Rock + roll progress report, spring semester 07
Lots of passing grades this year but few overachievers so far.
Arcade Fire
Last Album: Their first, the awesome Funeral, one of those albums that would've been in my top two or three of the year had I actually listened to it the year it actually came out.
This Album: I admit it: Neon Bible isn't as good as Funeral. The lyrics strive to face outward, upward, encompassing as much feeling as possible. But the more obtuse narratives on Funeral feel more personal and unique. Also, at some point Win Butler became obsessed with really close, frequent rhymes that sometimes make songs sound more simplistic than they really are. But the music is as majestic as ever and at its best gets me riled up.
Strengths: "Keep the Car Running," "Intervention," "No Cars Go," "My Body is a Cage," among others.
Weaknesses: There aren't really any bad songs on this record, just some lyrics that aren't as good as they could be.
Development: The ambition is exciting, though this very good album following a great album does raise the possibility that they might be one of those bands who doesn't ever match their stunning debut.
Grade: A-
Palomar
Last Album: Palomar III: Revenge of Palomar, one of my favorites of whatever year that was.
This Album: Breaking from a numbering scheme, All Things, Forests keeps up a different Palomar tradition: getting sadder as albums progress. This is their second album to require an adjustment period where I sort the handful of boring ones; once that happened, I figured out that All Things, Forests wanders a little in the middle, but the wariness and weariness Palomar have brought into the work makes for improved emotional range. Also, the actual playing of instruments on this album sounds better than ever -- sometimes overshadowing the songwriting on a few of the weaker tracks.
Strengths: The one-two opening of "Bury Me Closer" and "Our Haunt"; the one-two-three-four closing of "Top Banana," "Woah!", "Surprise Us," and "Alone"; and, in the middle, "You're Keeping Us Up." As usual, they made a lot of good songs.
Weaknesses: "Beats Beat Nothing" and "Bridge of Sighs" make little impression even after many listens.
Development: A stylistic step forward from the last album, though on the balance it's not quite as great.
Grade: B+/A-
Fountains of Wayne
Last Album: Welcome Interstate Managers wasn't as succint as Utopia Parkway, but they'd been out of commission for so long, and the best parts were so good, that no one cared.
This Album: Traffic and Weather is more of the same. Criticizing Fountains of Wayne is tricky. A lot of music snobs really hate these guys, calling them smirky or self-conscious or condescending to the characters in their songs (the same complaints Ben Folds gets). FoW are far from my favorite band (I'd put them behind Folds in terms of lyrics and observations, though their best moments are pretty great), but I don't think this kind of dismissal is warranted. The short of it is that this Village Voice writer claims to really like Fountains of Wayne, but hates the new album, but went to and reviewed their recent gig at Webster Hall. His argument seems muddled. At first he seems to be saying he's grown out of Fountains of Wayne: "Clearly I am the problem here. They haven't changed. The tunes are still fuzzy, goofy, precisely arranged new-wave dioramas... the problem is all those wacky characters and random winking Us Weekly-caliber references... have become unbearably cloying." By this point, I'm confused about whether he's saying that what used to seem clever now seems cloying (because his tastes is more sophisticated) or that they're doing a more cloying, less effective version of past material.
Based on his subsequent dissections of their lyrics, it sounds like the latter, which is a direct contradiction of him being the problem (even if he meant it only half-seriously). He also accuses their pop-culture references of being broad and meaningless ("Us Weekly-caliber"), only to write later that though the chorus to the song "I-95" is corny, it's better than the "overeducated East Coast ironic distance" of the song's verse that refers to items sold at rest stop ("They sell posters of girls washing cars/Unicorns and stars/Guns N' Roses album covers/They've got most of the Barney DVDs/Coffee mugs and T's/That say 'Virginia Is for Lovers.'"). I don't see how that is indicative of "East Coast ironic distance" -- he criticizes the lyric, in fact, for just being a list of stuff, and if that's the case, where is the condescending commentary? Criticizing the "cailber" of references makes it sound as if he wants more obscure, erudite ones -- but if that might (theoretically) take away the "ironic distance" (which I don't think is necessarily there anyway), the "overeducated" part would still be hanging around.
This is consistent with the author's blatant misreading (or perhaps deliberate clouding) of the band's work, concluding that "back in the late '90s when these guys wrote cheeky odes to both high school nostalgia and yawning suburban commuter ennui, I suspect many fans wrote it off as I'll-never-end-up-like-that irony. A decade or so later, the Fountains have a new fanbase that appreciates those odes sincerely." Before, he was bemoaning the band's ironic distance, but now he's implying the band is somehow poisoned by the fact that they're appreciated sincerely. FoW can be wiseasses sometimes, but I would never characterize them as insincere. Their best work has a sort of snapshot/short-story quality to it; isn't it possible to appreciate the absurdity or delusions or mundanity of a situation without mocking it? The writer goes on to note that while listening to "Stacy's Mom" in concert:
"...it's sobering to realize the song's not written from the perspective of the lovestruck kid pining for a much older woman--it's written from the perspective of the older woman. She's imagining the effect she still has, the romantic havoc she can still cause, though primarily with the teenage set. 'I still got it,' she's thinking, bouncing around the kitchen to a peppy tune evocative of her own '80s teenagedom. Yeah, but does the band?"
Wait, because it's possible that FoW now has older suburban fans, it changes the perspective of the songwriting retroactively?! I wasn't aware that the compositions of songs shift automatically based on who sings along to them. I guess "Born in the U.S.A." really is pro-Reagan after all. By the end of this article, it's not even clear what "it" is supposed to represent for FoW, or what the author considers their biggest flaw. Are their new songs ...trying too hard to be clever? Not clever and obscure enough? Too able to be liked by moms? Not different enough from previous songs? Not similar enough to previous songs? I don't think the writer even knows; something bothers him about Traffic and Weather, and he has trouble pinpointing exactly what it is.
That's part of why this article stuck in my head, because Traffic and Weather *is* probably their weakest album to date. I think what he's really reacting to is the laziness of some of these new songs. Laziness is their dominant flaw, far moreso than being mean or condescending. On some of their songs, there's a kind of pettiness -- sometimes they resort to describing a brief character they don't like purely in terms of pathetic physical appearance (like the short boss with the soup-stained tie in "Hey Julie" -- and that's a song I love). There's less of that on Traffic and Weather, but there are also moments where they're going for the laziest, easiest rhyme possible. Or rather, the laziest possible rhyme that could still pass for "clever." On their last album, there was a song I could've sworn was an Oasis style parody, and on this album, they're taking on unfortunate Oasis characteristics: namely, not trying very hard. Why else would you include a stupid throwaway song like "Planet of Weed" or a completely by-the-numbers run-through like "This Better Be Good"? Sometimes it seems like they're writing half of a thematic album (many of the better songs fit together perfectly), and then, after it's been a little bit too long in the making, filling in the rest with whatever they can bash out. Textbook Oasis: sound like you're keeping the first fourteen songs you wrote, regardless of quality or similarity to past work.
Anyway, Strengths: "Someone to Love," "92 Subaru," "Fire in the Canyon," "I-95," "Seatbacks and Tray Tables" -- this is a good travel-themed album.
Weaknesses: The aforementioned "Planet of Weed" and "This Better Be Good" are some of their worst songs ever; "Revolving Dora" and "Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim" aren't as good as their titles; there is a general sense of familiarity with some of the lesser melodies.
Development: Well, despite my defenses, not so great. Try harder!
Grade: B-
Bright Eyes
Last Album: The simultaneously released I'm Wide Awake It's Morning (folkier) and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (synthier). Like most people, I preferred Morning although Ash has some great moments.
This Album: Cassadega sounds fuller than either of the last two. Conor's lyrics still have a tendency to overreach, but the hissy fits and the quaver and his voice are all but gone; he sounds more confident than ever. It's funny -- just as those "new Dylan" comparisons have started to dry up, he's put out an album that sounds more like Dylan than ever. Not in the voice or even necessarily the lyrics, but the way the melodies mix old-timey folk, country, and rock.
Strengths: "Four Winds," "When the Brakeman Turns My Way," and "Soul Singer in a Session Band" are some of his most rollicking and/or Dylanesque and/or plain old best songs so far.
Weaknesses: One of the best things about Morning was the succintness that probably resulted from the decision to make two albums at once; now that Bright Eyes is back in bigger single-album form, Cassadega goes on a little long (though all of the songs certainly fit together).
Development: It's not an all-out great album, but it's good enough that even those who found Bright Eyes annoying in the past might cotton to it.
Grade: B
Kaiser Chiefs
Last Album: I didn't actually buy Employment; I just downloaded "I Predict a Riot" and "Oh My God" and that was awesome and convinced me to buy the new one for $8 on Amazon.
This Album: So I don't know if Yours Truly, Angry Mob is any better than their debut (most reviews seem to say no), but I don't think it was worth the eight bucks. It basically has the same problem as a whole bunch of other bands, British and British-aping alike: Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, the Strokes, the Arctic Monkeys -- great for mixes, not so fun for forty minutes. After listening to Angry Mob for half an hour or so, I lose the ability to even know which are the good moments and which fall flat, because it all sounds pretty monotonous.
Strengths: Even if I hadn't bought this album without hearing anything from it, I could've just downloaded "Ruby" and been convinced all over again, because that song is awesome. I also dig "Everything is Average Nowadays."
Weaknesses: I couldn't tell you because so much blends together.
Development: It's hard to say without... OK, it's not. Zero.
Grade: C+
Bjork
Last Album: Medulla, an a capella album with a lot of vocal acrobatics.
This Album: Bjork brings back beats with Volta -- at least partially. Some of the songs are as slow, dull, and meandering as anything off of Vespertine, without that crystalline production. Volta is wonderful in spots but it's not unlike recent Beck albums (Guero or The Information) -- it sounds like a mix of past Bjork styles rather than something entirely new.
Strengths: "Earth Intruders," "Innocence," and the pounding industrial stomp of "Declare Independence." I'm sorry to be predictable, but basically the ones with a beat. Not having a strong reveance for Timbaland means I don't find any this stuff particularly disappointing.
Weaknesses: However, the middle of this album -- "I See Who You Are," "Vertebrae by Vertebrae," "Pneumonia" -- kinda sucks taken all at once.
Development: Like Beck, she sounds a little like she's searching for the next step.
Grade: B-
Limited-perspective summer music preview: White Stripes and Mandy Moore on 6/19, Art Brut on 6/26, They Might Be Giants on 7/10, Okkervil River on 8/7, New Pornographers and possibly Rilo Kiley on 8/21 (their new one hits the U.K. on 8/20 which hopefully means 8/21 is the latest it will come to the U.S.). Maybe I'll get that 5/22 National album or the 6/5 Long Blondes album, too.
Arcade Fire
Last Album: Their first, the awesome Funeral, one of those albums that would've been in my top two or three of the year had I actually listened to it the year it actually came out.
This Album: I admit it: Neon Bible isn't as good as Funeral. The lyrics strive to face outward, upward, encompassing as much feeling as possible. But the more obtuse narratives on Funeral feel more personal and unique. Also, at some point Win Butler became obsessed with really close, frequent rhymes that sometimes make songs sound more simplistic than they really are. But the music is as majestic as ever and at its best gets me riled up.
Strengths: "Keep the Car Running," "Intervention," "No Cars Go," "My Body is a Cage," among others.
Weaknesses: There aren't really any bad songs on this record, just some lyrics that aren't as good as they could be.
Development: The ambition is exciting, though this very good album following a great album does raise the possibility that they might be one of those bands who doesn't ever match their stunning debut.
Grade: A-
Palomar
Last Album: Palomar III: Revenge of Palomar, one of my favorites of whatever year that was.
This Album: Breaking from a numbering scheme, All Things, Forests keeps up a different Palomar tradition: getting sadder as albums progress. This is their second album to require an adjustment period where I sort the handful of boring ones; once that happened, I figured out that All Things, Forests wanders a little in the middle, but the wariness and weariness Palomar have brought into the work makes for improved emotional range. Also, the actual playing of instruments on this album sounds better than ever -- sometimes overshadowing the songwriting on a few of the weaker tracks.
Strengths: The one-two opening of "Bury Me Closer" and "Our Haunt"; the one-two-three-four closing of "Top Banana," "Woah!", "Surprise Us," and "Alone"; and, in the middle, "You're Keeping Us Up." As usual, they made a lot of good songs.
Weaknesses: "Beats Beat Nothing" and "Bridge of Sighs" make little impression even after many listens.
Development: A stylistic step forward from the last album, though on the balance it's not quite as great.
Grade: B+/A-
Fountains of Wayne
Last Album: Welcome Interstate Managers wasn't as succint as Utopia Parkway, but they'd been out of commission for so long, and the best parts were so good, that no one cared.
This Album: Traffic and Weather is more of the same. Criticizing Fountains of Wayne is tricky. A lot of music snobs really hate these guys, calling them smirky or self-conscious or condescending to the characters in their songs (the same complaints Ben Folds gets). FoW are far from my favorite band (I'd put them behind Folds in terms of lyrics and observations, though their best moments are pretty great), but I don't think this kind of dismissal is warranted. The short of it is that this Village Voice writer claims to really like Fountains of Wayne, but hates the new album, but went to and reviewed their recent gig at Webster Hall. His argument seems muddled. At first he seems to be saying he's grown out of Fountains of Wayne: "Clearly I am the problem here. They haven't changed. The tunes are still fuzzy, goofy, precisely arranged new-wave dioramas... the problem is all those wacky characters and random winking Us Weekly-caliber references... have become unbearably cloying." By this point, I'm confused about whether he's saying that what used to seem clever now seems cloying (because his tastes is more sophisticated) or that they're doing a more cloying, less effective version of past material.
Based on his subsequent dissections of their lyrics, it sounds like the latter, which is a direct contradiction of him being the problem (even if he meant it only half-seriously). He also accuses their pop-culture references of being broad and meaningless ("Us Weekly-caliber"), only to write later that though the chorus to the song "I-95" is corny, it's better than the "overeducated East Coast ironic distance" of the song's verse that refers to items sold at rest stop ("They sell posters of girls washing cars/Unicorns and stars/Guns N' Roses album covers/They've got most of the Barney DVDs/Coffee mugs and T's/That say 'Virginia Is for Lovers.'"). I don't see how that is indicative of "East Coast ironic distance" -- he criticizes the lyric, in fact, for just being a list of stuff, and if that's the case, where is the condescending commentary? Criticizing the "cailber" of references makes it sound as if he wants more obscure, erudite ones -- but if that might (theoretically) take away the "ironic distance" (which I don't think is necessarily there anyway), the "overeducated" part would still be hanging around.
This is consistent with the author's blatant misreading (or perhaps deliberate clouding) of the band's work, concluding that "back in the late '90s when these guys wrote cheeky odes to both high school nostalgia and yawning suburban commuter ennui, I suspect many fans wrote it off as I'll-never-end-up-like-that irony. A decade or so later, the Fountains have a new fanbase that appreciates those odes sincerely." Before, he was bemoaning the band's ironic distance, but now he's implying the band is somehow poisoned by the fact that they're appreciated sincerely. FoW can be wiseasses sometimes, but I would never characterize them as insincere. Their best work has a sort of snapshot/short-story quality to it; isn't it possible to appreciate the absurdity or delusions or mundanity of a situation without mocking it? The writer goes on to note that while listening to "Stacy's Mom" in concert:
"...it's sobering to realize the song's not written from the perspective of the lovestruck kid pining for a much older woman--it's written from the perspective of the older woman. She's imagining the effect she still has, the romantic havoc she can still cause, though primarily with the teenage set. 'I still got it,' she's thinking, bouncing around the kitchen to a peppy tune evocative of her own '80s teenagedom. Yeah, but does the band?"
Wait, because it's possible that FoW now has older suburban fans, it changes the perspective of the songwriting retroactively?! I wasn't aware that the compositions of songs shift automatically based on who sings along to them. I guess "Born in the U.S.A." really is pro-Reagan after all. By the end of this article, it's not even clear what "it" is supposed to represent for FoW, or what the author considers their biggest flaw. Are their new songs ...trying too hard to be clever? Not clever and obscure enough? Too able to be liked by moms? Not different enough from previous songs? Not similar enough to previous songs? I don't think the writer even knows; something bothers him about Traffic and Weather, and he has trouble pinpointing exactly what it is.
That's part of why this article stuck in my head, because Traffic and Weather *is* probably their weakest album to date. I think what he's really reacting to is the laziness of some of these new songs. Laziness is their dominant flaw, far moreso than being mean or condescending. On some of their songs, there's a kind of pettiness -- sometimes they resort to describing a brief character they don't like purely in terms of pathetic physical appearance (like the short boss with the soup-stained tie in "Hey Julie" -- and that's a song I love). There's less of that on Traffic and Weather, but there are also moments where they're going for the laziest, easiest rhyme possible. Or rather, the laziest possible rhyme that could still pass for "clever." On their last album, there was a song I could've sworn was an Oasis style parody, and on this album, they're taking on unfortunate Oasis characteristics: namely, not trying very hard. Why else would you include a stupid throwaway song like "Planet of Weed" or a completely by-the-numbers run-through like "This Better Be Good"? Sometimes it seems like they're writing half of a thematic album (many of the better songs fit together perfectly), and then, after it's been a little bit too long in the making, filling in the rest with whatever they can bash out. Textbook Oasis: sound like you're keeping the first fourteen songs you wrote, regardless of quality or similarity to past work.
Anyway, Strengths: "Someone to Love," "92 Subaru," "Fire in the Canyon," "I-95," "Seatbacks and Tray Tables" -- this is a good travel-themed album.
Weaknesses: The aforementioned "Planet of Weed" and "This Better Be Good" are some of their worst songs ever; "Revolving Dora" and "Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim" aren't as good as their titles; there is a general sense of familiarity with some of the lesser melodies.
Development: Well, despite my defenses, not so great. Try harder!
Grade: B-
Bright Eyes
Last Album: The simultaneously released I'm Wide Awake It's Morning (folkier) and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (synthier). Like most people, I preferred Morning although Ash has some great moments.
This Album: Cassadega sounds fuller than either of the last two. Conor's lyrics still have a tendency to overreach, but the hissy fits and the quaver and his voice are all but gone; he sounds more confident than ever. It's funny -- just as those "new Dylan" comparisons have started to dry up, he's put out an album that sounds more like Dylan than ever. Not in the voice or even necessarily the lyrics, but the way the melodies mix old-timey folk, country, and rock.
Strengths: "Four Winds," "When the Brakeman Turns My Way," and "Soul Singer in a Session Band" are some of his most rollicking and/or Dylanesque and/or plain old best songs so far.
Weaknesses: One of the best things about Morning was the succintness that probably resulted from the decision to make two albums at once; now that Bright Eyes is back in bigger single-album form, Cassadega goes on a little long (though all of the songs certainly fit together).
Development: It's not an all-out great album, but it's good enough that even those who found Bright Eyes annoying in the past might cotton to it.
Grade: B
Kaiser Chiefs
Last Album: I didn't actually buy Employment; I just downloaded "I Predict a Riot" and "Oh My God" and that was awesome and convinced me to buy the new one for $8 on Amazon.
This Album: So I don't know if Yours Truly, Angry Mob is any better than their debut (most reviews seem to say no), but I don't think it was worth the eight bucks. It basically has the same problem as a whole bunch of other bands, British and British-aping alike: Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, the Strokes, the Arctic Monkeys -- great for mixes, not so fun for forty minutes. After listening to Angry Mob for half an hour or so, I lose the ability to even know which are the good moments and which fall flat, because it all sounds pretty monotonous.
Strengths: Even if I hadn't bought this album without hearing anything from it, I could've just downloaded "Ruby" and been convinced all over again, because that song is awesome. I also dig "Everything is Average Nowadays."
Weaknesses: I couldn't tell you because so much blends together.
Development: It's hard to say without... OK, it's not. Zero.
Grade: C+
Bjork
Last Album: Medulla, an a capella album with a lot of vocal acrobatics.
This Album: Bjork brings back beats with Volta -- at least partially. Some of the songs are as slow, dull, and meandering as anything off of Vespertine, without that crystalline production. Volta is wonderful in spots but it's not unlike recent Beck albums (Guero or The Information) -- it sounds like a mix of past Bjork styles rather than something entirely new.
Strengths: "Earth Intruders," "Innocence," and the pounding industrial stomp of "Declare Independence." I'm sorry to be predictable, but basically the ones with a beat. Not having a strong reveance for Timbaland means I don't find any this stuff particularly disappointing.
Weaknesses: However, the middle of this album -- "I See Who You Are," "Vertebrae by Vertebrae," "Pneumonia" -- kinda sucks taken all at once.
Development: Like Beck, she sounds a little like she's searching for the next step.
Grade: B-
Limited-perspective summer music preview: White Stripes and Mandy Moore on 6/19, Art Brut on 6/26, They Might Be Giants on 7/10, Okkervil River on 8/7, New Pornographers and possibly Rilo Kiley on 8/21 (their new one hits the U.K. on 8/20 which hopefully means 8/21 is the latest it will come to the U.S.). Maybe I'll get that 5/22 National album or the 6/5 Long Blondes album, too.