April 2004
I Went Record Shopping
Good News For People Who Love Bad News
Modest Mouse
I like! Though I think this is a bit of a departure from Modest
Mouse's previous work. I don't think it's radically different, but
it certainly has a bit more maturity. However, I think this is a
band that has been gaining in maturity with every album. That is
to say, this is a band that matures. That's as it should be- who
wants to listen to dudes who can't bother to develop musically after
10 years?
Good News For People Who Love Bad News starts out with a
little horn intro. The next song, "The World at Large"
has the very distinctive vocals we've all come to expect from Isaac
Brock, though not so much on the yelling. It's a very mellow song,
then surprisingly contains a string section and some fifes. Not
great, but not bad. But it does serve as a great preface to "Float
On". "Float On" sounds exactly like what a Modest
Mouse song should. It's tight, has some yelling and odd guitar work,
and the usual questionable lyrics. However, "Float On"
is a much more well put together song than you'd expect to hear
on, say, Lonesome Crowded West. That could be seen as either good,
bad, or neither. "Float On" is more in control of itself,
while at the same time definitely more honkey-funkey (while still
rocking out) than much of what Modest Mouse has produced in the
past. Same with "The View". In fact, I think the same
can be said of Good News For People Who Love Bad News as a whole.
That's not to say that this album is devoid of the yelling and
screaming and loudly banging on guitars that made Modest Mouse so
bad-ass in the first place. "Bury Me With It" is a great
example. It's certainly no "Doin' the Cockroach," but
it's super fucking catchy and I can't get it out of my head today.
I think "Dance Hall" is another attempt at this, but an
attempt that fails, I think. It's the worst song on the album. It's
fairly pointless.
Good News For People Who Love Bad News also contains attempts
at things that I think are pretty new for this band. I applaud it.
The first example that comes to mind is the horn and fifery mentioned
above. The next is "This Devil's Workday," song with a
banjo and screaming trumpet that manages to sound somewhat like
a fucked up Tom Waits song. Also, "Satin in a Coffin"
sounds somewhat like a Sixteen Horsepower song to me.
Finally, I want to mention, "The Good Times are Killing Me".
This is a tremendous songs, and maybe one of my favorite Modest
Mouse songs ever. The lyrics are as they should be- about drinking
yourself to death. The music is catchy and simple, while incorporating
more instrumentation than normal for Modest Mouse, and is essentially
a march. This is because the backing music is provided by The Flaming
Lips. You have to love that. And if you don't, get the hell off
my website.
Moon & Antarctica [Remastered]
Modest Mouse
There really is no advantage of this reissue over the original one,
which came out in 2000, except that the track titles appear on the
display of the fancy CD player in my VW. The BBC live bonus tracks
are interesting enough, but not worth the 15 bucks if you already
have the entire original album. Still, anyone not owning this album
should rectify that as quickly as possible.
Our Endless Numbered Days
Iron & Wine
Splendid! Delightful! I want to find one word to describe this album,
and those are the best two. I can't decide between the two, though,
so I guess that's fairly futile.
Our Endless Numbered Days is the follow-up to the much acclaimed
debut The Creek Drank the Cradle, and album I am still very
impressed with. But where The Creek Drank the Cradle was bittersweet
and beautiful (see "Bird Stealing Bread" which requires
one to think of Nick Drake's "Pink Moon"), Our Endless
Numbered Days has an underlying joyfulness to it. And, of course,
it's achingly beautiful.
Iron & Wine creates complicated music. It sounds, initially,
like fairly standard folk music. However, the more one listens to
it, the more one realizes that it's really rather deep traditional
Americana that comes from some mental crossroads between Appalachia,
deep South, and way out West. For me, I tend to want to compare
Iron & Wine to one of the great unknown guitarists of traditional
American music, John Fahey.
When I first sat down and listened to this album, I assumed this
was more of the same from Iron & Wine- beautiful, yet mournful.
That doesn't seem to be the case to me now. Sure, there are some
haunting songs on this album, like "Cinder and Smoke",
but I think the overall tone of the album isn't one of sadness,
but one of quiet joy.
I think one of the more convincing songs that makes my case on
Our Endless Numbered Days is "Sunset Soon Forgotten".
Part of the guitar is blatantly evocative of bullfrogs. There is
also slide guitar. The lyrics are about watching the sun go down.
This song screams of Mark Twain and lazy late summer evenings. It's
absolutely splendid.
I think my favorite song on this album, though, is "Love and
Some Verses". Here Sam Beam showcases his perfectly understated
voice for this kind of music. But really, it's all about the music
here. The interplay between a banjo, a slide guitar, and a snare
drum played with a brush is a musical representation of absolute
contentment. I could really listen to it all day, sit in my office
and drift off daydreaming about hopping a west-bound freight train
and living in a box car with my hobo buddies.
Even the more haunting songs on Our Endless Numbered Days
seem to convey an underlying joy that one can find in life. And
it's definitely the kind of music that anybody in the world can
hear and say, "ah, yes- now that's American" and not mean
it derisively.
It's All Around You
Tortoise
I like Tortoise and I don't care what you think.
It's All Around You is not as good as Tortoise's previous
album, Standards, but that's to be expected. Standards
is an exceptional album. It's All Around You is a terribly good
album, though. But only if you have the kind of taste that leads
you to like Tortoise in the first place. This album is not what
I would call the least bit radio friendly.
Tortoise is one of those bands that has been producing what my
be called prog rock, or at least what follows from prog rock. Tortoise
might be the Yes of our times, just as so might Sigur Ros. Or even
Radiohead. Sorry indie rock kids, it's prog rock. Still, nobody's
crying because bands like Wilco seem to have picked up on old country
music. Hell, alt-country has become a whole subgenre. So nobody
should be offended that what is often called "post rock"
is the second coming of prog rock.
All I'm saying is that Tortoise doesn't really use conventional
song structure and that their music tends to be a bit more theatrical
than, say, whatever dumb rock teenagers are listening to these days.
Tortoise has taken a few further steps than Stereolab towards the
prog rock void (whereas Stereolab keeps at least a foot on the traditional
notions of pop). Don't forget, these two bands know each other well.
At any rate, It's All Around You is a good follow up to
Standards. To me, this album seems more cohesive than Standards.
But I also think Standards was more adventurous, in exploring different
sounds.
One of the better songs on It's All Around You is "Crest,"
which is very cinematic and sweeping. It starts out sounding very
harpsicordal in the manner Tortoise often shares with Stereolab.
The song then slowly works itself into a subdued frenzy of cymbal
crashes, chimes, and lofty synth tones. Also, there are guitars.
Crest is perfectly sandwiched between "The Lithium Shifts"
and "Stretch (You Are All Right)". Both songs add further
context which makes listening to all three in a row more enjoyable.
A mix of driving rhythm and lofty tones.
Also, I must mention that "Dot/Eyes" has some heavy duty
drumming. This makes me happy in that "Seneca" from Standards
is one of the most heavy driving percussive songs I'd heard in a
long time. "Dot/Eyes" is a nice follow-up to that, though
it is a bit more spacey. Still, the drums are getting a hell of
a workout here.
Talkie Walkie
Air
I really need to stop buying Air CDs. This album is certainly better
than their last, 10,000 Hz Legend, which was terrible. Talkie
Walkie is a vast improvement, but it's really not all that exciting.
There are a few decent tracks, most notably "Run" and
"Surfing on a Rocket". And it was definitely pleasant
to hear a banjo in "Biological". But much of this album
just bored me. But I guess that's the danger of listening to Air.
I'm sure many people are bored to tears listening to Primiers
Symptomes, but I absolutely adored the way that album teetered
back and forth of the edge of unforgivable cheesiness. Air started
out making terrific and interesting music. I just fear that they've
become too convinced of their own greatness. Air, it would seem
to me now, isn't all that great, though I certainly want them to
be.
Next month: new releases by the The Beta Band, Franz Ferdinand,
and Erlend Oye.
