Now that we’re almost half-way through the year, I think it’s time for a little recap of the music that has been released thus far and how this year is living up to my expectations.
In my End of the Year list last year, I could already tell that 2011 was going to be an epic year for music. Despite my eager anticipation, there were still a few surprises. Sadly, there were also some disappointments.
I was very curious as to where Death Cab For Cutie would go after Narrow Stairs. Being a longtime fan, I was along for the ride and hoped they would go to even more amazing places. Unfortunately, they put out Codes and Keys. I’ve given it several good listenings and I’m not feeling it at all. It is as boring of an album as they come, with only two tracks really standing out. “You Are A Tourist”, the first single, is easily the most interesting song on the record. It’s still incredibly mindless when it comes to its repetition and similar melodies and phrasing throughout the entire song. It never goes anywhere and just peters out. The other interesting song is “Under The Sycamore”, which I am drawn to based solely on its simple lyrics.
But simplicity is not necessarily a bad thing in 2011: just listen to Manchester Orchestra’s new album Simple Math. Forgiving the play on words, Simple Math is anything but simple. It’s a complicated album with layers of emotional turmoil and existential nightmares serving as the concept. I’ve been aware of Andy Hull and Manchester Orchestra for quite some time. I’ve heard live sets where Andy played solo with the insanely brilliant Kevin Devine and the temperamental Jesse Lacey. I’ve even seen Manchester Orchestra play live. But they never grabbed me. It seemed boring and pretentious. And then last year, the band teamed up with Kevin Devine and formed the band Bad Books. They released a stellar album, my album of the year, and finally provided a means for me to love Andy Hull’s vocals. So when Simple Math was released back in May, I decided that I wanted to give it a chance. …Wow. From the absolutely spine-tingling “Virgin”, which is in competition to be my song of the year thus far, to the upbeat “Pensacola”, with its stick-in-your-head-for-days vocal breakdowns, this album is insanely good. It would not surprise me at all if it ended up in my top three albums of 2011.
An album that won’t be residing in my top three is the latest effort from The Get Up Kids, There Are Rules. It’ll be lucky if it even cracks the Top Ten. After the promises made on the Simple Science EP by songs like “Keith Case” and “Your Petty Pretty Things”, I was expecting an entirely different album. “Your Petty Pretty Things” hinted at a moody album that sonically fell between Something To Write Home About and Guilt Show. What we got was a mostly poor attempt at an electronic album. Unlike Brandtson before them, The Get Up Kids were unable to make the transition from emo band to dance/electronic noise band. The band made such a big deal about recording the whole thing to analog, yet it is so noisy and unnecessarily filled with bleeps and bloops. There were a few songs to take away from the whole experience. “Shatter Your Lungs” is a quirky romp with a 70’s/porn groove. “Automatic” is catchy but is unsurprising in every turn. “Rally Round The Fool” is also enjoyable before it delves deep into instrumental noise. It’s fortunate that Jim Suptic also managed to put out a new Blackpool Lights EP called Okie Baroque. It’s more in line with what I expected out of The Get Up Kids. I would have expected something not quite so poppy but at least we will always have the song “Your Petty Pretty Things”.
As you can probably tell from my previous blog entry, I’m still highly anticipating the new Taking Back Sunday record. After having listened to the third song/single released off of the record, “This Is All Now”, my anticipation has not waned in the slightest. We are only about a week out from the release – how has this not leaked yet!? (Editor’s Note: As of this morning (6/21/11), the new album has leaked. SQUEAL! Expect a thorough review soon.)
I’m also really enjoying the new Kevin Devine material. We don’t have a tracklisting for Between The Concrete And Clouds yet but I’ve heard quite a few songs from his recent sessions and live shows. I also picked up the two 7 inch records he put out – one for “Luxemburg” and one for “Part Of The Whole”. “Luxemburg” is the slower song of the two and Kevin’s brilliant songwriting shines through. “Part Of The Whole” is upbeat and sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place in The Get Up Kids’ back catalog. The title track of the new album is amazing. If you haven’t yet listened to it, go to YouTube and search for Kevin Devine’s Nervous Energies session. His lyrics always send me reeling. They are just that amazing. The other songs I’ve heard, “Off-Screen”, “The City Has Left You Alone”, “11.17.10”, all shine in different ways. I am exceedingly eager to see if he’ll be able to top Brother’s Blood.
I am very torn on the new Frank Turner album. He’s gotten a lot more attention fromthe music media since I last saw him play live. His latest effort got a full page review in Alternative Press, which included a mini-interview. Spin also put him on their “24 Summer Albums That Matter Most” list, alongside the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Beyonce, Red Hot Chili Peppers, OK Go, and (admittedly) the incredible Taking Back Sunday. I don’t mind him getting the attention – I think it’s well deserved and long overdue. But I hate how damn esoteric England Keep My Bones sounds. The title does kind of say it all… it’s a very English sounding record. With songs about the English Channel and growing up on an island, it’s a little harder to relate. Even though the song “English Curse” is more history class than the pub, the acapella style in which it’s delivered makes it really hard to ignore.
I just feel like his previous albums were a lot easier to get into and A LOT more accessible. I would not recommend this album to first time listeners. I would point them in the direction of 2008’s Love Ire & Song. The three tracks off of this album that really stand out are, unsurprisingly, the three tracks that were released as singles/promos/teasers. “I Still Believe” is every bit as good here as it was on the Rock & Roll EP. “Peggy Sang The Blues” and “I Am Disappeared” are both top notch Frank Turner songs. For fans of Frank Turner, go download the live acoustic demo versions of the aforementioned three songs that were featured on the promo CD if you pre-ordered England Keep My Bones. They are a lot more raw, unproduced and earnest. I also must point out that the closing track, “Glory Hallelujah”, is an excellent and pointed song with a chorus of “there is no god.” Whether you like the folksy feel of his music or not, Frank Turner remains one of the punkest mother fuckers alive – he is unafraid of stand up for what he believes in, even when he knows it will alienate some of his fans.
After listening to the new Braid EP, Closer To Closed, I am really glad Bob Nanna and the gang gave it another go around. Teaming up with master producer J. Robbins was an excellent choice – he has produced some of my favorite albums of all time. From Jets To Brazil’s Orange Rhyming Dictionary to The Promise Ring’s Nothing Feels Good to Against Me!’s Searching For A Former Clarity, his brilliance as a producer runs throughout my entire music collection. I’m so glad that Look Mexico got J. Robbins to produce the album that they are working on right now. But I digress. Back to Braid… from the Chris Broach sung opener to the moment that Bob Nanna’s vocals hit your ears to the twinkling keys in the background, these songs sound like they were sonically plucked from the same musical zeitgeist that birthed 1998’s Frame & Canvas. It was very ballsy of the band to release the entire EP two months early to those who already pre-ordered it. The physical release is still scheduled for August.
The Dear Hunter just released the astounding and ambitious collection, The Color Spectrum. It’s a set of nine EP’s, with each one being themed to a color of the spectrum and an additional EP for white and an additional EP for black. Each color has its own theme, feel and mood. I just received my vinyl box set in the mail a couple of days ago and I must say that they could have done the presentation side much better. Maybe I’m just judging them based on the standards set forth by the equally ambitious Alchemy Index by Thrice, which is perhaps one of the most beautiful presentations of vinyl that I have ever seen in my life. They should have given each EP its own sleeve printed with the cover art found in the booklet. Instead, each one is white with a pattern design that samples the art work of each EP. It looks so boring. It was obvious and brilliant to press each EP on its corresponding color of vinyl though they got it a bit wrong when they pressed the yellow EP: it is just a shade off from the orange one and both could easily be considered orange. I find it hard to believe that they couldn’t find a more suitable translucent yellow vinyl to press.
But enough about the packaging, how does the music sound? The answer is, well, pretty damn amazing. I have not yet listened to The Complete Collection and so I’m speaking about the retail CD, which is essentially a “best of” compilation of 11 tracks taken from the Complete Collection of 36 tracks. The CD hits hard from the start with “Filth & Squalor”, the song taken from the Black EP. The Black EP is heavy electronic music with lyrics that touch on the darkness of mankind. The Red EP is straightforward indie rock. “Deny It All”, off of the Red EP, is one of my favorites off of the retail version. It features guest vocals from Andy Hull, who is the frontman for Manchester Orchestra. The Orange EP is a very rock anthem / 70's / classic rock EP. It’s got guitar solos and funky bass lines. The orange track, “But There Are Wolves?” has a bass line that is just amazing. The Yellow EP is the light, fun, poppy EP. It sounds more like the The Beatles. The Green EP has slide guitars and acoustic guitars, giving it more of a "rootsy" and Americana vibe. The Blue EP is the ballad kind of EP, with slower songs about relationships. The Indigo EP features electronic instrumentation, but in a more dreamlike way than the Black EP. The Violet EP is the most like previous Dear Hunter albums. It's got the orchestration and strings of the previous Acts. And lastly, the White EP. The best description I've gotten of this one is that it is supposed to sound heavenly and ethereal. The vocals have a lot of effects on them and they are some of the happiest songs in tone and content.
Over the weekend, my wife and I began listening to the entire collection on vinyl. We began in order, of course, with the Black EP. I’m usually not a huge fan of the electronic sound but it’s done very well here. “Filth & Squalor” is definitely a stand-out track and was a good choice for the retail version. “This Body” is also a recommended track. For those of you familiar with Casey’s previous band, The Receiving End of Sirens, “This Body” feels very much like the companion track to “Planning A Prison Break”. Both carry the metaphor of the body being a prison.
After the Black EP, we put on the Red EP for a spin. I really liked this EP and it might end up being my favorite of the nine. Andy Hull’s guest vocals aren’t just featured on “Deny It All”; they play a very welcome role in the entire EP. The last record we got a chance to listen to was the Orange EP. It’s every bit as classic rock as I’d imagined – filled to the brim with guitar noodling and solos galore. That’s a third of the EP’s down and 2/3rd’s to go.
And as a final aside, after seeing the new pictures of Taking Back Sunday in Alternative Press: wow, Adam got chubby! He’s seriously working on a double chin. Though John Nolan looks identical to how he looked almost 10 years ago (my guess is that he is a cyborg). Also, after looking at the pictures from the Nervous Energies Session that Mike Kinsella played under the pseudonym of his band Owen – wow, he got chubby! The one thing they have in common? Both got married and had a kid. Coincidence? I think not!
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