THEPOPFIX.COM » Rudy Klapper http://thepopfix.com What's Your Fix? Thu, 09 Oct 2014 16:21:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.2 THE CRITIC: Fountains Of Wayne New Release Tired & Dusty http://thepopfix.com/2011/08/17/the-critic-fountains-of-wayne-new-release-tired-dusty/ http://thepopfix.com/2011/08/17/the-critic-fountains-of-wayne-new-release-tired-dusty/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 02:51:45 +0000 http://thepopfix.com/?p=5985 Fountains of Wayne – Sky Full of Holes
Yep Roc 2011
Rating: 5/10

I am hopelessly addicted to nostalgia. In this I don’t think I’m that much different from the rest of the world. I dread growing older, I have a peculiar affinity for keeping useless junk that long ago grew thick with dust around in various drawers and desk corners, I refuse to throw away concert t-shirts from half a decade ago – in short, I don’t let go of the past easily. It’s a habit I’ve been trying to break, but few things make that harder than music. Listening to Elliott Smith reminds me of a hundred different things, from middle school to break ups, while the Stills remind me of the last summer before college and Cut Copy vividly recreates living in my fraternity house two years ago. Fountains of Wayne, meanwhile, conjures up my first year in high school, a time when I thought I was so fucking cool for listening to Welcome Interstate Managers before “Stacy’s Mom” hit the radio (I’m either the only person to do this or my memory of myself in high school is a lot more flattering than reality). Welcome Interstate Managers was one of the first legit power-pop records I’d ever listened to, and I could have done a lot worse. It’s FoW at their most wry, Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger at the peak of their tongue-in-cheek lyrical powers and with sixteen killer hooks to boot. I bring all this up because, in the context of their follow-ups, 2007’s Traffic and Weather and now Sky Full of Holes, I feel like nostalgia has betrayed me once again.

Was Welcome Interstate Managers a great record? Listening to it again I love every second of it, even the ill-advised country romp, yet I hesitate to label it as such without worrying about my nostalgic affection for it, an unreasonable adoration based more upon what doors it opened for me musically and because “Hackensack” made my first crush swoon. Sky Full of Holes, in style and in execution, is not that much different from Welcome Interstate Managers, yet 22-year-old me has trouble finding anything to enjoy in it.  I want to say that the hooks just aren’t as good as they used to be, but “The Summer Place” and “Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart” are the stuff power-pop wet dreams are made of. I want to say that Schlesinger and Collingwood’s inane slice-of-life lyrics have begun to grate, but their rhymes have always been banal and their massive cast of characters predictably caricatured. This is a band that has always been resistant to change, but power-pop bands make their living with their melodies, and FoW have always had those in plentiful supply.

So is it Fountains of Wayne’s fault that Sky Full of Holes doesn’t have me humming its tunes under my breath for weeks on end, or is it my own romantic expectations that can never reasonably be fulfilled? I can appreciate what the band is doing here, favoring acoustic-based melodies over bombastic choruses and poor diversions into genre traps that made nearly half of Traffic and Weather nigh unlistenable. As Sky Full of Holes rolls along, however, and the hooks don’t punch quite as urgently as “The Summer Place” or as smoothly as “A Dip In The Ocean,” it just seems like another entry in the FoW School of Songwriting. Create motley cast of everyday characters, like a pair of failed businessmen (“Richie and Ruben”). Write a song about their personal problems, preferably with cultural references that are sure to date your album, like the unnecessary Will Ferrell name drop on “A Road Song.” Throw in an aces hook that almost makes all these mundane Everyman problems seem worthwhile and you have your next Fountains of Wayne single, albeit one that sounds pretty damn similar to the one before and after it.

I recognize that this is the exact formula that was used on Welcome Interstate Managers and Utopia Parkway before it, but I can’t reconcile those two power-pop prototypes with this humdrum drudgery. There’s something to be said for consistency, and for fifteen years Fountains of Wayne have been nothing short of the pinnacles of consistency. Yet there’s also something to be said for taking a fresh tack on things, refusing to grow stale and creating something that will cause someone to look back fondly years and years later and remember the good times and the bad times that that record soundtracked. Perhaps Sky Full of Holes will be that album to some impressionable youth whose idea of power pop revolves around Justin Bieber ballads, but for longtime fans it just sounds tired and dusty. Fountains of Wayne are still doing what they’ve always done, but I think I’ve finally grown up.

]]>
http://thepopfix.com/2011/08/17/the-critic-fountains-of-wayne-new-release-tired-dusty/feed/ 0
THE CRITIC: My Morning Jacket Forging New Ground? Not Exactly. http://thepopfix.com/2011/06/21/the-critic-my-morning-jacket-forging-new-ground-not-exactly/ http://thepopfix.com/2011/06/21/the-critic-my-morning-jacket-forging-new-ground-not-exactly/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 06:37:02 +0000 http://thepopfix.com/?p=5951 My Morning Jacket – Circuital
ATO Records 2011
Rating: 5/10

my-morning-jacket-circuital-400x4001
“RIYL: getting reacquainted with your roots, music recorded in a church gymnasium, forging new ground while maintaining a distinct spirit.”

The above is loosely taken from a Circuital press release. In related news, marketing is one of the worst professions around. Circuital would have you believe that it’s a reaffirmation of the My Morning Jacket of old, of stellar alt-country gems like At Dawn or Z’s soaring experimental psychedelia, but Circuital is more a weak-kneed reminder of My Morning Jacket’s potential. It’s sort of like looking back on one’s misspent youth and remembering things to be a helluva better than they actually were, or, alternatively, listening back to 2008′s Evil Urges and thinking those funky side trips were actually a good idea. Circuital, luckily, doesn’t go quite as far off the rails as Evil Urges did, and it even starts off like everything is going to be okay. The one-two punch of “Victory Dance” and the title track are vintage MMJ, the former building itself up into a feedback soaked wail and the latter a plucked acoustic ditty that explodes into an invigorating display of power chords and Southern-fried guitar histrionics. When they’re on, their combination of old school rock musicianship and James’ distinctively powerful voice is hard to beat. It’s unfortunate, then, that much of this album finds the band unsure of just what they’re good at.

For a record that is supposed to be about the band rediscovering their identity, the rest of Circuital sounds like a hideously unsure thing, torn between sticking to the best of their folksy roots and playing up the worst of leader Jim James’ genre-of-the-day desires. “Outta My System” is a passable Beach Boys imitation, but with its elementary lyrics and go-nowhere structure, it merely serves to stick out like a sore thumb after the beautifully delicate ballad “Wonderful (The Way I Feel).” That’s nothing compared to “Holdin’ On To Black Metal,” a wantonly neon-lit big band number replete with Stax horns and a backup children’s choir. It calls to mind the worst excesses of Evil Urges and then some, a song so egregiously out of its depth that it throws the whole album out of whack. Placed as it is smack dab in the middle of Circuital makes it harder to ignore than most, and it’s a direct shot in the foot to a band that up until then had been well on their way to a record that, if not a true return to form, was at least mildly enjoyable.

It’s the kind of enjoyment distinctly separate from the kind one experienced when hearing the classic rock ‘n’ roll of It Still Moves’ “One Big Holiday” or Z’s ambitious opener “Wordless Chorus.” These are songs that float pleasantly, like the Beatles retro pop of “First Light,” or merely tease with hints of past successes (“You Wanna Freak Out”), songs that show the occasional glimpse of James’ songwriting talent but nothing more. Where previous MMJ albums have burnt out, usually in a haze of glorious guitar twists and turns, Circuital fades, first with a mushy track guaranteed to put everyone by the campfire asleep with “Slow Slow Tune” and then hammering away at the point (yet ever so softly) with the completely unremarkable “Movin’ Away.” It’s a light, pastoral tune that glides by on a melancholy piano line and the scenic pedal steel guitar that arcs over the melody, but it’s also completely, entirely safe and, dare I say it, boring. James’ Hallmarky lyrics (“possessed by your love / under the influence / and though there’s a new life line / I won’t forget the one I left behind”) don’t help matters, making the whole affair seem more like a man interested in creating some gently haunting sounds than saying anything real.

It drives home the point that My Morning Jacket has been making music for going on thirteen years now, and have appeared less like a band divining new inspiration from each other as time goes on and more like a group grasping for a sound that will make them relevant again. Better bands than MMJ are hooking onto the alt-country, folk scene that they brought screaming riffs and James’ howling falsetto to, including James’ own side projects. Circuital isn’t a bad album by any stretch, but in the context of My Morning Jacket’s body of work, it sounds hopelessly unsure of itself, content to create lesser shadows of past greats. A distinct spirit? Always. Forging new ground? Only in the minds of marketing execs.

]]>
http://thepopfix.com/2011/06/21/the-critic-my-morning-jacket-forging-new-ground-not-exactly/feed/ 0
THE CRITIC: Has Gibbard Been Yokoed? http://thepopfix.com/2011/06/21/the-critic-has-gibbard-been-yokoed/ http://thepopfix.com/2011/06/21/the-critic-has-gibbard-been-yokoed/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 06:22:52 +0000 http://thepopfix.com/?p=5946 Death Cab for Cutie – Codes and Keys
Atlantic 2011
Rating: 6/10

codesandkeys

There’s something to be said about Ben Gibbard’s transformation from a Built to Spill-loving Northwestern weepie to indie rock’s poet laureate. Death Cab for Cutie, for all their splendid musicianship and Chris Walla’s knack for evolving their sound, have always been about Gibbard. Gibbard, bemoaning a meaningless relationship in “Tiny Vessels” or articulating that eternal feeling of moving on that “Photobooth” spoke to so clearly, always so straightforward with his lyrical bloodletting but talented with his knives. Gibbard made self-flagellation and depression and that universal feeling of not always getting what you want an art instead of a blunt instrument, and that was always the key behind Death Cab’s success. It’s what led to them being erroneously labeled “emo” by the mainstream media after Plans’ success, what led to massive, unyielding popularity for a band that otherwise would have just been another number in a “best-of-the-00s” compilation. Even as their sound expanded and swelled, as major label budgets tend to cause, Gibbard remained the constant: evocative, steadfast, and preternaturally attuned to the hopes and fears of insecure youth.

On Codes and Keys, Death Cab take that constant and make it just another cog in a sound that remains progressive yet coldly distant. The focus on keyboards and synths at the expense of traditional guitars is omnipresent, but it’s Gibbard, the Death Cab mainstay, that is missing. Not in the literal sense, mind you; his sensitive tenor is still the same one that desperately yearned for intimacy and warmth on Transatlanticism, but the feeling has changed. It’s evident in the way it comes to you across the speakers: swathed in effects, reverb and digitalized effects predominating and making the most human part of Death Cab come across too often as chilly and disconnected. The lyrics don’t help matters. At his best, Gibbard is cautiously optimistic with a tendency to veer towards cloyingly sweet, as he does on closer “Stay Young, Go Dancing,” a song which would seem more at home in a Lifetime movie rather than a Death Cab album. At his worst he seems content to just string picturesque phrases together in the hopes that listeners will imbue them with their own meaning. “Somewhere down, down / down in the ocean of sound / we’ll live in slow-motion / and be free / with doors unlocked and open,” Gibbard sings opaquely on “Doors Unlocked and Open,” and a prize to the person who can divine the meaning behind it. Songwriters by the dozen can be accused of being needlessly abstract, but when Gibbard opens “Unobstructed Views” with a cliché like “there’s no eye in the sky / just our love,” you can practically hear the thud.

Structurally, Codes and Keys is a sound album, and one much more intent on “experimenting” than the red herring that was Narrow Stairs. This is still Death Cab, as one listen to any number of catchy melodies here will attest to, but the band seem much more interested in textures and the space between them. This works on a song like “St. Peter’s Cathedral,” where the gradual buildup between skittish synths and vocal harmonies pays off, but not so much on “Unobstructed Views,” which confuses boredom and repetition with experimentation. But for the most part, Codes and Keys sounds like you’d expect. For all its effects and haunting atmospherics, “Some Boys” is all about the hook and ear candy melody, as is the lilting, pleasantly trivial “Portable Television,” which is about as straightforward a song as you’ll find on the album. For all the good tunes, from “Underneath the Sycamore” to the pounding ivories of the title track, one gets the feeling that this is just Death Cab going through the motions, trying out this heavy use of piano and an increased studio budget because, well, it’s there and it sounds pretty damn cool. It’s telling that one of the best songs here, “You Are A Tourist,” makes its money off a vintage Chris Walla guitar riff that propels everything forward with the kind of candid energy many tunes here lack.

So, has Gibbard been Yokoed? It’s tempting to say, given how many of the songs here sound like the result of a man whose happy, maybe for the first time in years, but doesn’t quite know how to lay it all out. “Monday Morning” would seem to disagree, a lovely bit of Postal Service-esque electronica that is one of the most affecting declarations of love Gibbard has ever penned and happily fits into Codes and Keys’ sonic aesthetic. Unfortunately, it’s the exception that proves the rule, as it stands out from many of the other tracks because it is so distinctively genuine and, in turn, easy to relate to. That’s the heart of Codes and Keys problem, a dilemma rooted more in Gibbard’s change than the band’s direction. The Death Cab of Transatlanticism and even Narrow Stairs is long gone, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing; singing about your darkest emotions for a decade plus is not the healthiest way to live (just ask Elliott Smith). Until Gibbard can harness this newfound happiness with the kind of lyrical flair his fans are used to, Death Cab remain in danger of being, well, just another indie band.

]]>
http://thepopfix.com/2011/06/21/the-critic-has-gibbard-been-yokoed/feed/ 1
THE CRITIC: New Release From The Antlers Full Of Songs Radiohead Forgot To Put On OK Computer http://thepopfix.com/2011/05/11/the-critic-new-release-from-the-antlers-full-of-songs-radiohead-forgot-to-put-on-ok-computer/ http://thepopfix.com/2011/05/11/the-critic-new-release-from-the-antlers-full-of-songs-radiohead-forgot-to-put-on-ok-computer/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 03:03:11 +0000 http://thepopfix.com/?p=5891 The Antlers – Burst Apart

Frenchkiss Records 2011

Rating: 8/10

the-antlers-burst-apart
In an interview with Pitchfork this past January, Antlers frontman Peter Silberman related something Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchinson had told him about performing deeply personal material: “It’s the audience’s now. You’ll sing it to them, but they’re the ones singing it. You can let it go and give it to them.” It’s hard to imagine Silberman standing up night after night and going through Hospice’s litany of heartache, an album that was painful even for an uninterested listener, not to mention the guy who suffered through its creation.

Hospice was the Antlers’ landmark record, but it was also like reading the darkest entry in Silberman’s diary, feeling more like his own bottled up, smothering anguish and less like the work of a band. In short, it was the kind of one-off masterpiece that can’t be repeated, and who would want to? Burst Apart, then, is the sound of Silberman letting go: “You can put it on and not feel like it [had] to be a severe emotional experience.”

It also feels, in many ways, like the record the Antlers the band were always destined to make, one that feels much more the product of a groupthink that one man’s tortured relationship.

Hospice was the expunging of a sea of ugly feelings and thoughts that Silberman had to get off his chest, a lyrical blood letting so painfully autobiographical even those with no knowledge of the album’s back story could instinctively feel.

Burst Apart is the sound of a man at ease with that past, willing to let his bandmates grow with him and expand on their sound. The production is fuller, lush psychedelics competing with biting guitar riffs and cavernous drums, Silberman’s falsetto rising more often with joy than in sorrow. The record is looser, more at ease with itself; no longer are Silberman’s lyrics the main catharsis behind everything. The instruments do much of the heavy lifting here, painting a picture on opener “I Don’t Want Love” even more triumphant than the defiant lyrics (lyrics that gladly spit in the face of Hospice’s woe-is-me theme), all sparkling guitars and major key harmony.

But while Silberman’s emergence as a songwriter who can occasionally be happy isnotable, it’s the Antlers’ growth as a band that makes Burst Apart such a successfulfollow up. The lilting, minimal ambience of “Hounds;” the jazzy drumming and hazyatmospherics on “Rolled Together;” hell, “Parentheses’” hypnotic groove and jagged guitar riff sounds like the best song Radiohead forgot to put on OK Computer. It makes for a record that lacks the emotional artillery of Hospice but is the far moreinteresting beast sonically.
Many will criticize this album for not being the next Hospice. That would have been impossible, but to see the Antlers grow as they have on Burst Apart is heartening.

Nowhere has Silberman’s falsetto sounded so strong and confident as on theexperimental pop of “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out,” or when he uses it asjust another instrument on the ethereal “Hounds.” The band’s transition from the walls of sound in “Parentheses” and the almost trip-hop feel of “No Widows” to a softer, more rock-centric vignette in “Corsicana” would have seemed absolutelyridiculous in 2009. But it works, compensating for Silberman’s desire not to verballycut himself with a mature sound that seems capable of going anywhere.

It’s a happy medium, one that seems like it will fit the Antlers far better in the long term than Hospice’s once-in-a-lifetime journey. Lest you think the Antlers’ have become just another pleasant indie band, consider closer “Putting The Dog To Sleep,” a hauntingly beautiful track that speaks to the end of a relationship as good as any lyric Silberman has penned. “Well my trust in you / is a dog with a broken leg /tendons too torn to beg / for you to let me back in,” Silberman sings as a guitarheavy with reverb punches through the fog, ending with a line typically unsure: “Put your trust in me / I’m not gonna die alone / I don’t think so.” It’s a harkening back to the Antlers who won so many people over by being brutally open, but at the end of a record like Burst Apart it sounds like a band capable of so many things, confident in sharing joy and heartache equally.

It’s an album you appreciate not because you have to, but because you want to.

]]>
http://thepopfix.com/2011/05/11/the-critic-new-release-from-the-antlers-full-of-songs-radiohead-forgot-to-put-on-ok-computer/feed/ 0
THE CRITIC: Britney Channels Her Inner Dance-Floor Dominatrix On “Femme Fatale” http://thepopfix.com/2011/03/21/the-critic-britney-channels-her-inner-dance-floor-dominatrix-on-femme-fatale/ http://thepopfix.com/2011/03/21/the-critic-britney-channels-her-inner-dance-floor-dominatrix-on-femme-fatale/#comments Tue, 22 Mar 2011 06:30:28 +0000 http://thepopfix.com/?p=5850 Britney Spears – Femme Fatale
Jive 2011
Rating: 7/10

britney-spears-femme-fatale1

Britney Spears occupies a weird, unique space in the pop spectrum. She’s been compared to past greats like Madonna and Kylie Minogue, but she lacks the latter’s self-aware creativity and mentioning her in the same breath as the former is, frankly, insulting. A common complaint with Spears is that she doesn’t write her own songs, which, the argument goes, somehow equates to a lack of talent, but the same can be said of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra… the list goes on. She isn’t blessed with the preternaturally skilled vocals of a Mariah Carey or a Tina Turner, but her music has never been about her voice so much as her personality. And her personality is just what has carried her this far, when contemporaries like Mandy Moore and Christina Aguilera are becoming Starbucks whores and public laughingstocks, respectively. Spears is the ultimate pop chameleon, transforming from sly school girl with enough sexual innuendo to inspire thousands of illegal fantasies to a robotic dance-floor dominatrix, confident enough to overcome tabloid dramas that have ruined lesser stars. In many ways, Spears needed that separation from her past self to become the four-on-the-floor mistress she is on Femme Fatale. Calling Britney a pop singer is doing the term a disservice; she is much more of a pop bellwether, subject to the whims of the Top 40 crowd and more than happy to adapt to environments that have cruelly undone lesser icons. There’s a reason Aguilera’s last album sold barely north of 110,000 copies and Spears’ single “Hold It Against Me” has the most aggressive beat on mainstream radio today. Spears shows a willingness to reinvent herself that belies her fragile personal life and, most importantly, keeps her on the cutting edge of pop music.

Sure, “Hold It Against Me” has the kind of dubstep breakdown that only the most naïve listener would consider representative of the genre, but the fact remains that Spears is the first to introduce such a rapidly rising phenomenon to the mainstream. She’s become a pop juggernaut not by being the most talented, or the most charismatic, or even the one with the best songs, but by simply listening to the people who know the pop pulse best: her stable of producers. Blackout became such a great modern pop album because Spears finally submitted entirely to her songwriting team, choosing to become the entirely sexualized instrument through which their massive hooks would be transmitted to neon dance floors worldwide. And for Spears, that is just what she needs: a Max Martin and a Dr. Luke to write a track like “Till The World Ends,” one that throbs with trance-y synths, a thumping electro beat that is pure sex and a chorus that goes and goes as only the best club hits can do, sensible lyrics be damned. Synths as dirty as the ones on “Trouble For Me” or as unashamedly Eurotrash as “Trip To Your Heart” are just what pop music needs right now, in a year when electronica is becoming bigger than ever and a pop song is not just about the hook but about how much it can make you move.

Yet while one can be assured that Spears’ lyrics remain as one-dimensional and cheesy as ever, it’s the sonically varied production work that prevents Femme Fatale from being a one-hit factory with a bunch of electro clones. It helps that Spears’ sounds much more involved than she did on the rather dispirited Circus, with even a by-the-numbers Dr. Luke jam like “Gasoline” showing some Spears vocal pizzazz, as much as a Auto-Tuned sexual android as she tends to sound. The real treat of the record lies in the more off-kilter tracks, like Bloodshy & Avant’s (better known as indie band Miike Snow) skeletal, vaguely African-flavored “How I Roll” and their rave day-glo specimen “Trip To Your Heart,” a track that would make Tiesto blush. For all its obvious chart-topping intent and single-minded dance directive, Femme Fatale is an eclectic record, and that’s why for every ill-advised will.i.am guest spot (“Big Fat Bass” - how the fuck this isn’t a Black Eyed Peas song is beyond me) there’s an out-of-left field flute (!?!) solo that actually works (“Criminal”). It isn’t exactly the progressive stylings of a Janelle Monae, but damn if it’s not catchy and interesting.

So, Britney Spears: pop icon or pop puppet, someone with the genuine foresight to see where the winds are blowing or one lucky enough to have a team of handlers to decide which direction she should go in? It will always be hard to tell, even though I’m inclined to lean towards the former considering Blackout had her pushing the pop boundaries years before electronic music was truly a driving force in mainstream culture. Perhaps it’s easier to just say that Britney is Britney and nothing more – someone who is more a distinctive sound and a driving force of sex nowadays than a genuine musical talent. Femme Fatale, after all, is a flawed album, with lyrics that barely clear the level of a Ke$ha and a maturity level to match. But it’s a pop album that’s supposed to make you dance, and when it comes to that, there’s not a star out there that can match Ms. Spears.

]]>
http://thepopfix.com/2011/03/21/the-critic-britney-channels-her-inner-dance-floor-dominatrix-on-femme-fatale/feed/ 0
THE CRITIC: Cold War Kids Vacillate Between Staying True To Their Roots And Widespread Success On “Mine Is Yours” http://thepopfix.com/2011/01/25/the-critic-cold-war-kids-vacillate-between-staying-true-to-their-roots-and-widespread-success-on-mine-is-yours/ http://thepopfix.com/2011/01/25/the-critic-cold-war-kids-vacillate-between-staying-true-to-their-roots-and-widespread-success-on-mine-is-yours/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:53:06 +0000 http://thepopfix.com/?p=5775 Cold War Kids – Mine Is Yours
Downtown 2011
Rating: 7/10

cwk

An eternal question in the indie industry – keep doggedly pursuing your artistic vision, maybe one defined by jagged bursts of post-punk and a singer whose just as likely to veer into screeching wails as he is a soulful hum, or get your shit together and make something perhaps more palatable for your average rock listener? It’s not too hard to see on what side Mine Is Yours falls – producer Jacquire King, whose behind-the-boards work catapulted Kings of Leon from Southern rock also-rans to multi-platinum lords of radio, is on hand, and singer Nathan Willett is content to focus on “love and relationships” in his lyrical matter. Top 40 listeners have something against hearing about family-ruining alcoholics, I guess. But what the band and King bring to the table now, however, is a refreshing tendency to keep things focused. It’s less a sacrifice to the gods of modern rock radio and more a bushwhacking of the Kids’ frustrating proclivity to fly off the rails on previous albums. Not that there wasn’t something charming about it all on Robbers & Cowards or Loyalty to Loyalty, but Mine Is Yours largely succeeds on keeping the Kids’ songwriting strengths on track.

That songwriting, of course, is what separates Cold War Kids from your Neon Trees or your Saving Abel. From funk-inflected anthems (“Royal Blue”) to U2-esque mammoth rockers with arena aspirations (“Bulldozer”), Cold War Kids always have an outstanding hook on hand. Mine Is Yours never comes off as a chore to listen to, as some of the latter half of their earlier work did. For all their aversion to taking even the slightest of risks, you can’t help but admire the craftsmanship that went into a track like “Out of the Wilderness,” where a gently lilting ballad coalesces into one of Willett’s most fiery performances, buoyed by rolling drums and a bridge that frankly explodes. It’s good that the songs here are so strong, because when it comes to Willett’s lyrics, the MOR banality comes on a bit too strong. For a songwriter who was previously lauded for his ability to weave a tale, lyrics like “bulldozer clear a space for us / let’s rebuild this love on what we were” are embarrassing, ham-fisted platitudes. It adds a bit of an asterisk to fantastic tracks like “Broken Open,” where Willett engages in a conversation with a parking meter, but when the songs lift and soar like they more often than not do here, it’s not hard to be a little forgiving. It just makes it even more of a shame when some of the best lyrics on the record in “Sensitive Kid” are sabotaged by a drum machine funk that is as out of place as it is unbecoming of Mine Is Yours’ general direction.

So there’s a give and take at work on Mine Is Yours, one that fans of their earlier work will either love or hate. That essential dichotomy between staying true to your roots and aiming for more widespread success has been the ruin of many bands, but Cold War Kids really don’t give up too much here. Indeed, songs like hit-single-to-be “Louder Than Ever” and the thunderous climax of closer “Flying Upside Down” reveal a band that has always had the songwriting chops to stand out from their peers, one that perhaps just needed a steadying hand to realize it all over the course of an entire album. Something may have been lost in translation – there’s nothing as immediate as “We Used To Vacation” or as heart wrenching as “Hospital Beds,” and Willett truly seems to have thrown aside any artistic compunctions in his quest to write a lyric any ape could relate to. But Mine Is Yours is a damn good rock record through and through, and for a band to sit down and write eleven tunes that showcase the best of their bluesy, anthemic brand of indie with nary a misstep, well, there’s an accomplishment to be praised.

]]>
http://thepopfix.com/2011/01/25/the-critic-cold-war-kids-vacillate-between-staying-true-to-their-roots-and-widespread-success-on-mine-is-yours/feed/ 3
THE CRITIC: Top 30 Best Songs Of 2010 http://thepopfix.com/2010/12/26/the-critic-top-30-best-songs-of-2010/ http://thepopfix.com/2010/12/26/the-critic-top-30-best-songs-of-2010/#comments Mon, 27 Dec 2010 05:09:55 +0000 http://thepopfix.com/?p=5757 1. Steel Train – Fall Asleep (Steel Train)

Sometimes the best songs are those that don’t take any extra thought to delve into, any unnecessary analysis or self-introspection. Sometimes the best songs just click, hitting home with visceral emotion and lyrics that don’t skip around the point but take aim right at it. Anyone’s who’ve ever lost someone, whether emotionally or literally, can relate to this song, which speaks to loss and hope better than almost any other song I’ve ever heard. And frankly, that ragged guitar solo is genius.

2. Titus Andronicus – The Battle of Hampton Roads (The Monitor)

“Is there a girl at this college who hasn’t been raped / is there a boy in this town that’s not exploding with hate / is there a human alive ain’t looked himself in the face without winking or saying what they mean without drinking who will believe in something without thinking what if somebody doesn’t approve / is there a soul on this earth that isn’t too frightened to prove?” Is there anything about this song that hasn’t already been said?

3. Spoon – Goodnight, Laura (Transference)

Who knew that Spoon, a band so meticulous and spartan in their image and sound, would create one of the most touching songs of the year? Britt Daniels, too, can love.

4. Cee Lo Green – Fuck You! (The Lady Killer)

It’s a shame the radio censors had to neuter this song, because the general public is missing out on one of the great mainstream pop songs of the past several years.

5. Noisia – Machine Gun (Split the Atom)

Noisia previously had been a strictly drum & bass group, but Split the Atom and lead-off track “Machine Gun” opened the world up to a whole new, aggressive Noisia that brushed aside genre tags with ease. Party starter of the year.

6. Deerhunter – He Would Have Laughed (Halcyon Digest)

The biggest grower on this list, this was the last song I warmed up to on Halcyon Digest, but when I finally did I don’t know how I could’ve preferred any other song on the album to this. The poignant second half and the way the song just cuts off so abruptly is brilliant.

7. Rogue Wave – Solitary Gun (Permalight)

It took four albums, but Rogue Wave finally made the prototypical power pop tune, all muscular melody, irresistibly catchy lyrics and the kind of song that just refuses to grow old.

8. The Tallest Man on Earth – King of Spain (The Wild Hunt)

This was the song that got my over Kristian Matsson’s sometimes grating voice and made me love him. Also helps that it has some of the best lyrics and affecting melody on the entire Wild Hunt record.

9. Defiance, Ohio – Hairpool (Midwestern Minutes)

Ever feel like you’ve been away from home for too long, and when you return everything seems different, like there’s some kind of disconnect impossible to see and define but there nonetheless? Defiance, Ohio know too, and they’ve made the perfect song for it.

10. Surfer Blood – Catholic Pagans (Astro Coast)

For all the lyrical nonsense thrown into the second stanza, “Catholic Pagans” was the love song of the year for a gorgeously pragmatic declaration in the wrenching first verse.

11. Jonsi – Go Do (Go)

“Go Do” is such a fantastic opener because it is Jonsi’s debut album – a sugar rush of eternal optimism, buttressed by an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink instrumental mentality and that indescribable feeling that everything is going to be okay.

12. The National – Conversation 16 (High Violet)

High Violet always seemed to me like an album that was greater than the sum of its parts rather than sporting any truly amazing songs, at least compared to some of the National’s past individual efforts. But “Conversation 16,” with its relentless drumming, haunting background vocals and typically great lyrics, almost makes it.

13. Japandroids – Younger Us (No Singles EP)

If this had been on their debut it would have been my favorite song. “Remember that night you were already in bed / said ‘fuck it’ got up to drink with me instead” was the theme of my summer.

14. The Black Keys – Never Gonna Give You Up (Brothers)

You’d be forgiven for thinking this came out of some Sun Studio in the late ’50s / early ’60s, but the Keys’ cover of this Jerry Butler standard is spot-on. Not to be confused with Rick Astley.

15. Stars – Changes (The Five Ghosts)

Amy Millan’s finest hour. When they closed their L.A. show with this, it was straight up magical.

16. Geographer – Verona (Animal Shapes EP)

Never heard of this band until I saw them open for Stars and their simple but energetic live show blew me away. “Verona” was the best, with its heartbreaking lyrics and awesome wood block.

17. Ra Ra Riot – Boy (The Orchard)

When those drums crash in and that bass line starts running things like a conductor with a out-of-control case of ADHD, I just want to dance along and practice my falsetto along Wes Miles’ angelic voice.

18. Kanye West – Gorgeous ft. Kid Cudi (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)

“Is hip-hop just a euphemism for a new religion? The soul music for the slaves that the youth is missing?” Uh, yes. And there have been few better holy bibles than Kanye’s newest and this song in particular, especially when Kanye reminds us not to forget about his black balls. How could we?

19. Wolf Parade – Little Golden Age (Expo 86)

I’ve always been a Spencer Krug fan but Dan Boeckner absolutely steals his thunder on Expo 86 with this highlight, a nostalgic look back at college done right and one that hits home as I prepare to graduate.

20. Big Boi – Tangerine ft. T.I. and Khujo Goodie (Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Legend of Chico Dusty)

An impossible to resist tribal beat, guest spots that don’t quit, and Boi’s standard superb flow . . . a microcosm of The Legend of Chico Dusty as a whole and my favorite song off it.

21. Free Energy – Dark Trance (Stuck on Nothing)

Arena rock lives!

22. Skrillex – Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Noisia Remix) (Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites EP)

Noisia proving they can dominate in any genre they please, and Skrillex with another great mix to build on top of.

23. Delta Spirit – Ransom Man (History From Below)

The kind of old school ballad that I imagine listening to by the fire with a half-empty bottle of whiskey . . . in the middle of the woods.

24. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (The Suburbs)

Arcade Fire’s third record was kind of a disappointment for me, but for the first five minutes they had me quite excited with this gem of a melody.

25. Taylor Swift – Enchanted (Speak Now)

You know how I know you’re gay?

26. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Everlyn (Let It Sway)

There’s something to be said for perfect power pop, and this song might be the closest Boris Yeltsin have ever come to simple perfection.

27. Porter Robinson – Say My Name (Say My Name)

That first drop is guaranteed to get the fists pumping, but it’s the second that blows the doors open and shows that this 18-year old prodigy knows his electro.

28. She & Him – Home (Volume Two)

Seeing this performed at Coachella while the sun set and Zooey absolutely killed it as the crowd sang along was one of the best concert experiences of my life.

29. Foals – Spanish Sahara (Total Life Forever)

Few songs this side of post-rock do buildups quite as exquisitely as “Spanish Sahara.”

30. Tomba – Disturbed (Disturbed)

The vilest, most revolting dubstep mix I’ve ever heard. Listening to the full 35 minutes is like excavating a sewer, and it’s beautiful.

]]>
http://thepopfix.com/2010/12/26/the-critic-top-30-best-songs-of-2010/feed/ 1
THE CRITIC: Top 20 Best Albums of 2010 http://thepopfix.com/2010/12/25/the-critic-top-20-best-albums-of-2010/ http://thepopfix.com/2010/12/25/the-critic-top-20-best-albums-of-2010/#comments Sun, 26 Dec 2010 03:02:18 +0000 http://thepopfix.com/?p=5725 THE CONTENDERS:


1. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest

deer

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Halcyon Digest was just how warm everything sounded. Whereas Bradford Cox and company’s earlier work tended to be unwieldy messes of noise thrown loosely under the shoegaze label, Halcyon Digest continued what 2008′s Microcastle begun: transforming Deerhunter into a full-fledged rock band, feet firmly planted in pop territory and beckoning us to just relax and enjoy. When I first heard “Revival” I was astonished at just how straightforward everything was, how easy it was to connect to a band I previously had regarded as somewhat cold. But things aren’t just direct; there’s a depth to these songs that, coming from Cox, is not much of a surprise, but makes Halcyon Digest something more than just a really good rock album. Songs like the self-destructing “Desire Lines” and the gorgeous dream of “Helicopter” seem like the new classic rock, all substance and style without a tipping of the scales one way or the other. “Coronado” is the best Strokes song since Is This It. “He Would Have Laughed” might be the most tragic song of the year, but it’s spindly buildup and cathartic ending seem positively joyful. Halcyon Digest is a record that seems destined to stand the test of time, constructed as it is out of the timeless building blocks of music: guitar, bass, vocals and drums, all done so effortlessly that it’s hard to believe Deerhunter have been doing this for years. In a way, of course, they have, but never so refined, so at ease. For Cox, someone who’s constantly fidgeting around with demos and side projects, hearing him buckle down and produce a whole album’s worth of immediately arresting music is a relief. Halcyon Digest is Deerhunter’s most deft accomplishment yet, and they’ve done it not with bells or whistles or 20-minute-plus compositions but by writing perfect rock ‘n roll, pure and simple.

2. Jonsi – Go

jonsi-go-cover

What I love about Go is it’s like Jonsi took all those nine-minute-plus Hopelandic epics and compressed them into the perfect four-minute pop song. Like Jonsi himself, everything about Go screams outsized; from Nico Muhly’s everything-and-the-kitchen-sink production to the hooks, which scream rainbows and unicorns and sweet, sweet honey. But it’s Jonsi and his angelic voice that really holds everything together, connecting on an almost primal level as its own instrument of unadulterated happiness. Go is a transparent record in its gaiety, with no hidden meanings or any subtext beyond a celebration of life. That’s what makes it great.

3. The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt

tallestmanonearth

With a voice that only a Billy Corgan could love (at least at first), Sweden’s Kristian Matsson’s sophomore record was an unlikely album of the year contender. Built almost entirely on whispery guitar licks and Matsson’s screechy vocals was a complicated web of melodies and deeply personal lyrics. The Wild Hunt is a triumph not because it polishes everything that made Shallow Grave great but because of the mood it sets. From “You’re Going Back” to “Trouble Will Be Gone” to, most noticeably, “King of Spain,” The Wild Hunt is an unbridled expression of joy, made all the more powerful by its sparse instrumentation and Matsson’s cheerfully abrasive vocals.
4. The Walkmen – Lisbon

lisbon

“I am a good man by any count / and I see better things to come” Hamilton Leithauser sings on opener “Juveniles,” and if there’s a better mission statement for Lisbon I haven’t found it. This is the sound of the Walkmen settling into a sweet spot, building on the rich palette of sounds they cooked up on 2008′s You & Me and imbuing it with a sense of warmth and a pleasant glow that pervades all the material here and lies in stark contrast to the band’s earlier material, which was as fiery and tense as their hometown of New York City. The National might get all the hype for being the next great American rock band, but the Walkmen would have something to say about that.

5. Noisia – Split the Atom

noisia-split-the-atom-7056052300

Noisia’s first proper LP is a shining example of everything good that can happen when a groundbreaking trio mashes all their influences together and produces something truly original. Split the Atom has it all: breaks, electro, drum n bass, funk, house, et cetera. It’s a mishmash of styles that never seems like it’s about to collapse – the Dutch group have collected everything they admire about electronica and make it their own. Noisia are not afraid to take some risks, and Split the Atom promises to be the first in a long line of relentless, heart-stopping party starters.

6. The National – High Violet

the-national-reveal-high-violet-album-details-299x300

My road to finally realizing High Violet was right up there with Boxer and Alligator was a long one, and it took me until a long road trip six months after its release to see it for what it was: what I initially saw as boring and uninspired was actually a more mellow National, one less prone to emotional outbursts and not quite as energetic, but a wiser National, one who had a firmer grip on life’s realities and even more questions about it. It’s a fascinating listen, built around Matt Berninger’s wry observations and Bryan Devendorf’s continually amazing drumming, and a more confident record than anything the National have done to date.

7. Wolf Parade – Expo 86

wolf-parade-expo-86

Maybe Wolf Parade will never be able to recapture that spastic one-off brilliance that was their debut, but Expo 86 proves that maybe they don’t need to. It’s the band’s most cohesive collection of tracks to date, successfully ranging from Krug’s typically obtuse offerings to Boeckner’s more pop-oriented rock tunes. Most of all, it proves that Wolf Parade are still the visionary songwriters we thought we lost with At Mount Zoomer, and that’s a relief.

8. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

kanye-west-my-beautiful-dark-twisted-fantasy-cover

I like to use Kanye West’s own Twitter to describe My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: “”This is rock and roll life my people . . . you can’t stop the truth you can’t stop the music and I have to be strong or ‘they’ win!!!;” “I can’t be everybody’s hero and villain savior and sinner Christian and anti Christ!;” “I have decided to become the best rapper of all time! I put it on my things to do in this lifetime list!” Besides an abundance of exclamation points, Kanye’s often hilarious Twitter is everything that made his newest album such a masterpiece, from his Christ complex to his feuding with the media to his undeniable artistic brilliance. The guy might be a little crazy, but weren’t all the best a bit off?

9. The Black Keys – Brothers

the-black-keys-brothers-300x300

Speaking of good old-fashioned rock ‘n roll, The Black Keys are back to doing what they do best on Brothers. It’s hard-hitting, bluesy rock ‘n roll; bluesy like the delta, bluesy like the Sun Studio in the early ’60s, and Brothers is nothing if not a painstakingly well made time capsule by two of the best musicians in the business. Few bands can sound like they come from another era, but the Black Keys pull it off with ease.

10. Steel Train – Steel Train

steel-train-new-album-cover

Along with Free Energy, Steel Train showed me that sometimes, good rock ‘n roll can be just that; no gimmicks, no existentialist musings, no 20-minute-plus compositions swollen with strings and harps and timpani. Steel Train put their money down on ace melodies and that simple trifecta of rock: guitar, bass, drums. They only come out with some of the best songs of the year, sugary offerings that are no less potent because they revel in their hooks and sing-a-long capabilities. Not to mention a song of the year in the heartrending “Fall Asleep.”

11. Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

bigboi

This was a banner year for big name rappers, and Big Boi was no exception – up until November The Son of Chico Dusty was the rap record of the year, and another bit of evidence to suggest that maybe Outkast wasn’t all Andre 3000′s show (where the hell has that guy been, anyway?). Southern rap has never been this enjoyable and innovative.

12. Rogue Wave – Permalight

rogue-wave

Permalight came out at just the right time for me, lifting me out of the February doldrums with passionate, high-energy indie pop that seemed all too easy and potentially canned. But there was something about Permalight that made me look past its clichéd sentiments and sometimes drab choruses – this is a record that was positively sunny, one that bared all without shame or any sense of self-consciousness, and was the better for it. If I want to be happy, I listen to this.

13. Free Energy – Stuck on Nothing

free

Paul Sprangers sings about girls and summer love and absolutely nothing of higher import because, frankly, that’s all he wants to sing about. It’s unfortunate that Stuck on Nothing was released in the spring, because it’s a summer record through and through. Beach cruising, salty air and salty hair, bikinis, breezy car trips, pool parties, Slurpees that always seem too damn drippy, the smell of tanning lotion, sand that will stay in my car for way too many months, days and days of doing whatever the hell you want – Free Energy have made a soundtrack for all of these things, and made it seem effortless in the bargain.

14. Spoon – Transference

transference

It speaks to Spoon’s consistency that I consider a #14 finish an off year for them. Transference finds the band more comfortable with their own sound than ever before, relishing in the live environment the album was created in and even letting their ties loose a little bit, meandering about on songs like “Who Makes Your Money” and “Nobody Gets Me But You.” It’s not as consistent as previous releases, but it doesn’t have to be – Spoon like where they are, and they sound damn fine with it.

15. Serena Maneesh – S-M 2: Abyss in B Minor

s-m-sleeve999

Criminally overlooked shoegaze out of Norway, Serena Maneesh crafted some of the strangest, most endearing music of the year. This isn’t your older brother’s shoegaze; this plain rocks, with angular riffs and thudding bass lines seemingly more suited for prog than pop. But for all its oddness, it’s an album that refuses to be ignored, and I’d gladly take this over the Ambien most shoegaze bands proffer up nowadays.

16. Phosphorescent – Here’s To Taking It Easy

phos

In an off year for alt-country Matt Houck stepped up to the plate and delivered a straightforward home run, all muscular slide guitar and folky twang. But the best part is Houck’s melodies, which are fleshed out and given new life with the colorful compositions offered by his expanded sound.

17. Ra Ra Riot – The Orchard

rarariot-orchard

Beating Vampire Weekend at their own game, Ra Ra Riot avoid the sophomore slump by slowing things down and bringing out the best in the band – Wes Miles‘ brilliant vocals, the warm dimension the strings bring to their sound, and drummer Gabriel Duquette’s unheralded rhythm work that ties everything together.

18. Four Tet – There Is Love In You

four-tet-there-is-love-in-you

There’s always bound to be some repetition in an IDM release, and it’s what usually turns me off on the genre, but Four Tet has truly created a masterpiece with his seventh album, one that has a definite organic quality to it that adds a vibrant layer to the discordant loops and drum samples that make up his work. It’s dense and challenging at times, but it never ceases to be enjoyable.

19. Delta Spirit – History From Below

delta-spirit-history-from-below

It’s always a pleasure to see a band grow, and combining that with one of my favorite genres in Americana makes History From Below one of the year’s most exciting releases. Much of the credit must go to singer Matthew Vasquez, whose growth into a true barroom singer is remarkable.

20. Simian Mobile Disco – Delicacies

delicacies_simian_mobile_disco_album

Outstanding food concept nonwithstanding, Delicacies is a delicious tech-house treat, all weirded-out bleeps and ghostly bloops that are at times incredibly creepy and others strangely bouncy. I have no idea how this is going to translate live (probably with a healthy dose of psychedelics), but after last year’s weak pop outing, Simian is back on track here.

]]>
http://thepopfix.com/2010/12/25/the-critic-top-20-best-albums-of-2010/feed/ 2