Briefly review something you heard recently (or are listening to now)

Arcade Fire - Reflektor. Mildly amusing story time: I found this in a library, and thought I recognized the cover image, but it's one of those albums that don't exactly have a lot of information on the front or back covers. I actually had to stare at the symbol with scrambled letters on the back for a few moments, before I deduced that "Lertefrok" (as read from left to right) was "Reflektor", and remembered that being a recent album of theirs. The New Sound Album aspect (elements of disco, new wave, and glam rock are added to their usual sound) works more often than it doesn't, but the main issue is that too many of these songs suffer from Ending Fatigue, and that's not even counting the ambient coda of "Supersymmetry", which I sort of count as more of a Hidden Track. Favorite tracks at first listen are the title track, "We Exist", and "Porno".

Ooooh, getting into early Talking Heads? I approve.

I felt that the first disc dragged a lot more than the second overall; the songs felt weaker earlier on and it felt like they were spreading a lot of ideas too thin across it. That said, "Porno" is indeed a classic, as is "Afterlife", and I personally loved the slow sink into the ambient coda on "Supersymmetry".

Join Inn - Ash Ra Tempel. It's their last great Krautrock album, and it still sounds amazing. Side one ("Freak'N'Roll") is constantly pulsing, even when Klaus Schulze is playing softly. Side two ("Jenseits") is pretty much Klaus Schulze using his big synths and Rosi Müller (Manuel Göttsching's girlfriend, if I'm not mistake) providing vocals, with a certain grace. Göttsching plays some more amazing guitar in side one.

I'm amongst the few who think Göttsching is on par with Hendrix (and, later on, did far more ground-breaking stuff than Hendrix did), and this album is another (small) proof of that (though he would top himself in many other albums released by him or under the name Ashra).

edited 24th Aug '14 4:49:28 PM by Quag15

The Field Effect - Cartography and This EP Will Self-Destruct. I saw this band play live a few days ago, and had only heard one of their songs because it was on a mix of local (as in Boston) music given to me by a friend - That song is "Ogunquit, ME", which has a great singalong hook to it. That song is pretty much straight-up Power Pop, which is really only one half of their sound - the other half is slower ballads that have more an Alternative Country feel (and I'm mainly thinking of something like Ryan Adams). Stylistically, they don't stand out a lot from some other local bands, but they're definitely good at what they do, and I'd come out to one of their shows again.

edited 24th Aug '14 4:25:13 PM by MikeK

I'm not sure that Göttsching had Hendrix' technical skills, but he was a remarkably innovative musician and a real joy to listen to.

Well, I do tend to emphasize innovation over technical skills. I simply think he was more innovative than Hendrix (then again, who knows what Hendrix could have done, had he lived for many more years, judging from some of the stuff on the Electric Ladyland album, for example?)

edited 25th Aug '14 10:03:29 AM by Quag15

The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free. Impulsive library borrowing, part 1. About 10 years ago, when this album was new, what was otherwise an "alternative rock" station was playing one song from this album I kind of liked ("Dry Your Eyes") and one I found pretty annoying ("Fit But You Know It"). I'm still not really a fan of Mike Skinner's voice, but I've come around a bit because I've realized the appeal is in the storytelling and dry humor. Plus in the context of the Concept Album-ish plot, it sort of seems like you're supposed to think he's being a bit of a hypocritical jerk in "Fit But You Know It".

Bastille - Bad Blood. Impulsive library borrowing, part 2. I was expecting something a bit darker and artier due to the cover art and the fact that one of the song titles is a Twin Peaks Shout-Out. Instead, this is basically Coldplay meets Synth-Pop. I kind of like it though, because the songs are generally catchy.

Guided by Voices - Do The Collapse. I've been reading a GBV biography, and the portion covering this album made me want to give this a second chance. The more "experimental" tracks generally don't work with this production, but the ones that are meant to be poppier are mostly great ^note  I say mostly because "Hold On Hope" is a generic Power Ballad, and while "Teenage FBI" is otherwise great, the Ric-Ocasek-added synthesizers are out of place.

edited 3rd Sep '14 9:19:28 PM by MikeK

Skrillex - Recess. More experiments in picking stuff off the library racks that I might not even like. I actually did end up liking this more than I thought I might - there's just enough bits of actual melody around to keep it accessible for me, and I get where it would be cool background music for certain activities. For sheer unlikely genre-mashing, my favorite song is the title track, which is a dubstep song featuring both a high-pitched indietronica singer (Michael Angelakos from Passion Pit) and a hypeman/rapper (Fatman Scoop).

Meaghan Trainor - Title. Once "All About That Bass" wormed its way into my head enough to convince me I liked it, I decided the main appeal is that it's sort of a 60's Girl Group song produced like a modern pop song, so I'm glad the rest of these songs seem to follow suit. Also, when I saw the name of this EP, I thought it was a self-consciously clever "I couldn't think of a good name" kind of thing, but it turned out it's actually named after one of the songs. Though there had to be some intentional humor in making "Title" the Title Track.

Alice Cooper - Dada. This is kind of in Canon Discontinuity, but it's really not bad at all - For what it's worth I'd call it a fairly successful attempt to combine the overly theatrical Welcome To My Nightmare style with New Wave. "Dyslexia" is very catchy even if it's all leading up to a great/awful pun ^note  "Is dis love? Or is dyslexia?", "Formerly Warmer" is nicely eerie, and "I Love America" is a pretty amusing portrayal of a type 2 Eaglelander ^note Favorite lyric: "I love that mountain with those four big heads!".

Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age Of Wireless. The All Music review of this album calls it a " friendlier, peppier flip side" of Gary Numan - I sort of see that both musically and lyrically: Both were sort of building off of David Bowie's Berlin trilogy, and both tend to write lyrics that tend to deal with science fiction concepts and are full of cryptic details... and of course another thing is that both have a Signature Song that, while good, tends to get them pegged as novelty artists (Numan's "Cars" and of course Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science"). "She Blinded Me With Science" is the first track here, and I think next time I listen to this, I'm actually going to do an experiment and start with track two, because it really does stick out from the tone of the rest of the album.

Taking the opportunity to bring up a couple good, semi-recent albums that were officially released for free:

Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2 (available here, and also here for those who don't feel like giving out an email address). I had no idea this group existed until The AV Club posted about the new album: I mainly know El-P from his work with Cannibal Ox, and Killer Mike from his association with Outkast. On first listen, I'm liking it, and it's interesting to see El-P's production style combined with generally much less abstract lyrics. Oh, and there's a surprisingly good guest appearance by Zach De La Rocha on "Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)".

They Might Be Giants - First Album Live (Available here). It's the Self-Titled Album (aka The Pink Album) being played live in it's entirety. As a long time fan, it was pretty interesting to me to hear how these songs translated to full-band live performances - the original album was almost entirely performed by the Johns themselves, and I was curious as to how some of the more experimental or sample-based tracks would work live - the biggest change is to "Toddler Hiway", which is transformed from a 30 second acapella snippet to a full-band Bruce Springsteen pastiche "performed" by the Avatars Of They, the Johns' puppet alter-egos. But I see it working as a gateway to someone who hasn't heard anything earlier than Flood, or maybe even for someone completely new to the band - the original album definitely had its share of catchy songs, and the stranger ones are just the slightest bit more accessible (without losing their idiosyncrasies) in this format.

edited 24th Oct '14 4:23:34 PM by MikeK

• Interpose+: self-titled debut (2005) - Well, this was less fusion-y than I was led to believe. I got into them via the more recent Japanese band TEE, a flute-fronted instrumental band that pilfered their keyboardist. The sound is much like those female-fronted Japanese prog bands of the 80s/90s. Providence and Pageant come to mind listening to this. Promising. They have released one more album to date: 2007's Indifferent.
• Gordon Giltrap: Visionary (1975) - The album that set classical/folk fingerstyle guitarist Giltrap on a successful series of orchestrated symphonic rock albums. It's not as good as the follow-up, Perilous Journey, but it's everything you could want in an album like this. The remastered CD features a 15 minute condensation of Giltrap's original conception for the album, incorporating lots of medieval instrumentation, offering an tantalizing glimpse of What Could Have Been. Producers Edwards-Hand encouraged him to go in a more contemporary direction (i.e.: synthesizers and conventional orchestrations).

Meet the Beatles!: The first two tracks are both a blessing and a curse. I Want to Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There are a powerful one-two punch, and the energy at the start is infectious. However, it leaves the rest of the album a bit of a disappointment. This Boy really isn't a bad song, but after the initial burst of energy, I found it hard to continue wanting to listen to the album. Luckily, I did. It Won't Be Long and All My Loving are both great songs, and they add a lot to the album. The other songs all range from acceptable to good, though I do wish Capitol had put Roll Over Beethoven on it instead of Till There Was You. However, despite the awful track order, Capitol managed to create a pretty good Beatles album. 10/10 for the quality of music (even with Till There Was You), 5/10 for cohesion. Overall, 9/10 because I really, really like the first two tracks and you abandon hope of cohesion when you listen to an American Beatles album.

Primus and the Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Ensemble - 9/10 (so far)

Not sure what's happening to my mind but I think I like it. Can't be sure of the rating yet because I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, I'm at "Pure Imagination" now. (Which I've heard before and it's an amazing cover made of strange and Primus)

I'm also surprised that I actually remembered the album name without having to look it up.

EDIT: No, it actually became better as I listened to it. Opinion upon first listen is 10/10 without a doubt.

edited 31st Oct '14 3:10:05 AM by Muzozavr

Billy Joel - An Innocent Man

A nicely-crafted, well-written homage to 50s and 60s pop music. The best tracks are the catchy feel-good "Tell Her About It", the title track, which contains probably Joel's most impressive vocal performance, and "The Longest Time", which I like better than just about any actual Doo-wop song I've heard. A few of the homages sound a bit forced, though, particularly when he's impersonating harder-voiced singers like James Brown and Little Richard. I'm also not that fond of "Uptown Girl". Even if it was meant as part of the homage, "Uptown Girl / She's been living in her uptown world" is a bit too cheesy for me to stomach. It feels like Joel was intentionally dumbing down his songwriting. It doesn't help that of all the acts homaged on this album, The Four Seasons are the one I like the least. Overall the album is well made and fun to listen to, but at the end of the day it feels a bit inconsequential.

edited 30th Nov '14 11:10:25 AM by djbj

New Order's first two albums: Never having listened to New Order (or Joy Division, for that matter) beyond the song "Bizarre Love Triangle", wasn't sure what to expect at first. I found their first album to have some decent music on it, but it struck me as overall dull. Their second album? Phenomenally better. Though some of the tracks on it run a bit too long with too little change or variance both within or between them to completely hold my interest. Seems to be the kind of music I need to be in the right mood to listen to. I also need to listen again later on to catch the lyrics.

That's Movement and Power, Corruption & Lies, right?

I think the general consensus, such as it is, holds that Movement was New Order awkwardly trying to distance themselves from the Joy Division sound and not entirely succeeding. And Power, Corruption & Lies was them finding the new sound that works.

Yes. Agreed.

That's the Kraftwerk influence. Staying on a specific kind of sound for a while to give a sense of travelling ("Your Silent Face") and/or to let the sound grow in you through repetition (the second part/major bit of "586").

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today.

I understand that it may seem to those who follow my music tastes that I simply toe the Pitchfork line. This isn't exactly true (you're sure as hell not catching me listening to Sun Kil Moon), but I stand by the site as an excellent way to introduce oneself to music you may have never listened to. Before Today is easily one of my favorite albums discovered via Hipster Central. This album takes inspiration from things like 60's sunshine pop and cheesy, schlocky 70's and 80's rock and makes it something uniquely its own, strange and fascinating. The obvious standout is "Round and Round", but my favorite song on this album is the immaculate "Bright Lit Blue Skies", with its Brian Wilson-esque harmonies and undercurrent of melancholy.

edited 22nd Dec '14 8:40:28 PM by ILoveDogs

Various - Nightmare Revisited. This is a tribute album for The Nightmare Before Christmas, mainly covers by alternative, punk, and indie-ish bands - some of the more well-known artists include Korn,Marilyn Manson, and Sparklehorse. I like that the songs are presented in the same order as they are in the film, there are covers of instrumental score pieces alongside the musical numbers, and it includes opening and closing narration from Danny Elfman - The overall effect is sort of a Rock Opera presentation of the story. The individual covers are kind of a mixed bag, but on the whole it's pretty good. Marilyn Manson is a perfect choice for "This Is Halloween", Rodrigo Y Gabriela bring out the jazziness inherent in "Oogie Boogie's Song", The Polyphonic Spree and All-American Rejects have the most Rock Opera-ish takes on their respective songs ("Town Meeting Song" and "Jack's Lament"), and it's just fun to hear Korn and Rise Against keeping in the more humorous bits of "Kidnap The Sandy Claws" or "Making Christmas" ^note  Imagine a typically gruff Hardcore Punk vocalist bragging about having made a winter hat out of a dead rat.

edited 25th Dec '14 12:46:01 PM by MikeK

I just appreciate that they tapped the Vitamin String Quartet to do a song for that album.

edited 4th Apr '15 6:20:17 PM by ILoveDogs

Dinosaur Jr. - Green Mind. This was their first major label album, as well as the start of their 90's I Am the Band period - bassist / occasional songwriter / vocalist Lou Barlow was out of the band, drummer Murph only appears on three songs, and the rest was played by J Mascis and a few guest musicians. The melodies and guitar-playing are still really good, but I think this is missing a certain something without a consistent lineup playing on every track - Actually, listening to this album made me realize how Lou Barlow's style of bass-playing was (and is) an important part of their sound. Though on the other hand, there are a couple interesting detours from their usual sound that I don't think would have happened with the original lineup: I'm mainly thinking of "Flying Cloud", a largely acoustic ballad, and "Thumb", which features the mellotron and generally is the first time categorizing Dinosaur Jr as Shoegazing has made sense to me.

The Smashing Pumpkins -Adore. A bit over-long, but underrated. Basically, their drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was kicked out of the band, and rather than find a new drummer, they recorded as a trio and made prominent use of a drum machine - the result is a more atmospheric, lyric-focused album.

Honestly, Adore is so often called underrated that it barely counts as that anymore. XD

Agent Orange - Living In Darkness. This is labeled "surf punk", which is basically what it sounds like: Punk Rock incorporating the rhythms, chord progressions, and trebly guitar tones associated with instrumental Surf Rock - three of the tracks on this album are actually punk-rock-ized cover of classic surf rock instrumentals (Dick Dale's "Miserlou", The Chantays' "Pipeline", and "Mr. Moto" by Bel-Aires). This could be better production-wise, and occasionally the vocals seem kind of weak, but otherwise this is a really good set of melodies and riffs. I can kind of tell where they influenced a certain vein of 90's punk, and not just because The Offspring's "Come Out And Play" allegedly borrowed from "Bloodstains".

The Bevis Frond - Vavona Burr. I see certain parallels with Guided by Voices, not that I'd suspect one influenced the other ^note GBV came first, as it turns out, but their first release came out only a year before The Bevis Frond's... Just that apparently both can be summarized as being largely the work of one pretty prolific guy (in this case Nick Saloman) who's fond of Power Pop, Psychedelic Rock, and Word Salad Lyrics. A key difference is, on this album anyway, there's a lot less of the lo-fi sound going on - it's well-produced enough that it usually doesn't sound like just one person played all the instruments.

edited 2nd Jan '15 10:15:31 PM by MikeK

Van Halen - Van Halen II

I knew two songs from this album, "Dance the Night Away" and "Beautiful Girls", from a compilation, and they represent the general sound of this album pretty well. This is a much more laid back album than their debut, with more of a feel good party atmosphere. If their debut album were a wild night on the town, this album would be a summer beach party. If that's the mood your looking for, this album's for you, but I personally didn't find it all that interesting. There's not really any particularly memorable riffs, solos, or hooks, and nothing really here that their debut didn't do better. If fact, some parts between the two albums are directly comparable: this album's cover of "You're No Good" is definitely no "You Really Got Me" and is a pretty weak way to start the album, and the instrumental "Spanish Fly" is basically "Eruption" played on acoustic guitar. The hit "Dance the Night Away" is probably the best song here, and to me it has more a Power Pop feel than hard rock.

edited 3rd Jan '15 8:45:41 PM by djbj