K-The-I??? - Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow (2008)

K-The-I???
Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow (2008)
I'm typically not one to dump on anyone who tries to experiment with music. I fully support it, actually. This is how genre's expand and how new sounds are brought to us: by artists who aren't afraid to push envelopes and turn off some listeners in favor of attracting those few who really want to hear something new. But as with any experiment, some ideas work and some just don't. Rules are made to be broken, yeah, but some rules are there because they're a really good idea. Take rapping on beat, for instance. Good idea! I mean, if you have a beat, why not follow it, right? Otherwise the beat is wasted. It's there but it's serving no purpose. It's wondering why its creator didn't just use white noise and abstract sounds or something that fits the rapper's freeform style. It dreams of a relationship with a rapper who will respect it and treat it right; take care of it when it's sick and never dare raise their voice at it unless the crescendo obliges. And when it starts to have doubts about the relationship like that, the song will invariably fall flat. That is pretty much my experience with most of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.

To state it clearly: this album just didn't do it for me. The idea of it sounds really appealing on paper. On one side, you have an innovative producer in Thavius Beck, who has found success making great experimental beats for great experimental rappers like Busdriver and Saul Williams. On the other side you have K-the-I???: perhaps the most experimental rapper Beck has ever been paired with. K's stream-of-consciousness style of rapping probably can't claim to make any sense to anyone but himself. The only way he could make his lyrics more abstract at this point would be to invent his own language and words (which I wouldn't put past him, actually).

Sadly, the pairing of these two talents never really meshes well. Beck provides a lot of nice beats and soundscapes, but they seldom seem to have been made with an intent for vocal contribution. It's as if he were working on an instrumental solo album, K-The-I??? approached him about some beats, and Beck simply allowed him to pick through what he had and rap over it. The fact that it was actually the other way around (Beck approached K-the-I???) is a little perplexing. They make a pretty convincing case on songs like "Lead The Floor", but otherwise Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow strikes me as a nice experimental turntablism album that happens to have some vocals on it.

Plus, the rapping slightly offbeat thing really does bother me. But I've already spent an entire sarcastic paragraph addressing that.


Score: 5/10


"Decisions"


"Lead The Floor"

Ocean - Pantheon of the Lesser (2008)

Ocean
Pantheon of the Lesser (2008)

Ocean's 2005 debut album, Here Where Nothing Grows, was a fantastic display of heavy, bleak, depressing, suffocating, atmospheric doom metal. For 2008's Pantheon of the Lesser, the band have changed their game, giving us two new extended tracks of heavy, bleak, suffocating, depressing, atmospheric doom metal...WITH A FEMALE VOCAL ELEMENT! Whatever. It's not like doom is known for its sea changes (zing!). They have their niche and they're sticking to it.

Even though the band haven't changed by leaps and bounds, the three year gap between the two albums have been largely good to Ocean (not to be confused with Germany's THE Ocean; that band does sludgy prog-metal, this is doom. DUH!). Any band with the skills to make a thirty-five minute track worth repeated listens must be doing something right. "The Beacon" blasts the album open with a heavy drum beat and a stroke of the guitar, and seems to hint at a fast start until that beat is left to linger in the air for several seconds, at once reminding the listener who they are. "Fast start" my ass; Ocean do everything slow.

The song builds, slowly of course, and the growling vocals sound more like the heavy howling winds of a thunderstorm. The song climaxes with the introduction of said female vocal element, at first singing, then screaming as the music begins to envelope her and the listener simultaneously. It's not very unlike the title track on Ancestors' 2008 debut, Neptune With Fire, but the styles are different enough between the two bands to avoid that feeling of déjà vu. After "The Beacon", the main job of the closing track, "Of the Lesser", is to not ruin the momentum; a job that it completes with flying colors, almost to the point of surpassing the excellent opener. At a scant (in comparison) twenty-three minutes, it's leaner on instrumental sections but no less epic in proportion.

For a time, the climax of "Of the Lesser" conveys a feeling of optimism...before punishing the hell out of that nonsense with a series of bass heavy, pummeling drum beats similar to the one that opened the album. "Save the optimism for post-rock bands", they seem to say. "We're all about dooooooom."


Score: 8.5/10


"Of the Lesser" (excerpt)

Buraka Som Sistema - Black Diamond (2008)

Buraka Som Sistema
Black Diamond (2008)

It's probably foolish to debate how much attention this album would've gotten had M.I.A. not been on the lead single, "Sounds of Kuduro", so I won't spend too much time dwelling on the hypothetical. But the fact that people have actually heard of Buraka Som Sistema can probably thank she of the hottest single of 2008 (only the Amish have not heard "Paper Planes" by this point). Otherwise, this band would've likely remained unknown outside of their territory except by the most astute hipsters, who surely would've used it to throw in the faces of the less aware ("Yeah, M.I.A.'s okay, but I like Buraka Som Sistema's style better").

As the lead single suggests, Buraka Som Sistema specialize in a style of music called Kuduro, born in Angola and popular in Portugal and surrounding areas. You'd be forgiven for never having heard of it, but save yourself the trip to Wikipedia: there's very little to distinguish Kuduro from most other forms of high-BPM electronic music. It's rhythmic, danceable rave-style music, and I'm willing to wager that 4 out of 5 listeners can't tell the difference between Kuduro and any other forms of rhythmic, danceable rave-style music. You could note Kuduro's mild African flavor and the political nature of its lyrics (if any), but you'd more or less be splitting hairs.

Like most rave-style music, Black Diamond comes dangerously close to overwhelming listeners with the beat. The album starts off strong, with the aforementioned "Sounds of Kuduro" as well as "Kalemba (Wegue Wegue)" providing early highlights, but midway through the album it all starts to get tiring, and not necessarily because of a drop in song quality. The album is actually pretty consistent, but with this style of music, rigid consistency often leads to boredom.

Thank goodness, then, for "New Africas Pt. 1 and 2", which comes out of nowhere and gives Black Diamond a much needed change of pace; slowing things down before introducing a dark, brooding, dub-style beat. The two parts of the song only play for about a combined six minutes, but it's more than enough time to save this album from the mediocrity that it had been driving toward.

Buraka Som Sistema is unlikely to follow in M.I.A.'s footsteps in terms of popularity, but a follow up album that improves upon what they've done on Black Diamond may give them a legitimate shot.


Score: 7/10


"Kalemba (Wegue Wegue)"


"New Africas pt. 2"

Nomo - Ghost Rock (2008)

Nomo
Ghost Rock (2008)

What lying bastards! There's nothing even remotely paranormal about this music! My research found that everyone involved in this record was alive while recording it. Furthermore, they're still alive now! Preparing for a Spring tour no less!

And just listen to the music; it's full of life! Not at all ghostly in my opinion. Well, the electric buzzing that opens the album on "Brainwave" maybe sounds a little creepy in the right setting, but it certainly didn't scare me! After that, the album just gets more and more upbeat, like a dance album actually; and how many ghosts do you know who dance!? Ridiculous. Just listen to that percussion on songs like "All the Stars" or "My Dear". Ohhhh scaaaarrrry...NOT! How can I be scared when the music just makes me want to bob my head to the beat? Poorly executed, I say. Or how about all those enormously catchy brass parts like on "Rings" and "Three Shades"? They aren't haunting at all, they're infectious. They make me want to bust a move, not piss my pants!

As if the "ghost" part of the title wasn't suspect enough, how about the "rock" part? I mean, maybe jazz-rock or afro-rock at best, but certainly not rock rock. This sounds nothing like Black Sabbath! Now there's a ghostly rock band for you. That cover for their self-titled album gave me the creeps! Plus Ozzy Osbourne dresses in all black and like, ate a bird or some shit. And he usually at least looks kinda dead. I'm sure he wouldn't approve of this Nomo band going around talking about "ghost rock" at all. Not one bit.

I don't know who you're trying to fool with your deceptive album titles, Nomo, but I've got you figured out. I'm onto your game!


Score: 8.5/10


"Round the Way"


"Three Shades"

The Walkmen - You & Me (2008)

The Walkmen
You & Me (2008)

Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone, the Walkmen's debut, seemed to give the air of being the calm after a storm that we weren't around to witness; thriving on minimalism and distance, and was equal parts stark and optimistic. I suppose it's only natural that the sound on You & Me, their fourth proper album, is similar. The storm this time having been their previous album, A Hundred Miles Off.

And on that subject, I must say that I think A Hundred Miles Off got a bad rap. Many of the complaints about it seemed to focus on the voice of lead singer Hamilton Leithauser, which often sounded strained and hoarse. I always saw it as a part of an energy to that album that I think went under-appreciated; part of the excess that I felt the album was going for from the start. There was a wildness to it; not really a dance or a party album, just a loud one. The drumming was more frantic, the guitars mixed higher, the percussion used more gratuitously while the toy piano collected dust along with all of the other novelty instruments that previously complemented the bands' sound. Because they weren't fucking around this time.

All signs seemed to indicate that they were giving it all they had, vocal chords be damned ("He lost his voice, but he's all right", he sings on one track), and when it was over, I felt that I'd heard the last of the Walkmen, because I couldn't imagine that they had anything left to give. I awaited the announcement of a break-up or hiatus, ready for my hunch to be proven right. Instead, we got announcement of a Harry Nilsson cover album, a book, and eventually, You & Me.

The aforementioned similarities of this album and their first are many. Despite its spring release date of March 2002, Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone (EWPTLMIG from now on) always struck me as a rather wintry album. Same with 2004's Bows + Arrows, now that I think about it. The songs evoke a certain coldness; images of snow and ice, both obvious ("The Blizzard of '96", "No Christmas While I'm Talking", "The North Pole") and not so obvious. The lyrics feel like a product of cabin fever, with themes of reflection, dreams and resolution. The sound carries as if played in a cold, empty room on a cold winter night. The crisp guitars and piano keys created, for lack of an ability to explain it better, a frosty feel. The sound on You & Me more or less continues this trend, but still sounds fresh rather than a weary band just trying to recapture past glory. These are theme songs for December in the Midwest.

The only flaw, which is inherited from EWPTLMIG, is that it's a couple of songs too long. The opening notes of "I Lost You" leave me wondering why the album is still on, and by the time "If Only It Were True" comes to a close, it's a welcome event, since I'd already sort of lost interest in the album six and a half minutes ago. That aside, another success for one of the better, more consistent indie rock acts out there.


Score: 7.5/10


"On The Water"



"Canadian Girl"

Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard - The Dark Knight (2008)

Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard - The Dark Knight (2008)
I can't help but find it a little amusing that the common complaint/compliment/comment about this soundtrack is that it fits the movie. For a big budget summer action flick as anticipated as The Dark Knight was, a notable chunk of that budget was sure to go to composing the soundtrack, and rightly so. The music of a scene in a film is often as important as the acting, directing, or cinematography, arguably more so. It plays its part in drawing the emotion out of its audience, letting you know how you should feel about the situation, view certain characters and/or actions. Hearing that The Dark Knight soundtrack fits the film, I can't help but recall that famous Chris Rock joke where he berates people who brag about things they're supposed to do. "I take care of my kids." "The music fits the movie." To paraphrase Rock: "[It's] supposed to, you dumb motherfucker!"

That being said...this music fits the film really well. The dark, brooding, sometimes intense feel of the film owes a great deal to the compositions that Zimmer and Howard created, which make excellent use of aggressive string sections, forceful drumming and, as my fiancèe brilliantly put it, "epic brass". The back-to-back combo of the opening track, "Why So Serious?", and "I'm Not A Hero", is such a jaw-dropping 15-minutes of music that the middle of the album seems to drag in comparison. This isn't helped by the fact that some sections throughout the album tend to build up only to transition suddenly (read: drop out entirely) to nearly inaudible sections of delicate horns and violins. It screams for corrective equalization.

The album as a whole though, played in one sitting and making indiscriminate use of gapless playback, is quite an experience. But the dilemma continues. That being that I find myself again reviewing yet another soundtrack for a film that I loved and wondering if my feelings would be the same had I either hated or not seen the film. Maybe an objective stance on the quality of this music is beyond my abilities to provide, but really, is any music review completely objective?

The bottom line is that I think that this would be a great listening experience even if it weren't attached to a film. In fact, it reminds me a lot of last year's fantastic A World In Their Screams album by the French neo-classical group Elend, which wasn't attached to a film but felt like it should've been. With both albums, the music is powerful and controls the mood effectively. The only difference between them is that one allows you create your own images in your mind and the other has already done it for you. But if the music has done its part, the source for the imagery doesn't much matter.


Score: 8/10


"I'm Not A Hero"


"Watch The World Burn"

Opeth - Watershed (2008)

Opeth - Watershed (2008)
Opeth are one of those bands that have always been recommended to me. The one that often comes up casually in conversation from excited fanboys who make the comparison of _____________(insert metal band) to Opeth and are slightly, or not so slightly, taken aback when I can't say the reference hits home for me due to unfamiliarity. They're that band whose album's have always topped year-end lists and that I've made a mental note to check out but never did for some reason...until this year.

I'll remember Watershed as the album with which I finally took the leap.
I'll also remember Watershed as the album that permanently killed any interest I had in Opeth.

This is so beyond terrible that it takes an extreme level of patience for me to listen to it in one sitting. My first go-round with it spanned over a period of three days. Two days for my second listen. The last few I've been able to manage within a day, which recently culminated with the Herculean effort of actually listening to it all without stopping. I consider this one of the hardest things I've done all year. Please keep in mind that this is the same year that I ran my first marathon, juggled two jobs, began teaching English to African refugees, proposed to my girlfriend, revealed our plans to marry to her skeptical parents and successfully convinced them I wasn't just in it for the money. Somewhere in-between all of that: Opeth.

If I'm being honest, I don't dislike the music on Watershed as much as I dislike the humorlessness of the music on Watershed. Opeth are exactly the kind of band, and this the exact kind of music, that shouldn't take itself seriously. But I've seen no obvious indication to the contrary. Despite how technically sound the music is, it's still being played by long-haired, bearded dudes in their 30's who's fashion sense (all black) has not matured since high school. I pity the fool who can't see the humor in that.

And on that note, here's one more reason I'll remember Watershed: it's the album that made me realize just how badly metal needs more Devin Townsend's (of metal band Strapping Young Lad fame). Meaning, a guy that plays the music, respects the music, but also realizes the music is kind of silly if you really think about it.


Score: 3/10


"Porcelain Heart"

Girl Talk - Feed The Animals (2008)

Girl Talk - Feed The Animals (2008)
You've heard Plunderphonics played in your local discotheques, but now you can bring all of the fun and excitement right into your own living room with the new Plunderphonics Trivia™: Feed The Animals Edition!!! Here's how to play:

1) Each player gets a notepad and a pencil provided in the game package. Insert the Feed The Animals music CD (also provided in the package) into your media player of choice to begin Round One.

2) The goal of the game is for each player to identify as many of the samples as they can recognize and write on their notepads the name of the recording artist and song title that the sample comes from. Points in Round One are tallied as follows:

One (1) point for correctly identifying the artist only.
Two (2) points for correctly identifying the exact title of the song only.
Three (3) points for correctly identifying both the artist and exact song title.

3) Round One ends at the conclusion of track number five, "Set It Off". Stop the CD and have each player calculate their total (refer to the master list of songs on the album's Wikipedia page. The player with the least amount of points is eliminated (assuming at least two players remain).

4) The remaining players may then begin Round Two, which starts off right where the previous round left off and ends at the conclusion of track number ten, "In Step". Points in this round are tallied as follows:

Zero (0) points for correctly identifying the artist only.
One (1) point for correctly identifying the exact title of the song only.
Three (3) points for correctly identifying both the artist and exact song title.

5) At the conclusion of "In Step", stop the CD. Have each player calculate their total for Round Two only (again, refer to the master list). As at the conclusion of Round One, the player in Round Two with the least amount of points is eliminated (assuming at least two players remain).

6) Begin the third and Final Round where Round Two left off. The remaining players will listen to each of the remaining songs on the album. Points in the Final Round are tallied as follows:

Zero (0) points for correctly identifying the artist only.
One (1) point for correctly identifying the exact title of the song only.
Five (5) points for correctly identifying both the artist and exact song title.

7) At the conclusion of the Final Round and the Feed The Animals music CD, each remaining player is to calculate their total for the Final Round. The player with the most amount of total points throughout all three rounds officially earns the title of Plunderphonics Trivia™: Feed The Animals Edition Ultimate Music Snob and is the loser of the game!!!

The winner? The player eliminated in Round One who didn't have to listen to this annoying, piece of shit album all the way through. Seriously, as "fun" as this experiment is, hearing Vanilla Ice and the Ying Yang Twins at the same time doesn't make for a great listening experience (neither does hearing them individually, for that matter).


Score: 4/10


"Still Here"


"Like This"

The Mars Volta - Bedlam In Goliath (2008)

The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath (2008)

The Mars Volta are one of those polarizing bands that I can't help but pull for to make that one album that will prove to their detractors that they're more than just fancy guitar work, precise drumming, and pretentious prog-rock wankery. For the past few years, it's been a tough sell.

Since captivating new fans and winning over a large amount of leftover At The Drive-In addicts with their 2003 debut, De-Loused In The Comatorium, the band have lost more support than they've gained. Frances The Mute, a monstrous and sometimes meandering album full of epics, threw a lot of people off the bandwagon. Amputecture didn't do much to bring them back (though I personally felt it got a bad rap). As a result, anticipation over The Bedlam In Goliath didn't reach anywhere near fever pitch, and perhaps this worked in the band's favor. Disillusioned fans of the band should take a second look: the Mars Volta have recorded their best work since their debut.

The Bedlam In Goliath features some of the most digestible song lengths and memorable melodies that the band have given us since De-Loused. It's hard to believe, but they're actually catchy again. "Ilyena" is a prime example, probably one of the finest things they've ever done with five-and-a-half minutes."Wax Simulacra", length and hook-wise, is actually radio-friendly and worthy of its recent Grammy nomination and, considering its competition, a Grammy win. "Goliath", the album's clear standout, is HUGE, reaching or even surpassing some of the most beloved songs on De-Loused like "Inertiatic ESP" or "Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)". And that's just on the first half of the album.

The second half is hard-hitting and relentless, surprisingly free of filler. "Soothsayer", with it's middle-eastern vibe, is a successful experiment that works well for the band. The stop-start dynamic of "Askepios" provides an interesting twist. "Ouroboros" is a lightning quick, thumping track that shows off new drummer Thomas Pridgen's enormous talents. Bedlam reaches a point where it's only flaw may be that it has too many such tracks, and the band didn't want to leave any of them off even if the album becomes a little overwhelming as a result.

On the other hand, I can understand how it would be hard not to want to show off Pridgen, a child prodigy-turned-virtuoso and widely respected master of his craft. It likely is his muscular drumming that's responsible for the Mars Volta's new energy. At 25, he's the youngest member of the band, and perhaps that youthfulness is what inspired the band to act and play more like their 2003 selves; kind of like what happens when a man far-removed from his college days finds himself conversing with a young student and rediscovers the joy of the random stupid an inane behavior that he thought he'd grown out of.

In that sense, The Bedlam In Goliath reminds me of my own college days, which is probably part of the reason I enjoy it. It's basically De-Loused In The Comatorium with lyrics that make sense, taking me back to those days in the summer of 2003 when my college friends and I would throw De-Loused into the stereo and rock out, singing "EXO-SKELETAL JUNCTION AT THE RAILROAD DELAYED!" without much of a care in the world (yeah, we were pretty lame). But therein lies Bedlam's most frustrating quality: it's like hearing that album's proper follow-up five years too late.


Score: 7.5/10


"Ilyena"


"Goliath"

Nigeria Special & Nigeria Rock Special (2008)

Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6
&
Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria (2008)

UK record label Soundway has made a habit of digging up obscure African sounds spanning many genre's, including afrobeat, funk, highlife, blues, and psychedelic rock, among others. This year, they released a 3-part compilation of 70's Nigerian music. I picked up two of the three titles, both a mouthful to say: Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6, and Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria.

The two-disk Nigeria Special is the lengthiest of the three, providing a thorough and expansive collection of quality, laid-back Nigerian blues. Because of it's sheer length (almost two hours of music between the two disks), it can be somewhat of an overwhelming listen. The afrobeat tracks also get a little difficult to separate the good from the bad if you're a relative newbie to it. It seems to be an acquired taste that I personally have not fully acclimated to, so I was left feeling somewhat neutral towards some of the songs, viewing them as decent enough filler until the standout highlife and blues tracks came along. Considering the number of such standouts, which includes Celestine Ukwu & His Philosophers National's "Okwukwe Na Nchekwube" and Mono Mono's "Ema Kowa Iasa Ile Wa", any flaws or issues I had with the album were easy to forgive.

Somewhat disappointingly, the Nigeria Rock Special doesn't quite reach the same heights. For an excellent collection of 1970's African psych rock, see Love's a Real Thing - The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa from Luaka Bop's World Psychedelic Classics series. The Nigeria Rock Special, track for track, isn't quite as good, but it does have moments from time to time. Solid tracks like "Ku Mi Da Hankan", "Cotocun Gba Gounke", or the excellent closer "Chant to Mother Earth", are often sandwiched in between sometimes meandering instrumentals, which really threw off the momentum for me during earlier listens, but that I didn't mind as much over time. Still, I feel like this could've befitted from being two to three songs shorter. The overall length isn't overwhelming or anything, especially when compared to the previously mentioned two disk Nigeria Special, it's just the inclusion of a couple of tracks seem tacked on rather than deliberately sequenced.

The third collection in this series, Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound of The Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79, I didn't bother to pick up for a couple of reasons. The first of which is the word "disco", a genre that fails to interest me even in my own language and country. The second and main reason, though, is because I wasn't exactly blown away by the aforementioned collections. The Nigeria Special was good enough to inspire me to further explore African music in the blues and highlife categories, but as World Psychedelic Classics has proven, these types of comps have been done better before.


Score: 7.5/10 & 6/10


"Ema Kowa Iasa Ile Wa" (from Nigeria Special)


"Cotocun Gba Gounke" (from Nigeria Rock Special)

Samothrace - Life's Trade (2008)

Samothrace - Life's Trade (2008)

For this review I'd like to quote a passage from the 1998 book Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson, a Canadian-born writer who made a living teaching English in Japanese high schools, and later, inspired by Alan Booth, decided to hitchhike the country from one end to the other and document his travels. In the following excerpt, he is reflecting upon the Japanese people's strange way of approaching the English language, and recalls a chance meeting with a former student of his:

"My students in Japan were determined to reduce English to mathematical dictums that could then be reassembled...When I ran into one [of them] out of uniform in a t-shirt that read ENJOY MY BROTHER!, I challenged him to explain the phrase. It was a wager, really, because I promised him ten thousand yen if he could do it. This young man was our top student, destined for one of Japan's finest universities, and he took up the challenge with confidence. "Enjoy is the verb," he said, "my is a possessive pronoun and brother is the object. The subject is understood to be you, which makes the sentence a command phrase. The exclamation mark adds urgency." He then held out his hand for the money. "But what does it mean?" I said. He looked at me, utterly baffled, and said "Enjoy is the verb, my is a possessive pronoun, brother is the--" Needless to say, I didn't pay him the ten thousand yen and he is still bitter about it. In his mind, he did explain it and all I did was welsh on a bet."

This pretty much sums up my feelings about the fundamentally sound, well-performed, yet altogether unfulfilling doom metal on Life's Trade. Samothrace = the Japanese student (if that wasn't obvious).


Score: 6.5/10


"Awkward Hearts"

Aimee Mann - @#%&! Smilers (2008)

Aimee Mann - @#%&! Smilers (2008)
I've always been a fan of Aimee Mann from a distance. First having been exposed to her music by way of the movie Magnolia -- directed by her friend Paul Thomas Anderson; and also one of my favorite movies of all-time -- I came to like her brand of mature, insightful songwriting and simple but catchy melodies...from a distance. Her new albums were released and were continually met with critical praise, and I would read about them with interest thinking "Hmm, I like Aimee Mann, I'll have to pick this up", a thought that, for one reason or another, was never met with action.

@#%&! Smilers was bound to have similar fate until, as luck would have it, my part-time bookstore job was giving away a promo copy of the album after it's life as an in-store play had expired. While liking Aimee Mann and actually going out and buying her album for some reason proved too much of a task for me, liking Aimee Mann and taking home a free copy of her album was quite easy.

The album is every bit as solid as I would have expected from her. More simple but catchy ballads about life and love, beautifully sung and written with wit and wisdom. Songwriting has never been Mann's weakness, though. While her songs may strike more of a chord with a demographic I can't possibly relate to as a man in his mid-twenties, she writes them in such a way that any listener can find common ground. "Thirty One Today", for example, is a clear standout; probably one of the few modern songs that both you and your mom would enjoy equally. I imagine this would be my theme song if I were a woman in my thirties, but even now I can relate to its more general themes of disappointment and uncertainty. Her sound has expanded a bit with the use of a synthesizer, among other instruments such as horns and strings. The synth gets a little too 80's for comfort at times, as on "Borrowing Time", but typically it's not a major distraction from the composition as a whole. Overall, @#%&! Smilers is completely worth the time to listen to...as long as you can get the motivation to listen to it.

That's the thing about Aimee Mann's music: it's not really demanding of your attention. It's not remarkable or experimental. It's submissive and unoffensive enough to be played in a bookstore, obviously. Even Mann herself is kind of plain in such a way that if she took a step backward she might melt into the wall (to paraphrase Murakami). But these aren't flaws as much as they are oddly charming once you recognize them. It might've taken a stroke of right-place-right-time luck for me to finally do so, but I'm glad I did.


Score: 7.5/10


"Phoenix"


"Thirty One Today"

Bohren & der Club of Gore - Dolores (2008)

Bohren & der Club of Gore - Dolores (2008)

A loungy German jazz band who plays film noir-style music at a funeral pace that often rests below twenty beats per minute named Bohren & der Club of Gore? Sounds more like BORING & der Club of SNORE! LOL WUT!!!1

Except not at all, and even though I would have a hard time defending against their music being a complete bore to some, I still consider them to be one of my favorite bands making music today. Their dark-ambient jazz music would be an anomaly in any collection that doesn't consist of a few Angelo Badalamenti compositions and a Twin Peaks DVD box set. Those familiar with the composers work for the 1990's TV show, however, will immediately be able to point out the similarities between he and Bohren.

The band's first album, Gore Motel, played almost like a tribute; any one song feeling like a missing b-side for the Twin Peaks soundtrack. With subsequent albums, though, the band has shown real growth, which came together most brilliantly on 2000's Sunset Mission (though many would argue the same point for 2002's Black Earth), when the band beautifully integrated the saxophone and mellotron into their previously bass-driven sound. 2005's Geisterfaust felt like a bit of a misstep for those who had grown on the band's sax-led sound, myself included. Bohren had already been known for long, repetitive song structures, but without the improvisation of the saxophone on four of the album's five tracks, the songs felt longer and more repetitive than before.

It would be hard to call Dolores a new creative leap for the band, more of a return to form. What the band is able to do is take the sound they aimed for in Geisterfaust and present the songs in more digestible lengths. It's a small change that leads to a significant increase in listenability. The breaks and changes come more quickly and are easier to recognize, so it avoids getting to that "Damn, this song is still on?" moment that a few of Geisterfaust's songs reached. On top of that, there's more sax, and it's used effectively to give Dolores more mood variety than the band have given on an album since Gore Motel. While the mellotron-led tracks fashion a feeling of extreme sadness and mourning -- such as on "Orgelblut" or the fantastic opener "Staub" -- the sax songs come off as optimistic; almost upbeat at times.

Bohren have given me yet another reason to love them with Dolores. But I can't help but be continually impressed with how a band with really only one song have been able to turn that song into six full-length albums of above-average quality. One song, yeah, but it's a damn good song.



Score: 8/10


"Still Am Tresen"


"Orgelblut"

Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Cipher (2008)

Slim Cessna's Auto Club - Cipher (2008)

Jay Munly is a scary son of a bitch.

I still recall, two years ago, standing along the wall of a small concert venue while Slim Cessna's Auto Club's opening band entertained the crowd. Less than fifteen feet to my right, alone in the corner, with nothing but space in between us, was a tall, rail-thin, bald corpse of a man donning a cowboy hat and all black. I knew it was Munly, and as much as I wanted to approach him and show my appreciation for his having recorded one of the greatest and most underrated albums of the decade (2004's self-titled Munly & The Lee Lewis Harlots), to be honest, I was kind of afraid to bother him. He seemed polite yet annoyed with the enthusiastic, less perceptive couple who had come up to him ten minutes earlier, so I was fine forgoing showering him with gushing fanboy praise if it meant giving him the isolation that his body language and music led me to believe he prefers.

Once on stage, however, he seems to transform. He, along with the equally tall and creepy Slim Cessna, moved around in skeletal, seemingly puppet-string controlled motions and clapped and dropped to their knees under the weight and power of their music. They reached their hands in the air and sang with passion, pleading toward the ceiling lights while The Reverend Dwight Pentacost (I shit you not) wails on a banjo like you've never seen someone wail on a banjo before. This, my friends, is gothic country Slim Cessna-style, coming off less like a concert and more like a sermon in some strange backwoods church that any stranger would be so unfortunate to have stumbled upon. I've not had another equally enjoyable and unsettling concert experience before or since.

Cipher captures this energy pretty well. The songs are both urgent and catchy, with lots of variety that keeps it from ever getting boring. Sometimes dark and sometimes lighthearted, even the hilarious banter between Munly and Slim is present, giving it the same feel of spontaneity of a live performance. The band are energetic and entertaining, singing songs related to the praising of Jesus or the loss of faith or mocking Jesus or...hell, I don't know. Even reading the lyrics sheet I can't really tell what this band's motivation is; whether they are mocking faith or embracing it seems to come into question from one song to the next. Or perhaps the point is the uncertainty and the fragility of faith.

Either way, I wouldn't feel any more comfortable playing this around God-fearing relatives than I would Satanic black metal. In fact, for all the noise and growling and aggression and dark atmosphere and scary make-up and long hair and terrible band logos involved in metal, I doubt any of them could strike fear into the hearts of in-laws as much as this tall, quiet, skinny country singer from Denver could.


Score: 8.5/10


"Americadio"


"Magalina Hagalina Boom Boom"

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday (2008)

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday (2008)

I have to admit that when I'm looking for new music to listen to, skimming through reviews and band descriptions, there are a few key words that almost always pique my interest: "psychedelic", "doom", "bluesy", "g-funk", comparisons to bands I already like, etc etc. Though these words ultimately matter little when I'm actually listening, they do play a not so small role in determining what I listen to first. For Doomsdayer's Holiday, the keywords were "eastern instruments", which suddenly took a band that I had a passing interest in and rocketed them near the top of my "Album's I Must Check Out" list. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a sitar.

The album begins with the doomy title track, followed by "Reincarnation Blues", which begins to make use of the aforementioned eastern instruments, though my knowledge isn't deep enough to place which one (I want to say a guzheng). Despite sounding different, the two songs are very similar in a way. How can I best describe this? ...You know that feeling of excitement you get when you start some sort of creative project and you're all gung-ho about it until midway through it's completion and then the frustrations begin mounting, at which point you muddle through the rest of the way, perhaps out of obligation or sheer stubbornness? The first two tracks are the auditory equivalent of that. Roaring out of the starting gate only to limp across the finish line like a poorly trained runner who got too excited and forgot to pace himself.

The last five tracks remedy this bad habit immediately. Grails abandon the heavy rock approach to slow things down to an almost meditative pace, starting with the "The Natural Man", an airy acoustic track that even throws in some flute action with fantastic results. More songs need flutes, "The Natural Man" led me to determine. After the brooding "Immediate Mate", "Predestination Blues" gives the band another opportunity to rock out, which again brings a middle eastern sound for a Lawrence of Arabia-esque hard rock cover band feel. By this time, the band has learned to pace the track better, as the song climaxes at the right time.

By the album's conclusion, I learn that there is no sitar, and a great wave of sadness sets over me. I give myself a moment to weep and sort through my thoughts, and ultimately decide that the album is still pretty good without it. The short overall playtime may be a deterrent for some, but Doomsdayer's Holiday packs enough good music to warrant repeated listens.



Score: 7.5/10


"The Natural Man"


"X-Contaminations"

Nine Inch Nails - The Slip (2008)

Nine Inch Nails - The Slip (2008)

The Slip was released earlier this year for free via the Nine Inch Nails website, mere months after the free release of the four-disc/part Ghosts I-IV album. I was never really a NIN fan growing up, but if someone's going to give away their music for free on the internet, then why the hell not see what it's about, ya know? I was a bit underwhelmed by the dark ambient meandering of Ghosts, so I wasn't expecting much from The Slip. But I must say, I'm really surprised by how not terrible this album is. More than that, I'm surprised by how good it is.

Having laid off the drugs and no longer content with being the musician of choice for cutters and goth kids, Trent is much more upbeat these days. The Slip seems to be along the lines of the more recent NIN albums (and to some extent, similar to the Reznor produced album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! by Saul Williams), so there's electro-industrial pop aplenty. But the songs feel more confident this time out than what I've heard of him recently. The pacing of the album is effectively managed. Save for the largely pointless and barely audible opener "999,999", the album starts off fast and upbeat, then slowly brings the mood down to darker territory as the album progresses. So while "Letting You" and "Corona Radiata" have very little in common, the journey that takes you from the former to the latter is nearly flawless in it's fluidity.

It's nice to see that an artist who has embraced music's digital age as readily as Reznor (which usually includes embracing the A.D.D. listening habits associated with it) is still giving great care to the craft of an album. At 43-minutes, The Slip is less than half the length of Ghosts I-IV. If he continues to trim the fat this well and doesn't indulge too much into ambient territory, I'd happily pay for the next NIN album.


Score: 7/10


"1,000,000"


"Echoplex"

Ancestors - Neptune With Fire (2008)

Ancestors - Neptune With Fire (2008)

October 24th, 2008
"Whoa....Om, you've just been pwned."

That was the sole note I left about Neptune With Fire after my first listen to it, meant to express my immediate appreciation for this album in comparison to my lukewarm opinion of Om, one of Ancestors' musical peers. Like Om, Ancestors specialize in epic, 15+ minute progressive/stoner/doom metal marathons. It's a risky format, as it only gives the band room for two to four songs per album, meaning the album becomes a real drag if any of those songs falter at any moment. And don't even think about trying to recover from one bad track. There's just no room for filler. Om, however, have become quite good at providing an awesome opening track that ends up desperately trying to carry the aimless, less interesting music that follows. Ancestors, thankfully, avoid such mistakes. Two tracks. Both fantastic.

The opening title track starts off with a heavy stoner rock section with vocals (sounding a tad like Electric Wizard's Jus Oborn) before lapsing into a psychedelic, effects-laden guitar solo, which then builds back into heavy rock territory for the climax. The pacing throughout is excellent, as even at 17-minutes long it still feels too short. The even more epic "Orcus' Avarice" begins with church organs before launching it's low-end, slow rolling guitar attack. Though instead of going again with the loud-quiet-loud structure, the track eventually introduces a ghostly, almost operatic female vocal part to close out the song's last third on an unexpected dramatic note. In simple terms: it rocks.

Neptune With Fire is a stunning debut by Ancestors. So powerful in execution that not even cheesy lyrical themes and my least favorite Arik Roper cover art in a while can hold it back from greatness.


Score: 9/10


"Orcus' Avarice" (excerpt)

Valet - Naked Acid (2008)

Valet - Naked Acid (2008)

Acid trips. Marijuana leaves. Dark rooms illuminated by lava lamps. The New Age book section. Dreadlocks. Grateful Dead posters. Tie-dye shirts. Sun dresses. Birkenstocks. The entire city of Sedona, Arizona. The word "ethereal". People who talk slow. Body odor. Overgrown facial hair. Arthur Magazine. Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. Incense. That one episode of the Simpsons where Homer eats the Guatemalan chili peppers at the chili cook-off. These are just a few of the things that come to mind when listening to he free-form, psychedelic soundscapes on Naked Acid.

This is such a stoner album that I'm not sure that listening to it sober really gets me to the heart of it. But from a sober standpoint, it's not too shabby. The first three songs work especially well. The aptly named "We Went There" opens the door to the otherworldliness of the album, "Drum Movie" eases you into the new environment, and by the time "Kehaar" comes around, you're completely settled in and enjoying the ride.

Ironically enough, things start to fall apart with the song "Fuck It": a confusing, meandering song that goes nowhere and leaves you frustrated afterward (I'll spare the innuendo). From there, Naked Acid is never quite able to regain it's footing. Perhaps like any relationship built around drugs, you soon realize that there wasn't much substance there to begin with (substances, yes, but not substance). "Fire" sort of begins to pick up the pieces, but only if you're still in the mood to pay attention by that time.

All in all, a decent effort. Though I can't help but imagine how much better it would've been had Valet laid off the hash a little.


Score: 6/10


"Kehaar"


"Fire"

Dungen - 4 (2008)

Dungen - 4 (2008)

Sweden's Dungen is the best psych band to appear since the genre's heyday in the 60's. I'd acknowledge the boldness of that statement, but when you consider their consistency and their competition, it's not such a grand statement at all (and if you disagree with me, I'd really appreciate recommendations for who is better). Hell, I'd argue that calling them the best current psych band is too limiting. Already with one modern classic under their belt this decade in Ta Det Lugnt, 4 is yet another solid release for a band that once again deserves album of the year consideration.

4 is, in a word, stoooooooooooooonned. The lush, hazy sound that the band played with on their previous album, Tio Bitar, returns here. It's a unique sound, rocketing you into the mood of the golden days of the psychedelic era, inducing imagery of smoke-filled rooms with shag carpeting, tacky orange wallpaper, wood paneling, and Eames chairs.

As far as vocals go, singer Gustav Ejstes only bothers with lyrics for half the album, while the remaining songs allow the instruments to speak for themselves. Ordinarily, this sort of back-and-forth format can be distracting, creating a mood where the listener just waits for the typically more interesting vocal tracks to play. Not so with 4. The songs work and blend together nicely, with the more psych pop-oriented tracks fading into in medias res jam sessions. Guitarist Reine Fiske is a true guitar hero, his virtuosic abilities carrying many of the compositions on his back, making the respectable 37-minute album length feel much too brief.

With 4, Dungen have cemented themselves into my personal "Bands/Artists Who Can Do No Wrong" stable. It's an album that should make more than a couple of top ten lists this year. It'll certainly make mine.


Score: 9.5/10


"Det Tar Tid"


"Fredag"

Nas - Untitled (2008)

Nas - Untitled (2008)

"...this is a song about fried chicken?"

I said that aloud to my fiancee as I we were listening to Untitled in my car. On an album that Nas clearly wanted to be viewed as important (what with the controversy surrounding it's working title, Nigger), packed with hard-hitting social commentary and references to important moments and names in black history ranging from slavery to Barack Obama, it was a little surprising to hear this absurd song personifying black peoples' most well-known culinary stereotype. But then I listened to the album more. And to that song more. And now I feel a little silly saying that my favorite song on Untitled, and album filled with hard-hitting social commentary and references to important moments and names in black history ranging from slavery to Barack Obama, is an absurd song personifying black peoples' most well-known culinary stereotype.

This is not to say that the other songs fail. The simplistic, piano-driven intro, "Queens Get The Money", is probably the album's least over-produced song. Adversely, you have songs like "Make The World Go Round" and "Hero" that scream for radio play, coming complete with current hot pop stars (Chris Brown?) and hot producers. Sometimes the over-production works, such as on the track "N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave And The Master)", where the bombastic approach works for the emotion of the song.

Thankfully, Nas is on top of his game lyrically throughout the album, and it's enough to keep your attention on the song topics. It's just a shame that the beat-makers couldn't match him. You'd think that the raw subject matter would call for raw production, yet instead we get 80's synth effects (as on the song "America"). But hey, what do I know? I will, however, give props to DJ Green Lantern for the Tupac sample ("And though it seems heaven sent/We ain't ready to have a black president") on "Black President", because I've been wondering for the last year and a half when someone was going to dig that line up, and frankly was starting to get impatient. Thank you, Mr. Lantern.

Still, I come back to "Fried Chicken". What does this being Untitled's strongest song say about the album as a whole? I feel there's a deeper connection to be made with it that I'm not analyzing properly. So I'll opt for the "it is what it is" philosophy. The passive individuals philosophy of choice. It's the best song just because it's the best song and it doesn't really speak to any underlying meaning. It doesn't require analyzation because the meaning is more obvious than hidden, if there even is a meaning at all. That probably sums up my feelings about this album pretty accurately, actually.

I listen to this album and feel like the ultimate goal should be to promote a deep discussion about black society. One that speaks for a group of people like any good protest album should. Nas does present several issues and talks about them passionately, but in the end I don't feel like any discussion is necessary. Perhaps it's because a lot of the issues here have already been covered before in any number of albums by underground rap artists, or perhaps for some other reasons. But there's no depth to his commentary, so in that sense it kind of fails as a protest album even though it ultimately succeeds as a hip hop album.

I like Untitled more for what it attempts than what it accomplishes. What had the potential to be an eventful album, a What's Going On or It Takes A Nation Of Millions... for a new generation, ends up just being a good album that will probably be overlooked in music history, unfortunately.

Score: 7/10



"Fried Chicken"


"Black President"