This will be a longer post than usual. I've been pretty busy the last couple weeks, and I expect May to be even more busy, but luckily I have some relaxation time this weekend. I got so caught up in Constanza'ing basketball that the new albums had really started piling up. And some of them are quite good. Here are four of them.
Kurt Vile
Wakin' on a Pretty Daze
84/100
This mellow rock album is unexpectedly good. On first listen, you get the feeling that these songs were just tossed together. The more you play it, the more you notice how strong a mood he creates. An early April release date seems like a solid choice, because this is the perfect album to play on a lazy summer car ride. Kurt Vile doesn't restrict himself to typical 3-4 minute pop-song length either. You'll be surprised at how many songs feel a bit longer than usual--only to realize that they're almost touching on the ten-minute mark, like "Wakin' on a Pretty Day" (below). Really good album--the kind that you want to replay as soon as it has finished.
The Haxan Cloak
Excavation
82/100
How can I say this? This experimental album is an exploration into what happens to us after we die. If Excavation comes anywhere close to the truth, then our afterlife is going to be filled with anxiety, surprise, and random bursts of horror. The second track is carried along by an electronic heartbeat, but since we're already dead, this must be our mind thinking of it from habit's sake. Dark stuff. As allmusic.com puts it, "'Creeping' and 'funereal' [are terms that are] not just accurate, they're complimentary." Bobby Krlic, the man who is Haxan Cloak, wanted to make an album that would flip your shit, and he did just that. It's music that you'll only play a couple times a year, when you get into the weird mood that Excavation requires. You know, the weird mood that has forgotten just how horrible the afterlife might possibly be.
Wakin' on a Pretty Daze
84/100
This mellow rock album is unexpectedly good. On first listen, you get the feeling that these songs were just tossed together. The more you play it, the more you notice how strong a mood he creates. An early April release date seems like a solid choice, because this is the perfect album to play on a lazy summer car ride. Kurt Vile doesn't restrict himself to typical 3-4 minute pop-song length either. You'll be surprised at how many songs feel a bit longer than usual--only to realize that they're almost touching on the ten-minute mark, like "Wakin' on a Pretty Day" (below). Really good album--the kind that you want to replay as soon as it has finished.
* * *
Excavation
82/100
How can I say this? This experimental album is an exploration into what happens to us after we die. If Excavation comes anywhere close to the truth, then our afterlife is going to be filled with anxiety, surprise, and random bursts of horror. The second track is carried along by an electronic heartbeat, but since we're already dead, this must be our mind thinking of it from habit's sake. Dark stuff. As allmusic.com puts it, "'Creeping' and 'funereal' [are terms that are] not just accurate, they're complimentary." Bobby Krlic, the man who is Haxan Cloak, wanted to make an album that would flip your shit, and he did just that. It's music that you'll only play a couple times a year, when you get into the weird mood that Excavation requires. You know, the weird mood that has forgotten just how horrible the afterlife might possibly be.
* * *
Bonobo
The North Borders
70/100
This is the fifth studio album by Simon Green as Bonobo. He's been making ambient downbeat electronica for twelve years now. His career reminds me of the law of diminishing returns. How many examples can you think of an artist who starts off with a so-so first album, improves on the second, makes his breakthrough on the third or fourth, and then by the fifth or sixth has either plateau'd or else has clearly declined? That's what I think of when I play The North Borders. It's a skilled album, without surprising or impressing the listener. If you like downtempo electronic music, you'll play it. But it'll rarely be your first--or second, or third--choice. Better albums by Bonono, if you're curious, are Dial "M" for Monkey and Black Sands. "Cirrus," probably the best song on The North Borders, is below.
* * *
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Mosquito
65/100
The music is better than the album cover, which isn't saying much, considering the fact that this is the shittiest album cover I've seen in a long time. You know what I really miss from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Their earliest songs that sounded rough and edgy and gave you everything you wanted to hear from a garage punk band--songs like "Bang," which start off:
Bang, bang, bang, the bigger the better
and led into this chorus:
As a fuck, son, you sucked. As a fuck, son, you sucked. As a fuck, son, you sucked. As a fuck, son, you sucked. The purpose of the song was nothing more or less than to insult the lead singer's former lover. It was thrilling to hear Karen O sing so derisively. Anyhoo, this album has 1/4th of their earlier energy, which happens to be just enough to create "Sacrilege," by far the best song on the album and just about the only one worth multiple replays. But no, this isn't a garage punk band anymore.
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