Dear Music Fans,
What a big year for music it's been so far. And there is so much more to come. It's daunting to even begin to start this. Daunting, knowing that I'm not even going to write about Coachella in this one. Not here, we'll just start with some good CDS.
As always, this is more of a journal of discovery then a rank or a list.
Frightened Rabbit "The Midnight Organ Fight"
Holy shit. This CD is good. I mean like hella good. This CD came out in like 2008, i think, and of course I missed it. I only found it because they put out a new CD this year, which is like alright, but has nothing on this one. There are so many stand out tracks. This CD is about a guy who is just a dude, a dude trying to find love or something like it. Each track pretty much is about relationships, and really about relationships gone wrong. He's a dude in love, he's a dude who is really mad at a woman, he's a dude who doesn't care if she's really drunk, he just wants to feel the warmth of her. Now, for me it's not the depressing words or thoughtful contemplation on the multitudes of relationships, it's the power of the music, the songs, and the singing that keeps me coming back to this CD. This might be the best british rock cd of the second half of the decade. Might, but then again, I'm still finding things.
* Must Tracks - The Modern Leper, Good Arms Vs. Bad Arms, The Twist, Heads Roll Off.
Janelle Monae "The ArchAndroid"
So earlier in the year, I discovered that Big Boi (of Outkast) had rapped on this girl's song called "Tight Rope." And i was like oh shit, Big Boi, and then i was like, man when are they going to put out his CD, and then I was like, well I better give this a go. And I listened to it, and well, I wanted to cut a rug. (i don't even know how to do it, but I wanted to.) Now that the whole CD has come out, and I've listened to it a few times, I urge you, to check it out. This girl is musically talented. She's like this crazy awesome combination of the Amy Winehouse scene and the Lady Gaga Scene. She can sing, her music is funky, but classic, but she's weird. Really weird. But regardless of that the songs really hold up, she's a fricken stylistic chameleon. And she's in it for keeps. THIS IS NOT A CD YOU WILL LIKE FOR 1 YEAR. To give up on when the next BIG thing comes along. If you like this one, you will like it for a long time.
*Must Tracks - Tightrope, Come Alive (the War of the roses), Oh, Maker, Faster, Cold War.
Jonsi "Go"
Let me start this by talking a bit about Sigure Ros, the excellent band that Jonsi fronts. Sigur Ros, I can't pronounce you, and I've given up trying. I appreciate the shit out of them, but I can't really listen to them, not sure if it's the made up language or the length of the songs, but they don't draw me in. I really do want to try to write to them.
Back to Jonsi, so I found out that Jonsi was going to put out a Solo CD this year, and it was getting pretty good buzz, and I heard that it was going to partially in English. So i figured I'd give it a chance. None of that prepared me for how much I like this CD.
"Go" is simply beautiful, tender, happy, joyful, and powerful. It's songs are far shorter then any Sigur Ros songs, fulfilling my ACD requirements, but what that does is focus the songs around the core of what makes each song awesome.
Experiment 1 - If you've never heard any of them, get it, download, don't listen. Get in your car, get onto a back road, or a highway by the sea or through the mountains, you have to go at least 4o miles per hour. And then, only then TURN IT ON and TURN IT UP, and FEEL it, FEEL ALIVE, feel awesome. If you don't, and you come back and tell me you don't, I'll smack you up the side of the head. (That'd be even worse then me not loving, but Only liking "UP") And if you can start on track 2 "Animal Aritmetic" even better, but the experiment applies either way.
Experiement 2 - If you've heard it and you're luke warm on it, try the above and see if that changes your mind.
* MUST TRACKS - Just get the whole damn thing, it's pretty short. (Okay, I think the essentials are 1 through 6)
Passion Pit - "Manners" "Chunk of Change"
Wow. Okay, so Passion Pit. Passion Pit got me through a remarkably hard/bad few days a few weeks back. I think i listened to their 2 cds like 3 times a day, and you know they really helped me out.
Let me flashback though, three months ago.
My buddy Abby Lance from work, recommended them because they were going to be playing at Coachella and I was like cool, I'll check them out.
A month later she asked me about it, and I confessed to not getting around to checking them out.
Then I downloaded two of their most popular songs and was like, wow, this is some ridiculous music, all falsetto and dancy, but like in a way that seemed to have been created for toddlers.
Then I caught most of their live set at Coachella and they were really good, the girls in particular really liked their music and sung every word and danced around. Now, i must say that they also do pretty much every band, but there was an energy to it, that made feel like they really cared about it, about the songs, it meant something to them.
So then, I was like having this hard crappy week, and so I had all this really tricky hard technical work to do, but I could listen to music, so i grabbed their cd and gave it a spin, and it was FRICKEN. AWESOME.
I can turn on their EP & their LP and just listen to them over and over, and that is a testament to the diversity of music and the sequencing of the songs.
Passion Pit reminds me of when I was like 8 or 9 and would like ride my bike around the neighborhood listening, singing along to cheesy eighties songs all summer long. That's what they are packing in here. And when they don't bring that they bring a certain romantic longing/wistfulness that I really like. Some reviewers have noted that there are songs on here they could imagine teenagers first rolling around in the haystack to, and I don't think this is that far off from true.
I could keep going and talk technical, but i think I've spent too much time on them.
*MUST TRACKS: Little Secrets, Moth's Wings, Sleepyhead, I've got Your Number, Cuddle Fuddle, yeah... I'll stop now.
Matt & Kim "Grand"
Matt & Kim are so much fun. This is another good drive or road trip CD. They specialize in quick fast songs, built on marching band drums and one keyboard, and the GIRL Kim, plays the DRUMS. But they are always melodic and great to sing along too. They can just bring out the good in things and make you feel like it's gonna be alright. And They Epitomize Do IT Yourself Music. And their video to "Lessons Learned" has them stripping and getting chased by Cops in Time Square. Awesome. And when they are inspired they can put together amazing melodies with thoughtful lyrics.
*MUST TRACKS: Daylight, Lessons Learned, Good Ol' Fashioned Nightmare
Hot Chip "One Life Stand"
Have you ever "Over & Over"? The one about the "Monkey with a miniature cymbal." Damn song is so REPETITIVE that you like the hell out of it, but have to turn it off before it finishes cause it's driving you crazy! Okay, so they came back this year with "One Life Stand" and I got mostly because i liked the title. And you know, the whole thing is pretty damn good, totally full of sound, great harmonies, good melodies, very Now. Great combination of Dance/Techno & Rock. Doesn't really make you Dance but it does get the blood moving. Huh, this CD would be fantastic to play in gyms or cardio classes. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing. Either way they are the real deal, not posers, like One Republic (and you know i like them sometimes) but listening to Hot Chip makes me realize on an intellectual level how High Fructose Corn Syrupy One Republic is. Anyway, enough ranting, if you don't believe download "I Feel Better".
*MUST TRACKS: Thieves in the Night, Hand Me Down Your Love, I Feel Better, One Life Stand, Take It In.
Los Campesinos! "Romance Is Boring"
When I listen to this CD, I can't help but think that this band is like the British Cousin of Blink-182. I know that a lot of Los Campesinos! fans would probably strangle me if they read this, but think about it, is that such a bad thing? More thoughtful, more british, more open, still emo, more band members, real british accents, they love to put obscene things into their songs, which are all about romance sucking and girls sucking, and boys sucking. The songs can be punky like "Straight In at 101" or slow and longing like "The Sea is a Good Place to Think about the Future." And like Blink -182 you have to either be teenagery in years or teenagery in spirit to really get them. God, I'm so screwed up musically.
*MUST TRACKS: Straight in at 101, The Sea is a Good Place to Think About the Future, Romance is Boring, There are listed Buildings, A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; Or, Letters from Me to Charlotte.
And to close this blog, I present you:
LCD Soundsystem "This Is Happening"
I wasn't so sure about this one.
Before it came out, I wanted to name it, "HIGH HOPES, BIG LETDOWN." I just couldn't get behind the idea that James Murphy putting out a CD as good as "Sound of Silver". So I spent time lowering my expectations. Lower and Lower did I send them. Even when the positive reviews starting coming out. I listened to some of the songs and was like "Eh..."
But I bought it when it came out, and now I am seriously addicted to it, with the exception of one song (Somebody's Calling Me.) It's not as musically focused, er tight, as "Sound of Silver," but it's not as all over the place as "LCD Soundsystem" their first CD. And if it's their last, well they go out Aces. And it's their strongest CD in terms of Theme and Lyrical interplay.
It's just like Sound Of Silver in a sense that its Pop/Rock/Dance fusion, and yes, you will want to dance and jump around to it, but this CD is much moodier, not as happy nostalgic, it's about a lot of Not Happy Things, it's pretty close to life, its about being realistic, and its about the things you think about when you are alone or ranting drunkenly to your closest friends as another year has gone by and you still feel unfulfilled.
In this CD he writes songs about all the things you really don't want to hear about. He rants about Friends who suck and are mean, but you put up with it anyway, because you are Supposed to (Dance YrSelf Clean). In the party song, "Drunk Girls" he puts out one of his catchiest songs with it's stupid title, but makes it smart about drunk boys and girls, who go out get drunk do stupid shit, expect stupid things, but don't get what they want and then
All the built up expectations of intimacy and it's inevitable let down ("One touch"). And "Home" I think its about, HOME being a safe place outside of the awful confusion of life, I think, because it could also mean that home is an illusion we hide behind. "You Wanted A Hit," is catchy song that is a middle finger to the music industry.
And then there are is "All I Want" and "I Can Change" the two stand out tracks everyone is writing about.
I can't make out all of the words to All I Want, because it is mixed low and that pisses me off, but whatevs, it means if you want to know, you have to listen again and again or go read it, which I guess is kind of smart, but annoying. So I went and read the words and listened at the same time and damn if this thing isn't straight up heartbreaking, its about not being home a lot and kind of living with your love who is a stranger. Musically its excellent, especially the Casio riff in the middle, damn that thing rocks, modern day Beatles shit.
"I Can Change,"is like the shit, it's the track that hit me straight up the first time I heard. It's Eighties, it's today, it's Beautiful. James Murphy sings it amazingly. It's about Falling in Love with someone and never wanting them to change, and at the same time it's about Changing so that they will fall in love with you. It's the modern singleton conundrum. SERIOUSLY.
To Recap:
Earlier, I mentioned that a casio riff in "All I Want" is some Modern Day Beatles shit. Well, I will close that after multiple spins of "Sound of Silver" cd, it kind of hit me that this very well could be the kind of Music John Lennon might be making if he was around still. And that sentiment applies even more to "This Is Happening." It's bold, catchy, real, not afraid to piss people off, seriously sentimental, and it's pretentious in a way that people can get behind. James Murphy really is a "cheeky bastard." Well Done, I love it.
*Must Tracks: Dance Yrself Clean, Drunk Girls, I Can Change, All I Want
_________________
Ok, that's it, no mas for today. Later this weekend, I'll report on some singles not mentioned in here that are pretty rad.
Happy Trails!
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