"Trapped in the moment" - (Everything Everything - Get To Heaven)

Everything Everything
Get To Heaven

why you'll love it: Catchy and charismatic pop

why you'll hate it: Underachieves its potential

I have a whole lot of nice things to say about this album.  All-in-all, Everything Everything is probably the most exciting new (to me) discovery of 2015.  It feels like a lifetime ago that the gonzo-pop unit, Architecture in Helsinki went from the second coming of Talking Heads to a band I'd like to forget exists all together.  Does it Offend You Yeah? had a fearless approach to all of my favorite pop and rock guilty pleasures before they fell off the face of the planet.  Foals has some of the most appetizing production and knack for post-punk riffs I've ever heard, but usually are too high minded to have fun with them.

Everything Everything has all the talent and creativeness to be any of those things.  They are my new obsession.  A little bit of art, pop, rock, and that subtle British darkness & cynicism.  Now all I need for is that mess of ingredients to be parsed out into a perfect recipe.  With Get To Heaven, they're almost there...

Everything Everything walks the line between impossibly catchy pop, weird experimental vocals, and impressive musical performance.  Usually that is a good thing, but they never properly explore where they cast their nets.  I feel overcome by their versatility.  There are some people who play an open world video game like Fallout or Grand Theft Auto, and become burdened by the freedom.  There is so much to do, that some people become racked with indecision, and just give up.  That is what Get To Heaven feels like to me.  I don't know what band I want Everything Everything to be, but it feels like a waste of something great to try and be something in between all of them.

Get To Heaven starts S-T-R-O-N-G.  Even that album cover has a colorful and exciting flair to it.  "To The Blade" blasts off like a time bomb.  Everything Everything practically trolls the listener into playing it loud, introducing a low volume performance with a ridiculously high production sheen.  Even when knowing the song is going to explode, I'm compelled to crank up that intro.  "To The Blade" shows off Everything Everything's potential to be your new favorite manic rock band.  The disco sing-along "Distant Past", and the stomp & clap choir number "Regret" instead say "no no no, we are your new favorite twee-pop weirdo band."  "Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread" and "Get To Heaven" bring the radio friendly pop.   A lot of songs on the second half explore honest and impressive musical endeavors.  Everything Everything can do anything anything.  It's pretty cool, but none of it feels like their full creative or musical potential is reached.

Now that the big gripe is off my chest, let's just look at Get To Heaven for what it is.  It's a damn fun party album.  The first 20 minutes of it are near flawless (maybe the chorus to "Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread" is a bit hokey).  The halfway point of "The Wheel (is Turning Now)" really kills the momentum of this album, though.  I'm not sure why they would bring all the action to a halt (in both the album, and a pretty cool song) with an outro like this.  It almost sounds like the track is skipping for 2.5 minutes.  "Fortune 500" and "Blast Doors" are ok songs, but aren't impressive enough to get things back on track.  "Zero Pharaoh" and "Warm Healer" are amazing Gorillaz and Foals impersonations, respectively.  I don't mean that in an insulting way, either.  "Zero Pharaoh" especially, is one of my album highlights.  But again, both of these songs are slow, and just can't recapture the thrill of the first half of this album.  "No Reptiles" is probably the only skippable song on here, thanks to the lyrics.  The metaphors just don't work for me, and "I'm going to kill a stranger / So don't you be a stranger." is the most cringeworthy line on the whole album.

Jonathan Higgs's marathon of falsetto will probably be the most remembered takeaway from first time listeners.  He does tend to rely on it far too much.  It may be a turn off to some, and its effect wears off as the album progresses.  There are few moments where Higgs sings in a different key, and sometimes even in a reggae/hip-hop cadence (to much success, as hard as that is to believe).  If Higgs pinballed his range more often, there would really be something there.

And so we come back to the "if only..." thoughts.  Get To Heaven is a fun pop album, that tries a lot of things, and is individually successful at each of them.  With a some focus though, wow... I can't help but think they would have really made something quite special.

"You misjudge me" - (This is The Sonics)

This is The Sonics

why you'll love it: The most incredible dismissal of "old dudes can't rock"

why you'll hate it: Really dumb lyrics

The Sonics have done it.  They may have cheated a bit, but so far it's looking like The Sonics... a band in their 70's, after more than 40 years of hanging up their guitars, have put out the most natural rough and dirty rock and roll album of 2015.  This, in a year thus far occupied by John Reis, Screaming Females, and Drenge.

The Sonics combine garage rock & roll with swing, surf, and punk.  It's not anything that hasn't been done well before, it's just done with perfect execution here.  It's as loud, hard-hitting, and fun in every way a simple rock album should be.  Performance wise, this album is like one giant "fuck you" to anyone that comes close to using the phrase "too old to rock".  The band is practically busting out of the stereo here.  Jerry Roslie screams like he's 26.  Just about every instrument used packs a punch, and there are a lot of them.  Saxophones, organs, and tambourines get their shit in.  Jim Diamond deserves as much credit as the band for mixing everything just right.

So here is how The Sonics cheated... a good 2/3 of this album are covers.  The original cut, "Bad Betty" sneaks its way early into the album undetected, but otherwise, covers get all the glory here.  Granted, they're kick ass covers.  It's pretty obvious though when the rest of the new material makes its way into the track list.  The repetitive riff in "I've Got Your Number" makes it impossible for me not to sing "LAND OF THE HOT KNIVES".  Sometimes predictable lyrics fit right in with a simple song structure, but "Save The Planet" has lyrics so corny ("If you want to go to Mars / You might be disappointed / Cause they've got no whiskey bars") it may take you out of the moment.  The closer, "Spend The Night" is about as awkward as a man in his 70's talking about young lust vs love should be.

The wheels start to come off in the last 10 minutes, but This is The Sonics doesn't stick around long enough for its decline to leave a poor impression.  The performances in these original cuts still rock hard, especially "Bad Betty".  So if you shut your brain off, they shouldn't be a problem.  Covers may not be as "legitimate", but man, they're gonna kick your ass.  A record of old songs performed by a bunch of old dudes kicked my ass.  There's no better praise I can give this album than that.

"that can never touch or see" (Towa Tei - Cute)

Towa Tei
Cute

Why you'll love it: Innovative + catchy

Why you'll hate it: not much depth

I am getting really tried of saying this with every Japanese release that I like:  trust me, this is awesome stuff.

Towa Tei is an art-pop musician, most known in the western world as 1/3 of this cheesy dance group from the early 90's, Deee-Lite.  I know him first as a solo artist due to my obsession with Shibutya-kei music ten years ago, thanks to the Katamari Damacy video game series.  No, really, trust me...

Towa Tei's solo output has mainly been focused on composition and production.  Bright and bouncy synths, weird obscure voice samples that all sound like they came out of a MST3K short, guest vocalists from all over the Japanese pop industry; all chopped and screwed together in a Picasso like manner.  He's been hit or miss his whole career.  His 2011 album (Sunny), is personally my favorite Shibuya-kei album of all time.  The 2013 follow up (Lucky), just threw a bunch of stuff at the wall that did not stick.  The kind of music Towa Tei makes is tough to manage.  When he focuses too much on a hook, it just gets annoying and repetitive.  Likewise, it's just as easy to find himself at the other end of the spectrum, when there are just weird sounds and no hook.

Sunny had that sweet spot.  Cute has it too, and in such a more innovative way.  There is much wider array of bopping, clicking, and hooting synths.  The opening tracks sound like playing with the sound test in an old video game's options menu.  "Fluke"and "Tope Note" demo the low and high end of whats to come.  "Luv Pandemic" is the first actual song, and boy is it a catchy one.  Towa Tei is expertly transitioning from one exciting hook to the next.  The drum and bass heavy verses, the stuttering pre-chorus... everything about this song screams summer hit.  I find it very similar to Hot Chip's "Ready For The Floor".

In fact, Cute has a lot to share with Hot Chip in their late 2000's.  Both use an abstract / art deco approach to music, and insert just enough pop before watering it down.  Both seem heavily influenced by Kraftwerk.  Just as Hot Chip follows up "Ready For The Floor" with the Kraftwerk-esque "Bendable Posable", Towa Tei offers up an instant reprise of "Luv Pandemic" with "NOTV".  It's a track with deep, echoey synths, very much like the kind you would hear on the 1977 Kraftwerk album Trans-Europe Express.

UA has an impressive showing on the mellowed out "Sound of Music".  Her oddly deep voice fits in wonderfully with Towa Tei's off kilter attempt at chill-wave.  I don't follow her solo career, so this is the first I've heard of her since the one-and-done Kenichi Asai collaboration, Ajico.  It's nice to hear she's still got it.

The bulk of this album is mostly tranquil instrumentals.  Towa Tei plays with his toys in an island / bossa-nova style.  Not much hits on the same level of "Luv Pandemic", but that shouldn't take away from his most consistent release probably ever.  Because of how all the sounds pop and echo, I'm engaged with Cute all the way through to the end; even as things wind down in the last ten minutes.  Going from synths firing away like pistons to reverberating into the ether by the end of the album is a nice little journey.

Towa Tei resists his urges to borrow from the corny R&B dance scene he grew out of, and sticks to robotic synthpop with a Shibuya-kei flavor.  As a result, Cute has its own unique sound and character; and Towa Tei comes off as confident rather than out of touch.  Cute is low on the hits, but makes up for it in consistency and style.  If you dig catchy music, Shibuya-kei, instrumentals, or weird robot sounds, Cute has what you're looking for in a very well put together package.