Grouper - Ruins

Grouper

Ruins

31 October 2014

Kranky

 

3.5 stars out of 5

 

 

Ruins is the tenth LP by Oregon-based Liz Harris, who records ambient music under the moniker of Grouper. The record sees Harris stripping away her usual layers of tape loops and delays, leaving just the piano and her voice on most tracks. Her songs seem to hang like dust caught in the sunlight cutting through the empty rooms of an abandoned house. It’s difficult to imagine music that could be more desolate and distant while still being produced by such organic and human origins.

 

This isn’t ambient in the sense of the abstraction of Music for Airports, and it’s about as far from Lifeforms as one could imagine while still technically being in the same genre. This is ambient music that makes no immediate demands of your attention, instead lurking in the background and oozing into your skull without you realizing it, changing everything you think and feel without you being conscious of it. Ruins is constructed of proper songs, with very non-abstract, structured piano parts and recognizable vocal refrains, but played in such a way as to seem like an almost inaudible hum. This is the sound of frost forming on the windows of your life.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

The Twilight Sad - Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave

The Twilight Sad

Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave

27 October 2014

FatCat

 

2.5 stars out of 5

 

 

Yawn. Oh, umm, excuse me. It’s just my normal reaction when a record is just sort of there, neither good nor bad. Nobody Wants to Be Here and Listen to This Incredibly Dull Record is a good case in point. It’s frustrating because it’s so completely lacking in character that you can’t even complain about how bad it is, because it doesn’t even have bad qualities. It has no qualities at all. None. You know Robert Musil’s modernist masterpiece of German literature, The Album Without Qualities? It’s about this thing.

 

A couple of weeks ago I bashed the new Foxygen record for being a complete mess. And, seriously, it’s a disaster. It’s pure agony. But this new Twilight Sad record? It’s not a mess at all. A mess implies that something happened and left behind an unpleasant result. Like a small scattering of dirt, or a dent, or even just a minor scuff. This record leaves behind nothing. The Foxygen record was memorable for how fucking awful it was. This record ended about thirty seconds ago and, seriously, I can’t remember a single melodic refrain or line of lyric. And I’ve listened to it three fucking times. I have zero recollection of what any of the songs could have been like, apart from that there were guitars, drums, and bass involved. It’s the Bermuda Triangle of rock music, where your body is permitted to leave but your memories are not. Probably aliens are involved, and this record is their way of hijacking your brain for forty-three and a half minutes. You’d be wise to avoid, unless you really want to believe.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Ought - Once More with Feeling EP

Ought

Once More with Feeling EP

28 October (18 September) 2014

Constellation

 

3.5 stars out of 5

 

 

Montreal’s indie rock quartet Ought launched the Once More with Feeling EP at their Pop Montreal show on September 18^th, though it wasn’t officially released until yesterday. Passing the guitar over to guest Charlotte Cornfield for “New Calm, Pt. 2,” leader Tim Beeler let loose and busted a move David Byrne-style for the song’s seven-minute duration. (Insert sample of James Murphy insisting, “But I was there!”) It was a good example of the inclusiveness Ought foster with their music, and also of how much the band rely on dynamics and Beeler’s presence. The same four chords over seven minutes should get a little old after the first two or three minutes, right? Not at all in the case of “New Calm, Pt. 2.” Plus, any lyrics that include, “Who invited Paul Simon? I didn’t invite him! Here we go!” are winning on many different levels.

 

The three other tracks are of varying quality. “New Calm, Pt. 3” is an interesting, seemingly improv piece that approaches free jazz at points. “Waiting,” an outtake from the More Than Any Other Day sessions, is more straight rock, tumbling along as Beeler’s singing pushes and kicks it wherever he desires. “Pill” is the slightest track here, much more effective in a live setting than it is in this particular take. As a whole, the EP is uneven and feels cobbled together from random parts, as EPs often do and are. As an addendum to their LP released earlier in the year, it offers insight into other facets of the band.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

We Were Promised Jetpacks - Unravelling

We Were Promised Jetpacks

Unravelling

6 October 2014

FatCat

 

3.5 stars out of 5

 

 

Scottish indie rockers We Were Promised Jetpacks have recently issued their third LP, Unravelling. Occupying musical terrain somewhere between Frightened Rabbit and British Sea Power, the WeeWeePJs peddle an emotional indie rock that harkens back to the glory days of the post-punk revival of the early ‘00s.

 

Unravelling is a very serviceable selection of introspective, angst-ridden songs. It never reaches any sort of great heights, but it will do in a pinch. Rock music in general has long run its course, and a revival of a revival is definitely going to elicit some tired sighs, but WWPJ were there at the time of the first revival, although in unknown, teenaged form. So as a rather uncritical, unself-aware outing in the rock music park, Unravelling does nothing to offend. It rocks no boats and breaks down no fourth walls. Bland? No. This is good rock music, and Unravelling is right up there with The Afghan Whigs’ Do to the Beast as one of the best rock albums of the year. So take that for what it’s worth, and investigate if you feel that a tired and used up art form might still have some nuggets waiting to be discovered.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Atomos

A Winged Victory for the Sullen

Atomos

6 October 2014

Kranky/Erased Tapes

 

4 stars out of 5

 

 

Self-taught post-classical pianist and film scorer Dustin O’Halloran; sound engineer and ambient musician Adam Wiltzie: together, A Winged Victory for the Sullen. Wiltzie, perhaps best known as half of drone/ambient duo Stars of the Lid; O’Halloran, from the band Dévics and film scores. Atomos, the second album, the original score for the dance piece of the same name by Wayne McGregor, which premiered 9 October 2013.

 

The music: strings and piano, also synthesizer and sampled voice collage. Long, sustained notes, slowly combined into chords, subtly shifting as elements of each chord are removed, others added to create new chords. Songs titled “Atomos I” until “Atomos XII,” skipping “Atomos IV.” The more structured pieces, like “Atomos VIII,” recalling the work of Glass. On the whole, a feeling of “modern” in the proper sense, with structures and assumptions given importance, and little or no questioning of such structures and assumptions.

 

“Atomos XI,” the penultimate track, a waltz for the doomed and dispossessed: the rules of ambient music broken, the melody strong and the rhythm insistent. Emotional impact, deep; images formed by “Atomos XII,” haunting. This review, over.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Thurston Moore - The Best Day

Thurston Moore

The Best Day

20 October 2014

Matador

 

3.5 stars out of 5

 

 

Once upon a time there was a band called Sonic Youth, and music was never the same for ever after. Thurston Moore was one of that band’s trio of extraordinary songwriters, and perhaps the most widely known to the general public (though, in all honesty, if you are with-it enough to know the name of one member of Sonic Youth, chances are you know them all). The Best Day is Moore’s fourth solo LP, and his first since 2011’s acoustic album Demolished Thoughts. Joining Moore this time around are Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, My Bloody Valentine bassist Debbie Googe, and guitar-genius-at-large James Sedwards. Despite the presence of two of the finest axemen on the planet, The Best Day is refreshingly devoid of any pyrotechnical fretwork. Instead aiming for repetition and textures, the songs (with only a couple of exceptions) let Moore’s vocals do the majority of the work in carrying the melody.

 

To paint in broad strokes, The Best Day seems like an attempt by Moore to be Sonic Youth again without Gordon and Ranaldo to distract the audience’s attention. Shelley’s distinctive drumming underpins the feeling that this is an attempt to regain old glories, though, to be fair, those glories were often Moore’s to begin with. “Detonation” echoes “Silver Rocket,” while “Speak to the Wild” could be an outtake from Washing Machine. There’s no “rock and roll” on The Best Day, at least as “rock and roll” was approximated by SY on Goo or Dirty; instead, Moore’s compositions are extended mood pieces, though all very band-centric (ain’t no avant-garde noodlings within a few hundred kilometres of this thing). If you’re a long-time fan, you’re likely to be waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for Moore to break the dam and let the experimentation flood through. And you’ll be mostly disappointed. But if you approach The Best Day as a quiet, restrained album of singer-songwriter fare, you’ll find adequate satisfaction.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Scott Walker + Sunn O))) - Soused

Scott Walker + Sunn O)))

Soused

21 October 2014

4AD

 

4.5 stars out of 5

 

 

It just figures that one of the most intense and challenging records of the year would be the result of a collaboration between a 71-year-old singer and a band that has as many unpronounced characters in its name as pronounced ones. Scott Walker has just released his second record in two years, a feat that he hasn’t pulled off since 1974. Since then, decade-long gaps between records have been the norm, with the mere six-year gap between 2006’s The Drift and 2012’s Bish Bosch coming as close to a flourish of productivity as it gets for Walker. In the other corner is be-robed experimental metal band Sunn O))), providing the cinematic soundscape to Walker’s avant-garde utterances. And you know you’re in for a ride when Sunn can be reasonably described as the more conventional half of the collaboration.

 

The fact that Soused sound exactly what you’d expect from these two enigmatic acts is the best part of the deal. They nailed it. Walker’s uncompromising vision and seemingly effortless oddness are a perfect match for the metal drones and occasional industrial-noise-meets-show-tunes punctuations of Sunn. Soused finds both artists meshing at such a deep level that the results feel both blissfully real and dangerously explosive. Every second is worth it.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Stars - No One Is Lost

Stars

No One Is Lost

13 October 2014

ATO

 

3.5 stars out of 5

 

 

For years it appeared as if Stars themselves were lost. After two brilliant indie pop LPs in the mid-‘00s—Heart and Set Yourself on Fire—which saw the band achieve worldwide success along with the rest of their Montreal-Toronto contemporaries, the band became somewhat of a parody of themselves, beginning with the tedious and borderline-offensive In Our Bedroom After the War in 2007. Well, the ten-year wait for a decent follow-up to Set Yourself on Fire is over, as No One Is Lost sees Stars finally getting over themselves and putting out a record that places the bliss of pure enjoyment ahead of (failed) patronizing high concept and distancing self-importance.

 

From the first few seconds of the opener, “From the Night,” Stars make it abundantly clear that No One Is Lost is concerned primarily with getting you to shake your ass. Dance first, ask great philosophical questions regarding the alienation of humans in society later. Think a less angular Hot Chip with duelling male-female vocalists. And when Torquil Campbell, Amy Millan, & Co. reach back into their past and go for the bombast—as in “Turn It Up”—they do it right, unlike pretty much anything from their last three LPs. But it’s not all fun and games: “What Is to Be Done?” is the chill-out room at the midway point, a warm tribute to the end of warmth in a relationship.

 

The second half of the LP is a return to the indie pop that made Stars famous in the first half of the last decade. “Are You OK?” is as Stars-like as Stars get: an über-catchy, up-tempo, indie pop tune led by Millan’s sugary-but-wise voice. Things come to a full-on dance party ending with the title track, as Campbell sings, “put your hands up ‘cause everybody dies.” This is the kind of have-fun-because-you’re-sad track that Stars so excel at, and as a society we’re better off now that the band is back doing what they’re good at.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Jessie Ware - Tough Love

Jessie Ware

Tough Love

13 October 2014

PMR/Island/Interscope

 

 

2.5 stars out of 5

 

 

 

Jessie Ware’s 2012 debut LP, Devotion, was an interesting and very listenable exercise in soul, harkening back to the early days of Sade and the quiet storm movement of the ‘70s. Two years later she gives us her second LP, Tough Love, and all of the promise of her debut—the idea that Ware might become this decade’s great English soul singer—turns out to be just wishful thinking. Tough Love isn’t much beyond bland, derivative, and boring.

 

 

Things start out at a very underwhelming pace with the lukewarm title track, and then fizzle out and die after that. All of the edges to the production that made Devotion so listenable are completely absent on Tough Love. Dave Okumu (of The Invisible) produced ten of the eleven tracks on Devotion, while handling the knobs on only two of Tough Love’s eleven. Could this be the reason why the latter is such a dull record? Possibly, though at this point it’s unlikely that anyone would be still interested enough in Ware as an artist in her own right to be moved to care. File this one under “L” for “lost potential.”

 

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Pharmakon - Bestial Burden

Pharmakon

Bestial Burden

14 October 2014

Sacred Bones

 

 

4.5 stars out of 5

 

 

 

As Pharmakon, New York’s Margaret Chardiet makes music with only one intention: to scare the living shit out of your cat(s). I’m joking, of course, but also not really. In terms of the pure terror she can invoke with her screams, Chardiet has few peers, if any. Last year’s Abandon was a masterful, convention-defying tour-de-force of industrial noise, drawing on the early, organic work of Einstürzende Neubauten and Test Dept. Her latest work, Bestial Burden, makes Abandon seem like a conventional pop record. If you’ve just raised your eyebrows at that last sentence, I guarantee you that I mean it. This record is fucking intense. More powerful and far more scary than Abandon, Chardiet’s second LP pierces through your flesh in the most unsettling manner possible.

 

 

Are you sitting comfortably? Good—remember that feeling, because you won’t feel it again for the next twenty nine minutes. Look at that album cover. Closely. Why? Because you are about to be put through the abattoir, without the merciful courtesy of having your throat slit first. Bestial Burden is the sonic equivalent of becoming the meat that you are about to eat. Chardiet’s voice is a weapon, and not a humane one like a sword or a gun. It’s more like a morning star to the face. Her voice renders you into not-so-choice cuts, partly because you haven’t been fed as good of a diet as your typical slaughterhouse-bound calf, but primarily because Chardiet wants you to feel the pain of a thousand slaughtered calves at once. And after you’ve been bludgeoned, bled, and broken down into pieces, you’ll want to put the needle back to the beginning and play the record all over again.

 

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Melvins - Hold It In

Melvins
Hold It In
14 October 2014
Ipecac

 

3 stars out of 5

Roughly thirty years ago, three high school lads from Grays Harbor County, Washington, embarked on a journey that would see them invent the sound that led to grunge. Bassist Matt Lukin went on to form Mudhoney, drummer Dale Crover played on fellow Grays Harbor residents Nirvana's Bleach, and guitarist slash singer Buzz Osborne is a towering figure in the worlds of both rock guitar and rock hair. The Melvins' current line-up includes Crover and Osborne in addition to Butthole Surfers members Paul Leary (guitar, vocals) and JD Pinkus (bass, vocals). Hold It In sees songwriting contributions by Leary on three tracks, during which he also assumes lead vocal duties. Leary's songs don't fit the rest of the album, composed of typically Melvins-esque slow, chugging punk-metal tunes of the kind that Kurt Cobain imitated during his early days. Despite the presence of this incongruous material, there's still some pretty good Buzz-tracks here, such as “The Bunk Up” and “Sesame Street Meat.” Of course, Buzz & Co.'s sense of humour is present in spades (see “Piss Pisstoferson” for starters).

So what is the band that was basically responsible for Nirvana's early sound and success (and introducing Cobain and Novoselic to Grohl) able to give us these days? A decent collection of the kind of tracks we expect from them, though made uneven by Leary's songs. There's little in the genius vein here as on previous records, though the epic closer “House of Gasoline” has moments of sublime bliss during its twelve minutes. It's cruel and untrue to say that Melvins have become stale, but there are moments on Hold It In that make one feel that staleness might be just around the corner. Of course, this is the kind of band that could put out an LP of the most fucked up shit imaginable in a mere ten months' time, so everything one could say about Melvins today probably won't apply at all by the time 2015 comes along.

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Foxygen - ...And Star Power

Foxygen
...And Star Power
14 October 2014
Jagjaguwar

2 stars out of 5

Listening to ...And Star Power, the new double LP by Foxygen, is, to be perfectly frank, 82 minutes of pure agony. This record is a total mess. And it's not even an endearing, clever mess, like Ween's The Pod. No, this is the kind of mess that makes Dylan's Self Portrait seem like a well-conceived piece of high art. Being forced to listen to ...And Star Power in its entirety in one sitting is somewhat akin to cutting up your entire body with razor blades and then lying naked on an ant hill. But without the pleasures often associated with being naked outdoors. I've listened to this fucking thing twice and I'm ready to kill someone.

The performances on this record are about as amateurish as you could imagine. As far as drugged-out psychedelic garage bands go, Foxygen can't hold a candle to your average high school stoners jamming in the band room after school. When an otherwise decent band turns out crap, they often limit it to a 7”, or at the very most a 10” EP. To extend the crap to a double LP like this shows not only an incredible lack of judgement, but a pair of egos on overdrive. Never mind the Kickstarter campaign to prevent Nickelback from playing in London, we need a campaign to prevent Foxygen from ever getting near recording equipment again. Please guys, stop.

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Johnny Marr - Playland

Johnny Marr
Playland
6 October 2014
New Voodoo

3 stars out of 5

In 2002, NME named The Smiths as the “most influential artist ever,” ahead of The Beatles. The guitarist and principal songwriter of The Smiths was, of course, Johnny Marr. Since the break-up of that band in 1987, Marr has been a member of The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse, and The Cribs, before releasing his solo LP, The Messenger, in 2013. Perhaps what was most surprising about the record was that Marr not only could sing, but had such an accomplished and nuanced voice. Twenty months later he's released his second, Playland, and while it's not as strong as The Messenger, it's still a solid collection of pop songs with an '80s feel.

Marr has done so much in the twenty-seven years since The Smiths closed up shop that there's little motivation to attempt comparison between Playland and, say, Strangeways Here We Come. “25 Hours” begins with a riff that could find itself at home on some theoretical fifth or sixth Smiths LP, while “The Trap” and “This Tension” are so representative of Marr's 1987 groove that they could easily find themselves on the b-side of a contemporary single. But the meat of “25 Hours” is an urgent rock song, and “Easy Money” has more in common with the dance-rock of The Psychedelic Furs that it does with any of Marr's previous work. The title track feels like PiL crossed with Wire crossed with The Cramps: out-of-control drum rolls and a grove that's part post-punk, part rockabilly.

The Smiths were so revolutionary when they first appeared that a whole new genre—indie rock—had to be created in order to categorize them. Marr had no peers when it came to his guitar playing, though he and his band spawned thousands of imitators. More than thirty years later, Marr is still not easily classifiable, following no one, though not likely to have many followers now either. While Playland is a catchy and competent record, it probably won't find its way into your all-time favourites lists, even if you were as devoted to The Smiths as I was back in the day. The fact that Marr has finally launched a solo career in the last couple of years is definitely welcome news, but his new music isn't anywhere near as life-changing as The Smiths and The Queen Is Dead were to so many of us '80s kids.

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright in the End

Weezer
Everything Will Be Alright in the End
7 October 2014
Republic

3.5 stars out of 5

Weezer have just released their ninth LP, which is, of course, titled Weezer. Ha! I kid. No, this one has a real title: Everything Will Be Alright in the End. Produced by Ric Ocasek, who produced Weezer (1994) and Weezer (2001), it's a return to the fun and clever power pop of their debut, and move away from the darker material of 2010's Hurley. At times sounding like Sugar's Copper Blue, at other times like the Pixies' Bossanova, Rivers Cuomo & Co. seem to make a point of rubbing their influences in our faces, which isn't at all a bad thing when you have influences such as those.

Though there's no major hit like “Buddy Holly” here, you have to get really deep into the track listing before you come across a song that doesn't have the potential to be a hit single. If you've been a fan since the beginning but then drifted away after their disappointing follow-ups to Pinkerton, it's time you came back into the fold. While not profound, Everything Will Be Alright in the End is all that Weezer ever promised to be in their debut manifesto: witty, hyper-catchy, and fucking loud. “Go Away” is an infectious duet with Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino. “Ain't Got Nobody” begins like Sugar's “The Act We Act” before achieving full Weezerfication. The first two singles, “Back to the Shack” and “Cleopatra,” are good hints at the treasures that lurk here, though both of them are surpassed by a half dozen album tracks in terms of quality.

In summary, Weezer have become a band worth listening to again. While not challenging or taxing musically or lyrically, it's difficult to find anything to criticize about Everything Will Be Alright in the End. Cuomo has written some of his finest pop songs in the last couple of years, and it's our privilege to be able to listen to them here.

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Peaking Lights - Cosmic Logic

Peaking Lights
Cosmic Logic
7 October 2014
Weird World

4 stars out of 5

Wife and husband duo Peaking Lights have put out a half dozen albums since forming in 2008. Often accused of being psychedelic, their hazy brand of indie electronica has earned them an eclectic following and some critical acclaim, especially for Lucifer, their previous album, released in 2012. Their latest, Cosmic Logic, is a dope joint of hedonistic homemade electro-dub that sees the duo recording in an actual studio for the first time, and the bigger budget sees them focusing and getting down to serious business.

This is by no means a record that aims for the mainstream. It ain't a slickly produced piece of radio pop. Rather, Cosmic Logic is an innovative and irreverent album that refuses to conform to any sort of genre expectations. Indra Dunis and Aaron Coyes don't seem interested in meeting any sort of pop radio demands. Their music is fun and catchy but by no means hook-laden. The insane catchiness of “Bad with the Good,” for example, would never get top 40 airtime, despite its epic beat and bass line. Every track is unique and memorable, and just eccentric enough to catch you off guard and dash your expectations. Look for this record to gain a lot of attention by the end of 2014.

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Ex Hex - Rips

Ex Hex

Rips

7 October 2014

Merge

4 stars out of 5

Indie guitar legend Mary Timony has a new band, Ex Hex, named after her 2006 album, Ex Hex, when her band was called the Mary Timony Band, named after herself, Mary Timony, the indie guitar legend. Rips is probably the most straight-forward thing she's ever done, and this straight-forwardness is even more surprising when one considers that this is the same woman who is associated with such ornate, baroque pieces as “Riddle of the Chamberlain.” Rips is far more like Cheap Trick than it is Helium; it has far more in common with The Cars than it does with The Golden Dove. But can she pull it off? Does one of indie rock's most eclectic songwriters know how to truly rock out like it's 1979?

 

Hellz yeah, motherfuckers. Timony may have simplified her compositions, but she definitely has not dumbed anything down. “Radio On” may be the kind of primal power pop you'd find on a record by The Records, but it's still pumped full of Timony's trademark PhD-in-philosophy brains and wit. “New Kid” is an urgent rocker reminiscent of The Nerves' “Hanging on the Telephone” (yes, covered by Blondie a couple of years later). Much of Rips is in this '70s power pop vein, but nowhere does it feel stale or derivative. Timony injects the vitality of her timonyness into every last corner of her songs. Her solos rock without wanking; her lyrics are intellectual without being tedious. It's next to impossible to find any flaws on this record, whether in conception or in execution. So throw away your preconceptions and just enjoy Timony's party record. She might be in her 40s now, but Rips sees her at her most carefree and fun-loving. If you take issue with Timony cutting loose and having a good time, that's your problem.

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Caribou - Our Love

Caribou

Our Love

6 October 2014

City Slang/Merge

 

3.5 stars out of 5

 

 

Ontario’s Dan Snaith puts out a new album every two-ish years, and that means it’s time for his seventh, Our Love. His unassuming style of quiet but steady electronica has gained him acclaim and a wide audience, and his LPs regularly make critics’ yearly best-of lists. Our Love may appear on a list or two, but frankly it’s not up there with his better work like Andorra or Up in Flames. Much of the album seems like Caribou-on-autopilot, though Snaith can slumber through a track and still pull off something better than most artists can produce at the height of alertness.

 

Our Love occupies a region somewhere between chill house and PBR&B. One of the album’s highlights, “Mars,” has a spooky IDM flavour, while others, such as “Back Home” and “Our Love,” come across as a more subtle, subdued How to Dress Well. While there’s nothing here that especially jumps out and grabs you, Our Love remains a solid second-tier Snaith offering, with just enough meat on it to satisfy old fans. If you’re new to the Caribou/Manitoba/Daphni junta you’re better off beginning with Up in Flames; if Up in Flames is among the most played albums on your iTunes, you’ll gain some quiet, although not mind-blowing, enjoyment from Our Love.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Flying Lotus - You're Dead!

Flying Lotus
You're Dead!
6 October 2014
Warp

 

4.5 stars out of 5

I haven't yet read any reviews of You're Dead!, but I'm certain than several of them will make reference to Squarepusher/Tom Jenkinson within the first couple of sentences (much like this one does). Featuring jazz legends Ronald Bruner, Jr. and Herbie Hancock on drums and keys respectively, YD! explodes out of the gate like an update of Squarepusher's 1998 deranged jazz classic, Music Is Rotted One Note. Add to this appearances by Dirty Projectors' Angel Deradoorian, whip-smart chanteuse Kimbra, film score legend Ennio Morricone (yes, the guy that wrote the theme to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), and the greatest rapper in the game today, Kendrick Lamar, and YD! packs enough all-star punch to get the entire league drunk. But is it able to transcend such a diverse cast and become greater than the sum of its parts?

 

Holy fuck, yes. This is as simultaneously focused and expansive a platter of tracks that Stephen Ellison has ever put together. Everything flows so seamlessly together that the nineteen compositions seem to be one long, continuously changing electronica-jazz symphony. Feel free to imagine whatever breathless and exaggerated expressions of excitement, wonder, and joy you like here, as I like to keep my reviews short, and there aren't enough synonyms for “totally fucking awesome” in the thesaurus to get the point across of how fantastic this album is. Ellison might have a lot of very famous and talented friends helping him out here, but his singular vision is by far the most arresting element of YD! While passages on several tracks definitely feel improvised, there is nothing random about how everything here is put together. Be warned, though: once you start listening to this record, you won't be able to stop. I've already listened to it four times today.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Zola Jesus - Taiga

Zola Jesus

Taiga

7 October 2014

Mute

 

3.5 stars out of 5

 

 

Coming just over a year after her last LP (2013’s Versions), Zola Jesus’s fifth LP (well, fourth if you concede that Stridulum II wasn’t a proper LP but a compilation), Taiga, is her first after signing with Mute. It sees the twenty-five-year-old Wisconsin native Nika Roza Danilova at her farthest point yet from her goth origins, hurtling into mainstream pop territory in some moments. In others (“Hunger,” “Go (Blank Sea)”), she stays firmly within the goth pop orbit, though not in a manner that would be alienating to those unfamiliar with the genre.

 

Danilova’s compositions are very smooth and controlled. There’s nothing within her music that comes across as unhinged or improvised. Perhaps her training as an opera singer is part of the reason. While her voice is certainly emotive and alive, her vocal performances are kept on a very short leash. Perhaps this is why her Taiga, though populated with beautiful creatures like “Long Way Down,” for the most part does indeed seem frozen and devoid of life. Having grown up in the taiga myself, I’m used to encountering a variety of furry and feathery beasts when I walk among the spruce and aspen, but Danilova’s forest is almost empty, save a few echoes and shadows.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Iceage - Plowing Into the Field of Love

Iceage

Plowing Into the Field of Love

6 October 2014

Matador/Escho

 

4 stars out of 5

 

 

Danish post-hardcore quartet Iceage have released two records of sharp and quick punk ditties, but their third LP, Plowing Into the Field of Love, sees them expanding their musical scope, and exploring musical territory beyond the two-minute mark. In fact, the shortest track here is two and a half minutes. But does it work? Do they pull it off?

 

Yes. They throw at us violins and horns, and these completely unexpected instruments, in very unexpected arrangements, feel natural. Don’t worry, Iceage haven’t gone all Mars Volta on us—this is an implosion of the genre that shares more in common with The Fall or Parquet Courts than it does with wankish neo-prog. Example: “Against the Moon” features brushes on the drums, an off-meter piano refrain, and violin and trumpet swells serving as the backdrop for a naked statement of regret. While the band expands their sound and explores many new songwriting territories, there’s not a hint of either arrogant bombast or over-production: Plowing Into the Field of Love works because it comes from a real place, full of agony and uncertainty. Closed-minded fans of the band are going to hate it, but Iceage probably don’t give a crap about that.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Mended with Gold

The Rural Alberta Advantage

Mended with Gold

30 September 2014

Paper Bag/Saddle Creek

 

3.5 stars out of 5

 

 

Toronto’s best tribute band to The Frames, The Rural Alberta Advantage have just dropped their third album, Mended with Gold. It’s everything you’d expect from a Canadian indie rock outfit: earnest, emotional songs with strong melodies and a sense of melancholy. After all, in HarperCanada™ we have a lot to be melancholy about: our government has sold our country to China and told the UN to go sit on a tack regarding abuses of our aboriginal peoples. But back to the record.

 

The RAA are all about giving you stadium rock anthems in the cozy environment of tiny hipster venues. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that—why shouldn’t the poorly dressed twenty-somethings of our nation’s gentrified inner cities be able to enjoy a good old cathartic experience be able to do so without feeling like they’re betraying their people? If you’re constantly charting high on !earshot then you likely have a reasonable quantity of indie cred, or you satisfy CanCon requirements, or both, so there’s no guilt there, right? Listening to “On the Rocks” is a perfectly legitimate pleasure, even if there’s really not much separating the RAA’s version of alt-rock from that of Our Lady Peace (which, let’s be frank together as a nation, was truly fucking awful).

 

So if you’re having a hipster hang-up regarding whether you can still listen to the RAA and publicly admit it, you can set your worries aside and just enjoy this record. It’s really not bad, for almost-mainstream-alternative-stadium-rock. And even if it goes on to sell two million copies (which it won’t), you can still listen to it because you were into them before they got big, right?

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Thom Yorke - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes

Thom Yorke

Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes

26 September 2014

self-released

 

4 stars out of 5

 

 

When you’re the main face of Radiohead, people pay attention to your solo projects. Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes is Yorke’s second solo LP, ending an eight-year gap between records. Yorke and the rest of Radiohead have never felt comfortable with fame, though their records—although increasingly fewer and farther between—always generate headlines through both their music and their method of release. TMB is no exception, having been released through the modern warship BitTorrent rather than the standard flotilla of digital music wooden galleons led by iTunes and Amazon. In some ways it’s the anti-Songs of Innocence: where U2 forced their new record down your throat for free, Yorke is charging $6; where U2 reach out—nay, intrude—with bombast and arrogance, Yorke hides in the locked rooms of his songs, generally reluctant to let you in.

 

This is a record of delicate beauty—indeed, cracks are visible throughout its fragile structures, making it seem like the whole thing could fall apart at any moment. The album’s first half is comprised of somewhat song-like songs, with more-or-less regular beats and parts that resemble verses and (sometimes) choruses. The second half is Yorke’s version of Side B of Bowie’s Low, made up of ambient thought-pieces that visit some chilly, remote places. The finale, “Nose Grows Some,” bows out shyly and quietly, and though offering the smallest helping of alienation of any track on the album, it’s by no means a warm, reassuring hug. No, Yorke’s music may seem emotionally naked, revealing all of his pain and anguish, but this nakedness is in itself a construction, a manufactured skin worn on top of his clothes, not the natural being beneath. Yorke hides, rather than reveals, but his hiding places are beautiful, memorable, and haunting.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger

Leonard Cohen - Popular Problems

Leonard Cohen

Popular Problems

19 September 2014

Columbia

 

4 stars out of 5

 

 

Popular Problems is Leonard Cohen’s thirteenth studio LP, and it isn’t all that bad. “There’s torture, and there’s killing, and there’s all my bad reviews,” Cohen sings on “Almost Like the Blues,” but the man who just turned 80 this past weekend isn’t getting many bad reviews these days. Despite being born and raised in decidedly un-artsy Westmount (an enclave of anglophone colonialism on the island of Montreal), Cohen became one of the original Plateau-Mont-Royal hipsters in the ‘50s and ‘60s, writing some of what became a part of Canada’s canonical literature; however, like most Canadians in those days, he didn’t become successful in his musical career until he moved south of the border. Cohen probably would have been happily retired a decade or two ago, spending lazy days writing at his favourite café on his favourite Greek island where the only transportation is by goat cart, would it have not been for his manager stealing millions of dollars from his retirement fund.

 

So, he’s had to return to the studio and the stage to earn back what was stolen. And, frankly, Popular Problems isn’t all that bad. Certainly this is an exercise in traditionalism, though a tradition that Cohen himself invented, and this record benefits from probably the most effective melding of musical arrangements to Cohen’s lyrics in over four decades. Cohen’s voice has aged like a very good wine—or perhaps like a really intense, smoky scotch. He lets it crack and grind in the lowest registers, effortlessly turning in a performance as intense and deadly as those of Blixa Bargeld in the early days of Einstürzende Neubauten, though Cohen definitely isn’t afraid to be sexy and cool while he’s doing it. Indeed, Cohen seems doomed to be sexy and cool; it’s inescapable. And the record… well, it isn’t that bad at all.

 

reviewed by Richard Krueger