- joiezabel in Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head it really is brilliant, scott. i hate you.
- hotshotrobot in Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head Goddammit, Borch, now how am i supposed to review this? I can’t top that!
- Borch in The Avett Brothers - House of Blues - May 14th Good Lord, that’s a beautiful song! The Avett Bros. were in Chicago? Why wasn’t I notified?!
Instead of compiling a list of ten albums/artists that I liked in 2007 (which would, of course, involve confessing that I listened to more than my usual share of Timbaland and Timberlake), I’m going to wax poetic (prosaic?) about one record and one show, and why they made my year. Here goes:
Best album of 2007: The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour
Unlike earlier Weakerthans albums, which tend to fade in, build up, and fade out, Reunion Tour is, with a few exceptions, a highly successful exercise in decrescendo. The deceptively-titled opener, “Civil Twilight” (it sounds, you know, slow), throws down. Three songs later, “Tournament of Hearts”–likely a dark horse by Weakerthans standards but my personal favorite on the album–sets impulsive lyric energy (“have to stop myself from climbing / on the table full of empties / to yell…”) against a backdrop of growling guitar and insistent drums. I’m still not quite sure how Jason Tait manages to make his kit sound like the entire percussion section of a high school marching band, but the result is infectious.
After “Tournament,” the album shifts into a set of down-tempo elegiac tracks: the heart-wrenching “Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure” (the followup, of course, to Reconstruction Site’s “Plea from a Cat named Virtute”); the spoken-word “Elegy for Gump Worsley”; the bittersweet tribute to moving, “Sun in an Empty Room”; and, finally, the kick-drum laced “Night Windows,” which–if the song’s casualty is indeed a fallen solider–is the most moving anti-war ballad I’ve heard in a very long time.
Following this potential sobfest, the short, slow “Bigfoot” makes peace with the album’s losses (“the visions that I see believe in me”), and then “Reunion Tour” (slightly more upbeat) and “Utilities” carry the album to a hopeful close. It’s this thematic arc, plus John K. Samson’s almost-but-not-quite-through-the-nose plaintive singing style, plus the deceptively simple musical arrangements, that makes Reunion Tour simultaneously so comforting and so smart. I dub it “album I would like to curl up inside”: pretty much the highest rating I give.
Best live show of 2007: John Vanderslice at The Middle East Upstairs (September 28, 2007, Cambridge, MA)
I generally believe it’s a huge mistake to conflate a musician’s stage persona with the rest of their real-life existence, and vice versa–to me, it seems similar to mistaking a novelist for one of his or her characters. But that doesn’t mean that a stage act can’t give me warm fuzzies, because this is what John Vanderslice does every time I see him. On this particular occasion, it certainly didn’t hurt that Boston-based Bishop Allen were opening: they played a flawless set. Ultimately, though, John Vanderslice’s set was the memorable one, because it was horrifically flawed yet completely awesome. Read more »
Hey, y’all! How ya been? We’ve been pretty quiet over here at SSC, and for that i, personally, am very very sorry. I could give you all sorts of “i’ve been busy with REAL life” excuses, like how the band (pictured to the left–that’d be me on the far right) has been recording a new album and how i started a new full-time writing job, but you do not care about these things–you only care that DJ has been neglecting you and denying you his delightfully witty yet insightful takes on Indie Rock Today. I am here to address that for at least one post. Maybe more, if you’re good and make me feel missed. OH YEAH. IT’S ALL UP TO YOU.
So, the year’s ending, which means that every goddamn blog and music publication feels obligated to look back with some sort of “Best of the Year” foolishness, and frankly, we at Superstarcastic are right there with them, because it’s human nature to look backward as we prepare to sally forth into a new year. 2007: it’s not an ending–it’s a beginning. Especially if you graduated high school this year, since your valedictorian probably said something that lame in his or her speech.
Anyway, you can see that the time away hasn’t improved my self-editing skills. So on to my lists (which, incidentally, are completely The National and Of Montreal-free, and you’re welcome)!
The 10 New Releases I Heard This Year and Thus Are, By Default, My Top 10 of 2007: Read more »
Coming to you live from the middle of absolutely nowhere (and if you don’t believe me, have a look at the picture, which was taken right here in my current hometown)…it’s tradition! It’s required! It’s got 50% fewer calories than the leading brand! It’s Sam’s Top 10 Albums of 2007!
1. Ceremony - Disappear
Release date: October 15, 2007
Label: Safranin Sound and Design
Seeing as how it was released to almost zero fanfare on such a shoestring budget that you can only buy it in one of those slimline CD cases, it’s doubtful that very many people heard Disappear this year. Which is a shame, because this slice of shattered electro and aching shoegaze is transcendent in its despair, the single best thing I heard all year.
2. Crowded House - Time On Earth
Release date: July 10, 2007
Label: EMI/Parlophone
Bringing back together the surviving members of the seminal Kiwi/Aussie band took more than a decade, but the results were well worth the wait. As perfect a pop record as you’re likely to hear.
3. The Knife - Silent Shout [Deluxe Edition]
Release date: July 17, 2007
Label: Rabid/Mute
Partly this is penance for leaving the original version of this off my 2006 list. But the deluxe edition adds a truly brilliant live DVD to what is already one of the best electronic albums of the last few years, which is enough for me to stick it here this time around.
4. Eisley - Combinations
Release date: Aug. 14, 2007
Label: Reprise
Darker, denser, and better than their debut, Eisley’s second album is a showcase of precision-tuned harmonies and handcrafted arrangements. I liked Room Noises an awful lot, but I wasn’t expecting the follow-up to be this much of a leap forward.
5. The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army
Release date: June 19, 2007
Label: TVT
It takes a village to make a rock album, apparently, but it’s worth it if the album in question sounds this good.
6. Björk - Volta
Release date: May 8, 2007
Label: Atlantic
It’s still pretty darn weird, but Volta does a marvelous job of balancing Björk’s art-school eccentricity with pop music structures and clever production, making this probably her best work since Homogenic. Which is plenty good enough for me.
7. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Release date: Mar. 6, 2007
Label: Merge
How do you follow up one of the most critically acclaimed debuts of the decade? How about by making a second album that’s better?
8. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Release date: Mar. 20, 2007
Label: DFA
Even sleeker, cleaner, and shinier than before, Sound of Silver is James Murphy triple dog daring you not to dance. And if you can do it, you’re tougher than me, that’s all I can say.
9. Elijah Ebenezer Wyman - Butterfly Needles
Release date: Dec. 4, 2007
Label: Grinding Tapes
Wyman nearly died of kidney failure during the year, and Butterfly Needles is his attempt to turn the experience into catharsis. A complete about-face from 2006’s sonically detailed Why We Never Go Swimming and Other Short Stories, Butterfly Needles is a stark collection of lo-fi death rattles, a man and his guitar staring into the darkness. It’s not an easy listen, but it’s more than worthwhile.
10. Belanova - Fantasia Pop
Release date: Sep. 11, 2007
Label: Universal Latino
Mexico’s finest synth-pop trio put together another set of sexy, stylish tunes. Worth a listen even if you don’t speak Spanish.
I like free stuff.
I really don’t know anyone that doesn’t like free stuff, but I figured I’d say it anyway. In my case of free-stuff-reception, I got a free Relapse Records compilation when I bought Mastodon’s Call of the Mastodon a few months ago. Burst held the first two tracks. At first listen, I was in love. There in front of me were two tracks of versatile metal and I couldn’t get enough of it. I decided to buy the album.
At second listen, I was still in love, but thinking about other bands. At third listen, my mind was on other things entirely. I admittedly had a fuckload of things on my mind as it was and had difficulty concentrating on anything for longer than about 5 minutes. I know that at certain points while Linus Jägerskog was screaming into my ears, I was thinking about other matters of life. Yay for break-ups. Because of that, I was missing something that was there all along.
Burst is cool as hell. Their music uses tons of sharp chords, which I cream over on a daily basis. They are Swedish, which, if you’ve read my other reviews, is a dead-giveaway that I’d probably like them even if they recorded themselves defecating and bagging vomit for 45 minutes. Thankfully to all that care to listen, they do not do those things; rather, they record quality music.
I didn’t realize while listening to these guys on the way to work those first couple of times that Burst had been making music since the early 90’s. It sounded more to me like a new band that just had a ridiculous amount of talent. After researching the matter, though (thank you Wikipedia), I found that it’s true. After a few more listens, it became screamingly apparent.
Burst’s music is not for the one-dimensional, Fergie-loving, basic radio-pop-heads out there…no offense… Their music is complex and has underlying melodies and tensions, all of which pour out in the heat of any given song. It is filled with anger, loss, dismissal, questioning, curiosity, and most importantly, soul. No, a track from Origo would not fit well on a Baptist choir recording; I mean to say that this music comes from deep inside of places festering with raw emotion; it’s real. It’s literally a burst of everything that writhes inside of us on a daily basis…and it’s done in a supremely artistic way.
It took me 7 or 8 complete listens to this album to fully appreciate its intricacies. Some of the songs pop out immediately as songs I need to put onto a play-list I plan on playing many, many times. Those are songs like the album’s opener Where the Wave Broke, The Immateria, and Mercy Liberation. This does not mean, however, that they are the album’s best tracks. Honestly, I don’t think the album has a best track. They’re all good.
The only slow point in the album is one that could have been avoided. It lazily sits in the middle of the lone instrumental of the compilation, It Comes Into View. It starts off well-enough, flashing slow melodies and Portishead-like trip-hop-y beats at the ears. That elevates into a haunting strumming of acoustic background chords while a lone electric cries its story up front. That continues for about a minute and a half until all attempt at musical story-telling halts to a standstill. It’s much like what The Mars Volta love to do in the middle of their brilliant and energetic musicianship; stop it for the sake of meaningless and mindless weed-induced guitar drabblings. In Burst’s case, the sounds of a baby crying back up the soundless-ness. Once all of that is done and the band wakes back up, the music starts back up in full force, pulling the ears and mind with it until it almost reaches a melancholic orgasm of thought. Then, it’s over. Now, most of that sounds rather pleasing to listen to, does it not? If not for the black, blah-blah nothingness of sound in the middle of the track, it would make for a great instrumental.
Origo is an interesting name for a metal album. The word “origo” itself has many definitions, all of which are complex. The initial and deepest definition is that it is the linguistic point-of-reference in conversational dialogue. That definition, aside from the fact that both the definition and the music are deep, does not relate much to the overall theme of the so-titled album. The more appropriate definition of the word is its Latin meaning, which is “beginning.” It is also the root word for “origin.” Well, all of that plays into what I gathered just from the music itself. The composition of the music is well done and original. The lyrics are very poetic. The song lengths are spot on. The album art even portrays an inner energy bursting forth from the chest of a bothered man, almost spear-like, its origin somewhere near the heart. That’s exactly what the music is. In my opinion, there are no missing links involved with this work. If this, after 4 albums and countless EP’s, truly is just the beginning of intelligent music from Burst, we all have a lot to look forward to.
When I bought the latest Ceremony album based on Amber’s stellar recommendation, the label threw in a copy of the new Screen Vinyl Image single, “Chaser,” for free. One good turn deserves another, and all that, so I thought I’d give it a brief review here.
The A-side is a beautiful combination of darkwave and neo-goth, with a dash of shoegazing thrown in for good measure. A fuzzed-out bassline that drives most of the song steamrollers over almost psychedelic guitars, loping mechanical drums, and a brilliant weeping synth line. The vaguely Peter Murphy-esque vocals sound like they’re filtering out of a candlelit stairwell somewhere in the seediest possible part of town. Throw it all together and it’s a marvelous effect. You need to hear this song.
The band generously includes five other tracks on the single, all of which are live recordings. I’m kind of torn on what to make of them. The vocals on all of them are impossibly washed out, well past the point of complete incomprehensibility, and the rest of the sound quality isn’t so good either, especially on “Roaming Spirit Freedom” and the first version of “16mm Shrine.” From what I can hear, they’re probably a pretty good live band, but given that these versions aren’t much better than bootleg-quality, I wouldn’t consider them prime evidence of that fact. This kind of music requires thoughtful mixing to bring out all the nuances that bring interest to the repetition and the drones. Take that away, and it just sounds like mud.
SVI have released one EP aside from this single, but they still haven’t come out with a full-length. On the basis of the A-side, I’d dearly love to hear such an album. But in the meantime, despite my issues with the quality of the B-sides, I’d still recommend this single too, just because the A-side is amazing.
Label: Safranin Sound
Release date: 2007
Rating: 7/10 (9/10 for just the A-side)
