Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...

Fiona Apple took another 6+ years to get out a full length record. A follow up to what I considered her masterpiece, Extraordinary Machine. (Although admittedly, I was a bigger fan of the unreleased online version). A good year of this delay was record-company based. (Time to get off the majors, Fiona).

Fiona turns away from longtime collaborator Jon Brion on this one and worked mostly with her drummer. And maybe that's the key difference in this album's direction. The lush orchestration of EM (especially the online version) has been traded for pared-down piano-vocal with rhythm accompaniment. Sometimes with jazzy results. Very little else included. Not a bad thing, just a difference.

Of course, I'm a words man and Fiona has never been a stranger to spinning a yarn. She seems to have a bottomless notebook of different ways to express disappointment and anger. Another difference with "Idler..." is that quite often, we see Fiona turning the sword on herself. Her lyrics describe a tone of insecurity and self-sabotage in a way that she hasn't explored a lot before.

"While you were watching someone else, I stared at you and cut myself"

"How can I ask anyone to love me when all I do is beg to be left alone?"

Don't worry though, she still tears into the occasional John. "Regret" is easily the most biting with its chorus: "I ran out of white doves' feathers to soak up the hot piss that comes from your mouth".

And then, after eight songs of ire, she gets downright sexy for the album's two closers. "Anything We Want" seduces with "I kept touching my neck to guide your eye to where I wanted you to kiss me when we find some time alone". And then on "Hot Knife", Fiona channels Gene Simmons while presenting a rhythmic lyric in the round that repeats to the climax.

I feel like I should complete this review with a Fiona-album-title-size poem. But that would take me six years. (5 of 5 stars)

The Future Of The Left - The Plot Against Common Sense

One of my favorite bands of the nineties was called Cop Shoot Cop. They were part of a small New York scene called "No Wave". This was post-Nine Inch Nails so the electronics and agressive angst was also employed in No Wave. But instead of the more direct NIN British influenced, No Wave took more of NY punk's feel.

This album by UK's Future Of The Left has a similar feel to that much of the time. It's agressive, it's politically preachy, but it's also got tongue-in-cheek oblique lyrics which express some cynical faithlessness in humanity. "Where were you when Russell Brand discovered fire?" is an example.

On the first single from the record, they succeed brilliantly. "Failed Olympic Bid" Other songs try to be too cheeky without completing a rational thought. "Camp Cappucino", for example, may have some anti-commercialism intent- but it comes off too goofy. They have the Clever Song Title thing down. (re: "Sheena was a T-Shirt Salesman",  "Robocop 4- Fuck Off Robocop") But only a good half is worth listening to. And about half of those are worth listening to again. That's not altogether a horrible thing, it just means that FotL is not necessarily good for 18 songs. Edit.

Even if it doesn't always land, The Plot... is fun and unique, and even in light of my NY-band comparison, this band is 100% British. The hone in and harness their writing capability. It's there. The Future have one. (3.5 of 5 stars)

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

If a more perfect opening track ever met an as-perfect album title, it "The Nights Of Wine & Roses" from Celebration Rock. "We scream like hell to the heavens".

A pair of garage rockers fond of big choruses don't just stop there. This whole album is a collection anthems that beg to be shouted by a club or even an arena full of summer-sweated kids just beginning to find out what it means to be alive. (And maybe also to old fogeys who can find their youth somewhere through the haze.)

There are a ton of "Oh yeahs!" and "All rights!" in this collection. But instead of it sounding sloppy, lazy or naive, it sounds like the righteousness of of the ages amoung all of those who have earned these expressions. As pure and true as when Chuck Berry called it out. But there are also plenty of thoughtful and unique ways of spreading this joy.

"We all cut loose our gold

'Cause we need fire and only kindling can it buy"

 

"Remember that night you were already in bed
Said fuck it, got up to drink with me instead"

In eight short songs, Japandroids take the best of what The Hold Steady, The Gaslight Anthem and The Thermals have done pretty well, amped it up and created an even bigger fire. A highlight of the year. (5 of 5 stars)

The Walkmen - Heaven

Alright... a lofty title for the band's seventh album. But you know me, I give benefit to the doubt. And of it. Or something.

The opening track is way different than anything I've heard from the Men before. Most telling is how up front the vocals are. Hamilton Leithauser's voice has always been a raspy-Dylan style and he has, probably out of aesthetic necessity, had it undermixed. That vocal push is matched with the lushness of the production. It is a distinctive pop-oriented change as opposed to the distortion crunch of "The Rat".

The pop tones continue throughout, but I'm not trying to make sound overtly sell-out-y. The songwriting is a bit simpler than the Men have employed in the past, but still shows a uniqueness. "The Witch", for example with its straight ahead brushy backbeat is a contender for sex jam of the year. And even though it's as trite as the day is long, when the title track pleads, "Don't leave me/you're my best friend"; this writer may be sold every time.

Not just pop, but a light folk takes up a good half of the record. And the whole thing is blanketed in an air of hopeful optimism. No shoegaze cynicism here. Enough to where I would like to question if Hamilton has undergone any religious conversion. Or maybe he just had a kid. That's always good to turn a rocker into a big ol' softy.

But while I'm surprised and its mellowness, and it's youthful positivity- I did frequently enjoy the songs coming out. I'm very excited about seeing them present this in an outdoor park. It will work so much better than a dark club. (4 of 5 stars)

Riverboat Gamblers - The Wolf You Feed

This was initially sold to me as "garage revival"; and maybe the band was at some point. While new to me, they are a decade old. And have had as many members through the proverbial band door. This is not garage rock by any stretch. It's - for the most part - punk rock. And decent, too.

Not pop punk per se, but it's also not the rawest thing you've ever heard. The production is clean, the melodies are distinct.

A couple of highlights include "Comedians"- where the Gamblers polish it up just enough to bring a bounce to their step. The opening chords sound like Kings of Leon, but then the song flows between a modern Thermals and some classic Walkmen. Also "Gallows Bird" with its monotonous beat and lyrical repetition is still awesomely sloppy, like they were playing in the bowels of a slave boat during a storm with a drunk piano player.

On the other hand, they polish up way to much on "Heart Conditions". This sounds too much like a Von Bondies cover, whom I like; but the addition with the rest of the collection here is a forced manuever. Conceptually the same argument can be had for "Loser Neck". Except that it sound like Mike Ness is fronting Better Than Ezra. But, two boners aside, this is still a decent collection. (3 of 5 stars)

Beach House - Bloom

I knew I would regret this as soon as I saw the glowing review on Pitchfork. That hipster shit has never reflected my tastes. But, I've heard some other things that their previous releases, while growingly successful, seemed lazy to other people. And that this one is more fully realized collection with wider-scoping production.

I still call bullshit.

The same ethereal-voice Casio-tone synthesizer is in play from beginning to the bitter fucking end. And Victoria's wispy vocal is so boring, it makes Carly Simon sound like Lemmy. I don't know how much more I can say about how little this album has to offer.

If this were just a dull delivery with some diamonds-in-the-rough songwriting, then I'd be more forgiving and at least two-star it. But no. Take for example, "The Hours". They dream up some lyric, "Can I wait the hours until you find me?" like some Castlevania princess. And then just build lines around other words that rhyme with "hours". "Climb up to the tower" / "Violence in the flowers". Don't get me wrong- lots of pop music does get trite with their rhymes. Good pop does it well. Beach House just don't try.

And a hidden bonus track? Really? Is this 1995? Fuck you. (1 of 5 stars)

Silversun Pickups - Neck Of The Woods

While I skipped their last release, The SPs debut was a relatively pleasant throwback to the Smashing Pumpkins. "Lazy Eye" and "Melatonin" are good jams and I've seen the band put on a good show. But I'd be surprised if the dynamics of this band grow to make them a favorite though.

A couple of the songs on this new record, though, are expanding for the straight Alt.-Rock format and delving into programmed percussive elements. I assume that Radiohead is an influence, but that level of the game is clearly never accomplished. Actually, one of these, while one of the most boring tracks on the album is one of my favorites. "Here We Are (Chancer)" is stable, monotonous and recalls a VHIII track to me. But the bass line slinks around enough to sexy up a groove in a song where nothing else is moving.



On the other hand, another of these electro-tracks seems to be ripping off Depeche Mode. And not in an inspired-by-cool way. But rather a straight lifting of a melody and stylistic production. See if you don't agree.
The closing track, "Out Of Breath" is indicative of the entire record. It's got riffage, it's got promise. But the production is completely neutered, the lyrics too oblique and wasted. And if Brian Aubert's vocal range is a little limited, that doesn't excuse the lack of dynamics. One of the great parts of "Lazy Eye" was that as soon as you get complacent with the general groove, it explodes. There are no explosions - or even fireworks - in this neck of the woods. (2 of 5 stars)