The Juan Maclean - The Future Will Come

2009
DFA Records
Buy

6/10

Were The Future Will Come simply a collection of its strongest singles, The Juan Maclean would have achieved world renown. When much of the dance community has departed for the shores of trance, electrohouse, and for those adventurous (trendy) enough, dubstep, he's released what seems to be a long-play throwback to the days of unadulterated house which is at its best infectious and commanding. But for all of its cheery pomp, The Future Will Come is plagued by an inconsistency and lack of focus that undermines much of its success...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

Axiotronic - Of Latitude and Longitude

2009
Electronic Eel Records
Buy

8/10

So much electronic music is conceived as little more than a means to some separate end. It's a shame, yes, but it's also a reality: house is for dancing, trance is for getting fucked up, electro is for nostalgia, etc. This current state of affairs makes Axiotronic's latest release all the more refreshing; Of Latitude and Longitude is presented as electronica, wholly undanceable, produced for its own sake. Unfortunately, this purity of intent will, in all likelihood, preclude the album from ever attaining a wide audience - if it isn't spun in the club, most in the community won't take notice. Michael Spinka's Axiotronic project might prove to be Philadelphia's best kept secret...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

Bibio - Vignetting the Compost

2009
Mush Records
Buy

7.5/10

To those of us whose introduction to prolific British producer Stephen Wilkinson's Bibio came with Ambivalence Avenue's 'Pitchfork Best New Music' ambience, it might come as a bit of a shock to hear that said album is a drastic artistic departure. Want proof, Sherman? All you've got to do is wake up Mr. Peabody and set the Wayback Machine to five months earlier...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

Antifilm - IO

2009
Statler & Waldorf
Buy

6.5/10

With its eclectic backgrounds, lush accompaniment, and murmured vocals, IO has all the makings of an indie classic. It could have been the next You Forgot It In People. Instead, Danish band Antifilm has come up with something more along the lines of Feel Good Lost: a great first step, but not quite there...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

bvdub - A Prayer to False Gods

2009
Shoreless Recordings
Buy

6.5/10

At its most banal, A Prayer to False Gods sounds like the jarring hum of unshielded stereo wire. But when bvdub (San Francisco disc jockey Brock Van Wey's nom de guerre) hits his stride, the result is nothing short of sublime...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

Nicker Hill Orchestra - All the Different Deaths...and Rebirths

2009
Self Released
Buy

7/10
All the Different Deaths...and Rebirths does not break very much new ground as standard genre fare. But Nicker Hill Orchestra, given the confines in which they work, provide enough embellishment to - however incrementally - advance the post rock sound a few steps into the future...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

aMute - Infernal Heights For a Drama

2009
Still Records
Buy

3/10

To hear it told by many, the Belgian experimentalists aMute have crafted a desolate, nuanced aural landscape in Infernal Heights for a Drama. And while I acknowledge that it is not fair to fault aMute for delivering something which deviated from my expectations, it is fair to fault them for a meandering, directionless array of noise...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

mewithoutYou - it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright.

2009

Tooth & Nail
Buy (Amazon.com)

10/10

(Note: Also published on blogcritics)

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea; The Moon and Antarctica; hell, even Pet Sounds - please take note: mewithoutYou has officially joined your makers' ranks.

Six months in, it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright. has trumped every single competing bid for the best album of 2009, and I would bet the farm that the next six months' releases don't stand a chance to top it. It's not even close.

During the months leading up to the album's release, mewithoutYou promised that the sound would be quite different from the post-hardcore of earlier records; just how far removed that sound ended up being came as a shock to many. And I'm not going to lie - fans expecting Brother, Sister II are in for a real letdown. But those who enter with an open mind should find the progression to be a welcome change.

I've read several reviews that draw a comparison to Neutral Milk Hotel, and in certain ways, this is true. it's all crazy! it's all false! does incorporate a very eclectic instrumentation, bearing a general resemblance to the style of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. Indeed, the horn arrangements on "Allah, Allah, Allah" seem like a reincarnation of "Communist Daughter", and "The Fox, the Crow & the Cookie"s romp would fit right in next to "Holland 1945". However, I don't think anybody's going to be confusing Aaron Weiss with Jeff Mangum any time soon, as the band makes the album very much their own.

In case it was not clear by now, it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright. is a folk record more than anything else, bursting at every seam with Sufi parables, Christian imagery, and deceptively simple choruses drawing straight from the campfire songs of yore. Many listeners will never get past this first, superficial sonic layer, which is a real shame. Because accompanying this quirky, folksy band is the sublime poetic talent of Aaron Weiss. Always one of the band's fortes, his lyrics here are several notches above those of his contemporaries, packing a depth and poignance not achieved since Dylan's heyday.

The most striking characteristic is the pervasive food and animal imagery present throughout the album's eleven songs. The titles themselves serve as an immediate clue: "Fig With a Bellyache", "King Beetle on a Coconut Estate", etc. What is more important, however, is the efficiency with which Weiss deploys these images and symbols, stuffing single lines with enough meaning to base a dissertation on. A perfect example of this is found in the opening stanza of "Fig With A Bellyache":

The camel in the desert took a ship across the lake,
While the fish in search of water found a fig with a bellyache.

Two lines contain an entire album's worth of connotations and literary devices, two lines whose conflicting meanings contribute to the song's theme of overcoming sexual temptation.

The camel here is used not only for its association with the desert (representing celibacy), but also the animal's capacity to subsist on stores of water for a long time (which stands for monogamy and fidelity). The camel is described as taking a ship across the lake, the stark juxtaposition with the dry desert suggesting divine assistance of some sort. Then, we are introduced with the fish, desperately seeking its lifeblood, who stumbles upon a malnourished fig. Figs have long represented modesty (Adam and Eve covered their privates with fig leaves in Genesis) and divinity (in the Qu'ran, Muhammed speaks of the fig tree's pitless fruit as coming from Paradise), and when one puts it all together, the message becomes quite clear. The camel might travel through long periods of abstinence, but can still find fulfillment through God. The fish, normally in an environment saturated by sex, is left stranded once the well runs dry, and his life is empty.

A careful inspection of "The Fox, the Crow & the Cookie" reveals a warning about the sin of pride, analysis of "King Beetle" reveals a striking tale of faith, and so on and so on with the other tracks.

At this point, I imagine that many have either reached or are rapidly approaching a threshold of alienation. But don't let me misguide you: this is not a Christian rock album. Let me repeat. This is not a Christian rock album. So if all the talk of faith and pride and David and Solomon seems a bit offputting, it's fine. Which is where this album's real beauty lies. Whether one understands the religious aspects - whether one even cares to acknowledge them - is completely irrelevant, having no bearing upon one's enjoyment.

There is so much more that I could write about this record - as I said before, there is enough upon which to base an entire dissertation - but I'll have to save that for another time and place. The bottom line is that mewithoutYou stands alone.

It might, admittedly, be crazy. But it's certainly too sincere to be false, too impactful to be a dream, and just too fucking good to be 'alright'. It is a modern classic.

---

Key Tracks:
The Fox, the Crow & the Cookie
The Angel of Death Came To David's Room
King Beetle on a Coconut Estate
Allah, Allah, Allah

Parhelia - Shifting Sands

2009

Buy

5.5/10

As a genre, “post-rock” had a good run; the late 90s and turn of the millennium saw a slew of releases which should still be looked upon in fifty years as being classics, as legendary. The story since 2003 has been a little different. Certainly there have been exceptions, but the rule has been repackaging the tired formula of thunderous percussion and shimmering tremolo guitar set amidst Baroque dynamics. Post-rock lived a healthy life, but has been denied a graceful death by hundreds of bands that are either incapable of, or refuse to, evolve their sound.

Bands like Parhelia, for instance...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

2009

4AD
Buy (Amazon.com)

9/10

"It feels like none of this is real."

Lucky for us, it is. This song, this album, this band - it's all quite real. And it's all really quite good, for that matter. Camera Obscura's third LP, Let's Get Out Of This Country, found its way onto a handful of year-end lists, and rightfully so. Two years and ten months later, the follow-up seems poised to do much the same thing.

Riding on the coattails of lead single "French Navy" (the new "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken"), My Maudlin Career has found itself a new crossover audience, one that has begun to show fatigue in the face of the Soulja Boy hotline and another (?!) Lady Gaga chart topper. Good riddance.

"Spent a week in a dusty library, waiting for some words to jump at me."

Some good words must have jumped at leading lady Tracy Campbell - the album's lyrics would certainly land on the shortlist for the Pulitzer Prize in LiveJournal. Airy vignettes and aching lament pervade, the songs coming across as sincere instead of, dare I say, maudlin.

Campbell's combination of naivete, longing, and regret seems very similar in tone to that of Gregory and the Hawk's Meredith Godreau. The key difference is that the Scotsmen backing up Campbell create a sound with greater confidence and flair than the muted understatement found on, say, Moenie and Kitchi, and this makes for a much more successful finished product.

"I wish my heart was cold, but it's warmer than before."

And it is this warmth that allows Camera Obscura to transcend the thematic limitations of the break-up album. Much of My Maudlin Career covers the backend of a troubled relationship, and while the band runs the emotional gamut, bitterness is nowhere to be found.

The marvelous, laid back "Forests and Sands" has Campbell declaring "I'm in heaven / And you're holding my hand"; on the flipside, the incessantly upbeat "Swans" finds her single and alone, buying flowers for herself, waiting for an "eloquent boy" to come to her door.

On the somber penultimate track "Other Towns and Cities", Campbell desperately needs monogamy from a casual lover, left to wonder: "In other towns and cities / Who's holding you tonight?". Downers "James" and "Careless Love" both tackle the question of whether two exes can reconcile as "just friends" after the relationship has disintegrated, and "Away With Murder" is just downright heartbreaking.

Despite this rather turbulent midsection, the overall impression of the album is one of positive energy, of optimism. This effect is achieved, at least partly, through the bookending of the record with its two warmest, prettiest numbers. It opens with "French Navy", which sports a ridiculously catchy bridge of strings and horns to contrast with the sparse, staccato instrumentation of the verses; forty minutes later, the similarly up-tempo "Honey in the Sun" ends things much as they began, allowing Maudlin Career to come full circle, establishing it as the band's most accomplished work to date.

"This maudlin career has come to an end."

Has it really?

God, I sure hope not.

---

Key Tracks:
French Navy
Swans
Forests and Sands

Rick Ross - Deeper Than Rap

2009

Def Jam
Buy (Amazon.com)

7/10

Deeper Than Rap. What exactly does that mean?

Is it the moniker of an album which goes beyond the limitations of the genre to explore new territory and break new ground? Maybe Rick Ross is making a commentary on the sad state of vacuous hip hop? Perhaps he's even going so far as to say that he goes beyond the superficial topics of fame and excess, and instead gets to the heart of the Grandmaster's "Message"? Or is it just Rick Ross the braggart, making another grandiose boast?

I'll let you guess.

Even so, Rick Ross accomplishes a decent amount when you take into account the limited palette he has to work with, and you have to give him some credit for the sheer balls he's displayed - not many people would keep up their Scarface alter-ego after being exposed as a fraud. So while "the real Noriega" might not owe him any favors at all, it's still entertaining to hear Ross play make-believe.

In a way, Ross wants you to believe he has reached a retirement of sorts; at the very least, years of "Hustlin" everyday has afforded him a comfortable enough life that he's managed to rearrange his priorities. On closer "In Cold Blood" he professes "Family over the money / money over the bitches", even going so far as to say that money "means nothing". Still, I'm not convinced.

Whether he means it, though, is irrelevant to the album's entertainment value. And, let me tell you, with a handful of tightly knit Ross verses, as well as a few outrageous cameos, the album is quite entertaining. Nas spits venom on effortless "Usual Suspects" (does he even have to try anymore?), and the Trina featured "Face" is ridiculous to the point of parody. "Maybach Music 2" has verses from Lil' Wayne and Kanye, but neither bring much more than the same scatological humor and tired boasts about running the industry. Stronger are the Jamaican vibes of "Yacht Club", and dense, solo opener "Mafia Music" immediately brings to mind Weezy's triumph "Tha Mobb".

On the whole, the good outweighs the bad, and though he may never top the stunning Port of Miami, Rick Ross is still interesting enough to merit relevance and attention. Here's hoping the next disc goes a little bit Deeper still.

---

Key Tracks:
Mafia Music
Usual Suspects

Lunar Node - Exploring Unknown Territory

2009

Buy

6.5/10

Upon hearing Exploring Unknown Territory, the listener is immediately drawn out of their run or their bed or their sofa and into their surrounding environment: the cliched wind feathering the leaves, the sterile flouresence of an overhead bulb, the clock's insistent reminder that their chemistry lecture lies a mere forty minutes away. Too often, Lunar Node immerses one so deeply that the analysis and appreciation of their music becomes quite the challenge...(Read more at the Silent Ballet.)

Claro Intelecto - Warehouse Sessions

2009

Modern Love Records
Buy

3/10

Many people complain that electronic music is rather boring. Armchair critics deride the form's diverse genres as being stereotypical "techno", the mindless homogeny only enjoyable to those lucky few on a roll or a trip. House, breakbeat, dubstep, trance - to the masses, there's no difference.

I believe those detractors to be dead wrong. Unfortunately, Claro Intelecto - the brainchild of producer Mark Stewart - doesn't do much to help my cause...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

Crippled Black Phoenix - 200 Tons Of Bad Luck

2009

Invada Records
Buy

6.5/10

For what they do, Crippled Black Phoenix achieve a fair amount on 200 Tons of Bad Luck. The only problem is, sometimes it just seems like they’re doing a bit too much. The disc is compiled from tracks off of two different releases with two very different sounds, and upon listening to the final product, this is more readily apparent than anything else. Clocking in at over 70 minutes, the album runs the stylistic gamut from languid post-rock to the sounds of Pink Floyd circa 1977. Like Forrest Gump’s analogy of life, you really do never know what you’re going to get next...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die

2009

Cooking Vinyl
Buy (Amazon.com)

7.5/10

Go ahead.

Call me out on glossing over your favorite trip-hop band. Label me a retard for defending the shrieks of Thomas Erak and Tim Ward. Hell, even threaten to sue me for a particularly controversial review. Just do me a favor: give the fucking Prodigy a chance.

I've been listening to their new album since it leaked, and I like it. I liked it a month ago, I liked it this morning, and I'll hopefully like it just as much tomorrow and in another thirty days. And for once, it seems like the critics might just be on my side.

Dabbling in house, breakbeat, and dance punk, Invaders Must Die is a lot of things. Serious is not one of them. I think that many people are quick to forget that this is the same band that, barely a decade ago, rode a song called "Smack My Bitch Up" to moderate crossover success. Vivaldi this isn't - enjoy it for the same reasons you enjoy those shitty vending machine beefsteaks. They're quick, they're easy, and if you're fucked up enough, they're actually a whole hell of a lot of fun.

"Invaders Must Die" starts with a churning bass that reminds me of Brand New's "Not The Sun". The build-up on "Thunder" is the best kind of bait-and-switch, never really exploding but paying off in the end. Closer "Stand Up" is the march that Sousa never wrote, and even after hearing it twenty some-odd times, "Warrior's Dance" still manages to come off charming and exotic. These are the reasons why I like Invaders Must Die, and they're probably the same reasons why a lot of people hate it.

But, come on. Just give it a shot. And know going into it you're not going to be dining on filet mignon.

For once, just eat the fucking beefsteak.

---

Key Tracks:
Invaders Must Die
Thunder
Stand Up

Commix - FabricLive 44

2009
Fabric
Buy

7/10

One of my hipster Lower East Side friends recently made the claim that breakbeat is dead – and has been for quite some time.

Cambridge's dynamic duo of drum and bass, Commix, offer a slightly less bleak assessment – breakbeat isn't dead. Not yet, at least...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

Keith Canisius - Ferris Wheel Makeout

2008
Darla Records
Buy

6/10

Upon hearing the name Keith Canisius, my first instinct is always to make some sort of association with Canisius College, a Jesuit school in Buffalo, New York. This is a terrible connection on my part, because there is nothing pious on Ferris Wheel Makeout. Just fun. And, last I checked, the church regards pretty much anything involving fun as a sin, right? (Read more at the Silent Ballet)

Erin McCarley - Love, Save The Empty

2009

Official Site

Buy (Amazon)


4/10

From Erin McCarley's Official Site: "McCarley’s brand of honesty doesn’t come without the occasional flash of regret. “I’ve looked back at some of these songs recently and thought to myself, ‘Are you serious? I can’t believe I put that out there!"

Erin McCarley got her start doing music on weekends, covering country music during her undergraduate days. Now at 30 years, she has released a debut album that has a pop-rock methodology. This pop-rock methodology is used to perpetuate an over-sentimental and sadly, a mediocre piece of music. Her first track Pony (It's OK) isn't all that bad, it reminds me of Vanessa Carlton's A Thousand Mile. With its repetitious piano chant and catchy "ladadadadadadadada" hook, it will surely be featured in an Anne Hathaway movie about New York City, relationships, and finding yourself, while wearing $345.00 pair of high-heeled Tod's.

As I listen to her album, I couldn't help but compare McCarly's performance to Weezer's River Cuomos. "Blue Suit" and much of her album features the kind of angst evident when one is in the throes of a relationship. "Oh, wise one/If you knew the answer why'd you ask the question? /Oh, wise one /If you're such a someone/Why do you give nothing to anyone." Yes, there is sadness, but her eloquence as a songwriter is clearly in its infancy. The Washington Times went as far as listing her as their "4 to watch out for" and recommended her to Sheryl Crow fans. Four minutes, I think is what they meant. I also find that insulting to Sheryl Crow fans because the Sheryl Crow I know, has a commanding voice in her music, which is far from "droning".

After listening to the album several times, I found that McCarley's voice meta-morphs into a droning, that sounds like that of a UVA Cypher. In the words of MADtv alumni Keegan Michael Key, Cuomos and Crow, "take it to a ho' nudda' levool! McCarley's debut album misses the mark.

Deepset - The Lights We Shed Shall Burn Your Eyes

2008
Kitty Wu Records

8/10

Isaac Brock famously opined that "anyone can equally easily fuck you over" and I'd be inclined to agree.

At least, I was inclined to agree. Things have changed, and now I might be forced to reconsider. Because sometimes, people can surprise you; occasionally, they'll throw you a bone. Once in awhile, instead of bland, watered down instrumentals, your editor places something special on your desk. Deepset, your album is my bone. You are my something special...(Read more at the Silent Ballet)

Fall Out Boy - Folie A Deux

2008
Fueled By Ramen
Buy (Amazon.com)

6.5/10

(Note: Also published at Blogcritics.org)

The lyrics of Folie A Deux...

***
I'm coming apart at the seams.

Pete Wentz. Patrick Stump. Two names you should commit to memory, if you haven't already. Arguably the biggest name in rock, Fall Out Boy is the band to be right now, like it or not.

They're not coming apart any time soon. But...

Doc, there's a hole where something was.

And there really is. Yeah, Fall Out Boy still makes "fun" music, but there's just something missing. It's not as believable as it once was - these kids simply aren't kids anymore. There's a hole in their music, the way I see it - the band still makes infectious pop-punk with a million hooks to boot, but something's off.

Not that much has changed though. Just looking at the tracklist, it's a pop-culture grab bag, with your independent movie nod ("(Coffee's For Closers)"), Roberta Flack reference ("What A Catch, Donnie"), and shout out to Pete Rose ("Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet"). And those are just the titles!

The only problem is that it's all sort of old hat at this point. This is more or less what Fall Out Boy has always done, just with more polish. Bearing that in mind, it is my sincere hope that they do not become afflicted with Blink 182 syndrome: 30-something dudes singing about cutting class and making out with girls in the back of English.

Ah, to be 18 forever. Maybe Jesse Lacey was on to something...

I will never end up like him.

Famous last words. But at least it sounds like you're heeding the last paragraph's warning.

I don't care what you think, just as long as it's about me.

I want to believe this is true, that Pete Wentz or whoever really means it. Half of me even does believe it. Fall Out Boy experiments a bit on Folie A Deux, and I'm sure that this has alienated a great portion of the Take This To Your Grave crowd (if any of them are still listening). The first example that comes to my mind is the blues-inspired bridge of "I Don't Care", its call-and-response riffage and lyrical interplay a far cry from more direct cuts like "Grenade Jumper" or even "Dance, Dance".

But, I mean, come on, they're only human; of course they want to appeal to a broad market. That sounds harsh, and I'm not trying to cast the word "sell-out" upon the band. But if they want to keep making music - if they want to keep their primary cathartic output open - then, pragmatically speaking, somebody needs to be listening. And so it's here that the band makes a few concessions.

For one, there are more guest spots than a Yung Joc record, and that's just on "What A Catch, Donnie" alone. Songs like "She's My Winona" and "27" are predictable and worn-out, probably just what the fans want, and to ensure that nobody's attention strays, none of the tracks break the five minute mark. But let's go back to that whole guest feature thing again, because this is something done remarkably well on Folie A Deux. "20 Dollar Nose Bleed" has a very Panic at the Disco feel to it (it should, since it's a Brendon Urie vehicle), and not surprisingly winds up as the most upbeat song on the disc. As mentioned earlier, everybody and their mother sings a line on "What A Catch, Donnie", and the overall effect is quite satisfying. Hell, even Lil' Wayne is on Folie A Deux, and as a friend of mine on Twitter observed, it's better than half of Weezy's guest verses all year.

At the end of the day, however, a part of me wants to believe (a part of me needs to believe) that it's still all about them. And it is.

Why won't the world revolve around me?

A fervent question that confirms my beliefs.

I've got troubled thoughts and the self esteem to match.

And here we come to the root of it all. Maybe, just maybe, despite that fact that they're "all growed up", well, maybe they're not. Maybe Fall Out Boy is still just a group of oversized angsty kids from Illinois trying to make themselves feel a tiny bit better through their music.

Maybe.

---

Key Tracks:
20 Dollar Nose Bleed
Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet
What A Catch, Donnie