Animal Collective get a ton of credit for "breaking the rules" of indie-hipster-approved pop/rock but they really are one of many bands who do this. They're just one of the more popular ones. On some of their more recent albums they've done a great job of making dense psychedelic folk accessible and even catchy, but not all of their stuff is gold. This really undynamic as spacey psych folk goes. It's vaguely pretty and moderately interesting but you don't have to look far for other examples of this kind of music. I prefer Plankton Wat's In Magical Light, the final track of which sums up what Campfire Songs aims to be, but better.
I have some good things and some bad things to say about this album. Starting with the good, My Morning Jacket have a great sound. Their arena-ready rock dabbles in a number of different styles, often sounding vaguely psychedelic, but they don’t have to try very hard to achieve moments of utter beauty, expansiveness, and majesty. Jim James’ vocals fit very nicely with their sound, except when he takes the falsetto to unfortunate extremes, as he does on “Holdin on to Black Metal.”
It’s no small feat to be able to put songs as different as “Victory Dance” (dark, slow-moving, moody, complex) and “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” (simple, folky, light-hearted) on the same album and have it make sense. Their sound is so well-defined that they can expand their boundaries without making things feel like a huge departure.
Now the negative, and it’s an intangible that we can chalk up to subjective bias. There is something about Jim James’ vocal delivery that kind of dulls the impact of his words. Often I feel as though his vocals have no emotional weight to them. I have trouble believing some of the words he sings and I think it’s because his voice is so high that some purely subjective bias in me has trouble taking him seriously. I quite respect this band, but there’s something there that I can’t quite wrap my ears around.
I appreciate My Morning Jacket (and Circuital) on a purely aesthetic level. It’s art that I can consume and experience some audible beauty, but it doesn’t reach me on any personal level and so I feel a bit distanced from it. I could say the same about any of their albums, including Z (2005) and It Still Moves (2003), both of which I like better than Circuital, and Evil Urges, which I like less. In short, I can’t say anything all that bad about My Morning Jacket, but they aren’t really for me. The video below is of a performance of the title track, which is among their better songs, in my opinion.
This time around, 2 by Bukowski add vocals to their sprawling post-rock sound. Their debut had some great moments, but on this album, their second, they push their boundaries a bit. The heavy guitars are back, but this album relies a great deal upon the piano to create it’s ominous mood. They indulge in the guitars a bit much, perhaps, but this is a tense album that delivers a convincing atmosphere even when it seems to meander. Tracks like “I Am Continuum” and “Wild Manner” are wonderful sludge metal tunes. “The Last Aerie” and “Gate 3” find the band experimenting with other sounds, such as middle eastern sounding music and more airy, dreamy textures. It’s not a cohesive album, but it has some very good moments.
2 by Bukowski are a Greek post-rock group who err on the heavier side of what the genre has to offer. This album features three slow-building dirges and three more immediate, louder pieces. They begin the album, which was their debut, with a fifteen-minute affair, the first ten of which are little more than a beat over ambient noise, however the song’s trajectory is tangible and the journey is compelling. About ten minutes in, feedback-drenched guitars come crashing into the scene, making for a climactic, intense moment. They show a real talent for creating sounds that just erupt with explosive conclusions. This album is intense and spacey, and done as well as many of their contemporaries.
Off-kilter rhythms, waves of synth noise, beats that make heavy use of the cymbals and various sounds that resemble chimes and bells, with a thick layer of gloom over it. It’s pretty much standard dubstep, which isn’t a bad thing. I’ve heard dubstep that’s a bit more dynamic, a bit more atmospheric than this, but 2562 delivers the raw sort of primal rhythms that fans of this stuff love. Given the right mood, this album really hits the spot but I don't see if achieving the sort of hype artists like Burial got. It just doesn't seem to do enough. It’s got spacey, dreamily atmospheric tunes and it has some more grimey, thumping beats. Nothing truly stunning, though, I thought the title track and “Aquatic Family Affair” were highlights and it’s an album I can see myself listening to from time to time.
Abrasive guitar chords, anguished screams rendered low in the mix, percussion that’s almost inaudible and extremely underproduced. That describes a lot of black metal, and Den Saakaldte are certainly one of the bleaker ones. Whereas some black metal bands play with intensity and speed, these guys don’t. This music has the requisite mood, but doesn't hit with as heavy a hand as this stuff can. This is a long album, and though black metal is a niche genre, the fact that this is over an hour of music that isn’t especially varied, will further limit their fanbase, but it’s more about mood than anything else, and this does what it does competently.
It’s aggressive, performed with furiosity, but it’s also cookie-cutter black metal. The guitars buzz, the screams are demonic, the percussion is frantic, but it still somehow feels limp. I guess what bugs me about this is the raw production. Raw is often a good thing, but I also like to be able to hear the technicality of the guitars. Here, it’s all smothered together. I could play my guitar with intensity and speed, but I can’t play my guitar well with intensity and speed. So 1349 get points for their approach, but lose points for their aesthetic.
It’s unfortunate, because 100 Demons play with a heaviness and furiosity that is missing from a lot of metalcore or metallic hardcore albums these days, but this debut is too cliched to stand out. Released a few years before the heyday of this type of music, it’s surprising 100 Demons didn’t gather a greater following. Perhaps they didn’t fit the mold of bands like Killswitch Engage or As I Lay Dying, who inserted melodic passages into many of their songs to widen their appeal. 100 Demons are heavy, loud, and have an uncompromising in-your-face attitude. However, these slabs of heavily distorted guitars are as textbook and the satisfaction I get from them is fleeting. The riffs themselves are simplistic and the vocals are nothing to write home about. I found myself wishing the drums were higher in the mix, but I doubt that would have made much of a difference.
Pounding drums, an eccentric half-shouted vocal drawl, and simple guitar melodies that shift in volume at the drop of a hat. That's what this album is from start to finish and we've heard all this before, but it isn't always this catchy. I'm not reading the most positive of reviews, but this is working for me. It's got energy, it's got hooks, it doesn't feel dull or stupid or mindless. Maybe the world is just "over" catchy standard indie rock. I'm not.
Note: the video below is for the song "Freak Out," which I thought was one of the better songs on the album, but is also one of the more unique tracks and may not be the best representative of this album (but it's what I could find).
Hazed Dream is the sixth album from this psychedelic rock quartet. They draw heavily from krautrock and have a Southern rock, bluesy style to their guitar playing, especiallt the solos. The vocals have this woozy sort of echo to them such that the singer sounds very, very bored, but in a way that fits well with the very laid-back feel of the melodies. This reminds me a bit of bands like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Brain Jonestown Massacre just in the general tone of the album. Some of the tracks reminded me of post-punk acts like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, but that’s just because of the hollow sound of the vocals. This isn’t psychedelic in the sense that the soundscapes are colorful and complex; this is an indie rock band that dresses their melodies and vocals with a layer of psychedelic haze. Synthesizers aid this effect, but the hooks and melodies are pretty apparent and generally pretty enjoyable. I love the moodiness of this album. It's slow-moving, dense and atmospheric.
Divine Providence is Deer Tick’s follow-up to last year’s disappointing The Black Dirt Sessions. I liked their sound, especially the raspy vocals, on 2009’s Born on Flag Day, but things have changed. For one thing, the vocals have dispensed with some of their rustic charm in favor of a hearty dose of testosterone. The music has also veered toward simplicity. Deer Tick were never a complex band and they never had any need to be, but this album is full of generally-weak melodies. If the lyrics and vocalist had some charm or some respectable personality, this wouldn’t be as much of a problem. “Funny Word” is a clear example of rock ‘n’ roll at its worst: a boring melody on repeat for almost five minutes, dumb lyrics with a silly refrain (“love is such a funny word”), and production that crushes everything down to a weak mash-up of rock instruments without any muscle behind them. “Let’s All Go To The Bar” is the sort of song that The Ramones or Misfits might have been able to inject some personality into, but Deer Tick make it sound simple-minded. “Miss K.” could have been written by any (mainstream) country music “rebel.” Where this album isn’t a “rock ‘n’ roll” cliche superimposed over country music 101, it’s mediocre balladry (“Electric” is a mellow musing on chemical indulgence). Production hurts this album, but its ethos really kills it. Deer Tick used to play gritty southern rock with a dash of outlaw country. Since then, they’re proving that though music doesn’t have to be intelligent, it helps if it isn’t stupid or obnoxious. If Divine Providence was a person, it would be an obnoxious frat boy spewing semi-offensive “wisdom” with beer on his breath.
12twelve’s debut is an unheralded should-be-classic post-rock album. It’s easy to get lost in the ominous gloom that shrouds this album, created by the low-end of the guitars and the raw underproduced percussion. It’s a sound that has been done by more well-known acts. Tortoise and Slint come readily to mind. Mogwai and Godspeed have leaned in this direction, but let’s not cast 12twelve aside just because they sound like other fantastic bands. They don’t sound derivative, and this album was released when Mogwai and Godpseed were still relatively young acts. The sound is convincing, the atmosphere can fill a room and the music rewards close listening. The track, “Zero, Nought, Nothing” reminds me of “Mogwai Fear Satan.” I don’t think I could offer a higher compliment than that.
On The Language of Cities, Maserati throw their hat into the melodic, guitar-driven post-rock ring. This sounds a lot like what groups like Explosions in the Sky have been doing, creating dynamic guitar melodies that just shine and ring out in a beautiful way. The songs have a tangible linear progression to them but I never really felt like they wound up anywhere all that exciting. There are a lot of sounds that are very pleasant on the ears, but it’s a far cry from the best Explosions, Mogwai or Sigur Ros songs and, unlike them, The Language of Cities gets old.
On Myth Takes, !!! really streamlined their sound. It’s less immediate and groovy, with several songs that have a bland sort of alt rock feel. While it may seem as if the band is sacrificing character for accessibility, they also dull the obnoxious brashness of their sound (mainly the vocals), and so this record is, in some ways, easier on the ears than their previous two. The post-punk and funk influences are still there, of course, but it’s all been smoothed out a bit. I can see how fans might have felt alienated by this album, but a non-fan like me who enjoyed their sound at least a little bit, may be able to latch on a bit more easily as the band’s ability to pick up a bouncy groove and run with it is still intact.
Happy Go Lickey was formed shortly after Rites of Spring disbanded in 1986, consisting of exactly the same members. The band never released any studio albums but two collections of live recordings are available, including this one, put out by Dischord records. Happy Go Lickey’s music is not worlds apart from Rites of Springs emotive post-hardcore. It is more heavily instrumental, but it shares that raw, underproduced sound. There are some weird guitar sounds on this album, for instance on the song “Boca Raton” which has sounds similar to what the NYC subway makes when a train screeches to a halt. This was more experimental and less direct and to the point. Vocals here are similar to those from Fugazi (more restrained than Rites of Spring), but they generally are buried in the mix and hard to focus in on. Admittedly, I find this somewhat less compelling than Rites of Spring whose songs were a bit more emotionally affecting. This is by design, of course, and we should take Will Play for what it is. It isn’t a studio album, rather a collection of incidental recordings and there are some interesting sounds here for fans of post-hardcore or emo (the 1980s version).
