No. 36 of 2011: Balam Acab - Wander/Wonder

 There are certain albums which so perfectly evoke a particular feeling or mood that it seems as though these artists were channeling some intangible aspect of their own selves. That, regardless of any grand sentiment that could be gained or intended from the music, this is how they feel and only want to share it with the listener. To be honest, this could be said for many artists but there is something more from records like these and the difference is felt not heard, the subtle movements, the almost inperceptible changes in tone and function. It's these kinds of records which resonate so well with me. I can always love conceptual records about the long arduous journey of....someone or the gritty realization of ones place in a constricting systemic world but it's the albums which use the very nature of music to convey their message and emotion which get inside my head and stay there, refusing to leave and acknowledging my grateful acceptance of that.

Out of the microcosm of musical peers who call witch house their musical home, it seems that only Balam Acab, née Alec Koone, with his lone EP and now debut full length, shows any signs of rising above the conceptual limitations of this genre and creating something greater than the sum of its parts. Wander / Wonder feels of a place, whether that place be a deserted beach on a forgotten stretch of land or a meandering river running into an underground cavern. It just feels. This is music to become enveloped by, to get inside of and wait for whatever Koone has in store for us. The differentiation between the tracks, though necessary for album purposes, becomes a bit meaningless when you realise that this album flows much like a river, with its own ebbs and shallows, every few steps taking us into deeper waters, until we're unable to see the bottom.

I've used the ideas and images of water extensively and I feel that they are the perfect way to capture the essence of what is obstensibly an album that uses the sounds and images of nature and the ever-shifting, changing properties of water to facilitate our understanding of what Koone is trying to relate to us through this amorphous, beautifully constructed album, that music can be whatever we need it to be, that it is not anchored to any particular feeling or narrative arc. And as such, this album tends to be more intensely personal the further we go into its depths. We begin to attach special significance to certain parts and particular stretches of music therein. And through these attachments, the music which begins to hold such personal meaning to the listener, unfolds upon us and allows the connection between Koone and the listener to take firm hold. He just wants us to know that it's okay, whatever it is, that everything will be okay.

Tracklisting:

01. Welcome
02. Apart
03. Motion
04. Expect
05. Now Time
06. Oh, Why (listen to the mp3 below)
07. Await
08. Fragile Hope

No. 37 of 2011: Los Campesinos! - Hello Sadness

There's something undeniably likeable about Los Campesinos!. Whether it's their gather-round-the-bar friendliness or their exuberant playfullness on all manner of subjects, mainly the ups and mostly downs of relationships, these are people with whom you'd like to grab a beer and discuss the more obscure Second City sketches.  But by some, they have been labelled frivolous and prone to emotional platitudes, which can be seen as a concession to the music.  Look closer though and this misguided criticism is quickly proved false as they invest their bouyant tales of heartbreak with some of the most joyous feeling that you will hear this year, goofy maybe but no less concerned with the capacity to emotionally connect with the listener.

On Hello Sadness, the band's sound hasn't changed much, though it has been shined and spit-polished to a perfect gleam.  The sing-along-choruses, crunchy guitars and warbling synths all wrap around lead singer Gareth's ever more espressive vocals and draw out the last bit of emotional resonance, which these songs display in spades.  Songs like the opening sugar rush of "By Your Hand", with its' tale of fate gone wrong amid one of the catchiest choruses in years, and "To Tundra", a ringing, thunderous indictment of all that which we so casually throw away, even the capacity to connect to each other, show that Los Campesinos! have come a long from their early releases.  And though their methods may have remained somewhat similar, their execution has been refined to such a point where it seems as though these songs have always existed and were only waiting to be picked up off the street and played.  Regardless of your inherent capacity to see beyond the twee-leanings and see the heart of these songs, the sheer creative rush played out across these 10 tracks will leave you breathless with the anticipation of where Gareth and Co. will wind up next.  I'm still trying to catch up. 

Tracklisting:

01. By Your Hand (listen to the mp3 below)
02. Songs About Your Girlfriend
03. Hello Sadness
04. Life Is a Long Time
05. Every Defeat a Divorce (Three Lions)
06. Hate for the Island
07. The Black Bird, the Dark Slope
08. To Tundra
09. Baby I Got The Death Rattle
10. Light Leaves, Dark Sees Pt. II

No. 38 of 2011: Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Halo

There's something to be said for simplicity in music.  And I'm not necessarily talking about the lack of musical instruments or specific parts of a song.  A song may be simple and still have multi-part arrangements which support the feeling that the artist is trying to convey, a form of simplicity that is felt more than tangibly documented.  You can have a song just be a guitar and vocals and something may feel slightly off to the listener; the song may feel unfocused, overly complex, either lyrically or musically, and suffer from it.  But when an artist knows exactly what and how to say a certain thing, that thing being the heart of whatever he or she intends, then that is the sound of simplicity, a feeling that you have done exactly what you set out to do, and nothing less.  And while some may argue that I'm playing fast and loose with the concept of simplicty, I feel that this is indeed a correct way to articulate its use.

Kurt Vile has long labored away trying to grasp this particular bit of musical insight.  On his previous albums, the songs felt a bit murky and trod over, as if he didn't quite know how to get from point A to point B within his own song and that made for some less than cohesive musical execution across those records.  But with his latest release Smoke Ring For My Halo, Vile has finally laid to rest that hesitancy and restrictiveness that so belabored his earlier work.  He's finally come to understand the way that simplicty can operate from within a song, working its way out from the inside.  This new-found freedom allows him to clearly segue from song to song and allows the album as a whole to breathe, to expand and contract naturally.  And if that flow allows Vile his usual excursions into depression and despair, then all the better as the results smolder with the intensity of a man who knows what the end holds and who is not afraid to keep his eyes open, and every now again, as on the breathtaking "Baby's Arms", he allows an ever so slight interruption from the darkness, in his own way.  Songs like the rollicking "Jesus Fever" and crushing closer "Ghost Town" allow Vile a way in which to involve us as the listener on a more personal level, as we are mostly just eavesdropping on him anyway.  He knows we're listening and sadly this may be the only way he can think of to make a stand and reach out to someone, through the music which means so much to him and which allows us to grow so close to the man behind the music.

Tracklisting:

01. Baby’s Arms
02. Jesus Fever
03. Puppet to the Man
04. On Tour
05. Society Is My Friend
06. Runner Ups
07. In My Time
08. Peeping Tomboy
09. Smoke Ring For My Halo
10. Ghost Town (listen to the mp3 below)

No. 39 of 2011: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Belong

To some degree, this year in music has been marked by the resurgence of early 90's indie rock influences filtered through a modern equivalent aesthetic. Where a band like Yuck has had a great deal of success channeling early Superchunk and pretty much all the early releases on Merge Records, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart aim for something a bit more accessible, to be honest a bit more mainstream. But this accessiblity in no way implies a compromise of what made their debut so striking. Rather, the leap in fidelity, though in truth they were never fully a part of the lo-fi trend, has only cleaned up and further sharpened the sound which they invoked on their first album. The spirits of unlikely influences such as The Smashing Pumpkins and early Green Day hover over the proceedings, giving the album an unabashedly nostalgic feeling. And the issue of whether or not this is truly homage, or whether the band is simply aware of their place in indie rock's lineage and choose to embrace it, comes down to whether or not you embrace the music on its' own terms and not on their predilection for mining the catchy hooks and bombastic choruses common to alt-rock of the 90's.

Much is made of the seeming exclusivity of indie rock but on Belong, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart show that there need not be a division between what we perceive as the cop-out of mainstream rock and the sensibilities of indie music, at least as far as aesthetics goes. This is a complex area in which to tread because as the line is further blurred by creative bands co-opting, read inverting, the sounds of the mainstream to fit their own particular sound, our ability to differentiate between bands who only want to make money and those who are honestly trying to subvert expectations through musical adaptation is lessened and becomes murkier. But thankfully, the difference is still abundantly evident with concern to this band and this album. Songs like the fuzzed out bliss of opener "Belong" and propulsively catchy "Heart In Your Heartbreak" quickly put to rest any concerns about the integrity of the band. Even with 90's rock-god producer Flood at the helm, Belong never feels hemmed in by any particular set of rules; there is more of a feeling of integration and creative abandon. These guys are leading him, never the other way around. By knowing the difference between what makes a song inherently good, as opposed to what makes it superficially viable to sell, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart get to the heart of their own influences and, with Belong, have taken a further step in cementing their already inimitable musical presence.

Tracklisting:

01. Belong (listen to the mp3 below)
02. Heaven’s Gonna Happen Now
03. Heart in Your Heartbreak
04. The Body
05. Anne with an E
06. Even in Dreams
07. My Terrible Friend
08. Girl of 1,000 Dreams
09. Too Tough
10. Strange

No. 40 of 2011: Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica

Why must we always assume that experimental or drone-ish music is difficult to connect to on an emotional level?  I can understand some people's misgivings about the creative and emotional viability of repeated lines of sustained skeletal synths or patchwork avant cinematicism. There are some such artists who mistake creativity and inspiration for laziness and incomplete musical aptitude and these artists, with their misplaced sense of suggested expressionism, make it that much more difficult for like-minded individuals with an uniquely slanted take on cinematic musical vistas to be taken as anything more than oddities among the more directly album/song-structured artists.

Oneohtrix Point Never's Daniel Lopatin takes on the enormous tasks of creating cohesive music statements froms the loops of vocal samples and repetitive beats and percussive eccentricities which have become his hallmark in the wake of his exceptional releases as OPN, such as2010's Rifts and Returnal.  And as well-crafted and creative as those albums were, you could still hear him finding his musical footing, his instincts were still to be fully refined.  On his latest release Replica, Lopatin seems intent on overcoming the instinctive limitations of the genre within which he works, there is ample room for creativity but let so for emotional connection.  The jittery, sample-laden music which has come to represent Lopatin and all of his contemporaries, such as The Books and The Avalanches, doesn't generally lend itself to the same type of intimacy that may come from a more deeply introspective/personal piece of music, as could be described by any given listener.  But to his credit, under the Oneohtrix Point Never moniker, Lopatin has managed to create some of the emotionally sustained experimental work yet released to be purposed as such. Songs like the vocal stutter-sampling and shifting chromatics of "Sleep Dealer" and "Replica", with its' intial offering of somber piano led astray into deconstruction and back again, reveal the ever-changing, ever creative mind at work behind Oneohtrix Point Never.  And in the background of these songs, something is moving, getting ever closer to the listener, just a shadow at times.  It's the sensation of intimacy and invitation, among the dissonance.  You will feel these songs.  Lopatin has made damn sure of that.

Tracklisting:

01. Andro
02. Power of Persuasion
03. Sleep Dealer
04. Remember
05. Replica (listen to the mp3 below)
06. Nassau
07. Submersible
08. Up
09. Child Soldier
10. Explain

No. 41 of 2011: The Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots

The devil knows all about your darkest desires and he knows how to force them to the surface.  As caustic and bitter as he is, he is also a smooth talking illusonist who will make all your dreams seemingly come true, for a price.  He's a friend and a dark presence on your left side.  We know all about him and somehow he can still turn us into that faceless form of fear and desperation.  And The Drive-By Truckers have made it their business to document and expose his activities in all their deviousness.  From the corrupted turned-from-god preachers to the dissillusioned cops, the Truckers have gone about exposing the devil, and more precisely the events which he has helped cause to happen, and trying in their way to warn others about him.

On their latest release Go-Go Boots, The Drive-By Truckers take one more step in their rooting out of the evil and fear that cause men to behave in the callous ways which has been so well documented in their songs.   But to believe that only fear and darkness can come from this world shows only a shallow grasp of all that there is to know about this life.  There is light, even here where Patterson and Co. tread.  Songs like "Used To Be A Cop" and "The Fireplace Poker" do carry the weight of the dead and downtrodden but the dark is punctuated by brief bits of light as on "Everybody Needs Love" with its sing-along chorus and "Dancin' Ricky", a curiously affecting song about the simple happiness of an ordinary life.  The southern rock building blocks that they've been using for the last decade and a half have served them well in their endeavors.  They manage to bring life and spontaneity to well-worn musical cliches and by injecting them with a wild spirit and boundless energy, they show what can be accomplished when heart is paired with a great fucking rock song.   The Drive-By Truckers have been doing this for a very long time, as has the devil and both show no signs of slowing.  Watch yourselves..

Tracklisting:

01. I Do Believe
02. Go-Go Boots
03. Dancin’ Ricky
04. Cartoon Gold
05. Ray’s Automatic Weapon
06. Everybody Needs Love
07. Assholes
08. The Weakest Man (listen to the mp3 below)
09. Used to Be a Cop
10. The Fireplace Poker
11. Where’s Eddie
12. The Thanksgiving Filter
13. Pulaski
14. Mercy Buckets

No. 42 of 2011: Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

There isn't a more suitable creative thoroughfare with which to deal with the duality of self, of love, pretty much anything you can imagine than the brief time we spend with an artist over the course of their record. The fact that artists can delve into the many aspects of any one particular subject is testament to the all-inclusive nature of music. Whether there is a specific narrative arc or not, an album generally falls into one of a few specific explorations of emotional connectiveness. Even in the unlikeliest of albums, there can be found this discussion of emotional resonance, whether the artist gently contemplates this with an acoustic guitar or screeches about it over the electronic whirr of distortion and noise.

In the case of Lykke Li, the duality of her own personality is at the very heart of our connection with the music. And nowhere is this duality made more manifest than on "Get Some", which is essentially a frank explanation from Li herself that the aim of her affection should have no worries about the state of their physical relationship. With lines like "I'm your prostitute/You gonna get some", she knowingly informs us just what she thinks is expected of her. However, this kind of forthright sexuality is only half of what makes her latest album Wounded Rhymes so intrisically interesting. She manages to bring us into her own insecure and intimidated headspace while also examining the stronger, more masculine role that she thinks she is expected to play. And in this examination of the duality of her own eccentricities and emotional hang-ups, she allows us to witness both the struggles and the conquests of both sides of her psyche. Other songs like the propulsive "I Follow Rivers" and the forlorn "Unrequited Love" deal with the fragility of someone who knows and has experienced the heartbreak which comes from love, both unattainable and untouchable. With Wounded Rhymes, Lykke Li has further developed the musical maturity which she began on her debut album and has created some of the most emotionally expressive songs of the year. She knows that the two sides of herself can only be truly reconciled through music, that the physical is fragile, but music can never be broken.

Tracklisting:

01. Youth Knows No Pain
02. I Follow Rivers (listen to the mp3 below)
03. Love Out Of Lust
04. Unrequited Love
05. Get Some
06. Rich Kid Blues
07. Sadness is a Blessing
08. I Know Places
09. Jerome
10. Silent My Song

No. 43 of 2011: Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde

There's a certain satisfaction from that intial musical sugar rush when you hear the correct combination of ringing guitars, thudding drums, and harmonizing vocals, a sound that is so difficult to get right that most bands never come within shouting distance of it.  Many of the early 70's AM radio ready bands got close.  Bands like Bread and America were awash in that sugary high, matched by their uncanny knack for writing melodies that buried themselves in your brain and refused to let go.  And regardless of you personal tastes, it's difficult to fault them for doing exactly what they set out to do, maybe never quite pushing the creative envelope but finding their niche and refining their sound until it shined.  Personally, I've got no disrespect for those bands. They produced some of the most undeniably catchy, ear baiting songs of their time and never felt the need to branch out; this is what they did and they did it exceedingly well.

With Dye It Blonde, Smith Westerns have documented their own familiarity and endearment to those same bands, and while they may not have had parents who played the greatest hits albums of those same bands constantly, as I did, I'm fairly certain they'd be able to hum along with me to "Sandman" or "London Bridge".  Releasing their debut back in 2009, they barely hinted at the sonic maturity which they would achieve only 3 years later.  Songs like the instantly catchy opener "Weekend", with its all inclusive sugary bliss call for everyone to hang out, and church organ/guitar slow burner "All Die Young" make the case that even though these guys are still very young, they have a fair respect for the musical lineage that they bear and help to continue.   It doesn't hurt that these songs are as instantly memorable as any of their forebears, and you'll find the melodies swirling around in your head hours after the music stops.  It seems that as listeners we may have become jaded or musically snobbish when talking about those 70's bands which we may or may not have heard on some greatest hits of the 70's Razor and Tie compilation.  But as with any band respectful of their peers, Smith Westerns have adapted that heady rush of melody and endearing simplicity into their own chiming indie rock leanings and created an album so enamored with its own influences that it's hard to resist its charms.  Just lean back, roll down the windows, and enjoy the wind against your face.

Tracklisting:

01. Weekend (listen to the mp3 below)
02. Still New
03. Imagine Pt. 3
04. All Die Young
05. Fallen In Love
06. End of the Night
07. Only One
08. Smile
09. Dance Away
10. Dye the World

No. 44 of 2011: John Maus - We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves

The thin line between artifice and sincerity was never so much in evidence than when talking about the goth movement of the 80's, really not so much a movement as a style of singing and personality.  The purposefully emotive singers like Ian Curtis and Robert Smith, among many others, were always concerned about the emotional impact of their respective songs and so it is with John Maus, a creative descendent of those bands which were just as concerned with feeling as they were with the absolute structure of a song.  Maus has long been a fixture in the avant music scene with his past releases and slowly built but rabid fan base anxiously awaiting any new material. And despite his personal history with fellow avant popster Ariel Pink, John Maus has come at his craft in a slightly different manner than the lofi rocking of Pink.  Imbued with the ghosts of those 80's goth giants, Maus emotes more than sings over the ghostly wails of chiming synths and beats that carry the listener along in a surging ocean of sound, which makes the the lighthouse and temultuous sea cover art even more meaningful as it is a perfect visual representation of the music which lies within.

With the release of We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves, Maus makes a strong connection between the music of his formative years and the music which has come to personally represent him as an artist, that the link between our musical upbringing has a direct bearing on our musical preferences as an adult.  Much like musical peers Future Islands, Maus has managed to creatively reinvent the shimmering sun drenched synths of his youth into an abtract emotionally resonant outlet for his dread and hopefullness in equal measure. Songs like the thrumming, vocal chants of "Keep Pushing On" and the chiming, starkly enveloping synth lines of closer "Believer" pair his lowest register of a voice with the undeniable influence of bands like Joy Division and Bauhaus.  And like those bands, Maus knows that to allow the darker impulses of this music to run unchecked would lead to the disolving of what is ultimately a message of hopefulness.  By letting those influences have free reign over the creative process, but still retaining a strong sense of personal creative identity, he has wrung yet another layer of emotional vulnerablity from a typically misused set of musical tropes.  Maus knows that there comes a time when the darkness can threaten to overwhelm but like countless artists before, he also knows that there is always an anchor, a light, which we can hang on to in those desperate times. 
Tracklisting:

01. Streetlight
02. Quantum Leap
03. … And the Rain
04. Hey Moon
05. Keep Pushing On
06. The Crucifix
07. Head for the Country
08. Cop Killer
09. Matter of Fact
10. We Can Break Through
11. Believer (listen to the mp3 below)

No. 45 of 2011: Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow

Maybe it's appropriate that an album so indebted to the imagery of Winter be released during its thematic namesake season. And it's more than just the common companion of somber piano to stark winter imagery that marks this album as seeming to be so intensely introspective, using the obvious metaphors of snow to convey the emotional and psychological damage we inflict on each other and the distance at which we hold others at bay, but as in such cases, sometimes there can be light found in the darkest places.  Bush has long been known for these expertly crafted stories of heartbreak and mystical isolation, and on 50 Words For Snow, she transforms what might have ordinarily been homogenous and predictable conversations with the listener into something more, something individual just for that listener, a small but warm hand to hold in the dark. These songs radiate an inner warmth even when Bush is wallowing in the mistaken release of love and the knowledge that love may never come again.  

While finding ways to express the undefinable has always been a trademark of Kate Bush, just listen to Hounds Of Love and you'll see a masterpiece of understated subtlety and complex imagery, on 50 Words For Snow she takes that candor and intimacy through to its logical conclusion, by welcoming the listener to come in and participate in the narrative themselves.  By making the songs feel real and tangible to the listener, Bush makes a strong case that, even with the sometimes fanciful stories spread across this album, it aways feels grounded in a certain reality.  Songs like "Wild Man", with it's tale of a search for the abominable snowman, and "Misty", a curious song about a woman's phsysical relationship with a snowman, could easily come across as terribly fey or disposable if they weren't injected with such an honesty sincerity towards their subjects.  And the same could be said for any of the other songs here.

Bush has always taken the road less travelled, whether by limiting her output to what she feels resonates with the listener and not what may be seen as possible commercial fodder or by her natural inclination towards releasing the fully developed story-songs which she has refined over the past two decades of, albeit scarce, albums.  The welcoming stillness of 50 Words For Snow may at first seem a bit intimidating and along with the lengthy songs may at times steer listeners towards more accessible fare, but Bush knows that for those who are familiar with her past works and who yearn for something more than the casual singer-songwriter white noise of your local coffee house, 50 Words For Snow will capture your imagination, and by allowing that warm center to melt through, she shows that even when Winter is in full force, the memories of love and hopeful Summers will always carry you through.

Tracklisting:

01. Snowflake
02. Lake Tahoe
03. Misty
04. Wild Man (listen to the mp3 below)
05. Snowed In At Wheeler Street
06. 50 Words For Snow
07. Among Angels

No. 46 of 2011: WU LYF - Go Tell Fire To The Mountain

When you hear that an album was recorded in an old abandoned church, what kind of imagery does that conjure up?  Do we think of a lone singer, acoustic guitar strapped on, whispering about ghosts into a small 4 track tascam? Maybe a band reverentially using this sacred ground to add resonance to a record about the weariness of life?  In the case of purposely enigmatic band WU LYF, the answer is as simple as wanting to harness a particular sound, which was not working out in a traditional studio.  The massively constructed Go Tell Fire To The Mountain lumbers along carrying everything in its wake.  The sound reaches up and pulls you inside what feels to be some tangible area, where the sounds are visibly bouncing against the walls and striking everyone in reach.

Go Tell Fire To The Mountain feels huge.  From the echoing, almost indecipherable vocals and thudding drums and church organ on stand-out track "Dirt" to the pure adrenaline chug of "We Bros.", WU LYF have taken the usual indie rock stand-bys and crafted an expertly intense free-for-all.  And in this surge, the listener is invited along, with the band having no illusions as to where they are and who are with them.  And as seemingly pretentious as these guys appear in real life, the music spread across these 10 tracks never crosses over into the kind of self-aware detritus which we've come to expect from bands who purposely court the ire of the press.  With songs that feel as if they could indeed fill the empty space in a cathedral, the already mentioned recording atmosphere seems appropriate.  After the public flamboyance wears away and these guys settle into that cavernous groove, Go Tell Fire To The Mountain stands high alongside the best releases of 2011, with its arms open, mouth wide, screaming for you to join in.          

Tracklisting:

01. L Y F
02. Cave Song
03. Such a Sad Puppy Dog
04. Summas Bliss
05. We Bros
06. Spitting Blood
07. Dirt (listen to the mp3 below)
08. Concrete Gold
09. 14 Crowns for You and Your Friends
10. Heavy Pop

No. 47 of 2011: Drake - Take Care

If it's true that you live or die in the mainstream on the strengths or weaknesses of your influences, then Drake deserves the abundant accolades which have been continually heaped upon him. And the mainstream is exactly where Drake finds himself at this point in his short career. Much has been made of the circumstances surrounding the recording of some songs off Take Care, his latest album. Drake holed up in the same recording studio that Marvin Gaye recorded Here, My Dear in, and the spirit of Gaye hovers over these tracks like an ever-present guiding force. Drake draws out the hurt and loveless despair which he documented so well on his confounding debut Thank Me Later and develops these ideas so personally that Take Care seems less a collection of sexual frustrations than a plea for understanding and acceptance. And while he does occassionally dip into the typical rap diatribes against women--though never misogynistically, it's more complicated than that--and the pressures and weariness of celebrity culture, he never espouses a woe-is-me attitude. He knows that these feelings come dangerously close to rap lifestyle platitudes and so instills them with a sadness and desperation which befits someone who wishes to be taken seriously.

Drake is also well aware of current trends and uses them alongside his old-school influences much in the same way that Kanye West or Jay-Z does. The gospel-inflected backing chorus and deceptively simple beat in Rick Ross-guesting "Lord Knows" along with the nakedly honest need for companionship showcased in "Marvin's Room" display a musical maturity uncommon for someone with so few releases to their name. Other songs like the title track "Take Care" and "Cameras/Good Ones Go" deal with the yearning and disintegration and exposure of false relationships, where the need for real connections, which always seem so far away, is constantly wheeling around in his mind. Drake has proposed that beneath all the generic rap "mo money mo problems" bullshit, there is indeed a lonesome place where a person can be surrounded by people all the time and still feel indefinably alone. And while we may never be in the same position that Drake finds himself now, the intensely personal Take Care will always be there to document the pitfalls and dangers for all those come after.

Tracklisting:

01. Over My Dead Body
02. Shot for Me
03. Headlines
04. Crew Love
05. Take Care
06. Marvin’s Room / Buried Alive
07. Underground Kings
08. We’ll Be Fine
09. Make Me Proud
10. Lord Knows (listen to the mp3 below)
11. Cameras / Good Ones Go
12. Doing It Wrong
13. The Real Her
14. Look What You’ve Done
15. HYFR
16. Practice
17. The Ride

No. 48 of 2011: EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints

If you were to climb a very tall hill overlooking the ocean and sit there watching the state of California slip slowly into the Pacific Ocean, what would you hear?  Would you hear the snap of roots, the creaking crack of pavement and rupturing pipes or would you hear a song? This song would slowly unwind, spoiling out around you in distinct threads of sound, snaking its way down to the waters edge, taking with it the last vestige of civilization and security.  Would you be afraid?

This image of destruction and passive witness is an apt descriptor for the new album by EMA, aka Erika M Anderson.  Past Life Martyred Saints joins the leagues of classic indie rock albums that deal with the disintegration of...well, everything...of relationships, of mental stability, of life.  Which is not to say that Anderson forgoes all hope in some vain search for meaning, she does find, however briefly, that life can be worth living, even with all the fucked up things people do. And we are witness to it.

Anderson takes what was already finely honed from her recently departed band Gowns and uses her ability to marry images and emotion to particular sounds and phrases and invests these songs with a fear and desperation unequalled this year.  The constantly moving, deceptively amorphous opener "The Grey Ship" and follow up fuck-off "California" provide one of the most harrowing introductions to an album full of the hopelessness common to those with a pessimistic view of the world.  These songs use the swirling headspace noise common to the Gowns and takes them further, into the kind of intensely personal examinations which ultimately resemble nothing so much as a tired heart laid bare. But without the confidence and tested will to push these songs forward, we may as well be looking at a painting in a museum, feeling appreciative though not moved.  And it is here that Anderson displays her real skill at composition.  Each of these songs feel a part of something, a larger view of the inner workings of one woman's fears and buried hopes.  She paints a vivid though cautious portrait of herself, working within what she considers the darkest recesses of her mind.  Though to her maybe not so dark, maybe just honest.  And if this album bears out one over-arching theme, it is honesty.  No matter how bad this world gets, she will never lie to you.  And for no matter how brief a time, when she opens up on the devastating closer "Redstar", Anderson allows herself to revel in that temporary hope which has eluded her for so long.

Tracklisting:

01. The Grey Ship
02. California (listen to the mp3 below)
03. Anteroom
04. Milkman
05. Coda
06. Marked
07. Breakfast
08. Butterfly Knife
09. Redstar

No. 49 of 2011: Toro Y Moi - Underneath The Pine

The reliance on musical labels has always been as much a hindrance for music fans as it has been an accurate way of cataloguing the music that we love. As has been the case over the past few years no genre label has been more vilified than Chillwave. And as much as I hate to beat a dead horse with my insistence that we leave our prejudices at the door, so to speak, when we first hear an album, any attempt to come at an album completely free of any notions concerning what we're about to hear is at best naive, and at worst lazy. It's rare that we are completely unaware of some facet of a song before we hear it. We either know some backstory concerning the artists’ influences or a rant by a critic of the rise and fall of micro-genres populated by pensive kids with laptops and a burned copy of Pro Tools. And as such, we’ve all heard the backlash against Washed Out, Neon Indian, and others who happen to share this same musical philosophy. But I think that this year will show that Chillwave, and I am still loathe to use that term, has more to give and show than a few programmed drum beats and synths stolen from a lesser New Order record.

Among the wash of Chillwave related albums released this year, Underneath The Pine by Toro Y Moi manages to display some of the most creative uses of instrumentation, both live and programmed, that we’ve seen up to this point in the genre. With this release I see the narrow vision of what some consider a comparably limiting genre expanding to include far more than what was expected after those first few bands were labeled as such. It doesn't hurt that Chaz Bundick has grown by leaps and bounds as a songwriter. On his previous album Causers Of This, it felt at times as though his inclination towards experimentation won out over what should have been a focus on using the amorphous synths and hazy vocals as a means of creative expression. But on this latest release, his ability to raise the material above any preconceived notions of what to expect allows Bundick to imbue these tracks with a spontaneity clearly inspired by his newfound growth as a songwriter.

The ambience provided across these tracks could have very easily slipped into the trap of proving true what people have claimed to dislike about him in the first place, namely the meanderingly dull burns and not-quite-there payoffs that the backlash focused around, which for me were never in evidence. But by condensing and layering more than just a few creative shifts in tonal manipulation, Underneath The Pine may well allow those who disliked Toro Y Moi on principle to see that there is indeed something more substantive here than what they initially thought. Songs like the warmly inviting bounce of single “Still Sound” and “How I Know”, with its surprisingly strong hook, show that given the right amount of talent and determination, labels can grudgingly be overcome and dismissed, and the music may be allowed to shine through, unfettered by hype and critical reaction. And in the case of Underneath The Pine, Bundick has released an album so seemingly enamored with musical diversity and what music may mean that he’s almost single handedly broken down the barriers that threatened to trap Chillwave in its battered frame and has allowed the joyous feelings he has been pouring into his music to wash over the listener in welcome waves. This is the sound of a man freed from the confines of a particular musical sound and playfully using what he finds to share that same feeling of freedom with the listener.

Tracklisting:

01. Intro/Chi Chi
02. New Beat
03. Go With You
04. Divina
05. Before I'm Done
06. Got Blind
07. How I Know
08. Light Black
09. Still Sound (listen to the mp3 below)
10. Good Hold
11. Elise

No. 50 of 2011: Wild Beasts - Smother

So much is said in music of the ability to do things "your way"--the artists/bands way--to take your music in an unencumbered creative direction, as opposed to some commercially attractive option. And while most bands will say that they are following their own unique vision, the truth resembles a somewhat muddier reality. There are those bands that aim to succeed as opposed to create. And there is a very definite difference bwtween the two. Not that the two are necessarily mutually exclusive but such is often the case. And while you may hear those bands that aim to succeed on the radio, you will always remember those that create.

After the success of their debut Limbo, Panto, Wild Beasts were left in a precarious position. They could have easily gone the route to generic radio friendly UK indie rock and gained more commercial viability, while having to possibly give ground on creative control. But what did they do? They focused that already considerable musical expertise, added a wealth of new influences and came away with Two Dancers, an improvement on just about every facet of their debut. With that release, Wild Beasts were wholly independent of any expectations from both fans and critics and were putting out music that they wanted to, not just something to have sitting on the store shelves.

With the release of Smother, they've manged to add an even deeper level to their already considerably dense musical palette. Wild Beasts have never been a band to bend to current musical trends and on this latest release, they've managed to subvert expectations once again and incorporate many different aspects of those same musical trends with regard to what they consider relevant to their own musical identity.  Songs like the opener "Lion's Share", with its incorporation of unsettling sexual overtones and building piano release, and "Loop The Loop", a gorgeous study in piano and guitar dynamics, lay claim to the fact that, whatever influences Wild Beasts may have absorbed, the end result is much more than the sum of those influences.  Smother is a startlingly honest and mature examination on the nature of connection.  The connection between ourselves, between us and the world in which we live.  That there exists some semblence of thought and purpose to our lives.  That even when we feel that we are alone, we are not.  Wild Beasts realize that even in the darkest of our feelings--and they are plentiful--there shines a light which can never be taken from us.

Tracklisting:

01. Lion's Share
02. Bed Of Nails
03. Deeper
04. Loop The Loop (listen to the mp3 below)
05. Plaything
06. Invisible
07. Albatross
08. Reach A Bit Further
09. Burning
10. End Come Too Soon