|
November Reviews Artist of the Month: The Decemberists With an air of great commotion surrounding the release, the Decemberists’ latest effort The Crane Wife is simply spectacular. Here, the Decemberists have offered one of the most brilliant literary theatrical indie rock records in the past decade. Think of the Decemberists’ past records as a warm up for The Crane Wife. More than a few people were concerned about the effect of signing with Capitol would have on the music of the Decemberists. Would it turn the story-driven, picture-painting words of Colin Meloy and music of the band into something more commercially viable (at least in the eyes of record execs)? Would the band be exploited and then subsequently dropped for not going platinum? We don’t know the answer to the last question, but the former question is clearly answered on the Crane Wife. The ten songs are not designed to whet the appetites of the average, top-forty radio music fan; yet that doesn’t temper their appeal. (It’s also difficult to appease the radio programmers with thirteen-minute songs (e.g., “The Island:…”), even if radio’s influence is slipping.) Instead, the songs follow a clear evolution of the band’s past material without missing a beat. Once again joining Meloy for the journey into uncharted lyrical and musical waters are Nate Query (bass, assorted instruments), Jenny Conlee (organ, piano, assorted), Chris Funk (guitar, assorted), and John Moen (drums). With Chris Walla (Death Cab) and Tucker Martine helping to record and produce the record in the band’s hometown of Portland, Meloy sought out to craft the folk story of the Crane Wife. The concept of the record begins with Meloy coming across the Japanese folk story of the Crane Wife in the children’s section of a bookstore a while back. As the story and concept churned in his thoughts for a few years, Meloy understood to bring it to life would require additional parts and stories. And thus, the Crane Wife is not exactly a concept album around the original folk story, but more like a record generated and motivated by the folk story. Admittedly, you need to be in the mood to first encounter the Decemberists’ thick, intricate storytelling often set with nineteenth-century British undertones. It is difficult to just walk in impatiently, because you’ll quickly pull away missing the appeal. Yet, if you set your feet and give it an honest listen, you’ll catch the fire and soon become a devotee. And this is the mindset as the Crane Wife opens on “The Crane Wife 3,” the first of two other ‘Crane Wife’ bits. Beginning with Meloy and an acoustic guitar, the rest of the band joins about a minute in and launches into the chorus “And I Will Hang My Head Low.” “The Crane Wife 3” is a wise move to introduce you to the record and provides an accurate rendering of the forthcoming musical atmosphere. The aforementioned “The Island” follows and is comprised of three sections “Come and See,” “The Landlord’s Daughter,” and “You’ll Not Feel the Drowning.” “The Island” opens on a lengthy Pink Floyd-like moderate instrumental rock section before getting into the tale of abduction in “Come and See.” Though you’ve already heard some of Meloy’s lyrical enticements, “Come and See” is really the first site of his literary verboseness with lines like “Affix your barb and bayonet/The curlews carve their arabesques.” Those familiar with the Decemberists might foresee that a section called “The Landlord’s Daughter” might be about rape (or murder or unrequited love). The short “The Landlord’s Daughter” moves at quick tempo as an organ and acoustic guitars lead the way. The triumvirate of sections closes with the darker “You’ll Not Feel the Drowning,” clearly about murder with lines like “I will dress your eyelids/W’ dimes upon your eyes.” The Decemberists bring you back to the more traditional song structure with exceptional “Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then).” Laura Veirs joins Meloy on back-and-forth vocals about a dying Confederate soldier and his lady back home (think Cold Mountain without Inman coming home). “O Valencia!” serves as the Crane Wife’s most obvious single or emphasis track with uptempo rhythms and a slight catchiness. “The Perfect Crime #2” has the oddest music you’d probably ever expect to hear from the Decemberists. The riff is somewhere between bad 80s pop rock and slightly cool 80s U2, and Meloy accentuates this feeling with his inflection on the chorus. Probably the most musically average track on the record is “When the War Came,” where the only memorable part is the lyrical repetition of my hometown. This followed by the heavily downtrodden and sinister “Shankill Butchers,” a story about the Protestant group of killers in Belfast, Northern Ireland who targeted Catholics at night. Refixing the musical mood to the 80s pop rock is “Summersong” with soft ‘bop-bop bops’ in the background. One of the crown jewels on the Crane Wife comes from the other lengthy masterpiece, the eleven-minute “The Crane Wife 1 & 2.” Flattening the opener, “The Crane Wife 1 & 2” is blessed with parallels to the best in Belle & Sebastian without the British accent. The parallels come thanks to an acoustic guitar riff of quick tapping fingers, vocal cadence, and a simple, light beat. As the song grows more intense and begins to crescendo you get chills, and are thankful that the Decemberists exist. The cut-point literally comes halfway through (5:30) as they transition to part 2, which subsists on mellower moods for several minutes before a glorious ending of Meloy stretching the last word “Heart.” Easily “The Crane Wife 1 & 2” would make a terrific ending to the record, but the Decemberists push on to one more song, “Sons & Daughters,” and they may have chosen wisely. Allowing the music to flow seamlessly, you get trapped and attached most strongly to the first lines “When we arrive, sons and daughters/We’ll make our homes on the water/We’ll build our walls of aluminum/We’ll fill our mouths with cinnamon,” which serve as a several iteration, overlapping coda. Yet, possibly the true exclamation point to the “Sons & Daughters,” and the record in general, is Meloy leading a group singing “Hear all the bombs, they fade away” at the close. In nearly all avenues, The Crane Wife triumphs over past Decemberists’ material and hopefully illustrates the evolution in the band’s future releases. If the Decemberists are ever received on a wide scale, future scholars will likely dissect Meloy’s lyrics and moods like current Dylanologists. In the meantime, get ahead of the curve and get one of the most richly conceived and critical records of the year in The Crane Wife.
Atone This lovely, ambient record comes from the busy hands of one Antoine Monzonis-Calvert, aka Atone. Following up Atone’s 2004 EP Un Jour (A Day), Un An (A Year) is a wind-swept cross-section of electronic minimalist moods. Though this can sound pretentious and esoteric quickly, the twelve-songs keep in close range of the ordinary listener particularly with the use of the accordion, drum beats, atmospherics, soft vocals, and piano. And, Atone uses this array of sounds and instruments to bring a beat to hovering soundscapes or a touch of xanax to stronger movements. If you are engendering a piece for mellowing out in your skytop city apartment after a long day then Atone’s Un An is perfect.
Caroline Even though I love Caroline, this single may be a bit gratuitous. The single includes “Sunrise” from her album Murmurs and two remixes by Logreybeam and DJ Poignant. Logreybeam’s remix is so-so, but DJ Poignant’s complete destruction remix works well. The first single “Where’s My Love” was gorgeous and preceded the album, thus making more sense than this one. But, if you’re a hardcore Caroline fan than of course get this today.
The City Drive The City Drive’s debut full-length adequately smashes the All-American Rejects into Blink-182 into one massive party of pop punk. If that is your thing, then the twelve-song Always Moving Never Stopping may be one of your favorites of the year. For others, this pop-catchy-centric combination may be one of your consistent nightmares of contemporary music. Still, there is some difficulty to entirely ignore super-catchy songs like “Defeated,” “Runner,” “Bring Me Everything,” “Nightfalling,” and “Overready.” Several high profile shows and tours could get the City Drive onto more pop-punk kids’ shelves.
The Curtains The Curtains forth album finds Deerhoof guitarist Chris Cohen and a cadre of guest musicians serving up post-modern 1960’s revisionism. The results yield the same wonky guitar and asymmetrical song structures surface familiar to Deerhoof, but more importantly, there’s also the same smart risk-taking that made Runners Four one of the best records of 2005. Nevertheless, despite the strong support (particularly Nedelle Torrisi’s wonderful harmonies), Calamity is essentially a solo effort, albeit a strong one. Songs like “Go Lucky” have real charm, combining Cohen’s whimsical vocals with loping drums, staccato piano chords, and sudden guitar breaks. (- Andrew Pryor)
Duke Special From the slow piano led lullaby feeling of opener ‘Wake Up Scarlett’, Belfast’s Peter Wilson showers upon us commanding Aqualung-esque vocals along with flowery and yearning instrumentals (largely provided by himself), to spice up his melancholic tinged poetry: “Did I steal your sense of wonder, innocence and sight? I’m strung up like a highway man who didn’t get it right. I feel like I’m falling down." The slow and stern piano march of ‘Brixton Leaves’, leads fluently into the strolling and powerful vocals that portray feelings of languish and longing. Before kapppoooowww, the vocals toe the piano sound up to the heavens for a bracing, life enhancing chorus. Echoes of Keane at their most potent permeates ‘Freewheel’, with a clattering backing being introduced for the first time and it helps Wilson to regale us with trouble tackling philosophy. A 60s pop element is oozed out with ease, as you get the impression that the songwriter has regrets about a time he never lived in. Music as a journey is emphasised with lushness and soul searching craft, each track is a different stop on the route to discovering a genuine and thoughtful soul. ‘No Cover Up’ strolls along and is instilled with Tom McRae style prowess, to propound the view that it is ok to be yourself. The poets amongst us will swim in the sprightly backed ‘Last Night I Nearly Died’, as the bounding piano gives extra force to the endearing plight of someone feeling lost and on the brink. A blues and noire element shudders through the slow building ‘Ballad Of A Broken Man’, complementing the moods and emotions that are thrown into the blender to produce a stirring cocktail. With forceful, distorted backing vocals and a theatrical element entering the fray through ‘Salvation Tambourine’, along with the pleading plight of ‘This Could Be My Last Day’, the quality rides high until the end. (- David Adair)
Eluvium On his fourth release, Matthew Cooper (aka Eluvium) expands on his ambient soundscapes from Talk Amongst the Trees, and in the process offers one of the more beautiful instrumental records of the year. Though only four songs, the EP clocks in at twenty-two minutes – a length still able to satisfy your ambient needs. Progressing on electronics and piano, Cooper continues the ebb and flow moods on the opener “I Will Not Forget That I Have Forgotten” and “All the Sails,” as well as the slightly more aggressive and distorted “As I Drift Off,” ending the EP with the signature Eluvium sound on the title track. If you’ve enjoyed past Eluvium releases or instrumental ambient music in general, When I Live EP will fit nicely in your musical den.
Envy For the most part Envy’s Insomniac Doze is a strong, powerful record of soundscaping instrumentals and heavy music cocktails. Yet, when Japan’s Envy flings into wanton screaming and the awful talking (ugh, “Scene,” the otherwise terrific “Night in Winter” and “The Unknown Glow”) evaluations drop precipitously. Cast slightly differently, the seven songs on Insomniac Doze could combine for one of the better records you’ve heard in awhile. It is just the vocal poison pills that kill this amendment of musical fashion. Minimally intertwining thrash hardcore and spacey instrumentals are Envy’s best attributes – when they just lay down screaming hardcore (e.g., “Shield of Selflessness”) they just sound like every other band out there. Taking all of this into account, consider “Further Ahead of Warp,” “Crystallize,” and “A Warm Room” as worth your effort. Envy and TRL should take the wise step of re-releasing Insomniac with all of the vocals excluded. That would be a magnificent record!
Guster Guster may be one of the best bands that you sort of heard of. On their fifth album, their first coming 1994, the four-piece offer an exceedingly tight version of jangly indie rock glazed over with 60s and 70s warm sunshine pop. It is hard not to like this combination. And unlike thousands of bands that go for the warm, lived in feel of pop rock Guster actually have the skill and talent to pull it off, as most uniquely demonstrated on the piano-drenched “Manifest Destiny.” Thank God, because for a while you’d think this sound was dead with all the wannabes. Part of the appeal from the twelve songs on Ganging Up On the Sun is that each is slightly different from the next, keeping you interested throughout. There are rockers including “One Man Wrecking Machine,” “The New Underground,” and “The Beginning of the End;” there are softer numbers like the opener “Lightning Rod,” the lengthy “Ruby Falls,” and “Empire State;” as well as the feel-good sounds highlighted by “Satellite,” “Manifest Destiny,” the banjo picking on the grand “The Captain,” and the closer “Hang On.” Guster’s Ganging Up On the Sun is definitely one of the most pleasant surprises of the year.
Inkwell Inkwell (c/o Travis Adams and Dave Pierce) fill out their twelve-track These Stars Are Monsters with essentially a melding of pop, punk, and indie rock. Could be grand if Inkwell didn’t simply sound like they just grabbed pieces of all the other bands in this genre and shove them together. Using the more and more commonplace punk habit of long ass song titles, a flood of All-American Rejects’ sounds fill the first song “Just Take the Monkey and Leave” to the final number “We Are the Captains of the Sea.” And, thus Inkwell do more pop than punk, which may play well for their target audience; and play well for you if this is your thing. The one song that truly gets on my nerves is “Equador is Lovely This Time of Year” where Inkwell completely just rip off the Get Up Kids on the bridge. Murder.
Lisa Papineau Lisa Papineau may be best known for her vocal work on two Air albums, 10,000 Khertz and Talkie Walkie, and more recently M83’s Before The Dawn Heals Us. On her first solo album Papineau wants to rock you Beth Orton style with soft electronic pop songs like “The Quiet Storm” and then rock you Beth Orton style with club pop songs like “Schucking, Jiving”. The result is so derivative and forced that it’s almost discomfiting. Yes, she can sing but Papineau’s not given a whole lot to work with here and her voice just isn’t enough to transcend this material. The best I can say for Night Moves is that you could play it in front of elderly relatives without fear of offending their delicate sensibilities. (- AP)
The Living End It seems that Australia’s the Living End have been around forever. And in the context of foreign punk bands, the three-piece sort of has. Their first US release was 1999’s self-titled record and which quickly introduced them to college radio as rockabilly punk with more leaning towards straight-up punk. As their fourth full-length, the fourteen-track State of Emergency emphasizes melodic pulsating punk and trendy rock. In classic form import form, State of Emergency was actually released in Australia in February 2006, but was released in the US this summer. This distance between country releases might explain why State of Emergency is so damn long; in terms of added tracks from the original (?). The fourteen songs clock in at fifty-two minutes and it is somewhat of a task to make your way through all of it. Still if you pick and choose tracks to listen to, the record is quite enjoyable. These include the Pink Floyd/Midnight Oil-ish “Wake Up,” the opener “Til the End,” the psychobilly “Nowhere Town,” the title-track, and “What’s On Your Radio.”
Love Arcade At first on the opener “Keeping It Coming,” you think that Love Arcade’s uber-poppiness is just another All-American Rejects rip off. Then within a short time you decide that no indeed, Love Arcade is/are just extraordinarily annoying and you wish death upon them. Love Arcade is at heart one youngster named Christian (Snowhite – referencing all the coke he is going to do on the road) who wrote, designed, and recorded all twelve songs on this self-titled affair; along with an assortment of musicians to help take the show on the road. Part of the Love Arcade’s annoyance level comes courtesy of the attempted campiness and ‘fun-loving’ attitude of changing the genre boundaries. But, the outcome are the horribly horrific “Candy,” “Tease Me,” “Can’t Stop,” “Sweet Thing,” “Party,” and “Going Down” - any of which make terminal cancer seem like a holiday worth waiting for.
Meg & Dia If you love poppy pop rock sung by gorgeous sisters then Something Real is your dream come true. Thanks to support from Myspace and their Warped Tour residence, Meg & Dia have skyrocketed in notoriety to make the band the most popular outfit on Doghouse since the All-American Rejects. While the eleven songs on their debut Something Real will easily hook the mainstream music contingent, the songs are so unrelenting poppy that you can hardly call them rock. Somewhat strange for Doghouse and Warped, dominance of top forty almost seems like an afterthought with songs like the opener “Monster,” the harder “Indiana,” “Masterpiece,” and the sentimental “Nineteen Stars.” In some way or another, we are going to hear a lot more from Meg & Dia (even if not the band itself) in the upcoming years.
The Mouse that Roared The four-piece of the Mouse that Roared employ stripped down indie rock and pop, taking apart and restructuring influences into shifting sounds. Excommunicator, the band’s first record, is strong in two separate areas: songs that stick to traditional indie pop and those that appeal to a more instrumental, ambient palette. Highlights from the latter include opener “Evel Knievel,” “My Gold Is Paid,” and closer “The Grifter.” Strong points of the warm pop include “Master of Seasons,” “Southside,” and “When the Moment is Right.” Still sounding local and a tad amateurish, the Mouse that Roared have bright horizons.
Primal Scream Riot City Blues starts with first single “Country Girl”, a ridiculous bar band blues-stomp with corny refrain of “what can a poor boy do? Better go back to your mama, she’ll take care of you”, and proceeds to pummel you from there with its relentless enthusiasm for all things mediocre. Remember Zwigoff’s satirical blues band, Blues Hammer, from his film Ghost World? Well songs like “We’re Gonna Boogie” and “Dolls (Sweet Rock & Roll)” are like if you mixed the clueless white-guy blues of Blues Hammer with the radio friendly, but empty sounds of The Vines, while adding a unhealthy dose of barnstorming acoustic numbers ala “Hell’s Coming Down” into one giant mess of disposable music. But it’s not all bad, I’m sure some soulless corporation will make some equally soulless advertisements with these songs. OK, it really is that bad. (- AP)
The Sharp Ease If nothing else, this seven-song EP is a blast! Following on last year’s awesome full-length Going Modern (olfactory/Soft Spot), this EP continues the punk momentum as the five-piece throws themselves into the opener “Poem to Liebnitz” with dancy rocking guitar riffs by Aaron Friscia (replacing Sara Musser; though producer Rod Cervera is credited for guitars on the record). But, of course, the heart and signature of the band is Paloma Parfrey’s intense and ranging punk chanteuse vocals. Filled out by bassist Dana Barenfeld, drummer Christene Kings, and Anika Stephen on sax, the Sharp Ease follow the four-minute “Poem to Liebnitz” with the excellent “Hands” that features a terrific melodic chorus with clapping. The title-track is more generically punk, while “Going Green” has a thumping stifling verse that moves to a ‘pretty’ chorus. The riot-grrrl in Parfrey is immediately on display in the beginning of “Peoplewich,” “L.A. Mist” tempers the speed to a walk, and the EP closes out on the quickly endearing “Twist the Risk.” With songs like “Poem to Liebnitz,” “Hands,” and “Twist the Risk” the obvious question is why isn’t the Sharp Ease more popular?
Shotgun Monday Shotgun Monday’s first full-length continues the angular post-punk hardcore sound from the Twin Cities’ scene. At the helm is Jon Kelson (ex-Calvin Krime), who along with Bob Eisenbise (ex-Kill Sadie), Brooks Nagel, and Mickey Kahleck, sludge through nine dirtily distorted post-punk songs. Thankfully non-abstract, Shotgun Monday frame songs with interweaving guitars from Kelson and Nagel, offer the off drum breakdown, and fall under Kelson shouting vocals. Songs to take note of include the opener “Resting Vessel,” “Ghostwalk,” and “Osceole,” all of which stick to a standard structure. On the local-level Shotgun Monday should do well, the question is whether Dischord scenesters will take to Read Compare Adjust.
Silverstein Like Victory’s reissue of early Junior Varsity, this reissue of Silverstein’s early material is fascinatingly good; so much better than recent material. 18 Candles: The Early Years consists of the Burlington, ON group’s first two EPs, 2000’s Summers Stellar Gaze and 2002’s When the Shadows Beam, along with a set of bonus live tracks. The reason why the songs off these two EPs are preferred over last year’s Discovering the Waterfront is simply that, here, Silverstein demonstrates their energy and indie punk prowess. From 2000 and 2002, this Silverstein has a parallel sound to early Get Up Kids with similar guitar movements, ranging vocal intensity, and a raw recording that only adds to the level of enjoyability. I’ll take this over any smoothly produced indie punk record anytime. When the Shadows Beam is slightly better recorded than Summers Stellar Gaze, and the band repeats the songs “Waiting Four Years” and “Wish I Could Forget You” which is rather annoying, but it still has that feel. Songs to pay attention to include “Waiting Four Years” (the first version), “Wish I Could Forget You” (again, the first version), “Friends in Fall River,” “Red Light Pledge,” and “Dawn of the Fall.” The live tracks include acoustic versions of “My Heroine” and “Call It Karma,” along with “Discovering the Waterfront,” “Defend You,” and “Bleeds No More” (with WiL from Aiden). These live tracks are for hardcore fans of Silverstein only. 18 Candles closes on a cool, ambient remix of “Smile in Your Sleep” by A Crude Mechanical (aka, Alan Szymkowiak). Regardless of your current stance toward Silverstein, 18 Candles: The Early Years will turn/keep it to the positive.
The Sleeping Unlike the wave of other Long Island punk bands, the Sleeping shy away from any overt attachment with emo and instead try to meld diverse punk, rock, and hardcore sounds into one package. Some may know bassist Sal Mignano and guitarist Cameron Keym from the more hardcore outfit SkyCameFalling, and joining them over the past couple years are drummer Joe Zizzo and vocalist Doug Robinson. Following a common trend, the Sleeping released their debut full-length Believe What We Tell You on OneDaySavior, after which Victory came swooping in to add them to their cache of LI bands. The Sleeping do succeed in not sticking to a signature sound; I guess that would be their signature sound, but the downside is that you aren’t blown away by much on the record. All solid songs that run the gamut of influences and intensity, but Questions and Answers is simply missing the rocketstar hook. Still, love can be found on the John ‘Beatz’ Holohan tribute “Heart Beatz” and its use of U2 guitars, “Loud & Clear,” “Better Than Anything Else,” and “The Climb.”
Tobias Froberg Tobias Froberg, a Swedish singer/songwriter, delivers a sometimes aurally adventurous, yet mostly safe, set of “I’m a sensitive guy” pop songs. Prefaced as the “next Scandinavian superstar” one could be fooled into approaching Somewhere In The City with high expectations, which would be unfortunate as the album is not up to such lofty aspirations. Which isn’t to say that this is a bad record, it’s actually quite small in its focus and nicely textured, with the occasional guest appearance to spice things up, such as the duet with Ane Brun on “Love and Misery”. The only real problem with Somewhere In The City is that it’s undistinguished (even its aural risks sound overly familiar) and the lyrics are so dull and uninspired that they kill almost any goodwill the songs work so hard for. (- AP)
Thor Thor, aka Jon Mikl Thor, offers his latest version of campy muscle metal on the ten-track Devastation of Musculation. As part of Thor’s revival (see recently Thor Against the World and the DVD An-THOR-logy), Devastation takes the Viking and evil metal to another step; one supposes in an attempt to single handily to bring back the absurd 80s metal scene. With the standard metal guitars and rhythm, Thor shouts through tracks like “Lords of Steel,” “Queen of the Damned,” “The Return of Odin’s Son,”…. Probably the best thing about the record is the background story on the genesis of the title; Thor watched a program about a guy getting his biceps as big as possible, and eventually they exploded, thus the Devastation of Musculation. If you’re looking for a good laugh of metal camp then this is it.
Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players Since it is difficult to capture what the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are all about simply on a CD, the Family and Sarathan offer the DVD Off & On Broadway that combines basically everything you want to know about the Family. This includes the history of the band, different musicians, writers and actors discussing the relevance of the band, assorted Family moments mostly in NYC, and of course a partially contrived live show that runs throughout the DVD. Before you run out for the DVD and for those unfamiliar with TFSP, the dad sings and plays keyboards/guitars, the young daughter Rachel plays drums and sings, while the mother Tina Pina clicks through slides from the 1950s-1970s. The songs are written around the slides to tell varying stories all with political and social commentary plugged right in. As the TFSP describe themselves on their website – “[we] are an indie-vaudeville conceptual art-rock pop band. We take vintage slide collections that have been found at estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores, etc., and turn the lives of anonymous strangers into pop-rock musical exposes based on the contents of these slide collections.” The songs that the Family play on the DVD include favorites “Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959,” “Look at Me,” “Wendy’s, Sambo’s, and Long John Silver’s,” “Don’t You Know What I Mean?,” “World’s Best Friend,” “Together As a System We Are Unbeatable,” and “Middle America.” Folks that discuss the band include are David Cross, Heather Mansfield, Nellie McKay, Regina Spektor, and Eugene Mirman. Unlike many DVDs, the bonus section on Off & On Broadway is actually quite delightful. The section includes videos for “Mt. Trip” and “Eggs,” oddly other songs from the show that aren’t in the main section including “What Will the Corporation Do?,” “Let’s Not Have the Same Weight in 1978,” “Why Did We Decide to Take this Decision to You?,” all from the 1977 OPNAD report, and the bit on “Super D.” The bonus section ends with the Family buying a bootleg of the DVD in NYC (before the show was filmed, ha ha). This is definitely a DVD worth the price!
Tunng A crisp acoustic propelled folk backdrop aid the Lennon-esque vocals of this nostalgic and life tackling collective. Tunng’s second album ‘Comments Of The Inner Chorus’ from which this song is taken, has propelled their reputation to such an extent that they were blessed with the task of remixing Bloc Party’s ‘Pioneers’ and, they did a darn good job at making it sound less derivative. With calmness and composure ‘Jenny Again’, poetically tells a tale of pride and passion; “Your mind pours over it all, don’t worry because no-one saw me fall.” Subtlety permeates the musical aspect of the song and its release will help you cling onto the last bit of summer, as the dark prospect of winter draws near. (- DA)
Venus Hum On their first record in four years, Venus Hum stretch their electronic mood pop to a wider degree than ever before. After 2002’s Big Beautiful Sky and supporting tours, the band went on hiatus in order to remain sane and, for the sake of vocalist Annette Strean, get healthy. With Strean, Tony Miracle, and Kip Kubin moving in different directions over the years, the group came back together to record the fourteen-track the Colors in the Wheel. Knowing the name more than the music, the Colors presents two sides of Venus Hum – one enticing and the other not. The positive side is songs where Venus Hum emphasize the indie ambient electronic soundscapes with Strean’s powerful vocals including “Genevieve’s Wheel,” “Turn Me Around,” and the closer “Go to Sleep.” When Venus Hum move to goth electro-pop songs, you need to run – as on “Yes and No,” “Do You Want to Fight Me?,” “Surgery in the Sky,” and “Pink Champagne.” If Venus Hum continues to be more the former than the latter, I’ll lend them my ear.
Xiu Xiu Xiu Xiu’s fifth album is the kind of record that’s difficult to get a hold of but rewards repeated listens. The eleven songs on The Air Force are of the ADD variety, where each track actually contains aggregated mini-songs. There are more and more bands taking this approach to songwriting but Xiu Xiu make a unique result. On “Vulture Suicide” a flat drum machine rhythm couples with electric piano and crooning vocals then ecstatically gives way to waves of analog noise and sampled handclaps and the refrain “be respectable and keep it to your self / cuz you know she was the best that you had” that morphs into something that sounds like a small dog yapping at the door. “Buzz Saw” begins with stately piano, muted as if recorded from a room away, before synth bass and stabbing snare hits drop in intermittently to bring tension. There is a real pathos to The Air Force that grounds its slapdash song structure into music worth a listen. (- AP)
copyright exoduster.com 2006 |