Oftentimes, it takes a few weeks and a dozen listens or so for an album to really sink in. Especially the really good ones tend to be real growers. Whether or not that is a sign that the albums I've bought recently aren't gonna be worth much in the long run I don't know, but the fact is that I've swung and hit the nail pretty accurately on its head with at least three of my four last purchases.
More than anything, Elbow's new album, Build A Rocket Boys!, keeps on impressing me. I've never been big into Elbow, but this album is just so well built. It starts off with the long, patient and mercilessly building tracks 'The Birds' and 'Lippy Kids', revs up with lead single 'Neat Little Rows', then kicks back again with the beautiful 'Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl'. Then there's the crooked 'High Ideals', and finally, the album finishes off on a high and cheerful note with 'Open Arms' and 'Dear Friends'. A very pleasurable album indeed!
Then there's Roskilde-bound (what's going on with the line-up this year by the way? Bloody sucks...) The Tallest Man On Earth's debut album, Shallow Grave, from 2008. Now, I had expected The Tallest Man to be somewhat of a "more of the same"-artist, in the essence that his albums were sort of interchangeable and pretty similar, sort of in the mold of Kings of Convenience. Of course, there are similarities, obvious as they are with such sparse instrumentation and such a characteristic voice, but there's definitely a difference in mood between Shallow Grave and his later album, The Wild Hunt from 2010. Shallow Grave seems much more melancholic and sad. There seems to be more minor and diminished chords, whereas The Wild Hunt has got at more prospective feel to it. My faves off Shallow Grave right now are 'The Gardener' and the obvious 'Where Do My Bluebird Fly' (sic).
So, from working-class indie-rock from Manchester and indie-folk with the wide expanses of Sweden as a key obstetric, we end up at an artist that's arguably among the spearheads of the omnipresent lo-fi movement, Wild Nothing's Jack Tatum, and his highly acclaimed album from last year, Gemini. Now, I'm not exactly diving deep into the plethora of lo-fi outfits that are just smart kids with stripped down recording techniques. Honestly, many of these bands nauseate me, I guess it's my synthesizer heritage and Continental love for production. But Wild Nothing straddles the border perfectly, to my liking anyhow - I guess it might be because this is in fact one guy in a studio, not just a bunch of blokes with guitars and lots of weed. Gemini in its entirety is just an incredibly uplifting record, which fuses lo-fi, psychedelic and more straightforward dream pop into a hazy sound of spring, of flowers in blossom, of skaters taking to the streets and of the first beer in the sun. Highlights include opener 'Live In Dreams', 'O, Lilac', 'Confirmation' and 'Our Composition Book'.
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| Friendly Fires. |
Friendly Fires are back in business! They've announced their sophomore album, Pala, to hit the shelves May 16th, and the lead single, 'Live Those Days Tonight' is out now! I don't know if I dig it particularly - it's a bit too Eurovision, but it's exciting nonetheless. I was a big fan of the St. Albans outfit's eponymous debut, and hopefully #2 will live up to my expectations!
While we're waiting for Arctic Monkeys' fourth album, Suck It And See, Alex Turner has done a wee EP for the soundtrack of indie flick Submarine. It's quite pleasant, especially 'It's Hard To Get Around The Wind'. It's turner the same intimate and tender alley as on tunes such as 'Cornerstone' and 'Only Ones Who Know', two of my favourite 'Monkeys tunes.
It always makes me proud when Danish acts are mentioned on the Forkcast, which is one of the true benchmark acknowledgements in indie, and these past weeks, two acts have showed up there, both of them quite surprisingly. First, it was young punk outfit Iceage, whom I don't care particularly about, and last week, it was Taragana Pyjarama with 'Ocean', a really blissful piece of electronica - and I love the artwork with the gorgeous pregnant girl too. He's not at all unlike successful Swedish outfit jj, and he's gonna be interesting to follow through the year.
I'm not all that down with Yuck, but front man Daniel Blumberg's solo project, Oupa, is a whole other story! Check out 'Forget', which is a really soft and pretty little ballad.
Finally, Baths did a cover for A.V.'s Undercover-series, and it's of nothing less than "#1 track of 2007"-heralded 'All My Friends', by LCD Soundsystem. It's a really beautiful cover of a song hard to really fuck up.
What a load of amazing tunes! I really feel after a few weeks of quasi-hiatus, that a lot of new music is coming my way again. I got some of my new records today too, I'll tell you all about them when I've spun them for a week! Tomorrow I'm off to another wild weekend, this time in Copenhagen. Yay!
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| Animal Collective. |
If one was really bored one day, it could be interesting to do some research into whether or not the alphabetical position of an artist affects the amount of times the artist is listened to. I mean, you naturally browse through the middle letters more often than you do A or Z. The point of all this is that all has been a bit quiet recently, I'm still waiting for my new records, and that has given me an opportunity to dig into the outer reaches of my library. Interestingly enough, a few artists beginning with the letter A have emerged for me through the past few weeks.
I have always been a bit of an Animal Collective skeptic, even when Pitchfork put their newest album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, atop their top 50 list of 2010. I have to admit, my initial troubles digesting Merriweather Post Pavilion's ornate psychedelia has led me to never sniff out any of the band's, sorry, the collective's, much acclaimed earlier stuff, nor did I check out much of Avey Tare's solo album Down There, which was big talk last fall.
In fact, listening to Merriweather Post Pavilion has often felt like a dreadfully tedious ordeal. Until, one day, it wasn't. Alongside obvious staples and long-lasting favorites 'My Girls' and the closing 'Brother Sport', suddenly the other tracks crept out of their acid-flooded hideout to reveal their true beauty. A tune like 'Taste', or the vulgar but powerfully insistent 'Summertime Clothes'. Or even the opener, 'In The Flowers', which I had almost forgot existed, but which is so vivid and almost as epic as it's successor track. And 'Bluish', which is just pure beauty. I guess this is just further proof that there is often more to an album that what initially meets the ear, and a year and a half down the road, Merriweather Post Pavilion finally leaps out of the 'bust'-category on my CD-shelf! So, when was Panda Bear's solo album due again?
The other impact A is for Agnes Obel, whose debut album, Philharmonics, I initially bashed when it came out this winter. It turns out, as with many other things, time will serve justice. I don't want to identify any particular key tracks, because this album is all about the sedateness and tranquility it inflicts on its listener. Especially her well-timed instrumental interludes work really well, and I realized while listening to this on the train home on Sunday, that this is really a stately album.
It's all about the last laugh, I guess...
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| It's All True. |
It's Tuesday again, and I've got a batch of new interesting tunes for you lot. They aren't exactly headline news, as most of them have been floating around the blogosphere over the weekend, but I figured I'd bundle them all up.
A few of my favorite artists have been movin' around the block, including smooth Canadian electro-satisfiers Junior Boys. They're due with a new album, titled It's All True, this year, and the first taste of it is here, the track 'ep'. I really like it! It's very recognizably Junior Boys, which isn't a bad thing; their album So This Is Goodbye is one of my favorite electronic albums.
I don't know what it is about Battles that really intrigues me. Although I don't listen to it very often, I hold their debut album, Mirrored, high in regard. I guess I've got a thing for unique and original artists, think The Streets for example. I mean, no one really is quite like Battles. Anyway, since Mirrored, they've become a trio, as Tyondai Braxton, perhaps the closest the group came to a front man, has left the project. I'm a bit skeptical as to how this will pan out, and I'm not sure whether or not I like the new track they just released, 'Ice Cream', which is going to be on their sophomore album, Gloss Drop. It features none less than chileno star Matias Aguayo, but honestly, it sounds like the outfit has lost a bit of its signature insanity. It'll be interesting to follow nonetheless, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were bound for Roskilde this summer.
From something slightly inaccessible to something very straightforward, my mate David is big into all this power pop stuff like The Spinto Band and Miniature Tigers and such, and he introduced me to Generationals. It's quite cheerful, try and check out 'Ten-Twenty-Ten'.
The National did a tune for the soundtrack to indie movie Win Win, which is called 'Think You Can Wait'. When it comes to The National, I guess I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but it's very good. It's got a much less textured sound than what dominates High Violet - it's more like the Cherry Tree/Alligator-era stuff.
Finally, I guess I have to touch the subject that The Strokes have made their new album, Angles, their first in five years, available for full streaming on their website. It's pretty good, but I have to admit I'm hardly an able judge. I've never really had my Strokes period like many others, but there are some catchy tunes on it. Not sure whether or not I'll buy it - if they come to Roskilde I might have to.
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| Kiss Each Other Clean. |
This has been a quiet week on The Idioteque, which can be construed as being a good thing, as it means I'm busy doing other stuff (work = money). This weekend I've been pretty good at spending money though, but that's what happens when you have fun I guess. My mate Johan came home from China this week, so we've been spending a lot of the weekend together, catching up - it's been a good way for myself to catch up on what has been going on the past year. Nothing helps you reminisce like telling stories and sharing thoughts.
The big album of the week, actually of the past few weeks, for me has been Texas folkster Iron & Wine's Kiss Each Other Clean. Although a bit slow off the grid, the middle part of this album with tunes such as 'Tree By The River', 'Monkeys Uptown' and 'Rabbit Will Run' is really strong, as is of course the epic closing track 'Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me'. I'm not too big on religious lyrics, but on Kiss Each Other Clean it doesn't matter much - it's a really thorough and exciting album.
I and the lot went to see our old high school mateys Treefight For Sunlight at Studenterhuset yesterday, and expectedly the guys were once again very impressive. Although the first few songs were desecrated by a bit of sound troubles, the general impression was very good, and the sizable audience seemed very delighted. Personally, I especially found the heavier and more psychedelic tunes 'Time Stretcher' and 'They Never Did Know' to work very well live, with the drummer Mathias' raw and edgy basso being a welcome compliment to the falsettos that envelop and caress much of the bands music - nevertheless beautifully, especially on the impressive and magnificent cover of Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights'. A few of the more delicate tunes, such as 'You and the New World' and 'Facing The Sun', both of which are favorites of mine on the album, were perhaps not as rollicking as they are on the record, but all in all a good concert by a very skillful young band.
I ordered a batch of new records today, or rather, a new record and a pair of slightly older ones. I'll tell you about them when they land in my mailbox!
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| Arctic Monkeys. |
Okay, I don't want to sound like a reverse Liam Gallagher or anything, but what the fuck is the new Arctic Monkeys single, 'Brick By Brick' all about? I've rarely heard a more pathetic piece of pseudo-garage gibberish - I really, really hope it's supposed to be a joke, or at least that the new album isn't gonna sound like this! I am one of the defenders of the turn the Monkeys took with Humbug, but this? It sounds like local garage caricatures Thee Attacks, and that isn't a compliment.
I've never been big into I'm From Barcelona, but a good bunch of my mates saw them at Roskilde a few years ago, and they've been talking about it ever since. They've got a new single out now from their forthcoming album, it's called 'Get In Line' and it is actually kinda sweet!
Minnesota outfit Low, who became a part of indie history with Things We Lost In The Fire almost a decade ago, are out with a new album, C'mon, the opening track of which is 'Try To Sleep'. It's a bit of a weepy sort of tune, but I guess that's all right once in a while? I find it decent anyhow.
I've mentioned The Naked and Famous before, and now that the NME have given them somewhat of a nod, I do think they're starting to position themselves and could become big in the UK over the summer. This is 'The Sun', which isn't as catchy as the track I posted a month ago, but clearly shows that this band has more than one dimension, which sure is something you often miss from upcoming outfits. Dare I even say that their male/female harmonies slightly echo the revered two exes?
I've spent a bit of the day listening to some of Elbow's stuff, including their recently released LP, Build A Rocket Boys!, as they are coming to Northside Festival alongside The Streets and Crystal Castles, among others. I think I might have to invest in one or two of their records. I'm also checking out Rainbow Arabia's debut album Boys & Diamonds, right now, but it's getting on my nerves a bit.
Oh, and how about Oh Land? She was on Letterman, and just now I saw her on the front page of NME's website (a bit down, but still...) - am I actually eventually gonna have to invest in her?
Ok, so I've been through VETO's new album, Everything Is Amplified, a handful of times now. I've been twisting and turning it, and holding it against the light, to try and find the raison d'être it must have. I've tried to shed the expectations, and to forget all about the band's two each in their own way very impressive first albums. The beautifully undulating, poetic and pioneering There's A Beat In All Machines and the aggressive, remorseful and potently electronic Crushing Digits.
But it's hard. It's hard to forget the many times one has heard Troels Abrahamsen scream out his lungs with earnest and personal lyrics. Hard to forget the bombardment of razor sharp drumming and synthesizers. It's true what they say, that VETO have become more melodic on this new album. That the songwriting has been more spontaneous - the band have stated so themselves.
Troels Abrahamsen writing melody is a bit like having the best striker in the world on your footy team, and have him play left back. It might be a bit of an exaggeration, but honestly, for all the talent he has as both a vocalist and as a producer, he really comes across as a mediocre songwriter. We've been dragged through a full three of his solo albums, including the one released under the I Know That You Know pseudonym, and now he has full-fledgedly applied his boring melodics upon his band mates in VETO.
The first three tracks on Everything Is Amplified are very good. When it came out as the lead single, I hoped it wouldn't be, but 'This Is Not' is one of the strongest tracks on the album, as is 'Am I Awake Or Should I Wake Up', which for a change contains an interesting melody and chord pattern. 'Take It Outside', which I initially bashed this Monday after my first spin of it, has grown on me, and I can also live with 'Slowres', which is sort of in the mold of older VETO tunes such as 'Cannibal' and 'YouYou'.
But the rest? Honestly, this album is one of the biggest falls from grace I have seen in a long time. The three middle tracks, 'Already Ready', 'If Else' and 'Fell Into Place', are just three pieces of endlessly boring and irrelevant music. Especially a tune like 'Fell Into Place' almost makes me angry. Here, you've got a tune with some pretty interesting lyrics, which are completely killed and buried by the most dull shit melody I've heard this side of Katy Perry. I mean, the progression and the harmonics are so obvious and predictable if you've heard just a bit of Abrahamsen's solo work. The two last tracks, although a bit less mediocre than the tedious middle threesome, are still really nothing, nothing to write home about - once again, neat, but much too boring.
I understand bands grow older and change and all that, and as I stated in my post this Monday, it would seem pretty hard to extend the sound of Crushing Digits to make another record out of it, but this is not a question of evolving or not - it's a question of knowing your strengths and weaknesses. VETO has turned in a melodic direction, which is a pretty familiar and predictable turn for a band that has shaken off its youthful agitation and energy. The only problem is that the fella in charge of writing melody is not particularly good at it. With that in mind, it becomes quite a risky path to choose, and on Everything Is Amplified, it really backfires, as this is really a boring album. For a band that has so many other strengths, and that has already released two brilliant albums, I'm sorry, but this is just too anodyne and middle-of-the-road to really move anything.
Oi folks! It's spring! I did have a bit of a challenge in making my kids at work believe it, but I convincingly drew some green and yellow blobs in the month-box on the blackboard, making it resemble March. I'm not gonna be all lets-rave-to-happy-spring-music just yet though - we need the weather to be game for that, but I'm looking forward to it. There's nothing like the first day where you can go out with your headphones on, with no heavy coat or scarf or hat.
This guy is Hymns From Nineveh (OMFG, naming is really becoming a bitch, huh?), and he's Danish. I've seen his name around, and I decided to check out his new single, 'Sister Sorrowsong', which I really like! It's a bit on the corny side (especially the title, what's going on?), but it works! His debut album came out last week, and he sounds like a guy fit to ride the The Rumour Said Fire-craze around the country, although this fellow might actually have some quality music to go with the hype!
Some might think he resembles Sufjan Stevens a bit, which isn't at all untrue. Speaking of Sufjan, he's hitting Copenhagen May 1st for the first time in years, and I just bought my ticket. I'm gonna absolutely impoverish myself buying tickets for concerts this spring, but I guess I don't mind. Some of my favorite tunes on Sufjan's impressive newest album, The Age of Adz, are 'I Walked' and 'Futile Devices'. I guess the tender and sensitive lyrics appeal to me, being somewhat of a soft man myself. I do think it's creeping up to the time where I'm gonna have to digest some of Sufjan's impressive backlist, notably Seven Swans and Illinois.
Dan Snaith has been everywhere the past year under his alias Caribou. Now, he's just released a new tune under the name Daphni, and it's called 'Ye Ye'. It's really catchy, and pretty recognizable (so why mess around with names??)
Another guy who's here, there and everywhere is Chilean producer Nicolas Jaar. This time around, he's remixed When Saints Go Machine's 'Fail Forever', which is also the title track on the band's international debut EP. Domestically, they're revving up for their second full-length, Konkylie (again, what's with the bloody names and titles?), which might very well turn out interesting! Go dig the remix anyhow, it's really sweet!
