Many, many, well three years ago, I was dating Marie Lynn and I introduced her to Bright Eyes who I liked but didn’t love and she flipped out. Suddenly all we listened to night and day was Conor Oberst and after awhile I began to get past the voice and hear him better.
My point is: I changed my mind.
The problem with reviewing albums is that it is gloriously set in stone -there is no wiggle room, and, you are invariably wrong.
Hot Chip remixed “Easy/Lucky/Free” and Rilo Kiley’s “Breakin’ Up” so apparently they are the indie rock wet dream remix. But I was never certain…
One Life Stand – Hot Chip – At the front of the electronic duo as rock, these limeys have been going it for five albums worth and this aint bad, “Keep Quiet” uses a wondrous synth sample, the organ on “Thieves Like Us” deserved and the remixed title track a wonder. So what’s my problem? It’s a little too ponderous for my tastes -do the words more bass mean nothing to them But like I said… that could change.
Hardships! – Jenny Wilson – I swear to you that in 2009 I listened to EVERYTHING ON EARTH. And I still missed this Swedish popstars magnificent second album. An R&b, soul, deep south Gospelly sound. And she has improved since then.
Funstyle – Liz Phair – It is at best sophistication to dub Phair’s self-released rock opera about a girl getting dumped by her label, a failure. A failure it aint. So I recommend it with caveats aplenty. For every “Oh Bangladesh” -a wonderful blues rumble, there is an artistic disaster like “I Hate This”. Liz wins out in the end and I hope she sells tons of downloads if only to show up the zeitgeist and set a new paradigm.
Nice It Up – Sugar Minott – Has ground breaking pop music ever sounded so smooth, so casual, so relaxed in its own syncopation’ Epic stuff. Sorry it took Minott’s death for me to really listen.
Dark Night Of The Soul – Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Look, don’t call your fucking album Dark night of the soul. Am I writing the fucking review or are you. Jesus Christ, between Vic Chestnut and Mark Linklous (two suicides) not even mentioning the increasingly bizarre David Lynch (you can’t write Lynch’s name without those conditionals), we expect it to be moody shit. When it works, it is great. When it doesn’t? Less so. Ps to Alyson The Grey Album works perfect.