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| Era Extrana. |
I haven't really been all
up to speed with all the chillwave/dreampop/whatever stuff, that has been so
dominant this year, like Washed Out for example. I guess, valuing lyrics very highly, I have a hard time appreciating outfits that make Thom Yorke sound like a
storyteller. When the music is convincingly well crafted, though, I do jump aboard,
such as with Neon Indian's new album, Era Extrana. There has been
an influx of bands as of late, synth-pop acts with a common denominator sound I would describe as being rooted in an N64-generation, i.e. young kids
(mainly dudes) that grew up playing the Nintendo 64 through the '90s. I hear a
lot of resemblance to some of these video games in the sounds and timbre of the
likes of Neon Indian, Ford & Lopatin and a few others, but Neon Indian
manage to couple it with pretty damn sweet melodies, such as on 'Polish Girl',
'Hex Girlfriend', 'Suns Irrupt' and 'Arcade Blues' - genuine pop tunes, and not the ethereal insanity that some of the
other stuff in the genre sounds like!
Christopher Owens of Girls has
really taken me aback lately. I figured his first album, Album, to be sort of
what he was capable of, but newly released Father, Son, Holy Ghost has
everything a good indie rock album of 2011 needs! Happy-go-lucky opener 'Honey Bunny' gives way to an interesting and eclectic mix of noisy rock-n-roll'ish
outings like 'Die' and 'Vomit', and sweet pop tunes like 'Alex', 'Saying I Love You' and 'Magic', before closing with the soft couplet of 'Love Like A River'
and 'Jamie Marie'. A really well crafted album through and through!
Last up, Leslie Feist has firmly established herself as the alternative music scene's affable queen with her new
solo effort, Metals. From the get-go, Feist shows more musical gut and
muscle on the drum-heavy 'The Bad In Each Other', a pattern also recognizable
on 'A Commotion'. Generally, she has never been one to invent the wheel, but there's no need to, when she's such a consistently strong songwriter - I
challenge you to find anyone not moved by the strong and beautiful
'Graveyard'! The Reminder was less jazzy than Let It Die,
and Metals is even less so. The jazz influences are replaced, in part,
by a slow-moving funkiness, such as on 'How Come You Never Go There', and
general timbres closer to middle-of-the-road indie pop, but the main purpose of
the music, as always, is to facilitate proper working conditions for Feist's darling, dulcet voice, which carries yet
another sweet album for her, all the way through to the simple and beautiful
closer, 'Get It Worng, Get It Right'.
