Music
This is a listing of the albums (or other music-related items) I've purchased in the last year (or so), and my thoughts on them. See what I'm listening to, find new things to listen to, or compare your thoughts to mine. Albums outside of the last year are in the archive.
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The Clientele
Strange Geometry & God Save The Clientele
5/17/07:
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Fountains Of Wayne
Traffic & Weather
3/31/07:
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Jana Hunter
There's No Home
3/31/07:
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Modest Mouse
We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
3/20/07:
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Ben Folds
Live At My Space
3/20/07:
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The Arcade Fire
Neon Bible
3/6/07:
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Extra Man
Extra Man
2/2/07:
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Gnarls Barkley
St. Elsewhere
12/25/06:
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Sufjan Stevens
Songs For Christmas
12/23/06:
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Okkervil River
Overboard and Down
12/23/06:
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Beach House
Beach House
11/20/06:
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Ben Folds and the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra
Live In Perth
11/4/06:
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Beirut
Gulag Orkestar
11/4/06:
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M. Ward
Post-War
11/4/06:
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Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Broom
11/4/06:
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Voxtrot
Raised By Wolves & Your Biggest Fan
10/26/06:
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Ben Folds
Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP/i>
10/12/06:
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Beck
The Information
10/12/06:
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The Decemberists
The Crane Wife
10/12/06:
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The Bound Stems
Appreciation Night
10/11/06:
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The Hold Steady
Boys And Girls In America
10/9/06:
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The Polyphonic Spree
Wait
10/2/06:
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Songs: Ohia
The Lioness
9/28/06:
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Okkervil River
Down The River Of Golden Dreams
9/26/06:
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Camera Obscura
Let's Get Out Of This Country
9/26/06:
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Architecture In Helsinki
In Case We Die
9/20/06:
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The Magnolia Electric Co.
Fading Trails
9/13/06:
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Jason Molina
Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go
9/13/06:
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Guster
Ganging Up On The Sun
6/19/06:
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Band Of Horses
Everything All The Time
5/20/06:
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Built To Spill
You In Reverse
5/20/06: It's been almost five years. That's a long wait for a new Built to Spill one, especially when 2001's Ancient Melodies of the Future just didn't have the longetivity I like to see in new albums from one of my favorite bands. Although the album had several absolutely stellar tracks ("Strange", "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss", and especially "The Weather"), overall it was a bit flat.
So I was very excited when I heard that there was a new Built to Spill album, but a little scared, too. The album leaked last fall, probably intentionally, as it had samples of "Who is Mike Jones" splattered all over it.
But when I put it on, I knew that the Built to Spill I loved was back. The sound was stripped down, a bit—sparser—but driving, but also gives the band opportunities to stretch their legs and strut their stuff. "Goin' Against Your Mind" best exmplifies this, and, honestly, I wish the album had more songs like it. "Conventional Wisdom" is brilliant pop in the Keep it Like a Secret vein.
It's too soon to tell if this is a classic album, or if this will go the way of the initially impressive Ancient Melodies of the Future. But things are looking good.
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Centro-Matic
Fort Recovery
5/20/06: Win introduced me to Centro-Matic years back, and I very much liked prolific songwriter Will Johnson's ear for a catchy melody and recordings pushed into clipping on All the Falsest Hearts May Try, but for whatever reason, I never quite loved it. Sometimes I think it's a lack of emotional impact—we'll call it that, but I'm not sure exactly what it is. The important thing is that something about it doesn't stick, and I don't often find myself wanting to listen to it.
I continued to follow them through Distance and the Clime and Love You Just the Same, and there were few changes. More rock and catchy songwriting, but still the same effect.
Which brings us to Fort Recovery which plays up Centro's softer, sensitive side. This isn't the first time we've heard music like this from them, and especially not (I presume) from other acts such as Will Johnson's solo material or his other project, South San Gabriel. It's beautiful stuff, but it remains to be seen whether it will produce the emotional impact that keeps me coming back to my favorite albums. It could, though.
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Songs: Ohia
Axxess & Ace
5/20/06: I sometimes wonder if I'm at a disadvantage working backwards through Jason Molina's catalog, with cause following effect rather than the other way around. Didn't It Rain introduced the more countrified elements that would bloom first into the Magnolia Electric Co. album, and then the band of the same name. Before that, The Lioness shows his penchant for dark, sparse pop. From there, I thought it was a natural regression back through the previous albums.
So I apparently haven't learned not to underestimate Molina, as I was surprised to discover something that I hadn't expected from him. Axxess & Ace is hot. Sexy. Molina's normal voice drifts into falsetto as he croons. The pinacle of this is the supremely confident (what else would you expect from womeone who refers to himself as such?) "Captain Badass".
Unexpected, great, and enough motivation to continue checking out Songs: Ohia's back catalog.
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Voxtrot
Mothers, Daughters, Sisters & Wives
5/20/06: I caught Voxtrot live a month or so ago and wasn't nearly impressed enough to them until I started listening to their (scant) recorded works. They've got two EPs out, and this was the only one that Waterloo had in stock during my last expedition to Austin.
I've listened to the two together so often that I don't really differentiate between them. Both present smart, catchy, energetic pop remiscent of the Smiths. Definitely recommended.
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El Ten Eleven
El Ten Eleven
5/14/06: Not overly dramatic and bombastic enough to quite match the post rock set (see Explosions in the Sky, Mono), too slow and beautiful to fit with the math rockers (see Oxxes), but too lacking in vocals to fit with the more vocal-centric pop of indie rock, El Ten Eleven occupy a strange Four Corners of musical geography, their feet in several states at once, but not defined by any of them.
Although this album sadly lacks the drive and energy of their live show, and the impressive instrumental prowess it takes to manage playing both lead and bass guitar parts on a double neck guitar with the help of a loop pedal, there's a lot to like here. You'll be listening along and hear some guitar bit that reminds you of early Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, or, particularly, the Halo Benders. The album's full of moments that recall something else, and that's a good thing.
But you still find yourself wishing that the songs had more drive, maybe some vocals to focus the songs and hold your attention better, the way the impressive double-necked guitar theatrics do in the live show. But there's always time for that in the next album. For now, this is a debut that makes a great showing of raw talent waiting to be refined.
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Art Brut
Bang Bang Rock & Roll
5/9/06: Art Brut may not sound punk to those of us who came to the genre through the pop-punk stylings of 90s "punk" bands, and they lack the hardened aesthetic of early punk bands, but they make a mission statement out of punk's do-it-yourself aesthetic. With their call to arms "Formed A Band" and lyrics minimizing their weaknesses like the spoken "And yes, this is my singing voice!", they make clear their view that anyone can get out there and make some art.
Unfortuantely, in doing so, they tread dangerously close to being a one-note act, perhaps even the worst sort, the comedy band. The lyrics are all quite clever ("I can't stand the sound of the Velvet Underground; I can't stand that sound the second time around"; "Modern art makes me want to rock out"; "Popular culture no longer applies to me"), but at times it seems like cleverness and self-reference is all they have to offer.
But then, you hear something completely beautiful and only tangentially related like "Emily Kane"—the tribute to the lover you never got over, and the realization that follows that it isn't the lover you miss, but the way that first love felt—and you think that maybe the band has a few other things to say too.
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Islands
Return To The Sea
4/29/06: So I was privileged to attend the baffling final show of Canadian post-pop/circus-core outfit the Unicorns, which at the time was disappointing after the kick ass show they had given their New York audience (of which I was a member), but in retrospect, it was sort of cool, in a morbid way, to see the disolution of a band happen right in front of you.
The Unicorns weren't gone long too long before 2/3 of them returned with a new act that kept much of what was great about the group—unconventional song structure that didn't discard conventional pop catchiness—while ditching some of the circus-like theatrics that kept some people (Dan) from becoming fans, instead extending their sound to be more orchestral and incorporating other influences such as calypso.
In other words, the part of the Unicorns that apparently really mattered is back and better in every way. Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone was a great album that I never truly loved, but Return to the Sea has so much more potential. If most indie music that's out there today doesn't excede your goofiness thresholds, then odds are that you'll find the Islands somewhere between fun and inspirational. Highly recommended.
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My Bloody Valentine
Isn't Anything
3/19/06: I've always thought I should look into what My Bloody Valentine was before they released their magnum opus and fell off the face of the planet. Now, I've at least started to do that, though the next step would be to actually listen to this album...
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Songs: Ohia
Impala
3/17/06: More Songs: Ohia, more Jason Molina, but nothing I've processed yet. I'll come back to this later.
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Songs: Ohia
Ghost Tropic
3/17/06: Ditto.
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Tapes 'n Tapes
The Loon
3/14/06: This one's a nice surprise from out of nowhere, like Clap Your Hands last year. A couple of tracks show what seems to me to be a very clear Pixies influence, but they don't consistently loom large over the album. Good stuff, and highly recommended. Catch them live if you can.
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Belle & Sebastian
The Life Pursuit
2/19/06: It seems with each new Belle & Sebastian album that comes out, the band moves further towards a funkier, exciting new sound that manages to lose the presciousness and emotional impact that made them great in the first place. The new band is an entertaining listen, but just not what I come to Belle & Sebastian for.
"Dress Up in You" shows the last vestiges of their old sound, and it's all the better for it. This album is a more focused version of the new sound that was solidifying on Dear Catastrophe Waitress, which is good. Belle mk. II makes a strong step forward, but they will probably always be in the long shadow of Bell mk. I.
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The Flaming Lips
The Soft Bulletin (5.1 Surround Mix)
2/19/06: This is still a great album. The strong pop songwriting combined with the expansive, beautiful sounds makes a classic.
This new release has a surround sound mix on this that is fantastic. It's worth buying for that alone. It seemed like the album always hinted at what things would sound like in surround ("All those bugs, buzzing around your head"), but now it's made explicit.
The tracks were resequenced (they finall removed the annoying repeats of "Race for the Prize" and "Waiting for A Superman" tacked onto the end), which has its ups and downs, an extra track was added, and new effects are present on some tracks. I think I prefer it to the original, but I won't know for sure until I've given it some more listens.
But seriously. The surround mix is awesome. You need to hear it.
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Ms. John Soda
No P. Or D.
2/7/06: I downloaded this a couple of years back. It's nice electronic pop. It reminds me of the Postal Service, but less prescious, more laid back and resigned. It's a nice, smooth listen from start to end. It never manages to be completely involving, but it's enjoyable none the less. It was import only for quite some time, hence the delay in purchasing, but I would have picked this up two years ago had it been readily available.
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Jens Lekman
Oh You're So Silent Jens
2/7/06: I happened to go to Jens' show in order to catch Nedelle, but I'm glad I stuck around for his headlining set. The Magnetic Fields come to mind first, followed by the more mellow moments of Belle & Sebastian. The songwriting's nice, self-efacing, and clever. On the album, Jens makes nice use of samples of various other indie acts and in the process pays homage to his indie pop heritage.
However, the songwriting's not as consistently strong as I might like. And the recording quality could be better. But the man obviously has talent. I think there are even greater things to come from him.
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Songs: Ohia
Didn't It Rain
2/5/06: The closest thing, I think, to a Magnolia Electric Co. album from Songs: Ohia (unless you count the actual Magnolia Electric Co. album, which technically is a Songs: Ohia album, but you really shouldn't, since it isn't in all the ways that matter). Which probably has something to do with both its being a predecessor to Magnolia Electric Co. and having a couple of its songs show up on Magnolia's 2005 live album. I'm willing to bet that once I'm more familiar with the Songs: Ohia catalog, this will definitely sound like an artist in the midst of a transition from his folky singer songwriter days to his southern rock days.
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Neutral Milk Hotel
On Avery Island
2/5/06: Considering that they're one of the few bands that I can claim have put out a completely perfect album, it certainly took me a long time to get around to checking out the rest of their catalog. I had snagged this from Thom back towards the end of college but never really bothered listening to it.
It took some random pop culture reference to "Song Against Sex" (by far the standout track on the album) to get me to give it a listen, and then shortly after that my "requisite 5 listens" affirmative action listening program to get me familiar with it (relatively speaking), but here we are.
Certainly, there's no mistaking this for anything but a Neutral Milk Hotel album. While it can't match the flawlessness (or, more accurately, the perfectly arranged flaws) of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, all of the elements are in place; all that is lacking is the effort to make a thematic whole of an artistic statement that stands on its own. Plenty good in its own right, but also fascinating as the predecessor to the best album of the 90s.
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Spoon
A Series Of Sneaks
2/4/06: More flawless rock from Spoon, if a little rougher than their later material. "Advance Casette" is worth the price of admission alone, and current pressings even include the "fuck you" to their former manager, "The Agony Of Lafitte" single and its b-side. Not necessarily the best jumping on point, but I can't find much fault with it.
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Bloc Party
Silent Alarm
12/25/05: A more serious Franz Ferdinand or a more fun Interpol? On Dan's advice I checked them out at Austin City Limits and they were the surprise hit of the show for me. After that I started to really enjoy their album. It's quite solid (a couple of tracks I might leave off, but I'm sure that would be the subject of some disagreement with others), but a great rock record. A few of the songs are a bit too "OC", maybe, but, hell, I don't really mind.
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Les Savy Fav
ROME (Written Upside Down)
12/3/05: I had tried, a few years ago, to listen to Les Savy Fav's single collection Inches without much success. This, though, goes down nice and smooth, and I can see why some random girl in Rudyard's felt the need to proselytize on behalf of the band. Short, but focused, it makes a good argument for further exploration of the band. I'm pretty sure Dan called it the best EP of all time.
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The Starlight Mints
The Dream Stuff Was Made Of
11/30/05: A couple of members of the Starlight Mints opened up for the Polyphonic Spree the second time I saw them in the ballroom portion of the Gypsy Tea Room in Dallas. A couple of years later I saw them open up for Liz Phair (right before her awful self-titled album came out) and the Flaming Lips at Stubb's. Both times they seemed likable enough, so when I saw this for cheap on eBay, I grabbed it. I'll confess I haven't really listened much yet.
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Pavement
Slanted & Enchanted
11/30/05: Pavement was on my list of old bands (old being a relative term) that I had missed out on. First came the Velvet Underground, after this the Smiths are next (and dare I add Zeplin to the list?).
Anyway, I had the opportunity to pick this up cheap, so I did. This and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain are both easy to listen to and enjoy. I haven't given it that many listens yet, but I feel pretty safe recommending it.
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Carmina Burana
Carl Orff
11/30/05: So it's horribly clichˇ now. Every movie preview with world-shattering events (or mock-world-shattering) co-opts the first track.
But back in high school, before it got quite so bad, we played a band arrangement of this for contest, and I loved it. It was just lots of fun to play, challenging, and had some nice horn parts that I got to play loud on (which was always the best part). So it's nice to have a recording of it and remember old times.
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