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".
