Album Reviews: LCD Soundsystem, Black Keys, Wolf Parade, Jaill

http://www.pekintimes.com/entertainment/x1849227362/Notable-album-releases-from-spring-early-summer

The half-year in music (with videos!)

(Ahem. As you can see there are few actual videos, it's mostly only youtube songs with static images)

Best Albums

Surfer Blood "Astro Coast" A-


Titus Andronicus "The Monitor" A-

Beach House "Teen Dream" A-

LCD Soundsystem "This is Happening" B

Black Keys "Brothers" B+

Spoon "Transference" B

 

Good
The Hold Steady "Heaven is Whenever" B-

Tame Impala "Innerspeaker" B+
Yeasayer "Ambling Alp" (the first half, at least) B-

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings "I Learned the Hard Way" B-
Sleigh Bells "Treats" B
Jaill -"This is How We Burn" B
Male Bonding "Nothing Hurts" B
Dr. Dog "Shame Shame" B-

Meh

She & Him "Vol. 2" C-
Everything M. Ward does deserves a listen. At a certain point, though, even if I recognize something as quality work (mostly the production and instrumentation) doesn't mean I have to like it, or force myself to listen to it on the reg. I just don't see the point of She & Him. Zooey doesn't write quite good enough songs, they are pleasant enough, but I'd rather just go dig up some old records.


The Morning Benders "Big Echo" B-

The Brooklyn via San Fran group led off its second album with perhaps the song of the year, "Excuses," a glorious amalgamation of glee-club harmonies, bluesy strings and soaring melodies, but then let Chris Taylor's (Grizzly Bear) production drag the following nine tracks through the tasteful, reverbed sludge that makes Taylor's outfit so damn boring. Only the occasionally fuzzed-out guitar struts through the languid, hung-over drapery, heard on the second track on the top-loaded record.

Foals - Total Life Forever C

Overrated

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti "Before Today"

Robyn "Body Talk Pt. 1"

Robyn is terrible and I'm tired of all these hipsters saying otherwise.

Janelle Monae "The ArchAndroid"

Disappointments

Vampire Weekend "Contra" C
I think yr a contra. NO! yr a contra ...

Wolf Parade "Expo 86" C
Broken Bells "Broken Bells" C-

Haven't had time for more than one listen

Gorillaz "Plastic Beach"
Dum Dum Girls "I Will Be"
Broken Social Scene "Forgiveness Rock Record"
Harlem "Hippies"
The National "High Violet"

Did not hear

New Pornographers "Together"
Band of Horses "Infinite Arms"
MGMT "Congratulations"
Joanna Newsom "Have One on Me"
... and thousands more

Shitlist:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/music/ref=pd_ts_nav

Losing My Edge

Losing My Edge - LCD Soundsyst...

I wish I was an extra in Slacker, that I was seeing the Replacements in '84 in Minneapolis and that it was 1905 in Peoria, that Wire was the biggest band from the '70s and Starship never existed. I wish Danger Mouse would stop trying to collaborate with all my favorite bands and that James Mercer would reform the Shins. I wish it was a Thursday night in 2004 and I was heading to Andiamos, that I was a freshman in college and that I was forming a post-pop electro/alt-dancewave punkcore proto-disco seminalchill band before sharing a cigarette with Jim Jarmusch at some crap diner in NY. I wish hip-hop maintained its DIY ethos and that Clear Channel was bought by an independently wealthy businessman and burned to the ground. I wish vintage analogue synthesizers weren't out of my price range and that I had the time and energy to read. I wish the Dormitory's jukebox was free and that "This is Happening" was out today and it didn't have "Drunk Girls" on it. I wish Yeasayer could write more than 5 good songs for an album, that nearly every good record this year wasn't completely front-loaded and that (often meaningless) NSFW music videos would stop getting such easy publicity for (what's now) standard-practice titties and gore [I'm looking you M.I.A., Flaming Lips, Yeasayer, Girls, Erykah Badu, No Age, Matt and Kim, Massive Attack, The Kills, etc (dammit they just won again)] I wish there was a performance venue in town to draw indie acts, that my hipster mailman would stop taking my issue of Paste every month that I then have to call for a replacement copy of (which has also disappeared once). I wish I was hearing Elvis Costello's "My Aim is True," Otis Redding's "Otis Blue," Tom Waits "Heart of Saturday Night," Pixies "Doolittle," Pavement's "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain," Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," and Beck's "Odelay" for the first time again. I wish I wasn't nostalgic.

SPRING MUSIC

Several of the most anticipated May music releases are streaming for free in their entirety:

I'm not allowing myself to listen to th new Hold Steady or LCD Soundsystem until I have the physical copies in hand, but I probably will preview the other two. What do you guys think of the new albums?

The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126023882

Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125236515

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
http://www.lcdsoundsystem.com/thisishappening/

The National - High Violet
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/magazine/25national-t.html

It's gonna be cold outside and warm as hell in my recliner (UPDATED 11/27)

Early 2010 looks to be a great time for music fans. Spoon will continue its current four-album winning streak with "Transference," Vampire Weekend will try to avoid the sophomore slump with "Contra" and LCD Soundsystem will drop his follow up to 2007's mind blowing "Sound of Silver" on unworthy boys and girls.

Get yr credit cards ready, as I'm sure you'll all be buying each of these in CD, digipack, vinyl, cassette, 8-track and sheet music in valiant efforts to singlehandedly save the recording industry.

Yeasayer will follow its terrific 2007 debut with "Odd Blood." The album's lead single "Ambling Alp" (and it's awesome, surrealistic video) shows a new electronic take on the band's sci-fi tribe sound.

Stereogum claims the Avalanches will follow its 2001 debut this year ... here's for holding out hope. And the Hold Steady might reward is with some new tracks, too.

That's all for now, folks.

Vampire Weekend - Contra (1-12-10)
Spoon - Transference (1-19-10)
Yeasayer - Odd Blood (2-9-10)
LCD Soundsystem - TBA (3-??-10)