Although I gave this record a ho-hum review in its previous Top 10 entry, it’s grown on me from ho-hum to one of my favorite new releases of the year. Perhaps it took some time to get used to their new approach, which feels more like a straight-up rock and roll band playing live in the studio as opposed to the studio trickery of their previous releases (including 2004’s brilliant No Cities Left). In any case, this one is definitely a grower that stands up to repeated listenings and it’s especially comforting that lead singer and songwriter MURRAY LIGHTBURN didn’t get too sentimental after the birth of his and keyboardist NATALIA YANCHUK’s first child last year. Instead, while songs like “Ticket to Imoortality” and “You and I Are a Gang of Losers” seem like ruminations on his new family life, they’re invested with enough well-worn hopefulness and emotion to make any accusations of losing their edge redundant.
Some people seem to really like this one and others are disappointed. I’m definitely in the former camp. Although it’s a bit slicker in terms of the production than their ‘70s records, the songwriting is consistent and the album is fun and listenable, if just a little on the long side. Plus, “Dance Like a Monkey” is one of my favorite singles of the year. Not only is it pure fun, but you have to love any song that uses the word “anthropomorphize” correctly!
Don’t be fooled by the opening track “I Came from the Mountain”. This softly-sung folk song is a red herring because for the most part, this solo album feels like an IDLEWILD record under a different name. Sure, the tempos are slower, but since Idlewild guitarist ROD JONES co-wrote six of the album’s songs, the compositional style feels very similar. As such, it maintains the mellowing process that Idlewild have been undergoing since their earliest releases with this one way mellower than Idlewild’s last one Warnings, Promises. That’s not a bad thing, though. The songs are uniformly strong and Roddy still sounds like Roddy on this, though he can’t help the MICHAEL STIPE inflections that have characterized his vocals since the virtual Stipe channeling of “I’m Happy to Be Here Tonight” from Idlewild’s first album Hope is Imporant.
While I’m still not convinced that this record is up there with their classic ‘70s work, it has been growing on me quite a bit in recent weeks. What’s virtually indisputable, though is that the stunning opening track “We’ve Come So Far (To Be Here Today)” is one of their best songs ever and I anticipate their shows here on the East Coast in a few weeks to be absolute stompers.
I saw this wonderful band headline over the much more trendy and different (and vasty inferior) indie buzz band CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH last year at a free show at South Street Seaport, but for whatever reason, it’s taken me a year since that show to listen to one of their records. This is just a stunning little EP. It features three DeVotchka originals as well as covers of songs by SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES (“The Last Beat of My Heart”), FRANK SINATRA (“Something Stupid”) and my favorite, a complete reworking of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND’s “Venus in Furs” that’s rendered barely recognizable and completely their own. Much has been made of the Eastern European influence on their sound and aesthetic, but fewer words have been written about the prevalent Southwestern influence on their sound and their effortless combination of those sounds with the more melodramatic strain of indie rock.
On first hearing, the much anticipated major-label debut from The Decemberists is a tougher listen than last year’s excellent Picaresque, which seemingly lodged its gigantic hooks into my skull almost immediately and made a lasting imprint on my soul with such chestnuts as “Eli, the Barrow Boy” and “The Engine Driver”. So yes, what you’ve probably read already is true. This one is way more prog-rock influenced, like their 2004 EP “The Tain”, but more polished and extended to a full-length album. For example, the title track “The Crane Wife” is comprised of three parts with part three as track two and then the stunning, eleven-minute plus parts one and two comprising the second-to-last track on the ten-track album. So early on (more than a month before its official release date), it’s hard to say whether or not The Crane Wife will turn out to be the future classic that Picaresque is destined to be, but kudos should be given to The Decemberists for staying just as weird and true to their own muse while making the transition to a major label.
To be completely honest, I’ve never paid much attention to Tortoise over the years. After hearing this three CD, one DVD box set, though, I realize that this was a mistake. According to ALAN LICHT’s liner notes, when listening to these discs, “I was reminded of BRIAN ENO, BLONDIE’s “Heart of Glass”, JOHN FAHEY, FRANK ZAPPA, KRAFTWERK, TOM VERLAINE’s Warm and Cool, PAUL MCCARTNEY’s “Band on the Run”, NEU’s “Hallo Gallo”, MILES DAVIS’ Get Up With It, SLINT, AUGUSTUS PABLO, DEVO, CHRIS AND COSEY, PIL’s Metal Box, WEATHER REPORT, FELA KUTI and HOT BUTTER’s “Popcorn””. If that description sounds intriguing, I recommend picking this box set up. The discs conveniently collect remixes, re-recordings and other rarities that had previously been issued on limited-edition 12” and 7” singles and on compilations. I’ll definitely have to investigate this band’s work further, as this box set makes a case for Tortoise being one of the definitive indie bands of the past ten to fifteen years. Plus, at only $16 from Insound, it’s an absolute steal.
The second full-length album from Asobi Seksu is a nice surprise. While I enjoyed their live set back in January when they opened for SERENA MANEESH at Mercury Lounge, I felt that it was a bit cold and clinical. This album, however, is a different story. Although they get lumped in with the “shoegazer revival” along with Serena Maneesh and others like the excellent FILM SCHOOL, at heart Asobi Seksu is an early ‘90s US indie band that could have been on Slumberland or Teenbeat at that time had they existed then. Sure, pre- Loveless MY BLODDY VALENTINE is a touchstone here, but much like VELOCITY GIRL’s earliest singles and their first album Copacetic, this feels like a poppier, girlier response to the UK shoegazer movement of the early ‘90s. Definitely recommended.
If one judges by the title, one would expect a compilation of well-chosen tracks from the long-running experimental act led by MAYO THOMPSON. However, this is instead an album of brand new songs recorded by Thompson and his most recent band. It’s a bit poppier and more accessible than Thompson and company usually are, but only by their standards and certainly not overall.
On the other hand, this is the set that you want to get if you want a real “introduction” to The Red Krayola. The title is a bit misleading, though, as the set starts off with a rare MAYO THOMPSON solo recording from 1970 and goes chronologically until some of their more recent recordings for Drag City. However, it is true to its wording in the other sense in that it literally collects every single that The Red Krayola has issued over the years up to 2002, including their classic late ‘70s and early ‘80s sides on Rough Trade when their lineup featured RAINCOATS member GINA BIRCH.
