The National - Trouble Will Find Me

I first became aware of The National from the Boxer album. I didn't love it at all, but "Start A War" was a personal anthem for me during a break-up. So I'll give them a chance again, but am wary that Matt's vocal and lack of dynamics will again keep from getting too close.

"You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a television version of a person with a broken heart"

The album starts with some relief to my reluctance, because while "I Should Live in Salt" is a mellow, fairly monotonous sounding tune, there's something about the lyric that I really love. "Don't make me read your mind". And even better than that is the follow up, which may end up on the year's best of list. "Demons" has a mellow groove that conjures memories of this year's Nick Cave record. But instead of slow-jam sexy, it's a bitter, resentful reflection of self. "I am secretly in love with everyone I grew up with" and "When I walk into a room, I do not light it up... fuck." are both brilliant examples of a lyric that draws me like a mosquito to the bar's neon.

That same kind of aesthetic follows through another favorite, "Graceless", which could be a full on party jam if someone remixed it. ...And if the audience didn't quite focus on the complete self-destructive, sad nature of the lyrical content.

"I'll be a friend and a fuck-up and everything

But I'll never be anything you ever want me to be"

I was right in my prejudice that The National do not project any variation of styles. I think it would be great to be the drummer in this band. You get your share of the publishing royalties and you barely have to show up. And Matt's vocal range goes from deep moan to deep lilt. He seems almost asleep most of the time.

Having said that though, the writing of Trouble Will Find Me is brilliant. The lyrics, the pacing, etc. are as good as your favorite U2. I can't believe that I blew them off live this year, but I've found a contender for album of the year. (5 of 5 stars)

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City

I've never listed to a VW record before. Knowing who they were, they seemed too twee and sweet to me. Imagine an Iron Maiden fan in 1982 picking up a Haircut 100 album. Doesn't fit. ...And the leader's name is "Ezra" for fuck's sake. He makes John Mayer look like Lemmy. But I admit that they made a pretty impressive showing at Lollapalooza this year, so I'm putting on my deck shoes, tying my sweater behind my neck and giving them a spin.

"Step" is a good example. A slow beat with some harpsichord ramblings would generally be entirely too ridiculous to add to my collection. Especially when sir Ezra kicks over a stack of encyclopedias and reads random words with a calm white-reggae-rap over it. But something about it works. I'm sure it would work more for me if those same lyrics were being cockneyed over by Alex Turner, but I can still take it.

Down the line, "Hudson" is another one that totally surprised me. A morbid matter-of-fact gothic march which is mourning something, painting a hell-scape war-torn landscape while not explaining anything concretely. Still- put me in the right mood.

Other than those, only a couple of other tracks matched my expectations from the live show in terms of excitement. "Diane Young" and "Finger Back" are hyper-kinetic blasts of energy. But other than the break of of fun, there wouldn't be a lot for me to connect to. Especially the latter, where the vocal rap is not anymore decipherable than it is interesting.

The remainder of the album is filled with some mid-tempos and rich-white-kid-polyrhythms (see:"Ya Hey") that betray their Paul Simon influence without having ever gotten their hands dirty in city soil, much less African. I can see the modern vampires benefiting from experience. They have a collective head to find something interesting, even if they don't quite perform it yet. (2.5 of 5 stars)

Savages - Silence Yourself

Savages are an all-girl noise rock band from London. While I make it a point not to listen to all-girl groups very often, Savages get the respect of living up to their name. There is a ferociousness about this music that deserves to be heard.

There is a dance-able rhythm underneath the noise that would not be out of place in a Bloc Party block party; instead of BP's romantic wistfulness, singer Jehnny Beth and guitar player Gemma Thompson come on like a hateful Sleater-Kinney. While Rolling Stone has compared her to Siouxsie Sioux or even Ian Curtis, concert goers around this writer's part of town would be reminded of We Are Hex.

The only drawback to this album is a common one among debuts. There is not a lot of dynamics in the songs. Track one will hit you hard and most of the other tracks will follow the same structure. Twice does Savages venture outside of their comfort zone. "Strife" slows the tempo just a bit to an awesome Soundgarden-like dirge. Less successful is the album closer, "Marshal Dear" which brings piano and clarinet into a slow blues-jazz lament, which feels like an experimental Patti Smith.

But the album is still a twisted distorted ride that has a very live feel. And there discernible sing-song, crowd-rallying choruses here to get behind. And if there was a strong melody, you probably wouldn't understand what the lyrics are to sing them. But the projection is powerful. (4 of 5 stars)

LL Cool J - Authentic

To be clear, I am only listening to this album because I am a huge Van Halen fan, and for some reason, Eddie decided to play as a guest on two tracks. My focus will surely be on those, but yes- I'll listen to the whole record. Even if, gosh darnit, it does NOT include his recent Brad Paisley collaboration "Accidental Racist". Boo-hoo.

The first track is "Bath Salt" though... which is an odd deadly ugly drug to make a dance track out of. But I'm mostly okay with it. Kind of like a little faster, rawer version of Usher's "Yeah" "Hand on my nuts, that's product placement"

"Not Leaving You Tonight" is one of the EVH tracks. A romantic dedication with Fitz of the Tantrums taking over chorus duties. Eddie keeps the flow of the solo simple, straying from the hammer-on hummingbird and instead sustaining on a whail with distortion to see him through. Why he failed to make this a single is beyond me.

While his liner notes would have you believe that the album will be a hodgepodge of different styles that reflect his many (20+) famous collaborators, the rest of the album is really just varied styles of hip-hop. "Give Me Love" for example, could have been a soulful R&B classic, with Seal's pained chorus and the introspective verses about fear and loneliness. But LL can't still restrain himself long enough to turn it into a sex jam. "Give it to me, baby" being recited over and over again makes no sense here.

Travis Barker brings the beats on the other Van Halen track, the "Lose Yourself"- like "We're The Greatest". Eddie mostly follows the pre-defined melody, but it's chunky and he gets to noodle around really quickly. I'd love to hear the isolated track.

Other tracks that benefit from its collaborations, LL seems to be missing on. Or at least, not making the best of the jam. Barker quite awesomely brings the funk on a pair of songs. One with Bootsy Collins called "Bartender Please". And another with Tom Morello called "Whaddup". Both would be valiant club powerhouses, but LL brings nothing close to "Mama Said..." It seems like instead of hosting a great party and inviting a ton of interesting people, LL let some folks run rampant in his house while he stayed on the porch. (2.5 of 5 stars)

Frank Turner - Tape Deck Heart

Being totally new to this Frank Turner fella, I picked this record out of the lineup simply for the title. He's several albums in, with a punk career before his current singer-songwriter phase. When I read that the album was going to be about breakups, I was wondering if we were going to be subjected to another punker-turned-pansy Dashboard Confessional type of emo.

 
What we find instead is a fairly sunny collection of acoustic pop, not unlike a British Rhett Miller. Musically, the album stays with safe acoustic chord strumming with occasional band accompaniment. One exception is a Babys' kind of arrangement on the the near-closer "Oh Brother".  But the greatest effort that Frank spends are on the lyrics, and there are some clever ones. But then, he tacks on a chorus, seemingly not because he has a love for the classic feel of a pop chorus, but because he has to. Many of the songs end up sounding like the Goo Goo Dolls pulled out a thesaurus.
 
The album definitely has merit and I'm sure that girls will stab each other to get to the front of the stage. A highlight for me was a ballad that judged:

"Fuck you Mötley Crüe
For charming us with access and with excess
For telling tales that leave out all the dark sides
For bringing out the lowest drive in everyone"

And another track, "Four Simple Words" is an almost embarrassing pop-punk sing-along which seems to precious, but at the same time, fuck it, it's fun. The words: "I want to dance" and the song is just a declaration of dedication to the fun. "This shit wasn't fashionable back when I fell in love, so if the hipsters move on why should I give a fuck?"

And I try to separate my album reviews here from bonus tracks and such, but even without being a KISS fan, "Wherefore Art Thou Gene Simmons"  is a killer deluxe edition cut.

But on the whole, you will appreciate Frank's sincere likability. I mean, shit, through twleve tracks you pretty much feel like you have an intimate connection with twelve of his relationships. And if it was a little darker, I'd probably feel closer to it. But Frank stays sentimental and nice, focusing on the remembrances that we want to have. (3 of 5 stars)

The Thermals - Desperate Ground

If you've heard the Thermals once, you'll know what's going on here too. Short burst of punk rock goodness. Heavy sing-along shouting with defiant energy. Sixteenth notes.

That's true here too. The longest song is 3:10. Previous albums have lyrically focused on politics, like the Bush era's "Fuckin' A"; or maybe have been more poetically ambiguous like "More Parts Per Million". The new album though is strictly defiant individualism.

"The sword by my side will be the last thing my enemies will see."

Seriously, the songs are so righteous in their single "I WILL SURVIVE/OVERCOME" message, that if they just added guitar solos it would fit comfortably next to your KISS or Manowar albums from the eighties. "Our love is true, that's why we fight..."

It's really difficult to find much else to say about the record. It's over and done with in under thirty minutes. And that's not a bad thing. High energy, inspirational and out the door once your ass is kicked. With an AC/DC-like tenacity, the songs are all similar enough to define a style without being a boring collection where all songs are a poorer representation of one good song. Yeah, I shouted out a lot of old-school metal here, but that's just attitude. It's still a punk collection and it will rank among the best of the year. (4 of 5 stars)

Volbeat - Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies

I'm not sure how I ever heard of Volbeat, but for some reason, I checked out a cd from the library. Two years after the fact, I was jamming on a Danish heavy metal band that took the best of mainstream Metallica and Iron Maiden and other classic metal influences and made a great record.

The new record follows the same sound as the previous. Even with the addition of longtime Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano, the songs are still written from the base of leader Michael Poulsen. Volbeat don't add any more thrash with Rob and stay truer to the nineties version of melodic metal.

The cover and the first track, an acoustic western style instrumental, set the scene for the theme of the album. Lyrically, the stories deal a lot with travelling the United States, a rebel to society. Cowboys, train robbers, etc. are all presented as underground heroes with songs that are appropriately anthemic. There's even songs called "Black Bart" and "Doc Holliday". A favorite is about some kind of southern Jesus-type whose words inspire the protagonist to carry on. "Dead But Rising" is a good example of Poulsen, whose assuredly using English as a second language. The concepts are mostly broad, the words less complicated. But still effective in their simplicity.

In an interesting track listing choice, the heaviest track in Volbeat's catalog, a haunted nightmare King Diamond duet, "Room 24" follows the single, and most commercial Volbeat track, "Cape Of Our Hero". And cover of a recent hit, Young the Giant's "My Body" is a highlight.

Altogether a good collection. I don't mind saying that I grew tired of all the western imagery and storytelling. Even though the inspiration here was respectfully "Run to the Hills" and "Indians", my favorites leaned on the side where the songs were more general and universal. That's always been the case with me. Stick to my highlights and you'll find yourself rocking out without the history lessons. (3 of 5 stars)