Songs of the week: 7/2/10

Wow, it's been awhile! World cup fever has kept me connected to my Spanish-speaking brethren, but I've had a rough week nursing the loss of the Yanks - at least Ghana got what was coming to them today from Uruguay, in one of the best games I've ever had the privilege of seeing!



But now, for the music...
***songs of the week #33:
1. Can't Stop Now (Armor Love Remix) - Major Lazer (From Major Lazer's recent mixtape collaboration with La Roux)
2. Over - Drake (Oh so good)
3. I Died So I Could Haunt You - Stars (For better or worse, a pretty good feel for what Stars' new album's like)
4. Your Rabbit Feet - Wild Nothing (From their new EP)
5. Texico Bitches - Broken Social Scene (Especially apt considering that shit in the Gulf - same idea, different company though)

The Top 20 Albums of 2008: #'s 20-11

Year in and year out, it seems that the critics lament that it has indeed been a "slow year for music", and I'm sure that 2008 will prove to be no exception. I, however, wholeheartedly disagree with that sentiment. I think 2008 has been a very exciting year, with some very powerful debuts that have rattled the status quo and motivated the bigger acts to get off of their asses and make some good music. Reading through the NME and Rolling Stone, there were really no surprises as to what made the cut and what didn't - the indie darlings TV On The Radio are an early contender for receiving the most nominations for album of the year. However, you won't find TV On The Radio on this list. Nor will you find albums by Of Montreal, M83, or Death Cab For Cutie, because I frankly thought they were either disappointing or flat-out sucked.

You might not agree with my twenty albums, and why should you? Who am I? This is just one list by one man in a sea of millions. If you like it, great, let me know. If not, great, let me know anyway.

So for what it's worth, the 20 albums released this year that I enjoyed the most. Nothing more, nothing less.

***
20. Planisphere - Justice

Does a mix made for a Dior Homme fashion show count as an album? I hope so. And even if it doesn't, who's going to argue with me?

Justice had a moderately big year - the whole "unplugged" scandal with the MIDI cable, the aforementioned fashion show, and, more recently, the release of their DVD A Cross The Universe. So I figured I'd recognize in a moderately big fashion - top twenty status.

You won't find "D.A.N.C.E." among the four components of Planisphere - the overall feel is nowhere near as decidedly pop. Instead, think more "Waters Of Nazareth" or "One Minute To Midnight". Except better.

Here's hoping that Planisphere is merely a taste of what's to come from our favorite French duo since the old M83.

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19. Sad Robots EP - Stars (original review)
Arts & Crafts

After a misguided remix album and the streaky In Our Bedroom After The War, it seems that Stars is officially back on track. From the first mechanical whir of "Maintenance Hall, 4am" to the somber keys that close "Sad Robot", this EP is nothing short of wistful, sincere, and heartbreaking, and gives me hope that their fifth full length could be the next "Set Yourself On Fire".

Viva la revolucion suave.

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18. Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) - Cloud Cult
Earthology Records
Buy (Amazon.com)

While not deserving of quite as much love as 2007's absolutely phenomenal The Meaning Of 8, Feel Good Ghosts was still a heck of an album - it even landed on an Esurance commercial. It might also serve as the band's swan song, as frontman Craig Minowa has stated that this could be their last album for awhile (or forever).

I sincerely hope that Feel Good Ghosts is not their final release, but if it is, Cloud Cult certainly could have done worse - they could have released Cut The Crap.

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17. Something For All Of Us - Brendan Canning
Arts & Crafts
Buy (Amazon.com)

It's no You Forgot It In People, but there's really not much wrong with Brendan Canning's summer release, the second in the Broken Social Scene Presents... series. Straight up indie pop/rock/whatever, Arts & Crafts have another winner on their hands.

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16. Embers - UpCDownCLeftCRightCAbc+Start
Tap 'n' Tin
Buy (Amazon.com)

UpCDownC channel, on "Murmurs Pt. II", the melancholy refrain of "Your Hand In Mine". Yes, I just said that; I just made the Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place allusion. Embers is that good of an album.

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15. The Bedlam In Goliath - The Mars Volta
Gold Standard Laboratories
Buy (Amazon.com)

After the somewhat disappointing Amputechture, many were left wondering what was next for The Mars Volta. With Omar spending an increasing amount of time scoring movies and recording solo, it seemed that a record that could do justice to Frances The Mute's legacy might never come. And then there was Bedlam.

Loopy creation myth and backstory notwithstanding, The Bedlam In Goliath was the prog rock release this year. Yes, there were still the Tool-esque noodling and cheesy themes which were present on Amputechture. But the band thankfully toned down the goofy chipmunk vocals and aimless passages of ambience to create a much tighter, more cohesive listening experience.

The biggest change here was the replacement of Jon Theodore with Thomas Pridgen, who brought a completely different style of drumming to the table. Both were technically proficient, but Theodore's laid-back fills were substituted with skittering, metal-like rudiments and double bass rolls to bring a tense, schizophrenic mood to the songs.

While still a notch or two below Frances The Mute in the grand scheme of things, The Bedlam In Goliath represented a remarkable turnaround for a band led astray. And for that reason, it is an essential release of 2008.

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14. Pretty. Odd. - Panic at the Disco (original review)
Fueled By Ramen
Buy (Amazon.com)

Brendon Urie, my apologies to you. In my review of Panic at the Disco's spring release, I was too quick to judge; too dismissive, too flippant, too self-absorbed. Granted, that review is still one of my favorites, but I really wasn't being fair. Or maybe I was? At the time, I really only thought Pretty. Odd. merited a 6.5/10. After spending a few more months with it, however, that number has definitely gone up a few digits.

And while I wouldn't go as far as The Rolling Stone to call it their Sgt. Pepper's, this album was still a remarkable achievement. I condemned the release as not being catchy enough, and that couldn't be further from the truth. Months later, I still have the hooks of "Pas De Cheval", "Northern Downpour", "Do You Know What I'm Seeing?", and countless others floating through my head.

This is Panic, grown up. They dropped the exclamation point, added maturity, gained credibility.

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13. God Is An Astronaut - God Is An Astronaut
Revive Records
Buy (Amazon.com)

Two words. Fucking. Incredible.

That is all.

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12. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
XL Recordings
Buy (Amazon.com)

Stereogum says Vampire Weekend was the most overrated artist this year, and I say "Who cares?" They're fun, they're catchy, they're pop. Isn't that nice for a change? Especially in a year where the "fun" groups (Of Montreal, CSS, etc.) made lackluster efforts, shouldn't a group like Vampire Weekend get bonus points for getting it right?

At least, that's the way I see it.

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11. Marking Time - Richard Skelton (original review)
Preservation Records

I know what you're thinking, and the answer is "Yes, another instrumental album". I'm sorry, but I just can't help that it was a fruitful year for post-rock and electronica. Richard Skelton certainly contributed.

Too loud for ambient, too weird for rock, this is for fans of Stars of the Lid and The World On Higher Downs.

(Read about albums 1 - 10 and find out which is crowned Album of the Year)

Mash-up: Stars, The Mars Volta, Rival Consoles, & mewithoutYou

Since that first mash-up I did wasn't too terrible, I decided to give it another go. This time, the victims were Stars, The Mars Volta, Rival Consoles, and mewithoutYou. Yes, you read that right.

It probably sounds like a shit-storm, just because of the disparate artists involved (and to some extent, it kind of is), but I think it flows together pretty nicely. The constituent tracks are:

• Maintenance Hall, 4am - Stars
  
• Drunkship Of Lanterns - The Mars Volta
  
• Kitsch - Rival Consoles
  
• In A Sweater Poorly Knit - mewithoutYou

Give it a Digg, it's not half-bad.

***
Download: A Hall, Poorly Maintained - Andy Kissner

Stars - Sad Robots EP

2008
Arts & Crafts
Buy/Download

7.5/10

For me there often comes a moment, usually a few hours before dawn, when I just want to die. Melodramatic, yes, but hear me out: the night is interminable, the morning will never come, the world is devoid of hope, and I've squandered another day. Like the idea of a "sad robot", this is a time of contradiction, as it is only at four in the morning that the day really feels twenty four hours long, twenty four hours short. There is so much to do that must be put on hold until sunrise that, sitting idle, waiting for release, I feel a waste. Errands, classes, social engagements, shitty breakfasts at the dining hall: all of these must wait three more hours - I must wait three more hours - for the rest of the world to catch up. And sometimes it's just too much; sometimes I feel like dying.

I would posit that the members of Stars understand this feeling all too well, and the Sad Robots EP only strengthens such an argument. Indeed, the opening track is an instrumental called "Maintenance Hall 4am", and its brooding piano and mechanized drones live up to the title quite well. Poignant, nostalgic, resigned, Stars makes me happy and sad and bitter and in love all at the same time, and I get the feeling that there's not a god damned thing I can do about it.

Forgive me for the Sputnikmusic track-by-track breakdown, but the songs themselves are varied and brilliant. Standout "A Thread Cut With A Carving Knife" stays true to its name, a grandiose exercise in excess, a six minute mini-epic that feels like a more mature and less embarrassing "In Our Bedroom After The War". Torquil Campbell reflects upon freshman year through rose-colored lenses on "14 Forever", and Amy Millan dominates "Undertow", which has the poppy, upbeat sound of a single. The title track (and closer) comes across unsure as it wades through a haze of strings and electronics, mulling over repeated French stanzas, never quite finding its footing or its self. Also included is a live version of "Going, Going, Gone" that, more fleshed out and wholly orchestrated, handily surpasses the original Nightsongs cut.

Part of me gets the feeling that this was a summer soundtrack released one month too late. And it is precisely because of this fact that I think Sad Robots was released at the perfect time: the leaves are changing, the mercury is falling, and another summer's promises have expired, been proven empty. Stars successfully captured this half-smiled regret on their seminal Set Yourself On Fire, and they've done it again here.

Wistful, sad, beautiful, this is the music of autumn, these are the anthems for 4 AM.

---

Key Tracks (Click to download):
Going Going Gone [Live]
A Thread Cut With A Carving Knife

Songs of the week: 10/7/08

It's already starting to get cold - this is all happening so soon! But winter means a new wardrobe, so I guess there's a plus to everything. Not a ton of new music, but whatevs, I can deal.

***songs of the week #7
1. A Thread Cut With A Carving Knife - Stars (A standout track from Stars' new EP)
2. Distant Street Lights - Codes In The Clouds (Electronica #1)
3. Kitsch - Rival Consoles (Electronica #2)
4. Me And You - This Is My Suitcase (Questionable grammar aside, you just might O.D. on cuteness from this little ditty)
5. Where Have You Been? - Annuals (A quirky cover of a superlative Manchester Orchestra song)

The 20 Best Albums Released Since 1970: 20-11

Anybody and everybody these days seems to have a Top __ Albums feature going, so I figured I better make one too. I'll be the first to admit it: the list is strongly biased towards guitar-based albums released from 1995 onward (especially those of the more independent variety), but this is a product of my age more than anything. Feel free to add a comment putting me in my place, I could always use a nice slice of humble pie.

(Note: As the title indicates, this list only considers records released since 1970, hence Pet Sounds and ____ album by the Beatles aren't here. That's not to downplay their relevance or their influence, as these were some of the most significant albums ever released in contemporary Western popular music - their omission was more personal choice than anything.)


20. This Station Is Non-Operational - At The Drive-In
2005
Fearless
Buy (Amazon.com)

How do you solve a problem like At The Drive-In?

Let me rephrase that: when compiling a list of the 20 best rock albums spanning the last 4 decades, what do you do about a group widely regarded as the quintessential post-hardcore band? I could have easily devoted spots 20 through 16 to Acrobatic Tenement, Alfaro Vive Carajo, El Gran Orgo, in/casino/out, and Relationship of Command, and called it a day, but that just wouldn't have been fair to the other 18 bands on this list. Perhaps in anticipation of this conundrum, Fearless Records released a superlative anthology of ATDI's brief but monumental career, and my problems evaporated.

As "Greatest Hits" albums go, This Station Is Non-Operational is up there with The Essential Clash as one of the best ones ever assembled. Yes, there are some glaring omissions, most notably the entirety of Acrobatic Tenement (save a live version of Initiation), but upon hearing the 18 tracks that did make the cut, all is easily forgiven. According to guitarist Jim Ward, the band's rationale in glossing over their early work was that "there was just some stuff [we] wanted to stay special, like those early seven-inches. If you have them, then you have them because you were in a certain place at a certain time. [We] wanted to keep it special for those people."

Hey, as long as it was intentional.

Besides, instead of focusing on what isn't there, I like to set my sights on what is, because there's certainly plenty: Picket Fence Cartel, Enfilade (with an Iggy Pop cameo!), and One Armed Scissor are all essential ATDI cuts. But what makes this better than some bootleg mixtape or fan playlist (which is what most of these compilations boil down to) is the inclusion of some lesser known tracks, songs that are of the same quality as those given the LP treatment. B-sides and singles like Incetardis and Doorman's Placebo shine, and This Night Has Opened My Eyes sounds just as haunting coming from Cedric Bixler as it did when Morrissey sang it twenty years earlier.

The Mars Volta is (mostly) interesting, De Facto was a bit too weird for its own good, and Sparta continually underwhelms: At The Drive-In very well might remain the high-water mark of its former members' respective careers, and this record is full of 18 reasons why.

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19. Domestica - Cursive
2000
Saddle Creek
Buy (Amazon.com)

Back before the term "emo" was branded and commodified by Hot Topic, before Marc Bianchi even started thinking about making electronic music as Her Space Holiday, the "DC Sound" was what everybody and their mother seemed to be striving for. So who the hell would have guessed that a group of guys from Omaha, Nebraska would do it better than anybody in years? Cursive's 2001 EP, Burst and Bloom, was the epitome of what was then the band's signature: long-form melodic hardcore (long is relative when it comes to hardcore music, as sub-minute track lengths were commonplace) with a softer, more introspective edge. After Burst and Bloom, Cursive began to meander down the winding path of indie rock, to great success. But in 2000, before any of that, they released 32 minutes of near musical perfection, a criminally-underrated concept album (concept album in the good way, not the pejorative Kiss way) titled Domestica.

Ostensibly chronicling the messy divorce of frontman Tim Kasher (a topic later revisited by his softer side-project, The Good Life, on their equally captivating Album of the Year), Domestica winds its way through 9 vignettes of a disintegrating household, of a relationship gone stale, loveless. It's all there: the bitter resentment (The Martyr), the infidelity (A Red So Deep), the confrontation (The Radiator Hums), and the eventual, resigned acceptance of defeat (The Night I Lost The Will To Fight). Kasher claims that the album ends on a note of hope, but I have no idea what the fuck he is talking about: there is nothing hopeful at all about this album, one of the most thoroughly depressing listens in my collection.

Maybe he was confusing "hope" with "catharsis", because there is certainly plenty of that. I've yet to find a chorus as satisfying as The Radiator Hums' refrain "I threw out the phone to try to get through to you!", which isn't even to mention Kasher's clever wordplay that pervades the entire album.

Cursive's status as an "emo" band was questionable: Domestica shares almost nothing in common with the likes of, say, Indian Summer. But I've got to tell you, emo or not, Silverstein and Hawthorne Heights would do well to take a trip down to Omaha. Who knows? They might even learn a thing or two.

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18. Set Yourself On Fire
2004
Arts & Crafts
Buy (Amazon.com)

"When there is nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire."

Sage words, recited by Stars' lead singer Torquill Campbell's father on opening track Your Ex-Lover is Dead. I'd describe this song, one of heart-aching beauty, but why bother? Somebody else (i.e. the members of Stars themselves) already summarized it perfectly:

"...an exquisitely warm brass section helps tell a call-and-response story of half-regret, of seeing someone you once fucked at a party, knowing they never hurt you the way they could've, and feeling awkward, hateful and oddly wistful about it."

This quote, which used to adorn their official website, applies to more than just Your Ex-Lover Is Dead. This song is the perfect opening track, accurately setting the tone for the entire album: 12 tales of breaking up, breaking down, and just plain old breaking, each running the gamut from awkward to hateful to, well, oddly wistful.

"12 tales?" you might be thinking, "But there are 13 songs on this album!"

If only that were the case. The CD cover might list 13 titles, but they are more aptly described as "12 songs and one horrible, terrible, awful, rodentious, no-good, rotten, very bad mess of a sonic abortion called He Lied About Death", an extraneously political, generic Bush-basher padded with 2 minutes of masturbatory noodling on a melodica. The track sticks out like a sore thumb, not at all fitting in with the relationship-driven narratives that dominate the remainder of the record.

One clunker generally doesn't make or break an album, however, and in Stars' case, the other twelve diamonds easily offset the one piece of coal. Calendar Girl tugs at the heartstrings, Reunion reflects with fond remembrance and nostalgic regret, and Celebration Guns does anything but celebrate: this is truly baroque pop at its best.

But for one track, Set Yourself On Fire makes the top ten; even at #18, it's still classic.

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17. As The Roots Undo - Circle Takes The Square
2004
Robotic Empire
Buy (Amazon.com)

Out of all the albums on here, this might be the hardest to sell: honest to God, archetypal "screamo" (see: comments on the term "emo" above), relentless in its refusal to back down, engulfing the listener in an asphyxiating cacophony of angular guitars and blood-curdling squeals of anguish, coked-out drums rolling through breakdowns and blastbeats with lightning speed and thunderous aplomb.

Scratch that. A better way to market this band and this album would just be to say Jordan Blilie and Efrim Menuck got drunk and had a kid.

Hm, that's not much better, biological impossibilities notwithstanding, and it's pretty obscure too.

I guess this music defies easy description and labeling (ignore the word screamo in quotes in the first paragraph), and needs to be heard for oneself. I won't sugarcoat it: you will probably hate this album, unless you enjoy loud, abrasive, challenging music. Perhaps Circle Takes The Square is the James Joyce of the musical world. They both claim that their work has a narrative to it; the rest of us just have to take their word for it.

Like I said, tough sell.

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16. The Four Trees - Caspian
2007
Dopamine
Buy (Amazon.com)

I can't put it any better than this.

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15. Translating the Name EP - Saosin
2003
Death Do Us Part
Buy (Amazon.com)

The classic scenario: boy meets band; boy moves to California to record most intense, relevant 15 minutes of rock music of the 21st century; boy goes on tour, wows everybody; boy gets homesick, moves back to Pennsylvania, starts an experimental band; old band finds a replacement, become chronic disappointment.

And don't forget the drums, recorded by former Slayer drum tech Pat Magrath. Ho-oly shit the drums.

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14. Hotel California - The Eagles
1976
Ayslum
Buy (Amazon.com)

A question that I can't get out of my head is "Why did I choose to put this album on the list?"

Was it because it is truly one of the greatest 20 releases of the last four decades? Or was it because of running errands with my father as a young boy, pushing 80 in his 300ZX while the fitting Life In The Fast Lane roared from his Bose six-speaker? Could it be the title track, with its haunting, desolate atmosphere, and that ridiculous guitar solo, often imitated, never duplicated? It might have been New Kid In Town, which spoke, still speaks, to that universal fear of being replaced, something that only becomes more relevant with the passage of time. Or maybe it was the sprawling Henley-dominated closer, The Last Resort, its message and tone a foreshadowing of his solo work, more errands, and new memories.

Perhaps those are all the wrong questions; perhaps critical merit and personal connection don't have to be mutually exclusive. Regardless, the album stays.

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13. Brother, Sister - mewithoutYou
2006
Tooth & Nail
Buy (Amazon.com)

A 45 minute existential romp tackling life, death, God, the Devil, lust, pride, greed, addiction, "the pious", and "the profane" - good and evil, to put it bluntly - Brother, Sister is quite an achievement. Even more stunning is that a decidedly "Christian" band could make such an album without the resultant product coming off as proselytizing. Instead of preaching, mewithoutYou simply asks a few questions about the universe. Then, they attempt to answer them, in their own, oddly humble way, before ultimately coming to the conclusion that "I do not exist, only You exist, I do not exist."

To this end, the record sounds less like an ad for the church and more like an old ad for Radio Shack: "You've got questions, we've got answers."

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12. Lifted or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground - Bright Eyes
2002
Saddle Creek
Buy (Amazon.com)

There were three Bright Eyes albums that I felt were qualified to appear in this article: Lifted, Fevers & Mirrors, and I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning. All had their respective places and times, and all had their relative merits, so to avoid any real, critical thinking, I devised a simple metric, based off of the number of so-called "essential Bright Eyes songs" on each release.

Fevers & Mirrors:

• The Calendar Hung Itself: Vintage Bright Eyes, a whiny Conor Oberst wants to know what your new man's got that he doesn't, with lyrical allusions to You Are My Sunshine to boot. (+1)
• Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh: Clever wordplay, a cheating woman, and what was the catchiest chorus of Oberst's career thus far. (+1)
• A Song To Pass The Time: A character study set in suburbia, its lo-fi glory an apt ending to the first truly great Bright Eyes release. (+1)

Total: 3

Lifted:

• You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will: Odd punctuation aside, guessing the chorus from the title is a fairly trivial affair; this song, however, isn't. It is an odd mix, composed of equal parts bravado and self-deprecation, but the resulting concoction hits the spot. (+1)
• Lover I Don't Have To Love: The juxtaposition between You Will... and Lover I Don't Have To Love (placed next to eachother on the album, perhaps intentionally) is quite striking: the former a treatise on clinginess, the latter an ode to the one night stand. And that beat, don't even get me started... (+1)
• Don't Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come: My introduction to the Bright Eyes oeuvre, its brooding atmosphere, sinister mood, and slow, tense build are certainly enough to warrant classification as "essential". (+1)
• Make War: Great, another song about a failed relationship! Wait, wait, wait....hold on a sec...it's got an optimistic outlook, you say? And Conor Oberst wishes his ex the best in her future endeavors? And he actually means it? What the hell?! (+1)

Total: 4

I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning:

• At The Bottom Of Everything: We’re going to a party. It’s a birthday party. It’s your birthday party. Happy birthday darling. We love you very, very, very, very, very, very, very much. (+1)
• Lua: Either he truly is just a terrible, terrible person, or Conor needs to quit selling himself so short: "But me, I'm not a gamble - you can count on me to split. The love I sell you in the evening, by the morning, won't exist," he claims. He's doing a worse job selling himself than I did that Circle Takes The Square album...yikes. (+1)
• First Day Of My Life: It might be a bit cliche, but this one wins points just because of its sheer optimism, quite a rarity considering the source. (+1)
• Landlocked Blues: A cleaned up version of One Foot In Front Of The Other, with added vocals from Emmylou Harris, about love, war, stasis, and little kids playing in the street. (+1)

Total: 4

Shit, a tie...so I guess I'll end up having to do that whole critical thinking business after all. Or, I could just be cheap and take a point away from I'm Wide Awake out of spite for the fact that its companion piece, Digital Ash In A Digital Urn, is $12 that I will never get back.

Yeah, I think I'll do that.

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11. Between The Heart And The Synapse - The Receiving End Of Sirens
2005
Triple Crown
Buy (Amazon.com)

It's a shame that The Receiving End Of Sirens had to go and break up, because they were the most interesting band making music today. Combining a plethora of varied genres (post-hardcore, progressive rock, jazz, electronica, ambient, experimental, electronica) into a cohesive whole, their freshman effort Between The Heart And The Synapse falls just around there: between head and heart. It is emotional without being maudlin, and it makes you think without coming off as dry. Well over an hour in length, dynamic and engaging throughout, Between The Heart And The Synapse is one of the most accomplished debuts in recent memory.

So, how does a band follow up such an accomplishment? Why, with a concept album centered on Johannes Kepler's tonal theory of the planets, of course!

Read about albums 1-10 here.