Rock + roll progress report, spring semester oh-ten
I don't know why a lot of the big album releases come out in the spring, but that's what's been going on for the last few years. I've mentioned a few of these records before, but since then I've listened to some of them as many as a dozen more times.
Los Campesinos!
Last Album: We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, a record released so quickly after their debut that the band swore it wasn't really an album (whatever, ten new tracks, sequenced with purpose, over thirty minutes... you made an album, mates).
Time Elapsed: Just over a year. They work fast.
This Album: Romance is Boring, which is like a longer, more anguished, less outwardly poppy continuation down the Doomed path.
Strengths: The first seven songs are nonstop aces (unless you count the instrumental, which I take more as an extended intro to "Straight in at 101"), vintage Campesinos with a harder edge.
Weaknesses: The album is a bit too long; individually, I don't really dislike any of the back half of it, but put together it's not as bracing as the first half, except "The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future" which is unbelievably great. At twelve or thirteen songs, this would be a fantastic album instead of a very good one.
Development: Los Campesinos! definitely show interest in developing their sound -- almost constantly, almost to the point where you might get worried that they'll burn themselves out. But I suppose that's better than getting into a tweexcore rut.
Grade: A-
Titus Andronicus
Last Album: The Airing of Grievances, the debut album with some great songs that sounded like they may have been recorded inside of a cinder block.
Time Elapsed: A little over a year since the debut was rereleased; about two since the actual release.
This Album: The Monitor goes into concept-album mode, except, like most concept albums, it's more loosely connected songs with thematic unity than coherent narrative.
Strengths: The band still sounds super punk rock while recording in what sounds like a real studio, not the inside of a battered messenger bag. It takes a page from the Hold Steady and the Sleater-Kinney album The Woods in that combines the best elements of punk and classic rock into something ferocious and vital. Particularly epic: "Four Score and Seven," "A More Perfect Union," and the slower, prettier "To Old Friends and New." Less epic, just ass-kicking: "Titus Andronicus Forever," stiff competition with "The Weekenders" for best sequel song of the year.
Weaknesses: Sometimes there's just a slight case of young-dude angst excess, manifested in maybe a few too many lyrics about being covered in shit or whatever, and also dying. But that goes with the territory, doesn't it?
Development: Titus now sounds as huge on record as they do in concert. I have no idea where it goes from here.
Grade: A-
Frightened Rabbit
Last Album: The Midnight Organ Flight was their second record, but it broke them through like a debut.
Time Elapsed: Two years.
This Album: The less break-up-focused, lusher-sounding The Winter of Mixed Drinks.
Strengths: I dig the big sound of "Living in Colour," the epic build of "Skip the Youth," and the urgency of "Nothing Like You," among others.
Weaknesses: Some of the songs spend most of their time building but don't really arrive at anything all that exciting, like "The Loneliness and the Scream," which builds almost the exact same way as preceding songs "Things" and "Swim Until You Can't See Land." It has a nice whoa-oh coda and on its own it would probably sound a perfectly decent Frightened Rabbit song, but surrounded by a bunch of similar songs, it feels formulaic, as it does later when a drumbeat kicks predictably into "Not Miserable" for no real reason except to extend the song another thirty or forty seconds. Also, this record has a song titled "The Loneliness and the Scream."
Development: This is definitely a thing that happens: Mixed Drinks is the album that's more complex and ambitious musically, but arguably less interesting on a song-by-song basis. This album is fine, but I know I'll reach for it less often than I played Midnight Organ Flight.
Grade: B-
She & Him
Last Album: Volume 1, basically just a collection of excellent Zooey Deschanel retro-singles backed by M. Ward.
Time Elapsed: Two years.
This Album: Volume 2, natch.
Strengths: The She & Him aesthetic doesn't require a lot of advancement or experimentation; it pretty much just requires another dozen or so really good retro-singles. There are several more here, like "Thieves" and "In the Sun" and "Over It Over Again."
Weaknesses: Yet there's something about this collection that isn't as much sunny fun as the first volume: it's a little more melancholy and maybe a touch overproduced. In a sense, some of this album does feel like second-tier (if extremely listenable) material that was left off of Volume One.
Development: Almost none, but I don't think that's the problem.
Grade: B
The Hold Steady
Last Album: Stay Positive, a triumphant victory lap.
Time Elapsed: Under two years.
This Album: The hotly anticipated Heaven is Whenever is, as mentioned, the biggest stylistic departure they've ever made: less anthemic, less punk rock, with more classic-rock influences than even before.
Strengths: The change of pace in general is novel and enjoyable, and songs like "The Weekenders," "Barely Breathing," and "Our Whole Lives," among others, will be live favorites soon enough.
Weaknesses: These eleven songs actually contain fewer inessential moments or duff tracks than any of their records except possibly Boys and Girls, but they lack the pure genius of Separation Sunday. Sometimes, on songs like "Soft in the Center," the lyrics sound a little generic for a storyteller as skilled as Craig Finn.
Development: They continue to make durable, well-structured albums that tend to improve after multiple/compulsive listening.
Grade: A-
The New Pornographers
Last Album: The underrated Challengers
Time Elapsed: Almost three years, the longest wait so far, owing to all of the band's members getting more famous.
This Album: Together continues in the pretty, less amped vein of Challengers.
Strengths: The opening bunch, as usual, just great: "Moves," "The Crash Years," "Your Hands (Together)," and the gentle bounce of "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk" and closer "We End Up Together."
Weaknesses: Like a lot of New Pornos albums that aren't Challengers, it's a little frontloaded. But! It's not as frontloaded as Twin Cinema, and that album is great!
Development: Record by record, the audible differences are relatively small, but the overall progression of the New Pornographers represents a nice, steady movement toward maturity without sacrificing energy. It's especially surprising to find them sounding so unified on Together, after some indications that this could turn into a side career for its more successful members.
Grade: B+
The National
Last Album: Boxer, which almost everyone agreed was better than Alligator, except those who really, really didn't.
Time Elapsed: About three years.
This Album: High Violet, another record basically in the more reserved, but gorgeous-sounding, vein of Boxer.
Strengths: At their frequent best, the National makes gorgeous, driving songs like "Bloodbuzz Ohio," "England," and "Lemonworld." The whole record, as with Boxer, sustains a hypnotic mood, ideal for latenight driving or, I assume, fall weather.
Weaknesses: After reading a bunch of reviews saying that High Violet is as good as or better than Boxer, I finally get what those Alligator partisans were complaining about: High Violet is, just occasionally and not to major detriment, a little bit boring. The idea that it's better than either of the previous two albums is kind of strange to me. There are times, just a few but they're there, when the band crosses the line from elegantly sad to verging on mopey. Writing a song called "Sorrow" might be a little on the nose, eh?
Development: Maybe not quite as much as I'd like. Again, this is someplace where I don't really understand the reviews talking about how this one is subtly darker or more menacing or harder-edged. Forget even the barn-burners on Alligator; I'd say nothing on High Violet rocks as hard as "Mistaken for Strangers" off of Boxer. On Boxer, I didn't miss the occasional explosion of screaming you'd get from Alligator (maybe because I heard the later album first, but still, it's hard not to miss a song like "Mr. November"). On High Violet, I kinda do.
Grade: B+
The Dead Weather
Last Album: Horehound, a dark, bluesy record that I didn't get around to buying until I found a used copy like a month ago, and didn't actually listen to for another week or two. It's pretty good, though.
Time Elapsed: About a year.
This Album: Sea of Cowards: more darkness, more blues.
Strengths: These songs mostly sound the same, so it's just a question of which riffs or vocals you happen to prefer by some small degree. I like "Blue Blood Blues," the ascending organ or keyboard or whatever on "The Difference Between Us," and the stutter-y "Gasoline." I also like to think of the song "No Horse" as a follow-up to song "New Pony" off of Horehound.
Weaknesses: There isn't much song in some of these songs: "Hustle and Cuss," for example, pretty much just repeats the title phrase incessantly, and if I want a phrase repeated incessantly, I'll just listen to "A/B Machines" by Sleigh Bells (you didn't think I could talk about the spring's albums without mentioning Sleigh Bells, did you?).
Development: As with the Raconteurs, what started off as a chance for Jack White to do something different sounds, well, a bit more Jack White-y on the second record. That's fine by me, as that's basically why I buy Raconteurs and Dead Weather records, but it does seem a little like whenever he's in a band that he's not mostly in charge of, he gradually takes it over anyway.
Grade: B
Coming the rest of the year: Arcade Fire, Belle and Sebastian maybe?
Los Campesinos!
Last Album: We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, a record released so quickly after their debut that the band swore it wasn't really an album (whatever, ten new tracks, sequenced with purpose, over thirty minutes... you made an album, mates).
Time Elapsed: Just over a year. They work fast.
This Album: Romance is Boring, which is like a longer, more anguished, less outwardly poppy continuation down the Doomed path.
Strengths: The first seven songs are nonstop aces (unless you count the instrumental, which I take more as an extended intro to "Straight in at 101"), vintage Campesinos with a harder edge.
Weaknesses: The album is a bit too long; individually, I don't really dislike any of the back half of it, but put together it's not as bracing as the first half, except "The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future" which is unbelievably great. At twelve or thirteen songs, this would be a fantastic album instead of a very good one.
Development: Los Campesinos! definitely show interest in developing their sound -- almost constantly, almost to the point where you might get worried that they'll burn themselves out. But I suppose that's better than getting into a tweexcore rut.
Grade: A-
Titus Andronicus
Last Album: The Airing of Grievances, the debut album with some great songs that sounded like they may have been recorded inside of a cinder block.
Time Elapsed: A little over a year since the debut was rereleased; about two since the actual release.
This Album: The Monitor goes into concept-album mode, except, like most concept albums, it's more loosely connected songs with thematic unity than coherent narrative.
Strengths: The band still sounds super punk rock while recording in what sounds like a real studio, not the inside of a battered messenger bag. It takes a page from the Hold Steady and the Sleater-Kinney album The Woods in that combines the best elements of punk and classic rock into something ferocious and vital. Particularly epic: "Four Score and Seven," "A More Perfect Union," and the slower, prettier "To Old Friends and New." Less epic, just ass-kicking: "Titus Andronicus Forever," stiff competition with "The Weekenders" for best sequel song of the year.
Weaknesses: Sometimes there's just a slight case of young-dude angst excess, manifested in maybe a few too many lyrics about being covered in shit or whatever, and also dying. But that goes with the territory, doesn't it?
Development: Titus now sounds as huge on record as they do in concert. I have no idea where it goes from here.
Grade: A-
Frightened Rabbit
Last Album: The Midnight Organ Flight was their second record, but it broke them through like a debut.
Time Elapsed: Two years.
This Album: The less break-up-focused, lusher-sounding The Winter of Mixed Drinks.
Strengths: I dig the big sound of "Living in Colour," the epic build of "Skip the Youth," and the urgency of "Nothing Like You," among others.
Weaknesses: Some of the songs spend most of their time building but don't really arrive at anything all that exciting, like "The Loneliness and the Scream," which builds almost the exact same way as preceding songs "Things" and "Swim Until You Can't See Land." It has a nice whoa-oh coda and on its own it would probably sound a perfectly decent Frightened Rabbit song, but surrounded by a bunch of similar songs, it feels formulaic, as it does later when a drumbeat kicks predictably into "Not Miserable" for no real reason except to extend the song another thirty or forty seconds. Also, this record has a song titled "The Loneliness and the Scream."
Development: This is definitely a thing that happens: Mixed Drinks is the album that's more complex and ambitious musically, but arguably less interesting on a song-by-song basis. This album is fine, but I know I'll reach for it less often than I played Midnight Organ Flight.
Grade: B-
She & Him
Last Album: Volume 1, basically just a collection of excellent Zooey Deschanel retro-singles backed by M. Ward.
Time Elapsed: Two years.
This Album: Volume 2, natch.
Strengths: The She & Him aesthetic doesn't require a lot of advancement or experimentation; it pretty much just requires another dozen or so really good retro-singles. There are several more here, like "Thieves" and "In the Sun" and "Over It Over Again."
Weaknesses: Yet there's something about this collection that isn't as much sunny fun as the first volume: it's a little more melancholy and maybe a touch overproduced. In a sense, some of this album does feel like second-tier (if extremely listenable) material that was left off of Volume One.
Development: Almost none, but I don't think that's the problem.
Grade: B
The Hold Steady
Last Album: Stay Positive, a triumphant victory lap.
Time Elapsed: Under two years.
This Album: The hotly anticipated Heaven is Whenever is, as mentioned, the biggest stylistic departure they've ever made: less anthemic, less punk rock, with more classic-rock influences than even before.
Strengths: The change of pace in general is novel and enjoyable, and songs like "The Weekenders," "Barely Breathing," and "Our Whole Lives," among others, will be live favorites soon enough.
Weaknesses: These eleven songs actually contain fewer inessential moments or duff tracks than any of their records except possibly Boys and Girls, but they lack the pure genius of Separation Sunday. Sometimes, on songs like "Soft in the Center," the lyrics sound a little generic for a storyteller as skilled as Craig Finn.
Development: They continue to make durable, well-structured albums that tend to improve after multiple/compulsive listening.
Grade: A-
The New Pornographers
Last Album: The underrated Challengers
Time Elapsed: Almost three years, the longest wait so far, owing to all of the band's members getting more famous.
This Album: Together continues in the pretty, less amped vein of Challengers.
Strengths: The opening bunch, as usual, just great: "Moves," "The Crash Years," "Your Hands (Together)," and the gentle bounce of "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk" and closer "We End Up Together."
Weaknesses: Like a lot of New Pornos albums that aren't Challengers, it's a little frontloaded. But! It's not as frontloaded as Twin Cinema, and that album is great!
Development: Record by record, the audible differences are relatively small, but the overall progression of the New Pornographers represents a nice, steady movement toward maturity without sacrificing energy. It's especially surprising to find them sounding so unified on Together, after some indications that this could turn into a side career for its more successful members.
Grade: B+
The National
Last Album: Boxer, which almost everyone agreed was better than Alligator, except those who really, really didn't.
Time Elapsed: About three years.
This Album: High Violet, another record basically in the more reserved, but gorgeous-sounding, vein of Boxer.
Strengths: At their frequent best, the National makes gorgeous, driving songs like "Bloodbuzz Ohio," "England," and "Lemonworld." The whole record, as with Boxer, sustains a hypnotic mood, ideal for latenight driving or, I assume, fall weather.
Weaknesses: After reading a bunch of reviews saying that High Violet is as good as or better than Boxer, I finally get what those Alligator partisans were complaining about: High Violet is, just occasionally and not to major detriment, a little bit boring. The idea that it's better than either of the previous two albums is kind of strange to me. There are times, just a few but they're there, when the band crosses the line from elegantly sad to verging on mopey. Writing a song called "Sorrow" might be a little on the nose, eh?
Development: Maybe not quite as much as I'd like. Again, this is someplace where I don't really understand the reviews talking about how this one is subtly darker or more menacing or harder-edged. Forget even the barn-burners on Alligator; I'd say nothing on High Violet rocks as hard as "Mistaken for Strangers" off of Boxer. On Boxer, I didn't miss the occasional explosion of screaming you'd get from Alligator (maybe because I heard the later album first, but still, it's hard not to miss a song like "Mr. November"). On High Violet, I kinda do.
Grade: B+
The Dead Weather
Last Album: Horehound, a dark, bluesy record that I didn't get around to buying until I found a used copy like a month ago, and didn't actually listen to for another week or two. It's pretty good, though.
Time Elapsed: About a year.
This Album: Sea of Cowards: more darkness, more blues.
Strengths: These songs mostly sound the same, so it's just a question of which riffs or vocals you happen to prefer by some small degree. I like "Blue Blood Blues," the ascending organ or keyboard or whatever on "The Difference Between Us," and the stutter-y "Gasoline." I also like to think of the song "No Horse" as a follow-up to song "New Pony" off of Horehound.
Weaknesses: There isn't much song in some of these songs: "Hustle and Cuss," for example, pretty much just repeats the title phrase incessantly, and if I want a phrase repeated incessantly, I'll just listen to "A/B Machines" by Sleigh Bells (you didn't think I could talk about the spring's albums without mentioning Sleigh Bells, did you?).
Development: As with the Raconteurs, what started off as a chance for Jack White to do something different sounds, well, a bit more Jack White-y on the second record. That's fine by me, as that's basically why I buy Raconteurs and Dead Weather records, but it does seem a little like whenever he's in a band that he's not mostly in charge of, he gradually takes it over anyway.
Grade: B
Coming the rest of the year: Arcade Fire, Belle and Sebastian maybe?