a pictorial analogy of how I feel about music at the moment
By my estimation, it's been two weeks and a day since I posted anything. That's just way too long, but in my defense, I just moved out, got a job, and university started, so I've had my hands full with classes, work and getting settled. Obviously music's been a big part of that, but I've found my habits have changed a little bit, and I'm no longer able to keep daily track of what's new on Pitchfork or what's hot on the hypemachine. I've had peeks here and there of both, but with a shoddy wi-fi connection in the new place, even that's been tough.
So with all of that in mind, I may as well clear out old inventory first. I promised some record reviews earlier in the summer, but really only delivered on my take of Jackson Square from Arkells. In that time, I've literally added 214 songs to my iTunes library, many of which are from albums by Joel Plaskett, Black Mountain, Ladyhawk (not Ladyhawke), Radiohead, Death From Above 1979, Broken Social Scene, Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains, Lightning Dust, Arcade Fire, and my much-loved collection of New Pornographers tunes.
Within this post, I'll actually have quick little run-downs of each one of those albums, but first, I'll get to what I promised earlier, and do some short reviews of previous albums. A foreword though: if I'm passionate about something, I'll be more likely to follow through with it - the following few albums didn't make as big an impression on me as Jackson Square did, so that's why I didn't have quite the same initiative to review them.
Sunset Rubdown | Dragonslayer | I liked this album. I really did. But when the majority of the songs are around 5 minutes and there's a 10 minute epic like "Dragon's Lair," it can be a hard thing to throw on and listen to in its entirety. "Idiot Heart" is certainly the standout, and the rest of the album's songs have much the same structure and sound, but overall, that tends to be a dense and disorganized one, right down to lead singer Spencer Krug's voice and lyrics.
There's some sentences he utters that'll surely make you question his sanity, and that's after you wrap your head around what was actually just half-shouted/half-sung at you. Again, it's good music - but I stress music. It's really an album that's more to be appreciated than truly enjoyed; more like attending a symphony in a church than a rock concert in an arena. Before moving on though, I do want to add that "Apollo And The Buffalo And Anna Anna Anna Oh!" is on the shortlist for this year's "Best Song With A Song Title That's Long Yet Still Ties In To What's Actually Sung." - and that's to take nothing away from a song that's actually still good regardless.
The Most Serene Republic | ...And The Ever-Expanding Universe | Yet again, another good album, but another that I didn't truly enjoy or play too often. To approximate their sound would be to compare them to Broken Social Scene, albeit on a smaller and happier scale. Again, it's largely orchestral music, and some of the songs border on modern classical music, with some truly great strings and piano arrangements. There's a joyous and uplifting tilt to most of the songs, and "Heavens To Purgatory" will be most people's favorite, but it's simply one of those things that's not totally my cup of tea.
Speaking of that though, The Most Serene Republic actually seems like a good band to just sit outside in the garden while drinking tea and listen to. It's that kind of music I guess; relaxing and modest, with just enough pep to not be boring or dragging on your ears. They're playing here in Halifax in November, and I may yet check them out, just to see if there's any added pizzaz to their live shows that may not come through in the recorded versions of the songs.
Handsome Furs | Plague Park | I remember I was going to review this one simply with more recent album Face Control in mind. To be honest, I barely listen to this album, and I've actually taken more of a liking to Face Control in recent days, so there's little to compare I guess. Suffice it to say that in my earlier stipulation that Handsome Furs would sound better with some live drums...I guess they utilize them on Plague Park, though with the decidedly slower and more deliberate sound of the latter album, they don't have quite the same effect I'd intended when I made that recommendation.
Plague Park, funnily enough, sounds like Handsome Furs decided to record an album of them playing a small underground jazz club. Whereas Face Control sounded boxed-in, the earlier album is simply more rounded in its claustrophobic-ness, as if that jazz club was built in a small cave. "Hearts Of Iron" shows off the above analogy quite well, but tracks like "Cannot Get Started" show off more of the direction Handsome Furs took later on with Face Control, dominant drum machines, faster-paced choruses, reverbed guitar and all.
If you were to measure the albums against each other simply in terms of some abstract "excitedness," Face Control would score about an 8.2/10, while Plague Park clocks in around 5.3/10. Yes, totally random numbers, but that's what the albums sound and feel like to me. Dan Boeckner's voice is pretty forlorn on either compilation, but the instrumentation and pace of the two albums make a real difference. For one, it's like wife and bandmate Alexei Perry woke up and decided to take the obvious energy she has during live shows and transmit it to album form on Face Control. Sadly, you don't get that on their first effort.
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But good, that gets those out of the way. Because it may well be another few days before I get the free time/initiative to do another post, I'm also going to get a bunch of other reviews and musings off my chest right now, so another long post it is.
Like I alluded to earlier, I've been putting my room and the general apartment together since moving in, and much of this I've been doing while listening to entire albums on iTunes, something I very rarely did in the past, but which I became much more attuned to this summer. I owe much of this to my friend Laura, who chastised me for my singles-heavy listening, and kind of reintroduced me to the concept of listening to entire albums. It's certainly given me an affinity for hearing albums all the way through, instead of simply picking and choosing what I want to listen to out of them - although hand-in-hand with that, listen to an album enough, and it becomes easier and more justifiable to pick out some favorites you'll come back to again and again.
In light of all the above, a quick rundown of what I've been listening to for the last month plus, with a song to check out from each:
Arcade Fire | Funeral | It's no wonder to me now why this album was so well-received and so quite universally well-loved. In 10 songs, Arcade Fire show off how to make an album, make it work well together, and how to arrange the songs for the maximum impact. There are four or five legitimately great songs ("Tunnels," "Power Out," "Wake Up," "Rebellion (Lies)" spring to mind quickest) and the rest more than hold their own. It's an intensely listenable album and a favorite with many of my friends.
Radiohead | OK Computer | I knew going in that this was the more rocking Radiohead album, and I really like it for that. Lots of classics in here, some of which I'd heard, and others which I'd never and which really surprised and pleased me. There's diversity and only the subtlest hints that Radiohead was going to unleash Kid A years down the line. It just blows me away that this album came out in 1997 - 12 years later it sounds just as great, and I can hear the precursors in their music to the likes of Keane and Coldplay in the decade following its release.
Radiohead | Kid A | Brutal honesty time: yes, I did cheat on my final exam. Oh wait, Radiohead. Yeah, not as big of a fan of Kid A as I am of OK Computer. If I'm simply one of those people who would have back then dismissed it as experimental trash, or if I'm just someone who favors straightforward rock over electronic hissing and concept-heavy material, so be it. I like to think I'm pretty open to experimental noise and music, and Kid A is supposedly epic in that regard. Maybe I don't fully appreciate it in that way, or I just don't have the same connection to it as people who heard it when it first came out.
Don't get me wrong, there's more than a few songs on there that I do truly enjoy listening to, but they're the more conventional Radiohead, and seemingly not the pieces that went together to make Kid A the sonic landmark that it so overwhelmingly happens to be. Maybe my view is reflected well enough in my choice of song from the album:
Lightning Dust | Infinite Light | I went out and bought this album, and I'm actually very pleased that I did. Singer Amber Webber (of the to-be-reviewed-in-a-minute music collective Black Mountain) has a beautiful voice, one that sounds strong but damaged all at once. It seems ready to break at any time, but there's an underlying force driving her to keep the words coming out of her mouth. I read that the duo (Joshua Wells - also of Black Mountain - is in Lightning Dust) rented a Steinway piano for the album, and they put it to great use, clearly showing off the piano parts with skillful playing and clear acoustics. Lightning Dust may be getting a little more publicity right now, but nowhere near what it should be when they craft such good music.
Lightning Dust - "I Knew" (was to put "The Times" but couldn't find it on hypem...definitely check it out though if you can)
Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains | Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains | Similarly went out and bought this album, and I'm equally glad I did. Fun fact: Sebastien was actually one half of Death From Above 1979 before they broke up, and he's went on to lend guest vocals on some of my favorites like "Let's Make Out" by Does It Offend You, Yeah?. I didn't know the latter fact until after I bought this album, so it turns out I was more familiar with Grainger's work than I even thought. Quick and simple review though: my second favorite album on this list. Great variation between the songs, awesome backing band, great pace to the album, and really makes you wish that DFA1979 got back together for one more go at it - between Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains and MSTRKRFT, the boys have still got it.
Black Mountain | Black Mountain | The aforementioned musical collective, hailing from Vancouver, BC. Of the two albums by them here, this is my favorite. It tends to longer songs, so it can be harder to digest, but to think of and compare it earnestly: The Rolling Stones do pysched-out, 70's-influenced, Canadian-rock - right down to this almost-rip-off/tribute:
Black Mountain | In The Future/Bastards Of Light | The newer of the two albums, this go by Black Mountain is certainly more appropriate for their name, as the material is darker and almost gothic. Some of the care-free sentiments and delivery present on Black Mountain are done away with and replaced instead by frenzied classic-rock guitar playing and a grandeur that seems a little unbefitting of a group of musicians from Vancouver. With songs clocking in 7:07, 8:03, and 16:41, you also get the feeling that Black Mountain could have split a few tracks in two and still had quality tunes.
Ladyhawk | Ladyhawk | The initial offering from the also-Vancouverites, Ladyhawk lean a little more to the garage sound of rock, and do it admirably. There's a bit of a live sound mixed into the album, but it doesn't detract from the quality, instead adding an authentic quality to the compilation. Between some legit rockers and the perfectly suited voice of the lead singer, it's a wonder these guys aren't bigger either; I know they have a good Canadian following, but this album proved pretty well they've got all the tools to make it.
Ladyhawk | Shots | If I have any complaint about Ladyhawk though, it's their front-loading of albums. Ladyhawk starts with a great trio of "48 Hours," "The Dugout," and "My Old Jacknife," while Shots works a similar angle with standout "I Don't Always Know What You're Saying" and the impeccable "S.T.H.D." before tailing off a bit into death-obsessed songs like "Corpse Paint" and quite literally, "Faces Of Death." In light of the previous statement finishing out the Ladyhawk review: these guys certainly have all the elements of a band on the make; it may just be a matter of putting them all together for a consistently great effort to launch them a little higher in music fans' minds.
Broken Social Scene | Broken Social Scene | I said above that Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains was my second favorite album here. Well, this is my first. It's the one I've been going back to over and over: everything from cooking meals to doing the dishes to showering to getting to sleep - Broken Social Scene has everything you could ask for and then some. I didn't dive into the whole album when I initially got into BSS, opting only for You Forgot It In People and two or three songs off Broken Social Scene. On my recent album-hoarding spat though, I went for all 14 tracks off the latter, and could not have been more thoroughly impressed.
You Forgot It In People had some weirder moments and some lackadaisical instrumentals. This album has absolutely none of that - it may be the most perfect album on my iTunes in my regard. Just a stable of outstanding songs, paired with eight or nine other great tunes that make up the most easily digestible and fun-to-listen-to album I've heard, possibly in my life. I mean, yeah, there's great albums that come out all the time, and consensus may dictate which of those is "the best," but to me, right now, Broken Social Scene is probably my favorite album ever. There, I said it. And I only just figured that out as I've been writing these words.
It has everything. Exuberance ("Ibi Dreams of Pavement [A Better Day]"), sincerity ("Major Label Debut"), the sexiest song I've heard in a long time ("Hotel") and a song so damn good that I could care less that it's 9:55 long ("It's All Gonna Break"). I cannot say that about any other album I've heard, previous favorites In Rainbows and Post-Nothing included. That's what, four songs? There's another 10 amazing tracks, so think of it that way. Heck, K-OS even makes an appearance. Where was I in 2005 when this actually came out? I shudder to think that I've went four years without paying attention to this gem.
Joel Plaskett | Three | This thing really deserves its own separate post at 27 songs long, but with the Polaris Prize being presented tonight and Joel in the running, I may yet give it a proper one should it win/be slighted. Just a genre-spanning spat of tracks spread over three very-well-organized CD's, each one keeping a definitive tone. CD 1 contains most of the singles material and tends to Joel's folksy and rocking side. CD 2 without a doubt contains the real ballads of the compilation, and a few odes to Joel's Maritime (and maritime) connections. CD 3 has some country feel to it (old-country, not that new-country stuff) and the epic "On And On And On," 12 minutes of Joel self-consciously sing-speaking about almost anything that comes to his mind.
Three is just a superb effort, plays great in concert (I've seen three - coincidentally - shows since the album came out, and whether in a theatre setting, outdoors for Canada Day, or at a university concert, it sounds amazing) and is a great introduction for those new to Joel's music, and a special treat for career-long fans of possibly the most lovable guy in Canadian music.
Death From Above 1979 | You're A Woman, I'm A Machine | Have you noticed yet I'm extremely far behind on most relevant music, especially some select Canadian classics? Um, yeah. It's sad too, because ever since I really got into alternative music, I've had a great affinity for dance-punk/electro/rock, which nobody does better than DFA1979. I was really only slightly familiar with "Blood On Our Hands," and even then it was through my sister getting the track what must have been about four years ago.
What stuns me about DFA1979 is that they can craft such small and immediate-sounding songs; the majority of tracks clock in under even three minutes. Thank God for the remix economy though; DFA continue to live on through the expansion of their tiny tracks into danceable jaunts many minutes longer. I've already expressed my liking for MSTRKRFT and Sebastien Grainger, so it was nice for me to get into DFA and see where it all started for the two guys.
I can't really say much more about them or the album anyways: it's testosterone in music form and one of the truly great acts that combusted before it could put out any more truly awesome work.
One thing I do have to say though: why the hell did Death From Above Records (officially known as DFA Records after the Sept. 11th attacks since they were a NY-based record label) get mired in a legal dispute with DFA1979 over their original name when they could've put that money towards simply signing the act to their own label instead. I mean honestly, has a group ever been more fit for a label, both in name and musical style, than DFA1979 was for DFA Records? Another shame of a development when it comes to Jesse and Sebastien's adventure into duo-ship.
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