I’ve been so into the apartment recently, I’ve been slacking off on keeping up with my music. I was going to put this “Weekly Album” series on a little hiatus, or until I found some really good music. I still think I’m planning on doing this; so it’ll be more “Great Albums” and less “Weekly.”
Well, just this morning, my great friend, Morgan, pointed me in the direction of Lykke Li and I have fallen head over heals for her in the past few hours I’ve been listening and researching. Beautiful words, beautiful voice and a beautfiul face. …If nothing else her dancing, much like MIA, makes me happy through and through!
With so many surprises in the arrangements, you might overlook what a strength Li herself is, how well she unifies Youth Novels’ scattershot imagination. It’s easy to dismiss her style as overly cutesy– the babytalk chorus on first single “Little Bit”, for instance– and her fragility can seem annoyingly affected. But don’t be fooled– she’s in total command of the songs, and her breathy fuzziness fits the wireframe aesthetic better than a fuller voice would. There are also hints that Li would be as happy with a richer sound– on the beautiful “My” she’s rolled and washed by cymbal, string, and echo and lets them envelop her without erasing her.
Whoops, had this written and everything yesterday, but looks like I saved it instead of posting… This week features one of my favorite albums from 2007, Myth Takes by !!! (pronounced Chk Chk Chk).
Rating: 8.0
Any tentative or half-baked delivery is all but absent from Myth Takes, which rampages through the annals of kinetic music without letting genre tropes override or diffuse the songs’ impact. The cerebral always takes a backseat to the visceral, and the album, while varied, is united by relentless propulsion. The title track’s elastic bass and spaghetti-western guitar licks are a tense backdrop for Offer’s smarmy scatting– not to mention an effective foil to the ominous funk-laden following track, “All My Heroes Are Weirdoes”. Mobile bass and telegraphic synths dominate the sex-jam “Must Be the Moon”, a sort of pimp-strutting nursery rhyme for the 21+ set (”One drink, two drinks, three drinks, four!”). “A New Name” holds two contrasting modes in balance: earthy funk verses and a spacey soul-noir chorus that sloughs off tiny ice-chip tones, testifying to the importance of bassist and sound engineer Justin Vandervolgen’s subtle tweaks. No longer experimenting for experimentation’s sake, every beat-breaking decision on Myth Takes serves to reinforce the monumental rhythms.
I’m in a very Beatles mood right now, and there’s nothing much I can say about them that hasn’t already been said a thousand times. I just love ‘em!
Rating: 8.5
They’re certainly the best band I almost never listen to. I’m guessing I share this with a lot of music obsessives; the Beatles’ music has been so thoroughly absorbed into our consciousness that we can play the songs in our heads any time we like. Which is why the idea of someone doing something new with the catalog– mixing and matching different songs, blending the whole thing into an epic suite– is potentially exciting. Any attempt to fiddle with this music is like long-distance brain surgery, toying with our collective memory with the hope of creating something new.
Well, to make up for its lateness, I figured I would post two albums; from two of my favorite P.T. Andreson’s movies. I re-watched Boogie Nights last week and finally saw There Will Be Blood just the other day. Tremediously well-written, well-acted and well-directed, the music of both only further help these great movies.
These are two very different soundtracks. Boogie Nights is a great compilation of classic tracks from the 70’s and 80’s. Usually I find, the worse the movie the better the soundtrack, but in this case, the movie and the soundtrack go perfectly hand-in-hand and are both incredible. Somehow the music manages to unify with the film. Listening to certain songs, you can almost here the dialog in which the song was played. Most memorable for me (as it probably is for a few people) is Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian” from the dealer’s house.
There Will Be Blood, on the other hand, is an original score, composed by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. Subtle when it needs to be and overpowering when it needs to be, Greenwood is a genius at emphasizing the tones and colors of this film. I really would like to now see Bodysong, a documentary he also composed for.
Rating: 8.1
Piano, percussion, and Greenwood’s beloved Ondes-Martenot all feature, but it’s the strings that take center stage here. While Greenwood has always been vocal about the originators and inspirations behind a lot of his techniques (Penderecki, Gorecki, and Messiaen come up often), There Will Be Blood’s string arrangements nonetheless sound vanguard and exploratory in the context of Hollywood film scores. From the goosebump-inducing glissandos on opener “Wide Open Spaces” to the spiralling staccatos on “Future Markets” to the creeping dissonance in “Henry Plainview” (there’s that “wrong” sound again), Greenwood’s alien, experimental sensibilities lurk around each corner.
I’m usually not one for greatest hits compilations, but do, in this instance, having all my favorite The Cars songs in one place (this applies to Journey, as well). Every song is pop perfection (back before “pop” was such a dirty word). Oh, do I love The Cars! This is one of those bands that we refer to as a “family band,” meaning that I, my mother, father, and two brothers enjoy.
Blondie may have had a string of number one hits and Talking Heads may have won the hearts of the critics, but the Cars were the most successful American new wave band to emerge in the late ’70s. With their sleek, mechanical pop/rock, the band racked up a string of platinum albums and Top 40 singles that made them one of the most popular American rock & roll bands of the late ’70s and early ’80s.
If you’re like me, when you’ve got some alone time, you love to turn up the jams and dance and sing along… loudly. Charm School could not be a more perfect album for such an occasion!
Charm School gets off to a joyful beginning with handclaps, duets, and a definite ’60s rock sound similar to The Kinks on the title track. And for the next dozen tracks, the listener receives an ample amount of this infectious sound. Bishop Allen frontmen and lead singers, Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, weave another simplistic yet adorable pop tune on “Little Black Ache.” Although the sound is retro, the polish Bishop Allen brings to each number is unmistakable.
Well, I don’t think the Weekly Album is going to happen this week… so, instead you get some more Robyn and this stunning video. I’ll have something good next week, promise.
On first hearing Santogold’s first album (knowing little, to nothing, about the history of the artist or it’s production) it sounded like if M.I.A. and Bloc Party had a lovechild and then she was whisked away and raised by the Go-Go’s. Yes, the album is that magically random! Now I’m reading reviews and such and finding that M.I.A. actually helped in producion and I’m not the only one who hears some 80’s pop leakin’ out too. It’s very enjoyable, but I usually do like albums that have a stronger since of togetherness that “Santogold” seems to lack at times. Don’t get me wrong, I very much look forward to hearing more from her.
Rating: 7.1
For much of Santogold, White is channeling and recombining a series of indie icons: Debbie Harry, Kim Deal, Ari Up, Joe Strummer, and Karen O. On “My Superman” she captures the imperious swoop of Siouxsie Sioux and drapes it over the kind of stern electro Goldfrapp used to make. “I’m a Lady” marries ska-pop verses to a strutting Elastica chorus. “Lights Out” finds a fascinating middle ground between the Pixies and the Go-Go’s.
