Category: Music

This reunion album was only a dream for the last 15 years, but it’s here now, and it’s great.

Let’s get this out of the way first: This is not just another Twilight Singers album. Somehow, the epic Afghan Whigs sound is revived like it had never gone away. The album is hard, the guitars screech, and Dulli gives an impressive vocal performance. You’ll find the familiar piano and violin parts as well. That’s not to say that Do To The Beast is a same old nostalgic rehash. The Whigs are good at many things, and one of them is giving each of their albums a unique feel.

On top of everything, I just had the pleasure to see them live at the Fonda Theatre. They played an almost 2-hour show filled with tracks from the new album and an eclectic collection of their classics.

This is it: the Coldplay album that I’m embarrassed to have bought.

Musically, perhaps their last effort was worse. Viva La Vida was a disaster of an album, an overreaction to success, I think. But Ghost Stories is such a cliché, the classic soft-rock tripe that Coldplay gets a bad name for. Finally, their detractors are on the money. This sounds like a solo project after the band breaks up, and maybe that’s what should have happened.

The album is cheesy. One song proclaims over and over, "I love you so much it hurts." By the fifth time, it hurt all right. Then the very next song warbles poetic about true love for 5 minutes. I guess it should be a relief that the album is short. Only 9 songs. (Yes, this is the album that gives you 3 extra songs if you buy the Target version. Imagine how much worse those "bonus" tracks must be.)

Bottom line: Ghost Stories is soft, unimaginative, overdone, and eye-rolling. Nothing worth saving here.

There has been so much happening in the world of Nine Inch Nails lately that it was maddening trying to predict what the next album would bring. My biggest hope was that fans wouldn’t be given another How To Destroy Angels/ The Slip/ Ghosts offering. I wanted something that rocked, wasn’t overly ambient, had undeniable personality, and, at this point in the band’s large catalog, stood strong on its own. It’s hard to say Hesitation Marks didn’t mostly deliver.

Various Methods Of Escape
Various Methods Of Escape

One of my friends emailed me his thoughts on the new album:

"This record sounds like [Trent] recorded a bunch of drum beats in his bedroom and then slapped some synths on top of it."

That was supposed to be an indictment obviously but, shit, that description sounds awesome to me!

Right off the bat, the first surprise is that the album is a bit more minimalist than one would expect from a Nine Inch Nails record. This isn’t the type of music that you want to lock yourself in your room and scream and cut yourself to (but hopefully you’ve grown out of that phase anyway). Instead, this is a mature return to drum beats and synth. And unlike some of Trent Reznor’s recent projects, all the tracks are competent and complete songs that find ways to be more melodic, more meaningful, rather than just consisting of harsh noises or strange beats. Hesitation Marks is not a side project or a film score; that much is clear.

The single, Came Back Haunted, is a solid effort with a powerful chorus reminiscent of With Teeth and Year Zero. I mostly appreciated the layered emotional synth that rises over the verses. The song then ends with a staggered melody as a throwback to Closer.

None of this means Hesitation Marks is immune to some of NIN’s more recent esoteric leanings. Some of the band’s familiar strange sound effects make appearances but even these songs are more likable because of their constant beats and clean structures. Satellite, for example, sounds like a Year Zero b-side but is much more catchy and upbeat.

While I’m Still Here
While I’m Still Here

The great part about the album is that some of the songs sound completely unlike any previous NIN work. Remember when The Perfect Drug single came out, or when you heard Broken for the first time? Some of the tracks on Hesitation Marks capture that freshness. Unfortunately, critical fans may be justified in calling some songs subpar or citing repetition.

Let me take a break to mention that I bought the physical deluxe cd and this is literally the coolest cd packaging ever! Don’t let the bonus disc fool you, it has forgettable remixes and is worthless. But check out the case, it feels like a hardcover book.

Not only that, but it IS a hardcover book. The liner notes are all printed on color bound pages and the discs fit into the hard sleeves. I know I’m old school but I wish I could get my entire cd library set up like this.

Overall, this is what I wanted out of Hesitation Marks. A fresh take from Trent. A new era. And no wife on backing vocals.

Sigur Ros have always had a lot of depth in their music. Just  a year after their last release (which is too quick in my book) comes Kveikur. Now, layered between electronic effects and a new harshness, the music is quite different from anything else out there let alone any of their previous albums. From a band that is accustomed to capturing a different mood with every effort, they’ve managed to avoid my expectations while somehow aptly retaining that signature Sigur Ros sound.

Kveikur
Kveikur

Taking listeners to primal places has always been a staple of this Icelandic trio. While the band often exudes a playful mood, it is this writer’s opinion that they are at their best when they go dark. Because of this I can unequivocally say that Kveikur is their best album since (). Takk and Meo are too happy and upbeat, practically to the point of joyful. Valtari has some good sounds but is too soft and atmospheric. Here, we are treated to more active, less ambient.

Stormur
Stormur

Kveikur eschews the familiar positive vibe for pure raw expression. The album starts heavy, for a few seconds unrecognizable, before the sweet sounding vocals smooth over the distortion. The drum beats really drive the energy in a way that is welcome and fresh, and the mood experienced when listening to the full album is gritty and majestic. With this, the right combination of ingredients and a long wait since a release like this, you surely have a top-notch Sigur Ros outing.

The National has been on a roll lately- playing great shows, getting critical praise, and somehow finding ways to generate positive buzz around each of their releases. As a band, they have set high expectations amongst an intellectual crowd and they consistently deliver, proving that they are deserving of all the indie praise they’ve been getting for the last two albums. Their new work, Trouble Will Find Me, is no exception, and it seems a crime that I have not yet given them coverage on this blog.

Fireproof
Fireproof

If you think The National are too pretentious then this is the perfect album for you to hate. It never tries very hard to do things the standard way. Trouble Will Find Me makes heavy use of odd time signatures. This keeps new listeners bobbing their heads but unsure of what to expect. And that works for these songs because this isn’t supposed to be pop music. It makes the listener focus more on the moment to moment, and it serves to create a more emotional experience. This is a more advanced and refined High Violet, and I love it.

The National have always had an interesting lyrical style, like poetry put to music.

"Oh, every day I start so great and then the sunlight dims
The less I look the more I see the pythons and the limbs"

Lead singer Matt Berninger has always had a lot to say and the format of this album allows him to vent, getting away with practically just talking at times. The song beats end up more sprawling and less compartmentalized, less structured. The result may initially seem directionless but are actually heartfelt diatribes. The confessions come off as more honest and it feels like the band has really opened up to their fans. The National concerts have always felt like very personal experiences but Trouble Will Find Me pulls that off through the speakers.

I Need My Girl
I Need My Girl

In short, this album is nothing short of amazing. It is filled with heartbreak, soul, self consciousness, and redemption. The quality bar is consistently very high for every single track throughout- they are all a pleasure to listen to whether in the background of a party or with your full attention alone in your room. In a year filled with some aggravatingly average albums, this one’s competing for best of the year. Don’t miss it.

A few years ago brought news that Alice In Chains was reuniting and releasing a new album. Black Gives Way to Blue was so surprising that I said it was one of the best comeback albums of last decade. The group was a personal favorite of mine throughout high school and I couldn’t be more happy to see their artistic success. But what would happen after spending all that time and emotion and passion and the band moved on past that album? That question is finally answered with The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here.

The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here – Alice In Chains

Phantom Limb 
Phantom Limb

First off, there is a lot of loud, sludgy guitar here that really feels like the self titled album from 1995. This provides immediate authenticity but still manages a bland delivery that is strangely uninspired. On a high level the music is almost a bit forgettable. It’s always been a pet peeve of mine on albums when every single song sounds like a filler track. This makes The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here unimpressive on first listen. Fortunately, the music is not outright bad and, if you like the band, it slowly grows on you.

Breaking down the tracks, it is all fairly standard stuff for Alice In Chains, which isn’t to say that it is generic, exactly- there are unorthodox sharp notes, heavy but slow methodical riffs, unexpected tempo changes, harmonized vocals, etc. But with all this, there is a distinct lack of either imagination or effort. The album can’t find a hook or an edge and if I had to guess why I would say that it lacked the emotional drive. After the tour de force of their last album, this is a big let down.

DuVall again does a great job at mimicking Layne’s voice but there is not enough focus on his vocals. It is really hard to understand him through the muddy sound; honestly, this might have been done on purpose because the lyrics aren’t that good this time around. Almost every song suffers as a result of this de-emphasis of his voice- none have catchy choruses and the crooning is full of mistimed half-points. Another awful disappointment is the limited dynamic range on the album that makes it difficult to pick out the interesting harmonies and musical accents. The mix results in everything being a heavy mess which might work for some but not me.

You know, the physical cd has a cool trick. The cover is printed as shown above but the jewel case is transparent red (similar to how the "tripod" album jewel case was yellow). When you look at the cover through the red case it masks out the red color and emphasizes only the blue. This no doubt is a metaphor for how the devil can be seen in bones above but cd cases can reveal the truth, or something like that- I don’t really understand metaphors. But if I had to try my own, I would say that the music should have been mixed down with blue and red colors but the limited dynamic range, acting as the red jewel case, masks out much of the sound and leaves us with half of what we could have had.

I kept listening to this album trying to find a reason to like it more, and honestly, I can appreciate some of the heaviness and repetitive flow more. I can smile at the nuance and interesting bits while accepting that this just isn’t their best foot forward. But all of this rationalization shouldn’t be required for great albums, or even very good ones, and I am admittedly reaching. If you still call yourself an Alice In Chains fan in this decade then you should probably pick up The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, especially if you’re a fan of the old self titled album, but don’t expect any breakthroughs.

The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs offering does not disappoint. While their albums never have drastically different styles that can alienate fans, they certainly make sure to give each its own flavor. I did a little rundown on some of their previous work in a post about how this group has tons of future potential. After the excellent and dancy It’s Blitz of 2009, the YYYs wanted to get messy again with their scratchy punk roots while retaining everything they’ve learned thus far, and they do a great job.

Mosquito – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Slave
Slave

The band’s range continues to impress. The vocals get slow and quiet, loud and screamy, melodic and catchy, and everything in between. The guitars go clean or dirty as needed. The layering and the bass stack on mood and ambiance to result in a very finished sounding product that, while electronic at times, relies more on old fashioned live allure.

These Paths
These Paths

It’s hard to compare Yeah Yeah Yeah albums to each other because they each do their own thing well. Mosquito wants to appear raw while being polished at the same time. It only has some slightly experimental aspects, including a cameo by Dr. Octagon, but definitely nothing to piss off the faithful. If there’s one criticism it’s that, while the overall listen is good, the album lacks the iconic anthems that will define its place in posterity.

By now everyone is well aware that How to Destroy Angels will not be the next big thing in music. Their initial EP drew some interest with a good song and an amazing song with filler. Between another EP release and now Welcome Oblivion, the group’s first full length release, the offerings are a mixed bag. Naysayers may classify this group as just a Reznor side project and I personally think the apple hasn’t fallen far enough from the Ghosts tree to be excited about. That said, Welcome Oblivion should be approached for its own merits.

Welcome Oblivion – How To Destroy Angels

How Long? 
How Long?

The album starts a bit derivative of Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts, but not to the level of the previous release An Omen. There is some music to be had here but it’s the type to be relegated to the background, probably a result of working on The Social Network and other cinema projects. That is to say, nothing is especially impressive.

Then the middle of the album surprises with some catchy hooks. Too Late, All Gone doesn’t start strong but has a great chorus and I’ve grown to appreciate the verses. How Long? is perhaps the poppiest of the bunch- short, sweet, and a bit different. Finally, Strings and Attractors is another track which, to me, epitomizes what HTDA should be but aren’t.

It’s unfortunate because Welcome Oblivion starts to justify itself at this point in the album but the remaining tracks return to the previous form and fail to deliver. Reznor fans may want the album to complete their collection. Mariqueen fans (do those exist?) may do so as well. Overall, besides the 3 songs in the middle, and while not being as bad as An Omen, everything else is just forgettable.

In the realm of exciting and innovative acts, Crystal Castles is well at home. I remember seeing them perform at Jimmy Kimmel a few years back and the surprised audience had no idea what they were watching. For the third album, appropriately titled (III), Crystal Castles elevates their music to the mainstream. This is in no way a criticism and they haven’t even changed their sound a whole lot. While their trademark scratchiness and cacophony is still around, it seems to be wrapped into more digestible loops.

(III) – Crystal Castles

Mercenary 
Mercenary

Many are talking about the change in style of this Toronto band but I just don’t hear it. This is the same Crystal Castles music just more refined and more melodic. Sure, it is more listenable perhaps, but tracks like Insulin still attempt to rape your ears. Alice Glass’ singing isn’t as abrasive but it’s not unlike her more tame songs on the other albums. Some of this is more dance-able and will be a favorite of club DJs but none of this is a bad thing. On the contrary, the collection of tracks makes listening to this album a very deep experience.