Hissing Fauna

1) “Hissing Fauna, are You the Destroyer?” by Of Montreal
And then there’s number one. The be-all/end-all of 2007 albums, Of Montreal’s nearly unclassifiable “Hissing Fauna, are You the Destroyer?” The album is a concept album, detailing Kevin Barnes’s life after a divorce with his ex-wife. When I heard about this album, the first thought that came into my mind was that it was going to be a stereotypical pain-and-suffering album. As Aaron Barrett of Reel Big Fish said during a live show, a lot of bands know that “you can make a hell of a lot of money off of pain and suffering.” This divorce album uses the concept of pain and suffering, and takes it to the next level. There’s the classic ‘Suffer for Fashion’ intro, “We just want to emote ‘till we’re dead!” Then in ‘Cato as a Pun’, Barnes just wants to “shave your head, have a drink, and be left alone. (Is that too much to ask?)”. Then he makes a desperate plea to his chemicals in the single ‘Heimdalsgate like a Promethean Curse’, falls into a deep depression in ‘Gronlandic Edit’, and comes to terms with his alter ego, a black transvestite named Georgie Fruit in the 12-minute long epic ballad ‘The Past is a Grotesque Animal’.

Wait, what? That’s not how this gig usually goes down…and that’s about the time you realize that “Hissing Fauna” is not your typical breakup album. Kevin Barnes and crew (I refer to Kevin most often because he writes and composes almost all Of Montreal’s music) break quite a few boundaries in this album. For one, they put a slightly insane spin on just about everything they write about. For one, Kevin Barnes is assuming the role of Georgie Fruit for the latter half of the album, a move which not only changes him lyrically but gives the music a pseudo-funk spin instead of the indie pop sound that dominated the first few tracks. Primarily, Fruit serves as an outlet for all of Barnes’s anger that he keeps locked inside. This is seen in ‘She’s a Rejector’, where he serenades you with “There’s the girl who left me bitter/Want to pay some other girl to just go up to her and hit her…”and then explodes, screaming “But I can’t/I can’t/I can’t/can’t/can’t!” Of course, the sound change is a large difference, and it nudges Of Montreal into other genres. As an Elephant 6 band, they are notorious for pushing the genres, but the sound in the second half of the album is something between a 70’s discotheque, a dance-punk concert, and a power-pop group that would give NSYNC a run for their money. If this sounds absurd, don’t fool yourself; it is, but it’s also incredibly appealing. ‘The Past is a Grotesque Animal’ conveys this change well; as the 12-minute song slowly adds to itself. Where at the start, it was a soft drum machine and a voice; it ends with an angsty choir, a pulsing beat, a medley of synthesizers, and one Georgie Fruit.

I have no clue what Of Montreal is trying to show with this album, but I would agree with just about any suggestion. They break the boundaries of their own loose “sound”, their structure, and even their own personalities. While for most artists, this would be a gamble at best, it’s a sure bet for Kevin Barnes, for whom this album seems to flow quicker than a broken floodgate. I can name very few things wrong with this album, but I will warn that it is a bit of an acquired taste (it requires a pretty liberal mind to deal with transvestites and the concept of “Soul Power” from ‘Faberge Falls for Shuggie’…) and it takes a few listens to wrap your mind around the album. But from there it becomes accessible, bold, fun, and dare I say, a euphoric listening experience.

Recommended Listening: “Heimdalsgate like a Promethean Curse”, “Gronlandic Edit”, “The Past is a Grotesque Animal”, “She’s a Rejector”.

-blake

Albums I wish I could have listened to before posting this top 10:

• "Andorra", by Caribou
• "You, You're a History of Rust", by Do Make Say Think
• "Digital Shades Volume 1", by M83
• "Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon", by Devendra Banhart
• "Sound of Silver", by LCD Soundsystem
• "In Rainbows", by Radiohead
  

• "Icons, Abstract Thee", by Of Montreal

• "Timebomb", by Beck
• "Thou Shalt Always Kill", by Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip

• "The Bedlam in Goliath", by The Mars Volta
• Whatever Beck decides to put out
• "When Life Gives You Lemons...", by Atmosphere
• Whatever Mogwai decides to put out
• "13 Blues for Thirteen Moons", by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
• Whatever Primus decides to put out
• "Skeletal Lamping", by Of Montreal (Jeez, these guys are on a friggen roll!)
  

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Strawberry Jam

2) “Strawberry Jam”, by Animal Collective

Another new development of 2007: Animal Collective puts out an album that’s…actually an album?! Yep, the creepy quartet did put out a new album this year, and it’s an album in every sense (or at least more than the other releases by AC have been). The songs start, progress, and some of them even have a verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus progression. It’s astonishing what the band can do when they’re not just on LSD (although I’m not saying their older albums were bad…”Here Comes the Indian” is probably one of my all-time favorite albums), as “Strawberry Jam” shows. And regardless of the structure they have found in their songs, the music is still epileptic, quirky, and creepy.  Avey Tare doesn’t bring out the crazy screaming voice like he used to, but it comes out a bit in songs like ‘Peacebone’ and ‘For Reverend Green’. Speaking of ‘Peacebone’, I thought it was a great move to put that track in the beginning, as it resembles both the band’s changes and their roots. A lot of the tracks have this old/new blend, but I found it most prominent in the opening track, which combines time-signature-less synthesizer patterns with…pretty much everything else.

But “Strawberry Jam” doesn’t sound like it was simply thrown together; I’m pretty sure that Animal Collective has the mathematical precision of bands like Spoon, but they choose to make their songs full and chaotic. The ragtime piano in ‘Fireworks’, the random synth patterns in ‘Peacebone’, and the Stomp-esque percussion in ‘Derek’ all signify this precision. If the band was just jamming, the music would be completely different, as their live shows tend to reveal. Regardless, the instrumentation is nearly perfect for each song, and although most songs start with one simple pattern that is repeated throughout the song, the album rarely gets repetitive. I think my favorite songs on the album are the longer ones, such as ‘For Reverend Green’, which might or might not infer a pedophilic preacher (although the outro lyrics of “For Reverend Green/Rubbing Me” seem to allude to this). The sound doesn’t change as much within singular songs, but each individual song on the album carries a unique sound that tends to fit well with its predecessor and successor. A lot of the songs just have one guitar riff repeated under fluctuating keyboards, percussion, and lyrics, yet this isn’t really a problem for me. It stays engaging no matter how many times you’ve listened to it.

Another upside to the album is its ability to convey certain messages. Although Avey Tare’s cryptic lyrics might not come through all the time (which happens on songs like ‘#1’ and ‘Cuckoo Cuckoo’), the song title often gives you hints as to what the song is about, and the feel of the song plays a large part in this as well. The music in Animal Collective’s albums is much more important than the lyrics, and they are often only included for new and weird sounds, which Tare provides plenty of. New and weird sounds are also a staple of Animal Collective’s music; although this album is not as experimental, per se, as its predecessors, there are still some pretty weird sounds and songs. This album is probably not for the faint of heart, and definitely not for those who like their music stiff and organized. Fortunately, I am neither of these people, and I have to say that this album is a huge advancement for the band, and definitely one of the best albums of this year.

Recommended Listening: “Peacebone”, “For Reverend Green”, “Fireworks”, “Derek”.

-blake

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Icky Thump

3) “Icky Thump”, by The White Stripes

This, lady and gentlemen, is the album that got me back into The White Stripes. After the horrible fiasco which was “Get behind Me Satan” (which I now have learned to love slightly more than I did before), I was really apprehensive about picking this album up. What if it was another disaster? I don’t think I could take another “Get behind Me Satan” and live; where were the days of yore, the days of “White Blood Cells” and “Elephant”? So I listened to the single, title track ‘Icky Thump’, when my friend gave it to me this September (yeah, I know, I was a bit late on picking up this album). And I listened to it again. And again. And I watched the music video for it a few times. Then I looked up their second single, ‘You Don’t know what Love Is (You Just Do as You’re Told)’. And I listened to that quite a few times. And then I realized something that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside: no doubt, this album was going to be great, if not a masterpiece.

Three months and an obscene number of listens later, I stand by that statement. This album is my personal favorite out of the White Stripes’, and although it doesn’t entirely revert back to the garage-rock days of yore, it gets pretty damn close. The album starts out with the single ‘Icky Thump’, where you learn three things. Meg White is a really good, if unorthodox, drummer; Jack White is a really good, if unconventional, singer/songwriter; and he still hasn’t given up playing with synthesizers. The energy that flows between them is especially strong on this album. You can’t see them, but you get a gut feeling that on tracks such as ‘Rag & Bone’ and ‘St. Andrew (This Battle is in the Sky)’, they were having a great deal of fun with the composition/recording process. The album has moments where it’s wonkier than if the Whites were replaced with chimpanzees and moments where it’s as serious as a heart attack. Tracks such as ‘Conquest’ make you stop and think “Why the hell is this song so over-the-top?” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, either. The bombastic sound they adopt for this album is colossal where it counts, then quiet and contemplative in other pivotal moments, such as ‘300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues’. The shift in sounds is interesting to listen to, yet it doesn’t alienate the listener one bit. The album retains a bit of the strangeness that was on “Get behind Me Satan”, reverts back to a bit of the simplicity of their first few albums, and fuses the the sound into “Icky Thump”, which makes it accessible, fun, and above all, powerful.

The low points of the album are really hard to pinpoint. Personally, I don’t like ‘A Martyr for My Love for You’, because it sort of betrays the badass Jack White who sings on the other tracks and presents a singer who runs away from his love for reasons unknown. Also, the different styles the band tries on songs like ‘Conquest’, ‘Prickly Thorn, but Sweetly Worn’, and ‘Rag & Bone’ sometimes require a critical ear. I’m not a big fan of ‘Prickly Thorn’ either, but a lot of people have told me it’s their favorite song on the CD. Above it all, “Icky Thump” is a simply amazing album no matter how you look at it. But that being said, different White Stripes fans will find different things amazing about it. The album is a good choice for both long-time fans and for newcomers, and no two listens of the album are the same.

Recommended Listening: “Icky Thump”, “You Don’t know what Love Is (You Just Do as You’re Told)”, “Conquest”, “Effect & Cause”.

-blake

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Person Pitch

4) “Person Pitch”, by Panda Bear

It’s really hard to tell who’s in charge of Animal Collective these days. It used to be that lead singer/lead guitarist Avey Tare had a vice-like grip on the band’s music direction, as was seen in their album “Here Comes the Indian”, but more recently; there has been a shift in power. The power is now slowly gathering in the hands of Noah Lennox, AKA Panda Bear. Panda Bear, a master of eclectic, seizure-inducing percussion, has also recently started his solo career, which is a great thing, because the guy can mix just as well as he drums. Person Pitch, his newest album, is a conglomerate of strange percussion, repeated guitar riffs, and disembodied vocals that make you feel as if you are floating off the coast of his Portugal home. And this was his intention; when creating the album, Panda Bear said that it was meant to convey the sounds of his homeland. This loose concept comes through strongly, and when listening to it, it is easy to feel as if you are caught up in the Lisbon sunshine, adrift amongst some waves. The album has a strong nautical theme (as the opening number “Comfy in Nautica” suggests), but also a sunshine-y and summer feel to it. When it was released in March, I couldn’t wait for it to be summer, because this album reminds me of driving down a deserted highway in a convertible. It has an excellent flow, and although it seems to draw influences from a variety of jam bands, you never feel like you are listening to a 10-minute song. Whether the tracks are three minutes or thirteen, Panda Bear keeps it interesting to listen to, which combined with the cohesiveness of the album, is astonishing.

The albums weaknesses are very few and scattered. First off, minus the two singles released from the album (“Comfy in Nautica” and “I’m Not”), the rest of the tracks are really hard to listen to in a standalone fashion. When I listen to “Person Pitch”, it’s generally all the way through, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The bad thing comes from the fact that it’s often hard to distinguish one song from another, as they all have a similar flow and blend into each other seamlessly. This makes it hard to shuffle onto the album or to recommend only one track (and it’s made even more difficult since the album is 45 minutes, but only has 7 tracks).  Secondly, Lennox’s lyrics come through very strangely at times. They’re not convoluted or cryptic as in Animal Collective, but they’re not entirely straightforward either. This is made harder by the tendency for the drums and guitar to take precedence over lyrics. If the lyrics are hard to distinguish because they’re in the background of the music, why are they in there in the first place? Nevertheless, Lennox’s wailing does help to accent the feel of certain songs and none of these problems really detract from the album. It flows with itself (not as much in other albums), the concept gives a smooth feel when listening, and no matter how long the tracks are, it never drags.

Recommended Listening: (Due to a small number of tracks, the RL for “Person Pitch” is done in proportion, not in quantity.) “Comfy in Nautica”, “Good Girl/Carrots”.

-blake

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Get Warmer

5) “Get Warmer”, by Bomb the Music Industry!

And speaking of change, Bomb the Music Industry!’s new album “Get Warmer” documents the biggest change in the New-York-based DIY Punk band. This change is that when I say New-York-based, I mean formerly New-York-based. The album is a loose concept of front man Jeff Rosenstock’s move from the Big Apple to Athens, Georgia. This move upset many of the band’s local fans (such as myself and a few of my friends), but hey, that’s not what I’m here to discuss. ‘493 Ruth’, ‘Unlimited Breadsticks, Soup and Salad Days’, and ‘Get Warmer’ all discuss the move, with what seem like mixed feelings from Rosenstock. But a lot of his songs aren’t entirely straightforward; he likes looking at both sides of the situation, such as in ‘Unlimited…’ where he goes from a chorus of “I don't know why I always complain about something/When what I got to complain about's nothing” to “As we sit around being broke/I'm losing my penchant for jokes/It's just wry half-truths from a privileged youth/With a constant nostalgia for bad times when they're through”. In fact, the only song that is straightforward sounds quite different from normal Bomb the Music Industry! songs. That song is ‘I Don’t Love You Anymore’, and as you may have guessed, it is a vicious attack on an ex-girlfriend. But instead of the loud, brash post-punk sound he is known for, listeners are lured into a false sense of security by what seems like swing music. But this isn’t just some hokey swing sing-along; the lyrics are just as biting as anything else on the album, and one of the coolest drum solos I’ve heard recently is beat out in the background.

Speaking of drum solos, this album is another change for Bomb the Music Industry! in regards to the lineup. For the first time, Jeff uses actual recording equipment and a live band (including a drummer, a first for the collective) in all the songs, and it sounds great. It gets a bit cluttered at points, with guitar, synthesizer, drums and vocals all vying for the lead role, but that isn’t an entirely new problem. The album isn’t perfect, but Rosenstock’s Do-It-Your-Fucking-Self mantra comes in loud and clear in every song, even when he’s doubting himself in ‘Depression is No Fun’ and ’25 Hour Goddamn Telethon’. This band is the only one I know of who can write entire albums about being broke and unhappy and not lose my interest at some point. By far, ‘Get Warmer’ is the best album Bomb the Music Industry! has put out, and if you still need more incentive to listen to it, it’s free! As with everything the band does, all their songs are available for no cost at their website (www.bombthemusicindustry.com), and it is astonishing how the band continues to grow and improve when they aren’t getting paid for what they do. Kudos, gang; this album is the anthem of the poor-college-kid generation.

Recommended Listening: “Unlimited Breadsticks, Soup and Salad Days”, “No Rest for the Whiny”, “I Don’t Love You Anymore”, “Get Warmer”.

-blake

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Cassadaga

6) “Cassadaga”, by Bright Eyes

To me, it seems that 2007 was a year for artist development. A lot of great artists formed new styles and new sounds that greatly affected the way their albums sounded, for better or for worse. Conor Oberst, who essentially is Bright Eyes, partook in this sound-shift with his new album “Cassadaga”, which combines Oberst’s personal and emotional style with…folk/country. Yes, for all of you who have not picked this album up yet, Conor has gone country, which is extremely odd, since in his last double-release (“Digital Ash in a Digital Urn” and “I’m Wide Awake, it’s Morning”, released in 2005), “I’m Wide Awake, it’s Morning”, the pseudo-country album, got extremely positive reviews. Conor, who has publicly shunned reviews and journalistic criticism in the past, appears to have embraced his popularity with “Cassadaga”, and for a long time, I couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad thing. When I picked up his “Four Winds EP” and heard what the new album was slated to sound like, I was appalled. Country is probably my least-favorite music genre ever (next to mainstream rap), and when I heard the twangs of ‘Four Winds’, I found it hard to believe that this album was Conor’s. But I held faith, and I iTunes’d the album on the day it came out, only to be disappointed again.

So then why is this album the 6^th best of 2007? Well, let’s just say it grows on you. My intense hatred for the album gradually grew into an undying love of it and the message it gives. Conor still holds his personal “I’m-about-to-cry” singing style, and he talks about changes in your life. I’m not sure whether he’s satirizing religion or embracing it, which makes the album (which was named after a Spiritualist camp) that much better: the ambiguity means that it doesn’t feel like he’s forcing religion on you. But religion is not the main focus of the album, although it is certainly a recurring theme. Oberst sings largely about change and decision-making, both of which he has had to make a lot of since his recent breakthrough into the mainstream. The lyrics of ‘Middleman’ do this theme the most justice when he says, “So I have become the Middleman/the gray areas are fine/The "I don't know," the "maybe so"/is the only real reply.” Unlike Aesop Rock’s #8 album, Conor focuses on the changes the world is going through, which is prevalent in ‘Clairaudients (Kill or be Killed)’ and ‘Soul Singer in a Session Band’. Everything in the album comes full-circle though, as is in the penultimate track ‘I Must Belong Somewhere’. In this track, Oberst gives a six-and-a-half minute example of things in their place: “Leave novelist in his daydream tomb/Leave the scientist in her Rubik's cube/Let true genius in the padded room remain.” Then he concludes with a powerful resolution; “’Cause everything it must belong somewhere/they locked the devil in the basement, threw God up into the air/Yeah, everything must belong somewhere/You know it's true, I wish you'd leave me here.” You really have to listen to this album all the way through to get the full meaning of his songs, but even standing alone, the upbeat twangs seem to shine.

As I said, I’m a guy who doesn’t like country or any derivation thereof. The closest I can say that I get to country is Railroad Earth and this album, and even this album isn’t perfect. ‘Make a Plan to Love Me’ sounds like the pubescent Conor from five years ago, except worse. ‘Lime Tree’ is yet another disappointing closing song. And gosh darn it, the country sound just doesn’t work with lyrics like in ‘Hot Knives’. But the album does a lot for the genre, and it has certainly elevated my opinions of it. The instrumentation is typical Conor: heavy acoustic guitar, with smatterings of drums, organs, upright bass, and the occasional female vocalist, and although the sound has changed drastically, Conor is still the same, which he tries to prove in the hour that “Cassadaga” lasts. And you know what? It works, if you give it time, and if you do, you’ll probably grow to love this 6^th best album of 2007 as much as I do.

Recommended Listening: “Four Winds”, “Soul Singer in a Session Band”,  “Cleanse Song”, “I Must Belong Somewhere”.

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Somewhere in the Between

7) “Somewhere in the Between”, by Streetlight Manifesto

As some of you may or may not know, ska is one of my musical weaknesses. For instance, if I were, for instance, some sort of superhero (which I’m not…), then ska would be my Kryptonite, so to speak. But that doesn’t mean I’m choosing this album because of some stupid soft spot in my heart. Quite the opposite, Streetlight Manifesto has been the target of much animosity from me for the last few years. I didn’t and never will hate them; Tomas and the gang were everything I knew for basically half of my high school days. But I began to be disenchanted with them in 2006, when (even though they had new material) they re-released “Keasbey Nights”—Catch 22’s ska-shattering debut. For those of you who aren’t too familiar with ska, Keasbey is one of the most well-known albums out there, put out by Tomas Kalnoky and the rest of Catch 22. After this, he promptly left Catch 22 to form Streetlight Manifesto and Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution. BotAR put out a mediocre EP and then went on hiatus while Kalnoky started working with Streetlight. SM put out an amazing debut, “Everything Goes Numb”, and then quickly petered off. Kalnoky, I don’t give a shit whether or not you’re a perfectionist, but five years between albums is just ridiculous! But somehow, I couldn’t walk away, and I got my hands on “Somewhere in the Between” as soon as it was released. And I listened to it, expecting a total shitty copout sophomore album, because no matter how much I love Streetlight, I really didn’t expect anything mind-blowing this time around. And now it’s number seven out of the top ten. Oops?

This album is not quite perfection, but it’s still really good, and more than a pleasing sophomore effort (the “Keasbey” re-release doesn’t count, and it never will). The most striking thing about the album for me was its lyrics. Kalnoky has always had a morbid streak in him, and “Everything Goes Numb” and “Keasbey Nights” both had death as a major theme. But these were different. Everything Goes Numb was a high schooler’s wet dream; a pseudo-intellectual album focusing on the human perception of death at the point of dying, and an anti-suicidal message. Not going to lie, it’s a great album with a great message, but at the end of it, I kept thinking to myself that Kalnoky could do so much better if he expanded his lyrical topics. Tom, I’m so glad you didn’t. “Somewhere in the Between” still talks highly about death, but from a philosophical standpoint looking at the relationship between life and death. Songs like ‘Would You Be Impressed?’ and the title track both ask what will happen to a person when they die. The past tense Kalnoky uses in ‘One Foot on the Gas, One Foot in the Grave’ is simply chilling, and ‘The Receiving End of it All’, although it is a bit pretentious, makes me nod my head in solemn agreement every time I listen to it (“You beg and plead, but no one here can save you/Why should we try when we can't quite save ourselves?”). There’s no doubt that this album is lyrically sound, and Kalnoky’s singing style, although changed, is still that unique, raspy half-scream. The horns all do their part to keep the melodies going, and the harmonies and solos scattered through every song show how talented all the members of SM are (as if Chris Thatcher didn’t show off his amazing drumming skills in “Keasbey Nights”).

The negatives on this album, although fairly small, are not beyond noting. The album has a distinctly weak closer, ‘What a Wicked Gang We Are’. From the title and everything else on the album, I expected a near-epic song that would keep the album fresh in your mind for a long time. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and ‘Somewhere in the Between’ or ‘The Receiving End of it All’ would have been much better album closers. Also, the solos and harmonies, although amazing, get annoying. Yes Tomas, you are a music major who loves to work with theory and other techniques in your music. We get it, now get some new tricks! A lot of the harmonies are either thirds or fifths, and as a music person myself, it’s rather disappointing that a guy of his caliber doesn’t try writing more complicated horn parts. They’re not displeasing, just really similar to people who are big on music theory. The final thing that bothered me about this album is the format of all the songs is despairingly similar. Songs in Somewhere in the Between come in three formats, all of which find their variation in the introduction. The songs either have a catchy drum or guitar hook, an extended horn solo, or Kalnoky singing in an actual singing voice under soft guitar. This is then followed by typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus progression, with instrumental solos in the bridge. The songs are great, but after ten tracks it seems that the gang could have put some more thought into the structure of the album. Nevertheless, the album has a great feel, intelligent lyrics, and incredibly talented musicians; it would have to be an amazing music year for this album not to be on a ‘Best Of’ list like this.

Recommended Listening: “Down, Down, Down to Mephisto’s Café”, “One Foot on the Gas, One Foot in the Grave”, “Somewhere in the Between”, “The Receiving End of it All”.

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None Shall Pass

8) “None Shall Pass”, by Aesop Rock

Aesop Rock, or Aes Rizzle as he calls himself on various shout-outs and internet blogs, has been a pioneer of rap for ten years now, and it’s starting to show. If there’s a metaphorical bridge you have to cross to pass between the world of underground and mainstream rap, Aesop Rock would be the guy you have a ridiculous swordfight with while crossing said bridge. Along with El-P, Aes Rizzle has consistently defended his status as one of the pioneers of underground hip-hop. His incredible rapping style, an almost-ramble that tends to string together gargantuan metaphors and astute social commentary, hasn’t changed much over the years, but his style certainly has. In the beginning, “Music for Earthworms”, Aes spits out a CD-R chock full of commentary on war, work, and living in society, themes which have been prominent throughout his career. And I’ll be honest; it hasn’t gotten old yet. Aes has managed to change his themes to suit the times, keeping the themes constant, but diversifying his subject matter.

“None Shall Pass”, our latest glimpse into the twisty and turn-y world of Aesop Rock, is completely different from everything else he’s done. It’s not the lyrics; Aes keeps spitting his mind onto the CD faster than a getaway car. It’s not the instrumentation either; the album is certainly fuller than its predecessors, but if you’ve heard “Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives”—Aesop’s 2005 EP—you were expecting it.  It’s Aesop Rock himself. He’s growing up, he knows it, and he wants us to know it as well. It’s prominent in the background and in the song titles (‘Keep off the Lawn’ and ‘Bring Back Pluto’ being just a few), but this album marks a major turning point in Aesop’s life. He brings a darker, more cynical knife to the fight here, but his humor remains intact throughout the album. I absolutely detest saying anything that Rolling Stone said before me, but you find yourself constantly directed to the phrase in ‘39 Thieves’: “Bullets don’t take bribes, stupid, they shoot shit.” This dry, matter-of-fact humor is prevalent throughout the album, as if Aes is determined to grimly laugh his way through turning thirty. More often than not, the humor strikes hard, and it helps enunciate the larger problems Aesop Rock wants to show. Sometimes, however, it falls on its face; most noticeably in ‘Bring Back Pluto’. I love the song as much as I love the ex-planet, but it feels more like a verse or two that got expanded into an entire song.

This hasn’t been a problem with Aesop Rock’s albums before; his older songs often end with you marveling at how he could pack so much into four minutes. In “None Shall Pass”, this feeling isn’t entirely gone, but it’s definitely not as prevalent. Aes isn’t getting more predictable, not by any means, but his songs often seem to strain for ideas that don’t really stand up well on their own (see the extensive popcorn metaphor in ‘Gun for the Whole Family’ for more details). This only happens once or twice, but for a rapper whose style has been continually noted for its cram-everything-into-one-song execution, it’s a bit of a misstep. It’s certainly a new style, but then again, “None Shall Pass” is a whole new Aesop. And no matter how old he is or what he has to say, it’s always an amazing experience listening to Aes Rizzle spit out his opinions to everybody in earshot.

Recommended Listening: “None Shall Pass”, “39 Thieves”, “No City”, “Coffee”.

-blake

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Addicted to Bad Ideas

9) “Addicted to Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre’s 21^st Century”, by The World/Inferno Friendship Society

One of the most intimidating aspects of listening to The World/Inferno Friendship Society is the lack of defining terms that can be applied to the band. Actually, scratch that. There are too many ways to describe the band, and over the course of their musical career, they have kept the sound consistent, which leaves them ample room for other improvement. You see, in my eyes, World/Inferno doesn’t really need to work with their instrumentation at all. They’ve got wind, brass, and key players of orchestral caliber, and Jack Terricloth, their lead singer, has a powerful and unique voice that carries every song from start to finish (not that it needed any help).

But as far as sound goes, World/Inferno has a nearly unclassifiable one. They choose to associate themselves with the ‘Punk Cabaret’ movement. My problem with that is that punk cabaret doesn’t do much to establish a style. Other prominent artists in the movement include the piano/drum couple in The Dresden Dolls, the nearly-insane ex-circus composer Sxip Shirey, and the accordion-wielding Jason Webley (who incidentally put out another great album this year), none of whom have a similar sound. But compared to their rather simple counterparts, World/Inferno’s massive instrumentation makes them stick out like a sore thumb. This is largely a good thing, as it allows them to blend styles; ska-punk, klezmer, and classical are just three of the styles they enjoy adapting to their tastes. “Peter Lorre”, the newest installment by the Society, propels the band forward with plenty of brand new songs, if the same sound. The album is incredibly dynamic, it changes pace rapidly from song to song (Listen to the waltz “...And Embarked On a Life of Poverty and Freedom...” and then let the CD go to the punk/swing “Ich Erinnere Mich an Die Weimarer Republik” and you’ll see what I’m talking about) and never seems to leave you in a rut. As amazing as this can be, it doesn’t stop there. Jack Terricloth’s lyrics, once you decipher them (which is a rewarding experience in itself) are witty and crass, yet they manage to be extremely profound at the same time. The album is a sort of concept album, the main themes being the dramatic difference between the 20^th and 21^st century and Peter Lorre, specifically his movie “M”, a simply amazing movie.

In short, this is an extremely hard album to classify or label. It’s an almost symphonic sound which takes the listener through twists and turns for the entire album. A very intense album, and if you like punk rock, symphonic music or just cabaret in general, you’ll be sorry if you don’t pick this one up. It’s smart, it’s crass, it’s loud, it’s soft, it’s fast, it’s slow, and it’s beautiful.

Recommended Listening: “Ich Erinnere Mich an Die Weimarer Republik”, “I Just Make Faces”, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s”, “Addicted to Bad Ideas”.

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Church Mouth

10) “Church Mouth”, by Portugal. The Man

I have to admit, number 10 is an album that pretty much caught me off-guard. Not only had I never heard about Portugal. The Man until this year, but when I did hear about them, I didn’t think I’d like them. I found them through the magic of Wikipedia after looking at the band Grizzly Bear (who incidentally, I don’t like that much). I somehow went from Grizzly Bear to HORSE The Band (another really horrible band) who was touring with Portugal. The Man. I found the band name really interesting, so I decided to give them a try. I then gave them a Youtube search (ah, the power of the internet) and watched their video AKA M80 The Wolf, which is coincidentally really, really weird. After that, I looked at some other stuff they did, and found out that they had toured with dredg and The Fall of Troy. From there, I looked at some reviews of their newest album, “Church Mouth”, which generally came to one consensus: Portugal. The Man is like The Mars Volta with less ambience. Interesting, I thought to myself. I should get my hands on an album of theirs and see what they’re like. So I did; I first got a few songs from “Waiter: You Vultures!” (They named an album after a line from a play, how awesome is that?!) , and didn’t really like it that much.

Then I got my hands on “Church Mouth” and was blown away. This album isn’t a concept album, but it should be. All the songs fit in with each other in inexplicable ways, and PTM has a distinct sound that you can’t shake. They’re almost hardcore, almost experimental, almost psychedelic, and even almost rock and roll. They flow between genres, sometimes in the same song, to the extent where you have the feeling that by doing this, they’re creating their own genre of music. It’s really an excellent thing to listen to; this album as a whole has significantly changed the way I listen to music. I’ve heard the album be compared to many things, most often Led Zeppelin and the Mars Volta. I also feel that they drew influences from many other bands too, but I almost feel that it was all by accident, because the sound is distinctly Portugal. The Man. So in addition to this being #10 on the list, I dub this album the most original sound of 2007 (and it had a lot of competition!), but mostly for the band as a whole as opposed to this album or one particular song.

But I don’t mean to portray this album as perfect. As always, there are considerable flaws, the most noticeable of which being what sets this album apart: its variation. All of the tracks shift from one feel to another in a very short duration, which makes me think that songs like “Oh Lord” and “The Bottom” could stand to be more than their meager two or three minute playing time (and how could they make “Sun Brother” only two minutes long?!). Guys, if you’re going to be as dynamic as you are, give it time. You’re not Architecture in Helsinki; being as epileptic as you are in style only hurts your songs in places. Also, the album is dynamic, but it could stand to be even more so with noise level. There are lots of quiet moments, but they generally only last ten to fifteen seconds, and are then replaced with the heavy guitar and insane screaming that PTM seems to be trying to sell. If they do want to be a loud band, then they should stay away from this style, which I just don’t recommend.  The songs in this album are great, as are the cryptic lyrics, but it seems to be a whole bunch of ideas crammed into 45 minutes. This helps the band in places, and gives them a distinct, unforgettable sound, but it also makes the music seem simply rushed and loud.

Recommended Listening: “Sugar Cinnamon”, “Oh Lord”, “Bellies Are Full”, “Children”.

-blake

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