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.
