Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
9.2/10

Despite being responsible for the worst album title in recent history, Spoon has once again released a classic pop album, quite possibly one of the year’s best. It's difficult to say why I love this album as much as I do. It could be that it is simply the tightest collection of pop songs I’ve heard in a long time. Each and every song deserves to be on this disc because it stands alone a great song, except possibly The Ghost of You Lingers. This haunting, echoing cut is responsible for most of my problems with this album. It drones along just long enough to grate on you. When listening, you hear Brit Daniel’s hook, but it’s buried so far down in the haunting, almost obnoxious reverb you just have to wonder why. But somehow, it leads perfectly into You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb. The echoing parts are picked out in a stark light, a highlighted feature now familiar.

And that’s just one of many clever transitions. The songs flow logically from TGOYL through the rest of the album, each song taking nothing away from the next song. There are very few moments where you feel the song you’re listening to is not as good as the last. The only unfortunate choice in track sequencing was putting Don’t Make Me a Target the leadoff. While it makes perfect sense, putting one of the hookier tracks in the forefront, the momentum it builds is killed by TGOYL. The result is that DMMT feels like a throwaway track, a catchy single, but unimportant in the context of the album.

The songs rise and ebb, flowing naturally. The songs naturally become stomping, rhythmic Spoon style until Eddie’s Ragga, the most straightforward song on the album, only to put the colorful glory of The Underdog in stark relief. The Underdog is so much more flamboyant than most of Spoon’s work, that following it with the flamenco guitar of My Little Japanese Cigarette Case distracts from the last two songs, two of Spoon’s finest. Finer Feelings distills much of Spoon’s appeal into just under five minutes, and Black Like Me is one of the most understatedly brilliant songs Spoon has ever released.

But don’t get me wrong. Every song on this album is a pop gem. Personal highlights are Don’t You Evah, The Underdog, Finer Feelings, and Black Like Me. The hooks in this album are striking, specifically in tracks 3, 4, 7, and 9. Spoon uses commonplace areas of songs like verses and fills them with hooks and exciting rhythms, leaving songs without a boring moment. When the verses are as catchy and listenable as the chorus, you know you have something special. But the album isn’t just about catchy songs, it has to be felt as a whole. Spoon has done something exciting here, and they’re bringing back the album as an album; a whole, complete thing. To fragment this into singles would be unfortunate. Take the time to listen to Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga as a whole, the songs breaking down and building into little epics, a niche Spoon has been filling for quite some time.

Bitter Tea - The Fiery Furnaces

One reviewer opened his review by stating that he never thought that the Fiery Furnaces could release an album that was "so bad".  Contrary to his statement, he gave the album a 4 out of 5.  What he was saying was that his expectations for this album were mindblowingly high.  If you were one of the people who found Rehearsing My Choir brilliant, then you would have the same mindset.  The thing is, if you consider RMC a masterpiece, then you would have realized that the Fiery Furnaces just kept releasing fantastic material.  From the quirky, wonderful pop of Gallowsbird's Bark to the freaking mindblowing pop masterpiece of Blueberry Boat (this is beyond debate) to the light break of happy pop on EP to the theatric RMC, they just kept releasing standout material.  Naturally you would have been beyond excited for their next album.  I wasn't so high on expectations.  It turns out, no matter how interesting or theatric RMC was, it was near-unlistenable.  It really was distastfully discordant.  The grandmother's voice just couldn't carry the music well, at least I felt so.  So I didn't know what to think about Bitter Tea before it came out.  From the hype surrounding it and the first track I heard, The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry, it seemed like it was going to be a very difficult, bizarre pop record.  And that was just fine with me.  Blueberry Boat was a difficult, bizarre pop record at first for me.  I figured that this might follow along in that fantastic pop opera style.  But it sounded to me like they were attempting to be difficult for difficulties' sake.  On TVTM, they kind of are.  But on most of the rest of the record, they have a much more straightforward pop sensebility around them.  When I finally heard the record, I felt a bit let down.  Here are the Fiery Furnaces doing mostly straightforward pop (for them at least), which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so....shiny.  The music is so sparkly and electronic and...it's lost so much of the eclectic bizarreness that Blueberry Boat had.  I mean, there's a lot of backwards sounds.  That's cool, and it certainly, done right, adds a lot of FF-ness to the music.  Very quirky and cool.  Unfortunetly, it doesn't take away the electronic feel of this album.  I mean, the FF have always been a bit electronic, a lot electronic at times.  But not to this extent.  It gives the sound such a sheen...it's hard to describe.  The sound is a lot more polished than previous FF I suppose.  I havn't finished reviewing the album, but my first impression is too much polish, not enough of that original, bizarre sound the FF had.  By all means a good album, great pop, but the Fiery Furnaces could do better, or at least bigger.

7/10

Gulag Orkestar - Beirut

Gulag Orkestar – Beirut
8.7/10

Most 19-year-olds are interested most often in rock music, the glamorous, cocksure style of music so full of machismo and promises of wealth and women. None that I know of are interested in traditional Eastern Russian or German folk, except for one by the name of Zach Condon. With an obvious passion (obsession?) for the time period and atmosphere, he creates something wholly his own. Incorporating traditional instruments from Eastern European folk music and strings from all over, he creates a very exotic sound that creates an undeniable atmosphere. While I have heard this used to put down albums, I do mean this in the best possible way. The music is beautiful. I haven’t heard an album this year quite as beautiful as “Gulag Orkestar”. This beautiful atmosphere is achieved through an intriguing span of traditional and modern instruments. It’s worth noting that not a single guitar was used on this album. Yet somehow it manages to be better than most music that has come out this year.

My biggest complaint with the album comes when Condon layers the instruments to the point where it’s just too much. In songs like “Bratislava” he buries his voice under the thick instrumentation. While it is beautiful, it’s just a bit too thick. To a lesser degree, the instruments can sometimes lose their individual sounds as well. But, it’s the loss of the sound of Condon’s voice that bothers me. Condon’s voice adds to the music, his singing voice rising magnificently. The instrumentation on Bratislava is amazingly gorgeous, but I truly miss the prominence of his voice. If he would have let his mellifluous voice shine, I would have appreciated this track a bit more. In truth, when he lets the strings take center stage, the sound is less grandiose, but to me, more impressive. Postcards to Italy is my (as well as nearly every other reviewer’s) favorite track. With some exotic strings plinking front and center, followed by the always impressive horns, and his voice belting out cheesy lyrics about the old world, this song just embodies to me the spirit of Beirut. It’s the Eastern European old world sound mixed with indie pop infused with one kid’s imagination and a great voice. I am looking forward anything Beirut puts out in the future. This kid has ideas and I, for one, am excited to hear them.

Ships - Danielson

Ships – Danielson
9/10

No matter what type of music you are a fan of, odds are you probably haven’t heard of Daniel Smith despite his voluminous output with his various projects; Danielson, Danielson Famile, and Bro. Danielson to name the main ones. For something like a decade Smith has spearheaded each of these projects, with most of the output being from Danielson Famile. Simply meaning Danielson Family in French, it is basically a band made up mostly of his family members. His brothers and sisters play large parts on these albums, with Smith providing most of the creative inspiration for his siblings to help him bring to life by the use of varied instrumentation and his effervescent, almost obnoxiously high falsetto. It comes quite near a shriek at the most exuberant times, and this turns many people off of Smith’s various projects. When you get over the pitch, you realize that he is using his voice like another instrument, simply adding another sound to the music. One, which is worth noting, that provides consistently profound, often veiled lyrics on the Christian life. Most secular reviews do not pick up on the often deeply insightful lyrical abilities of Smith, as it talks mainly about situations and emotions that are felt solely in pursuit of a Christian life. While it may seem like I’m focusing on Danielson Famile instead of the intended review subject, Danielson, many of these things apply.

Danielson is another project of Smith’s that keeps the poignantly Christian lyrics and the wild instrumentation, but focuses on Family in a different sense. For the first record released under the moniker Danielson, Smith gathered together all the people in the Famile, people he had worked with musically, friends, family, collaborative musicians, musician friends, and the like, and made this dense, sprawling record. The sound can only be described as huge. There are so many musicians and instruments on this record. Members of Half-Handed Cloud, Deerhoof, and Sufjan Stevens (all renowned musicians in their own circles) come forward to play alongside Smith and his siblings in this massive-sounding album. In fact, on first listen through, it may seem like too much. There is just too much going on in each song to follow. But repeated listens make the sound much clearer. After three or four listens to Kids Pushing Kids (one of my favorite cuts from this album) the melody suddenly became apparent and I was enjoying the tune. While at first the sheer amount of instrumentation may seem daunting, a few listens to a certain song will reveal the fact that it is a fantastically well-crafted song. Smith knows what he is doing musically.

I might be talking the melodies up to where they seem formidable and opposing, the truth is they are just the opposite. The songs are inviting and enjoyable on the first listen. If a song seems overwhelming, just give it another listen or two. Smith is a gifted musician who crafts music extremely well. “Ships” shows off his skill wonderfully. Smith is without a doubt the most prolific Christian artist on the market today, and his off-kilter pop sensibilities are infused with the particular flavor each musician brings to the song. The album on the whole retains a very Danielson feel, and you can tell that Smith’s creative mind is behind each song. “Ships” is easily the most well crafted Christian release of the year and deserves repeated listens

Yeah Yeah Yeah!

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs new release, Show Your Bones. I mean, I liked Fever To Tell. Date With The Night, No No No, Y Control, Maps, Modern Romance it was a fun record. I can't tell you how often I've heard Maps and Y Control. It was a bombastic record. Karen O jumping around, shrieking, howling, moaning, yelping, it was crazy. It wasn't a low key record to say the least. But from the Gold Lion EP and the tracks leaked from the album, it looks like we'll be seeing less of the Karen O persona and more of Karen Orzoleck. Less of the beer-spraying, spaztic, howling stage persona, and more of the girl who wrote Modern Romance. The first track that may or may not be on the album; Gold Lion. Despite the embarassing-sounding percussion (seriously, was I the only one who sang along only replacing the lyrics with "We will, we will, rock you"?) Once Karen starts singing, you don't really care about the percussion, and it ends up being a great track, though more mellow than most of their earlier efforts. (Note: If links don't work, I will fix them soon. They should work though, right-click and save.)



The next song, Let Me Know, was the bonus track from the Gold Lion EP, and I really like it. It's got a very different vibe to it from most Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs, like it should be played in somebody's living room for a handful of friends and family instead of on a stage for hundreds of screaming fans. Not very new or different or creative, but cute.



Finally, the newest song that's been leaked from their album, Dudly. I swear, the opening strings were pulled off an album my dad put out a few years ago. Either that or they just sound freakishly similar. (That latter is the more likely option in case you couldn't tell.) The percussin is straight out of Rebellion (Lies) by the Aracde Fire. I'm not sure if this liberal borrowing makes the song better or worse, but I like the sound. Bits of it borrow liberally from Arcade Fire songs, but it's a pretty good song on it's own right.



I'm hoping their new album shows a bit more variety and variation and creativity than these tracks did, but you can't deny that these are good listens. Songs don't have to be huge and innovating to be great listens, and that's what these songs are.