Exit #3 on The Road to I WRITE LOTS ABOUT 2007 ALBUMS

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Ted Leo & The Pharmecists - "Living With The Living"

Post punk is a little bit of a nebulous term. It encompasses so much, as far as music goes, from the uncertainty of Mission of Burma, to the (mostly) joyous They Might Be Giants, and beyond. However, Ted Leo & The Pharmecists, with their latest release, have become my go-to for explaining Post Punk to someone. The music does, very much, have the punk spirit, but musically, it's evolved past what punk rock is supposed to be. There's a swagger to it, but it's not obnoxious. The falsetto does a good job of preventing this, and actually makes a good majority of the music rather uplifting (notable exception being "Bomb, Repeat, Bomb'"s frantic delivery, but it works for that song very well, so it's excused). The best song on the album, though, is actually a straightforward reggae song, entitled "The Unwanted Things." Ted's delivery is soft and perfect for what the song tries to be, and although the lyrics are a mite depressing, the way the music is constructed makes it easy to dance to and easy to get stuck in your head. After that song, the best post punk song on the album is "The World Stops Turning," an anthemic tune about not getting bent out of shape from all of the heavy news going around nowadays. It's a great album, and it's really easy to recommed to anyone who happens to be into modern rock, not just punk.

Exit #4(no, really)


Clutch - From Beale Street To Oblivion



Standings so far!
1. Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible"
2. Ted Leo & The Pharmecists - "Living With The Living"
3. LCD Soundsystem - "Sound of Silver"

Exit #2 on The Road to I WRITE LOTS ABOUT 2007 ALBUMS

For those expecting Clutch, I apologize. As it turns out, the album isn't actually out yet, so I'd feel weird reviewing it before it was out, as that would send a pretty obvious signal. However, I did listen to another 2007 album today.

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LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

The LCD Soundsystem is the ragtag group headed by DFA Records owner James Murphy. In fact, from here on in, LCD Soundsystem will be referenced to as "him" or similar, as in reality, it's all his creation. Anyways, his prior effort, a self-titled double album, bore reasonable success and a cult hit, "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House." The album got high marks from a critical stance, but this album was, admittedly, my first experience with his music, as I used to be really closed minded to electronic music, before Midnight Brown (who pays homage to LCD Soundsystem with a lyric in "Like You're Gonna Write A Song About It"-- "The guy who wrote 'Daft Punk is Playing at My House' / is playing at my house"), Kraftwerk, and Tom Vek broke that wall down. The music bears obvious Kraftwerk influence, but most electronic music does, so that's not a strike against it or anything, even if the bassline of the opener "Get Innocuous" sounds way too much like "We Are The Robots." The vocals, and truely the rest of the music, takes more cues from Depeche Mode and the like as it progresses, but by the time "Us Vs. Them" rolls in, the music is really at state all it's own, slickly mixing punk, funk, and trip-hop, with strong instrumentation from synthesizers to even glockenspiels at one time. The highlight of the album is the solid closer, "New York, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down."A modern take on lounge singing if anything, with the most standard instrumentation on the whole album-- just piano, guitar, bass, and drums. While I did enjoy the album, I must admit that I wasn't really moved by it. It is what it is; a very solid electronica record, and a worthy purchase.

Exit #3 (probably)

(picture coming soons)

Ted Leo & The Pharmecists - "Living With The Living"

The Road to I WRITE LOTS ABOUT 2007 ALBUMS

Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible"



I didn't originally "get" Arcade Fire. This was mostly the fault of those who tried to turn it on to me by comparing it to something. I also attribute this to not understanding alt rock roots, and after I had baptized myself in Talking Heads in 2006, then came back to "Funeral", it all made much more sense. With that all fresh in my mind, I was interested to see where they were going with their next album. I was not prepared, however, for just how good the album was. Start to finish, "Neon Bible" is an outstanding work, and an exciting ride. Artistic expression from talented artists, who are not pressured by commercial success (and they've hit #2 on the Billboard 200 as a new release, so there is most certainly commercial success). One could argue this album is more accessible than "Funeral", and I would be inclined to agree on some points. The musical direction is certainly more clear than it was originally, but that could be solved by repeated listening. The album itself starts subtly with "Black Mirror," which-and I apologize for my hypocrisy regarding comparing Arcade Fire to anything, even if it is comparing it to other Arcade Fire- seems like a musical answer to "Rebellion (Lies)", being dark and brooding instead of the uplifting march that the latter is. It starts in a minor key (can't tell exactly what) and is greatly dissonant, building an unsettling anticipation as it grows louder and louder. The crashing finale of the song is just as unsettling as the body. The album, from this point, continues growing in enormity and in quality, which is in no way saying that "Black Mirror" is the low point of the album, simply because the album has no low point. This is particularly impressive, seeing as one of the songs, the could-be closer "No Cars Go" is not exactly new material, but the material it's from is so obscure and hard to procure that it ends up becoming fresh all over again. The most exciting song on the album, though, is easily "Black Wave/Bad Intentions." I say exciting because it's prospects are wondrous. To my knowledge, it is the first experiment between Arcade Fire and unorthodox time progression. The song starts whimsical and high pitched, with Régine Chassagne leading an upbeat section, powered by synthesizer, violin, bass and drumming that is deceptively pop sounding, before the song crawls to a halt and Win Butler's voice acts as the beginning of a new movement within the song, leading the song down a more foreboding path, both musically and in tonal progression. The switch is absolutely perfect, and what it signifies is a brave experiment that could become even more prominent come the next album. Even so, the rest of the album is an excellent piece of modern art rock, and a profound achievement for the whole band.





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Clutch - "From Beale Street To Oblivion