Album of the Week (10/29/2013)

Arcade Fire
Reflektor
Merge

If other albums are Frost-ian poetry, Reflektor is Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. By that I mean Arcade Fire's senior effort is dense, complex, and long. You won't get it, and I'm not a hipster saying that self-importantly; I don't get it either. It's hard to listen to: you hear the fun beats and bass lines of "We Exist," but there's something weighing you down, pulling you into any abyss of self-doubt and fear. "It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)," perhaps Arcade Fire's greatest song, is the 900-page textbook for your favorite subject in school--so many interesting and fun facts hidden beneath a metric ton of minutiae and intricate calculations. When you finish Reflektor, you have completed a great work, like sculpting David out of granite with a prison shank. You are tired from the effort, but fulfilled by the accomplishment. This album won't win many awards: it's too confusing. It won't sell as many copies as The Suburbs: it's too inaccessible. What it will do is--like Funeral did so many years ago--transform how independent, low-budget bands write and record their music. Like so many art museums, Reflektor isn't fun, but it is beautiful, and full of wonder.

Album of the Week (9/13/2013)

Janelle Monae
The Electric Lady
Wondaland Arts Society

On The Electric Lady, Janelle Monae continues on her quest to reinvent R&B. And not only does she do just that, but she burns down any semblance of the old version. Picking up where 2010's outstanding The Arch Android left off, Lady lays down funky beats over Monae's sob-worthy lyrics (listen to "Primetime" alone in your room and you'll see what I mean) about loneliness and a failure to connect with humanity, fully capturing the Metropolis feeling as well as her own insecurities. Beautifully written, gorgeously arranged, and sumptuously recorded, Monae never disappoints with Electric Lady, and it's high time she got recognition for her brilliance.

The Best Albums of 2013...So Far

This year is looking to be one of the best in recent memory for music. So many artists are coming out with their best work at the same time, it's like a fireworks finale for your ears.  And the best part is, there's still six more months to go.

Shall we...

5. The National

Trouble Will Find Me

Supposedly inspired by the birth of guitarist Aaron Dessner's daughter, The National's newest effort is noticeably lighter and simpler than 2010's High Violet. However, that doesn't mean it's not as good, or unrecognizable. Each sound is more precisely chosen, the lyrics more tuneful and elegant than ever. Also, just look at that album art; it's pretty sweet.

4. Parquet Courts

Light Up Gold

"Beachy," "fun," and "completely childish" are not words you would normally associate with punk rock, but Parquet Courts know what they're doing. Technically this album was released last year, but it's reissue in 2013, and the fact that no one heard of it in 2012, means it makes the list, and boy does it deserve to be here. There's not a single bad song; whether it's 45-seconds long or 6-minutes long, every one will have you bouncing up and down in your seat as you drive down the highway.

3. Kanye West
Yeezus

Kanye has made some bold moves (musically) to release this album: there's no actual single, no album art, it was recorded in a Paris hotel room. The bass is bombed out, the beats are awkward and off-time, the lyrics are controversial at the best of times. But all that just adds up to what is not only Kanye's best album, but on of the most stylish and unflinching Hip-Hop albums of all time.

2. Queens of the Stone Age
...Like Clockwork

Surprised? I know, me too. As much as I've been talking about this album it only made it to #2. That doesn't mean it's not the best thing Queens has done since 2002's Songs for the Deaf, because it is. Dark and minimally produced, Clockwork is the craziest turn QOTSA could have taken that doesn't include polka, but it's crazy awesome.

1. Deafheaven
Sunbather

A story: when I listen to albums to "review" them, I do so in the car on my way to and from work. My car speakers, though standard, are better than any set of headphones I've ever used, and I can't just sit and listen to music by itself, so the car is the perfect place. That said, on my way home one day in mid-June, I put on Sunbather, Deafheaven's second album, and having not turned down the volume from my NIN playlist, "Dream House" opened with an ear-shattering loudness. I quickly adjusted the knob to a more manageable (and bystander friendly) setting, but as I drove up I-95 I began to realize something: it wasn't loud enough anymore. So I turned it up. A minute later, it wasn't loud enough again. This pattern continued until the volume in my car was above the original "ear-shattering" level, and it was just getting good. No, it wasn't road noise, or crappy production that made the music continually softer, it's just that Sunbather begs to be played at the loudest possible setting--Spinal Tap's mythical "11". So, an hour later, with my car windows shattered and blood coming out of my ears, I came to a realization: with its wall of sonic noise and indiscernible screaming, this is what metal is supposed to sound like.

Yeezus: Album of the Week (6/20/2013)

Kanye West
Yeezus
Genre: Industrial Hip-Hop

To say that Kanye West is a controversial figure is the same as saying Lady Gaga's fashion choices are only slightly questionable. However, that doesn't mean the man can't produce a mean beat, smooth rhyme, or earwig hook. Yeezus is no different; in fact, it's the best material West has ever produced.

While many critics and other reviewers describe West's lyrics as evidence of his persecution complex and seemingly anti-white political views, I read into them differently. While Twisted Fantasy made many references to Kanye's own faults, the lyrics on Yeezus see him move from self-deprecation to full-on misanthropy. West has an issue with humanity, it's failings and hard truths the subject of nearly every line.  The best examples here are "New Slaves," which obviously points out America's prison system as racist, but also includes sly references to how rap culture feeds the system, creating a vicious, never-ending cycle of poverty and oppression; and "Blood on the Leaves," which uses the classic West sampling technique overlaying his own relationship study on top of Nina Simone's rendition of "Strange Fruit," a song about lynchings in the 30's-era American South.

If Kanye's lyrics are something to marvel at, then the music over which he rhymes is beyond comparison to anything else in Hip-Hop. Here he makes good on his statement from years before where he named Trent Reznor and Thom Yorke as inspirational figures. The instruments and samples are loud and angry, distorted by overblown fuzz and walls of static. "Black Skinhead" is clearly the masterpiece here, warping background vocals to the point where they sound like guitars, drums pounding louder and faster than anything from 808's. The production is stellar, the effects are mind-blowing.

Here's a controversial statement for you: If you thought Kanye was the new Michael Jackson, you're wrong...Kanye's better than Michael Jackson.

Album of the Week (6/05/2013)

Queens of the Stone Age
...Like Clockwork
Genre: Desert Rock

This feels great to say...Queens of the Stone Age are BACK! After a six-year hiatus, Josh Homme and crew have returned to deliver one of the best alt-rock albums in over a decade (probably since their own Songs for the Deaf in 2002). ...Like Clockwork is tightly written and executed, despite a list of guest stars that reads like a fanboy's wet dream: Trent Reznor, Dave Grohl, Alex Turner, Jake Shears, and the self-described "actual queen from the stone age" Elton John. The songs here are dark, heavy, and better than anything the band has done since Songs, apart from maybe "Little Sister" and "Misfit Love" off 2005's Lullabies to Paralyze and 2007's Era Vulgaris respectively, both of which had good tunes, but weren't particularly good albums. Lullabies had hit-makers, but became bogged down by experimental sludge at the end. Vulgaris was faster, but became too obsessed with blasting you at full volume in the hopes it could loud it's way to the top of the charts.

Clockwork however, is perfect; the songs are each great in their own right, but together they form a mesmerizing, beautiful whole. Sure, you can pull favorites, "I Sat by the Ocean" and "My God Is the Sun" are classic QOTSA, along with heart-stopping "I Appear Missing," which washes the album in a bath of noise before the title-track closer.  The absolute highlight, as I'm sure you'll read everywhere, is "If I Had a Tail," a creepy, metal ode to the creatures of the night that Homme so desperately wants to join. I would say this is the best thing Queens has ever done, but only because it's a completely different sound from the one pioneered on Rated R and Songs so long ago. It's like two different bands competing through time: one has the best metal album of the millennium, one has the best stoner rock album of the millennium. It's up to you to decide which one is which.

Back at It: Album of the Week (5/13/2013)

Deerhunter
Monomania
Genre: Indie Rock

For their sixth studio album, Deerhunter (now basically just Bradford Cox) has finally become the band they promised they could be in those early flashes from Cryptograms. The ambient droning is gone, the babbling brook sound effects have been thrown out, Monomania is pure garage rock, with Deerhunter doing its best Strokes impersonation. The sound is heavier (even with the lo-fi recording method) and more accessible, more immediate. This the Deerhunter album we've been waiting for.

"Monomania"