Rcrd Roulette

Every now and then I go to the record store, grab some random cheap CDs, and give them a listen. This is what I think about them.

[rcrdroulette]

September stats and Blog Changes

Gonna have to rename things again.

Although I've really enjoyed doing RCRD Roulette, it's a bit difficult to write 19 reviews every month. They weren't that great to begin with, but they've been suffering lately.

So, I figured I'd focus more on what this blog was really meant for - showing the world the best music it didn't know it wanted. So I'm streamlining my efforts, meaning this Tumblr will now be an echo (of sorts) for the RCRDBox newsletter.

This actually means there will be new music every day, since I no longer have to buy and review it all. Hopefully this will make it even more valuable to you.

Final stats after the break.

The scores this month:

3/10: 1 album

4/10: 1 album

5/10: 4 albums

6/10: 7 albums

7/10: 5 albums

8/10: 1 album

Average score: 5.89. I could feel myself getting more generous this month, and I don't know that it was entirely warranted. A lot of albums were just barely at their score, versus one lower.

Historical:

August 2014: 5.79

July 2014: 5.66

June 2014: 5.74

May 2014: 5.53

April 2014: 5.53

March 2014: 6.05

February 2014: 5.20

January 2014: 5.06

[rcrdroulette]

The Flatlanders - Now Again

7/10 | Country | 2002 | Approx. 50 minutes

I put a Traveling Wilburys comparison at the bottom not entirely because they have similar sounds. Wilburys definitely had the occasional country tinge that The Flatlanders spend most of their time in, but the similarity is more broad. Now Again feels a little bit like the result of different solo artists coming together. A supergroup, to a small degree.

The implication is that different songs feel like slightly different approaches to country. "Julia" feels like a more modern song next to the more classic-styled "Wavin' My Heart Goodbye". One song may focus more on lyrical wit, while another aims more for a strong vocal performance. As though the songs were written by friendly, but distinct, songwriters.

The deviations in style (and in vocals, for that matter) aren't very wide. They don't feel like a bunch of different country stars vying for the front, they feel like a diverse classic country group. None of the approaches are even overwhelmingly better-done than the others.

Now Again is a consistently good album with an inconsistent approach to country. It's not hard to guess where any one song will go, but from song to song, it's a surprise. If The Flatlanders weren't so tight as a group, that could've led to a disappointing confusion of sounds. Instead, it works well.

FFO: Traveling Wilburys, Buddy Miller

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Wolves & Wolves & Wolves & Wolves - Subtle Serpents

5/10 | Punk | 2013 | Approx. 37 minutes

My biggest complaint with Wolves*4 (I'm not writing all that out) is probably more of an artifact of their genre than anything they actually do wrong. Their particular breed of punk, and its combination of hardcore and melodic elements, does lead to a lot of bands sounding fairly similar. And it happens here.

That said, they do take a few chances to branch out. "I'll Be the Hyena" starts with a light acoustic intro, yet it keeps the rough vocal timbre throughout. It makes for an interesting contrast, even if the vocals are a little too raw to really make it work.

Really, there's nothing about Subtle Serpents that's clearly been done poorly. The instruments are consistently on note, with riffs that balance each other out well. Everything is well-produced. It's a thoroughly competent and capable album that fits in its genre well.

But none of that lets it stand out. It's never the hardest, or the most unusual, or the catchiest. It doesn't even have the value of being an amusingly bad album. The consistent execution keeps me from considering it bad in any way; Wolves*4 are good, but they're going to need a little more push to turn that into great.

FFO: Lagwagon, The Ataris

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Radio 4 - Gotham!

6/10 | Punk | 2002 | Approx. 48 minutes

I'm not at all surprised that dance-punk ever became a thing. Both genres are, effectively, simple and high-energy. It was only a matter of time before they came together, and the fact that they did so in so many subtly different ways made me see it as more than a flash in the pan. Even if it did seem to come and go quickly.

In Radio 4's case, they separated themselves by being more akin to punk bands (their first album drew a lot of Clash comparison), and by being more political with their lyrics. There are certainly songs where that comes through more overtly. "Red Lights" is pretty close to The Clash in style and sentiment, and they share the same reggae hints on later tracks.

For the most part, though, the songs have an indie rock sound, the result of the "dance-" half of the dance-punk. It's heavy bass and Bloc Party-like sharp guitar. And it's hard to say why it doesn't click as well as those groups. It could simply be underexposure, or there could be something in the details that they didn't get quite right.

Gotham! has a slightly tricky balance. If you want the punk politics and sound, you'd probably be a little disappointed in its more indie moments. And if you want indie rock, the political overtones may not be desirable either. But if you sit in the intersection, like Radio 4 did, you'd get along great.

FFO: !!!, Gang of Four

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Kate Jacobs - (What About Regret)

3/10 | Country | 1995 | Approx. 45 minutes

I'm not the type who just dismisses genres completely out of hand. I don't listen to a lot of country, but it's there. It would defeat the entire purpose of music hunting if a whole genre was off limits. All this is said in the hopes of not creating the impression that I just don't like country music. But (What About Regret) seems to encompass all the reasons I don't prefer it.

Kate uses each song to tell a different story. They're a variety of stories, but they aren't a variety of interesting stories. Or, perhaps they are, but they aren't told in an interesting way. But when "No Question" skips an entire potentially interesting story in its middle to tell a less-compelling one, it's hard to blame the delivery.

The music is similarly predictable pop-country. Crescendos and key changes happen exactly as they're supposed to, and never otherwise. I know the genre can be pushed more, even in a singer-songwriter context, so when even the solos proceed the way you'd expect them to, it's a bit disappointing. It all feels so by-the-numbers.

I was hoping I'd like (What About Regret), once I realized what the genre was. It's great to be proven wrong. Unfortunately, this album seems to prove many country detractors right. It's a competent enough album, but it's just not interesting in almost any way.

FFO: Hayley Hutchinson, Stacey Earle

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Gas - Gas 0095

7/10 | Electronica | 1995 | Approx. 69 minutes

Ambient music doesn't offer much space for implying an atmosphere, yet it's a vital part of the genre. That's one of the biggest challenges; if you don't take advantage of every opportunity, you end up producing ambient that lacks a space. With no vision being evoked, there's not much left to really influence the listener.

Gas is space ambient. It doesn't feel like a foggy field or an airport. It's almost too active to call ambient; the electronic patterns come up quite high, especially compared to the drones below. Still, it's that atmosphere which dominates. Tones are aggressively synthesized, and fade out in a somehow unnatural way. Only the vocals on "Earthshake" feel terrestrial.

All that said, I wouldn't pick this album if you were going just for ambient. There are hints of dance throughout Gas 0095, and tracks like "Earthshake" can be dominated by them. If you just want something interesting in the background, this probably isn't great; it's too interested in being in the foreground.

Still, that means it avoids many ambient issues. It's not devoid of any sense of location or imagery, and it's not so thin as to be disinteresting. But it can also be a little too heavy. Best, then, to keep it quiet and on shuffle. Let the beats and synths surprise you from time to time.

FFO: Plastickman, Mike Oldfield

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Big Head Todd and the Monsters - Sister Sweetly

7/10 | Rock | 1993 | Approx. 49 minutes

When you listen to Sister Sweetly, it's undoubtedly a jam band album. It's not a guaranteed guess from the back cover; these jams are actually fairly tight and short, not 11-minute meandering efforts. But the musical style is definitely fitting of the category, with guitar and drum parts that travel and try to fill the space they're granted.

The particular brand of jam that the Monsters play is more of a country-influenced, Southern sound. You could try doing drugs to it, if you want, but it's not really fitting that sort of psychedelic mindset. It's more barbecue music — relaxed and clean, accessible but still intricate. It sounds better suited to the open air.

The cadence of the album is a little bit predictable. Things start off energetic and involved, then calm down for "Groove Thing" and "Soul for Every Cowboy", before picking up into a total jam ending from "Bittersweet" on. But, that's a concert flow, and this is a live band, so it makes sense.

I'm willing to give Sister Sweetly a bit of leeway for not being as distinct as I'd like, considering it's old enough to drink. Put in the context of 90s jam bands, the Monsters are playing a style that was worth adding to the mix. It's not centered on being popular or being mind-altering, it's centered on being friendly. And it pulls it off.

FFO: Widespread Panic, The Allman Brothers

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Manray - Manray

6/10 | Rock | 2014 | Approx. 29 minutes

Once a style of music has become popular, it's almost never going to go completely away. It'll go out of fashion, absolutely, but there are still people making swing music and other century-old styles. They usually evolve, but even then, those original elements need to stick around in some fashion.

Manray, then, keeps with the earliest of styles to be considered rock and roll. Many of the songs (like "Atomizer" and "You Don't Worry") have the same structure as early Beatles songs. These could be covers of lost Kingsmen tracks with no real layout changes necessary.

But I wouldn't consider Manray to be all that retro. They're the personification of that scene in Back to the Future. The 50s would not have been ready for the heavy solos and screaming vocals that Manray likes to throw in from time to time. They have retro roots, but there's definitely a modern character.

The only complaint is that they sound very retro, quality-wise. It's to the point where I've heard actual 50s recordings that sounded cleaner. If you need your fidelity, you'll be disappointed. But if you're able to look past that, this is an interesting, short, retro-tinged rock-and-roll album.

FFO: The Stooges, New York Dolls

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Pete Bernhard - Straight Line

7/10 | Blues | 2009 | Approx. 41 minutes

It's a little tricky to classify Pete Bernhard as folk, blues, or country. The structures he uses are definitely more reminiscent of walking blues tracks, but his vocal style leans more towards a Dylanesque vibe, with instrumentation giving it a country tinge. In any case, he's not taking a standard pop approach to the genre he's playing. It's more genuine.

There's a lot of value in that alone. These are genres that come off the worst when they're fabricated. It's possible Pete hasn't lived the scenarios or agrees with the philosophies that Straight Line covers, but he can at least sell them. It gives the most predictable moments a bit of weight.

To be fair, there are plenty of predictable moments. Songs like "Lights on Me" and "Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold" feel familiar, though that's not necessarily bad for folk styles. And guitars on songs like "Mint Condition" change things up enough to stay interesting. Those moments are appreciated, they just aren't as frequent as they could be.

The folk space has some pretty stiff competition when it comes to clever lyrics and inventive arrangements. Compared to them, Pete Bernhard makes a valiant effort, but does come up short. The genre does also have plenty of more popular and less interesting artists, though, and compared to them Pete is a wonderful addition.

FFO: Old Crow Medicine Show, Trampled by Turtles

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Peat Moss Band - Hovering in a Dream

6/10 | Rock | 2001 | Approx. 68 minutes

For any band that does the folk-rock blend, the immediate question is how they decide to balance the two. Some groups just play folk music with rock instruments, others put a thin folk coating on rock songs. Very few seem to hit the style naturally and let neither side overwhelm the other.

Peat Moss Band seems to take the tack of wandering through the options. Songs like "Flying Away" sound off with heavier guitar solos, while tracks like "Hovering in a Dream" take an acoustic-led approach. Most of the time, the wandering happens within songs as well, building bridges across styles.

As an album, Hovering in a Dream is very smartly executed. There's variety that all works together. The only complaint is that, while the performances are all solid, they're also not really noteworthy. There are good songs, but nothing that really stands out, nothing that exudes a strong character.

Hovering in a Dream isn't a bad album, certainly. It's put together well and explores much of the space that the folk-rock description can allow. But the lack of a strong, distinct character and those final layers of polish keep it from being a great album. It's a nice-to-have, not quite a must-have.

FFO: Toad the Wet Sprocket, Counting Crows

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Friends of Friends - Adventuring

5/10 | Math Rock | 2014 | Approx. 33 minutes

It's been a little while since I've featured my personal "pet genre", math rock, on this blog. That's partly because it's a more niche genre and I don't want to give it too much coverage. And, in all honesty, a lot of math rock is a little too out there to try and recommend to the average listener.

Adventuring, in a certain irony, isn't that far out there for math rock. It does hit the usual points of oddity, full of dissonant guitar riffs and complex drum beats. It's not an unending barrage of harsh and strange sounds, though, which results in a good bit of give-and-take balance. Contrast the relatively calm "Storyteller" with the crescendo style of "New Orleans".

Strangely, though, all of these individually-solid elements don't manage to come together often. It's a challenge of the genre, to be dissonant and arrhythmic without merely feeling like there are several songs being played at once. Although some tracks, like "Referential Thinking", avoid the issue, there are a few too many tracks that don't quite gel.

It's part of why I haven't tried to get a math rock group together. It's a very difficult genre to play, and even harder to play well. Adventuring makes it sound like Friends of Friends could play it well someday, but it's going to take a little more. Still, lots of indie cred on offer here.

FFO: American Football, Owls

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Catatonia - International Velvet

5/10 | Alternative | 1998 | Approx. 45 minutes

If I were English, this album either wouldn't have shown up at all or would've appeared with an embarrassed apology. After all, it starts with "Mulder and Scully", a decent-sized hit for the UK back in its day. It did deserve to be a hit; it's not massively different, but it's catchy alt-pop and Cerys has an interesting rasp to her voice.

There's two potential challenges there. For one, the album could be a one-hit-pusher, and the other tracks are just filler. That's not blatantly the case here, but it's still safe to say the lead single is the strongest. Even "Road Rage" isn't quite as impactful, though it does avoid meandering in its five-minute length.

The other potential issue is Cerys' voice. It's unique and got character, but done poorly that can wear down. Instead, she stretches her voice to different angles for different songs. Some are smoother, some rougher; some have more Welsh accent, some sound almost American. Her voice doesn't stay put, and that's to the album's credit.

But overall, International Velvet feels front-heavy. Some of the later tracks, like "Part of the Furniture" or the title track, do make an effort to buoy the album. They just aren't as interesting, though, and that makes the whole album feel a bit weighed down and average.

FFO: Belly, The Cranberries

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All My Pretty Ones - Tone Poems

6/10 | Indie | 2008 | Approx. 49 minutes

There's a particular and peculiar feel that can come across on acoustic, singer-songwriter tracks. They feel like one person, standing calmly and alone, just playing all by themselves. Even though the song actually has all the musical indications and elaborations of a full band. The song just feels singular.

About a third of Tone Poems, including the opening track, share that feeling. The woodwinds and brushed percussion are obviously there, but they're whispered and intimate, a quiet texture of music. It's the other songs that interested me more, though. Songs like "Rest/Dream" have the band agreeing that they're a band, and so they actually explore the fact.

The only real complaint here is that the indie folk terrain is so well-explored already. All My Pretty Ones share a lot of similarities with a lot of other groups, even to a similar level of quality. Maybe the lyrics aren't as punchy as another group, but the melodies are tighter. It all, somehow, averages out.

Which doesn't make Tone Poems bad, unless you're just sick of the songwriter-and-friends sound. It just doesn't do a great deal to really make itself stand out, to offer a reason to choose it over any of its peers. Put it up against the right songs, though, and I suspect its subtleties could shine through.

FFO: The Decemberists, The Mountain Goats

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Jude - No One Is Really Beautiful

6/10 | Pop | 1998 | Approx. 55 minutes

A lot of times, a pop singer will admit that their voice is their strongest asset, and so center all of their songs around it. Too often that means making the instrumentation pretty dull and winding up with half-interesting songs. Jude, fortunately, doesn't do that, despite his voice's strength.

That's not say there isn't a vocal emphasis here. Jude can certainly hit the high notes, but he seems to rather work on singing as fast as possible. It's a bit of a surprise when "You Mama You" starts going rapid-fire. A welcome surprise, though; you don't hear many pop-rock songs that go for vocal rhythm first.

Surprise tends to be the theme of the day, overall. One minute things have a certain indie-folk flavor, the next it's "Rick James" or "Out of L.A." with more of a soul, Motown sound. It's a usual complaint of mine — a bit of branching out is fine, but there needs to be an underlying consistency. That's often present, but there are the spots that feel out of place.

Ultimately, No One Is Really Beautiful isn't unlike a typical pop album. It's voice-focused and well-produced, using a bunch of styles in a seeming hope of hitting as many audiences as possible. It's an approach that's easy to be cynical about. Except that Jude's pretty good at it, and a little bit different.

FFO: Andrew Bird, Ben Kweller

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Cave In - Jupiter

7/10 | Rock | 2000 | Approx. 44 minutes

I was really impressed by how Jupiter starts. The title track sits at a solid intersection between Cave In's prog, metal, and rock sides, resulting in a more accessible sound that still shouldn't be considered pop. It's a great way to kick things off.

As the album went on, though, I kept wanting to go back to "Jupiter". It's not that the rest of the album is bad — the entire thing is solid and a worthwhile listen — but that excellent blending never really comes back. "Big Riff" is a solid intricate metal track, for example, and "Innuendo and Out the Other" has a strong space-rock feel, but the merging is long gone.

Normally, I consider it a negative when a band is inconsistent, and especially when that results in them sounding like many different genres. That's not an issue on Jupiter, though, since everything here is a neighbor. A song that's a bit metal one moment and a bit prog the next makes plenty of sense; an album that does the same isn't all that unusual either.

Essentially, this isn't an album for either constant metal head-banging or constant progressive spacing-out. It's a blend, one that's at its best when it hits the middle of the triangle, but which isn't afraid to head to the corners from time to time. I feel the center is best, and it's not visited often enough, but there's still enough room to move around.

FFO: Coheed & Cambria, Dream Theater

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Rufio - The Comfort of Home

6/10 | Punk | 2005 | Approx. 42 minutes

It wouldn't surprise me if Rufio were on the soundtrack for one of the later Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games. Probably not the early games, they leaned more towards hardcore punk and ska, but somewhere after the series let more pop-punk in. It's fast and energetic, but friendly.

Well, as friendly as punk ever gets. There's a lot of emphasis put on the band's melodic side, but the instrumentation definitely tries to make the case that they're playing punk. The riffs can get a little complex for punk, but they never go too far. There's credibility to uphold here.

Even so, this is not a band that diehard punks are going to want anything to do with. The Comfort of Home is just too much of a pop album. Instead of being pop-tinged punk, it's punk-tinged pop. But unlike the really good names in the genre, the hooks of pop aren't quite strong enough here.

Which, I admit, makes it all sound fairly negative. And, if you're looking for more straight-ahead punk, it probably is a bit negative. But this sort of melodic pop-punk is a legitimate style. You can make video game soundtracks out of it. Rufio isn't the best example of it, but they're certainly far more listenable than some other options, punk fan or not.

FFO: The Story Changes, Fenix TX

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Ray Lynch - No Blue Thing

5/10 | Soundtrack | 1989 | Approx. 40 minutes

I probably shouldn't consider it too much of a surprise that an all-instrumental album should resemble some of the soundtrack albums I've heard in the past. No Blue Thing isn't a soundtrack to anything, but that doesn't seem to matter. The same mentality seems to have gone into its production.

Which is to say, this doesn't feel like an album for which the tracks had their lyrics ripped out. The instruments are structured to put forth the lyrical melodies themselves, although many of those instruments are decidedly dated synth pads. Even so, No Blue Thing is very wisely put together. The arrangements rarely falter.

That doesn't make it terribly appealing, though. Perhaps it's just my background, but I expect instrumental music to take me to a somewhat specific place. Obviously the music is driving, but I want to be able to see where we're going. My biggest issue with No Blue Thing is that I don't really see it.

Still, I can think of a lot of soundtrack composers who owe a debt to Ray Lynch. But either those composers are better at drawing those images, or they're just better at drawing them for my eyes. Either way, the end result is a pretty competent, albeit aged album, that just doesn't strike my fancy.

FFO: Kraftwerk, Disasterpiece