Maybe this will be a thing I'll do again, but I thought I'd check out some albums that I've been otherwise disinclined to listen to and give review of them. This time around, I'll be reviewing Radiohead's OK Computer, Funeral by Arcade Fire, and Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement, since those three albums are generally held to be the best by those bands that are too indie mainstream for me (heh). I'll go song by song to start since these are first time listens, so I haven't had time to really understand the albums in their entirety.
RADIOHEAD -- OK COMPUTER -- 7/10
First song "Airbag" is actually kind of interesting. The apparent lack of a chorus, or at least the subtlety of that chorus is a really hit or miss idea, but here the song moves enough to keep from falling apart. If I listened to it more, maybe I'd understand the words or find memorable parts.
"Paranoid Android" seems to be the most popular song from this album, and I thought it was "Karma Police" at first for some reason because I'm bad at listening to words. It sounds a bit like if Blur listened to June of 44, and, probably intentionally, fails to have much emotional impact. Even the chord change 4 minutes in pales in comparison to the likes of Suede, JJ72, or Sunny Day Real Estate if you're looking for feelings from your music, and also doesn't quite compare to Slint or Rodan for really experimental music, but if you want the latter with some rhythm, I could see why you'd like Radiohead, or at least "Paranoid Android". The peppy guitar solo at the end enforces my assumption that the song is meant to be unemotional, perhaps a commentary on the emptiness of human emotion? I'm not sure. As an angsty fellow, to be honest I don't by into it, but the idea itself could have value for some listeners.
"Subterranean Homesick Alien" has a bit more atmospheric sound to it, fusing U2 to like Spiritualized. The part where Tom Yorke repeats the word "uptight" over and over again is pretty memorable, and the background effects give it a complex sound that fits right at home with the first two songs.
"Exit Music (For a Film)" is considerably less kinetic, and seems to be a transitional point in the album given the relatively complex structures of the previous two songs. It slowly builds up, adding additional sounds until Yorke raises his voice about 3:30 in, but for me it doesn't quite have the intended impact, if what they were going for was something like "Dagger" by Slowdive as sung by Tom Yorke. Different strokes, I suppose.
"Let Down" is my favorite song on this album so far. Unlike previous songs, it has good movement and momentum as well as some body, enabling the gradual build up to have a solid foundation, where in other songs the beginnings are a bit daintier. While the lyric "crushed down, like a bug in the ground" is not my cup of tea, I'm an admitted fan of a song with the words "slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball," so I'm clearly a bit biased here. The pause in the middle of this song in no way impedes its impact, which is quite the improvement over previous songs in this album. I might even go out of my way to listen to this song, though I feel like I want it to take off near the end and actually get loud, but beggars can't be choosers. Nonetheless, a lift-off like at the end of Suede's "Still Life," which maintains a persistent rhythm like "Let Down" but grows to a more powerful peak, would be an improvement, but in such a case I think "Let Down" would feel like more of a finishing song, so allowing the song to continue into "Karma Police" without it feeling like the latter is mundane in comparison is the right move.
"Karma Police" is, so far as I know, the most popular song on this album, though whether this is in the same sense that "Wonderwall" is the most popular song on What's the Story, Morning Glory? or in which "Cast No Shadow" might be (is there a consensus on this question? All the people I know hate Oasis :[ ). "Karma Police" has all the strengths of its predecessor, but it feels like this song has nothing to grow into besides adding more sound affects to the background, so I'd say "Let Down" is still the stronger song. Half-way through this album, here are my not in any way final thoughts on OK Computer, resisting the temptation to define Radiohead by it. Radiohead's sound is to be fragile and paranoid, but I think it really digs them into a hole at times. There's a potential for some of their songs to really explode into something bigger and more effective, but instead they stay contained in their shell with just more sound affects added. Does this maintain the desired aesthetic, i.e. would it be un-OK Computer to get louder? Maybe. Do I listen to too much Suede, Oasis, and Idlewild to appreciate subtlety? Probably, my shoegaze and post-rock listening notwithstanding. That's my critique of Radiohead though. I can't quite say they're the best band ever.
"Fitter Happier" is the "Bank Holiday" of this album.
"Electioneering" has the energy this album really needed, and it might actually be the true start of the second half, with "Fitter Happier" being the album divider. If so, it really explains Radiohead's purpose for this album, not to make a collection of good songs, because the songs are unremarkable on their own, but a cohesive album. Finally the paranoia is actually being expressed with some sense of urgency, which I think was what had to happen eventually.
"Climbing up the Walls" seems to be a return to timidity and lethargy, however, which is not what I was hoping for to be honest, but I think maybe fits better with the real identity of this album. That said, I'm not quite sure where the development of this album is coming from. While listening to "Electioneering" I was expecting a quiet-bold transition over time, a bit like a backwards 100 Broken Windows, or like Swervedriver's debut, Raise. "Climbing up the Walls" gets louder half-way through, but doesn't get any clearer
"No Surprises" seems from the beginning like it is the song meant to be the hit from this album. I quite like it actually, much "Let Down". It, unlike the other songs, seems frank and penetrable. It actually sticks out quite a bit from the rest of the album, somewhat like "Love Steals Us From Loneliness" on Idlewild's Warnings/Promises which I will review later, and seems like it probably made the best single. I can't see the rest of OK Computer following that model, because it really comes out of nowhere, but it wouldn't necessarily be unwelcome. Considering Diary, but Sunny Day Real Estate as a comparison, it's often good to have sensitive parts, like "47" or "48," to break up continuity of one emotion - angst there, paranoia here.
"Lucky" is clearly a return to the rest of the album's sound, however, and sounds a bit like a slower "Karma Police", with a very Dark Side of the Moon aspect to it. In fact, it's hitting me that OK Computer is much more a classic rock inspired album than an indie inspired one, which perhaps is why it's become so popular. It takes old methods and applies them in new ways, as it's undeniable that the paranoid aesthetic is a unique one. Aside from Parklife closer "This is a Low," it's a very trademark sound.
Finally, "The Tourist" slows the album down, helping it to cruise into its finale. How does it some up this album? It's a very cohesive album, maintaining a consistent sound all the way through, but to be honest it's an album with no surprises. I felt no urge to skip any of the songs, so the quality was very good throughout, but it was just not particularly interesting. Granted, perhaps it's a challenging album - the first time I played Dog Man Star and Alien Lanes they befuddled me, but now they're two of my all-time favorite albums. There were some very memorable moments on those albums though, and on this there are very few. The impression that I get is that it's sort of a background music album, or that maybe it's amazing when you listen to it high or something. My opinion, though, is that there are albums that would be good for that, like Souvlaki, Loveless, or Spiderland that are less boring. 8/10 for good but unremarkable, highlights include "Airbag", "Let Down", "No Surprises".
ARCADE FIRE -- FUNERAL -- 8/10
First things first, the titles are rather ambitious, which is definitely not a bad thing. It just says, "This is a work of art", rather than a fun album like anything by Guided by Voices, Oasis, or Superchunk. We'll see how it goes.
"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnel)" already seems a lot more enjoyable than OK Computer's first run-through. It has pace as well as an apparent soul. While I'm not a huge fan of indie-vibrato, I'll take songs like these warts and all. It even gets louder over time without just adding more sound effects! I'm just going to say I don't really like Radiohead that much. This is a breath of fresh air in comparison. NOW THERE'S A CHORUS WITH REAL EMOTION!? I always found the hoopla around Arcade Fire a bit annoying, but based on this there's some basis for it. It reminds me a bit of Jeremy Enigk's The Return of the Frog Queen, with its quaint instrumentals and bittersweet verses.
"Neighborhood #2 (Laika)" sounds very Talking Heads to start, but also adds a bit of the minor key sensitivity of "Neighborhood #1". The album in general has what I might call a somewhat burlesque sound, like old impressionist paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec or Renoir that are set inside bars and clubs, with their shadowy and jagged faces obscuring some real soul beneath them. The song builds up eventually into a semi-passion that takes away from this effect a bit, but the point stands.
"Un Annee Sans Lumiere" seems a bit brighter and more conventional, until it builds up to the fast paced bit at the end, which is exactly what OK Computer was missing when I listened to it. Funeral has so far lulled me into complacency before upsetting it again, which makes it a more interesting listen.
"Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" is much the same. The intro begins with a thick and dramatic series of chords, but it develops into a more rounded sound that is neither upbeat nor dirgeful. This movement that it accumulates throughout is also enjoyable. While I have a moment, I should note the presentation of the songs - it's like a washed out lo-fi that instead of being a whimsical effect as in early GBV, fuses the singing into the guitar distortion, giving it a bigger impact. This effect has also been used eventually in some of The Strokes' songs, as well as memorably in "Best of Friends" by Palma Violets.
"Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)" isn't quite as interesting to start, with relatively mundane lyrics and a folky but drab presentation. While it changes about halfway into the song, there's no real chorus to speak of. Then again, this is the last song of Side A of the LP, so it's presumably meant to conclude the first half so that the second is more effective.
"Crown of Love" is also slow to start, and builds into a ballad somewhat reminiscent of some of the more sensitive Built to Spill songs, like "Reasons" or "Velvet Waltz," but with a bit less movement. Rises and falls in dynamics add some interesting nuances, but both lyrically and musically it doesn't quite compare to the first and second "Neighborhoods".
"Haiti" I actually have on iTunes for some reason. It's a more lush song, with a more impassioned apex than "Crown of Love", which perhaps implies that the next song will be the apex in terms of energy and emotion. I'm not here to make predictions I suppose. I will say that "Haiti" is a pretty good song and definitely more interesting than the two songs that came before it.
"Rebellion (Lies)" is a more fast paced song, and by the time the female background singers come it, there's some real energy emerges, but it seems to dissipate almost immediately when I want it to keep building. My simplistic hook addicted brain can't handle this clever music. That said, it does eventually develop into something with some momentum behind it, with the chorus of "Every time you close your eyes," so there is some salvation for me.
"In the Backseat" is the album finale, beginning with a sparkly falsetto from the woman singer in the band, accompanying it with a dainty violin refrain and a tip-toing piano riff. A single guitar strum about 3 minutes in beckons a pretty noticeable crescendo that finally builds some real energy and a true climax, though I keep wanting it to get darker, louder, and deeper than it does, it still has its desired affect.
The only thing about this album, as well as with OK Computer, is that I can hardly understand any of the words, so they have basically no effect on me, which is somewhat sad. They also apparently have a somewhat empty and quiet sound compared to a lot of the music I listen to, also limiting their emotional appeal. Nonetheless, the composition at the start of Funeral is magnificent, and the crescendos in each song are pretty powerful as well. The album seems to lose some of its momentum over time, a bit like in Diary or His 'n' Hers, though a bit more consistent, with no individual track quite equalling the likes of "Song About an Angel" or "Do You Remember the First Time?" but with the less memorable songs still being pretty good. Even so, it's still a unique and moving musical work and the start really is remarkably strong. The quaint sound of the album is a bit timid at times, but often still imbued with heavy drama, especially in highlights like "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)," "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)" and "In the Backseat". While I think it's still hard to beat The Twilight Sad's Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters if you're looking for emotional, folky indie music, Funeral's melodiousness may give it an edge for some listeners.
PAVEMENT -- SLANTED AND ENCHANTED -- 8/10
I'm listening to this album on recommendation of a friend whose musical tastes generally line up with my own, so I guess my expectations are a bit different.
"Summer Babe (Winter Version)" is a solid opener - your typical lo-fi intro. It seems to fuse Velvet Underground attitude with Archers of Loaf loudness and Built to Spill naïveté. It's a catchy tune that has a lot of that lo-fi, attic tape charm to it. I might not do this track by track because I realize that if I did that for other lo-fi albums, like Icky Mettle or most GBV albums, I'd be like "this song is kind of derivitive," for 3 or 4 tracks, which is actually part of the charm. "Trigger Cut/Wounded Kite at :17" is even better, with it's bittersweet guitar bit in between the verses. Each song morphs over time into something else, with "No Life Singed Her" beginning with an edgy noise-rock sound akin to the likes of "Me and You" or "Sick File" from Icky Mettle, but mellows into a more typical lo-fi song by the time the chorus comes in. Similarly, "In the Mouth of a Desert" starts out slow and slowly gains energy. The album, much like Icky Mettle, alternates sensitivity and edge in a way that accentuates each. Overall, Slanted and Enchanted is a fun album with a bit of a heart to it as well. There are some nice soft moments like "Zurich is Stained", "Here", and "In the Mouth of a Desert". Lyrically, the content is random and nonsensical much like that of early GBV, but has a much more Americana feel to it. All in all, it's a fun listen, without any particularly terrible songs as you might find on Guided by Voices' Alien Lanes or Bee Thousand, but without the incredible and obvious moments of genius on those albums. That said, all through the album there's much to enjoy. Highlights include "In the Mouth of a Desert," "No Life Singed Her," "Zurich is Stained".
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
3 Britpop Classics
Hey all! I've expanded my music collection fairly significantly in the past 3 months, so there will be plenty to review. Today, I'll start with three of the most famous Britpop albums ever released, that sort of epitomize the genre warts and all. Coming up in hopefully the near future I'll have some music by bands I've never reviewed before as well as more music from some of my old favorites.
BLUR -- PARKLIFE -- 9/10
For some reason I decided to introduce myself to Blur with The Great Escape, an album with a couple terrific tracks but largely filled with music that could be described as generic Blur. While "The Universal" and "Yuko and Hiro," among others, deserve to be classics, the rest of the album didn't quite live up to their brilliance. Now knowing what Blur had preceded The Great Escape with, it looks a whole lot worse (though objectively I would not say it's terrible). One of my complaints with The Great Escape is that most of the songs sort of sound like the same, retro-sounding, punk inspired commentaries on middle class life. What is so astounding about Parklife is just how varied the songs on the album are. It's got a bunch of the same brash indie pop that you'll find on Blur's other releases, like "Girls & Boys", "Tracy Jacks", and the title track, but they're just better here. "Girls & Boys" is the perfect opener, energetic and spunky, it defines what will come to be a theme throughout the album, paranoia, in a nuanced way, superficially hidden by a bouncy and aggressive beat. "Tracy Jacks" follows up with a typical Blur sound, but with hints of sensitivity, as well as a line that for some reason strikes me as incredibly clever when Damon matter-of-factly sings "Tracy Jacks works in civil service: it's steady employment". "Tracy Jacks" covers the same "middle class malaise" subject that The Great Escape would, but does so with a bit more nuance I think. Even the slowed down bridge feels a bit more sensitive. The similarly upbeat "Parklife" is an anthem for middle-class drudgery, a song that seems to poke fun at the mundanity of life while also bringing together all of those who suffer helplessly through it, the chorus "All the people - so many people - and they all go hand in hand: hand in hand through their parklife". Parklife becomes a real concept here, with the spoken lines by the guy from Quadrophenia illustrating that utter pointlessness of the things that we all do just to get by in our own parklives, that we dress up with this and that decoration, while deep down it fails to satisfy us. This inner suffering is reflected beautifully in some of the other songs on this album. It seems to me no coincidence that "End of a Century" reflects a deep satisfaction, typical of fin de siecle malaise. The line "we all say we don't want to be alone. We wear the same clothes just to feel the same" brings us from the mundanity of everyday life to the existential crisis that we all face in failing to give our lives some satisfactory significance. This helplessness is repeated in the chorus of "Badhead" and in the paranoid confusion of "London Loves", "Trouble in the Message Centre", and "Clover over Dover", descend into a darkness I did not expect from this album and makes it a very complex collection of songs. Meanwhile, in "To the End" is a very interesting musical arrangement that is clearly "The Universal" in embryo (The Last Year at Marienbad inspired music video is rather amusing as well). While the chorus is weaker in "To the End" than in the latter, the verses are just as compelling, if not more so. "Magic America" and "Jubilee", while standard Blur fare, are enjoyable listens as well and evoke the bored suburban spirit of Parlife as a whole. "This is a Low" is a proto-Radiohead finale that encompasses all of the latent paranoia present in the album. All in all, the album has a great variety of musical aesthetics brought together that make it a very captivating and entertaining listen, good for a peppy feel-good listen or a more brooding sit and think for background music. There are a few tracks that are not worth listening to, but in the end it is clear why Parklife is one of the magnum opi of the Britpop movement. Highlights include "End of a Century", "Parklife", "Trouble in the Message Centre".
PULP -- DIFFERENT CLASS -- 8.5/10
Different Class is widely considered to be Pulp's best work, and it is no surprise that this is the case. It includes what is by far Pulp's most famous song, "Common People", an anthem for millions of working class Britons who had spent the '80's being trod upon by conservative governments that, as they did in the United States, saw the poor as lazy dirtbags. That the album was entitled Different Class is of course a reference to the economic elitism of the '80's that could never be challenged without plaints of "class warfare", a metaphorical class and clique war that is the subject of album opener "Mis-shapes". The album also features "Disco 2000", one of the catchiest and most nostalgic songs of all time. The dance club style of the album, as ironic as it is verisimilar (I don't doubt that "Common People" found its way into quite a few nightclubs), makes Different Class extremely catchy and listenable overall as well. For all of the happy-go-lucky image that Pulp has given off over the years, perhaps attributable to Jarvis Cocker's calm and cool demeanor, despite half of His 'n' Hers and This is Hardcore being fairly dark, Different Class is not the sunshine and roses I expected. I had basically expected Pulp's most popular album to be like Blur's - an exhibition of their poppier side with a bit of irony thrown in for good measure. While the singles that I had heard backed up this expectation - "Common People", "Disco 2000", and even "Mis-shapes" have some bounce to them - there are some pretty gritty moments on Different Class. "I Spy", "F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.", and "Underwear" counting among them. As a result, in Different Class is manifested the same happy veneer followed by a dark core that His 'n' Hers and This is Hardcore exhibit. As a Pulp fan, the more the merrier, and with punchy yet desperately earnest choruses like those on the singles, as well as, most notably for me, "Underwear", "Bar Italia", and "Sorted for E's & Wizz", what's not to like? This is a solid album. The critic in me wants to say definitively, however, that I think that its successor, This is Hardcore, is just a bit better. Different Class has the most memorable singles, and I have read a number of opinions ranking "Help the Aged" and "I'm a Man" among Pulp's worst work, but, as someone who likes both songs for their energy and spunk, I think both albums are equally stocked with quality tunes. This is Hardcore, however, has a bit more variation in sound over the course of the album, so while some of the songs on Different Class tend to blend together until you listen to it enough to really know the album, the songs on This is Hardcore each stand out on their own. All in all, Different Class is still the sort of album that is essential for anyone, even, like, my mom, who generally hates my music. Highlights include "Disco 2000," "Sorted for E's & Wizz," "Underwear".
OASIS -- BE HERE NOW -- 8/10
Yeah, I'm rating this album. Sometimes it's tough being an Oasis fan. You sort of have to feel like a sell-out because everyone knows "Wonderwall" (never mind that "Live Forever" is objectively their best song) and anyone who listens to any non-Top 40 music, and that includes Coldplay and Radiohead fans, will be sure to tell you that they think Oasis sucks. Additionally, there's the fact that they're a bit hit or miss outside of their first two albums and B-side compilation. Even so, I just can't resist the brilliance that results when they do get it all right, and on Be Here Now, it does happen - just not on every single song as in (What's the Story?) Morning Glory. Also, when they get it wrong, it's not in the adorable "A for effort" way that they did with songs like "Shakermaker" and "Up in the Sky". On Be Here Now, they either do just as well as they did on Morning Glory, as in songs like "The Girl with the Dirty Shirt" and "Stand by Me", or just completely fail, both musically and lyrically, as in "Fade In-Out" and the title track, doing so in a way that sounds like every 2000's rock song that you hated on the radio, with cheesy guitar effects and silly lyrics that are only there to rhyme, like "So get on the helter-skelter" or every line from "Be Here Now". Additionally, a good 75% of the song titles on this album are uninspired. At other times, though, it's like they haven't lost a step. "Stand by Me" is like a latter day "Live Forever", and "All Around the World" and "Don't Go Away" have all the same innocent naïveté that a) most people would be loath to attribute to Oasis and b) is found on the likes of "Digsy's Dinner" and "Slide Away". Granted, it's not a matter of every song being either perfect or terrible. "I Hope, I Think, I Know" has a lot of great ideas in it, but seems a bit sloppily pinned together, though not enough to stop it from being an enjoyable and uplifting listen, and "D'You Know What I Mean?" is a bit too long - a problem they suffered from a tiny bit on Definitely Maybe in unnecessarily 6 minute "Columbia" and 5 minute "Shakermaker" and "Rock 'n' Roll Star". Looking at it objectively, this isn't an album I should enjoy as much as I do, but the unstoppable charisma of the Gallagher's when they're trying is too much to pass up. While the successor to (What's the Story?) Morning Glory maybe ideally wouldn't have been Be Here Now - their first two albums thrived on contrasts of melancholy and bliss, where the extremes of emotion aren't as large here - it's still a strong album that holds up with repeated listens, and like any Oasis album is always a great one to come back to when you remember that they actually did, often, live up to the hype. Highlights include "My Big Mouth", "Stand by Me", "It's Gettin' Better (Man!!)".
BLUR -- PARKLIFE -- 9/10
For some reason I decided to introduce myself to Blur with The Great Escape, an album with a couple terrific tracks but largely filled with music that could be described as generic Blur. While "The Universal" and "Yuko and Hiro," among others, deserve to be classics, the rest of the album didn't quite live up to their brilliance. Now knowing what Blur had preceded The Great Escape with, it looks a whole lot worse (though objectively I would not say it's terrible). One of my complaints with The Great Escape is that most of the songs sort of sound like the same, retro-sounding, punk inspired commentaries on middle class life. What is so astounding about Parklife is just how varied the songs on the album are. It's got a bunch of the same brash indie pop that you'll find on Blur's other releases, like "Girls & Boys", "Tracy Jacks", and the title track, but they're just better here. "Girls & Boys" is the perfect opener, energetic and spunky, it defines what will come to be a theme throughout the album, paranoia, in a nuanced way, superficially hidden by a bouncy and aggressive beat. "Tracy Jacks" follows up with a typical Blur sound, but with hints of sensitivity, as well as a line that for some reason strikes me as incredibly clever when Damon matter-of-factly sings "Tracy Jacks works in civil service: it's steady employment". "Tracy Jacks" covers the same "middle class malaise" subject that The Great Escape would, but does so with a bit more nuance I think. Even the slowed down bridge feels a bit more sensitive. The similarly upbeat "Parklife" is an anthem for middle-class drudgery, a song that seems to poke fun at the mundanity of life while also bringing together all of those who suffer helplessly through it, the chorus "All the people - so many people - and they all go hand in hand: hand in hand through their parklife". Parklife becomes a real concept here, with the spoken lines by the guy from Quadrophenia illustrating that utter pointlessness of the things that we all do just to get by in our own parklives, that we dress up with this and that decoration, while deep down it fails to satisfy us. This inner suffering is reflected beautifully in some of the other songs on this album. It seems to me no coincidence that "End of a Century" reflects a deep satisfaction, typical of fin de siecle malaise. The line "we all say we don't want to be alone. We wear the same clothes just to feel the same" brings us from the mundanity of everyday life to the existential crisis that we all face in failing to give our lives some satisfactory significance. This helplessness is repeated in the chorus of "Badhead" and in the paranoid confusion of "London Loves", "Trouble in the Message Centre", and "Clover over Dover", descend into a darkness I did not expect from this album and makes it a very complex collection of songs. Meanwhile, in "To the End" is a very interesting musical arrangement that is clearly "The Universal" in embryo (The Last Year at Marienbad inspired music video is rather amusing as well). While the chorus is weaker in "To the End" than in the latter, the verses are just as compelling, if not more so. "Magic America" and "Jubilee", while standard Blur fare, are enjoyable listens as well and evoke the bored suburban spirit of Parlife as a whole. "This is a Low" is a proto-Radiohead finale that encompasses all of the latent paranoia present in the album. All in all, the album has a great variety of musical aesthetics brought together that make it a very captivating and entertaining listen, good for a peppy feel-good listen or a more brooding sit and think for background music. There are a few tracks that are not worth listening to, but in the end it is clear why Parklife is one of the magnum opi of the Britpop movement. Highlights include "End of a Century", "Parklife", "Trouble in the Message Centre".
PULP -- DIFFERENT CLASS -- 8.5/10
Different Class is widely considered to be Pulp's best work, and it is no surprise that this is the case. It includes what is by far Pulp's most famous song, "Common People", an anthem for millions of working class Britons who had spent the '80's being trod upon by conservative governments that, as they did in the United States, saw the poor as lazy dirtbags. That the album was entitled Different Class is of course a reference to the economic elitism of the '80's that could never be challenged without plaints of "class warfare", a metaphorical class and clique war that is the subject of album opener "Mis-shapes". The album also features "Disco 2000", one of the catchiest and most nostalgic songs of all time. The dance club style of the album, as ironic as it is verisimilar (I don't doubt that "Common People" found its way into quite a few nightclubs), makes Different Class extremely catchy and listenable overall as well. For all of the happy-go-lucky image that Pulp has given off over the years, perhaps attributable to Jarvis Cocker's calm and cool demeanor, despite half of His 'n' Hers and This is Hardcore being fairly dark, Different Class is not the sunshine and roses I expected. I had basically expected Pulp's most popular album to be like Blur's - an exhibition of their poppier side with a bit of irony thrown in for good measure. While the singles that I had heard backed up this expectation - "Common People", "Disco 2000", and even "Mis-shapes" have some bounce to them - there are some pretty gritty moments on Different Class. "I Spy", "F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.", and "Underwear" counting among them. As a result, in Different Class is manifested the same happy veneer followed by a dark core that His 'n' Hers and This is Hardcore exhibit. As a Pulp fan, the more the merrier, and with punchy yet desperately earnest choruses like those on the singles, as well as, most notably for me, "Underwear", "Bar Italia", and "Sorted for E's & Wizz", what's not to like? This is a solid album. The critic in me wants to say definitively, however, that I think that its successor, This is Hardcore, is just a bit better. Different Class has the most memorable singles, and I have read a number of opinions ranking "Help the Aged" and "I'm a Man" among Pulp's worst work, but, as someone who likes both songs for their energy and spunk, I think both albums are equally stocked with quality tunes. This is Hardcore, however, has a bit more variation in sound over the course of the album, so while some of the songs on Different Class tend to blend together until you listen to it enough to really know the album, the songs on This is Hardcore each stand out on their own. All in all, Different Class is still the sort of album that is essential for anyone, even, like, my mom, who generally hates my music. Highlights include "Disco 2000," "Sorted for E's & Wizz," "Underwear".
OASIS -- BE HERE NOW -- 8/10
Yeah, I'm rating this album. Sometimes it's tough being an Oasis fan. You sort of have to feel like a sell-out because everyone knows "Wonderwall" (never mind that "Live Forever" is objectively their best song) and anyone who listens to any non-Top 40 music, and that includes Coldplay and Radiohead fans, will be sure to tell you that they think Oasis sucks. Additionally, there's the fact that they're a bit hit or miss outside of their first two albums and B-side compilation. Even so, I just can't resist the brilliance that results when they do get it all right, and on Be Here Now, it does happen - just not on every single song as in (What's the Story?) Morning Glory. Also, when they get it wrong, it's not in the adorable "A for effort" way that they did with songs like "Shakermaker" and "Up in the Sky". On Be Here Now, they either do just as well as they did on Morning Glory, as in songs like "The Girl with the Dirty Shirt" and "Stand by Me", or just completely fail, both musically and lyrically, as in "Fade In-Out" and the title track, doing so in a way that sounds like every 2000's rock song that you hated on the radio, with cheesy guitar effects and silly lyrics that are only there to rhyme, like "So get on the helter-skelter" or every line from "Be Here Now". Additionally, a good 75% of the song titles on this album are uninspired. At other times, though, it's like they haven't lost a step. "Stand by Me" is like a latter day "Live Forever", and "All Around the World" and "Don't Go Away" have all the same innocent naïveté that a) most people would be loath to attribute to Oasis and b) is found on the likes of "Digsy's Dinner" and "Slide Away". Granted, it's not a matter of every song being either perfect or terrible. "I Hope, I Think, I Know" has a lot of great ideas in it, but seems a bit sloppily pinned together, though not enough to stop it from being an enjoyable and uplifting listen, and "D'You Know What I Mean?" is a bit too long - a problem they suffered from a tiny bit on Definitely Maybe in unnecessarily 6 minute "Columbia" and 5 minute "Shakermaker" and "Rock 'n' Roll Star". Looking at it objectively, this isn't an album I should enjoy as much as I do, but the unstoppable charisma of the Gallagher's when they're trying is too much to pass up. While the successor to (What's the Story?) Morning Glory maybe ideally wouldn't have been Be Here Now - their first two albums thrived on contrasts of melancholy and bliss, where the extremes of emotion aren't as large here - it's still a strong album that holds up with repeated listens, and like any Oasis album is always a great one to come back to when you remember that they actually did, often, live up to the hype. Highlights include "My Big Mouth", "Stand by Me", "It's Gettin' Better (Man!!)".
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Album Reviews - il ritorno, pt. II
Allora, true story, I forgot what the next 3 albums were, but now I remember again, so I can review them now. Hopefully the impressions I've gotten so far are accurate. I've realized recently that my long term evaluations are often a bit distant from my initial impressions, if not regarding album quality, certainly regarding which individual songs are highlights. Here's hoping I've been sharp in my evaluations.
JAWBREAKER -- UNFUN -- 8/10
Reviewing this album is really pretty simple, as I see it. Here's how you tell if you will like Unfun: go to youtube and listen to any Jawbreaker song - if you liked it, you will like this album. Saying that makes it seem like Jawbreaker songs all sound this same, which is not true for the most part. 24-Hour Revenge Therapy, the album with which I'm most familiar, is extremely varied, ranging from poppy if ironic emo-punk tunes like "Boxcar" and "The Boat Dreams from the Hill" to emotionally heavy, almost flat-out angry songs like "Jinx Removal" and "Ashtray Monument", and is also varied in instrumental heaviness and tone. Unfun, to be honest, is less so. Aside from stand-out tracks like "Busy" and "Want" that belong in everyone's music collection, this album could be summed up with a couple of the less memorable tracks tacked onto those that leave a stronger impression. This leaves the second half feeling a bit flat. That said, Jawbreaker is a remarkably consistent band, so there are no duds on this album. They also have a tremendously unique sound, even scratchier and more abrasive with more attitude on this album than their later ones, so if you like 24-hour Revenge Therapy or Bivouac, you'll definitely want Unfun as well. I've enjoyed it, although it's an album that makes me feel lazy reviewing it. Highlights include "Want", "Down", "Busy".
SWERVEDRIVER -- MEZCAL HEAD -- 9/10
I said before, when I reviewed Raise, that Swervedriver are a quality band. Raise, like Unfun, was an album with no weaknesses, but that, aside from thrilling songs like "Feel So Real" and "Sandblasted", was just a bit flat. The complacency that snuck into Raise was completely eliminated in Mezcal Head. Swervedriver had shown that they could put together some emotionally heavy songs with their smooth but solid guitars interacted with vocals that take those same adjectives, and for Mezcal Head, they executed their strength consistently throughout the album. Album opener "For Seeking Heat" starts slowly but soon spirals out of control, with frontman Adam Franklin going into falsetto range near the end, and "Duel" continues this energy. Then it continues some more for another half dozen tracks. Like Raise, Mezcal Head tails off a bit at the end, sliding into more shoegazery territory in "Girl on a Motorbike" and "You Find it Everywhere", but elsewhere, the album has an impressive bite to it. "Last Train to Satansville" manages to escape the cliché one would expect from a song entitled "Last Train to Satansville" with a biting and sinister guitar riff, exemplifying the energy found in "For Seeking Heat", "Duel" and "Blowin' Cool". Songs like "MM Abduction" and "Harry and Maggie", meanwhile, see a different tone, as Swervedriver show a sort of sensitivity, noticeably in the former with a sing-song riff that hardly even sounds like guitar (and may not be). The last three songs are also solid, even if they serve to wind down the thrilling energy of this album. Once again, I recommend the extended version, if only for the magnificent "Never Lose that Feeling/Never Learn", the former being instantly memorable and the latter half counting among the best saxophone instrumentals I've heard. "The Hitcher" is equally strong. Mezcal Head was a step forward for a band that just needed to give their attitude a higher position in their music. Highlights include "Duel", "Blowin' Cool", "Last Train to Satansville".
MY BLOODY VALENTINE -- ISN'T ANYTHING -- 9/10
I was lucky enough to see the deservedly venerated My Bloody Valentine in Bologna, and tried to cram in Isn't Anything to my music listening so I wouldn't be surprised by anything in the concert, but, as it turns out, the entire set was from the incredible Loveless and the, from what I've heard, solid if not revolutionary m b v. Now that I've had a chance to download the album and give it a thorough listening, I regret not having gotten around to it earlier. Allow me to make a point that is the opposite of that which I made for Jawbreaker - this album does not sound like the rest of MBV's output. That is to say, it doesn't sound at all like Loveless, their magnum opus, an album that redefined popular music. Where Loveless was a thorough reinvention of the musical framework, a melting down and rebuilding of the alloys that composed rock music as we know it, Isn't Anything is nearly the opposite. Loveless makes sure to fill in any open space and create a new world for us, but Isn't Anything is very hollow. It removes all excess and gives that which remains a new sheen and purity. If Loveless is Versailles, Isn't Anything is the Eiffel Tower - and empty cage in comparison to sweeping luxury. To me, it sounds more like Pavement (or Lo-fi band X) than Slowdive (or shoegaze band X). It's a brilliant album, nonetheless. Much like in its better known successor, brilliant hooks and choruses are scattered throughout, except here their laid bare and surrounded by metallic jingling and jolting chords, not the sweeping ambience and echoes of the likes of "Come in Alone" and "When You Sleep". These songs have a strange insistence to them despite their basic structure. Beautiful and earnest sung lines are carried aloft on wiry insect legs, and scuttle about without regard for convention. Isn't Anything is thus a much more aggressive album than Loveless would turn out to be, drifting along in it's own natural way, and it carries an energy that pulses through it from beginning to end. Meanwhile, the seeds of future MBV can be seen here. The loud piercing guitars in "(When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream", "Feed Me With Your Kiss", and "Several Girls Galore" hearken to those first screeches in "Only Shallow", while "All I Need" would fit in just fine beside "Loomer" and "To Here Knows When". Still, the differences are noticeable. I think "I Can See It (But I Can't Feel It)" sounds like it belongs on Love Tara rather than anything My Bloody Valentine has put out since this album, the there are few differences in quality. Highlights include "Cupid Come", "Several Girls Galore", "Nothing Much to Lose".
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Summer Album Queue
On tap I've got 3 more reviews of albums I got in Italy (via download or otherwise), plus potential reviews of albums I don't think I'll like and more "in defense of" articles. This is looking to be a busy summer, but we'll see how it turns out.
1. Different Class - Pulp
2. Parklife - Blur
3. Warnings/Promises - Idlewild
4. Ejector Seat Reservation - Swervedriver
5. Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis
6. Sci-Fi Lullabies - Suede
7. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
8. Indoor Living - Superchunk
9. Going Blank Again - Ride
10. Rusty - Rodan
11. Blur - Blur
12. Here's to Shutting Up - Superchunk
13. Half Smiles of the Decomposed - Guided by Voices 14. A Northern Soul - The Verve
15. Earthquake Glue - Guided by Voices
16. Heaven or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins
17. Future Perfect - Autolux
18. Four Great Points - June of 44
19. No P or D - Ms. John Soda
20. First Edition - The Fruit Tree Foundation
1. Different Class - Pulp
2. Parklife - Blur
3. Warnings/Promises - Idlewild
4. Ejector Seat Reservation - Swervedriver
5. Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis
6. Sci-Fi Lullabies - Suede
7. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
8. Indoor Living - Superchunk
9. Going Blank Again - Ride
10. Rusty - Rodan
11. Blur - Blur
12. Here's to Shutting Up - Superchunk
13. Half Smiles of the Decomposed - Guided by Voices 14. A Northern Soul - The Verve
15. Earthquake Glue - Guided by Voices
16. Heaven or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins
17. Future Perfect - Autolux
18. Four Great Points - June of 44
19. No P or D - Ms. John Soda
20. First Edition - The Fruit Tree Foundation
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Album Reviews - il ritorno, pt. I
So, it's been awhile, but I actually did manage to get some new music while I was in Italy, and now I've got the time to review it. For this half, I've got three albums: Portastatic's Slow Note from a Sinking Ship, The Verve's Urban Hymns, and Verdena's Solo un grande sasso.
PORTASTATIC - SLOW NOTE FROM A SINKING SHIP - 7.5/10
This album is a very different beast from I Hope Your Heart is not Brittle, which I reviewed previously. Mac's Portastatic debut is a very enjoyable little album that's grown greatly on me since I first got my copy. What it lacks in the catchy hooks that define much of McCaughan's work with Superchunk, with "Polaroid," "Naked Pilseners," and "Creeping Around" being the only songs likely to get stuck in your head, it makes fantastic mood music, with its relaxedly flowing, rustic sound that's pretty consistent from start to finish. Slow Note From a Sinking Ship, meanwhile, is a bit closer to Superchunk's style, although in places it preserves the introverted style of I Hope Your Heart is not Brittle. While there are a fair number of laid back jams, with a more overt country influence than on I Hope, like "Skinny Glasses Girl" and "Running Water", there are also some more energetic songs with that typical Superchunk touch of angst and energy. These include songs like "San Andreas", which would be at home on Here's Where the Strings Come In and has an awesome music video, and "A Cunning Latch", which is filled with an angst more comparable to songs like "Misfits and Mistakes" than more lo-fi offerings of early Superchunk or I Hope Your Heart is not Brittle. One result is that Slow Note has perhaps higher highs than Portastatic's debut, with "A Cunning Latch" and "When You Crashed" among the most powerful songs Mac McCaughan has ever recorded. At the same time, however, the album falls off pretty noticeably in the second half, where "On Our Hands" and "Pastime" approach the earlier Portastatic aesthetic, but are still a bit too crisp and follow on too overtly compelling music for them to fit in as well as they would have between songs like "Beer and Chocolate Bars" and "Receiver". There are certainly enough high moments on this album to make it a great listen, but it suffers a bit from an identity crisis. Highlights include "When You Crashed", "A Cunning Latch", "You Can't Win"
THE VERVE - URBAN HYMNS - 9/10
Yes, this is the album with "Bittersweet Symphony" on it, and although I wasn't expecting it to be the case, Urban Hymns is pretty justifiably considered The Verve's capolavoro, even if I don't think that means their more atmospheric music as just plain old Verve (A Storm in Heaven and singles like "Gravity Grave") deserves its current place gathering dust on the shelves of our collective memory. As I was saying, Urban Hymns is a very good album, and "Bittersweet Symphony", though incredibly catchy and quotable - how many lines from music are more subtly, effortlessly, and ironically relevant than "try to make ends meet, you're a slave to money, than you die"? - isn't even the tip of the iceberg, and to be honest, doesn't really sum up the sound of this album very well. Where you could take a song like "Virtual World" or "Beautiful Mind" from A Storm in Heaven and pretty much extrapolate what the album sounds like, Urban Hymns weaves deftly from upbeat ditty to depressing ballad without any awkwardness whatsoever, so that this really does seem like a collection of urban hymns - a sort book of psalms to modern working class life on par with the introspective classics of the Britpop age. How The Verve somehow avoided that label eludes me, because Urban Hymns has a lot of the same hallmarks of (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, Different Class, and Parklife. You've got your making-the-most-of-it songs - compare, if you will, the sentiment behind "Bittersweet Symphony" or "Lucky Man" to "She's Electric" or "Parklife" - and your depressing moments of clarity - "Sonnet", "The Drugs Don't Work", and "Weeping Willow" echo "The Wild Ones", "The Universal", and "The Fear". These are nicely jumbled together in a way that feels proper but natural, carrying throughout the album a passion and energy that feeds it all the way through. Songs like "The Rolling People" and "This Time" even manage to evoke retro rock without seeming tacky, as some consider Oasis' less graceful moments to be. All in all though, it's the poignance of this album that makes it special. One liners scattered throughout are like little moments from our own lives. I've mentioned that line from "Bittersweet Symphony" that seems to come back to be every so often, but it's hardly the only example. "I know I'm on a losing streak as I walk down my old street" from "The Drugs Don't Work" strikes me in a similar way. Finally, the apex in "Velvet Morning" bears many repeated listens. While there are weak moments - "Catching the Butterfly" attempts to reconcile Verve's quasi-shoegaze sound with their new poppier style without the same success that "The Rolling People" and "Neon Wilderness" have - all in all it is really a terrific album. Highlights include "The Drugs Don't Work", "Weeping Willow", and "Velvet Morning".
VERDENA - SOLO UN GRANDE SASSO - 9/10
I really want to give this a 9.5, but then I see that I gave the untouchable Dog Man Star 9.5 and I realize that I can't really (though I think now DMS should get a 10 - it sits well beside Loveless, Souvlaki, Morning Glory, and 100 Broken Windows in that category). Further, the same score as Urban Hymns is hardly a slight. Still, I really highly recommend it, and it's a marvelous step forward from Verdena's already very good eponymous debut. The best moments in Verdena were the moments of doubt and darkness, the indomitable, angsty energy of "Valvonauta" and "L'Infinita gioia di Henry Bahus" and the morose humility of "Vera" and "Bambina in Nero". While there were many brilliant moments throughout the rest of the album, Verdena's strength lay not in their forthright punk exoskeleton, but the darker soul that lay under it. In Solo un grande sasso, it's just this that comes to the forefront. The whole album is flanked by the extreme end of Verdena's introversion, with songs even more timid ("La tua fretta" and "Medusa e tappeti") and sensitive than had been "Vera". It then continues with a second song in "Spaceman" with all the energy of Verdena second track "Valvonauta" that also introduces the mysterious themes that run through the album, from the strange jellyfish and sand dollars that grace the album art to the surprising contrasts from song titles to the songs themselves - "Onan" is not at all a common name in Italy, and "Cara prudenza" is filled with a dread that is found nowhere in "Dear Prudence", the Beatles' song whose title is a direct translation. Who this "Spaceman" is, what he represents, and why the title is in English is hard to decipher, especially for someone with Italian as a second language like myself, and the more layered sound of this album casts a pallid shadow of mystery over everything. One other advance made by Solo un grande sasso is how unbelievably smoothly the songs all mesh together. This album sounds like it was made to be one entity, perhaps most noticeable in the flawless transition from "Nova" to "Cara prudenza", and is thus really hard to stop listening to. Verdena had been a very good collection of songs, but lacked that cohesion, in much the same way that I feel that (What's the Story) Morning Glory? is a superior album to its contemporary The Great Escape in its natural cohesion. Finally, I feel I'm more able to appreciate the significance of the lyrics in this album due to my time in Italy and resulting comfort with the Italian language. The lyrics are filled with changes in physical and metaphysical forms. "In every crime that you are, in every crime that you commit", sings Alberto Ferrari with an intonation that wills meaning upon the words, just as he repeats "In every me that you are" in "Spaceman". Other lines are uttered with a moving clarity, such as "It's never been easy for me" and "You squeeze me and create clouds", in "Onan". Solo un grande sasso is a compelling listen throughout, even more comparable to Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary than had been their debut. While I've tried to find similar Italian bands, there seem to very few - even other alternative groups like CCCP Fedeli alla Linea, Afterhours, and Marlene Kuntz lack the sensitivity and subtlety of Verdena's work, so perfect here. Highlights include "Onan", "Nel mio letto", "1.000 anni con Elide".
~~~~~~
Veramente vorrei dare a quest'album un voto di 9,5, ma ho appena visto che ho dato questo voto a Dog Man Star di Suede, e realizzo che non posso (sebbene io pensi di aver dovuto dare a Dms un 10 - è uguale in qualità a Loveless, Soulaki, e 100 Broken Windows). Inoltre, lo stesso voto come Urban Hymns non è un affronto. Lo raccomando comunque, ed è un miglioramento anche sul record debutto bellissimo di Verdena che prende il nome del gruppo. I momenti migliori dal debutto erano i momenti di dubito e tenebre: l'energia angosciante di "L'Infinita gioia d'Henry Bahus" e "Valvonauta", e l'umiltà malinconica di "Vera" e "Bambina in Nero". Nonostante i momenti di bellezza nel resto del record, la fortezza di Verdena non era nell'esoscheletro evidente di punk rock, ma l'anima più fosco che restava dentro. Con Solo un grande sasso, questo diventa il foco. L'album intero è affiancato da un'introversione anche più estrema di quella di "Vera" e "Bambina in Nero", col bisbiglio di "La tua fretta" e "Medusa e tappeti". Continua con la seconda canzone, "Spaceman", che ha tutta l'energia di "Valvonauta", e anche un senso di mistero che unifica il record, dalle meduse e dollari di sabbia che ornano la coperta a titoli come "Onan" (non un nome molto comune, mi sembra) e "Cara prudenza", che non potrebbe essere più diversa da "Dear Prudence", la canzone dei Beatles che è la traduzione diretta all'inglese. Anche in "Spaceman" è presente - chi è, e perché prende il titolo inglese? Il suono più profondo e stratificato aggiunge a quest'effetto. Un altro elemento di questo record è la sua fluidità. Ogni canzone è legato in un modo naturale e quasi necessario che rende Solo un grande sasso un'entità unica. Questo è più evidente nella transizione fra "Nova" e "Cara prudenza". Verdena era stato una collezione di belle canzoni, ma Solo un grande sasso sembra una cosa anche più perfetta, un po' nello stesso modo in cui penso alla superiorità di (What's the Story) Morning Glory? sopra The Great Escape dello stesso anno. Finalmente, adesso ho una familiarità con la lingua italiana che mi permette a capire più completamente la significata di quello che canta Alberto Ferrari su questo record. I brani sono pieni di cambiamenti di formi fisiche e metafisiche, come nelle linee "In ogni crimine che sei" in "Cara prudenza" e "In ogni io che sei" in "Spaceman". Altre linee hanno una sensitività commovente, come "Mi spremi e inventi nuvole" e "Non è stato semplice per me" da "Onan". Solo un grande sasso è avvincente nell'intero. È più simile a Diary di Sunny Day Real Estate che era stato Verdena (una cosa buono secondo me), e sembra unica nella musica italiana - anche gruppi alternativi italiani come CCCP Fedeli alla Linea e Afterhours non sono molto simili a Verdena. Non hanno la sottigliezza e sensitività che mostra Verdena qui. Canzoni più belli includono "Onan", "Nel mio letto", e "1.000 anni con Elide".
PORTASTATIC - SLOW NOTE FROM A SINKING SHIP - 7.5/10
This album is a very different beast from I Hope Your Heart is not Brittle, which I reviewed previously. Mac's Portastatic debut is a very enjoyable little album that's grown greatly on me since I first got my copy. What it lacks in the catchy hooks that define much of McCaughan's work with Superchunk, with "Polaroid," "Naked Pilseners," and "Creeping Around" being the only songs likely to get stuck in your head, it makes fantastic mood music, with its relaxedly flowing, rustic sound that's pretty consistent from start to finish. Slow Note From a Sinking Ship, meanwhile, is a bit closer to Superchunk's style, although in places it preserves the introverted style of I Hope Your Heart is not Brittle. While there are a fair number of laid back jams, with a more overt country influence than on I Hope, like "Skinny Glasses Girl" and "Running Water", there are also some more energetic songs with that typical Superchunk touch of angst and energy. These include songs like "San Andreas", which would be at home on Here's Where the Strings Come In and has an awesome music video, and "A Cunning Latch", which is filled with an angst more comparable to songs like "Misfits and Mistakes" than more lo-fi offerings of early Superchunk or I Hope Your Heart is not Brittle. One result is that Slow Note has perhaps higher highs than Portastatic's debut, with "A Cunning Latch" and "When You Crashed" among the most powerful songs Mac McCaughan has ever recorded. At the same time, however, the album falls off pretty noticeably in the second half, where "On Our Hands" and "Pastime" approach the earlier Portastatic aesthetic, but are still a bit too crisp and follow on too overtly compelling music for them to fit in as well as they would have between songs like "Beer and Chocolate Bars" and "Receiver". There are certainly enough high moments on this album to make it a great listen, but it suffers a bit from an identity crisis. Highlights include "When You Crashed", "A Cunning Latch", "You Can't Win"
THE VERVE - URBAN HYMNS - 9/10
Yes, this is the album with "Bittersweet Symphony" on it, and although I wasn't expecting it to be the case, Urban Hymns is pretty justifiably considered The Verve's capolavoro, even if I don't think that means their more atmospheric music as just plain old Verve (A Storm in Heaven and singles like "Gravity Grave") deserves its current place gathering dust on the shelves of our collective memory. As I was saying, Urban Hymns is a very good album, and "Bittersweet Symphony", though incredibly catchy and quotable - how many lines from music are more subtly, effortlessly, and ironically relevant than "try to make ends meet, you're a slave to money, than you die"? - isn't even the tip of the iceberg, and to be honest, doesn't really sum up the sound of this album very well. Where you could take a song like "Virtual World" or "Beautiful Mind" from A Storm in Heaven and pretty much extrapolate what the album sounds like, Urban Hymns weaves deftly from upbeat ditty to depressing ballad without any awkwardness whatsoever, so that this really does seem like a collection of urban hymns - a sort book of psalms to modern working class life on par with the introspective classics of the Britpop age. How The Verve somehow avoided that label eludes me, because Urban Hymns has a lot of the same hallmarks of (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, Different Class, and Parklife. You've got your making-the-most-of-it songs - compare, if you will, the sentiment behind "Bittersweet Symphony" or "Lucky Man" to "She's Electric" or "Parklife" - and your depressing moments of clarity - "Sonnet", "The Drugs Don't Work", and "Weeping Willow" echo "The Wild Ones", "The Universal", and "The Fear". These are nicely jumbled together in a way that feels proper but natural, carrying throughout the album a passion and energy that feeds it all the way through. Songs like "The Rolling People" and "This Time" even manage to evoke retro rock without seeming tacky, as some consider Oasis' less graceful moments to be. All in all though, it's the poignance of this album that makes it special. One liners scattered throughout are like little moments from our own lives. I've mentioned that line from "Bittersweet Symphony" that seems to come back to be every so often, but it's hardly the only example. "I know I'm on a losing streak as I walk down my old street" from "The Drugs Don't Work" strikes me in a similar way. Finally, the apex in "Velvet Morning" bears many repeated listens. While there are weak moments - "Catching the Butterfly" attempts to reconcile Verve's quasi-shoegaze sound with their new poppier style without the same success that "The Rolling People" and "Neon Wilderness" have - all in all it is really a terrific album. Highlights include "The Drugs Don't Work", "Weeping Willow", and "Velvet Morning".
VERDENA - SOLO UN GRANDE SASSO - 9/10
I really want to give this a 9.5, but then I see that I gave the untouchable Dog Man Star 9.5 and I realize that I can't really (though I think now DMS should get a 10 - it sits well beside Loveless, Souvlaki, Morning Glory, and 100 Broken Windows in that category). Further, the same score as Urban Hymns is hardly a slight. Still, I really highly recommend it, and it's a marvelous step forward from Verdena's already very good eponymous debut. The best moments in Verdena were the moments of doubt and darkness, the indomitable, angsty energy of "Valvonauta" and "L'Infinita gioia di Henry Bahus" and the morose humility of "Vera" and "Bambina in Nero". While there were many brilliant moments throughout the rest of the album, Verdena's strength lay not in their forthright punk exoskeleton, but the darker soul that lay under it. In Solo un grande sasso, it's just this that comes to the forefront. The whole album is flanked by the extreme end of Verdena's introversion, with songs even more timid ("La tua fretta" and "Medusa e tappeti") and sensitive than had been "Vera". It then continues with a second song in "Spaceman" with all the energy of Verdena second track "Valvonauta" that also introduces the mysterious themes that run through the album, from the strange jellyfish and sand dollars that grace the album art to the surprising contrasts from song titles to the songs themselves - "Onan" is not at all a common name in Italy, and "Cara prudenza" is filled with a dread that is found nowhere in "Dear Prudence", the Beatles' song whose title is a direct translation. Who this "Spaceman" is, what he represents, and why the title is in English is hard to decipher, especially for someone with Italian as a second language like myself, and the more layered sound of this album casts a pallid shadow of mystery over everything. One other advance made by Solo un grande sasso is how unbelievably smoothly the songs all mesh together. This album sounds like it was made to be one entity, perhaps most noticeable in the flawless transition from "Nova" to "Cara prudenza", and is thus really hard to stop listening to. Verdena had been a very good collection of songs, but lacked that cohesion, in much the same way that I feel that (What's the Story) Morning Glory? is a superior album to its contemporary The Great Escape in its natural cohesion. Finally, I feel I'm more able to appreciate the significance of the lyrics in this album due to my time in Italy and resulting comfort with the Italian language. The lyrics are filled with changes in physical and metaphysical forms. "In every crime that you are, in every crime that you commit", sings Alberto Ferrari with an intonation that wills meaning upon the words, just as he repeats "In every me that you are" in "Spaceman". Other lines are uttered with a moving clarity, such as "It's never been easy for me" and "You squeeze me and create clouds", in "Onan". Solo un grande sasso is a compelling listen throughout, even more comparable to Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary than had been their debut. While I've tried to find similar Italian bands, there seem to very few - even other alternative groups like CCCP Fedeli alla Linea, Afterhours, and Marlene Kuntz lack the sensitivity and subtlety of Verdena's work, so perfect here. Highlights include "Onan", "Nel mio letto", "1.000 anni con Elide".
~~~~~~
Veramente vorrei dare a quest'album un voto di 9,5, ma ho appena visto che ho dato questo voto a Dog Man Star di Suede, e realizzo che non posso (sebbene io pensi di aver dovuto dare a Dms un 10 - è uguale in qualità a Loveless, Soulaki, e 100 Broken Windows). Inoltre, lo stesso voto come Urban Hymns non è un affronto. Lo raccomando comunque, ed è un miglioramento anche sul record debutto bellissimo di Verdena che prende il nome del gruppo. I momenti migliori dal debutto erano i momenti di dubito e tenebre: l'energia angosciante di "L'Infinita gioia d'Henry Bahus" e "Valvonauta", e l'umiltà malinconica di "Vera" e "Bambina in Nero". Nonostante i momenti di bellezza nel resto del record, la fortezza di Verdena non era nell'esoscheletro evidente di punk rock, ma l'anima più fosco che restava dentro. Con Solo un grande sasso, questo diventa il foco. L'album intero è affiancato da un'introversione anche più estrema di quella di "Vera" e "Bambina in Nero", col bisbiglio di "La tua fretta" e "Medusa e tappeti". Continua con la seconda canzone, "Spaceman", che ha tutta l'energia di "Valvonauta", e anche un senso di mistero che unifica il record, dalle meduse e dollari di sabbia che ornano la coperta a titoli come "Onan" (non un nome molto comune, mi sembra) e "Cara prudenza", che non potrebbe essere più diversa da "Dear Prudence", la canzone dei Beatles che è la traduzione diretta all'inglese. Anche in "Spaceman" è presente - chi è, e perché prende il titolo inglese? Il suono più profondo e stratificato aggiunge a quest'effetto. Un altro elemento di questo record è la sua fluidità. Ogni canzone è legato in un modo naturale e quasi necessario che rende Solo un grande sasso un'entità unica. Questo è più evidente nella transizione fra "Nova" e "Cara prudenza". Verdena era stato una collezione di belle canzoni, ma Solo un grande sasso sembra una cosa anche più perfetta, un po' nello stesso modo in cui penso alla superiorità di (What's the Story) Morning Glory? sopra The Great Escape dello stesso anno. Finalmente, adesso ho una familiarità con la lingua italiana che mi permette a capire più completamente la significata di quello che canta Alberto Ferrari su questo record. I brani sono pieni di cambiamenti di formi fisiche e metafisiche, come nelle linee "In ogni crimine che sei" in "Cara prudenza" e "In ogni io che sei" in "Spaceman". Altre linee hanno una sensitività commovente, come "Mi spremi e inventi nuvole" e "Non è stato semplice per me" da "Onan". Solo un grande sasso è avvincente nell'intero. È più simile a Diary di Sunny Day Real Estate che era stato Verdena (una cosa buono secondo me), e sembra unica nella musica italiana - anche gruppi alternativi italiani come CCCP Fedeli alla Linea e Afterhours non sono molto simili a Verdena. Non hanno la sottigliezza e sensitività che mostra Verdena qui. Canzoni più belli includono "Onan", "Nel mio letto", e "1.000 anni con Elide".
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Why Slowdive is Great
It's been a long time coming, but I've finally remembered to make my post on Slowdive and why I think they're special. Recently it's seemed to me that I could make an entire "in defense of..." series - I've already done a post on the very polarizing Oasis, suggesting that their persona is more or less to blame for the revulsion that they seem to inspire - you can't argue with the quality of their first two albums, but when a band that seems to take music very seriously can't live up to their own lofty standards, it can be tough.
Slowdive is not like Oasis in this sense. In fact, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has spent time listening to Slowdive that doesn't like them. At the same time, however, it can't really be denied that Slowdive has been sort of passed over in the 'history books' (if such a thing existed) of indie rock, as the shoegaze genre's crown has been unanimously granted instead to the venerable My Bloody Valentine.
Now, to be sure, MBV is more than deserving of the praise they've received. Loveless is an indisputable masterpiece, and Isn't Anything basically invented the shoegaze subgenre. At the same time, I would suggest that they weren't the ones who perfected the aesthetic, and that this duty instead fell to Slowdive with their masterwork Souvlaki.
On the surface, there isn't much to set it apart. While even the name Loveless evokes the universal drama and bittersweet nature that the crafted sound fulfills, and the music is very clearly something unprecedented - there still has never been written anything that sounds like "Only Shallow" or "Blown a Wish" - Souvlaki, a name taken from a dirty joke, seems a bit mundane in comparison, and at first listen the music is perhaps not much different from the airy sound of so many bands from the late '80's and early '90's. While Souvlaki lacks the bite of Loveless that gives "Only Shallow" so much energy and "Sometimes" so much brooding tension, it makes up for it in an unmatched sweeping grandeur.
Album opener "Alison" is a dark and guilty swirling haze of sound that puts more weight in lyrical composition than any of My Bloody Valentine's work does (granted that lyrics are perhaps more important to me than to others), while the second track "Machine Gun" takes the ethereal aesthetic present in MBV's "Blown a Wish" and "Come in Alone" but turns it from an effervescent lightness into a dark and heavy intangibility in the sirenic minor keys of Rachel Goswell only interrupted by plaintive chorus sung by Neil Halstead. "40 Days" is equally powerful, building a slightly poppier melody on top of a more structured instrumental rhythm to express a sense of longing with less gravity to it. Far from being a weakness, "40 Days" is instead a masterpiece of bittersweet dream pop, similar in sentiment to Ride's "Vapour Trails" or MBV's "When You Sleep" in its uplifting power but ultimately melancholic tone. Tracks 4 and 6, "Sing" and "Souvlaki Space Station", respectively, are much more experimental in nature, lacking a real chorus and consistent structure. They serve to divide up the album so that its anthemic tendencies, as in the aforementioned "40 Days", have a chance to expose themselves. Between these two songs is the marvelously isolating "Here She Comes". Halstead's first words in the song, "it's so lonely in this place", perfectly define the aesthetic of the song, whose echoing guitars stand alone over a sparse percussion beat.
After the ambient sound of "Souvlaki Space Station", "When the Sun Hits" returns to the more traditional song format found in songs like "40 Days" and "Alison". A deep guitar strain, reminiscent both of "Sometimes" from Loveless and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", is contrasted by echoing pizzicato guitars and a flowing rhythm guitar as Halstead and Goswell sing together only somewhat comprehensible lyrics. The desperation of this song is palpable in a way few musicians have been able to match. Next is the serene "Altogether", whose minute but impeccable flourishes bring an unspeakably beautiful but sparse musical backing to incredible heights. "Altogether"'s musical execution is so unbelievably perfect that one can almost hear Halstead breathe as he sings, and extra musical accents are practically ravishing. It really merits listening at high volume in a quiet room for full effect. "Melon Yellow" is again a sort of a break from the weight of the previous two songs, but preserves the serene quality of "Altogether" despite the more ambient, less emotional, and less structured approach. "Melon Yellow" slowly builds to a remarkable climax that leads to the incredible album finale: the sparse "Dagger". As "Melon Yellow" comes to a gradual close, silence takes over and a single piano key signals a significant transition. The acoustic guitars here are almost like a reintroduction to reality, as though Souvlaki were a journey through a spiritual universe and "Dagger" binds this world to our own sonically imperfect one.
What makes Souvlaki special is really the way in which it establishes its own aesthetic paradigm almost imperceptibly. Loveless and Isn't Anything were brilliant because they very obviously broke boundaries (Slowdive would do the same on Pygmalion, an album that fuses the ultra-worldly aspects of shoegaze to an almost primal simplicity. I wrote a review of it that is available on this page somewhere), and while Souvlaki's airy rhythm guitars make it sound special, there's an extra significance in the way in which the musical aesthetic matches the lyrical content. Kierkegaard once wrote that he preferred Mozart's depiction of Don Juan through music to Byron's depiction of the famous seducer in poetry because the former was more fitting to the amorous content. Well, to me it seems that the desperate loneliness of the instrumentation on Souvlaki, expressed by its sparse purity and perfection, is a perfect match for the forlorn melancholy of its lyrical content. This makes the emotional experience of Souvlaki that much more meaningful than that of Loveless, in my mind and experience, which only extends so far as the sound breaches the boundaries of everyday musical aesthetics. Slowdive had the benefit of learning from their venerable predecessors, and fused this aural space with its natural lyrical partner, resulting in the consummation of a more complete and powerful musical experience.
Slowdive is not like Oasis in this sense. In fact, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has spent time listening to Slowdive that doesn't like them. At the same time, however, it can't really be denied that Slowdive has been sort of passed over in the 'history books' (if such a thing existed) of indie rock, as the shoegaze genre's crown has been unanimously granted instead to the venerable My Bloody Valentine.
Now, to be sure, MBV is more than deserving of the praise they've received. Loveless is an indisputable masterpiece, and Isn't Anything basically invented the shoegaze subgenre. At the same time, I would suggest that they weren't the ones who perfected the aesthetic, and that this duty instead fell to Slowdive with their masterwork Souvlaki.
On the surface, there isn't much to set it apart. While even the name Loveless evokes the universal drama and bittersweet nature that the crafted sound fulfills, and the music is very clearly something unprecedented - there still has never been written anything that sounds like "Only Shallow" or "Blown a Wish" - Souvlaki, a name taken from a dirty joke, seems a bit mundane in comparison, and at first listen the music is perhaps not much different from the airy sound of so many bands from the late '80's and early '90's. While Souvlaki lacks the bite of Loveless that gives "Only Shallow" so much energy and "Sometimes" so much brooding tension, it makes up for it in an unmatched sweeping grandeur.
Album opener "Alison" is a dark and guilty swirling haze of sound that puts more weight in lyrical composition than any of My Bloody Valentine's work does (granted that lyrics are perhaps more important to me than to others), while the second track "Machine Gun" takes the ethereal aesthetic present in MBV's "Blown a Wish" and "Come in Alone" but turns it from an effervescent lightness into a dark and heavy intangibility in the sirenic minor keys of Rachel Goswell only interrupted by plaintive chorus sung by Neil Halstead. "40 Days" is equally powerful, building a slightly poppier melody on top of a more structured instrumental rhythm to express a sense of longing with less gravity to it. Far from being a weakness, "40 Days" is instead a masterpiece of bittersweet dream pop, similar in sentiment to Ride's "Vapour Trails" or MBV's "When You Sleep" in its uplifting power but ultimately melancholic tone. Tracks 4 and 6, "Sing" and "Souvlaki Space Station", respectively, are much more experimental in nature, lacking a real chorus and consistent structure. They serve to divide up the album so that its anthemic tendencies, as in the aforementioned "40 Days", have a chance to expose themselves. Between these two songs is the marvelously isolating "Here She Comes". Halstead's first words in the song, "it's so lonely in this place", perfectly define the aesthetic of the song, whose echoing guitars stand alone over a sparse percussion beat.
After the ambient sound of "Souvlaki Space Station", "When the Sun Hits" returns to the more traditional song format found in songs like "40 Days" and "Alison". A deep guitar strain, reminiscent both of "Sometimes" from Loveless and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", is contrasted by echoing pizzicato guitars and a flowing rhythm guitar as Halstead and Goswell sing together only somewhat comprehensible lyrics. The desperation of this song is palpable in a way few musicians have been able to match. Next is the serene "Altogether", whose minute but impeccable flourishes bring an unspeakably beautiful but sparse musical backing to incredible heights. "Altogether"'s musical execution is so unbelievably perfect that one can almost hear Halstead breathe as he sings, and extra musical accents are practically ravishing. It really merits listening at high volume in a quiet room for full effect. "Melon Yellow" is again a sort of a break from the weight of the previous two songs, but preserves the serene quality of "Altogether" despite the more ambient, less emotional, and less structured approach. "Melon Yellow" slowly builds to a remarkable climax that leads to the incredible album finale: the sparse "Dagger". As "Melon Yellow" comes to a gradual close, silence takes over and a single piano key signals a significant transition. The acoustic guitars here are almost like a reintroduction to reality, as though Souvlaki were a journey through a spiritual universe and "Dagger" binds this world to our own sonically imperfect one.
What makes Souvlaki special is really the way in which it establishes its own aesthetic paradigm almost imperceptibly. Loveless and Isn't Anything were brilliant because they very obviously broke boundaries (Slowdive would do the same on Pygmalion, an album that fuses the ultra-worldly aspects of shoegaze to an almost primal simplicity. I wrote a review of it that is available on this page somewhere), and while Souvlaki's airy rhythm guitars make it sound special, there's an extra significance in the way in which the musical aesthetic matches the lyrical content. Kierkegaard once wrote that he preferred Mozart's depiction of Don Juan through music to Byron's depiction of the famous seducer in poetry because the former was more fitting to the amorous content. Well, to me it seems that the desperate loneliness of the instrumentation on Souvlaki, expressed by its sparse purity and perfection, is a perfect match for the forlorn melancholy of its lyrical content. This makes the emotional experience of Souvlaki that much more meaningful than that of Loveless, in my mind and experience, which only extends so far as the sound breaches the boundaries of everyday musical aesthetics. Slowdive had the benefit of learning from their venerable predecessors, and fused this aural space with its natural lyrical partner, resulting in the consummation of a more complete and powerful musical experience.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Pet Peeve
One thing I've realized kind of annoys me is when bands name themselves after 3 (always 3) random words that don't seem to have any relation to each other. I don't think it seems lazy per se, but you'd think a band would want to give themselves a more meaningful name.
Examples:
Cooper Temple Clause
Ocean Colour Scene
Stone Temple Pilots
probably more
I guess you could argue that some bands that I like a lot, like Sunny Day Real Estate and Archers of Loaf also do the random words name thing, but I don't know. It seems sort of cliche to name a band like that I guess
Examples:
Cooper Temple Clause
Ocean Colour Scene
Stone Temple Pilots
probably more
I guess you could argue that some bands that I like a lot, like Sunny Day Real Estate and Archers of Loaf also do the random words name thing, but I don't know. It seems sort of cliche to name a band like that I guess
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Quick Commentary: Idlewild Lyrics
So, really quickly, here are two Idlewild lines:
From "Roseability"
Anyway, I found that thought provoking, and I really do think Idlewild remains terribly underrated. At some point they have to be universally recognized as great, don't they? How far in the future that will be, I honestly don't know.
Also, I'm just realizing it now, but "Film of the Future" would seem to imply the same message:
From "Roseability"
Stop looking through scrapbooks and photograph albums because I know that they won't teach you what you don't already know - you'll always be dissatisfiedAnd then a line that I had forgotten from "El Capitan"
You were looking at pictures in the distance hoping to see the futureI had never really noticed it, but these lines are both about the same thing - Roddy's fascination with photographs and their power to show us things that we have forgotten or never knew. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, although I definitely feel that we sometimes look to documentation of the past and try to reinterpret and reconstruct that past from it.
Anyway, I found that thought provoking, and I really do think Idlewild remains terribly underrated. At some point they have to be universally recognized as great, don't they? How far in the future that will be, I honestly don't know.
Also, I'm just realizing it now, but "Film of the Future" would seem to imply the same message:
I know what you think: you think this film is about you. It isn't about you.I'm not sure many bands have the same continuity in their lyrical themes that Idlewild shows not just here but in many of their songs on various topics.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Recent Music Findings
So, sadly, while I'm in Italy (by the way, I'm in Italy) I will be unable to use Amazon, which will severely limit my music purchases. My only resource will be the record store by the main piazza here in Bologna, and I don't think they have much in the way of Britpop or Shoegaze. That said, using youtube as a resource, I've found various things:
1) If there were any doubts, Suede's B-sides are all awesome. As soon as I get back to the states I'm picking up a copy of Sci-Fi Lullabies
2) So I found this Ride track from their second album, Going Blank Again, called "OX4" (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=57I0Lt0yalA) which incidentally sounds like Suede to start and then becomes every bit as sensitively potent as "Vapour Trail", so I guess I'll have to get a copy of that album to add to my collection
3) Also, I constantly forget how good Jawbreaker and Oasis (in no way related) are, and recently have remembered again. eff you, haters
The next few months should be pretty exciting - new MBV album due within a fortnight, new GBV and Suede by summer. So psyched
1) If there were any doubts, Suede's B-sides are all awesome. As soon as I get back to the states I'm picking up a copy of Sci-Fi Lullabies
2) So I found this Ride track from their second album, Going Blank Again, called "OX4" (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=57I0Lt0yalA) which incidentally sounds like Suede to start and then becomes every bit as sensitively potent as "Vapour Trail", so I guess I'll have to get a copy of that album to add to my collection
3) Also, I constantly forget how good Jawbreaker and Oasis (in no way related) are, and recently have remembered again. eff you, haters
The next few months should be pretty exciting - new MBV album due within a fortnight, new GBV and Suede by summer. So psyched
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