“I’m not fucking around.”
You probably shouldn't go into this expecting Dookie or Nimrod. It's certainly not either. However, it's not American Idiot, either.
The problem a lot of people had with American Idiot, almost five years ago, was that it was nothing like Green Day’s previous works, and that it wanted to be meaningful, and that there was too much balladeering (see “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “Are We The Waiting,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” and “Whatsername”). It had seemed, to most people, that the punk hero for the 90s had lost his mind, and soul, in favor of pseudo-political lyricism.
On my first listen of the first Green Day album in five years (truly an eternity for most punk bands, especially Green Day, who released four albums in that span of time), that’s not going anywhere. Armstrong seems to have developed a taste for ballads and politics, which in the hands of more competent hands can be disastrous. That said, since American Idiot, he has clearly refined his ability to write those kinds of songs, and has learned to veil them, at least a little bit.
As for the ballads, they’re here, and in spades. Armstrong seems to have gotten a bit carried away with writing the kinds of songs that start as a quiet ballad and grow to be too loud (see “!Viva La Gloria!” and “Before The Lobotomy,” for starters). In fact, around half of the album is done like that. It’s a nice touch, especially on the former example, but at times, it gets just a little old.
This isn’t, of course, to say that the album is without its raucous tracks. “East Jesus Nowhere,” for example, is a reminder of why anybody and everybody liked Green Day in the 90s, and a reminder of why anybody liked American Idiot. It’s bass heavy, littered with cymbal crashes, and to be fair, damn near perfection. “Christian’s Inferno” accomplishes the same effect, while keeping in time with, from the sound of it, whatever plot this concept album was going for (note: I don’t care what the album is supposed to be about; I’ll leave the modern rock operas up to The Decemberists). The best example, however, is the slowly building “Restless Heart Syndrome,” which utilizes the quiet-to-loud dynamic perfectly, complete with a downright ridiculous guitar solo.
As for lyrics, they’re about as good as Green Day’s ever going to get, but to be fair, nobody had ever listened to Green Day for their lyrics. In the minute-long, radio static opener, “Song For The Century,” Armstrong sings, serenely, “Sing us a song of the century/Louder than bombs and eternity/The heir of static and contraband/Leading us into the promised land,” which gives us a pretty darn good idea of the kind of album we’re going to be listening to. The following track, “21st Century Breakdown,” explodes with the same kind of fire that U2 had in their heyday, with Armstrong coyly stating “I never made it as a working class hero,” and offers a breakdown worthy of American Idiot’s shining multi-part stars, “Jesus of Suburbia” and “Homecoming.”
The album is not without its duds, though. “Last of the American Girls” comes off like the sequel to “Extraordinary Girl,” arguably one of the weakest Idiot tracks. The following track, “Murder City,” sounds like something your kid sister might have written to be edgy in her 7th grade English class. That said, even the worst lyrics on the album (“I am a nation, a worker, a pawn/My debt to the status quo/The scars on my hands are a means to an end”) are still better than the worst of American Idiot (“I walk a lonely road/The only one that I have ever known/Don't know where it goes/But it's home to me and I walk alone”)
In the end, 21st Century Breakdown is not the fabled “return to sound” that most people imagined it was going to be. In fact, it sounds almost nothing like the albums that made Green Day the godfathers of pop-punk. It is, however, a worthy continuation of exactly what American Idiot was likely supposed to be: a total blast.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
The Evening Three - 5-8-09
Good evening! Due to the fact that I'm feeling terribly sick this evening, I have decided to simply review two albums, with both putting me at just over an hour.
2) Jeremy Enigk - OK Bear: First off, it's nice to hear Enigk's voice again. I'll spare you the long-winded "ohmygod Sunny Day Real Estate!" and skip to the point of this. Since SDRE, it seems Enigk has decided to try on something a little more singer/songwriter, with an album bearing the same lyrical passion as Diary or The Rising Tide, but with a fresh sound. Granted, it's not as focused as either of the two albums mentioned, but it shows that Enigk still has the spark and the heart that made SDRE what they were.
Key tracks: "Late of Camera," "Sandwich Time," "In A Look," "Same Side Imaginary"
Rating: 3
1) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: Considering all of the noise that I listen to, and all the noise that gets released every week of every year, sometimes, it's nice to listen to soft Shoegazing bliss. Delivering a soft bullet of dreamy, Velvet Underground-esque bedroom music, much like M83's truly stunning debut, Saturdays = Youth, of last year. If you get a chance to hear this album, take it. Go and download it, and spend 30 minutes just listening to it. In fact, just click here.
Key tracks: "Contender," "This Love is Fucking Right," "Stay Alive," "Everything With You"
Rating: 4.5
Key tracks: "Contender," "This Love is Fucking Right," "Stay Alive," "Everything With You"
Rating: 4.5
Key tracks: "Late of Camera," "Sandwich Time," "In A Look," "Same Side Imaginary"
Rating: 3
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Don't Look Back: Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
It's no secret that I love writing about music, and that I fancy myself a journalist of sorts. However, I've come to realize that most of music journalism is writing about the current: it's all about the newest of the new, until the end of the year rolls around, and you talk about the best of the gently used, and promptly forget it all until a band puts out a new album to be scrutinized and told "I liked the last one better!" It seems to me that critics don't have the time to reflect on the music that really stuck, nevermind how good it was.
Thus, I have decided to go back and listen to the albums I once held extremely dear, the albums that went on repeat for days (or weeks) on end, the albums that I'll force my kids listen to on long car rides. And there are few better albums to begin a (likely long) series of introspective musings with than of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Originally released: January '07
I first listened to Hissing Fauna when it was first released back in ’07, and was immediately blown away. I found myself rabid for it, unable to listen to another album for two weeks straight: there was no escaping it. And now, two years later, it’s not hard to understand why I liked it so much.
The first song on the album, “Suffer for Fashion,” begins with a short, but telling, lyric: “We just want to emote until we're dead.” You can call Barnes a whiner if you so please, because albums such as this may very well make him one, but one thing you can’t say is that he isn’t dignified about it.
Listening to Hissing Fauna for the first time in about a year, it doesn’t feel like I ever left. Kevin Barnes’ dark introspection set to disco never grows tiresome, even in during the album’s centerpiece, “The Past is a Grotesque Animal,” clocking in at 12 minutes long. Barnes rarely truly strays from his half-sing on the track, where he almost completely strips down the pop façade and bares everything he has, with lyrics such as “It’s embarrassing to need someone like I do you,” and But it's like we weren't made for this world/Though I wouldn't really want to meet someone who was.” Of Montreal is a party band, there is no doubt about that, but when Barnes decides to spread his wings, as he does on “Grotesque Animal,” it’s hard to imagine him doing anything but songs of the same caliber.
However, the charm of the album is not only how personal it is, but the juxtaposition of the lyrics and the music. What better to set a stanza like “I guess it would be nice to give my heart to a god/But which one, which one do I choose?/All the churches fill with losers, psycho or confused/I just want to hold the divine in mind” to than a funky bass line? What better to lay over a quiet groove than “Are you far too depressed now even to answer the phone? I guess you just want to shave your head, have a drink, and be left alone. (Is that too much to ask?)”
The album is not without its fun, though. Tracks like “She’s a Rejector” still have me singing (or rather screaming, at points) along, and I have yet to get over “With a crisp endorsement from the C! (C!) A! (A!) Booty Patrol!” Of Montreal, to me, is proof that disco is not only still alive, but well enough to give anybody a swift kick in the genitals, and this is the album that helped me realize that it’s not the worst thing in the world to piss and moan on record, especially if you dress it up in neon and spandex.
Thus, I have decided to go back and listen to the albums I once held extremely dear, the albums that went on repeat for days (or weeks) on end, the albums that I'll force my kids listen to on long car rides. And there are few better albums to begin a (likely long) series of introspective musings with than of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Originally released: January '07
I first listened to Hissing Fauna when it was first released back in ’07, and was immediately blown away. I found myself rabid for it, unable to listen to another album for two weeks straight: there was no escaping it. And now, two years later, it’s not hard to understand why I liked it so much.
The first song on the album, “Suffer for Fashion,” begins with a short, but telling, lyric: “We just want to emote until we're dead.” You can call Barnes a whiner if you so please, because albums such as this may very well make him one, but one thing you can’t say is that he isn’t dignified about it.
Listening to Hissing Fauna for the first time in about a year, it doesn’t feel like I ever left. Kevin Barnes’ dark introspection set to disco never grows tiresome, even in during the album’s centerpiece, “The Past is a Grotesque Animal,” clocking in at 12 minutes long. Barnes rarely truly strays from his half-sing on the track, where he almost completely strips down the pop façade and bares everything he has, with lyrics such as “It’s embarrassing to need someone like I do you,” and But it's like we weren't made for this world/Though I wouldn't really want to meet someone who was.” Of Montreal is a party band, there is no doubt about that, but when Barnes decides to spread his wings, as he does on “Grotesque Animal,” it’s hard to imagine him doing anything but songs of the same caliber.
However, the charm of the album is not only how personal it is, but the juxtaposition of the lyrics and the music. What better to set a stanza like “I guess it would be nice to give my heart to a god/But which one, which one do I choose?/All the churches fill with losers, psycho or confused/I just want to hold the divine in mind” to than a funky bass line? What better to lay over a quiet groove than “Are you far too depressed now even to answer the phone? I guess you just want to shave your head, have a drink, and be left alone. (Is that too much to ask?)”
The album is not without its fun, though. Tracks like “She’s a Rejector” still have me singing (or rather screaming, at points) along, and I have yet to get over “With a crisp endorsement from the C! (C!) A! (A!) Booty Patrol!” Of Montreal, to me, is proof that disco is not only still alive, but well enough to give anybody a swift kick in the genitals, and this is the album that helped me realize that it’s not the worst thing in the world to piss and moan on record, especially if you dress it up in neon and spandex.
The Evening Three (or Four) - 5-7-09
For this edition, I have reviewed four albums, for reasons to be explained momentarily.
1) mewithoutYou - It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright.: I will give this album a one word review, based on the one-and-a-half songs I listened to: no. That is final.
Rating: 0
2) Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor: I don't know why I put off listening to Patrick Wolf for so long! Patrick Wolf's new album brings to mind words like "tortured" and "SLAYERRR!" Somehow, he's managed to put out an indie-pop-metal album of sorts, blending insanely catchy melodies and balladeering with the finest in heavy indie this side of Mastodon. I'm not really sure what Wolf's other albums sound like, but I do know that it's safe to say, after songs like "The Bachelor" and "Vulture," that I may fast become a huge fan of this guy.
Rating: 3.7
3) Röyksopp - Junior: I first listened to Royksopp years ago when the song "Poor Leno" was put on the soundtrack for the video game SSX Tricky. Since then I've been a massive fan, and Junior is the album to remind me of exactly why I'm a fan of these guys. It's hard to find respectable electronica that makes listening to dance music fun anymore (Daft Punk fun, I mean), being that it's one of the more intense genres around. However, the Norwegian duo are a reminder that dance music is not, in fact, serious business, and can be listened to by people who don't even know how to dance, and really don't understand Ricardo Villalobos.
Rating: 4
4) Gallows - Grey Britain: Punk never smelt so fresh. Gallows' sophomore album packs the same wollop as Black Flag's Damaged, combined with the same urgent, and yet still accessible, hooks that sparkled across more recent albums in a similar vein as Against Me!'s Searching For A Former Clarity, a hard thing to come across these days. This is a band to straighten out the youth of today who look not to the Henry Rollins' or Jello Biafra's of the world for their punk fix, but to the of Billy Joe Armstrong's or Mark Hoppus'. To those who say that punk is dead, I say this: listen to Gallows, and you'll realize that punk may have been dead, but it's back again, and quite frankly, it's fucking pissed.
Rating: 3.5
1) mewithoutYou - It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright.: I will give this album a one word review, based on the one-and-a-half songs I listened to: no. That is final.
Rating: 0
2) Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor: I don't know why I put off listening to Patrick Wolf for so long! Patrick Wolf's new album brings to mind words like "tortured" and "SLAYERRR!" Somehow, he's managed to put out an indie-pop-metal album of sorts, blending insanely catchy melodies and balladeering with the finest in heavy indie this side of Mastodon. I'm not really sure what Wolf's other albums sound like, but I do know that it's safe to say, after songs like "The Bachelor" and "Vulture," that I may fast become a huge fan of this guy.
Rating: 3.7
3) Röyksopp - Junior: I first listened to Royksopp years ago when the song "Poor Leno" was put on the soundtrack for the video game SSX Tricky. Since then I've been a massive fan, and Junior is the album to remind me of exactly why I'm a fan of these guys. It's hard to find respectable electronica that makes listening to dance music fun anymore (Daft Punk fun, I mean), being that it's one of the more intense genres around. However, the Norwegian duo are a reminder that dance music is not, in fact, serious business, and can be listened to by people who don't even know how to dance, and really don't understand Ricardo Villalobos.
Rating: 4
4) Gallows - Grey Britain: Punk never smelt so fresh. Gallows' sophomore album packs the same wollop as Black Flag's Damaged, combined with the same urgent, and yet still accessible, hooks that sparkled across more recent albums in a similar vein as Against Me!'s Searching For A Former Clarity, a hard thing to come across these days. This is a band to straighten out the youth of today who look not to the Henry Rollins' or Jello Biafra's of the world for their punk fix, but to the of Billy Joe Armstrong's or Mark Hoppus'. To those who say that punk is dead, I say this: listen to Gallows, and you'll realize that punk may have been dead, but it's back again, and quite frankly, it's fucking pissed.
Rating: 3.5
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
The Evening Three: 5-6-09
1) Asher Roth - Asleep in the Bread Aisle: Newcomer to the hip-hop game Asher Roth clearly has a good thing going for him, with his wannabe Eminem style (which he himself discusses on the strangely poignant track "As I Em") and his lyrical celebration of gettin' blazed and fuckin' girls, but never does the album feel too terribly vulgar or over-the-top. No, it's not the nextLiquid Swords or Fishscale, or even The Marshall Mathers LP, but for what it's worth, it's as promising and tongue-in-cheek fun (displayed by the entirety of the song "Bad Day") as his maestro and mentor's debut.
Rating: 3
2) The Decemberists The Hazards Of Love: Why exactly did I not listen to this album when it came out? While it's not as instantly accessible as previous albums Picaresque and The Crane Wife, it displays the bands versatility and hyper-literary and dramatic prowess. The Floyd-ian grooves of The Crane Wife's "The Island 1: Come & See" or "The Perfect Crime #2" are still ever-so-present in songs like "Won't Want For Love (Margaret In the Taiga)" and "The Rake's Song," the latter showing that Colin Meloy has certainly not lost his talent for wordplay ("I was wedded and it whetted my thirst/Until her womb start spilling out babies/Only then did I reckon my curse").
But the rock spectacale doesn't stop at The Decemberists as they are; it wraps in Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden, who steals the show by becoming an absolute fireball, so very far removed from her role in My Brightest Diamond that it's mindblowing to think about the fact that it's the same person. Lord knows where The Decemberists are going next, but with an album like this, I can't think of a better band to blindly follow.
Rating: 4.8
3) Dan Deacon - Bromst: Dan Deacon is fucking weird. This is evident in songs like "Ohio" ("We're talking paper forks now!/We're talking bacon cuts now!/We're talking turkey talk, and talking turkey walk and every small town!") from Twacky Cats, or the meth trip on legs of Spiderman Of The Rings single "The Crystal Cat" ("I'm gonna get my bathing suit on/gonna get my base face on/gonna get my hat out of loan"). However, in the two years between Spiderman Of The Rings and Bromst, Dan Deacon has found solace in silence in a studio buried deep in the serenity of Montana, and in that space he recorded what may turn out to be his magnum opus. Bromst is a slow building, almost heartbreaking-ly beautiful masterwork of sonic bliss, the companion piece to a portrait not only to the dance of life, but to the all-night dance party that is life itself.
Deacon has demonstrated that he's more than just a balding, tubby guy who makes strange music to scream along to with this record. He's proven that he's capable of something much, much more special than the world's best sing-along ("Wham City"): he's capable of capturing the spirit of celebration, and all in one hour.
Rating: 5
Rating: 3
2) The Decemberists The Hazards Of Love: Why exactly did I not listen to this album when it came out? While it's not as instantly accessible as previous albums Picaresque and The Crane Wife, it displays the bands versatility and hyper-literary and dramatic prowess. The Floyd-ian grooves of The Crane Wife's "The Island 1: Come & See" or "The Perfect Crime #2" are still ever-so-present in songs like "Won't Want For Love (Margaret In the Taiga)" and "The Rake's Song," the latter showing that Colin Meloy has certainly not lost his talent for wordplay ("I was wedded and it whetted my thirst/Until her womb start spilling out babies/Only then did I reckon my curse").
But the rock spectacale doesn't stop at The Decemberists as they are; it wraps in Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden, who steals the show by becoming an absolute fireball, so very far removed from her role in My Brightest Diamond that it's mindblowing to think about the fact that it's the same person. Lord knows where The Decemberists are going next, but with an album like this, I can't think of a better band to blindly follow.
Rating: 4.8
3) Dan Deacon - Bromst: Dan Deacon is fucking weird. This is evident in songs like "Ohio" ("We're talking paper forks now!/We're talking bacon cuts now!/We're talking turkey talk, and talking turkey walk and every small town!") from Twacky Cats, or the meth trip on legs of Spiderman Of The Rings single "The Crystal Cat" ("I'm gonna get my bathing suit on/gonna get my base face on/gonna get my hat out of loan"). However, in the two years between Spiderman Of The Rings and Bromst, Dan Deacon has found solace in silence in a studio buried deep in the serenity of Montana, and in that space he recorded what may turn out to be his magnum opus. Bromst is a slow building, almost heartbreaking-ly beautiful masterwork of sonic bliss, the companion piece to a portrait not only to the dance of life, but to the all-night dance party that is life itself.
Deacon has demonstrated that he's more than just a balding, tubby guy who makes strange music to scream along to with this record. He's proven that he's capable of something much, much more special than the world's best sing-along ("Wham City"): he's capable of capturing the spirit of celebration, and all in one hour.
Rating: 5
The Evening Three - 5-5-09
I'm an insomniac. This is not news to anyone, I should hope. Thus, I need something to do with my time while staying up, and the last few nights, I've taken to listening to albums I had never gotten around to, or had just downloaded, or have just been released, etc. So, I have decided to allot myself three albums a night, discuss them briefly, and give each a rating out of 5.
1) The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca: All I can really say is holy shit. I've had a fondness for Dirty Projectors since The Getty Address first came out, but this is something truly special, even for them. Don't be surprised to hear me talking about this album, in excess, and see it make my year end's top 10, if not top 5.
Rating: 4.5
2) Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications: It's really not necessary to discuss anything Jarvis does; it's always excellent, and this new album is absolutely nothing different. Further Complications, plain and simple, rocks, and you'd do well to give it a thorough listen!
Rating: 3
3) Sonic Youth - The Eternal: I love Sonic Youth, there's no point in hiding that, but the new album, due out in June, is a return to punk form, a la Sonic Nurse, but also a continuation of what the band was likely going for when they released Rather Ripped. It's more than a raucous noise album, it's a fully coherent, sonically perfect, and, strangely, extremely fun trip. Highlights include "Anti-Orgasm" and its dueling chorus, "Leaky Lifeboat (For Gregory Corso)" for its pop melodies, and "Thunderclap (For Bobby Pyn)" simply for being superbly catchy, and for possibly being the best song on the entire album.
Rating: 4
1) The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca: All I can really say is holy shit. I've had a fondness for Dirty Projectors since The Getty Address first came out, but this is something truly special, even for them. Don't be surprised to hear me talking about this album, in excess, and see it make my year end's top 10, if not top 5.
Rating: 4.5
2) Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications: It's really not necessary to discuss anything Jarvis does; it's always excellent, and this new album is absolutely nothing different. Further Complications, plain and simple, rocks, and you'd do well to give it a thorough listen!
Rating: 3
3) Sonic Youth - The Eternal: I love Sonic Youth, there's no point in hiding that, but the new album, due out in June, is a return to punk form, a la Sonic Nurse, but also a continuation of what the band was likely going for when they released Rather Ripped. It's more than a raucous noise album, it's a fully coherent, sonically perfect, and, strangely, extremely fun trip. Highlights include "Anti-Orgasm" and its dueling chorus, "Leaky Lifeboat (For Gregory Corso)" for its pop melodies, and "Thunderclap (For Bobby Pyn)" simply for being superbly catchy, and for possibly being the best song on the entire album.
Rating: 4
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