Daily Album Digest: April 26 - May 9, 2015

Carrying on February's Music Writer's Exercise (#MWE), each day I listen to a new album and tweet a brief review of it. Then every two weeks compile those tweets here with some extra thoughts.

4/26: Vatican Shadow's Ghosts Of Chechnya: Minimalist industrial that loops more than builds. Highlight: "Peace Rage"

Why? A recommendation from LoadingReadyRun’s Best of 2014 podcast.

Additional Thoughts: Albums like this are pretty the reason I started to write these digests, because that tweet wasn’t really a judgement or criticism against the record, that’s simply what the music does. As another review put it, it only becomes a good or bad thing if one doesn’t like what’s looping. The concept around Vatican Shadow is very interesting though. It’s one of many projects by Purient (Dominick Fernow) and it focuses on political struggle and war. I feel like maybe if I knew more detail about the political aspect of this the music would then mean more and carry more weight, but since I don’t, not really. It’s a lot like what I said about Ben Frost’s Aurora, it’s hard for me to find a way into music like this but I want to try – if for no other reason than to broaden by palette.  

4/27: Tears for Fears' Raoul & the Kings of Spain: "Life is not a cake to separate"...what am I supposed to do with that?

Why? I have a list of discographies I want to get through; right now I’m going through Tears for Fears.

Additional Thoughts: I try my best to be constructive and not be a dismissive, snarky jerk, but… good grief, I just don’t know how else to react to this album. I was curious how this album was going to pan out, because it was said to be about Roland Orzabel’s family and Spanish roots with much of what I’d seen prior to listening to it making it seem like a concept album. It isn’t and even if I throw that idea away to take it for what it is, I still don’t like it. However, I will say that I like the lyric from “Sketches of Pain,” “Great wide stretches of canvas / Signed by a godless name,” which is likely a reference to the fact that Orzabel’s name was anglicized to Roland after he’d already been Christened Raoul. It’s clever, personal, and interesting and I wish the album had more of that and stuff like “Los Reyes Catolicos.” It’s disappointing as there are some cool ideas here, but they are few and far between and, well, precious little can make up for “God’s Mistake.” Spoiler alert: it’s love. Apparently. I… don’t know. 

4/28: Blur's The Magic Whip: I find it fascinating that the bulk of this was done in a few days. It doesn't feel like it.

Why? New release and I’ve been meaning for quite some time to dig more into Blur.

Additional Thoughts: So, yes, first off, this is my first full Blur album, so take my opinions with a grain of salt, if need be. If I’d known the recording process before listening to it, I would’ve assumed it to sound like a disjointed mess. I don’t know if the cohesion is a testament to the production work of Stephen Street and Graham Coxon, to Blur’s tightness as a band, or both, but it’s impressive nonetheless. While I don’t know if it harkens back Blur’s glory days like some say, I quite like it, especially “My Terracotta Heart.” 

4/29: Caribou's Our Love: While this album wants to be emotionally affecting, I'm not sure it is, which is unfortunate.

Why? A recommendation from LoadingReadyRun’s Best of 2014 podcast.

Additional Thoughts: One review describes this album as “downtrodden to the point of dreariness” and “drowsy torpor” and I have to agree, especially with the latter. The album is by no means lazy – the pieces are complex, intricate, and have some interesting ideas. There are some great grooves (“All I Ever Need”) and atmosphere (“Silver”), but there are few songs as a whole that I can get into. As I said, the album wants to be emotionally affecting and it sometimes gets there, but it’s still mostly locked in its head.

4/30: Tears for Fears' Everybody Loves a Happy Ending: Proves Sgt. Pepper is very hard to recreate, but can be enjoyable.

Why? To finish up Tears for Fears’ discography.

Additional Thoughts: As a young Beatle geek, it made me angry when I felt an act was imitating them. Now it tires me. Influence is one thing, imitation is another and it takes a certain amount of finesse and personality to not cross over into a carbon copy. Sparks, for example, clearly influenced by the Beatles, but are very much their own thing. This isn’t the first time Tears for Fears has attempted a Pepper riff either. I will give this album credit though; it’s a better at it than The Seeds of Love. 

5/1: The Weepies' Sirens: Fittingly named, as it quietly lures you in then hits you with a track like "Fancy Things."

Why? Recent release. I can’t remember why I chose this specifically, though.

Additional Thoughts: The Weepies are an indie-ish, folk-ish husband and wife duo. Like I said, this album lures you in with relatively quiet, acoustic stuff like the beautiful “Sunflower” (though it is a bit later in the album, still, go with me on this!) and then “Fancy Things” and “Early Morning Riser” come out of left field. The former has a sinister and sixties spy movie sort of vibe, while the latter is a seemingly ska-influenced bouncefest.

5/2: Alabama Shakes' Boys & Girls: They're obviously talented, but this runs out of steam very quickly.

Why? Sound & Color made me curious about their debut.

Additional Thoughts: Sound & Color shows obvious improvement and growth. This album isn’t bad, exactly, it’s just oddly lifeless and a bit of a bore to listen to. Regardless, I won’t rag on them too much as the follow-up was much better. They needed to find their footing and seem to be on the way there. Besides, I think people put too much pressure on debuts and are too quick to dismiss people who just need time to grow and improve. 

5/3: Neil Cicierega's Mouth Sounds: Hilarious in concept and execution. Who knew "All-Star" could be so versatile?

Why? Graham from LoadingReadyRun mentioned it during a recent livestream and since my internet was acting up I figured I would go with this.

Additional Thoughts: In short, Mouth Sounds is a comedy/mash-up album that primarily plays with Smash Mouth’s “All-Star.” If I say anything more it will likely ruin a lot of the jokes, so really, just listen to it. 

5/4-5: Blur's Leisure: I don't know that I agree with Albarn's assertion that it's "awful," but it is, perhaps, uneven.

Why? I have a list of discographies I want to get through; after The Magic Whip I’ve decided to go through Blur.

Additional Thoughts: Not particularly remarkable. However, as I said with Alabama Shakes, this is only their debut and they’ve clearly improved with time, so there’s no need to get too uppity about it.

5/5: Ciara's Jackie: I wish "That's How I'm Feelin'" was just her and Missy. "One Woman Army" is pretty bitchin' though.

Why? New release and I really liked the video for “I Bet” when it premiered. She also appears have a cult following, of sorts, which made me curious to dig in more.

Additional Thoughts: As I tried to imply with my tweet, I don’t get why Pitbull and his lack of subtlety needed to be on “That’s How I’m Feelin’” – it would’ve been great without him soiling it. That aside, this album does have a couple of good songs, such as “I Bet” and “One Woman Army,” but as a whole it didn’t click with me. Maybe it just needs time to grow on me and who knows, maybe I’ll like her other albums more.

5/6: Clark's Clark: Don't let the pretentious genre label "intelligent dance music" put you off, this album is great.

Why? A recommendation from LoadingReadyRun’s Best of 2014 podcast.

Additional Thoughts: As you could probably guess, I’m not too thrilled with the label “intelligent dance music” – there’s just so much wrong with it – but the genre conversation is a separate thing. I really liked this record, which was a relief after some of my recent attempts to broaden my electronic/techno/noise palette fell a bit flat. I’m not sure why this one in particular struck a chord with me. I suppose it might be due to the fact that, despite the genre it’s lumped into, it doesn’t feel stuck in its own head – it has a primal, immediate, and physical nature. 

5/8: Mandolin Orange's Such Jubilee: The cover captures it well as the album manages to be both intimate and vast.

Why? Recent release and I liked their punny name.

Additional Thoughts: Mandolin Orange is another male-female folk duo, but more on the country and bluegrass side of folk than the Weepies. It’s a beautiful, relaxing record. It’s acoustic and minimal (for lack of a better term) in terms of instrumentation, but it still manages to sound as open as the sky depicted on the cover. 

5/9: Mac DeMarco's Salad Days: Like a hybrid Harrison and soft rock, but not in a bad way. Highlight: "Jonny's Odyssey"

Why? A recommendation from LoadingReadyRun’s Best of 2014 podcast.

Additional Thoughts: My first thought about listening to this album was, “Wow, this dude has listened to a lot of George Harrison and Bob Dylan.” There were even moments when it seemed like he was actively trying to make himself sound like George in terms of vocals. Overall, that’s not a bad thing, necessarily. It’s a bit more accessible than George could sometimes be, though. In a word, I’d call it “breezy,” because the album feels like a relaxing day sitting on a beach.

All albums available to stream on Spotify, except Mouth Sounds which can be streamed and downloaded from NeilCic.com. 

If you'd like to suggest an album, comment on this entry or tweet me.