Daily Album Digest: June 28 - July 11, 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.

6/28: The Rakes’ Klang: "The Light From Your Mac" and "1989" have their charms. I don't know about the rest of it though.

Why? Spotify recommended it to me because of the Strokes.

Additional Thoughts: I try my best to be constructive, find the good in things, and not sink into ranting and hate, but oh boy, was this album an unpleasant listen for me. One review recommended it for people who enjoyed pre-Tonight Franz Ferdinand, which would make me want to flip every table if not for the fact that it does sound like Franz – if Alex Kapranos couldn’t sing at all.

6/30: Radioactivity's Silent Kill: Great energy and flow. "No Connection" almost sounds like a punk rock Buddy Holly.

Why? New release. I’m not sure if the title was meant to be a riff on Silent Hill, but that’s my headcanon and why I chose it, so there.

Additional Thoughts: Some pretty straightforward punk with awesome energy. I like how many of the songs flow so well into each other, which is helpful since many of the songs are quite short (most are two minutes or less) and that flow makes the album feel cohesive. As for “No Connection,” I think it’s the vocal melody that reminds me most of Buddy.

7/1: Laurel Halo's Quarantine: The purposely ugly vocals make it unnerving and stand out, but I don't know if it works.

Why? A review on the Needle Drop made me curious.

Additional Thoughts: I would feel presumptuous calling the vocals “purposely ugly” if not for the fact that the album’s final track, “Light + Space,” proves Laurel Halo can carry a tune well. The juxtaposition of these often very pretty synth and electronic pieces with distorted, unconventional (if not, out of tune) singing and unnerving lyrics makes for an interesting listen, if nothing else. Personally, I don’t dig it very much, but she does have talent and ambition which I do applaud.

7/3: Son Lux' Bones: I like much of the atmosphere and beats, but it gets repetitive lyrically and drags a bit.

Why? 2015 release.

Additional Thoughts: Unfortunately, I feel that tweet about sums it up. The only thing I’d add is that the vocals remind me of Brandon Flowers, in a way. That isn’t a judgement call or anything, just an observation.

7/4: The Rolling Stones' The Rolling Stones: A wide stylistic gulf sits between the covers and the one Jagger/Richards track.

Why? I’ve mentioned on Twitter that I’m currently taking a course called The Music of the Rolling Stones. I listened to this not long after completing the corresponding lecture.

Additional Thoughts: Prior to starting my course of them, my knowledge on the Stones was quite limited. I basically know their prevalent image – the Bad Boys of Rock ’n’ Roll. Their debut certainly hints at that as well as showing their love of blues, but that’s mostly through covers. However, their one original track is so typical early 60s pop and as well as sticking out among all the early rock and blues, not what I would’ve expected from them at all.

7/6: Mini Mansions' Mini Mansions: There's much to like ("Crime of the Season"), but it's hard ignore a blemish like "Girls"

Why? I enjoyed The Great Pretenders and wanted to check out their debut.

Additional Thoughts: As I said, I really enjoyed The Great Pretenders, so I went into this one with kind of high hopes which was probably a mistake on my part. I try very hard to steer clear of making too many Beatles references, but this record, with its Lennon-esque lead vocals, harmonies, and psychedelia, invites those comparisons itself and most of the time it works. However, “Majick Marker” proves that for all the snide comments made about it “I Am Walrus” is very hard to replicate and I can’t help but cringe at “Girls,” particularly the line “Fond of fondling you, while you fondle me too.” It’s not sexy and it’s not funny (unless you’re in middle school), it just awkwardly and obviously sits there.

7/7: Hilary Duff's Breathe In. Breathe Out.: Decent ear candy, if you can ignore the often bewildering lyrical choices.

Why? 2015 release. A friend’s opinion on it made me curious, but I perhaps should’ve listened to them.

Additional Thoughts: Honestly, I should’ve run screaming from this record when the chorus of “Sparks” turned out to be just whistling. I wish I didn’t have to be harsh. I have no beef with Miss Duff; she seems like a nice person and I’ve liked singles of hers in the past, but yeah, I didn’t like this album. The music itself is passable pop, the melodies sweet, and her voice is pleasant to listen to. The lyrics are a big problem though. I’m not sure I can call the metaphors bad or even metaphors at all (see: “Confetti”), because that would imply the writers had a point to make beyond filling space with random words. I mean, look, I’m a big fan of Lady Gaga and she writes some pretty tortured metaphors, “Hair” for instance, but even when her metaphors don’t work you can at least see what she was going for with them. Or Gaga’s track “MANiCURE,” which has a fairly silly premise, but she throws herself in it and goes so hard vocally you can ignore that. Hilary Duff, by comparison, simply doesn’t have the vocal prowess or charisma to distract from lines like “Your television life couldn't channel this love” and “Hot sweats in cold sweaters.”

7/8: Pastel Ghost's Abyss: A beautiful mix of synths, chiptunes, and ethereal vocals that is wonderful to sink into.

Why? Spotify recommended it.

Additional Thoughts: I really like this album. My main criticism would be that the vocals are so low in the mix, which makes the lyrics barely audible. But I realize that’s likely the point. It forces you to pay attention since in order to catch the lyrics you need shut your eyes, lay back, and dive into the music.

7/9: Snow Patrol's Songs for Polarbears: The unassuming and open "Mahogany" stands out the most on this album.

Why? Front man Gary Lightbody has been tweeting up a storm lately, which made me track down whether or not I’d listened to this album. I hadn’t. It was time to rectify that.

Additional Thoughts: According to Last.fm, I “first scrobbled Velocity Girl on 13 Jun 2005” which makes my timing with this listen kind of funny to me. I can’t believe it took me a little over ten years to listen to this in its entirety. That said, I don’t know that I see myself going back to this album very much. Then again, Snow Patrol frequently takes time to grow on me. As debut albums go this does do a job of showcasing a lot of their qualities, for good and ill, which would become even more prevalent in time. Case in point, the straightforward lyrics of “Mahogany” remind me a great deal of Final Straw’s opening track, “How To Be Dead” and that song’s one of my biggest favorites in their catalog.

7/10: The Bird & the Bee's Recreational Love: From "Young & Dumb" to "Lovey Dovey" this record is simply exquisite.

Why? New release. Their Spotify bio intrigued me, especially the bit about jazz and “60’s tropicalia.”

Additional Thoughts: Some themes have definitely emerged among the 2015 albums I’ve loved the most; progressive rock/baroque pop, pyschedelia, sweet vocals, and echoes of R&B. Recreational Love contains those last two for sure. I just really love this record. I’m glad I took the chance to give it a listen and I look forward to checking out their other stuff.

7/11: The Rolling Stones' 12 x 5: So. The Stones did a faithful cover of "Under the Boardwalk" ...and I am confused.

Why? As with the previous Stones album this listen was influenced by my “The Music of the Rolling Stones” class. You all should probably expect a lot of Stones in the coming weeks/months.

Additional Thoughts: As I said earlier, I have very limited knowledge of the Stones and my image of them is definitely getting a shake-up. I never would’ve pegged them as fans of the Drifters, but right here is a very faithful cover of “Under the Boardwalk.” I don’t know that there’s much else I can say about this album, though, as it’s not very different from their debut. All I’ll say is this regarding their cover of "If You Need Me": Mick Jagger is no Wilson Pickett. Sorry, man.

All albums available to stream on Spotify. 

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

Daily Album Digest: March 15 - 28, 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.

3/15: Sparks In Outer Space: I was ready call this an okay-possible-grower with cool synths and humor, then "Dance Godammit" confirmed it as more.

Why? Still plowing through Sparks in preparation for FFS.

Anything else? Maybe a better way to put it would have been that “Dance Godammit” made me rethink the album. Much of the album feels “typical 80s,” but the final song seems to imply that may have been intentional. Nowadays an artist attributing the vapid nature of a work to irony happens a lot (see Ke$ha and Marina & the Diamonds’ Electra Heart), so if that’s indeed what Sparks were doing here it would be very easy to just shrug and say, “So what?”; the unfair consequence of any technique becoming so damn pervasive.   

3/16: Bruno Mars' Doo-Wops & Hooligans: Portrays Mars as a solid musical chameleon, but is that all he is? Highlight: "The Other Side"

Why? I only know Bruno’s singles, so I wanted to give his albums a spin.

Anything else? For the longest time I put Bruno Mars in the same category as the Black Keys; acts who don’t do anything outwardly wrong, in fact they do a lot right and ostensibly should appeal to me, but something just doesn’t jive. Generally I like genre-hopping and love soul, but Bruno’s debut doesn’t really feel like it possesses a strong personality behind it to tie it all together. Even the most genre-defying artists have something that strikes as quintessentially them. Bruno certainly knows tons about music and how to write good tunes, but I don’t think the album says anything about him. Some of the tone shifts don’t help in that. The album goes from the sweet and romantic “Just The Way You Are” and “Our First Time” to asshole mode in “Runaway Baby” (and, if we’re being totally honest, “The Lazy Song.”) Not that artists should never contradict themselves, just that when it’s that stark of a contrast (on a debut, especially), I can’t help but think, “Who the hell are you?” And that’s the problem. I could deal with genre-bending and contradicting lyrics, except he does both and tries to be too many things at once without establishing his own clear identity. I see why the album got big, but ultimately it doesn’t really work for me.

3/17: Marina & the Diamonds' Froot: Two big stand-outs from this album are "Weeds" and "Savages," which exhibit stunning brutal honesty.

Why? New release and I’ve been meaning to check her out for a while.

Anything else? It took a while for this album to grab me, but once it did it blew me away with Marina’s honesty. Admitting one’s flaws and mistakes can be difficult and she does it so well, as evidenced by tracks like “Blue” and “I’m a Ruin.” The latter of which contains the great line, “It's difficult to move on when nothing was right and nothing's wrong.”

3/18: Bruno Mars' Unorthodox Jukebox: He still works in pastiche, but this feels more confident. "Treasure" and "Moonshine" are undeniable.

Why? Finishing up Mr. Mars’ discography so far.

Anything else? Now this album I dig. It suffers some of the same pitfalls of Bruno’s debut, but feels more cohesive. I still don’t know if I know much about him, but this time he’s much better at making me forget that fact. I prefer his performances on this album, because it feels like he’s really throwing himself in it. One review calls the album “oddly lyrically aggressive,” which I think contrasts the debut’s occasional lovey-dovey moments. Even though those sweets moments where the best parts of Doo-Wops, they rang false set against songs like “Runaway Baby.” Basically, if you’re going to be an asshole at least commit to it and go whole hog. Put it this way: I’d much rather listen to “Gorilla” than “Grenade.” Both are ridiculous and over dramatic, but I’d rather hear Bruno brag about his sexual prowess than brag about guilt tripping someone with his suicidal ideation.

3/19: Sparks' Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat: Charming overall. I have a bit of a weakness for seductive synthpop like "Kiss Me Quick.”

Why? Still plowing through Sparks in preparation for FFS.

Anything else? According to the album’s AllMusic review, “Few sparks are struck here.” I disagree. As I said in the tweet, I think it’s charming, especially in comparison to In Outer Space. The title track is fun and sounds like what would happen if Oingo Boingo wrote “Applause” by Lady Gaga. “Love Scenes,” “With All My Might,” and the aforementioned “Kiss Me Quick” are quite lovely. I can see how one would view it as generic for Sparks and I certainly wouldn’t choose this album to die on a hill defending, but it’s charming enough for me, for whatever that’s worth.

3/20: Ariana Grande's Yours Truly: Much has been made of the albums 90s feel, but a big highlight is 50s/60s throwback "Tattooed Heart."

Why? Wanted to finish off Ariana’s discography so far.

Anything else? I enjoyed this more than My Everything.  I think maybe that album tried too hard to be overtly sexual and this one just concerned itself with showing off Ariana’s great voice. I love “Tattooed Heart” in premise and execution. The vocal melody and strings have that classic sound that makes me melt in happiness. 

3/21: Marina & the Diamonds' The Family Jewels: If the idea of a musical baby between Fiona Apple and Sparks appeals to you, this is for you.

Why? After enjoying Froot I’ve decided to go back and look at Marina’s other records.

Anything else? Unlike Froot album grabbed me almost instantly. The performances on Froot are definitely more reserved, especially in comparison to this album. Sparks came to mind immediately when listening to this and I thought that might have been due to how much of them I’ve been listening to until I found multiple critics making the same comparison. I love the bouncy, theatrical moments (like “Mowgli’s Road”) almost as much as the more open moments (like “Obsessions” and “The Outsider.”) The album shows someone who, despite maybe some insecurities, is absolutely fearless musically and willing to try anything, which is greatly appealing.

3/22: Tokyo Police Club's Forcefield: Solid and enjoyable indie pop/rock and sometimes that enough. Highlight: "Argentina Parts I, II, III"

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

Anything else? Again restrictions making me sound more backhanded than I’d like. Granted I don’t sound as harsh as some critics and fans that roasted this album for leaving the band’s “original” sound in favor of something more radio friendly. Granted, this was my first exposure to the band, so maybe they’re right about it being a step back. Still, I found the album enjoyable and it makes me curious enough to look into their previous work.

3/23: Sparks' Music That You Can Dance To: "The Scene" & spoken word infused tracks "Shopping Mall Of Love" & "Change" make up for a slow start.

Why? Still plowing through Sparks in preparation for FFS.

Anything else? This can be found on Spotify under the title Best of Sparks. Prior to listening to it I’d read the AllMusic review, so I wasn’t too keen going in. It does have a slow start and I wasn’t thrilled with their cover of Fingertips (I mean nothing can beat Stevie Wonder), but within seconds “The Scene” made up for it. The track reminds me a lot of “The Reflex” by Duran Duran, so I can always get into that. Despite their titles “Music That You Can Dance To” and “Let’s Get Funky” are decidedly not dancey or funky and they’re kind of… plain. For Sparks, anyway. The quirks of “Shopping Mall of Love” and “Change” make up for that, though. “Change” in particular is simply magnificent musically, just heart-clenchingly wonderful. Overall, the album has some fairly forgettable stuff, but the good stuff is really great.  I can’t see the whole album ever being counted among my Sparks favorites, but some tracks definitely could.

(Missed March 24th, so I did two albums on the 25th)

3/25: Mini Mansions' The Great Pretenders: Majestic psychedelia anchored by beautiful vocal melodies. Among the many highlights: "Any Emotions"

Why? New release. Their bio on Spotify describes them as “dark psych-pop” and I can’t deny Brian Wilson.

Anything else? I think I might expand on this record in a full post. It’s really good. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up one of my favorites of the year. Don’t be deceived by the title -  they aren’t simply good mimics.

3/25: Marina & the Diamonds' Electra Heart: A record steeped in artifice and irony that's strongest when its vulnerability can shine through.

Why? To round out her discography.

Anything else? As I’ve said, her brutal honesty that draws me to Marina, so I’m not all that keen on her going the ironic route here. That said, I enjoy seeing her growth and how this led to the more “human” sounding Froot. Also, “Sex Yeah” is great. 

3/26: Sparks' Interior Design: Aside from "Lots of Reasons" not much sticks out. I don't know if it needs to grow on me or is just forgettable

Why? Still plowing through Sparks in preparation for FFS.

Anything else? I’m conflicted about this record for reasons stated above. On the upside, “Lots of Reasons” made me laugh; “You’re intelligent, but that’s no threat. I’ve been reading every chance I get.” “Let’s Make Love” also sounds a lot like run-of-the-mill synth-based love song, but it also has a sense of humor; “I’ve been waiting all my life for someone I could stand.”

3/27: Orange Juice's Rip It Up: Feels a bit padded, but its wit and grooves make up for it. Highlights: "A Million Pleading Faces" and "Rip It Up"

Why? Earlier on in the day I’d listened to Late Night Tales: Franz Ferdinand, which probably influenced the decision to pick this over other albums saved in my Spotify.

Anything else? According to what I read this album came after the departure of key members and some record company pressure, so that likely explains that sometimes padded vibe. It feels like they were stretching for time. Despite all that, when it’s good, it’s great, so any weakness is forgivable. 

3/28: Sparks' Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins: The kind of techno I really love, where sweetness and haunting beauty just wash over you.

Why? Still plowing through Sparks in preparation for FFS.

Anything else? I loved this record. So much so, that I don’t know if I can coherently discuss it. It reminds me a great deal of their No. 1 In Heaven; lush and breathtaking with a perfection that almost defies any discussion. It was worth going through stuff like Interior Design to get to pieces as magnificent as “When Do I Get To Sing ‘My Way’” and “Frankly, Scarlett, I Don’t Give A Damn.”

All albums available to stream on Spotify.