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. 

Daily Album Digest: April 12 - 25, 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.

4/12: Carly Rae Jepsen's Tug of War: Lovely and folky indie pop akin to Jewel. Highlights: "Tell Me" and "Money & the Ego"

Why? The album’s been in the queue since Todd In Shadow’s review of “Call Me Maybe” piqued my curiosity.

Additional Thoughts: Even vocally she reminds me of Jewel, like at certain moments in the title track. The main weakness of the album is that Jepsen needs a better editor, because there are some weird lyrical choices that can be distracting. “Money & the Ego,” for example, “Going for money and the money and the ego,” which could be seen as emphasis but it just seems like she couldn’t think of something else to add that fit the melody line. Either way, it’s a solid album, solid enough to make it disappointing that she didn’t end up growing in this vein and in some ways seemed to regress.

4/13: Carly Rae Jepsen's Kiss: Cute and catchy. I feel like I just got hit by a cotton candy truck driven by record execs.

Why? I wanted see how this album compared to her debut.

Additional Thoughts: Tug of War isn’t exactly deep or groundbreaking, but this? Jeez, man. I don’t oppose an artist changing their sound or “going pop” – when doing so is their choice. I’m not naïve enough to think it a coincidence that this record came after Jepsen signed to a major label and I have a hard time looking passed that. What gets me is that even with all these additional collaborators the sometimes weird lyrical choices from Tug of War appear here. You’d think someone would proofread these things or something. I mean, “Your Heart Is A Muscle”? I get the metaphor the song is going for, but it doesn’t work when the heart is literally a muscle.

4/14: Stealing Sheep's Not Real: Listening to this is like riding a wave of sweetly sinister psychedelia. It's fantastic.

Why? New release. I nearly didn’t pick this because one site listed it as “synthpop” which I think I’ve been doing too much of lately. I’m glad I didn’t it anyway.

Additional Thoughts: I think I might dig into this album in a post of its own, if not soon, certainly by the end of year. This might even end up one of my favorites of the year. It’s great, especially “Greed” and “Sequence.”

4/15: The War On Drugs' Lost in the Dream: Well-executed, dreamy Americana. Highlights: "The Haunting Idle" and "Burning"

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

Additional Thoughts: This album apparently came after a period of depression for the lead singer and it really shows. The first portion of the album does a good job of feeling depressed. The songs themselves aren’t depressing exactly, but they definitely convey how being in the midst of, say, a winter depression can feel. As such, I don’t see myself going back to it.

4/16: Tears for Fears' The Hurting: Open honesty of this magnitude takes a lot of guts and yields a powerful work.

Why? Working through Tears for Fears’ discography.

Additional Thoughts: Not so much enjoyable as much as it’s cathartic, if you allow it. Honesty like this can make some people uncomfortable, as evidenced by the needlessly dismissive Rolling Stone review from 1983 that described the lyrics as “petty traumas.” To a degree, I can understand how this kind of writing could get insufferable, but this is clearly coming from a place far deeper than some high school the-girl-I-like-doesn’t-like-me angst. This is someone cracking their ribcage open and letting out the deep dysfunction and hurt that helped mold them. That’s by no means an easy thing to do. Or to listen to, for that matter, so I can see why someone would want to push it away or dismiss it. Still, as I said, it’s a powerful work and I certainly respect it. 

4/17: The Wombats' Glitterbug: Songs perfectly suited for an outdoor arena in the summer. Highlight: "Give Me a Try"

Why? A recent release I’ve wanted to get to because the title really caught my eye.

Additional Thoughts: I really like it. I think it’s a good summer record. Opener “Emoticons” is another highlight; “Now all my elephants are in the room.” One review says they aren’t as clever as they think, but personally, I find them endearing.

4/18: Run the Jewels' Run the Jewels: Fierce in wordplay and delivery. Highlight: "A Christmas Fucking Miracle"

Why? Run the Jewels 2 is on the list of recommendations from LRR, but I thought I should listen to this one beforehand just to get acclimated to their style.

Additional Thoughts: I’m used to verse-chorus-verse and rap that’s very hook-centric, so this is a gear change. Where there are a couple refrains throughout the record, the focus is on the verses, which is where it ought to be, honestly. They’re dark, funny, and poignant; “A Christmas Fucking Miracle” gave me goosebumps. 

(Missed April 19th, so I did two albums on the 20th.)

4/20: Tears for Fears' The Seeds of Love: While I appreciate the social consciousness aspect, it can come off patronizing

Why? Working through Tears for Fears’ discography.

Additional Thoughts: Yeeeah. I appreciate that Roland Orzabel wanted more “human” sounding music and you’d think with all the psychedelia I’ve been into lately I’d be all about this, but… no. Frankly, I think Orzabel’s writing is at its strongest when he’s spilling his guts, not trying to recreate “All You Need is Love.” It’s not that I find the attempts insincere, I just don’t think it’s the best use of his talent.

4/20: Tame Impala's Innerspeaker: Enveloping without being an oppressive wall of sound. Hazy without sacrificing detail.

Why? I’ve been meaning to check them out for a while and they were also included in the LRR 2014 recommendations.

Additional Thoughts: The album showed me that I need to figure out some different ways to describe psychedelic music. I usually describe it in terms of waves, but this album isn’t like floating on a wave, it’s being submerged completely. Kevin Parker’s voice has been compared to John Lennon’s, but the sweet edge to it reminds me more of Sean Lennon. Neither comparison is a bad thing, of course.

4/21: Alabama Shakes' Sound & Color: Brittany Howard's captivating, gritty, soulful vocals are the album's biggest asset.

Why? New release. I chose this because I know next to nothing about Alabama Shakes and wanted to educate myself.

Additional Thoughts: What got me more than the album itself was this baffling review from the Guardian. Apparently not being influenced by hip-hop or dubstep somehow counts as “lack of originality,” despite the bulk of the mainstream constantly doing just that. That sort of twisted logic is why the concept of “originality” is so sticky to me. I get the desire to eye-roll so-called rock purist who still bristle at hip-hop’s continued existence, but come on, not every act needs to jam rap verses or bass drops into their work and not wanting to shouldn’t count against them.

4/22: Television's Marquee Moon: Much of this was recorded live and/or in one take, which shows clarity of vision.

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

Additional Thoughts: I ran into similar issues with Is This It by the Strokes. It’s a seminal record, so it’s nearly impossible to attempt to hear it with fresh ears. Even though I’ve never listened to Television before I have listened to post-Television post-punk (and just rock in general), so I’ve heard stuff influenced by this. Another issue? It’s on the Rolling Stone 500, so any further digging must wait.

4/23: Tears for Fears' Elemental: The big stand out is "Fish Out of Water," about conflicts and strain within the band.

Why? Working through Tears for Fears’ discography.

Additional Thoughts: Like I said, Orzabel works best when spilling his guts and that’s why “Fish Out of Water” works. It’s honest and real. “Power” attempts to be social consciousness (in a way) and it works because there feels like a personal connection to it. It’s advice from personal experience, not some vague notion of let’s-everyone-love-each-other or something similar. At other times, the albums feels like it’s trying too hard to be clever (what’s a “pessimister”?) and that can grate. 

4/24: San Fermin's Jackrabbit: I can't tell if it's meant to be a concept album, but either way it's utterly gorgeous.

Why? Recent release and I had no clue what I was getting into.

Additional Thoughts: With the contrast of Allen Tate’s baritone and Charlene Kaye’s sweetness this album is like a prettier Sons & Daughters as conducted by Patrick Wolf. I just love it. Something I find interesting is that it sometimes feels like Celtic music without sounding much like it. I’m sure there’s a music theory explanation for that, but I can't, I just know that I dig it.  

4/25: Stealing Sheep's Into The Diamond Sun: Dazzling overall, though the three-part harmonies stand out the most.

Why? I really enjoyed Not Real, so I wanted to check this out.

Additional Thoughts: More acoustic than and perhaps not as atmospheric as their follow-up Not Real, but that doesn’t mean bare bones. It’s still a full sound, especially when the three-part harmonies kick in. I have such a weakness for harmonies like those on this record. “White Lies” and “Genevieve” are some of the album’s stand outs.

All albums available to stream on Spotify. 

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