Musical Focus

Amateur opinions on music from an under-qualified audiophile. Disclaimer: This blog is best viewed and can only be navigated on a browser.

[musicalfocus]

2/4/17

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

The xx - I See You (2017, Young Turks)

The xx left us off back in 2012 on an admittedly sour note. After their sensational self-titled debut, Coexist felt drab, dull, and like a complete dud. Following up that debut and meeting the expectations of the general populace after setting the bar so high was no easy task, but even the most forgiving and understanding of music fans listened to that sophomore effort with more question marks than exclamation points popping up in their head.

So, over four years and a Jamie xx solo album later, people once again find themselves asking, “Can they reach the heights of their debut on this one?” But, they really shouldn’t. This isn’t the same band anymore, both in a literal sense (one member down from the ensemble that recorded xx) and in a figurative one. While Coexist on the surface felt like a band trying to find their way, establish their sound, still feeling things out, anyone who heard their debut know this could not be the case. The sound of Coexist was deliberate. They knew what they were doing. And so the question those people should be asking going into I See You should be: what sound will they go for this time?

The answer to that is... sort of all over the place. On previous efforts by the band, and even in Jamie xx’s solo work, they make a clear focus, for better or for worse, and stick to it to create a cohesive work that ties together in nicely, a fact one has to admit regardless of one feels about the music itself. But on here, the range of moods and styles here is much wider, leading to excitement and even dance-able instrumentation one song and their signature wistfulness the next. So one could say perhaps instead of a focused singularity, the trio went for more of a roller coaster type deal, picking the listener up for a while, and setting them back down again before picking up the pace too much.

The results of this are mixed to say the very least. The highs of this album are pretty high but the lows are simply oh-so low, and I found myself wanting to get off this ride The xx were trying to send me down after only a handful of tracks, wishing they would finally just stick to one end of the spectrum. That never really came, and by the album’s conclusion I felt a little directionless and without much idea of what to focus on with this album. So I listened to it again, and again, and another time for good measure, and finally figured out what it was I was trying to get out from my head about this record:

It’s simply just... okay.

It’s an okay album.

There’s nothing really inherently wrong with it, and despite the lack of focus here it was clearly intentional so it’s difficult to fault the band here since it was more of a stylistic choice. The good songs are balanced out by equally subpar tracks, and the rest are kind of in the middle. It’s your kind of run-of-the-mill, inoffensive, decent sounding indie pop record that ultimately is mostly forgettable and the only thing it is guilty of is not being great, which is only an expectation because The xx have shown us that they can reach that denominator with their music.

While still feeling like a welcome expansion on the sound of Coexist in most ways, it’s tough to shake the feeling of lost potential here. As always with The xx, the production is on point, and the instrumentation that is used generally speaking is very interesting and palatable. Yet, the way this instrumentation is used here constantly, time and time again, feels like a work in progress. Ideas that are introduced almost never feel fully fleshed out, and I’m not sure whether to blame the relative minimalism of the music for this or just the band’s seeming inability to develop their concepts beyond a certain point. Do they finish a track and truly think it’s finished, or do they have this, “well that’ll do, whatever” type of mindset? I mean, I’m sure that’s not what it is, but it might as well be. It’s frustrating.

I See You, in sum, finds us in a similar yet not identical place as with Coexist, with different problems of its own, though thankfully being boring is not one of them here (well, not as often, at least). It’s soft, catchy at times, relatively safe, and dishearteningly underdeveloped, and I don’t find myself wishing for the last 40 (well, 160) minutes of my life back, which is always a plus.

Here’s looking forward to what they decide to put out in 2021.

Rating: 5.5/10

Choice tracks:

“Dangerous”

“On Hold”

“I Dare You”

Weakest tracks:

“A Violent Noise”

“Brave For You”

“Say Something Loving”

REVIEW PAGE HERE

[musicalfocus]

1/5/17

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Kid Cudi - Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ (2016, Wicked Awesome/Republic)

It’s been a little over a year since Kid Cudi released the behemothic monstrosity that was Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven, and to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure how many people have managed to recover from it by this point in time. Anyone who has paid any sort of attention to my reviews may remember my particularly scathing assessment of this, ahem, album. I know it’s still burned into my own memory (seriously though, check it out, I’m proud of it). Normally when I use the type of black and white language presented in that review, whether for good or, in this case, immensely awful, I look back on it and think to myself, “You know what? I should have given this album more of a chance, it has some bright spots,” or, “I should have been more critical of this record, it’s outstanding but it certainly has its flaws. A perfect score doesn’t necessarily indicate true perfection.”

Well, boys and girls, I can confidently say I stand by my words. Every. Last. One.

When it came out shortly after the release date that Kid Cudi was suffering from severe depression, I almost felt bad about the words that I wrote. Almost. Because you see, artists, regardless of their personal situations, open themselves up to scrutiny with everything they decide to put out (with the exceptions of posthumous releases, I guess). It’s just the nature of the trade. And Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven wasn’t just your run of the mill horrible album. It had every single thing going wrong for it, even down to the cringeworthy cover (admittedly not necessarily improved on here with this new guy up here), the track names, the sheer length of the album, the songwriting, the instrumentation, the vocals, just... absolutely everything you can imagine. And it all amounted to not only one of the worst albums of the year, but one of the worst high-profile releases from an established artist of all time. Anyway, this is truly beating a dead horse at this point. Two paragraphs in and I haven’t even begun to talk about the real topic at hand.

You can understand my skepticism, my defeated groan filled with memories I had so painstakingly attempted to repress for months, when not even a year later comes the announcement of a new album from Cudder himself--this time, with an equally absurd title (seriously dude, what is with your newfound need to take the ‘g’ off of the ‘-ing’ suffix?) and still a pretty bad album cover (and then they went and made it worse by making it purple... why?). Weeks go by, and then the track listing is unveiled. 87 minutes long.

It’s happening again. The memories begin to rise to the surface with unrelenting determination.

But wait. Andre 3000 is on this? Travi$ Scott? Pharrell? Could this finally be an honest-to-God hip hop/R&B album from Kid Cudi at the end of the year 2016? Cautiously I step into the unknown here, and when it’s all said and done, in a year where Weezer put out their second consecutive quality album, David Bowie spoke to us from the afterlife, Frank Ocean gave us two releases in three days, and The Avalanches came out of a 16 year hibernation and picked up right where they left off, the biggest surprise of the 2016 calendar year in music was Kid Cudi... returning to form?

Something that has been missing from Cudi’s outputs since the first Man on the Moon, a truly sincere and thoughtful album, is genuine emotion. It’s at this point I take back what I said about the album title--it’s actually perfect. Because this entire record, its somber lyricism and brooding atmosphere, is a bona fide expression of the pain that we all know Scott Mescudi the person has been feeling for quite a while now, and his attempt at showing and dealing with this pain through his music and expelling the “demons” he has struggled with is done with great effort, craftsmanship, and above all-- passion.

Still, he takes us through this (admittedly still far too lengthy) journey through his mind with a grace that prevents this album from being overbearingly bleak, a line that it tiptoes along but never fully crosses, much to the thanks of the great features from the aforementioned artists. It’s become apparent at this point that when Kid Cudi strays away from the sadness in his music, it means he’s not truly putting his heart into it, and it can come out subpar, to put it lightly. But when he does sad, boy can he do it well.

Split up into four acts, potentially the most notable on this album is the fourth and final, “It’s Bright and Heaven Is Warm.” After a rather challenging hour-plus to wrap up the first three acts, Cudi (with the aid of Andre Benjamin and Pharrell) pulls us out of this truly glum hole that borders on despair and offers a glimpse into what he feels his future holds for him. “I ain’t riding no waves / Too busy making my own waves, baby” off of “Surfin’” shows us that despite the turmoil that smolders within him, Kid Cudi has not given up, and it’s a noteworthy thing in this day of people being open and expressive about their own mental issues for someone who comes from this perspective to tell of belief in a light at the end of the tunnel. Many albums coming from this same dark outlook on life fail to recognize any such thing, resulting in records that are 100% doom and gloom and honestly, as someone who understands that point of view, it can get tiresome.

Passion is a refreshing record not just because of the obvious catharsis for Kid Cudi lyrically that comes through on it, but also because it is sonically dense and varied, while keeping and staying with a consistent tone that creates a respectable flow from track to track. Though the transitions between the acts, particularly the first three, feel a little bit convoluted and arbitrary, the overall theme and intention of the record is never in question. Cudi forays more deeply into electropop than we have seen him do before, and impressively prevents it from sounding cheaply produced or arranged.

Perhaps the strongest connection with his earliest works other than the lyrical content is the feeling of listening to a soundtrack from space. This is a sound that Cudi not only did well early in his career-- he made it his signature. And after mostly abandoning it with some (not as well-executed) signs of it still popping up here and there on albums like Indicud and Satellite Flight, he resurrects this sound fully and shows us that he can still create this sound masterfully.

When it’s all said and done, it’s not a stretch to call Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ Kid Cudi’s finest output yet. Though missing some of the catchy choruses from some of his hit singles from back in the day, and with less truly rapped out verses and cheesy yet charming one-liners and metaphors, Passion features some of Cudi’s finest song arrangements, production, and memorable hooks to date. It signals a fine return to form and a lot of reason for fans of Kid Cudi and of the genre as a whole to feel optimistic going forward.

Rating: 7.5/10

Choice tracks:

“By Design (feat. Andre Benjamin)”

“Rose Golden (feat. Willow Smith)”

“Surfin’ (feat. Pharrell Williams)”

Weakest tracks:

“Does It”

“Dance For Eternity”

“Swim In the Light”

REVIEW PAGE HERE

[musicalfocus]

2/29/16

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Pixies - Doolittle (1989, 4AD)

It’s a rarity to come across someone who does not appreciate or understand the alternative rock and pop magic that is Pixies’ second full length LP Doolittle. Though it is arguable that the album did not exactly alter the landscape of the genres it touched upon for years to come, it became and continues to be a major source of influence for some of the biggest names in alternative rock and pop music alike, notably Kurt Cobain, James Iha, and PJ Harvey. Each Pixies album in that astonishing string of releases from 1987-1990 features a channeling of a singular, entirely unique sound from the band’s arsenal. On Doolittle, Black Francis, Kim Deal and co. deliver a clean and highly-produced sound that feels chambery, a combination that brings out the catchiness and creates a contrast with the rather dark and, to be frank, worrisome lyrics that results in a party for the ears where there should have been a funeral. The insanity here feels less serious and infinitely more playful than it should and what the lyrical content implies.

At just over 39 minutes yet containing 15 tracks, Doolittle is full of ditties, and it often feels like a tease. The sheer amount of brilliant musical ideas presented here in this short span is nothing short of remarkable, and what makes this strange is how straightforward musically this album often can be. Of course, we are looking at this record through a lens to the past, where these kinds of claims come much more easily, but critics in this era did not always immediately feel the brilliance Doolittle emits. The level of excitement that Pixies bring to some of these tracks here is impossible to ignore. “Gouge Away,” the closing track on the album (and what a fitting one it is) is one of the simplest songs presented here, yet its chorus piledrives the listener to the ground in a frenzy and Francis’ vocal delivery just bubbles over with the emotion and the commotion that the band so obviously wished to convey to the listener.

That is one surefire thing about Pixies’ music in general, is their innate and complete ability to make the listener feel exactly how they want them to feel. As a group, they have been perhaps the most consistently effective and with the most magnitude of anyone within their genre. Godspeed You! Black Emperor (post-rock), Swans (experimental rock), Sufjan Stevens (folk), and Pavement (indie rock) are a few other acts that I feel dominate their respective genres in this particular aspect-- using every resource available to them musically the almost manufacture particular emotions throughout each individual track on an album, and then arranging these tracks in a way that brings out the greatest variance, the bumpiest roller coaster, or perhaps even the straightest sense of a single type of emotion throughout the album’s course.

Doolittle is masterfully crafted and a serious contender for greatest alternative rock record of all time. It’s lush, and strikes a delicious balance between the harshness of the Steve Albini-produced Surfer Rosa and the more poppy feel to the later release of Bossanova. Its lyrical content takes aim at some of the typical subject matter that you may expect on an offbeat piece of modern art-- death, religion and Biblical themes, and the desecration of humanity. And through the music we see into Pixies’ minds. Rather, they allow is into them. And these minds are a place full of fanatical beliefs and fantastical ideas, morbid curiosities and cathartic outbursts, and it’s all expertly laid over some of the most drool-inducing alternative rock/pop sounds that history has ever produced. It’s a mess, yet so beautiful.

I believe in Mr. Grieves.

Rating: 10/10

Choice tracks:

“Here Comes Your Man”

“Hey”

“Gouge Away”

Weakest tracks:

None

Review page here

[musicalfocus]

2/25/16

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

The 1975 - I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it (2016, Polydor)

Alright, let’s get the obvious out of the way first: that album title. It’s gaudy, perhaps a little cringeworthy, and in my opinion at least not exactly representative of the band’s attitude or sound -- at least from the era of their debut LP, The 1975. But this is a new record, and it’s possible that things have shifted. After all, the band and their leader, Matt Healy, have expressed desires to move in a different direction both with their music and in the band’s attitude and how the general population as well as their fans perceive them. In any case, the title is confusing, sure, but anyone who makes any preconceived notions about this album solely based on that is naive and, frankly, a little bit stupid.

I like it when you sleep starts off with the track “Love.” It’s a funky, repetitive beat with juicy synths overlaid and it has a very 80's pop feel to it. It’s almost like a modern emulation of Michael Jackson’s style and and a little bit of Prince at the same time both instrumentally and vocally. This track transitions into "UGH!,” a minimalist yet bouncy and intricate, vocals-heavy piece of pure pop with virtually no rock in it. Already it is plain to see that The 1975 are taking a break - or perhaps a permanent separation - from including really any rock n' roll in their music, as well as away from the third wave emo movement with which they have been associated (though the lyrics at times are still well within this genre) to focus almost exclusively on pop and several subgenres within pop, including predominantly synthpop and ambient pop.

“Please Be Naked” through "Lostmyhead" (which truthfully sounds like a dreamy My Bloody Valentine b-side) is perhaps the most ambient, droning music I have ever heard produced by a band this mainstream, a band that was once upon a time so straight down the middle but now deviates from that in a wonderful way. "Loving Someone" includes strong shaking bass drum, wistful use of string instrumentation in the background throughout, and backing vocals that are buried so deep under the effervescent synth overlay that they sound desperate to be heard, and the effect is massive. This is the most emotional and raw track on this record.

"The Sound" is probably the weakest song here. The instrumentation is simple yet not too catchy and is rather fairly flat. The vocals sound very Fall Out Boy, which hasn't been a good thing for about a decade now, and the lyrics are at their least inspired. And unfortunately, “This Must Be My Dream” immediately following it doesn't improve much, which lead me to worry about the final fate of this album after such a strong first two-thirds.

However, these worries were quelled as the album finishes on perhaps three of the strongest ones here. “Nana," as the penultimate track on the album, comes out of left field as a somber, acoustic song with very subtle and light electronic undertones to it, with no sound dominating over the other-- the instruments and synths dance together throughout the track harmoniously and it's quite a pleasant song. “She Lays Down” continues along this unexpected spiral into more stripped-down music as it is an entirely acoustic track which caps off a fade into quiet over the last several songs on this record. The sound here is unique to the rest of the album in part because it sounds like it was recorded in an empty room, far away from a mic-- it sounds like a really bare live recording and it's beautiful.

The record generally feels like a modern twist on 80's pop music as well as adult contemporary hits of that era continuing into the 90's, and through this, the group somehow manages to avoid coming off as hackneyed and creates a sound that is both familiar and new simultaneously. While it breaks no ground in the grand scheme of things, it is an album that differs from most pop LP’s coming out today and in that way it still feels refreshing while maintaining that mixture of retro and modern themes. Lyrically, Healy is surprisingly strong and poignant, though at times a little simplistic or repetitive. However, the vocals feel genuine here, particularly on "UGH!" when Healy sings, “And you're the only thing that's going on in my mind / Taking over my life a second time / I don't have the capacity for fucking / You're meant to be helping me / When I said I liked it better without my money, I lied / It took a little while to recognize / That I, I'm not giving it up again.” In this moment in particular, he felt honest and really incredibly vulnerable and it sets the tone for the remainder of the album.

I like it when you sleep shows a greater sense of respect for the listener and provides so much more to the more intent and focused listener than in the past, creating more ethereal soundscapes, intricate poppy beats, fuzzy and bubbly synth, and vocals which slide way further into the background than on the debut LP . And for good reason - there is a lot more fantastic music to showcase and push to the forefront here. Clocking in at a gaudy 73 minutes, I am very much inclined to say that this album is far too long and overstays its welcome. However, while this is partially true, this feeling is wholly less prominent than I anticipated. To give some perspective on this, at 51 minutes, The 1975's debut LP felt much more inordinately longer than I like it when you sleep.

Overall, it is a significantly more fleshed out, complete record than their debut and represents a band on the rise, in the process of attaining their ideal sound. Moving away from the very inoffensive pop rock sound a la an overproduced Strokes/Phoenix crossover seems like a good call for them, as this music is more varied and infinitely more interesting, and with this album the group seems to be well on their way to eliminating the social-media driven boyband status that have irked its members since the dawn of their existence. If the ultra-fun slappy house tracks intertwined with the perhaps-far-too-long ambient tracks scattered about are any indication, The 1975 are also prepared to simply move on from this simplistic notion. This does not sound like a boyband, nor does it even sound like music produced by a band that was ever at any point thought of as one. Perhaps ironically, this album represents both a maturation as well as an embracing of all they have become thus far in their short career. Whereas The 1975 dealt with casual feelings and some of the most basic, primal pleasures in life, I like it when you sleep shines a dim light on the more serious side of life: dealing with consequences, making difficult decisions, and maintaining your own sanity while managing interpersonal connections with others.

It’s a massive improvement on their debut and a strong step towards a full realization of this band’s peak. It's incredibly diverse and resembles a period of experimentation with many different genres for the band. Everything ranging from art pop to synth funk to shoegaze can be found in small or large amounts here, and the instrumental tracks keep the listener intrigued much more than the ambient tracks on the band's previous output.

The album starts out with a big bang and driving and fun tone, and throughout its course fades slowly and deliberately to quieter and more and more stripped down sounds until nothing is left. It feels like a very obvious metaphor for Matt Healy's life since the release of The 1975: partying, fame, and fun gradually turning into unavoidable reality.

Rating: 8.5/10

Choice tracks:

“Loving Someone”

“She Lays Down”

“UGH!”

Weakest tracks:

“The Sound”

“This Must Be My Dream”

“If I Believe You”

Review page here

[musicalfocus]

2/23/16

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Wild Nothing - Life of Pause (2016, Captured Tracks)

When it was released back in 2014, I listened to, reviewed, and subsequently low-key adored Bombay Bicycle Club’s So Long, See You Tomorrow. With its incredibly quintessentially indie pop vocals, its obvious Bollywood influences, throughout, its dreamy soundscapes with a rather hard-hitting use of drumming throughout, it sincerely hooked me. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard the first few tracks here and almost had an identical feeling to the one I had when I first spun that record. The first song, “Reichpop” sounds like it could have been straight off of it. Now, this feeling dies down as the album progresses and Wild Nothing certainly does maintain their own identity here, but that subtle blissful feeling never really disappeared. It stuck with me for the ride until the last blast of synth and subsequent fade to silence at the end of “Love Under My Thumb.“

Life of Pause is not going to be primarily listed as a neo-psychedelia album anywhere, but it should be, because despite the largely dream pop and more standard indie pop outputs that Wild Nothing has put on display in the past, the neo-psychedelia is very prominent here. It shows growth for the act, or at least a valiant attempt at it, but as maybe to be expected from a still-young act currently still in the process of trying to find his sound and exploring new genres, there is no shortage of growing pains. The album is not incredibly excitable and every so often, though not always, it feels like there is a distinct lack of emotion in Jack Tatum’s vocal delivery, like he is bored or maybe trying to sound bored, taking a page from some of the more prominent neo-psychedelia artists in their dreamier tracks. But what bands such as Spiritualized and Deerhunter manage to do is give off that vibe while still packing their words with meaning and feeling, and Tatum only utilizes for the former. If the singer is despondent, then why should the listener be intrigued?

The use of instrumental repetition is key for acts within this genre, and it’s clear that Tatum is still trying to figure out how exactly to use it to full effect. All over this album there is either too much or too little of it. I would have truly loved for that little guitar wail bridge on “A Woman’s Wisdom” to go on for much longer than its approximately 35 second lifespan. It’s an extremely interesting, well produced, and rather ethereal moment of instrumentation and could have been expanded into a two minute long segment. At an already lengthy 50 minutes, it’s debatable if another two minutes could have been warranted, but I think it’d be worth it. On the other side of the coin, the instrumentation used in the repetition of “Whenever I” is really quite maddening, and to make room for the last improvement I mentioned I would have considered axing this song from the album completely. But at the very least, it needs fixing and is the most obnoxious track here.

The pop here really is delicious at times, and there are some catchy hooks (”TV Queen,” “Adore”) to be found, and the end result is a solid mixture of different genres that, while varying from track to track and even within tracks themselves, comes together as a cohesive whole that has the identity of an album pieced together rather than a collection of songs that feel uncorrelated which I’ve felt Wild Nothing has been prone to do in the past. Lyrically, the album is actually pretty subpar (”No, that's not right. I got so lost trying know you. / Trying to touch you. Trying to.”), but the vocals are also not outstanding in the sense that they are just about always just in the background of everything else sonically, so you won’t really pay much attention to exactly what Tatum is saying regardless. And it’s probably for the best. Overall, the record is a mixture of ambition and things already explored in the past for Wild Nothing, and despite having not much to hook the listener stylistically or lyrically and there is utterly no innovation involved, it is still worth a listen, and has the potential to warrant repeat listens for those with their noses stuck into this genre and finding themselves enjoying it.

Rating: 6.0/10

Choice tracks:

“A Woman’s Wisdom”

“Reichpop”

“Alien”

Weakest tracks:

“Whenever I”

“Japanese Alice”

“Adore”

Review page here

[musicalfocus]

2/20/16

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Swans - To Be Kind (2014, Young Gods)

The Michael Gira-lead revolving door ensemble Swans have had a penchant for creating towering monuments to experimental, noise, and post rock over the past couple decades of their career, with three of their last four albums clocking in at a combined six-plus hours. They are true behemoths. Some will be quick to call them masterpieces, and many others will be just as quick to call them overblown and pretentious. There’s even some argument to be made that this album is perhaps the least accessible musical record to ever reach the (relatively) popular public ear. Whatever your general thoughts are, there is absolutely no denying that there sure is a hell of a lot of stuff on this record, and it’s just about all open to a wide range of interpretation.

The first thought one may have when preparing to listen to a two hour-plus record is wondering just how much of this time will go to waste. How much actual, real music could possibly be on this album? Will it simply just be 50 minutes of material beaten and stretched out over that span? Surely most of this must end up being filler. But the truth of To Be Kind is it really doesn’t ever fuck around. Every moment feels utterly indispensable in painting the mural in our minds that this album is attempting to create. And that’s really what this record feels like: a giant mural on a ceiling or a massive wall, a painting that, while being utterly huge, still uses each square inch of its canvas to show something meaningful or important to the construction of the whole. There are no blank spaces, only finely-crafted details that the artist placed there with care and utmost deliberation. Swans manages here to convey a feeling to the listener that there has never been a more necessary 121-minute album produced than this.

It does arguably a better job of holding the listener’s interest here than on The Seer, an album which felt like a mural in its own right, but here Gira has further perfected his art and it feels like a significantly more complete and refined work. Whereas The Seer did occasionally have those moments of feeling a little bit misguided or like the music didn’t really have a direction (and not in a deliberate sort of way), To Be Kind always has a purpose, from the unpredictable nature and apprehensive feeling of “Screen Shot” right off the bat, to the repeated backing vocals anchoring the end of “A Little God in My Hands,” to the chilling atmosphere instilled in “Just a Little Boy,” the ethereal beauty of “Kirsten Supine,” to the roller coaster of excitement and dread that is the 34-minute long monster “Bring the Sun / Toussaint L’Ouverture.” An album this long automatically is tasked with the job of justifying its length, and To Be Kind does this and then some.

Throughout this album, the listener is instilled with a series of emotions that transition into the next sometimes smoothly and other times with a clutter and a clash. The goods can range from elation to calm to ecstatic bliss, while the negatives range from uneasy to out-of-place to downright frightened. But even these negatives are an enjoyable experience, as they pull the listener from out of their element and the music does not allow one to simply use this music as background noise. One’s attention is grabbed and not released throughout the duration and regardless of what Gira’s intentions were, as everyone will react differently to different aspects of this album, one thing is for sure in that the listener is taken on a ride and will be brought through some spectrum of emotion before the final wall of noise that sends off the title track (and during it as well).

There are so many words to describe the music here: intricate, intense, scary, draining, complex, and even at times other-worldly. But none of them truly do this music any justice as it is something that must be experienced and not simply heard about. M. Gira and co. establish themselves as the truly supreme producers of music that make you know what it’s like to die, live, hate, and love, oftentimes simultaneously. Really, they have been established as this for quite some time now, but To Be Kind shows that there is no slowing down this train of musical existential crises, and it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Rating: 9.5/10

Choice tracks:

“Bring the Sun / Toussaint L’Ouverture”

“Kirsten Supine”

“To Be Kind”

Weakest tracks: none

Review page here

[musicalfocus]

2/17/16

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Animal Collective - Painting With (2016, Domino)

The quartet of Baltimoreans known as Animal Collective do not and never have produced the easiest music to get into. With their psychedelic and oft-experimental sound, sometimes even to the extent of being nearly unlistenable (ahem, Danse Manatee), even a track such as “My Girls,” one of their catchiest and most well-known, can take as many as a dozen spins for the listener to truly capture the magic of it and feel it out as not only a musically superb song but one that is truly enjoyable on repeat listens as well.

Painting With does not fall into this trend for Animal Collective. For the first time in their career, they’ve produced an album that is simple for the casual listener to get into maybe even on the first go around. The music is happy, it’s breezy, it’s sing-songy in a way that no Animal Collective record has ever been in the past. And while this is true, it still does retain most of what has made the group’s music so memorable in the past: intricate sounds, layered beats and instrumentation, climbing ivy walls of electricity, and entirely unprofessional yet extremely endearing vocal deliveries of both lyrics and “bums,” “woos,” and “whoas.” Yet, somehow, this album comes off as significantly less memorable than previous installments in the AC anthology (perhaps for the better with regards to Centipede Hz). The group is no stranger to using repetition as a means of creating rather hypnotic sounding tracks, but with this being the shortest Animal Collective album ever clocking in at roughly 40 minutes, the high use of repetition here makes the album seem kind of bare as there is little to be heard outside of these particular soundscapes. The end result is a collection of songs which on many levels are virtually indistinguishable from one another.

Now, if you’re going to create a record that has basically just one sound or is essentially just one song extended, drawn out, and split up into parts, then it better be a damn good sound or song. And for the most part, Animal Collective delivers here. The sound is a major step up from Centipede Hz in terms of songwriting but also in terms of constructing an album that actually fits together in a way that isn’t super cluttered or messy. Generally these tracks fit into a common theme of being sunny, gorgeous, and genuinely happy or excited, which truthfully is really quite refreshing considering the sheer volume of depressing music that has been constantly released since the dawn of recorded music. Good sad music is much easier to write: music is how we sort out our emotions and it is a place we can go and call home and feel comfortable when the reality of our lives is far from that. Animal Collective’s ability to create something of their fairly consistent quality while giving it this life and this mood of positivity is admirable and demands a high level of respect.

With that said, this is the closest thing to a pop album that the band has ever made, and there are a ton of both pros and cons which go along with this. This album is gleefully nostalgic in a lot of ways, and like mentioned earlier it is some of the catchiest and easiest to get into music they have ever put out. It’s simply a whole lot of fun, and it’s the fastest they’ve ever been as well. There are no behemoths on this album in terms of length-- every track begins and is over before you can truly appreciate the whole thing sometimes. The experimentation is way down, which is a necessary evil in order to create what I believe Animal Collective was going for here. But the end result is something very poppy, consistent, and perhaps repetitive that is a major joy to listen to through the first spin, but truthfully only three or maybe four songs will ultimately grab the listener’s lasting attention and warrant repeated spins, because outside of these few perhaps even arbitrarily selected tracks, the listener will really just hear more of the same on those that are leftover. In general, it’s very difficult to dislike this album and it’s far from being their worst work, but I don’t think it’s a radical statement to make that this genuinely may be their lowest effort release to date, and while a generally enjoyable record, that fact definitely does not get lost in the soundscapes of this record like perhaps they hoped it would.

Rating: 6.5/10

Choice tracks:

“Golden Gal”

“Floridada”

“The Burglars”

Weakest tracks:

“Vertical”

“Bagels in Kiev”

“On Delay”

Review page here

[musicalfocus]

2/13/16

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

The Jesus Lizard - Goat (1991, Touch and Go)

First off, I’d like to clear up a couple of misconceptions that I personally had about some of the superficial aspects of this record, ones which you may or may not also have. Number one is the album cover. Disregarding the fact that the thing looks like it was thrown together in MS Paint in about four minutes (which is actually a possibility, considering the program has been around since 1985), it’s at least pretty obvious that it’s a flame, right? Nope. That’s a naked woman. Look, you can see her nipple, right there above the “A” (fun fact: this makes the second time in three chances that The Jesus Lizard has featured explicit female nudity on an LP cover). And also, those are nails projected onto her body. So there we go, this band managed to create some imagery way more hardcore than just some measly, wimpy fire. The second point is the band’s name itself. I figured that these guys just chose a name that would result in question marks, joining a couple of words together that brings very random imagery to the head-- and having one of the words be something religious like “Jesus” for shock value. This is also an incorrect assessment. It’s actually honest-to-god a real animal more formally known as the common basilisk, which gets the nickname Jesus lizard or Jesus Christ lizard (or, for you hispanohablamentes out there, el lagarto de Jesus Cristo) from its ability to run over the surface of water for short distances. So hey, I’m digging this record already-- I haven’t even begun to spin it yet and I’m already learning things.

Now onto the content of the music, which is really quite well reflected by the information I just shared with you above. Truly this album does feel like it is simply a continuation of the music vomited up by Big Black in the mid to late 80′s, a band with a much shorter lifespan than a just universe should have allowed. Though the sound is a bit cleaner and feels much more refined (which is a fact that works out well for both bands, given what each of their records were going for), The Jesus Lizard leaves absolutely no filthy stone unturned with piercing guitars, industrial drums that carry the weight of a thousand crosses, and vocals that make you worry about the mental health of frontman David Yow (who once, to the surprise of exactly no one, performed as Johnny Rotten at a Sex Pistols tribute show) but secretly also make you hope he never fully gets help with those issues as long as they’re recording music because god damn if they aren’t truly out of this world and completely perfect for the music drudging, rolling, or hammering behind him.

Steve Albini (namely of Big Black and Shellac) produced and engineered this record, because of course he fucking did, and it’s easy to see his influence on the album especially when considering the difference between this and their last two records, Shot and Blue, which he did not produce, as those two records feature a little more production in general, more bass-heavy drumming, and focus much more on Yow’s vocals being the center of attention rather than in equal standing to the music. It’s easy to see that The Jesus Lizard’s style is akin to where Albini was at this stage in his career musically, as with the founding of Shellac merely a year following the release of this album saw him carry over many of the same musical styles and influences rather than the ones implemented in his earlier Big Black material from several years before.

The attitude behind this record is raw and aggressive to say the absolute least. With the musicianship and vocal delivery it is like the band is nearly constantly telling the listeners, “I’m gonna break into your house, piss in your face while you’re sleeping, smash in your TV, kick your dog, eat the last of your leftover Chinese food, shit in the box, then put the box back in the fridge, and there’s not a damn thing you’re going to do about it.” In fact, not only is it telling us we won’t do anything about it, we’ll actually thank them for it. And honestly, unabashedly, we do. Yow hates us, he directly insults at least five groups of people that each of us falls into on this album, and we welcome these insults. We welcome the textured guitar wailings, the couplets which are reminiscent of a curse being uttered to cast over us, the mechanical and driving drums that almost seemed like they’re designed to instill a sense of dread, horror, or just general discomfort in this listener. With Goat, The Jesus Lizard manages to bring together many of the attributes that the general public, myself included, would probably consider vile, destructive, or sacrilegious, and turns it into a gloriously self-aware, varied, and masterfully constructed noise rock record for the ages, and one that stands as one of the best of the 90′s-- in noise rock or otherwise.

Rating: 9.0/10

Choice tracks:

“Then Comes Dudley”

“Nub”

“Lady Shoes”

Weakest tracks:

“South Mouth”

Review page here

[musicalfocus]

RIP J Dilla, 10 years ago yesterday.

2/11/16

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

J Dilla - Donuts (2006, Stones Throw)

There’s no arguing with J Dilla’s now legendary status in the world of hip hop, not only as a result of his mastery in creating beats but also his contributions to some of the greatest hip hop albums of all time from acts such as A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Common, and De La Soul that surely would have been less memorable without his presence. The final music starring or featuring him in his lifetime was his now classic 31-track swan song, Donuts, released a mere three days before his death.

While it’s a shame that J Dilla never got to see the influence and acclaim his greatest solo effort has achieved over time, it is difficult for me to argue with the idea that perhaps his death so recently after the album came out and the knowledge that he was likely suffering from illness and contemplating his impending death while creating the tracks on this record has contributed to its popularity as well as its status as a modern masterpiece. And there’s nothing wrong with that -- context can be seriously important. David Bowie’s final album is proof of that as well. But when viewed in hindsight and removed from context, as someone who didn’t even know who J Dilla was until 2010 (I was 16 and listened to almost exclusively alternative rock at the time), it is natural for me to really only take this album at face value.

I can’t deny that this album has some mastery within it, and features some of the most talented use of hooks, beats, and samples of anything I’ve ever heard. I really, truly want to love this album. But the issue is, I can’t find more than 8-10 minutes of truly gripping material that actually draws me in and works more than just as background music. And not that there is anything wrong with background music-- you don’t always need to be focusing on the album to appreciate it. But this record moves at such a blistering pace, that as soon as each track fully develops or truly brings forth any sort of idea, blam, it’s gone, and we’re onto the next one. And I understand that this may have been a necessary attribute to instill-- at 31 tracks, if each track ran for twice as long as it did, we’d be looking at a solid hour and a half of instrumental hip hop, which for some could be maddening to an extent. Still, it feels like there is too much content and too little use and expansion of the very solid ideas that are present. Take the top 15 tracks here, and expand on their ideas and beats to truly bring out the best of them, and scrap the filler (which I believe to be at least half of this album) and you have something that I could definitely get into more.

This album does not feel like something that should stand by itself. It is more like a template for future artists to use (which, in a sense, it is). It’s like a very complex and saturated soundboard with legitimately great beats and sounds that work well when used by other artists in combination with more variation and lyrics as well. By themselves they feel underdeveloped, messy, and skittish, and ideas are brought up and stowed away before the listener can truly appreciate them. The one good thing about this is that even on my fourth listen through, I was still spotting subtleties and nuances that I had not noticed before, probably because on previous listens I was still focused on something I heard previously and my mind skipped over it. I’m sure that upon more listens, I would still make new discoveries and this could probably go on almost indefinitely. So in this way it’s like a fountain of plenty, always providing something new to its listeners on each run through, and I suppose this could be why some people adore and praise it so much. However, this can be viewed in a negative light as well, as one can feel that great music is music that expresses and conveys all of its ideas effectively to the listener and should not have to be discovered after so many listens simply due to the sheer volume of tiny, terse ideas that are present. This is different from, say, discovering something subtly placed in the background of a song purposefully by the artist that you did not hear or notice until the 10th time you hear the track. In Donuts, aspects go unnoticed because the listener simply cannot focus on everything that happens at once, and instead of instilling a feeling of discovery or awe when a new sound is heard, it often comes off as cluttered and rather overwhelming.

There’s no getting around the fact that there is some undoubtedly stellar music here. But whenever it pops up, it’s stowed away in seconds and getting through this album sometimes feels like you’re hacking with a machete through the jungle, finally coming to a clearing, only to realize the clearing is only a few square meters large and you’ll have to resume hacking away again. If I were judging this based on what I feel like is the whole purpose of Donuts, which is what was mentioned earlier about it being a template filled with as many ideas as possible to act as a soundboard for others to use, then I would admit that this is about the best possible example of that in all of music. It is an incredible source of material. But as a standalone album by itself, it does not feel whole, well-structured, or really anything but a random hodgepodge of some stellar material mixed with seemingly equal amounts of very “meh” material, tossed in a blender and poured into a glass called Donuts.

Rating: 5.0/10

Review page here

[musicalfocus]

2/10/16

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Eve 6 - Horrorscope (2000, RCA)

First listened: 2006

Eve 6 is not a band that is well known known for their albums. Rather, they are known mainly for their handle of incredibly catchy and or radio-friendly pop rock hits that would, every couple of years, surface and saturate the airwaves for a while. It, of course, began with “Inside Out” off the self-titled debut LP in 1998 which is still played on college radio and alternative rock stations to this day. Next up was “Promise” and “Here’s to the Night” off Horrorscope, the latter of which was selected as the background song (along with Vitamin C’s “Graduation”) for every high school class graduation video from 2000 through 2005. Off It’s All in Your Head, “Think Twice” reigned. Each one of these tracks felt distinct in terms of production, structure, and sound, and unless they recognize frontman Max Collins’ voice, it is possible that radio listeners may have never made the connection that these were all by the same band. It’s a testament to the variation in their sound throughout their unfortunately short career (we’re going to go ahead and pretend Speak In Code never happened for now) while still maintaining an identity as a band as well as a fairly consistent level of quality.

While these singles are nice, the albums as a whole truly deserve the same level of attention. Horrorscope is no exception to this, as the record is brimming with skillfully-crafted pop punk, pop rock, and alternative rock gems that are absolutely worth digging into, regardless of your thoughts on the singles mentioned above.

“Rescue,” the opener, is a fast-moving and sparkling track with drum machines used occasionally and high-rising distorted guitar twangs overlaying many different electronic sounds, showcasing right off the bat the difference between their debut and now, as Eve 6 made virtually zero use of any artificial sounds within its tracks. A huge leap from a thematic standpoint is made between the two tracks “On the Roof Again” and “Sunset Strip Bitch,” the former dealing with a suicidal protagonist who is “gonna jump, gonna die this year,” while the latter tells of a protagonist who is living in wealth, loving his life and taking full advantage of the luxuries his fame and money affords him. Musically speaking, however, these two songs are more alike each other than any other song, as they are both heavier with massive and boisterous choruses, using guitar wailing that almost sound mechanical, resembling the sound of metal grinding against metal. Though the lyrical content in both songs feels rather immature and lacks a sense of imagination or imagery on the whole, this musical similarity along with the basically opposite lyrical themes makes for an interesting pair of songs back to back.

Beyond the fifth track “Here’s to the Night,” the final half the album features a string of rather similar sounding but still well-put-together pop/alternative rock tracks that feature less electronic sounds or metallic guitars and will feel more recognizable to those who are familiar with their debut LP. “Jet Pack” and “Girl Eyes” in particular take the intensity down a notch and tend to emphasize more rhythm and drumming rather than guitar work. Especially in this half of the album includes bridges and periods of instrumentation that feel loose and fun, almost sounding improvised and like the band is enjoying making their music fun and listenable, particularly on “Enemy” and “Nightmare.” Still, this half of the album lacks the already fairly sparse level of variation that appears in the first half, and it takes a focused listener to truly differentiate between the tracks in any meaningful way. But despite this fact that the latter half of the record is essentially just one song rewritten again and again, it is a damn solid, catchy, and well-constructed song.

Overall, Eve 6′s sophomore album builds on their debut, using it as a foundation while introducing newer sounds, overall more appropriate production, and the confidence to play louder and go bigger than before in a way that makes it difficult to believe that it’s only three musicians performing here. It achieves its goals in what it attempts to do and rarely tries to be anything more. Despite some lyrical weak points basically all over the place, as this was never Eve 6′s strongest attribute, the musicianship more than makes up for it and the catchy hooks, clear vocals, and short track lengths will make you want to sing along with them anyway.

Rating: 7.0/10

Choice tracks:

“Rescue”

“Amphetamines”

“Bang”

Weakest tracks:

“On the Roof Again”

“Girl Eyes”

“Nightmare”

[musicalfocus]

1/28/16

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Sia - This Is Acting (2016, RCA/Sony)

Okay… Now that we have that album artwork out of the way, let’s dive into the actual music of Sia’s seventh full length LP, This Is Acting. This record comes as a quick rebound from 2014′s 1000 Forms of Fear, an album that in spite of the serious tone of its lyrical content which covered everything from drug addiction to struggling with bipolar illness, still managed to be a dynamite electropop performance that garnered praise and, frankly, earned most of it.

Sia Furler’s career has been a tumultuous one in terms of the style of her musical output. Chamber pop, singer/songwriter, even R&B sounds and most recently, electropop have all shone through in various stages of her career over the past what is now nearly two decades. Who could forget her classic chamber piano ballad “Breathe Me,” all the way up to 2010′s dance single “Clap Your Hands,” and of course, perhaps the epitome of her career up to this point, 2014′s grandiose electro knockout “Chandelier.”

But this time, Sia is doing it differently. It’s quiet. This album is not coming with a bang, or even a hit single to speak of. Okay, sure, there have been a couple of singles leading up to this release (notably “Alive” and “Bird Set Free”), but we’ve been desensitized by “Chandelier” and they don’t make nearly as much of a splash. Though Sia has continued along with her higher energy synthetic electropop ways here (in fact, much more pop than ever before even), there does seem to be something different, and the album feels churned out. It feels distinctively not genuine, and almost as though not a single song on This Is Acting was ever meant to make it to an album.

Oh, wait. That’s actually exactly what this is. Not a single song was supposed to make it to an album – well, not a Sia album at least. Each track on This Is Acting (with the exception of “One Million Bullets,” unsurprisingly perhaps the strongest track on the album) was written by Sia on the behalf of other artists such as Rihanna and Adele. One song, “Bird Set Free,” was originally intended for the film Pitch Perfect 2. So it really comes as a complete and utter lack of surprise that the album generally sounds like a hodgepodge, like an elementary school student-constructed mosaic of B-sides, only instead of B-sides, we get something less. These are essentially C-sides.

Now, that’s not to say she couldn’t have done worse. Despite the lazy (although admittedly self aware, it’s easy to see where the album’s title came from) practice of taking these unrelated tracks, throwing them together, and calling them an “album,” this is still an original Sia record, written (with the help of others like Adele and Kanye West) by her and recorded by her. As usual, Sia’s strength is her voice. Her vocals are hard and range from temperamental to calm to a boom of sorts to screeching and crackling, and everywhere on the spectrum in between. Though the themes on this record seem a little more mild or generic than those on her previous records, she manages to still engage the listener with rather dark imagery and lyrical content and tones that almost fill me with a sort of anxiety.

Overall, however, musically speaking, most tracks on this album sound like exactly what they are: written for other artists, namely massive pop icons, and meant to light up the airwaves with much tighter production and mainstream sounding vocals than are showcased here. And truthfully, they would have sounded much better and made much more sense within that environment than the one that Sia has created with this record.

Rating: 5.0/10

Choice tracks:

“One Million Bullets”

“Alive”

“Reaper”

Weakest tracks:

“Bird Set Free”

“Move Your Body”

“Footprints”

Review page here

[musicalfocus]

1/21/16

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Panic! at the Disco - Death of a Bachelor (2016, Fueled By Ramen & DCD2)

I really can’t say with any degree of honesty that I haven’t had a soft spot for much of Panic! at the Disco’s output over the years. In their simplicity and usually-high-energy style, many of their tracks, surprisingly especially their biggest hits, have worked their ways to several dozen plays in my library and enough to the point where I have every word and every note stored in the overflowing section of my brain that deals with musical information that is, on a broad scale, unimportant.

On listening through Death of a Bachelor, the Vegas group (and let’s be honest, the “band” is just Brendon Urie at this point) fails to include anything on their fifth full length release that made their previous work endearing - the colorful production and subtle yet dance-inducing synths of A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, the symphonic sound and live drums of Pretty. Odd., the varied instrumentation and cybernation of Vices & Virtues, and the eclecticism and hip-hop undertones of Too Weird To Live, Too Rare to Die!. It’s all missing from Death of a Bachelor, and unlike its predecessors have for better or for worse, the record truly fails to establish any sort of identity or motif throughout its terse 11 tracks, and easily makes up the band’s least cohesive and most disjointed effort to date. Maybe it’s time to call up those old bandmates and beg them to come back, eh Brendon?

Though I suppose there is something I could use to describe this record: LOUD. It’s a collection of very in-your-face and high volume pop rock, and while this is not inherently a bad thing as it can be pulled off well when executed correctly, this album comes off as more of a noise disturbance where its sticky production and generally defiant aggressiveness is more offensive than it is captivating. Any unique or enjoyable instrumentation thus drowns into the background of this noise and even attempting to seek out the nuances or small flavors of each track is headache-inducing. It’s very difficult to take these songs beyond their face value.

But, unfortunately, despite the instrumentation becoming lost for the most part, the two things that still stick out amid the noise are Urie’s trademark-whiny vocals spewing out the weakest lyricism of his career and the overly simple drumming. Urie’s voice, while polarizing for many, has never been an issue to me - until now. One would have expected that since the release of A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, an album that is strong both vocally and lyrically, over a decade ago, Urie would have polished his own abilities and style in these two regards. But, in reality, he seems to have regressed. His voice has become whiny to the point where it’s no longer charming or easy to listen to - it sounds grating and immature here. Despite the 36 minute runtime of the album, it is a relief to reach the final track, “The Impossible Year,” and realize that it is a slower, more ballady section during which you may be spared of Urie’s yelled vocals which at this point over half an hour later feel jarring to the ears.

The strong points of this album are “LA Devotee” as well as the aforementioned “The Impossible Year.” Here is where the instrumentation actually works and shines, but it truly feels like a situation where, if given 11 shots at it, this style of songwriting and recording just had to produce at least one or two solid tracks. But, overall, the record feels very samey, and it’s difficult to tell if every song is the product of laziness, or if Urie actually tried too hard to create something good that simply never had a chance from the start. This is the American Beauty / American Psycho of 2016, and while for some this may actually not be a bad thing, the rest of us will store this one into the bottom of our recently played lists until it naturally fades off and at the bottom of our yearly rankings lists, where, despite it only being January, it will likely rightfully belong.

Rating: 2.5/10

Choice tracks:

“LA Devotee”

“The Impossible Year”

Weakest tracks:

“Don’t Threaten Me With a Good Time”

“Emperor’s New Clothes”

“House of Memories”

Review page

[musicalfocus]

12/24/15

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Baroness - Purple (2015, Abraxan Hymns)

It is not often that I wander into the fray of metal music, especially with my writing and reviewing, so this will be a bit of a new challenge for me to fully tackle here today. Despite this, I am not a complete stranger to the workings, intricacies, and themes of metal music, as these ear have on a frequent basis has taken in such acts as Electric Wizard, Deftones, Kyuss, and Deafheaven, as well as many more that fall in that area between alternative rock and alternative metal, stoner rock and stoner metal.

What Savannah, GA quartet Baroness have on their fourth album (and, to fit the theme, their fourth album named for a color of the rainbow), Purple, seems to be what one would consider your fairly run of the mill stoner metal album, and honestly a lot of this material seems to fit the hard rock label a little more. You could easily hear this record being played by your local hard rock radio station - you know, the only one you can find that bothers to play both Seether and Five Finger Death Punch -- and not really bat an eye at it.

Yet, it feels like a fairly accessible record, and this reality is a bit of a double edged sword. Accessibility while maintaining the integrity of the music and what you’re trying to convey through the music-- which I believe Baroness has been able to do here-- seems like nothing but a positive trait. But, throughout the metal genre as a whole, despite the incredibly varied sub-genres they all share one mutual aspect, and that is technical complexity and attempts at innovation and feats of creativity on almost every single track. Purple simply does not provide this sense of complexity, and instead tries to be simple in each of its riffs which are ever-present on this album, and generally much of the music, particularly “If I Have to Wake Up (Would You Stop the Rain)” (unfortunately the album’s closer), feels like a rehash of every metal and hard rock influence that came before Baroness.

But while this may be the impression one gets, the music in no way feels contrived. It’s honest, and while there definitely are some questionable uses of layered synths as well as some head-scratchingly cringeworthy lyrics (we’ll get to that in a moment), the record does feel like a true effort to out forth something of their own rather than attempting to digest and then regurgitate everything they’ve ever heard before.

One glaring error is the production and mixing in some areas. These tracks often imply do not sound good even in FLAC quality on a pair of Sennheiser headphones. I feel like I’d give the album a full number higher of a rating if this was produced in a way so every nuance of every moment of the tracks could be heard and recognized. Instead, what he have is kind of a jumbled mess at times that can be a real strain on the ear if you try to listen to closely.

And lastly... Man, I don’t even know where to begin with these lyrics. Tape a copy of the printed lyrics of each song on a dartboard, chuck three darts at it, and whatever lines these lands on will likely make a good top three candidates for worst on this record because it got to the point that I couldn’t listen to them closely anymore. I know, I know, metal isn’t always meant to have the most introspective and well-written lyrics. Some of the most lauded metal bands in musical history have lyrics that seem like they were inscribed by a 15 year old kid whose girlfriend of three weeks just left him. But, in this case, if Baroness is going to straddle the line between metal and hard rock so closely without committing fully to the metal genre altogether, I feel like they should at least try.

Wake me when I'm dead. There's a thousand devils screaming in my head. Wake me when I'm gone. And I'll tell you when the right outweighs the wrong.

Yikes. While “Chlorine & Wine” may be an exception to this generalization, as it seems much more well written, I’m still inclined to say that “Fugue” has the best written lyrics of any song on this record simply because it doesn’t have any.

All in all, it’s a very listenable piece of stoner metal/hard rock/what-have-you and is basically what you’d expect from a record of these genres with full creative license and some obvious talent. Ignoring the lyrics and the low production value I’d give this a few more spins, but with those two factors as stark realities I doubt I’ll do more than appreciate this for what it is and move on from it.

Rating: 6.0/10

Choice tracks:

“Chlorine & Wine”

“Kerosene”

“The Iron Bell”

Weakest tracks:

“Try to Disappear”

“Shock Me”

“If I Have to Wake Up (Would You Stop the Rain)”

Review page

[musicalfocus]

12/16/15

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Jonas Brothers - A Little Bit Longer (2008, Hollywood)

First listened: 2015

OK, let's get the obligatory rant out of the way first: There will always be folks who wait in the bushes like tigers stalking prey for a pop album to be released so they can tell the world that this pop album is not original (because, of course, the rest of pop and rock is original) or share eye-opening claims such as the fact that the band appeals to preteen girls, which, as we all surely know, is always the best way to determine how an album sounds. In fact, that would make most every pop/rock album with a good beat or a hook a shitty record, to be honest, for those of you in the cheap seats keeping score. And we cannot forget the sharpest sword in this bloody battle: that if you like this, you're immature, don’t know the first thing about good music, and you’re probably literally of child age. But, on the contrary, I believe the real kiddies are at home cooking up home-made albums with unfunny long song titles and artwork created in MS Paint. Those who listen to Jonas Brothers, and truly, really listen to and love them, are just spreading their wings into pop and rock that talks to them. So, unless you continue through your life competing with these admirers and feel the need to put them down for the music they like or anything about their persona such as their attitude or the clothes they wear, such criticisms will have no impact. First and foremost, because your criticisms will absolutely not be read by these people, and secondly, aren’t we supposed to be talking about the music? This is an album that is adored by more people than will ever be into your underground indie acts that never sell out a show beyond the basement of your local House of Blues. The mass, as of 2008 and throughout the entire decade really, have spoken. And they speak mass regards of adoration and popularity that only the supremely poppy, catchy, and likeable acts of this era could ever attain. Then there's all the lashing out at the band for being affiliated with Disney. Disney! If you ask any single person in any English-speaking country their top ten favorite movies, artists, products, or hell, even foods or sports teams, I guarantee you that there is some affiliation with Disney mixed in there somewhere. Regardless of this, the fact is they were actually signed to Sony, who made little or no effort to promote them (probably because they wouldn't fucking swear in all of their singles like most every Sony artist is required to do evidently). Even with Radio Disney listeners “Burnin’ Up” the requests for Jonas Brothers, Sony dumped them. Only then did Disney sign the trio up. And, let’s be honest, who could blame them? Everything they created was a hit, and their material spread to the furthest reaches of America and internationally as well. What Disney did for them after signing them on was no different than any other major label would do for any other marketable act, so I really don't understand why some people think the Disney connection is a point of contention. OK, I suppose that's enough sermonizing. As for this apparently big Jonas Brothers image upgrade, it certainly has its nice moments, like the buoyant rock hits-- dare I even say rock anthems-- "Got Me Going Crazy" and "Pushin' Me Away", plus the heavy rotation lead single, "Burnin' Up". Plus, believe it or not, the ballads aren't even close to terrible either, notably the title track, replete with every cliche in the book. But the ability to weave cliches into a track so obviously yet still make it sound like something uniquely crafted by a trio of youngsters giving their all is a feat in itself. "Video Girl" is finger-snapping fun, and that’s all I have to say about that one. The songwriting and playing throughout A Little Bit Longer are fine and the production is safe and predictable, but one particular criticism I can't seem to get past is the lead vocals, which tend to grossly overuse Joe's trademark... erm, well I don't know what you call what he does to words, but country artists make that same noise, which somewhat resembles the sound of a mule in heat. I can dismiss that sound maybe a few times, but it's just all over this album and will certainly chide on your nerves within only a few minutes. Someone should speak to the boy about this. I nominate Mansha Kakar, as she seems like someone who could really get through to these guys (disclaimer: you’re probably be a little bit late on this one, but it really never hurts to try).

Rating: 6.5/10

Choice tracks:

“Burnin’ Up”

“Video Girl”

“Got Me Going Crazy”

Weakest tracks:

“Shelf”

“BB Good”

“Sorry”

Review page

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12/15/15

ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Kid Cudi - Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven (2015, Republic)

(Author’s note: I wasn’t planning on reviewing this album at all, but when I saw Kid Cudi’s new album categorized under “alternative rock” and “grunge” I could not help myself)

The general decline of Kid Cudi’s career over the past five years after reaching fairly profound heights both commercially and, to a lesser extent, musically with his 2009 debut The Man on the Moon: The End of Day is not a story that will pass down as oral history for generations to come... but one could think it rightfully should. Because, akin to other great musical declines that are much more well known and documented such as Weezer post-Green Album or even the population of Japan, the sheer deliberation with which it has been driven into the ground is remarkable and, in a way, admirable, because one truly does get the feeling when the entire puzzle is put together that Kid Cudi simply does not care.

The issue here, of course, is that by putting out such contrived, pretentious, and mindblowingly abysmal work such as his lone album with his “rock” “band” (I have to put both words separately in quotes to really drive home how loosely these terms are used here) WZRD, and his slightly less disastrous but still awful in their own right solo follow-ups of Indicud and Satellite Flight, Scott Mescudi shows the world that not only does he care a lot, but that by some warped sense of grandeur that I cannot even begin to fathom, he actually believes he is putting out quality material. Perhaps we just don’t “get” it.

At over ninety-one fucking minutes long, to say sitting through Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven’s unprofessional instrumentals, pseudo-lo-fi sound, cringeworthy lyrics around the corner of every verse, and completely blase attempt at a musically complex concept album is a heavily tasking chore is the understatement of this millennium. I feel like I have to put the ability to listen through this monstrosity on my resume, because it would showcase to future employers my high level of patience and my ability to withstand high levels of purely bothersome noise for inordinately long periods of time.

“AMEN,” the 9th of a measly 26 tracks on the album, is perhaps the best representation of everything that’s going wrong here. We see that Kid Cudi has failed to respond sensibly to critics of his singing voice (see: everyone who has ever heard him sing) and proceeds to bellow the same out-of-tune off-key pathetic-sounding croon over every word that he’s always done. Even in his heydey with tracks such as “Soundtrack 2 My Life” or “Heart of a Lion,” his singing has been panned and is generally speaking quite bad. But the catchy music, his solid rapping, and only slightly less childish lyrics along with the fact that he did not sing that much on those early tracks were all truly the saving grace. Absolutely none of those exist here, and Cudi’s voice is painfully bare naked.

But wait, I’m not done talking about this song yet.

The instrumentals here sound like a middle school band who, after three weeks of playing together, believe they have enough talent, cooperation, and edge to be able to emulate the sound of Alice in Chains’ earlier stuff, when truly there is a massive discord between thoughts and reality. There are three general schools of thought as to why the instruments sound like this: either Kid Cudi recruited people to play for him that don’t have a lick of experience in composing or really even playing these instruments (likelihood rating: unlikely), Kid Cudi actually attempted to record many of the instrumentals himself (more likely), or Kid Cudi purposefully gave this album a minimalist and low-quality sound and feel to it out of some convoluted post-modern idea that that is the key to creating masterful music but also as an excuse for lazy songwriting and musicianship (so like Pavement, but about 67 times worse; likelihood rating: very likely).

Take everything I said about “AMEN”--all of it--and apply it to the rest of the album. That is the review of this album.

Remember when Kid Cudi quit smoking weed some years back, and it made fans worry that he would lose his creativity and the fuel that made his music so listenable? Well, folks, Kid Cudi smokes weed again, and his music is still incomprehensible.

Rating: 1.0/10

Review page

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ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

Wavves - V (2015, Ghost Ramp & Warner Bros.)

Despite releasing now five studio albums since their debut in 2008, prolific and multidimensional indie quartet Wavves truly burst onto the scene with their critically and commercially successful third effort, King of the Beach. An increase in production quality, and confident, pile-driving hooks with just enough catchiness to charm, and lyrical content that reflected the very human feeling of isolation and, contrary to the musicianship, a total lack of confidence in many walks of life won over the tastes of the indie scene.

With V, Nathan Williams & Co. continue their trend away from the lo-fi sound that shaped their output early in their career and towards the cleanest and most accessible sound that we have heard. Though some may argue this as a regression, it is truly anything but. It feels like a natural regression for a band that over the better part of a decade has continued to gain traction and confidence and, instead of running out of ideas to make their music lively and also enjoyable, they have refined older ideas just enough to make their newest output distinct while still maintaining a quality and sound that is unarguably, indisputably Wavves at their finest.

Read the rest of the review here

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ALBUM REVIEW by Mark Finlay

The Front Bottoms - Back On Top (2015, Fueled By Ramen)

First listened: 2015

Since New Jersey then-duo and now-quartet The Front Bottoms self-released their “hey look at what we recorded in my parents’ basement last weekend” -sounding debut in 2008, a sizable array of words have been used to describe by admirers and critics alike the variety of music they’ve put out spanning five albums and five EP’s over the past eight years. Eccentric, annoying, fun, diverse, self-indulgent, conceited, nonsensical, genuine, honest, happy, sad, and everything in between. But, love them or hate them, there is one word that no one has been able to use to describe them with any sort of evidence to support it: boring.

At least, until now.

Read the full review here