Album Reviews Thread!

Chrome Sparks / Chrome Sparks / Counter / 2018

Ann-Arbor-raised (Brooklyn-based) bedroom electronicist Jeremy Malvin knows his way around a keyboard...and an arpeggiator...and a vocoder. After a series of buzzy EPs on tastemaking Australian label Future Classic, Malvin's debut album combines old and new ideas in highly listenable ways. "Rocket" (1) is a bright and colorful instrumental with arpeggiated synths burbling under a warped and fuzzed out melody. Lead single "Still Think" (3) adds processed vocals to the synth layers and "Sugar" (4) brings in a bassline and dub effects reminiscent of Toro Y Moi. "All Or Nothing" (5) features an 8-bit intro before giving way to warmer R&B instrumentation the verses and then alternating the two. It's no surprise that electronic peers Kllo feature on "I Just Wanna" (6), a smooth club track that could also pass for Little Dragon. "Attack, Sustain, Release" (9) is the most 80s retro track, with unexpected vocals from Graham Ulicny of the Athens, GA band Reptar.

RIYL: Air, Money Mark, Junior Boys, early M83

Recommended: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9


The High Llamas / Retrospective Rarities & Instrumentals / V2 / 2003

It doesn't get any more cultish than a 2-disc mid-career retrospective from Microdisney frontman and Stereolab keyboardist Sean O'Hagan's avant-pop project The High Llamas. Formed in 1992, the High Llamas were key figures in the AM Pop/easy listening revival that also inspired Stereolab and Cornelius. Everything on here sounds pretty much the same: lush, orchestral, and retro - whether it's the Steely Dan-esque soft rock of "Checking In, Checking Out" (Disc 1, 1) or the kids' show theme music of "Green Coaster" (Disc 1, 13). Disc 2 is mostly 'space age bachelor pad music' with "Showstop (Op Art Informal) (13) as a funky, sample-able highlight.

RIYL: banjos, farfisa organs, Elephant 6, Brian Wilson, XTC at their most pastoral

Recommended Tracks: Disc 1 - 1, 5, 6, 10, 13 Disc 2 - 5, 8, 12, 13

I'm gonna keep track of the albums I listened to that came out this year here. Cool? Cool

James Ferraro - Four Pieces for Mirai

Ferraro is best known for his 2011 album Far Side Virtual, one of the bedrock albums of the nascent vaporwave genre. (For reference, I think it's probably on par with Floral Shoppe but five million times better than Eccojams.) Depending on your viewpoint, vaporwave is either a brilliant cyberpunk deconstruction of nostalgia or a joke tricking /mu/ kids into passing off slowed-down yacht rock as counterculture. The truth is, it's a bit of both, and Ferraro exemplifies that-- he's dead serious about the theoretical cybercriticism of the stuff he's doing, and has made no small effort to convince people he is a neo-classical composer. Of course, given that one of these alleged forays into classical music is a fifteen minute suite of midi trumpet farts that costs nine dollars and eleven cents on bandcamp, somewhat facetiously dedicated to the victims of the Boston marathon bombing, I think he's doing a pretty bad job hiding his true colors as a musical prankster.

Still, even for a resolute vapor-skeptic like myself, there's no denying that Ferraro's latest offering has a genuine high-concept hook to it: remember the Mirai virus? The one that infected thousands of shoddy Internet-connected security cameras et al and caused mass DDOSes in late 2016? What if, instead of being the creation of a bunch of otakus who were trying to shut Minecraft servers, Mirai was an angel, a Luddite figure of salvation comes to save us from a world where the invisible chains of cyberspace dictate our every action? That's pretty baller. No small wonder then the content doesn't quite live up to the concept-- what could?

It's not bad, though. Actually, it's pretty good. My friend tells me this album is "dungeon synth," a microgenre that seems to be code for "music that would play in a bad Myst clone." I think it's more interesting than that-- it does have a synthesized Renaissance Fair vibe at times, but it's too rooted in the pseudo-Futuristic(tm) stylistics of vaporwave to be directly comparable, and the whole thing is disturbed a bit by some musique concrete elements, which is a nice way of saying Ferraro plays the dial-up connection noise over the music a bunch. And there are some cascading melodic figures that reminded me of Steve Reich, and occasionally there are some blast beats reminiscent of trap or harder techno. It's a pretty interesting synthesis of genres, actually. My main problem is that none of the six tracks on Four Pieces for Mirai (the title is a Ben Folds Five style lie apparently) are very distinct, and that none of the pieces are really connected to their subject matter-- e.g., there's no reason why "Mirai" should be the quasi-title track.

Anyway, cool album. Worth a listen if you think vaporwave is just a meme, imo

Very cool!

Anna von Hausswolff - Dead Magic

What if Enya was evil? Satanic evil, I mean, not the banal evil that compels you to write "Orinoco Flow." I mean, Satan could have written "Orinoco Flow" for all I know. The point is getting away from me. Anyway, with Enya was a card-carrying Satanist, she might sound a little like Anna von Hausswolff.

It's funny that I listened to this album almost immediately after listening to Prequelle (see above), because Anna von Hausswolff has a surprising amount in common with Ghost. They're purveyors of performative Satanism from Sweden, who have released four albums over the past decade in the exact same years. But while Ghost is basically a pop-rock act, von Hausswolff is a blend of everything other than pop and rock. You like your drone metal, your dark folk, your delta blues, even your Enya? Fraulein von Hausswolff does too, which is a blessing, because it makes her goth stylings far less rooted in cliche than her contemporaries'.

I didn't realize this album was any good on first listen, for a simple reason: this is a fifty minute album with five tracks. When every song on this album drags out past the five-minute mark (let alone the 15-minute mark...) and when every song on this album remains stubbornly funereal in tempo and mood throughout those five-plus to fifteen-plus minutes, it can be hard to judge individual tracks on a level beyond "wow, she sure sounds like Kate Bush." Which she does. von Hausswolff's vocals are probably the big selling point of this album, and her raw whelps are going to stick out the most on first listen. But a second listen lets the relative diversity of the sonic textures bubble through a little more. My favorite of the bunch is "The Mysterious Vanishing of Electra," a hyper-minimalist piece of swampland blues that goes all in on atmosphere. I'm reminded in equal part of Ennio Morricone and The Wall, or at least, what The Wall would sound like if your record got stuck and kept playing the first four seconds of "In the Flesh?" on loop. Not that the piece doesn't evolve: eventually the guitarist figures out he can play open notes on the A string as well as the E string.

Most of the tracks on Dead Magic rely on organ drone instead of guitar, and none of the other tracks are quite as trivial compositionally, but they all rely 100% on atmosphere and the power of AVH's voice. So, if you're not in the right headspace, this album is going to flop completely. Personally, drone isn't my favorite genre, and I confess I chuckled a little when von Hausswolff's wail sounded suspiciously like a dolphin at one point. But this album is not without merit. Crank it loud, and there's a good chance it might click with you.

Myself, I'm a fan. Some additional reference points that might be useful are UK garage/grime and West African music, since two members of the band are of Nigerian descent. And that reminds me, I was going to throw in a bonus review of Young Fathers in my Scottish music thread...

Teleman / Family of Aliens / Moshi Moshi / 2018

With innate British sophistication and a positively Scandinavian pop sensibility, Teleman’s third album is an impressive shift to synth pop from the dance rock of earlier releases. The title track (1) displays exceptional production and solid songwriting that runs throughout this album. “Cactus” (2) has a keyboard riff worthy of Depeche Mode and the piano-led “Between the Rain” (4) is refreshingly McCartney-esque – with a touch of Stuart Murdoch. “Sea of Wine” (9) also hearkens Belle & Sebastian, back when Stewart David was contributing experimental electronic textures. Cerebral lyrics and toe-tapping melodies are often afterthoughts in electronic music, but this album abounds with them. Explore freely, as these tunes pair well with a wide range of artists. RIYL: Aha, Sondre Lerche, the Notwist, Hot Chip, Future Islands

Recommended: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever / Hope Downs / Sub Pop / 2018

You like jangle? How about the noodling of Stephen Malkmus, the 'Placemats' driving rhythms, or the mercurial bass/guitar interplay of early New Order? With Melbourne-based quintet Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever's debut full-length album, you get a satisfying blend of all these college rock sounds, along with nods to contemporaries such as The War on Drugs and Real Estate. "An Air Conditioned Man" (1) and "Talking Straight" (2) get off to a propulsive start, while "Mainland" (3) gives you Flying Nun-style indie pop. "Sister's Jeans" (5) seems more indebted to Matador's 90s roster, such as Pavement and Guided by Voices, and "The Hammer" (10) is the kind of 00s indie rock earworm that iTunes and Spotify playlists were made for. 

Recommended Tracks: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10

FCC: 7

Oh, and can we all just acknowledge that AV Club's music section has been 'borrowing' my (technically CHIRP's) review format for months now? I wonder if anybody on the CHIRP softball team has mentioned it to them (we play them in the Chicago media league)...

Guerilla Toss / Twisted Crystal / DFA / 2018

Experimental with a capital E, the NYC-based Guerilla Toss collective has been making krautrock and No Wave-influenced dance punk since 2010. Their 6th full-length release is druggy, kalaidoscopic, and intermittently melodic, with a variety of retro flourishes that make their sound difficult to pin down. The album opens on a funky note, with gurgling keyboards and rubber band bass on "Magic Is Easy" (1). "Jesus Rabbit" (2) sounds like The Vaselines guesting on a Blur (or Gorillaz) track. Lead single "Meteoroligical" (3) is talky, with a bit of a Madchester feel that also comes up on the album's closer (9). "Retreat" (5) has a nice shuffling beat that sounds like an update of the Slits or even MIA. Perhaps the most conventional track is "Come Up With Me" (6), a Sparks x of Montreal rave-up, which is followed by the Moog-tastic "Walls of the Universe" (7). RIYL: Flying Lizards, Sparks, Moonshake, the new maximalist sound of Animal Collective and M83

Recommended: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9

FCC: clean

Esperanza Spalding - 12 Little Spells

E-Spald (as no one has ever called her) strikes again. This is allegedly a concept album where each song is about a body part - I couldn't quite tell you which is which without consulting Wikipedia, but this is definitely a body album, in the sense that every track has this visceral hit to it. There's pure grooves ("You Have to Dance"), performance art that's not especially interested in being "musical" ("The Longing Deep Down"), and a lot of numbers that are a little bit of both (e.g. "Readying to Rise") but every single one of them hits you in the gut. My favorite of these right now is "Dancing the Animal" - but all of em are good, and unlike a lot of too-cool-for-school jazzbos that delight in making their stuff as complicated as possible you don't need a degree from Berklee to "get" this stuff. Maybe not a good intro to Spalding's work*, and hypothetically worrying in the sense that she is rapidly leaving this planet behind (the "black Bjork" label that gets applied to her sometimes is demeaning but not inaccurate) - while the album doesn't suffer for its absence I do miss her bass playing, and her male backup singers kind of intrude on her vocal stylings. Still fantastic album of the year material IMO.

*that'd be Emily's Devolution, my favorite album of 2016 - don't sleep on it, it's gorgeous

Failure - In The Future Your Body Will Be The Furthest Thing From Your Mind

Hmmm. I rather liked this - it's probably going to make my top 10 this year - but I do have some problems. Most obvious negative here is the presence of Segues 10 through 12, which are mostly ignorable musically but still drag this album slightly down, because their presence on the tracklist has the unfortunate effect of making this album read as "the sequel to our sequel to the killer CD we put out in the mid 90's." That's not a good look for your fifth album: it makes you look washed up to outsiders, and invites folks who liked that killer CD they put out in the mid 90's to compare it with the new stuff. As one of those freaks who thinks Fantastic Planet is the apotheosis of grunge, this new LP can't help but look wimpy in comparison.

This is still pretty good though. Failure stood out among their grunge contemporaries for their rich and evocative melodies and weird chord progressions, and they've still got a knack for that. They're drenching those melodies in paranoid fuzz rather than grunge crunch now, befitting their mid-age mellowness - which works, but makes this album a little less sticky than their classic stuff. "Dark Speed", the album opener, is a pretty good example of the strengths and weaknesses of that approach.

Of special note is the closer, "The Pineal Electorate" - a fucking cool name for a song, for one, but also a weird stylistic dip into writing a piano-driven Beatles pastiche? Strangely, it works and is one of the better tracks here.

I feel like it's been largely overlooked by critics, but I think New Bermuda, the album in between Sunbather and this one, is by far the best Deafheaven album.  But yeah, I enjoyed Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, but it's not a terribly memorable album, and I doubt it's going to be something I return to regularly in the future.

Panda Bear / Buoys / Domino / 2018

Recorded in Lisbon with veteran Animal Collective producer Rusty Santos, Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear)'s 8th solo release is a 30-minute aural spa, great for winding down a set or cleansing the palette with its warm, watery textures. Aside from eschewing his signature overdubs, Lennox employs a lot of the same vocal techniques and production tricks he's been using since 2007's Person Pitch. Lead single "Dolphin" (1) is sleepy and relaxing, while "Cranked" (2) has phaser effects and a strong melody. "Token" (3) builds toward a big AC-style chorus, but overall, this is a minor-key affair. RIYL: Animal Collective (obvs), Cornelius, Baths, Max Tundra

Recommended Tracks: 1, 2, 3, 5

FCC: clean

Spiral Stairs / We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized / Pledgemusic / 2019


Described by one canny online commenter as "The Tobin Sprout to Malkmus' Bob Pollard" (and if you get that reference, this album is right up your alley), Pavement co-founder Scott Kannberg's second solo album sees him embracing his status as an elder statesman of indie rock, bringing "1978 LA west side vibes" to accessible power pop and heartland rock tunes in the vein of The Hold Steady or Tom Petty - though you may also hear more than a little Dire Straits. Lead single "Hyp-No-Tized" (1) is a fun rave-up with horns and "The Fool" (2) is anthemic indie that stacks up nicely against Guided by Voices. "Hold On Til I Figure It Out" (5) starts with a bit of a glam rock stomp and vaguely (but fondly) recalls Pavement's "Hit the Plane Down". On "Fingerprintz" (6), Kannberg/Stairs channels '70s Van Morrison at his grooviest. 

Recommended: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6

FCC: clean

Slint - Spiderland (1994)

Spiderland, Spiderland
Dim and moody, but mostly bland
Can they play, in 5/4?
Yes, they can. Still a bore
I just listened to Spiderland

Algiers / There Is No Year / Matador / 2020

As the world continues to burn, Algiers’ latest release injects icy synths and desolate narratives into the soulful, incendiary agitprop of 2017’s critically-revered The Underside of Power. The Atlanta four-piece, featuring gifted vocalist/lyricist James Franklin Fisher and Matt Tong of Bloc Party on drums, named the album after their friend Blake Butler’s 2011 dystopian novel. Opening tracks “There is No Year” (1) and “Dispossession” (2) set the stage with quasi-biblical imagery and allusions to Southern politics. In keeping with the fiery theme, “Chaka” (6) perhaps-not-coincidentally hearkens the local legend’s 1983 single “Ain’t Nobody”. The influence of tourmates Depeche Mode (circa Violator/Songs of Faith & Devotion) sounds particularly good on the slow-burning “Losing is Ours” (4), “Repeating Night” (8), and “We Can’t Be Found” (9). RIYL: Young Fathers, TV on the Radio, Saul Williams, Gil Scott-Heron, Blacker Face

Recommended: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9

FCC: clean

F-16s / WKND FRNDS EP / House Arrest / 2019

Indian pop culture has always 'borrowed' heavily from the West, but it has only been in the last decade that there has formed a nascent Indian indie scene in big cities like Chennai, home of the F-16s. The five-piece band, consisting of vocalist-guitarist Josh Fernandez, bassist Shashank Manohar, keyboardist/sampler Harshan Radhakrishnan, and drummer Vikram Yesudas, formed in 2012 and has released two EPs in addition to a full-length album, 2016's Triggerpunkte. On this third EP, F-16s offer four cuts of lush, hazy, psyche-tinged indie pop with strong melodies and self-effacing charm. RIYL: Tame Impala, Dr. Dog, Passion Pit, Foster the People

Recommended: 1, 4

FCC: 2,3

Various Artists / Pakistan: Folk and Pop Instrumentals 1966-1976 / Sublime Frequencies / 2011 – is this a digital reissue?

Between two wars (with India), there briefly flourished a Western-influenced youth culture in democratic, unified Pakistan. These university students, liberated by homegrown hash and big city secularism, formed garage bands and – through filmi music – rode the wave of exotica and beat music that swept the mid-sixties world. Make no mistake, the only thing “folk” about this instrumental compilation is some of the melodies, which have been transformed - much in the manner of Dick Dale’s “Miserlou” - into surf rock (1, 5, 18), psych (4, 9), lounge (6, 10, 13, 21), and even twee pop (3, 15). “Malkaus” (1) starts with a fakeout raag intro before launching into tight, organ-led surf rock. “Theme from Do Raha” (3) exemplifies Lollywood/Bollywood music of the time with its deft mixture of traditional instruments such as the sitar, tabla, harmonium, etc. with electric guitars, organs, and drums. “Shahbaz Qalandar” (14) has a funky drummer and might pair well with some sampladelic hip hop. Though played entirely on Western instruments, The Mods’ “Garba Dance” (16) is ironically the most traditional-sounding piece, with slow syncopation that speeds up at the end. RIYL: The Champs, The Ventures, Joe Meek, Esquivel, Thievery Corporation

Recommended: 1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21

FCC: CLEAN

Bradford Cox & Cate Le Bon / Myths 004 / Mexican Summer / 2019

I'm not sure if cohesion has ever been the aim of Mexican Summer's Myths EP series - recorded as part of the annual Marfa Myths Festival in Texas and featuring intriguing collaborations such as Dev Hynes + Connan Mockasin (Myths 001), Ariel Pink + Weyes Blood (Myths 002), and Dungen + Woods (Myths 003). The latest entry in the series teams two artists that have worked well, both separately and together, on droning, experimental indie pop. Unfortunately, Cate Le Bon and Bradford Cox's work here does not live up to the promise of Le Bon's production work on the last Deerhunter album. "Secretary" (2) is the standout single, with delicate instrumentation and a memorable chorus. "Companions in Misfortune" is a bit of ominous post-rock/free jazz that might work well for transitions. "Constance" (4) is an unrecognizably bubbly synth instrumental. NME panned this release for self-indulgence, but I think the whole series would benefit from more production time to develop cohesive concepts.

Recommended: 2, 3, 4

FCC: clean