Moving past this feeling.My heart belongs permanently to The National – the band has completely taken over my life. (Though sometimes I do try to make time for others… but you do not have to tell them this.)
It is hard to ignore the pain and melancholia that comes with the slow march of sadness that is “NYC” – the third song in Interpol’s debut studio album with lyrics that gave the album its name. In fact, it is not at all possible to ignore any of the songs in Turn On the Bright Lights – it has such immense staying power, no one would dare dispute claims from various parties declaring it as one of the strongest albums of the past decade, having cemented its place in many best-of lists. The aural explosions produced out of repetitive guitar lines, when combined with the mesmerising vocals of frontman Paul Banks, paints a dark brilliance that is completely out of this world. Honestly, there is no one bad track on the album: the relentless pounding in “PDA” is affecting without giving you a throbbing headache, and the bittersweet “Hands Away” effortlessly sweeps you off your feet despite the sudden change in tempo midway through the album; but my favourite track is the outstanding “Obstacle 2”, which turns on the atmosphere and gets me headbanging to it every single time (/friends don’t waste wine/). The band’s subsequent albums Our Love to Admire and Antics (part of my, ahem, Interpol music education) are suitably moody and brooding, but I always find myself returning to Turn On the Bright Lights – it is most definitely a first love that is not easy to forget. The New York band is set to release their self-titled album in September 2010.
Dear Yulia, You must have been so heartbroken to hear of that dreaded news. Do you still wonder if he is still alone out there, drifting endlessly in space? But I think it is amazing how Wolf Parade band member, Dan Boeckner, chose to share your grief by writing such a heartwrenching piece. “Yulia” easily became the best song in the band’s latest release Expo 86, and quite possibly the best Wolf Parade song, ever. We are all very proud of him. (Oh, what? The album? Taking the easy way out: if you like Wolf Parade’s previous efforts, you will have no problems with Expo 86.)
It kicks off with the all-important title track, so what gives? Should not first tracks be neutral and given a chance to shine on their own, a la The National’s fabulous “Fake Empire” (from 2007’s Boxer) or Grizzly Bear’s rousing “Southern Point” (from 2009’s Veckatimest)? But “The Suburbs” is arguably the best track off Arcade Fire’s highly-anticipated third album – it channels a raw abundance of passion and energy, seemingly released with a celebratory, resounding pop courtesy of a bottle of champagne, after the band’s three-year absence. It pretty much sets the pace for the rest of the tracks in this hour-long album. The band may be on the expansive, bringing in sounds reminiscent to that of The Dears, Broken Social Scene, and god forbid – 80’s Swedish pop sensation, ABBA. The tunes are, as always, unleashed in full grandeur, though this time without being too over-the-top (case in point: the overwhelming Neon Bible – okay now, no need to throw tomatoes at me!), and thus come across as being more easily accessible with its ability to be digested in bit-sized chunks. Made for the everyday man (“Modern Man”), the listless (“Wasted Hours”), and the restless (“We Used to Wait”), The Suburbs is not at all difficult to get into. (Hello, Richard Reed Parry! Nice seeing you here again after your brief stints with The National. Say hi to Sufjan Stevens for me too.) Upcoming releases for 2010: |
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Turn On the Bright Lights
Expo 86
The Suburbs
To the money I owe.
(Really, The National’s High Violet needs no introduction here. I have been raving about it in the previous few entries, and I now officially declare High Violet as my new Sky Blue Sky.) The National can do completely no wrong – their latest album, High Violet, is a strong testament to that. This latest outing by the band, coming at the heels of the success that was Boxer and Alligator, would have been hard to ignore. During the first few weeks of May, it was almost impossible to avoid coming across mentions of High Violet. The National was everywhere and everywhere at once, being featured prominently on various online promotions, showcases, websites and reviews in the leadup to this highly anticipated album. And rightly so, too. High Violet is a very solid package – of powerful tunes with mesmerising guitar riffs and energetic drum beats that stick to your mind, and cryptically dark and deceptively simple lyrics that hint at the vulnerability of our lives and loves. All this, when complemented with the gorgeously charming baritone of frontman Matt Berninger, result in a massive aural explosion unlike no other – the sounds take a turn for the epic and anthemic, making your emotions churn inside you so intensely, you would have to have a heart of stone to not feel anything at all. The album may be a grower – it would first teasingly throw you a line, then slowly reel you in, so that you can spend your time leisurely relishing each and every track in the album. Potent first single “Bloodbuzz Ohio” is already making regular rounds in the music circuit, but there are plenty of other musical highlights to cater to each and every one of us, such as the quaintly yearning “Terrible Love” (which, for me, is fast becoming another strong album opener in the veins of “Secret Meeting” and “Fake Empire”), the bitingly honest declaration of “Afraid of Everyone”, the strangely delicate “Little Faith”, and the stirring closer that is “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks”. Overall, High Violet is simply brilliant – a meticulously-crafted work of absolute perfection, destined to be another of The National’s masterpieces.
Forgiveness Rock Record – just the name of the album from Broken Social Scene is enough to summon endless anticipation and intrigue. The wait is now over, for the super music collective has returned to again please the masses with their unique brand of music. The album once again showcases the involvement of the various creative personnel behind the band: the sounds are much tighter, the members more confident. The immediacy of opening track “World Sick” draws you in, and you find that the band is still as familiar as ever, albeit somewhat more expansive and generous in employing the use of louder and richer instrumentation. Forgiveness Rock Record clocks in at a little over 60 minutes: a lot would have been achieved by the listener, for by the end of the exhilarating musical journey, one would have sung along to lead single “Forced to Love”; been bewildered to find the Flaming Lips-tinged “Art House Director”; instantly fallen in love with the sexy “Sweetest Kill”; and pondered at the unassuming closer “Me and My Hand”. The tracks in the album, like the members of the band, are as diverse as they come – but together they become one seamlessly, the end result pleasing to the ears. Note: Broken Social Scene plays at the Esplanade, Singapore, on 27 July 2010. (I will be giving this one a miss, having already seen them live in 2008 at the same venue.)
Band of Horses makes a return after a three-year absence with not just a new album, but also a new line-up to boot. Infinite Arms will be the tool to tests the waters – does the band still sound like, well, the band, despite the inclusion of the new members? The answer: both yes and no. Obviously. Frontman Ben Bridwell is the only surviving member of the band since its formation – and so his vocals in the album may well qualify as the only constant that makes the band still instantly recognisable, and thankfully so. Infinite Arms is a much lighter and mellower affair than its predecessors, breezing past at a leisurely pace – but it has its ups and downs. One of the album’s highlights comes in the form of the title track: made up of sounds at once ethereal and natural, “Infinite Arms”, when gently combined with the melancholy of Bridwell’s vocals, exudes a sort of tenderness that simply tugs at your heart. Further, there is the jolly “Laredo”, which is more reminiscent of the sounds of the older band, and the lighthearted “Dilly”; both are easily singled out due to its easy singalong potential. The first few tracks are decent enough to make you sit up and take notice, but the later part of the album (besides the decidedly energetic “NW Apt”) is so lethargic, it almost slows to a snooze. There is nothing here that will draw you in as immediate as “The First Song” (from first album Everything All the Time), but Infinite Arms is still a good show from the band, and so the new line-up succeeds in this respect.
Listening to the dream pop duo of Beach House renders results both strange and hypnotic. The name of the band immediately conjures images of crashing blue waves and clean white sand; however, the music in Beach House’s third album is anything but. Teen Dream is a one-way ticket to a dreamy, shoegazing event. Tinged with the beats of 80s soft rock, the tracks in the album may sound somewhat similar, yet subtly different in some ways that still make them all stand out from each other. There is the breathless “Norway” with its distinctive “ah-ah-ah”s; the tiredness that lingers in that of “Silver Soul”; and the piano-heavy “Real Love” with such a rousing crescendo that I suspect it would have made a grand finish had it been placed as the final track on the album. It certainly would not do to play the album on your iPod as you bask in the sun by the beach, watching stray frisbees flying by and annoying seagulls pecking at your bare feet. A better place, it seems, would be on your bed, with curtains drawn to close, as you lay staring at the cheap glow-in-the-dark stars stuck on the ceiling. Alone. Upcoming releases for 2010: |
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High Violet
Forgiveness Rock Record
Infinite Arms
Teen Dream
Lost again.
So, we all know about Girls frontman Christopher Owens’ sad sob story – this is a band with a rather wild tale of its humble beginnings, and does not tread down the conventional good-friends-form-band-in-high-school path. Cults, drugs, girls, rock and roll. But let not this drive you away from the band’s ungoogleable name of an album. Touted as one of 2009’s best debuts, Girls’ Album sounds all sugary, sweet and nice – but still manages to retain some shade of seriousness to it as well. And the best thing about it all is that Girls make it all work so effortlessly. The lyrics sound deceptively easy – usually about a guy’s typical wants and needs (“I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine”), and uhm, girls (plenty of them). But when paired with strings of equally simple chords and beats, Album becomes a failproof package filled with all kinds of pop wonder. It kicks off with “Lust for Life” – an opener that pretty much sums up the general (musical) direction of the band; followed by “Laura”, a song with an awesome jam that still makes me wish I had a hand in it somehow. First single “Hellhole Ratrace” is a heartbreaking seven-minute epic, even as Owens slowly sobers up and channels a Morrissey in the next song “Headache”. Declaring to others that “I like Girls!” may raise an eyebrow or two, but for an album with infectious tunes such as this one, there is simply nothing to be ashamed of. Girls, the band, is as honest as they come, and so should you.
The name Atlas Sound was intriguing enough to make me have a go at this album. At first listen, Logos sounded interesting enough – layers upon layers of trippy tunes and drifting melodies. Some of the tracks here seem so big and full, it gives the impression that they can only be achieved by a full-grown band akin to that of Broken Social Scene’s; except that where the Canadian collective could be made up to as many as ten different musicians at any one time, Atlas Sound consists of only just one: Bradford Cox is the man in question, and he also doubles up as frontman for the band Deerhunter. For a (mostly) one-man show, it comes as a pleasant surprise that none of the music in Logos sound even remotely alike – the album is diverse enough as it is, employing the use of various instruments, electronics and choice of vocals that results in one solid package of dreamy ambient music. Though he has occasional collaborations with other musicians such as Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox in the lollipop-fun “Walkabout” and with Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab in the fantastically hypnotic “Quick Canal”, the expansive sounds in the wandering “The Light that Failed” also show that Cox can hold the fort well even on his own. Atlas Sound is meant to be Cox’s musical solo project, but if the meticulously-textured sounds in Logos is anything to come by, I look forward to hearing more from just him in the future.
(One day, I too shall name my band something not as search-engine-friendly…) Having heard three albums from +/- (or Plus/Minus), I pick Let’s Build a Fire as my favourite. Let me count the ways: Ah, pure awesomeness. Upcoming releases for 2010: |
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