #4”
Black Sheep Boy Appendix
Although I’d never call Okkervil River country, they certainly flirt with it on occasions and never more obviously or as it happens, as effectively, as on “Black Sheep Boy #4”. The song is one of Will Sheff’s dense masterpieces giving us more of the Tim Hardin based hero/villain Black Sheep Boy. It also brings back one of Sheff’s favorite motifs, the mirror and drives home the Appendix’s theme of destroying and rebuilding. In some ways it’s a song for die-hard fans, because no matter how appealing the pedal steel and Sheff’s harmonica solo is, much of the greatness of the song comes from following the story and finding all the hidden messages, references, and analogies. Good thing for me I’m a die-hard fan.

13. “John Allyn Smith Sails”
The Stage Names
I’ve always loved black comedy and clever witticisms so it’s no surprise that “John Allyn Smith Sails” is one of my favorite Okkervil River songs. It’s really just Will Sheff playing around; this is perhaps him at his most playful. Being playful about a suicide may seem horrible but that’s black comedy, now isn’t it? The song is about John Berryman’s life and death. The first half of the song is pretty dark, references to his hatred of students and fading talent among other things are mentioned and lines like “From a bridge on Washington Avenue, the year of 1972 broke my bones and skull, and it was memorable” shows the approach Sheff takes on the story. The second half of the song is a version of the West Indian folk song “Sloop John B” which fits so perfectly into Berryman’s story (his father committed suicide: “I hear my father fall, and I hear my mother call, and I hear the others all whispering, come home”, he felt his best work was done: “I'm full in my heart and my head and I want to go home” etc.) and it’s used so wickedly in the context of the song and story that you can’t help but laugh at it, because the song is really one huge morbid joke.

12. “A Glow”
Black Sheep Boy
Putting a slow-burning, elegant little song like “A Glow” to close an album following the massive seeming album peak “So Come Back, I Am Waiting” is a gutsy call on Okkervil River’s part. First, it runs the danger of pushing the album into the “too long” stage and second it puts the song in a position to be either forgotten or ending the album on a sour note following what would be a perfect epic album closer. But thankfully, the band knew what they were doing and they chose one of their strongest songs to fill the part, and a perfect ending to a perfect album. The strings, the little solos, the meandering, mid-temp vocals are all perfectly suited as a reflectory track for the listen to enjoy while musing on the album. It brings everything together and brings it all to close, as a sort of lyrical and musical epilogue.

11. “Okkervil River Song”
Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See
Okkervil River’s “theme song” is, fittingly, much like the band itself: it’s full of mystery, symbolism, folky instruments, everything that has become a staple for the band for years. No matter how far they traverse from their roots, they never really can escape it. The song is full of reflection, “I stared into the water, and the water it stared back” longing, “I searched and stared but only the river stared back” escapism “With your hand inside my pocket, you whispered in my ear ‘We have come from ugliness to find some refuge here. With this bracken for a blanket, where these limbs stick out like bones, we have found a place where we can be alone’” depravity of spirit “They dreamed of nothing and got nothing in return” and awkward love “And I tried to tell you, as I kissed your hard dry lips, all the things I dreamed about. I touched your bone white hips.” all themes and ideas that come up often in the bands later work.

10. “(Shannon Wilsey On The) Starry Stairs”
The Stage Names B-Side
Of all Okkervil River’s sad and depressing songs, this one has to be the most so. Sure it’s not as immediately striking as some others, but this is a true story of a sad and depraved life that ended before the coming of redemption, and so it’s got the edge on all the others. The song is, as Will Sheff put it, a sequel to “Savannah Smiles” and a cousin to “John Allyn Smith Sails”. The former because it’s about the same person, porn star Shannon Wilsey, but set after; and the latter because both culminate in suicide. Unlike “John Allyn Smith Sails” however, the song focuses less on the actual suicide and more on the reasons why; the depravity of a lifestyle she can’t escape, the shame, all of it is made painfully clear by Sheff with lines like “I kept a warm safe place in my core, before I lost it” and “I'm alive but a different kind of life than the way I used to be”. Heartbreaking, and true.

9. “Blanket and Crib”
Down the River of Golden Dreams
Will Sheff is well known for his aggressive, manic vocal deliveries and “Blanket and Crib” is one of his best performances. It’s a pretty short song, under two minutes, and it takes all of 30 seconds before Sheff is spewing forth insults and hollering about sharpening knives and other typical fare (typical for him anyways). The music is suitably crazy, with tinkling keyboard and acoustic are interrupted by aggressive rhythms, jagged organ, and triumphant horns. By the end of the song is an off-tilted mess of instruments, but it’s a beautiful mess to be sure. The song isn’t Sheff’s absolute best songwriting but it works so perfect with the music that it makes the whole song amazing.

8. “The Next Four Months”
For Real (There’s Nothing Quite Like the Blinding Light)
I one hundred percent understand why “The Next Four Months” was left off Black Sheep Boy. It wouldn’t have suited the album at all, I can’t think of any place it could have been inserted without messing with the album entirely. No, the band definitely made the right decision to not use it, but that it wouldn’t have worked on Black Sheep Boy doesn’t the fact that it’s one of the best songs the band has ever recorded, both musically and lyrically. The song is about two prescription drug addicts, their schemes to acquire it (“Maybe we could break your ankle, clean and unsuspiciously. An ER trip, a doctor's slip, and you could share your pills with me.”), and how their addictions ran and ruined their lives (“We're driving down the interstate, you're feeling great, you scratch your wrist, and we pretend your kids, your husband, all you left does not exist.” and “I know I’m weak, I don't deny we'll see our trial sometime soon”). Sheff uses many little tricks in his songs, some subtle, some not so, but this song probably has the best, as the song progresses the dosages in the chorus goes up (2000, 3000, 4000 milligrams etc) and as it goes up, the characters lives start to get a lot worse. It’s something that’s easy to miss but it clearly shows how drugs escalate from simple little experiments to full blown addiction that can ruin your life.

7. “So Come Back, I Am Waiting (Black Sheep Boy #2)”
Black Sheep Boy
This isn’t really any easy song to write about, it’s so huge, so grand, and so dense in its themes, lyrics, and arrangements that it would really take a verse by verse, note by note description to do it justice. And since the song is eight minutes long I don’t think such a thing would be possible, so I leave you with a short listeners guide to the song. 1. Don’t listen to the song out of order! At least not for the first time, it’s so much more powerful in its place. 2. Listen to all the instruments and how they work with lyrics, pay special attention to the piano line, it’s outstanding. 3. Read the lyrics, there some of Sheff’s best certainly his most intelligent (he uses the words “magisterial” and rhymes “bacterium” and “abecedarian”, yeah I had to look that last one up too). 4. Finally, go somewhere you love, thing about sad things, and listen to the last 1:40 of the song, and cry. I did.

6. “Seas Too Far to Reach”
Down the River of Golden Dreams
“Seas Too Far to Reach” is one of those songs that you listen to when you’re really optimistic and happy. You tap your feet to it, bob your head, and maybe even do a shimmy or something. The point is that it’s a happy song, something rare in Okkervil’s catalogue. Keys, organs, and mandolin all bounce about the song while Sheff sings joyfully about driving up to the country, being with friends, sleeping, and love. He even breaks out into an entirely not sinister “la la” session. Some of Sheff’s best poetry is to be found here, some of his best metaphors: “And with your body next to me, its sleepy sighing sounds like waves upon a sea too far to reach. But I'll gather up my men and try to sail on it again, and we'll walk and quietly talk all through the country of your skin, made up of pieces of the places that you've dreamed and that you've been.” And you can’t get much better than that.

5. “Another Radio Song”
Black Sheep Boy Appendix
A friend of mine recently told me that he loved Black Sheep Boy but he couldn’t get into the Appendix and I told him that he’ll get into it as soon as he moves on from caring about the individual songs to caring about the entire album and its story. “Another Radio Song” is loaded with so many of Sheff’s motifs that there is nearly one every other line. Gardens, mirrors, cedar, things living in radios, missing children, mountains, and curtains are all mentioned in many of Sheff’s songs, especially those pertaining to the Black Sheep Boy songs. Near the end of the song Sheff unleashes a fiery barrage of lines, delivered with hoarse, rapid fire vocals that chill you to the bone, like all Sheff’s writing they are more poetry than lyrics and just as good read as heard “Bless this tiny alley; we have fallen, from tall buildings we have fallen through the air into a garden sweetly smelling of the softest sleeping flowers (now they sit under the sidewalk, now they're waiting for the shining of some future sun to show us all that brings you beauty and all that gives you pleasure)” musically the band mixes an aggressive rhythm section with a subtle touches like strings and piano. A perfect mirror of the songs lyrics verses their delivery.

4. “Black”
Black Sheep Boy
“Black” continues Will Sheff’s never-ending series of songs about horrible things and horrible people. The song is a tale of the after effects of abuse to a woman, told from the perspective of the woman’s future lover and set to an aggressive drum, bass, and keyboard arrangement. The lyrics make clear how much hate the narrator has for the abuser (“But if I could tear his throat, and spill his blood between my jaws, and erase his name for good, don't you know that I would? Don't you realize that I wouldn't pause, that I would cut him down with my claws if I could have somehow never let that happen?”) and one might think that these feelings would endear him to the abused, but by the end of the song the narrator is pounding on the door of the his love (whether figuratively or literally I don’t know) and begging for her to let him, but even in his pleas he states the very reason she’s shutting up him out, his obsession with something that she’d rather forget and move on from: “Oh Cynda Moore, don't lose me now, let me help you out. Though I know that I can't help anyhow, when I watch you I'm proud. When I tell you twice before that you should wreck Oh Cynda Moore, don't lose me now, let me help you out. Though I know that I can't help anyhow, when I watch you I'm proud. When I tell you twice before that you should wreck his life the way that he wrecked yours, you want no part of his life anymore. And it'll never be the way it was before, but I wish that you would let me through that door. Let me through that door, baby.

3. “Love to a Monster”
Overboard and Down EP/The Stage Names B-Side
Speaking of horrible people, “Love to a Monster” is about a guy who is probably the biggest jerk in the world. (Before we dive into the song, it’s important to note that although Will Sheff often writes in the first person, very few if any of his songs are autobiographical, he is a storyteller, so any thoughts you have that he might be psychotic or misogynistic should be quelled) The narrator apparently starts writing a letter to an ex-lover that is so full of bitterness and hate, I was shocked when I first heard it. First towards his ex-lover: “Yeah, so here I go, just exploding the hope we'll be speaking some day, years from now, seeking friendship and understanding. Yeah, I hope you get angry, and hurt, and have the hardest of landings. And I hope your new man thinks of me when he sees what a number I did on you.” Then after the letter is over, towards other women: “I grow tired of this song. Turn my eyes to the blonde in the bleachers. She's a lovely young creature. I think she's seeking adventure. I think she's ready to see that the world isn't so sweet or so tender. I won't break her, just bend her, and make her into my new ringer for you.” And finally towards the rest of the world: “But I'll fight off the spring; I don't want lovely things, I don't want the earth new.” Ouch.

2. “A Stone”
Black Sheep Boy
Anything I write would be insignificant compared to this: “And I think I believe that, if stones could dream, they'd dream of being laid side-by-side, piece-by-piece, and turned into a castle for some towering queen they're unable to know. And when that queen's daughter came of age, I think she'd be lovely and stubborn and brave, and suitors would journey from kingdoms away to make themselves known. And I think that I know the bitter dismay of a lover who brought fresh bouquets every day when she turned him away to remember some knave who once gave just one rose, one day, years ago.” I think that sums up why the song is awesome…

1. “A King and a Queen”
Black Sheep Boy
Where does one begin to describe his favorite song of all time? Within fifteen second of hearing it for the first time I loved it and by the end of the song I was so awestruck that I had to go back and listen to it again. And again and again and again… So much so that I shamefully ignored the rest of the album for a while because I only wanted to listen to this song. The guitar line, the divine trumpet, the perfect mandolin touches, Will Sheff’s crooning, the lyrics… every single part of this song is perfect. The song is the best overall lyrically and musical the Sheff has ever writing. The instruments create an appropriate amount of melodrama mixed with a fairy tale quality that matches the lyrics perfectly. I don’t think there’s much more I can say about the song. It’s a perfect song 9 times out of ten when I hear I tear up. It’s the epitome of beautiful and helpless love: “But the best thing for you would be queen, so be queen. You're all that I need. Though I know that it never can be, I'd be pleased to post your decrees, to fall at your knees, to name all your streets and to sit down and weep when you're carried back through them and set down to sleep, and to lie by your side for sublime centuries (until we crumble to dust when we're crushed by a single sunbeam.)” I’m listening to it now and tearing up, such is the power of music that makes it the best art form and one of God’s greatest gifts to man.

2008-01-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

Since we're in a drought of good music right now, I figured it would be fun for me to try to come up with the ten best indie rock albums of all time. My criteria for this list is as follows: The album must fall into the indie rock (or subsequent minor deviations) category and the album must have been released after 1990 (my reasons for this are, that things before 1990 were influences of the genre, not actually a part of the genre. Another reason is that things get too muddled if you include artists like Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, Joy Division etc. better to just keep it simple). I also decided, for the fun of it, to only include one album a piece from each artist. This means I not only have a broader array of albums but it also means some tough decisions. I hope you reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

10. Supergrass: In It For the Money
Supergrass do something that seems impossible in this era of Win Butler and Conner Oberst led indie mopers: they actually have fun. Supergrass is one of few bands who create great music without seeming to care; they seem so comfortable in their skin, totally relaxed and chill about everything in the world. This seeming apathy and fun-loving spirit often paints the band in a bad light; they become the band you listen to when you don't care, the band you listen to when you don't want to think about what you're listening to and it's a crying shame because when this happens the bands considerable talent is lost in the shuffle. A trio at the time of this release (they would later add a full-time keyboardist) the band is well known for their standard guitar/bass/drum set-up accented by various types of keyboards, strings, and horns. Unlike bands with built in non-rock instruments, Supergrass never over uses them, they add horns to some, organs to some, piano to some, spreading it out and creating more diverse arrangements. Diversity is something that Supergrass excels at, but theirs is a diversity of influence and approach rather than of blatant genre and styles; each track has the same root but a different feel. "Richard III" has a dark gothic punk feel, "Going Out" has a poppy feel, "Cheapskate" has a bluesy feel, all are classic rock rooted indie rock but each is an individual in it's own right. In fact, besides the music, the thing that makes this album so great is that it never runs together but is a solid, complete, cohesive album. This album and all of Supergrass' work is criminally underrated, never receiving the credit it's due while obvious ripoffs like the Arctic Monkeys are undeserving given critical acclaim, yet another sign that buzz blinds.

9. Broken Social Scene: Broken Social Scene
Even if it wasn't a spectacular album, Broken Social Scene's self-titled 3rd album would be an achievement none the less. The fact that twenty distinguished artists, critically acclaimed in their own right, could come together and make an album that comes anywhere close to cohesive is incredible. But in this case, it's the fact that 20 artists could come together and make one of the best albums in the last ten years that is most relevant. Central to the success of the album is the perfect balance of technically proficiency and superb songwriting. The skill of the bands multiple guitarists, their drummer, their bassist, and their brass and string players is undeniable, but this would mean nothing if the arrangements were weak, but they're not. Every song is planned out meticulously and main songwriters Kevin Drew and Brenden Canning make use of all the assets at their disposal. The very first thing that you notice when you listen to the album is perhaps the most important thing to their sound: the production. It's the muddy, distorted production that allows Drew and Canning to make use of all these assets, with a different production style it wouldn't work, it would sound like a mess but as it is, it doesn't. It sounds perfect. From the screeching distortion of "Ibi Dreams of Pavement" and "Superconnected" to the upbeat, nearly pop sound of "7/4 (Shoreline)" and "Fire Eye'd Boy" to more experimental songs like the psychedelia meets jazz of "Hotel" to the beat-centric, hip-hop infused "Windsurfing Nation" Broken Social Scene spans a tremendous amount of sounds using many different vocalist, sometimes as many as five in one song. The album ends on an extremely high note with "It's All Gonna Break" which pulls out all the stops and effectively reminds you of everything on the album that's great.

8. Red House Painters: Songs For a Blue GuitarMark Kozelek's ratio of quantity vs. quality is among the very top in the history of music. Each one of his thirteen or so albums (with Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon, and solo) is a stuffed to the brim with top-notch indie folk/rock. His signature combination of intricate folk songs and shrieking ten minute-plus guitar jams has become synonymous with his name and his penchant for bizarre cover has become the stuff of legends. Every one of his albums with Red House Painters is spectacular but none of them have his sound and trademarks down quite as perfectly as Songs For a Blue Guitar. The album is so good that it even approaches Sun Kil Moon's folk masterpiece Ghosts of the Great Highway, which is the peak of Kozelek's work. This album has the folk tracks: "Have You Forgotten" "Priest Alley Song" "Revelation Big Sur" it has the rock tracks "Make Like Paper" "Long Distance Runaround" and the things in between "I Feel the Rain Fall" "All Mixed Up" but most notably, it has perhaps the most ridicules of Kozelek's covers: an eleven minute electrified jam version of Paul McCartney & Wings "Silly Love Songs". This album is a nearly perfect rendering of Kozelek's tortured muse, his lyrics match his pathetic and mournful voice exactly and the music only enhances it even more, even the electric guitar jams are sad sounding. The album is at its very best when Kozelek mixes his murky tales with vivid descriptions of the events and places, and thankfully that happens on almost every track.

7. Deerhoof: Apple O'The amazing thing about Deerhoof is that several of their albums could have made it on this list; Halfbird, Reveille, Milk Man, The Runners Four or even last year's Friend Opportunity easily have been here, each of those albums present a slightly (or occasionally not so slightly) different version of the band but I picked my personal favorite and what I consider to be their best as for this list. Apple O' is, I consider, the bands peak of their noise/math rock style, after this album the band started to experiment more with broader arrangements and more instruments. The beginning signs of this change is found on the album with things like the horns in "Sealed With a Kiss" or the acoustics of "Adam+Eve Connection" but for the most part the band stays true to their dueling tech-crazy guitar and wispy female vocals. The most incredible thing about this album is how the band can go from quiet, ethereal tracks like "Apple Bomb" and "Blue Cash" and then on the very next track explode into riotous guitar jams. This is amazing because on paper, the bands noisy, oddly structured arrangements combined with Satomi Matsuzaki's high vocal delivery shouldn't even work one way, let alone two. But it does.

6. Low: Things We Lost in the Fire This is the album that took Low from pioneers to masters of more than just their founding genre. Together with American Music Club and Red House Painters, Low's first four albums were a driving force in the so-called "slow-core" style of music (which in fact, is just dark indie rock with a slow tempo) in the early 90s. With their fifth album, Things We Lost in the Fire, Low proved (much like Red House Painters did with folk-rock) that they were so much more than just a slow-tempo, downbeat band. While Low never really speeds things up, they add so much to their music with a variety of instruments. Sometimes they delve into folk, other times grand symphonic tracks or noise rock, but they keep it all rooted in one important thing: Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's absolutely stunning vocal arrangements. Their vocals are so heart-wrenchingly beautiful, together they can make you feel love, sorrow, isolation, peace, fear, and joy. Sometimes all at the same time. Parker's famous minimalist drumming and Sparhawk's incredible musical versatility are a perfect combination; you can listen to their arrangements repeatedly and be any less fascinated by them. The whole album is more like one piece of music conveniently divided into 13 sections; while you are aware that one song ends and another begins, the songs carry such a power and such related theme, both musically and lyrically, that even though a song ends, it's resonance carries on into the next track and so on. This album is one of the easiest to listen to yet most challenging in existence, and while it will constantly surprise you it's an album that you'll want to return to as soon as you leave it, to once again dive into Low's dark, sparse, beautiful land.

5. Belle & Sebastian: TigermilkThis may be an unconventional call on my part, to pick this Belle & Sebastian album since If You Feeling Sinister is widely considered Belle & Sebastian’s masterpiece, and while the greatness of that album is incalculable, it is inferior to the album that precedes it, Tigermilk. While the poor low-quality recording may at first lead the listener to believe that Tigermilk isn’t up to Sinister’s standards, after repeated listens one realizes that it is a perfect combination of pop sensiblities, lush arrangements, and Stuart Murdoch’s most competent lyrics form not just Belle & Sebastian’s best album, but one of the best of all time. The albums hooks are not only irresistibly catchy but varied in their construction, the jangle pop of “The State I’m In” builds up with simple verses to a hook-laden chorus that doesn’t come until about halfway through the track and signals a radical change in the song. “Expectations” has catchy verses but no true chorus, it is instead replaced by very memorable trumpet melody, that is just as effective at getting stuck in your head as any pop hook. “She’s Losing It” is a fusion of the catchy verses and trumpet melodies used before for another completely different effect. “You’re Just a Baby” is even more in the way of pop, the band takes the straightforward mold of pop and bends it to their will and “indiefing” it, for lack of a better word. The albums arrangements, though effected slightly by the bands low budget at the time of recording, are the epitome of indie pop, setting a bar for the genre that has never been surpassed. The brilliance of the music comes from the perfect combination of pop structure and diverse instrumentation. Keys and strings color the sound give it depth behind the guitars, bass, and drums that form the foundation of the music. The band uses as the lead instrument, playing the main melodies, bridges, and instrumentals. It’s this blend of the familiar and the creative, the pop structure and the diverse arrangement that makes the album’s arrangements so spectacular, you have the feeling of familiarity and comfort mixed with edgy instrumentation. It’s all so seamless that it hardly seems like it’s happening, it’s so easy to simply take for granted what you hear and never analyze the music that is so simply and perfectly comprised. Murdoch’s lyrics shine out as one the best pop songwriter of this generation, his wit, intelligence, and fearlessness of are unmatched. The albums last three tracks contain his best songwriting in all its facets, “My Wandering Days Are Over”, show his best winsome pop side, “I Don’t Love Anyone” is his most wit-filled track, and the self-referential “Mary Jo” is his best dark love tune. It’s the combination of these three things, pop structures, diverse instruments, and brilliant lyrics are blended perfectly into the essential indie pop album.

4. Pavement: Slanted and EnchantedHere’s my simple breakdown of Pavement’s albums: all are great, the last two are criminally underrated, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is the most influential, Wowee Zowee is my personal favorite, and Slanted and Enchanted, is the best, which is why it’s the Pavement album I chose for this list. I’m honestly incredibly surprised that Pavement is as well known as it is, I mean lets face it, they’re not exactly the most immediately appealing band in the world; what makes them great isn’t readily apparent to the listener, and even when the average music fan discovers their genius, I’d suspect them to be placed more in the “appreciate but don’t listen to” category by most. This is opinion is just another example of how wrong I can be, Pavement’s fanbase and praise, by critics and fans alike, has never been greater. Pavement seems to be more and more lauded with each passing year and my only opinion on the fact it that it’s more than deserved. Pavement’s albums are a treasure-trove of spectacular music, and non is more so than Slanted and Enchanted. Steven Malkmus’ vocals and lyrics are sharp and cutting as well as sarcastic and surreal, the bands arrangements are a refreshing take on the tried and true guitar/bass/drum set up. Their mix of fuzzed out distortion mixed with quieter picked clean guitars, steady yet still flashy drumming and throbbing bass influence countless hundreds of artists that followed them, which is somewhat surprising because as groundbreaking as it is, it’s not flashy or extravagant, it’s just original and perfectly executed. Even though it is the weirdest of Pavement’s albums, it still contains the pop melodies that the band later perfected on their next four albums. The melodies are buried beneath a lot of noise and somewhat sabotaged by Malkmus’ quirky, off-kilter vocals, but they are still there and are no less brilliant. In fact, it’s the combination of these eccentricities with the genius lyrics and songwriting that makes Pavement so great and these effects are never more present then on Slanted and Enchanted making it their best album.

3. The Olivia Tremor Control: Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle

The Olivia Tremor Control knows that there is a balance between accessibility and experimentation all great bands must walk. This balance is the definition of indie rock, the so-called “thinking man’s music”, and no band does it better then Olivia Tremor Control and never is it better done than on the awkwardly titled Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle. On this album, the band blends catchy pop, fuzzed-out guitars, surreal dream-influenced lyrics and electro-folk collages. Take the first three tracks for an example, 60s pop influenced tracks “The Opera House” and “Jumping Fences” bookend “Frosted Ambassador” a minute long ambient track. Likewise later in the album, a series of poppy tracks lead up to the epic, 9-track “Green Typewriter” suite, a sort of trippy mid album deviation that is equal parts noise rock and electo acid trip. The bands music is rather indefinable, it has clear 60s pop influence in some of the guitar work and drumming and the Beach Boys and Beatles are clearly heard in some of the vocal melodies, but the entire album has such a hazy feel that it seems more like a mono-tastic dream of pop than anything else. Each song is rooted in the same recording sound but the structure and performance of the instruments is so varied from song to song that is at once seems so different yet oddly similar. The only thing that appears in every non-instrumentals is the stunning vocal work of Bill Doss and Will Cullen Hart, together they both harmonize and contrast each other, depending on the mood of the track. Together with the music they form a sort of musical multiple personality disorder, that sometimes happens several times in one song, such as on “Holiday Surprises 1,2,3” which about halfway through changes almost completely in style then changes back then changes back again and then again. Even at its poppiest the band is still experimenting, you can always hear a squeal or a squeak from some effects-laden guitar or overdriven synthesizer. The band takes more risks with the listeners sensibilities and as a result gains more from the overall experience, instead of playing it safe they made the music they wanted to make and thankfully for the good of music, they have the ability, talent, creativity, and genius to pull it all off completely.

2. Yo La Tengo: I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One
Many bands can be diverse, diversity isn’t hard, any band could play any number of styles without even trying, their attempts might be horrible sounding but as long as they play the style they are “diverse”. Yo La Tengo is diverse, perhaps the most diverse I have ever heard, but that’s not what’s amazing, what’s amazing is that they are masters of all these genres. Let us take the first 8 tracks of the bands masterpiece I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One as an example of their diversity, “Return to Hot Chicken” is drone, “Moby Octopod” is down-tempo funk, “Sugarcube” is noise pop, “Damage” is art-folk, “Deeper Into Movies” is shoegaze, “Shadows” is dream-pop, “Stockholm Syndrome” is folk-pop, “Autumn Sweater” is organ-driven indie pop and that’s just the first half of the album. The reason the band can pull off so many different styles is because they have an obvious appreciation for the main artists of the styles, but they don’t just appreciate them, they embody them, study them, learn their formula, and learn what makes it work. They take the knowledge they gain and mix it with their own considerable creativity and talent, giving it their own original spin. What sets them off from their influences is singer/guitarist/keyboardist Ira Kaplan and his wife Georgia Hubley, who not only plays the drums but harmonizes with him on almost every track, as well as taking the lead occasionally. Their harmonies, similar to those of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, show not only beautiful voices and vocal talent but a kind of chemistry and realism that could be only found with a husband and wife. On their instruments, together with drummer James McNew, the band is more than competent, they are excellent; never too flashy or flaunting, but technically and creatively brilliant. Each piece of music is so thought out and well written, every instrument sounds absolutely necessary to the song, making the very though of an organ or tambourine being left out unthinkable. Basslines don’t just provide rhythm support, they play lead, keyboards don’t just enhance the song, they are they song. Every verse, every instrument, every vocal note, every emotion is a part of the song as a whole, without any one of those things each song wouldn’t be the same.

1. The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs
Albums like 69 Love Songs only come along every decade or so, but when they do they leave a mark on music that is incalculable. The album is, to say the least, a momentous and incredible achievement. Regular length albums with no bad tracks are rare enough but an album with 69 tracks that has no bad tracks? That’s unthinkable. Unthinkable, that is, if you’ve never heard this album. The album really begins and ends with Stephin Merritt, he wrote all the songs and sings most of them, so to say that he is the album isn’t much of a hyperbole. If you haven’t figured it out yet, the album is a collection of 69 songs (yes, about love) divided into three parts. There really isn’t much difference between the parts except for easier reference. Disc 1 is the best of the three, even though the thought of any of the tracks on any of the albums being excluded is unthinkable. The first disc’s first seven songs is perhaps the best run of seven songs in the history of music. Each track, from the neurotic “Absolutely Cuckoo” to the heart wrenching banjo ballad “Reno Dakota” to the Joy Divisionesque “I Don’t Want to Get Over You” spread themselves out over several styles and vocalists, but all tied together by Merritt’s brilliant songwriting: “I guess I could should take Prozac right and just smile all night to somebody new, someone not to bright but sweet and kind who’ll try to get you off my mind I could leave this agony behind, which is just what I’d do if I wanted to, but I don’t want to get over you” or “We don’t have to be stars exploding into the night, or electric eels under the covers, we don’t have to be anything so surreal lets just be lovers” or “Reno Dakota I’m reaching my quota of tears for the year, you know you enthrall me and yet you don’t call me, it’s making me blue” or any number of examples from any number of the tracks. Merritt covers every emotion, feeling, and view of love over the course of the album; musing on lust (“Underwear”) loss (“Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits”) longing (“Come Back From San Francisco”) regret “All My Little Words”) pride (“When My Boy Walks Down the Street”) and a million other things. Tracks like “Love is Like Jazz” show that he’s not just a clever lyricist but a genius writer “Love is like jazz you make it up as you go along and you act as if you really know the song but you don't and you never will so you flaunt your mistakes and you make them until they make you”With help from vocalists both male and female well as some extra musicians, Merritt and his band mates made an album that is constantly shifting in style and mood, a sort of phantasmagoria of indie-synth-chamber-folk-rock, sometimes separately and sometimes all at once. Merritt sums up the album better then I ever could: “It’s divine, it’s depressing”.

2007-12-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

Part 2 of the Essential Sounds of 2007 Mixtape: The Ethreal Sounds of 2007: Buried in the Planet. Enjoy!

1. The Angels of Light: "Goodbye Mary Lou"
"Goodbye Mary Lou" may not be the best song on We Are Him and it may not be my favorite but I definitely feel that it is the most intriguing. The triple guitar/mandolin attack twists, turns, and intertwines an almost malevolent melody that is just as aggressive and angry sounding as Michael Gira's vocals and lyrics. The song is a kiss-off (or perhaps piss-off would be better) to a old lover that reaches it's peak as Gira, rather nonchalantly states exactly what he wants Mary Lou to do to herself. But after all the insults and anger, the song ends with "Mary Lou: I forgive you". What the story behind this song is an why he chose to end it this way is, like so many of Gira's other songs, a mystery. Even after 25 years of steadily releasing music (10 albums, 13 EPs with Swans, 9 solo albums, 7 albums with Angels of Light, talk about prolific!) Gira still finds a way to write good creative songs and reinvent himself stylistically with each release.

2. Frog Eyes: "Idle Songs"
Let's face it: Carey Mercer and company's music is weird. Mercer's vocals are weird, his lyrics are weird, and the bands arrangements are weird. In this case though, weird also carries the subtexts of totally freaking awesome. Mercer's voice is delightfully bizarre as is bends and twists his vocal chords at some points while muttering and almost whispering some other parts. The band creates unhinged, almost prog (almost) keyboard and guitar mayhem that creates just the right amount of discord to suit Mercer's vocals. The combination of the two is so chaotic that it seems like the song, and the band members minds, are just on the very very edge of completely falling apart.

3. Beirut: "In the Mausoleum"
Beirut's debut Gulag Orkester had one big problem: Zach Condon's lack of experience in writing large-scale arrangements. His basic structures were better than ok, they were great but once the full band started to come in things got messy. Since then, Condon has grown and learned to the point that he can write grand, epic arrangements nearly perfectly. With the aide of the great violinist and arranger Owen Pallet (of Final Fantasy) doing the strings Condon has created a masterpiece of epic arrangements. The horns and strings layer upon each other and intertwine to create a dense and stirring soundscape that works perfectly with Condon's vague and often indecipherable lyrics. The whole listening experience truly is that: an experience. Just like the best story or movie, Condon's music transports you to another time and place.
4. Grails: "Dead Vine Blues"
Grails have, over the course of six albums have developed a style of psychedelic folk that burrows heavily not only from American folk music but from folk music around the world. The eastern influence has always been there, buried deep with the layers of acoustic guitars and violins. Finally the influence has been able to spring forth completely as the band fully embraces the sounds of the orient. Sometimes they do with sitar but other times they do it with their same basic setup of bass, acoustic guitar, drums, and percussion. It is in these moments that not only does the bands talent, skill, and creativity shine, but also their genius. Much in the way that Calexico uses the same instruments to summon forth pictures of the Mexico, Grails brings you straight to Arabia, or India, or China and they do it without the use of local instruments or musicians, a feat that shouldn't be passed over lightly. Imagine how much easier it would have been for them to perform this song on sitar to get an easier effect? Instead of taking this route they opted to take time and care to find the perfect guitar tones and notes to bring you this effect. It's a achievement that is easy to never think of but hard to forget.

5. Le Loup: "To the Stars! To the Night!"
It has often been said that there is beauty in simplicity and it is very true that if an artist can create a work that is all the artists intended and is aesthetically pleasing, but also remains uncluttered and simple then it truly is a thing of beauty. Le Loup creates a gorgeous musical landscape by using essentially some banjo and a collection of human voices. The banjo is divine, intertwining with itself before opening up into the songs beautiful melody. The group vocals work so perfectly with the banjo, they sing is unison “To the stars/to the silver scars that mark the night” and it sounds like ancient Greeks singing praises to their Gods in the sky in some stone circle on a dark midnight thousands of years ago. Le Loup's music fits into many different genres, sometimes they're folk, sometimes they're indie rock, sometimes their noise, sometimes their abstract experimenting, sometimes they sound like a solo project for Sam Simkoff, and sometimes they sound like the octet that they are. Regardless of their variations, they always sound beautiful and creative. Their music inspires anyone discouraged with the state of music today the somewhere out there there are a new generations of artist who can create a new movement of creativity and wonder in music.

6. Thee, Stranded Horse: "Swaying Eel"
For a genre that was essential founded and perfected by an incredible guitarist, indie folk is certainly full of crappy and/or really lazy guitarists. Sam Beam, though I love him to death (sometimes...) is unfortunatly one of those of which I speak, I mean sure we know it's about the lyrics and your way-too-hushed vocals but could you please play more than the same couple of notes over and over? If you wish to hear a acoustic guitarist with massive amounts of talent but who doesn't fall into the instrumental genre ala Jack Rose, John Fayey etc then you must travel to France. Yahn Encre is sort of what everyone says Jose Gonzalez is. He plays nylon guitar and kora at lightning quick speeds near the end of this song, some of them to the point that you have trouble believing that it's just him, but it is. Besides the obvious difference in their skills, two other things that seperates Encre from Gonzalez is his lyrics and vocals. While Gonzalez's lyrics range from average to embarrassing and his vocals are nothing special, falling into the completely average pile of "hushed" vocalist who really just use this technique as a disguise for their lack of vocal talent. Encre on the other hand has a voice that in some points sounds almost evil. It sounds slippery and smooth, like the devil might have sounded as he convinced Eve to sin. His lyrics also follow this type of abstract existentialism and at some points go from trippy to twisted without missing a beat.

7. The National: "Slow Show"
There's something magical about a song that shifts everything: tempo, mood, style, rhythm, everything effortlessly and perfectly with no problem what so ever. The change about three-fourths of the way through "Slow Show" is one of those changes. The music changes completely and the lyrical content ("Looking for somewhere to stand and stare/I leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away/Can I get a minute and not be nervous?" to " You know I dreamed about you for twenty-nine years before I found you") changes aptly with the mood from dark to semi-hopeful. Matt Berninger is one of the best lyricists writing today and with this song he has really struck a very personal chord with me. So personal in fact that I wouldn't hesitate to say the the first couple lines of the song could have been written about me. I leave you with them, for lyrics like this speak for themselves far better than I ever could attempt to do: "Standing at the punch table swallowing punch/can't pay attention to the sound of anyone/I made a mistake in my life today/everything I love is lost in drawers/I want to start over/I want to be winning/way out of sync from the beginning".

8. David Thomas Broughton: "Weight of My Love"
David Thomas Broughton's voice just reeks of epic grandness, but he'd never quite utilized it to it's fullest on past albums, sticking to quiet folk arrangements accented with jagged noise stylings, but with his collaboration with fellow British musicians 7 Hertz. 7 Hertz's bring a large scale string section into the mix to turn Broughton's acoustic guitar tracks into huge ten-plus minute chamber-folk epics. But no matter how much the music has improved, the songs greatness begins and ends with Broughton's vocals. He has a truly unique, it's not at all easy to describe at all except that it bares a slight resemblance to an extremely melodramatic, operatic-trained David Byrne. But even that barely scratches the surface.

9. Michael Cashmore & Antony Hegarty: "How God Moved At Twilight"
It's an interesting and totally unplanned coincidence that two of the most unique vocalist ever are right after another on this mix. Antony Hegarty's voice is perhaps a little more normal that David Thomas Broughton but Antony Hegarty's silky delivery and sandpaper-smooth vocals are every bit as grand and fantastic as Broughton's. Although Hegarty is usual making music with his normal band Antony and the Johnsons, he found some time this year to collaborate with the man behind classical/electro/folk project Nature and Organization, Michael Cashmore. On this song, gentle piano and glossy strings provide a stunningly simple yet beautiful background of music. The interesting thing on this track is that instead of being just a vehicle for Hegarty's vocals it instead focuses just as much on the music, almost all the latter half of the track is instrumental.
10. Islaja: "Laulu Jo Menneesta"
Islaja, or as I like to call her the Scandinavian goddess, makes some of the most shocking and abrasive freak-folk you'll ever hear that also happens to be some of the most beautiful. Finland's greatest export's music isn't loud or distorted of even sharp sounding, it's just abrasive but it's impossible to describe why. Now it's not abrasive in that it hurts your ears but that it is hard to penetrate it at first. It takes time for the true genius of the music to show itself. The first time through you'll hear a variety of instrument, including ones you don't recognize, all played gently and off-kilter, nothing sound right at first. Once you penetrate the dense sounds and odd structures you'll find a genius in abstract construction and arrangement. One thing that will never be disputed about Islaja is that her voice is fantastic, she is possibly my favorite female vocalist, mainly because she gives me the sensation that I'm being lead through a woodland by a fairy in a Finnish folk-tale.

11. Pamela Wyn Shannon: "O Bittersweet Dear Madeline"
There is something very antiquated about Pamela Wyn Shannon's music. Her take on folk is very medieval and earthy and Shannon is sort of a bardess, if such a thing ever existed. Just take the first five seconds of the song, already you hear a high, citern sounding guitar and a pan-pipe like instrument that together sound very much like classical and medieval folk. Her vocals are so elastic that she can stretch from high notes to low accents within a half-second without breaking voice. The lyrics too have an air of the olde about them, she creates characters and scenes that sound something like a tale of King Arthur's court, telling a story about a naiad or some ancient fairy.

12. Promise and the Monster: "Killing Fields"
If you're anything like me, you've probably at some point in your life sat around thinking "what kind of a serial killer would Joanna Newsom be?". For those of you have wonder this, I have something to share with you that may, just may shed some light on these deliberations: Promise and the Monster aka Billie Lindhal, a Swedish folk princess who shares similar ground with Newsom without being a plagiarists of her style. Even though Lindhal's weapon of choice is an acoustic guitar, not a harp like Newsom, they both still share the same babyish cooing vocal style. Unlike Newsom, who sticks to fairy tales and tricky word play, Lindhal's lyrics are much darker and malevolent. Although this particular tune doesn't carry some of the homicidal energy of some of her other songs, the dark themes and ideas of death. In this case it's the death of nature and of a home, but dark ideas are still there. "Killing Fields" is a dark and twisting path through enclenched woodlands of macabre sentiments. Your guide on this journey may seem ill-suited for the trip, but rest assured she is an able companion.

13. Emily Haines: "Rowboat"
There is nothing more revealing into the life of a band-bound musician than the aesthetic qualities of their solo projects. The way in which an artist presents themselves when they are the only factor to take into account tells the listener more about the artist than they usually consider. For example, Dustin Kensrue's solo work is a down-home folk-country offering full of spirituality, much like Kensrue himself. Emily Haines solo work is a far cry from the sweat soaked new wave of Metric, it's is a gentle, tame, almost sedated affair that at many points contains just Haines and a piano. On "Rowboat" a leftover from Haines Knives Don't Have Your Back Haines sings sweetly over a piano line that bares a distinct resemblance to drifting down a river. The addition of swaying brass aides this sensation and the melody of it is one of the treasures of 2007. It is a beautiful, subtle melody the lulls you into a stupor with it's shear gorgeousness.

14. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: "I've Seen Everything"
Will Oldham is, to put it plainly, one of if not the most admired musician that I listen to. His career is nearing two decades and fourteen full-length album (plus several dozen EPs and singles) in length and he's only 37. He's released some of the best albums of the last twenty years, including one of the 5 best albums of the 90s I See a Darkness. By his third album he had perfected his lyrical and musical craft yet he somehow, with each successive release he has improved and expanded his skills. But with the release of a covers EP this year, Oldham has proved that he is not only the master of his own craft, but that of others too. It is rare that a cover of a great song surpasses the original, but Oldham has done it seven times, and none more dynamically than with "I've Seen It All". The song, originally written by Bjork and performed as a duet with Thom Yorke (talk about a dream team) for the soundtrack of "Dance in the Dark" an arthouse flick. The song is a lesser known gem in both musicians repertoires which are both plentifully supplied with gems. This cover however, strips the song of the big beats and strings down to simple essentials, leaving Oldham's worn and ragged vocals to tell a tale that fells so real coming from someone like Oldham. You truly get the feeling that Oldham has written the song about himself, although nothing could be further from the truth. Maybe Oldham realized how much this song would resonate with himself, maybe not, but the fact remains that the song sounds like it is coming from Oldham heart and soul. His approach to the song has the realism the the Bjork/Yorke version lacks, it rings true where the other does not.

15. Okkervil River: "(Shannon Wilsey On The) Starry Stairs"
There are some artists I simply cannot get enough of, I'll get all their albums and listen to them constantly, but eventually I'll get to the point that I want more than the albums can provide, it is at the point that I proceed to get my hands on as many b-sides and left-overs as I can find. There are a few artists I do this to, Patrick Wolf, James Yorkston, Bjork, and the Mountain Goats among them, but I strangely never tried to get a complete collection of my favorite band, Okkervil River's songs. Until this year that is, and while investigating these b-sides I came across and true treasure: "(Shannon Wilsey On The) Starry Stairs". As Will Sheff puts it, it's a sequel to "Savannah Smiles" and a cousin of "John Allyn Smith Sails". The relation to the former is that both songs are about porn star Shannon Wilsey (aka Savannah) and the relation to the latter is that both songs are suicide notes from their respective subjects. Sheff's brilliant songwriting has never been better, he pries into the mind of his subject, pulling out their troubles and feelings and weaving them into a pattern of not only the how of the suicide but the why as well. Lines like "I'm alive, but a different kind of alive then the way I used to be" and "What a hot half-life I half-lived" tell of a troubled and depraved lifestyle that is enough to drive someone to take their own life. Sheff also details the slippery path of pornography: "they wanted more" "they dreamt of a low long line to be crossed, and I crossed it". Sheff describe things to clearly that, for a moment at least, we embody Wilsey and we feel what she feels, see what she see, experiences what she experiences, but this feeling last only as long as Wilsey does in the song "so here's goodbye from the part that staying behind to the part that has to leave".

2007-12-18T14:40:00.001-08:00

Part 1 of the Essential Sounds of 2007 Mixtape: The Lively Sounds of 2007: Here! There! and Everywhere! Part 2 coming asap. Enjoy!

1. Björk: "Innocence"
"Innocence" is my favorite track off of Volta and I think the reason it holds this position is because it is so Björk to the core. Now you might say it doesn't sound like most of Björk's material at all and that is true, but it is also that fact that makes this song bleed everything Björk. Her sound has never been contained or definable and it changes and grows from album to album. With Björk, the old cliche "expect the unexpected" is law. This song is equally indefinable, it's something like a funk-infused dance track as interpreted by a African tribal band, but even that description misses the true sound of the song. Björk's vocals are just as perfect as ever and the production by Björk and Timbaland(!) makes you want to dance and laugh at the same time.

2. Justice: "Waters of Nazareth"
If you stuffed every French dance and electro track into one song, the resulting high-tension music would result into Justice. "Waters of Nazareth" sounds like it is going to explode with noise, so much so parts of the synth line are fuzzy and distorted to the point that a pretty obvious rock influence existed. Although thanks to every review ever of this album, you probably already know that. Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, whom before the release of their debut, worked as remix artists for several years, and that really shows in their music. Good remixes re-imagine the song without destroying it, drawing from elements in the song to focus on, and all of Justice's work has hints of remixes in the way that they are constructed, focusing on a key element and building the song around it.

3. Los Campesinos!: "The International Tweexcore Underground"
I am, officially, predicting that Los Campesinos! will be the saviors of indie snobs. They will bring the glorious light of pop music to these stuck of hipsters trapped in their collective animal existences full of "serious" "real" and "meaningful" music that's really nothing more than rehashes of what was done better in past decades. This song (and all of the bands songs really) is bombastic and completely over-the-top pop music executed flawlessly with crashing crescendos, girl/boy lead vocals, and a Los Campesinos! signature: biting lyrics. The band has a nact for writing lyrics that are not only clever but also necessary. They say things that I would absolutely love to say to people I know (one of the best examples of this is in one of the bands other pop masterpieces "You! Me Dancing!" regarding hipsters and their lack of dancing skills) and they do it with such breeze that it's easy to miss just how sarcastic the band is, marrying clever and humorous lyrics with perfect pop for a combination that is sure to take over the world.

4. Architechture in Helsinki: "Debbie"
Architecture in Helsinki have reinvented the wordless hook. There aren't any "la la la's" here, but instead things like "boom da da da da da boom da da da da!" and "hiyahyah hiyahyah hiyah yah yah yah yah" and most memorably "debbiedowndown debbiedowndown debbiedebbiedebbiedowndown...". Never has a band sounded better saying absolutely nothing at all. This song it's compatriots on Places Like This have earned me countless awkward looks as I sing the nonsensical hooks in public places. The lyrics that actually contain real words are just as great, boasting lines like "there's never been a song or a melody that reminds me less of youth" and "first we were anti-social till we tried hibernating through all the seasons where you dyed your hair in a fail attempt at blue". If the lyrics are inspired then the music is genius. Consisting of schizophrenic synths, horns, and guitars that playful bounce all over the backbeat with a funkiness that would seem unnatural coming from any other modern indie band besides these twisted pop geniuses.

5. Yelle: "Ce Jeu"
Why is that France can do everything electronic better then everyone else? Much like Scandanavia is for post-rock, French dance and house bands have been pushing the envelope for years and now the French are teaching the rest of the world how to do pop. Similarities between Yelle and Goldfrapp are pretty evident but it's also easy to see that Goldfrappisms that Yelle puts in her songs aren't rip-offs but simply borrowing from one of the best. Some people may be turned off by the fact that it is all in French, but I actually prefer it because it prevents there from being any of the painful or cheesy lyrics that hinder most pop music. Beats, bass, and synth all play around the centerpiece whistle sample that gives the song it's light hearted tone that works perfectly with Yelle's cute-as-a-button vocals.

6. M.I.A.: "Bird Flu"
This is the kind of song that I can't imagine any right-minded person not loving. The only way that the tribal beats, insane hooks, and shout-along parts couldn't work their magic on a human is if they are predisposed to dislike the music simply because M.I.A. is a critical darling and a favorite of the anti-hipsters favorite target, Pitchfork. Now I'm not a huge fan of ol' P-Fork but they do occasionally get things right, and this is certainly one of the times they did. Kala is just plain fun, melding more genres than you can shake a stick at. The combo of tribal beats, street-hop, grime, and dance is completely irresistible to anybody who likes to get up and shake their stuff but also at the end of the day likes to sit down and really analyze the music they listen to. Their have been plenty of cheap pop thrills this year, just turn on the radio and you'll hear any number of them, but they are empty, bland, and lacking in artistry. M.I.A.'s music is something with substance that will not only have you dancing like a maniac but also have you thinking about the construction of what you hear, something the average pop artist could never hope to achieve.

7. Jens Lekman: "Sipping On the Sweet Nectar"
Jens Lekman is a self-professed lover of cheesy 80's power-ballads, but on many of his songs it's another 80's musician that comes to mind: Paul Simon. The influence of Graceland on Lekman's latest album and this song is undeniable. The melding of polyrhythms, bouncing bass, and triumphant brass and strings sound almost like Lekman pulled a dirty projectors and tried to cover Simon from memory. That's not to say that this is at all a rip-off, indeed it is far from it. One might even go as far as to say that it is a continuation of the work Simon started on Graceland but sadly lost track of with The Rhythm of the Saints (which, besides the fact that it openly tried to be different from it's land predecessor, is actually a terribly underrated album). Lekman not only resembles Simon in his music, but also in his lyrics. Lekman and Simon share a similar structure of writing and also both have a penchant for clever and witty lines that aren't just for getting a laugh but also have a deeper level and a true meaning that it is easy to lose. Paul Simon is the best pop songwriter ever and Lekman is poised to become the Simon of this generation and very well might be able to do so if he starts looking outwardly to the world a little more, but while still retaining his genius for witty introspective criticisms of himself and love.

8. Efterklang: "Horseback Tenors"
This is Efterklang 2.0. Gone is the quiet folktronica (well mostly anyways) and in is bombastic pop music that finds its base in chamber pop and group chantings. This is by far the best Efterklang album to date, although past album were nothing to spit at. One of the best parts of this album is you can really tell that the horn and string players know what they are doing, a lot of times with music similar to this you get the feeling that it could have been done better if a pro had done it, but not with this album. No part of this album would have been changed for me. It's a perfect alt-pop experience. "Horseback Tenors" contains one of the most beautifully written string parts this year, and its whirling circus-like brass and drum backing contrasts perfectly with the strings. The other-worldly and Sigur Rós like vocals soar as the music rises and crescendos with stunning beauty.

9. Doseone: "You Circa You"
With Subtle, Doseone creates complex, funky, space-hop. On his own, his music resembles something like disturbed minimalist hip-hop. Now I realize that that sounds ridicules but it's about the only way to describe it. The beats are small and the music generally hookless. His signature bizarre lyrics and delivery are stronger than ever, as is his almost always present spacey element. The real prize winner in this song is the random multisyllabic spewing of non-words near the end of the song that sound more like a shaman's incantation than part of a rap song. But then again, Doseone has always been much more than a rapper. Sure some of his work displays his ability to unleash rapid-fire lines but his true genius in his ability to reach a place that blurs the lines between singing and rapping to reach a place that is equally one and the other and makes a completely new type of delivery.

10. Sally Shapiro: "I Know"
It's rare that something that is so based on outward action and experience should be better suited to intimate settings. Sally Shapiro's music is indubitably disco but at the same time it is intensely personal love songs that would be best experienced by one or two and not a whole raging club full of dancing maniacs. It would be a mistake to assume that Shapiro's sweet-as-honey lyrics and cool, wispy vocals are the only thing that helps create the personal mood and to completely ignore the production. Shapiro is well know to be influenced by Italo disco and Eurobeat so it should come as no surprise that there is plenty of that in her sound, but it is executed in such a toned down and tame way that it really ends up more provoking rapid heartbeats than rapid dance movement.

11. Apostle of Hustle: "Justine, Beckoning"
Apostle of Hustle's album National Anthem of Nowhere is one of, if not the most criminally overlooked albums released this year. Many reviewers liked it, but very few of them loved it. I personally love it, it's good rock music from top to bottom. The deeper you go into the album the better it becomes until it finally climaxes at its highpoint: "Justine, Beckoning". Unlike most of the songs on the album, the Cuban influence isn't really heard as much except in the acoustic breakdown about halfway through, regardless the song is still far from straightforward. The song opens with big rock riffs and drumming, but they only keep your main focus for a second as a subtle, simple synthesizer comes in and totally takes your complete attention. Is such a simple little addition to the song that it almost seems like an after thought at first. Until you think about it and hear how perfect and natural sounding it is, then you realize that the whole song is built around it. The really amazing thing in this song is the vocals, and more specifically, the melody. The melody is stunning, out side of rap people don't usually talk about the "flow" of vocals, but that's really the best way to describe Andrew Whiteman's vocals in this track. The flow so natural forth without any effort and the mesh perfectly with the music. Maybe it's how subtle the genius in these is that caused people to find the album so average. Or maybe they're just idiots? Hmm.

12. Deerhoof: "The Galaxist"
Deerhoof are known for being very non-traditional in their songs and specifically in their song structures and tempos, but the bands 8th(!) and best album, Friend Opportunity really pushes things to a ridicules limit. My favorite moment of non-conformity comes about halfway through "The Galaxist" when the song just stops for almost five seconds, comes back for a second, then stops again for almost five seconds again before starting up once more. At first you're confused about what just happened but after repeated listens you discover more and more how genius and funny it is. Deerhoof is toying with you, toying with your expectations, you don't expect the song to end, but then it does, but then it doesn't and so on. There are more confusing and "what the heck?!?" moments throughout the album, but for me this has to be the high point. Another thing Deerhoof is known for is quite, normal vocals set over (or more accurately for them, beside) hyperspastic music and this song is no exception, crunching noise-rock riffs and jazz-juiced drumming highlight yet another odd yet infectious and brilliant vocal melody.

13. Blonde Redhead: "23"
Blonde Redhead are often unfairly thought of as "the other rock trio with an Asian girl singer" or as "the Sonic Youth rip-off band". While the band is obviously influenced by the greatest of all New York noise rock bands, they've always had their own niche as well. This is even more abundantly clear with their newest album that's more shoegaze than anything Sonic Youth has ever done. "23" is a divine piece of heavenly dream-pop, the drums, guitar, and bass create a hazy, fuzzed-out wall of sound and serve their purpose: as a soundscape for perhaps the most enchanting vocal melody Kazu Makino has ever written. The vocals layer upon another as one Makino sings verses and the other lets loose a "dadadadada da da" that will make your skin crawl. Another interesting thing about the song is that there's hardly any shifts in the song, making it almost seem drone influenced. The song begins, goes forth, and ends pretty much doing the same couple of things. But the shear awesomeness of those couple things will have you far from complaining.

14. !!!: "Bend Over Beethoven/Break in Case of Anything"
The two part album centerpiece (and masterpiece) of !!!'s brilliant foray into the relatively unknown genre of experimental dance-punk is a piece of music that is so multifaceted and perfectly executed that the task of writing about it seems rather daunting. But I shall attempt to do so anyways. The first thing that strikes you about "Bend Over Beethoven" is that you can't really understand the words being sung until the chorus. Not because the singer slurs or anything, but because the vocals are put into such a dreamy glaze of production that it's rather indecipherable. The music goes along with the dreamy theme and things seem rather normal almost, the song will still keep you shaking anyways, which is normal for !!!. But after the song runs it's typical pop structure 3 and a half minute opening, it shifts gears into a building interlude that rises from almost nothing into one of the most complex dance jams you'll ever hear. Multiple guitars, at least two drum parts, a synth beat and much more all build steadily gaining in tempo and technicality before suddenly and unexpectedly returning to the beginning pop structure of the "don't don't don't don't stop" bridge and then the chorus. But this little sonic adventure is far from over, the song closes as an intro to "Break in Case of Anything" a funk and horn-laden track that makes the best use of mass child vocals I've ever heard. Yes, even better than "D.A.N.C.E." The whole song reeks of a kind of experimentation that is pretty much unclassifiable except for maybe as "art-dance-funk-punk-space-tribal-dirge" music.

15. Patrick Wolf: "The Stars"
Patrick Wolf is an anomaly in music, he's a classically trained violinist and he plays just about every instrument invented (like seriously) but instead of incorporating his string skills into a folk-rock style ala Andrew Bird or a weirdo classical-meets-indie amalgamation like Owen Pallet he uses it to accent and sometimes drive his brand of electro-pop tunes. At least thats how it is on his latest album, in the past he was more bizarre folktronica. But on the last true song on The Magic Position Wolf uses a synthesizer and electronic drum beats to form the foundation of the song while he plays a delicate, floating, and beautiful violin line over top. His vocals are appropriately wonderstruck in the beginning but they soon become more assertive and aggressive as the beats become tougher and faster. The most stunning thing about the song are the parts when Wolf's vocal melody mimics the melody of the violin and the join together to create a magnificent moment where man and instrument are one, even more so than during the performance of a musician on his instrument.

thar she blows! top albums ahoy! (slighty updated)

2007-12-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

Patrick Wolf: The Magic Position
The Angels of Light: We Are Him
Deerhoof: Friend Opportunity
Okkervil River: The Stage Names
David Thomas Broughton: David Thomas Broughton vs. 7 Hertz
The National: Boxer
Low: Drums and Guns
Jens Lekman: Night Falls Over Kortedala
Grails: Burning Off Impurities
Efterklang: Parades
World's End Girlfriend: Hurtbreak Wonderland
Islaja: Ulual Yyy
LCD Soundsystem: 45:33
!!!: Myth Takes
Do Make Say Think: You, You're a History in Rust
Los Campesinos!: Sticking Fingers Into Sockets
Thee, Stranded Horse: Churning Strides
Rosetta: Wake/Lift
LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
Stars of the Lid: Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline
Le Loup: The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly
David Thomas Broughton: It's in There Somewhere…
Kevin Drew: Spirit If...
Between the Buried and Me: Colors
Apostle of Hustle: National Anthem of Nowhere
Architecture in Helsinki: Places Like This
Panda Bear: Person Pitch
The Besnard Lakes: The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse
M.I.A.: Kala
Björk: Volta
Frog Eyes: Tears of the Valedictorian
Envy: Abyssal
Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Ask Forgiveness
of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Peter and the Wolf: The Ivori Palms
Pig Destroyer: Phantom Limb
Sunset Rubdown: Random Spirit Lover
Feist: The Reminder
Akron/Family: Love Is Simple
Elliott Smith: New Moon
Blonde Redhead: 23
Hrsta: Ghosts Will Come and Kiss Our Eyes
Menomena: Friend and Foe
Yeasayer: All Hour Cymbals
Beirut: The Flying Cup Club
White Rabbits: Fort Nightly
Scraps of Tape: This Is a Copy, Is This a Copy?
Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova: Once: Music From the Motion Picture
Boris With Merzbow: Rock Dream
Six Organs of Admittance: Shelter From the Ash
Pamela Wyn Shannon: Courting Autumn
The Fiery Furnaces: Widow City
Dinosaur Jr.: Beyond
Justice: †
Emily Haines: What Is Free to a Good Home?
Dose One: Skeletonrepelent
Yelle: Pop Up
Kemialliset Ystävät: Kemialliset Ystävät
The Dillinger Escape Plan: Ire Works
Exploding Star Orchestra: We're All From Somewhere Else
The Clientele: God Save the Clientele
Auto!Automatic!!: Another Round Won't Get Us Down
Avarus: Rasvaaja
Cold War Kids: Robbers & Cowards
Sigur Rós: Hvarf-Heim
Sir Richard Bishop: While My Guitar Violently Bleeds
Subtle: Yell & Ice
Liars: Liars
Basia Bulat: Oh, My Darling
Girls Aloud: Tangled Up
Stars: In Our Bedroom After the War
Iron & Wine: The Shepherd's Dog
Bowerbirds: Hymns for a Dark Horse
Om: Pilgrimage
Promise and the Monster: Transparent Knives
Great Lake Swimmers: Ongiara
The Pirate Ship Quintet: The Pirate Ship Quintet EP
James Blackshaw: The Cloud of Unknowing
Sir Richard Bishop: Polytheistic Fragments
Phosphorescent: Pride
Caspian: The Four Trees
St. Vincent: Marry Me
Mouthus: Saw A Halo
Radiohead: In Rainbows
Black Magic Disco: Black Magic Disco
PsyOpus: Our Puzzling Encounters Considered
New Buffalo :Somewhere, Anywhere
Super Extra Bonus Party: Super Extra Bonus Party LP
Tegan and Sara: The Con
The Number Twelve Looks Like You: Mongrel
Black Moth Super Rainbow: Dandelion Gum
Clap You Hands Say Yeah: Some Loud Thunder
Sunburned Circle: The Blaze Game
Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam
65daysofstatic: The Destruction of Small Ideas
Bill Callahan: Woke on a Whaleheart
Pharoahe Monch: Desire
Eluvium: Copia
Alamaailman Vasarat: Maahan

2007-12-03T18:18:00.000-08:00

The amount of worthless Christmas music released has dramatically increased in recent years. It seems like every auto-tuned pop singer and mediocre adult alternative band has released at least one, if not more, Christmas albums. While I enjoy old Christmas music as much as the next guy (A Charlie Brown Christmas, December, New England Christmastide I & II, and The Nutcracker, among others, will never die) but instrumental jazz, classical, and folk versions of Christmas songs can only carry your Christmas spirit so far. There are some single song released Christmas music from modern indie rock bands that are excellent, Belle and Sebastian, Starflyer 59, and Pedro the Lion come to mind, and even Sufjan Stevens’ epic collection Songs For Christmas is good for a occasional listen, but there is one Christmas album that is indispensable to me in the month of December: Low’s EP Christmas.

A longish EP at nearly 30 minutes, Christmas is a somewhat lightened up version of Low’s classic dark and dreamy sound on 5 original Christmas tracks and 3 traditional tunes. The opening track (“Just Like Christmas”) is the most upbeat track on the EP and it seems positively pop compared to most of Low’s other work, which never goes much faster than a funeral dirge. A programmed organic beat opens the track and atmospheric yet playful and jazzy piano are the background to Mimi Parker’s gorgeous vocals. Throughout the album Parker and Alan Sparhawk trade vocal duties, sometimes it’s Parker taking the lead like on “Just Like Christmas” “One Special Gift” and “Blue Christmas” while at other times Sparhawk sings lead as with “Long Way Around the Sea” and “Taking Down the Tree” and at still other times, Parker and Sparhawk share lead harmonizations and this is where Christmas finds it’s high points. The individual vocal lead tracks are excellent, but there is something truly magical in songs where vocal duties are shared. Covers of traditional songs “Little Drummer Boy” and “Silent Night” benefit the most from these harmonies, sounding divine and meaningful, the latter especially, sounds about at as close as humans can get to what Angel’s holy invocations would be, and it is all done with nothing more than a toned-down acoustic guitar and voices creating a bleak and empty song that is as bone chilling as a December night. “Little Drummer Boy” on the other hand, is full of sound; not necessarily instruments but sound. Throughout the song a constant drone of ambient noise flows while far off drums in the style of Parker’s signature minimalist style pound out a relentless beat. The whole effect of the song is one of sleepwalking, or at least dreaming. If the little drummer boy dreamed of meeting Jesus and playing his drum for him, this is what it would sound like.

The whole album is rich with organic (and orgasmic) soundscapes and harmonies that seem like a lightened up version of Low’s pioneering sound, there aren’t any huge walls of distortion here, as Low’s fans are accustomed to hearing, in fact there’s no distortion at all. Low has cleaned up their sound a bit, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it suits the nature of Christmas songs, and bad because who wouldn’t want to hear Christmas songs played in a Low-at-their-most-intense sound? Not that Low is ever traditionally “intense”, but the point is there regardless. In the end, the safer sound works perfectly and Low’s Christmas present to the world isn’t one you’re going to want to return or exchange.

The List:

2007-11-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the lack of posting. I've been very busy with school and with my year end top 100 list. here it is, I'm still working on writing something for each album, but I'm over half done.

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/timmyz777/top_100_albums_of_2007_f1

You.May.Die.In.The.Desert: Feedbackery

2007-10-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

Here in the land of the free we’ve been slacking a bit lately when it comes to instrumental music; while the rest of the world is progressing and doing all kinds of insanity, we’ve started to become *gasp* generic. While this doesn’t apply to all American bands, many have. And even some of our heavy hitters are putting out sub-par music; Explosions in the Sky is stuck in the bland repetition rut, and Pelican’s latest is just sad. But thank Godspeed for the new breed! One of the most promising American bands is You.May.Die.In.The.Desert; these Seattleites take the tried and true post-rock formula of clean guitars, bass, drums and long ambient tracks and gives it a new look and attitude. That’s not to say that this is glam rock or anything, rest assured, YMDITD isn’t doing anything too far from the tree of instrumental music, but it’s certainly sprouting in an interesting way. From the opening guitar line of “Oceanfloor Hijinks” two things are clear, first: the delay pedal will play a prominent role in these songs, and second: these guys have a definite free-jazz influence. Regarding the delay pedal, all the songs feature it in abundance and it works great. Dueling guitar lines twist in and out of each other as the previous notes come and entangle themselves with the following ones. The result is enchanting; in quiet moments such as “Interlude” and “The Writer’s Audience Is Fiction” the notes chime and shimmer, dancing in a never-ending sequence of ambience. In the harder parts, it works even better. On “Can I Get More Steel In My Monitors?” YMDITD pull off a sound that is tantalizing, solo style guitars loop and playback in a twisted mess of six-strings. The way the songs are written and the delay is used, each line not only has to work by itself, but also with the following line, it’s a complex style and one that is a true testament to just how much talent these boys have. All the songs except “Interlude” contain some serious jazz influenced jamming, the best of these being “Monorails” and the title track. “Monorails” has some almost metal parts with big riffs, detailed lead lines, pounding drums, and thudding bass. The title track isn’t as hard, but is just a wild and technical, clean guitars slip and slide in and out of each other and this eventually gives way to some serious distorted riffing with an ever looming but never quite appearing, burst of feedback. YMDITD have taken styles done by several other different bands and blended them together, run them through a delay pedal and jazzed them up a little bit. The whole EP is exciting and never drags or bores. For those who only use instrumental music as background noise for study or reading, you maybe surprised just how much this album grabs your attention. YMDITD is giving America some much needed cred and is doing something the scene has needed for a while, making guitar based instrumental music interesting again.
Preview

James Yorkston

2007-10-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

Scottish folk singer James Yorkston's lack of fame and success is a shame. He has all the skills needed to be a great folk singer: deep, poetic lyrics, beautiful guitar playing, the ability to sound good with simple or dense arrangements, and a lovely, moving voice full of Scottish flavor. His lyrics are those of a lovelorn bachelor who has just missed things with the girl, as on "St. Patrick": "I didn't sleep at all last night/I thought my heart had mastered the run of these seas/But they appear not to care about calming lately/I awoke with a smart and a look at the phone/I swear that I would have called you if I'd been sure you were alone/And doesn't that drive things home". Yorkston's backing band, The Athletes (not to be confused with the brit-pop band Athlete) provide a mixture of delicate pianos, fiddle, accordion, and light percussion to Yorkston's finger-pick guitar and banjo melodies. And what melody's they are, beautiful and floating, delicate and melodious. Guitar lines such as those on "Steady As She Goes" or "Time Tomorrow" immediately transport you to a blissful state of consciousness. Yorkston has a deep catalog including three full-length albums, a b-sides album, a live album, and several EPs and singles. All the full-lengths are good to start with, although I would personally recommend Moving Up Country as a starter.
Preview

Stars of the Lid: Musical Dreamland

2007-10-26T15:04:00.000-07:00

Sleep is a mysterious thing. It is something that we experience every day yet we don't truly know that much about it. Sure we know what our body and mind does, or is supposed to do, but what really goes on in our minds while we sleep and dream? I imagine each of our "consciousnesses" enter a bleak realm of our own minds and traverse a path of our thoughts and experiences. If that place does exist, then without a doubt it would be soundtracked by Stars of the Lid. Stars of the Lid create drone based ambient music with a lush palate of guitars, strings, horns, and piano. The music is almost entirely without and beats and it never really rises beyond a hush. The music shrinks and swells as a moving mass of sound, rising only to fall again back into it's state of ambient drone. Stars of the Lid's album The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid is one of the best ambient minimalist albums, since Brian Eno invented the genre, and the best in years. It was the best, that is, until Stars of the Lid's latest album Stars of the Lid and the Refinement of the Decline. Both albums are excellent and are great thinking and relaxing music. Purchase on vinyl if possible.
Preview