[2011] Evenings - Lately

Oh hey, this is still here

Oh hey, Evenings released their (his?) first full-length at some point this year and I just noticed.

[2011] Chapelier Fou - Al Abama EP

Holy crap I love everything about this.

[2011] John Maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves

I have been waiting my whole life (I think?) for someone to make an album of meaty songs that bridges the gap between cold-wave and space disco, so thank you John Maus. In his newest We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves (I don't think I'll ever remember that title, I keep typing Ancestors instead of Censors) we are given layers of murky synths, cheesy synths, raw synths, sexy synths, and other kinds of synths. The key thing to remember is "synths."

The opening track "Streetlight" is practically a brightly lit flashing sign of what's to come, brazenly announcing that if you in any way shape or form have been dreading the day that the Ghostbusters soundtrack become something worth mining for musical gold, now is the time to walk away. "Quantum Leap" is upbeat, hooky and reminds me of last year's hit Gary War single "Born of Light." I want to believe that "Head for the Country" is an ode to Tears for Fears, specifically "Head Over Heels" the video of which I couldn't get out of my head listening to the Maus track. As "retro" as it is, it also feels brand new to me and I won't bother reconciling that unless someone makes me.

The vocals are entrancing throughout the album (particularly in "Cop Killer" and "We Can Breakthrough"), and I can only try to sum the sound up as "Ariel Pink forcing Gregorian monks at gunpoint to sing Big Country covers." However, the final track "Believer" strikes a much different chord, and has an aimless "best of: shoegaze" thing going on, and seems much shorter than it is because you don't want it to end. Try both Quantum Leap and Believer below:

John Maus - Quantum Leap by RibbonMusic

John Maus - Believer by RibbonMusic

[2011] Medication - Judgment Day

Remember Lo-Fi? Me neither. Maybe this will jog your memory. The vocals are low and dispassionate, the songs well written and dramatic. Everything I try to write to describe it sounds stupid so I'm just gonna stop there. It's short and it wouldn't kill you to just listen to it, you know. Do you want to hurt me? You know you're killing your mother, right? She just wants what's best for you. I couldn't find any sort of streaming link so click here to buy or maybe try spotify? link to try removed because I am a pussy.

p.s. I swear I listen to bands whose names don't begin with 'M' from time to time.

[2011] Melodium - Petit Jama

For fans of Múm. No vocals though. It's a tad sugary, at times, but I like that shit.

[2011] M△S▴C△RA - Silver Knight Gothic EP

Entirely instrumental, dark and weird and soothing with a tasty beat. not sure what else to say. witch house ep is witch housey. check out the track below.

I'm really into short records lately, not sure why. Too also, the EP just makes a lot of sense to me as a release format. A lot of musical ideas shouldn't be stretched out over more than 20 to 30-odd minutes, else they get tiresome. But they're still cool ideas and I want to hear them. I probably heard that in an interview somewhere and have just confused it for an original thought.

Shadow of Tonight by MASCARA

[2001] BOaT - RoRo

I almost never post about old music here. I've been sitting here, stuck for something to listen to for an hour or more, and came back to this album on a whim. After finding it on the excellent WE FUCKING LOVE MUSIC a few years ago I'd had it on constant repeat, then put it away until now. It's better than I remember. I don't know anything about the band except that they appear to be Japanese, this was their last record, and they're NOT the similarly named "Boat".

I don't really know how to describe the music in terms of identifiable genres. Lots of long stretches of nothing but guitar and drums. Some of it is quite twee, but not as twee as japrock can get. It's definitely sentimental, not that there are any lyrics I can understand. there's a pop song or two. let's just call it "rock". Just listen to it.

[2011] Arctic Whisperings - óvænt lán

For fans of hauschka, sigur ros, and the minecraft volume alpha album (which I simply cannot put down, lately). some minimal stuff, some thick postrock, all points between, all twinkly. I'm gonna buy this. Found it on Musical Coma.

[2011] Wye Oak - Civillian

This is a much more mature release from the Baltimore duo, reflecting the improvements they hinted at on last year's My Neighbor/My Creator EP. Their first full length, while one of my favorite albums, lacks a certain degree of proper execution. The band really seems to have found their footing in the studio now. There's a lot of attention to detail on this new release. I imagine that live, without additional personal, the songs will sounds rather different than they do here. I mean, the drummer already plays synths and sings while drumming. Unless Jenn Wasner learns to play three guitars at once I don't see them pulling off these songs without stripping them down. Like before, the 90's influences are everywhere. Also like before, we can hear both a little neil young and a little my bloody valentine in these songs. The album is available now from the band's website.

[2011] Radiohead - The King of Limbs tenth impression

I wasn't gonna do this. Review this album, I mean. I didn't feel like I had anything to say about it that other people wouldn't say. And then I started reading what other people, critics and fans alike, were saying. It's The Eraser part 2. It's the Thom and Jonny show. It's the Thom and Phil show. Seems like Ed and Colin spent a lot of time sitting in the other room listening again (like with kid A, ostensibly). Stuff like that. Never consistent, either, as if various critics have different blind spots to hearing certain members.

So I feel like getting a few things straight might be in order. This album has guitars. It features every member of the band in some capacity. It has live drums all over the place. In particular, "Magpie" has three guitars, albeit briefly. Are there guitars on every track? of course not. They haven't done that since The Bends. Since when were we expecting another guitar album? They just did one.

Is it short? yeah. It doesn't feel short, though. And this album has a lot of depth and subtlety that wasn't apparent to me on first listen, and not just in a "oh I hadn't noticed that particular funny noise before" kind of way.

As a fan, I'm satisfied. As someone who feigns writing about music, I'm confused. It's almost as if music journalism has been faking their art for so long, saying what they think people expect to read, playing it safe, that music writers have forgotten how to listen to an album and form an opinion and then express it. I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. It's why I'm voicing mine, because I haven't seen it reflected in the press. Sure, the things people are saying are unrefined and knee-jerk, and they're understandably used to having more lead time in writing about big acts. But new music is already moving in a cycle that's this fast. It's not humanly possible to keep up with the flow of new releases from interesting new acts, and the publicity and touring cycles of bands have changed drastically over the past ten years or so. And the lack of research in some articles astounds me. As perhaps the best example I can find of the malaise pervading the coverage of this album, the New York Times put up an article today that stated only one song on the new record was known about prior to release, when in fact four songs, fully half the album, had been played live in the past. It can't be a difficult fact to dig up. Three of the song titles are even the same as when they were played live. The old songs, by the way, are "Magpie", "Lotus Flower", "Give up the Ghost", and "Separator" which used to be known as "Mouse Dog Bird". Magpie was played on a webcast almost a decade ago. Lotus Flower at an Atoms for Peace show in LA. The last two at the Cambridge Corn Exchange UK Green Party benefit show. Check youtube. There's your research, done cheap and easy.

TL;DR: how hard is it to hear what instruments are on an album? not this hard.