I left this buUUuLL-WHIP bythenight-STAND!

After writing three album reviews on this site, I realize how much I hate affixing numbers to them. After all, a number-based system won’t work at all for this blog. Here are a few reasons why:

1) I listen to music that I believe I will like

2) I am too open to music to outwardly dislike something

3) Taking these into consideration, the average rating will be very high

4) Also, I really don’t want to put the effort into writing about an album I didn’t particularly enjoy.

With that in mind, I continue to the album I want to talk about now:

Out of any album I’ve listened to this year, no album has been played more than Enemy Mine. Why? Here’s why:

In high school, we are always taught to start our essay with an attention-getter; something to engage our reader. On this album, that opening paragraph comes in the form of “Spanish Gold, 2044.” It begins with leisurely guitar triads and thumping drums before descending into Carey Mercer’s land of lyrical madness. “Where you gonna run when the clouds break?” Mercer prophesies. It’s all further downhill from there as the song spirals through further swirling arpeggi. The mic then passes to Krug for the ballad “Paper Lace,” possibly Krug’s poppiest to date, yet Krug manages to inject it with his own signature lyrical flair.

Bejar picks up for “Heartswarm,” a song with a soft ballad facade to mask the angry, passive-aggressive lyrics reminiscent of Destroyer, as one would expect from him. (Really, if you take Destroyer and mix it with weirder music, it still sounds like Destroyer, because that’s just how Dan Bejar is.) Then comes “Settle On Your Skin,” another Krug number that features his mad keyboard skills.

Each song on this album is a gem; something that I can rarely say about an album. Each lead singer manages to bring their own level of epic to their creations, but Mercer in particular shines on this record. If you remember “Bushels” from Frog Eyes’ last album, imagine how epic that was, then compress that epic into about four to five minutes, then repeat it thrice. You now have heard “Spanish Gold, 2044,” “Peace,” and “Warlock Psychologist.” Mercer’s wails, whoops, and hollers cannot be ignored. He commands that you listen, and you LISTEN.

Where “Beast Moans” was an impressive debut from a new Canadian Indie Rock collective, “Enemy Mine” will surely establish Bejar, Mercer, and Krug as the Canadian Indie Rock Triumvirate, both as Swan Lake and in their own individual projects.

In other Canadian indie news, Sunset Rubdown’s new album is dropping on June 23. This album will be more than enough to tide us over until then.

Hell Yes. Sunset Rubdown name new album, provide tracklist

Sunset Rubdown’s new album is entitled Dragonslayer, and it will be released on June 23.

Tracklist:
01 Silver Moons
02 Idiot Heart
03 Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh!
04 Black Swan
05 Paper Lace
06 You Go on Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)
07 Nightingale / December Song
08 Dragon’s Lair

Metric reveal Fantasies cover art, new tracks

Metric’s new LP, Fantasies, is available for pre-order on their website.

Fantasies drops into stores April 14.

Metric also unveiled two new tracks: The full album version of “Help I’m Alive” and “Gimme Sympathy.”

mp3: Metric – Help I’m Alive
mp3: Metric – Gimme Sympathy (From the forthcoming Fantasies LP)

Anticipation: Windmill – Epcot Starfields

Windmill’s Puddle City Racing Lights, for me, took a little getting used to (and when I say “a little,” I mean “a lot,”) but once I got beyond Matthew Dillon’s helium vocals, what was left was a brilliant record. Now Dillon and company are working on their sophomore album “Epcot Starfields.” Yes, it’s an album about the Epcot center at Disney World. BUT, a listen to “Epcot Slow” only heightens my excitement for the album. Windmill is currently mixing and finishing the album, as revealed by a post on Windmill’s MySpace page. Also revealed are song titles for the next album:

Airsuit
Big Boom
IMAX Raceway
Ellen Save Our Energy
Epcotman
Epcot Slow
Photo Hemispheres
Shuttle
Sony Metropolis Stars
Spaceship Earth

In the meantime, have an mp3:

mp3: Windmill – Epcot Slow (from the forthcoming “Epcot Starfields” LP)

Review: Charles Spearin – The Happiness Project

When I saw that the next album from Broken Social Scene was “BSS presents Charles Spearin,” I thought two things: One, since it carries the BSS label, it’s going to sound like BSS. Two, since it’s Charles Spearin, it’s going to sound like Do Make Say Think. Oh Joy. They’re following up two mediocre “BSS Presents” releases with an album that’s going to sound like a band I have fallen asleep to. Then it wound up in my iTunes and I hit play.

One look at the cover art shows no “BSS presents” text, because this is neither a BSS or DMST release. This is a Charles Spearin album, and to say that it shattered my expectations would be an understatement. The Happiness Project is nothing short of a work of staggering genius.

Spearin said about the album: “These are my neighbours. My wife and I have two little kids and live downtown Toronto. In the summertime, all the kids in the neighbourhood play outside together and everyone is out on their porch enjoying each other’s company, telling stories and sharing thoughts. A year or so ago, I began inviting some of them over to the house for a casual interview vaguely centered around the subject of happiness. In some cases we never broached the subject directly but nonetheless my friends began to call it my ‘Happiness Project.’ After each interview I would listen back to the recording for moments that were interesting in both meaning and melody. By meaning I mean the thoughts expressed, by melody I mean the cadence and inflection that give the voice a singsong quality.

And here Spearin has found the music in each person’s voice, and when the music and speech are played together they mesh together and suddenly the person is singing rather than talking. Opener “Mrs. Morris” blends the voice of elderly, friendly Mrs. Morris with the smooth tones of the tenor saxophone, and the effect is so powerful every time you hear it that it is like hearing it for the first time on each track. On “Vittoria,” Spearin finds rhythm in the voice of a little girl trying to think of something to say. The repeated refrain of “It’s like… It’s like, um…” is mesmerizing, much like the “Send me home” line from “Marisa,” but the album’s true highlight is the beautifully moving “Vanessa,” in which the young, deaf heroine discusses what it is like to learn to hear with a cochlear implant, with accompaniment by the piano.

Spearin has switched music around. We’re used to hearing words set to music. Here, we hear music set to words; the instruments are now the ones singing along. While I am certain that Spearin is not the first person to do this, I am certain that he does it well.

The album cover does not bear the name of Broken Social Scene, as it would be an injustice to brand it as such. Spearin has created something so far removed from not only BSS and DMST, but from music itself. So much, in fact, that the album plays out like a multimedia display in an art gallery, but no video is necessary. That is left up to us. This is a piece of art that pulls you in, and whether you like it or not, you will see it all unfold in your mind. Simply mesmerizing.

Rating: 9.8

Anticipation: Metric – Fantasies

The album will be released on April 14. And if the entire album is as kickass as lead single “Help, I’m Alive,” it’s going to be quite a good one.

01. Help I’m Alive
02. Sick Muse
03. Satellite Mind
04. Twilight Galaxy
05. Gold Guns Girls
06. Gimme Sympathy
07. Collect Call
08. Front Row
09. Blindness
10. Stadium Love

mp3: Metric – Help I\'m Alive

Mixtape: Obsessions #1

This is just a mix of some songs that I’m really getting into right now.

1. Bon Iver – Beach Baby
2. They Might Be Giants – Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal
3. Portugal. The Man – AKA M80 The Wolf
4. Ezra Furman & The Harpoons – Take Off Your Sunglasses
5. Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses
6. Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes
7. Wolf Parade – Grounds For Divorce
8. Frog Eyes – Caravan Breakers, They Prey On The Weak And The Old
9. Zookeeper – Trumpets
10. Sigur Ros – Vid Spilum Endalaust
11. Antony & The Johnsons – Epilepsy Is Dancing
12. Massive Attack – Teardrop
13. Frightened Rabbit – Floating In The Forth

—

Download the mix here (file size: 82 MB)

Review: Bon Iver – Blood Bank EP

Justin Vernon took the indie music world by storm last year with his 2007-but-also-2008 release For Emma, Forever Ago. Now he’s followed that up with this nice little EP here. And he has broadened his horizons since then, including not just a guitar, but a piano and vocorder.

Beginning the EP is the soft pop-rock number “Blood Bank”, an account of a spontaneous midwinter romance that sounds conceptually like something Stars could have recorded. Vernon makes use of the lower register we heard on “Blindsided.” This is thrown away right afterward on the flawless “Beach Baby,” the EP’s throwback to For Emma that can only be described as short and sweet, finishing with a tropical guitar break that is a perfect complement to the lyrics.

“Babys” opens with an out-of-tune piano introduction and the mantra “Summer comes / To multiply,” whose meaning is all too obvious. Then comes the nonsensical “I’m the Carnival of Peace / I’ll probably start a fleet / with no apologies.” All I can think is Justin Vernon is going to make a fleet of babies? What? I don’t get it. Then the mantra and the piano return to close the song out.

Lastly comes the a cappella “Woods,” featuring what sounds like (gasp!) Auto-Tune Bon Iver. However, I will forgive him, as he has demonstrated that he is perfectly capable of singing without the use of such devices. Yet the autotuning does not detract from the song, a plethora of R&B vocal flourishes run through a vocorder and layered over each other, producing a song about what appears to be a prohibition-era moonshiner, repeating “I’m up in the woods / I’m down on my mind / I’m building a still / To slow down the time.” Yet it is captivating all the same.

One disadvantage of For Emma was that it dragged in places. On listens, I would feel finished after “The Wolves,” because those first four tracks so beautifully encompassed the essence of the entire album. While Blood Bank is not by any means long, it manages to capture the feeling of something much bigger than itself, like Bon Iver does so well.

Rating: 8.0

MP3: Beach Baby

Whimsy: Tips for starting an indie band

We all have had that dream at one point in our life: Start a band and become the newest indie rock sensations when, luckily, the right person at Pitchfork hears your album and gives it 9.7, immediately launching you into the limelight. Well, we can’t all be Arcade Fire (one of them is bad enough as it is) but we can still start a band and have fun. Need help getting started? Just follow these simple steps:

First, go here.

The name of the article is the name of your band.

Next, go here.

Scroll down to the last quote on the page. The last four words or so is the name of your debut album. You don’t necessarily have to use exactly four words. You can take however many words from the end you need for your album to sound nice and indie. The last couple words of every other quote on the page are your album’s tracklist. Inclusion of a title track is optional.

Finally, go here.

The third picture is your album cover. Now throw it all together in photoshop or something and write some music and your album is all ready to go!

Here are some examples:

“His Own Dear Person,” the debut from Gurgaon Rural:

1. Joy From Your Neighbors
2. The Thing You Think You Cannot Do
3. “Occupant”
4. When We Change
5. Always Been Insufferable
6. The Work That You Love
7. Grown Up
8. Are Not
9. It Is Quite Incredible

This group is probably some quasi-electronic indie pop group from some European country. They’d probably sound like a mix of Animal Collective and Daft Punk.

Next, we have the debut from Rate of Change, entitled “The Biggest Piece:”

1. Try To Cheer Someone Else Up
2. We Never Laugh
3. The Top Of One’s Voice
4. Resemblance To Ourselves
5. Nothing In Yourself
6. Remedied
7. Forgiveness And Gratefulness
8. The True Fabric Of Self
9. In A Sane Society
10. The Biggest Piece

I’m pretty sure these guys are some sort of Christian Indie band, if there can be such a thing. I still would really like to hear a song called “In A Sane Society.”

Finally, “Only In Retrospect” by The Crimson Patch:

1. Writing About You
2. Students
3. Acquire It
4. Without Knowing It
5. Sarcastic Thing
6. A Clever Man
7. Accomplish Something
8. Influencing Change
9. Can’t Read Them Either
10. Only In Retrospect

Now THIS I want to hear. The Crimson Patch is probably an outlet for Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) to showcase his heavier, darker side. It’d probably be like Bon Iver with some post-rock elements. In other words, super crazy interesting. I really want to hear “A Clever Man.”

And there you have it. Three easy steps for getting your indie rock dreams off the ground. Now all you need to do is write the music…

Review: Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

—

I feel like a newcomer to this whole “indie” thing, seeing as what I thought was obscure at one point was the equivalent of pop at the indie level, if you know what I mean. Basically, I wasn’t excited for this album. Not because I dislike Animal Collective, by any means, but because I had never heard anything else by Animal Collective.

But this is good, right? I mean, this is a review of the new Animal Collective album from someone who’s never heard Animal Collective before! It’s the ultimate test! Now, how did Merriweather Post Pavilion go over with this Animal Collective virgin?

Very, very well, I’d say. I will first say that for me, this one was a grower. I had this impression that Animal Collective were some sort of pseudo-electronic group, and was thus wary of the album upon first listen. However, after three more listens, their talent showed through. Here is an album that manages to take what seem to be indecipherable messes of sound, and craft catchy music out of them. “My God,” I thought to myself, “This is genius!”

Album highlights include the catchy and danceable “My Girls,” with its catchy chorus about living simply: “I just want / four walls and adobe slabs / for my girls.” Hand claps abound. There is also the foot-stomping and bouncy “Summertime Clothes,” the poppy “Bluish,” and the solid closer “Brothersport.”

Right now I’m going to disagree with most other reviewers on the album’s true highlight. While “My Girls” and “Brothersport” are close, my highlight is the purely awesome “Lion In A Coma.” Partially, it’s due to its unusual time signature, but mostly for its thundering pace and twanging line for whatever that instrument is that they use that I don’t know the name of (it sounds like a didgeridoo). The wordplay also plays a part. Yet not all of the album is a high point. The middle track “Daily Routine” is one that I found to drag on a bit too long (I found myself thinking “Come on and end already so I can hear ‘Bluish!’”)

Critics are already calling this the best album of 2009, something to which I take offense. I am not making any statements about this album’s placement on my year-end best of list. After all, there are still releases from Swan Lake and Handsome Furs to look forward to, not to mention Sunset Rubdown! Still, while I’m waiting for my Canadian man-crushes to put some stuff out, Merriweather Post Pavilion will do me just fine. Can I have my indie cred now?

RATING: 9.4

(I’m going to use the Pitchfork system for my ratings. Why? Because I think it’s the best system for reviewing albums, that’s why.)