After much tinkering, hair pulling, swearing, and more swearing, I think I might have finally settled on the format for this blog. Yes, after about what was almost a year if throwing things up on the wall to see if they stuck, switching formats for no goddamned reason, while churning out poorly timed album reviews (on a somewhat weekly bias to be fair), you can now prepare for.....me throwing more ideas to a wall seeing if they stick and switching formats for no goddamned reason.
BUT! I may have finally settled on how I'm going to do this. With the sheer volume of music that shows up on my desk (or that I can bum of a friend) I'm gonna limit full album reviews to larger releases (with the exception of Surfer Blood's Pythons for the simple reason I've been working on it too long to not go up), while shuffling everything else that comes out in the week to this (hopefully) weekly edition on the ol' Nirvana Of Sound, tentatively (and creatively I might add) titled "Albums You Might Have Missed"
For better or worse, lots of albums get released into the market with little to no fanfare. And these quaint gems get lost in the mix. And a lot of other times, these quaint gems turn out to be utter garbage, lending evidence to the argument just because you're unconventional, doesn't mean you're also good.. I try to shed some light the good and the bad of these albums on a weekly basis. In other words, hanging around at a college radio station finally pays off in ways besides bumming cigarettes from friends. And the best part is I'm TOTALLY aloud to play favorites. In fact I think this kind of piece works best if I encourage it.
Hospital Ships
Destruction in Ur Soul
(Graveface Records)
Jordan Geiger's brainchild certainly has grown from its humble beginnings as a one-man, psychedelic pop outlet for him to write weirdly depressing love songs (on an album named after his cat no less). With Destruction in Ur Soul, Hospital Ships have made the transformation into a legit, full sounding band; blending the swelling anthems and stellar songwriting from their last albums, with some much needed bite. Destruction switches seamlessly from drowning the listener in a sea of hazy, swirling guitars, to lulling them in with soft, folk melodies. But even with all the new musical muscle, Geiger's personal touch never gets buried and the album sounds as authentic as any of his lower key ones. The inevitable comparisons to The Flaming Lips are still there (and warranted) as always, but seeing as he's the one who named his band after a Flaming Lips song in the first place, I can't say it bothers him too much.
The Mantles
Long Enough To Leave
(Slumberland Records)
I'll admit it, I have something of a soft spot for the "sound lifted out of the past" retro garage rockers. It's always kind of cool to hear a record and have to do a double take when you find out it was released 3 years ago and not 30 years ago as your ears would have had you to believe. With that being said, I initially really dug The Mantles self-titled debut a few years ago. Rather then just follow the prevalent trope of taking a few chords from 60's garage acts and play them as loud as humanly possible (with sloppily used reverb being not only a possibility but ESSENTIAL), they opted for actually writing music with an ear for the decade. The result was a present sounding 60's garage pop album written by kids who were fans of Loaded era Velvet Underground, and damn if I didn't love it. But with Long Enough To Leave, The Mantles improvements (better production) are marred by a lot of missteps (maddeningly boring, clunky songs). The Mantles try and fail to go for a more challenging listen, trading those sweet melodies of their debut for uninspired, uninteresting experimentation. The sound quality is certainly present, but it's a step back from quality sound.
Austra
Olympia
(Domiono Recordings)
To her credit, Katie Stelmanis is a good singer. Some would argue a great singer, and I'm just a guy who doesn't know any better. Some might even argue that my opinion of Austra's newest album, that it's a boring, lifeless mass with only a few original ideas repeated ad-nauseum that's about as energetic as a seniors dance at a morgue (and almost as depressing), to be unfounded criticism. That being said, the utilization of a "classicly trained vocalist" does not a good album make. As great as her voice is, it feels like an odd, forced fit over the music, wringing the life out of each and every note past the point of pleasantness. Luckily, Austra embody a ambient, moody synthpop sound on Olympia, that manages to hit that marketable sweet spot of being too melodic to be true ambient music, but also too depressing to dance to. Oh wait, you mean that's actually NOT a marketable group? Well damn, it's about useless everywhere now is it?
The Mowgil's
Waiting For The Dawn
(Island Def Jam)
The Mowgil's arrive already with a strike against them for sporting 8 band members and not doing a single thing remotely interesting enough to justify having that many band members. According to their bio they're going for the "neo-folk" sound of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (another strike against them for me personally, but again that's just a personal preference). But the real final strike against them is that for all that potential greatness, The Mowgil's play it pretty safe, going for a big-band arena rock sound that's as bombastic as it is painfully shallow. Their focus (all 8 of them) rests on bland lyrics, hand claps and banal chanting (in what can only be an attempt to draw comparisons to The Arcade Fire), and boring, poppy songs, designed to fill the void between Fun, Young The Giant, Foster The People, and every other "alternative" top 40 band. So in other words, odds are good that they'll be absolutely successful, regardless of what I say.
Spectrals
Sob Story
(Slumberland Records)
One man band project by one amateur John Lennon impersonator (unconfirmed), Louis Jones, The Spectrals continue that enticing blend of slow, poppy garage rock on his sophomore album. Jones even breaks out the slide guitar on a few tracks to invoke this semi-out of place, but pleasantly alt country, twang. Sob Story drags at times and doesn't alter the tempo up too much; each song chugs along with the same limited guitar riffs. But it's a pleasant listen for that road trip you've been thinking about.
Empire Of The Sun
Ice On The Dune
(The Sleepy Jackson Pty Ltd and Nick Littlemore)
Empire Of The Sun might strike some as being too "disco", or "too glam", or even "too silly". These "some" though, statically speaking, also suffer from a deliberating condition that makes it all but impossible for them to perceive fun, so there's that. Yes, Empire Of The Sun continue their shtick with the over the top costumes, and the synthpop theatrics. But if you're not down with whatever the hell story they're trying to tell on Ice On The Dune, (like their last album, it is a concept of sorts) , the duo leave you with the perfectly viable option to completely disregard it and simply enjoy the ethereal space grooves that sound lifted right off the set of the best 80's music video party ever. If you're going to get one "so retro it's fun" disco-inspired album, and for some unfathomable reason you haven't just finally picked up Daft Punk's Random Access Memory, you can do much worse.
J. Cole
Born Sinner
(Roc Nation)
I'll give this to J. Cole. It takes massive brass balls to to have a release date for your sophomore album already planned, find out that Kayne West has announced the release date for his own anticipated album a week early their yours, and then have your response be, "you know what? I want to release my album on that day too. Yeah, fuck that guy". Brass. Fucking. Balls Mr. Cole. I expect no less form the guy who got a record deal by basically bothering Jay-Z till he called him back (which he turned around and rewarded by writing songs about hitting on his famous wife. Balls.). Unfortunately, for all that posturing and bravado, Born Sinner, feels like a much more mellow affair. Cole's still growing into himself, and sounds unsure at times; flipping between spitting machismo soaked bragging about his career, to dropping some painfully astute observations about the dark side of rapidly obtained wealth, and the pressure and alienation that comes with it. Cole is a great storyteller with some decent rhyming, but his flow takes a back seat to his production (which to be fair is stellar). Of all the new rap artists on the scene, J. Cole may be the one who has the least fire. Born Sinner, after a bad ass intro with "Villiuminati", really begins to tamper off into lethargic territory. Fun fact Cole. Just because one of your idols is Nas does not mean you have to borrow his precedent of releasing boring albums.
Sigur Ros
Kveikur
(XL Recordings)
With Sigur Ros, three things can be expected: an album name that's nigh unpronounceable if you're not from Iceland, lyrics that are nigh incomprehensible regardless of whether or not you speak Icelandic (the band opting to make up a language may have something to do with this), and slow, moody, atmospheric post rock. However, Kveikur, represents something of a new direction for the trio. More attention is made to create a heavier album that almost flirts with atmospheric metal at times, and demonstrating honest to god melodies at others. Nigh (love that word, can you tell?) sacrilegious for post-rock, but it shows Sigur Ros taking an interest in trying something new, while still maintaining their beautiful, haunting sound. It's an experiment that is overall, richly rewarding.
Heliotropes
A Constant Sea
(Manimal Vinyl Records)
The debut full length of the relatively young 4-piece from Brooklyn, and sweet mother is it good. Filling the void that Warpaint left in my heart (when they decided recording one phenomenal album would be enough), Heliotropes serve up a deadly enticing cocktail of stoner rock riffs, garage band buzz, sludgy chords, and psychedelic ambiance; with a bit of post-punk angst thrown in for good measure. But for all those influences, nothing feels cluttered or out of place. Every riff, ever croon, and every echoey drum beat, resonates just right and serves up a dose of variety on each track.
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