The Rolling Stone

While not a regular reader, I could not help but notice that the most recent issue of The Rolling Stone proclaimed the forthcoming U2 album a "Masterpiece" and gave it RS's most prestigious honor, a 5-star rating. I was a little surprised. To be honest, I wrote U2 off a while back, I think around the time the time of their 1997 release, Pop (with such great hits as "Discotheque"). Subsequent releases revealed anthemic but unemotional songs that I found easy to ignore. With No Line on the Horizon, however, I may be forced start paying attention again when it is released on March 3rd.

On the other hand, RS is by no means perfect. Historically, they panned almost every Led Zeppelin releasecalled Layla bloated, and trashed Pinkerton. Wary of this, I went back and took a look at every album that RS has given a 5-star rating to since 2000. The following is a complete list (I only included new albums, no best-of compilations or re-releases):

Bruce Springsteen-Working on a Dream (2009)
Bruce Springsteen-Magic (2007)
Bob Dylan-Modern Times (2006)
Kanye West: Late Registration (2005)
Damon And Naomi-Earth is Blue (2005)
Brian Wilson-Smile (2004)
Beastie Boys-To the 5 Boroughs (2004)
White Stripes-Elephant (2003)
Bruce-Darkness on the Edge of Town
Beck-Sea Change (2002)
Bruce Springsteen-The Rising (2002)
Mick Jagger-Goddess in the Doorway (2001)
Bob Dylan-Love and Theft (2001)

Take out RS's unrepentant boner for Bruce Springsteen, and that's only 9 albums in the past 9 years that have garnered 5-stars. Take out the sentimental picks (both Bob Dylan albums, the horrible Mick Jagger album, and the Beastie Boys past their prime/911 sympathy), the album that was written in the 60s (Smile), and you're left with four albums in the past 9 years to take the honor. A big fucking deal. Seriously. That means this new U2 record needs to be better than everything released last year (as there were no 5-star records according to RS). EVERYTHING. I'm skeptical to say the least, especially based on their track record. A co-worker of mine thinks they paid off David Fricke to write this review. While I'm not that jaded, if this record turns out to be horrible I might start being a little more suspicious.

P.S. I compiled the list of albums manually, so I may have missed something (for some dumb reason, you cannot search the RS website for 5-star albums).

A Question of Thunder

Dan Auerbach-Keep It Hid

When looking at the lineup of Dan Auerbach's main band, The Black Keys, one has to wonder how a solo record by Auerbach, the lead singer and guitarist in the two piece band (the other person being the drummer, Pat Carney), would be any different from any other The Black Keys record. And so, Keep It Hid is the answer.

It is immediately apparent that the texture, and more importantly, the thunder, provided by Pat Carney is missing from this record. The upside to this, however, is that we get to witness some pure class songwriting from Auerbach. The downside, as I already hinted at, is that there is something missing which Carney must provide on the Keys records. The result is a number of mid-tempo rockers that don't offend, but don't excite either. I would skip the following: Heartbroken, in Desrepair, When the Night Comes, and The Prowl.

The bright spots are Trouble Weighs a Ton, a slow blues number which opens the record, and I Want Some More, which finds Auerbach using a distorted organ to great effect. Auerbach also channels a bit of Creedence and comes out sounding strong on tracks like Mean Monsoon and When I Left the Room. The rest of the album are Zeppelin blues retreads, which, if you're into that type of thing (and I am), are better than anything similar out there right now. Right, so bottom line here depends on how you feel about some classic rock, namely CCR and Zepp. You like that, you probably like this.

Mixed Emotions

Andrew Bird-Noble Beast

Why is everyone panning this album? What were you expecting this to sound like, the second coming of Led Zeppelin? Did you actually listen to Armchair Apocrypha? That was not a mainstream pop record, and despite selling 100,000 copies, I'm unclear why everyone expects Noble Beast to sound like the soundtrack to a McDonald's commercial. Armchairs was a seven minute song without a chorus! He wrote a song about his favorite ancient civilization! And it was good! Dorky, but good! So temper your fucking expectations.

I read in Andrew Bird's blog on New York Times (yeah...I know) that he was afraid because everything sounded a little too good to him on this album, and maybe came to him too easily. I can hear a bit of that. There's not a lot of dissonance here, and at times he gets carried away/drifts off. Masterswarm tends to warble on too long without any real climax or conclusion. Souverian starts great, but rambles on a few minutes more than I would have liked. And even the best tracks don't quite have the bite of Heretics, Dark Matter, or Imitosis.

By my count there are three standout tracks on here (Oh No, Fitz and the Dizzyspells, and Not a Robot but a Ghost), and another handful of very good ones (Natural Disaster, Anonanimal, and Effigy). Of course, the tough thing is that despite this not being his best album, it's still better than most of the dreck out there. For the record, here's how I'd rank his post-Bowl of Fire albums:

1. Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
2. Armchair Apocrypha
3a. The Swimming Hour
3b. Noble Beast
5. Weather Systems


So now you know where to start. And for those already fans, just enjoy the album.

"The Eagles?" "Nobody listens to the Eagles." "Quiet Riot?" "That trash is for dope addicts and twelve year-olds."

Animal Collective-Merriweather Post Pavilion

Good lord does everyone love this album. See Pitchfork (9.6/10); CokeMachineGlow (85%); and AllMusic (4.5/5 and AMG Album Pick). And so, the contrarian in me wants to hate it. Alas, I cannot (or, um, maybe that's a good thing, at least for our ears), but I'm also not giving it a full-fledged endorsement.

For one, the album has a true opener, the lovely In the Flowers, in which Panda Bear (or Avery Tare, who knows) declares his thesis at the key moment-- "if I could just leave my body for the night," thereby setting a directive and theme for the rest of the record. Here, already, Animal Collective have surpassed previous efforts which at times sounded more like collections of songs and less like a singular feeling/emotion. The rest of the album, usually for the better, has a celestial feel to it, especially in the instrumentation.

Perhaps the most apt comparison here is the Beach Boys' classic, Pet Sounds. Like Pet Sounds, MPP has some really great moments, which are amplified by the lush and complex production (notably My Girls, Summertime Clothes, Brothersport, and the second half of Bluish). Brothersport closes MPP as a track that sounds like what the Vampire Weekend record could have, if it was, you know, better. And, like Pet Sounds, the album lags during some of the tracks which preserve the sonic feeling of the album but cannot stand alone (Taste, Also Frightened). Even the aforementioned opener, In The Flowers, is only great for about one and a half of the nearly five and a half minutes.

So, should you get this record? I'm not sure. It opened at #13 on Billboard (selling 25,000 copies and just one spot behind Andrew Bird), which, when you think about it, is probably about right. While the number of people who have actually heard an Animal Collective record is small, many of the ones who have probably also bought this one. But for the average listener, it's tough to get through the 11 tracks clocking in at 55 minutes. If someone has the time, it's no doubt worth the listen, especially if you're willing to sit down with some headphones. Otherwise, you might want to stick with some of the more accessible tracks, which are still 4-6 minutes long anyway.

Quick Update

Got a little busy this week so failed to keep up. In the coming days:

A look at the new Animal Collective (which everyone seems to love), the new Andrew Bird (which everyone seems to loathe), and the new Nobunny, which nobody has really talked about at all.

Looking Back at a Few 2008 Releases

MGMT-Oracular Spectacular: By all accounts, I should hate this. It's synth-pop, and it's another attempt to capture the "voice" of our "generation." But some of this is great (especially the opener, Time to Pretend), I mean really great: "Yeah it's overwhelming/but what else can we do/get jobs in offices/and wake up for the morning commute." This is like the TV on the Radio album + (Sunflowers and Rainbows). By the way though, what awful fucking cover art. It looks like one of the computer games I used to play in high school.

The reality is that if this was piano or guitar as opposed to synthesizers and the voices were more distorted/offkey, everybody would probably be proclaiming this an indie rock masterpiece. As is, it's a really good indie pop album--poignant yet also easily accessible. The duo of Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Van Wyngarden are at their best when most cheeky and pushing the tempo, especially on the aforementioned Time to Pretend, as well as on Electric Feel and Kids.

The album on really falters, mostly in the latter half, when MGMT slow things down a bit. This is not to say that this part of the album is bad, more that it is just hard to live up to the first 5 or 6 tracks. At they very least, everyone should get on Itunes and pick up the Time to Pretend, Electric Feel and Kids. This is probably the closest thing to 80s music that I will ever enjoy/write about on this blog.



Vivian Girls-Vivian Girls: Beloved by many, hated by Bob Boilan, ignored by me (or, at least until now). However, one track on here, Where do you run to, is so fucking good that I had to look online and make sure it wasn't a cover. It's the one track on the album that slows down enough for the band to really hit their stride. The rest is a 21 minute whirlwind of average indie girl/noise/pop. Skip this and pick up Sleater Kinney's The Woods or Times New Viking's Rip it Off. Oh, but pick up Where do you run to on Itunes.

Hmm...maybe that was too dismissive. This isn't a bad album...there's just better stuff out there.



Blind Pilot-3 Rounds and a Sound: I must credit NPR's All Songs Considered for this one. They mentioned it on their year end show and played a great track, One Red Thread, and it was one of the best things I hadn't heard yet. The rest of the album did not disappoint. In fact, it is probably one of those rare albums which is able to execute a certain mood throughout the entire album. 3 Rounds and a Sound is an album of daytime lullabies executed to perfection by singer and guitarist Israel Nebeker and drummer Ryan Dobrowski.

A lot of the singing is similar to the lyrical style of Andrew Bird, with Nebeker weaving his words together to create as much of a sound as a story. The tunes are affecting as well, even if they're a bit cutesy--on Two Towns From Me, he tells us "I had a dream you were two towns from me/got to sleep spent the whole night running." But, here as in other places, Nebeker pulls it off as his voice is able to convince us of his sincerity. And while the sound is similar throughout the album, the tracks do not sound the same, each one has its own distinct feel. Overall, perhaps the best album of the three.

Tomorrow: A few words on Nobunny and maybe a couple of other things.