Barragán, Begin Again (Blonde Redhead - Barragán)

Blonde Redhead - Barragán

Why you'll love it - A much needed fresh coat of paint to a beautiful sound.
Why you'll hate it - Not enough good material to hand with previous releases.

The simplest way to win me over on a new album is to do something unexpected.  Blonde Redhead has been slowly defanging their once abrasive no-wave sound for so long, that I had come to expect no edge whatsoever to their latest release.  Not that the etheric tones had been doing them a disservice. 2004's Misery is A Butterfly was a massive indie hit, and their followup, 23 (2007), was arguably better.  The more I look back on their 2010 flop, Penny Sparkle, I saw it more as a general failure than diminishing returns.  Kazu Makino still has a soothing voice, and Blonde Redhead as a whole is more charismatic when mellow.

I wasn't expecting anything different from a new release, just a better slew of songs.  The wonderful surprise Barragán keeps is a slightly new sound for the band.  A more noir-ish dark tone.  It's very open and atmospheric.  The last three albums sounded like they were lowered down to you in a gilded cage.  Barragán comes from a dark alleyway or smoky nightclub.  It's not a huge change, but enough to make me sit up and pay attention.

Barragán starts off strong!  "Lady M" and "Dripping" are two instant classics.  "Dripping" is my favorite song sung by Amedeo Pace since "Falling Man".  The little effects used throughout the track create a strange discordant feeling.  Electronic effects are used much more cleverly here than on Penny Sparkle (where they just came off as gaudy).  There are a lot of gothic themed bands out there that try to mix dark tones with a beautiful performance, but nobody does it better than Blonde Redhead does here.

Then come the simpler songs, which have critics divided.  "Cat on Tin Roof" has come under fire for being too reliant on a basic repeating baseline.  "Mind To Be Had" stretches out over 8 minutes thanks to a very long build.  I've heard these tracks referred to as filler, uninspired, like the band is just fiddling around doing noting...  Completely valid point, and if this were a less talented band, I'd agree with it.  "Mind To Be Had" is honestly one of my favorite songs here.  I think the melody is perfect, and I never want it to end!  Again, Amedeo Pace knocks it out of the park with the vocals, giving the song a lost and desperate feeling.  "Cat on Tin Roof" is like the the pop version.  It's not as good as "Mind To Be Had" but again, I love the vocals.  Kazu has an adorable cadence, and plays with the scales in an enjoyable way.  I think these are great songs with a lot of character.  I'd take them over bland attempts at sincerity any day.

As much as I praise this album for what it does, it probably doesn't do enough to be on my top ten for the year.  "The One I love" has an annoying chorus, with the instrumentals going one way and the vocals another.  "Defeatist Anthem (Harry & I)" is the only one of those long "fiddling around" songs that I'm not a fan of, with it's silly sounding didgeridoo. "Seven Two" ends the album with a whimper, and three tracks away from the last a really good song.  It's easy to forget this album's finer points after the final 10 minutes.

Blonde Redhead is in a lot better place than they were four years ago.  This is a cool album, that tries to do different things without forgetting the kind of band Blonde Redhead has become over the past ten years.  Unfortunately, not all of it works to a great effect.  I say this about a lot of albums, but this would have been stronger if it just had the seven best tracks, and was only 30 minutes long.  If you've never heard of Blonde Redhead before, this is still a great place to start.  If you're looking for the next Misery is A Butterfly, I'd tamper those expectations a bit.

Party Pooper (The Birthday - Come Together)

The Birthday - Come Together

why you'll love it - A hard hitting rock album

why you'll hate it - Lacking the energy and creativity of previous works.

You wouldn’t know it from this album, but The Birthday has been around for a while.  They know rock music.  Frontman, Chiba Yusuke, has been around even longer than that.  Most noteworthy as leading Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, Yusuke is comfortably referred to as a god-damned punk rock legend.  So why is Come Together so flaccid?  You’ve got me.

This is the record I was expecting three years ago.  The Birthday began as a retro classic rock band.  With a lineup change, they were left with much less soul.  Despite falling into more generic sound, talent prevailed, and The Birthday has been sailing smoothly with two more incredible albums.  If I were to continue this metaphor…. I wouldn’t call Come Together a shipwreck.  It’s a well produced rock and roll album, with a few highlights.  Perhaps, “adrift without a sail” would be more apt.

Come Together essentially feels like a b-sides album.  “くそったれの世界” is a serviceable radio-friendly single, with a good chorus.  It’s nothing special, but the next 15 minutes spend what goodwill it had.  What stands out on Come Together is a loud, aggressive sound with no real bite to it.  This comes off as an incredible insult, given how much reputation this band has; but the composition of these songs feel amateurish.  Like high schoolers in their garage.  “Love God Hand” and “Pierrot” are the greatest offenders of this.  Especially “Pierrot”.  I honestly could not believe this plodding, lunkheaded, Ozzefest sounding chunky mess was a Chiba Yusuke joint.

The best moments of Come Together come in the form of slower songs.  At first I overlooked these, in my frustrating effort to find a great song on this album that actually rocks.  I had also not given these songs that much credit because I felt, without Imai Akinobu (who left the band in 2010), they just didn’t have the swag to do a nice bluesy song anymore.  After repeated listens, songs like “星に願いを” and “Lemon” are clearly the most impressive on here.  These have great atmosphere.  Between these songs, and the cut b-side “Star Man”, I would have been much more happy with an EP of songs like this, than an LP with a bunch of duds.

I LOVE this band.  I want to recommend them to everyone that enjoys rock music.  Even a boring Birthday album is better than something like the embarrassing Foo Fighters album that came out this year.  If you're itching for straightforward rock music this year, Come Together may be your fix; but if this is your first taste of The Birthday, PLEASE look into their other stuff.

You're not my real Beck! (Beck - Morning Phase)

Beck: Morning Phase

Why you'll love it - Beck's commitment to a genre is remarkable

Why you'll hate it - Plain as cardboard

If you're not familiar with Beck at this point, welcome to the modern era.  While you were cryogenically frozen, I'm afraid all of your Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa records have not been... quite as well preserved.  Don't be so sad!  You see, there's this thing called the internet... actually, this might take a while to catch you up on.  Here are some Beck albums for now.  We've got you his beloved Odelay (1996), The Information (2006), and even his under appreciated Midnite Vultures (1999). NODON'TPICKUPTHATONE!...

Eclecticism is one of Beck's finest traits.  He's found most of his success through the "art pop" material; mastering funk, disco, garage rock, psychedelic, you name it.  Every once and a while, he'll put a leash on his sound, and commit to softer tones.  While there are some good songs in albums like Mutations (1998) and Sea Change (2001), this isn't the Beck we're used to.  Basically, this kind of stuff is like "weekend dad".

Morning Phase is another one of those "weekend dad" albums.  Rumor has it that Beck has another weirdo album in the chamber (actually, I was expecting it to release by now), so I'm trying to enjoy this one for what it is.  Problem is that it's a little to committed to its genre.  It has the emotion of something like Sea Change, but none of the bombastic deep orchestral sound.  There are a few studio effects, but this basically is just "whittling on your front porch" music.  The single, "Blue Moon" is the best song on here, and it isn't by very much.  I wish I had a lot to say about this album, but it's pure Saltines.  I've got nothing to work with here!

Thankfully Beck has so much good material in the bank.  This doesn't change my opinion of him at all.  I'm sure his next album will be full of wonderful "elevator bones", funky robots, and other non-sequiturs that made him (WARNING: OPINION INCOMING) the best pop artist in the last 20 years.

SO HERE'S MY PLAN...

As of Friday, November 14th, here are all the albums I have from 2014

I will have a review written up for ALL OF THESE ALBUMS in about six weeks, (including a few that haven't been released yet) and my usual BEST OF LISTS.  I'll be out for the holidays, but will have these on an auto-post schedule during my travels. Even if the plane goes down, there will be a top ten!

Some of these reviews I'll be cropping from the tumblr I used, but I'll include a little follow up at the end just to see if my opinion changed on any of that.

I wrote this down, now I have to do it.

Hello again!

OK, well... tumblr (like most social media outlets):

• turned out to be full of creepy and mean people
• has terrible formating
• something I just for the life of me, couldn't figure out a good use for

so I'm back in my little corner of the internet, where I've been the most motivated to keep busy