The second edition of CD Impressions, the new bi-weekly article here at JPP that offers easily-digested bites of criticism on recently released albums, features an eclectic selection of musicians along with their newest full length albums. This time around we offer you capsule reviews for British songstress Polly Scattergood, seasoned alt-rockers Sonic Youth, the pride of Minnesota Gay Beast, southern post-hardcore act Emery and the promising duo of Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse.
Dark Night of the Soul Artist: Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Label: EMI/Self-released Release Date: ? 7 out of 10
Dark Night of the Soul features a book of original full-color photographs by David Lynch, more than a hundred pages long. However, you won’t find this album in stores because of a label dispute with EMI—instead, you can buy the book in stores that comes with a free blank CD that says, “For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.” That’s stepping around the law with a knowing look and mumble instructing you to steal the music. If you buy the book, you won’t feel like you’re committing larceny (it’ll run you fifty bucks), but I didn’t buy the book. Instead, I listened to the free online stream at NPR. But even though I’m not an avid enough photography enthusiast to drop a U.S. Grant on pretty pictures, I’d gladly plunk down some cash for the disc if it ever gets to stores; it’s quite good.
The Brian Burton/Mark Linklous collaboration is an exciting prospect not just for those two, but also a slew of guest vocalists and musicians, including Gruff Rhys, Frank Black, Iggy Pop, James Mercer, Julian Casablancas, the Flaming Lips, Suzanne Vega, Jason Lytle and, yes, Mr. Lynch. Laid out on NPR in a single forty-six minute chunk, the presence of individual songs is less noticeable to me than typical LPs, even when the transitions are striking, like when Casablancas’ garage-meets-Dntel doozy “Little Girl” moves into the guitar overdrive of “Angel’s Harp” (with Black). This segment is the most instantly memorable (with Danger Mouse’s laptop tweaks clashing with gnarled guitar chords and brief-but-brash solos) but also one of the weaker runs. I prefer the more effervescent but shadow-cloaked pop gems of the front section (the Flaming Lips track sounds like a Soft Bulletin-era leftover) and the psychedelic tripping and somber dirges of the last ten minutes or so. Because of his fondness for guest star aides and the sometimes schizophrenic nature of his genre swapping, this is much more a Sparklehorse album than it is Danger Mouse’s, if that helps you make up your mind, but really I just recommend you get yourself a CD-R and hit burn until (I hope) this finally lands in music aisles. (Matt Medlock)
Polly Scattergood Artist: Polly Scattergood Label: Mute Records Release Date: 19/05/09 4 out of 10
There's no denying that UK singer/songwriter Polly Scattergood is as cute as a button and in possession of a fine little chirp of a voice; but her recently released eponymous debut album only helps to prove the point that looks can only get you so far. To be fair, it's not like Scattergood isn't talented or that her debut album is a complete waste—there are a couple tunes here that are catchy enough to deserve repeated listens—but for the duration of an entire album, Scattergood's overly emotional lyrics are just too much to take for any grown man or woman. She approaches the majority of the album in a quirky Regina Spektor vocal style, albeit void of any of Spektor's trademark humor. Instead, she replaces wit with tiresome, almost embarrassing ramblings about love and loss, her cute little vocal turning into a trite little whisper at times. A key example is the excruciating opening track “I Hate the Way,” which after suffering through lyrics like “I hate the way I bleed each time you kiss me,” the track ends in a disastrous attempt at spoken word. It's sad too, because songs like "Please Don't Touch" and "Nitrogen Pink" are winners that have been regretfully mixed in with a CD full of melodramatic mush. (Tyler Barlass)
The Eternal Artist: Sonic Youth Label: Matador Release Date: 09/06/09 8 out of 10
New Sonic Youth albums rarely scream for superlatives; partly because their innovations are insular (as their new best reminds us of their old best) and partly because their approach seems so competitively (and comparably) normal now for the veteran alternative rockers. But that’s the burden of bands that have earned mostly consistent approval—they have as many near-masterpieces or better as they do clunkers—especially ones approaching their fourth decade in the biz. But even if The Eternal isn’t their best of the decade, it’s certainly their tightest and heaviest, forgoing the elliptical melodies and hazy production that was a characteristic to a large degree in all of their albums since Murray Street and concentrating more on punk-ish dagger riffage (“No Way,” “Sacred Trickster”) and epics with real technical gusto (“Antenna,” “Malibu Gas Station”); conveniently, “Anti-Orgasm” practices both. Eternal is chockfull of small winners, the kind that won’t likely become new Youth classics but will be cherished by each individual guarding some secret prize (see “Swimsuit Issue,” “Reena,” “No Queen Blues,” and scores more). If there’s one drawback, it’s that the quieter and moodier side of the band is virtually non-existent; while I wouldn’t call it a veteran club refashioning themselves as hard and fast rockers as the grey settles against their temples (hello, R.E.M.), the rare moments when they do let the non-epic compositions breathe spaciously, like “Walkin Blue,” are just anemic enough that you’re left witnessing slumbering instead of percolating. On the other hand, the airy corners of the massive closer “Massage the History” will leave you gasping, bewildered that you were considering flipping on Goo instead. (Matt Medlock)
…In Shallow Seas We Sail Artist: Emery Label: Tooth and Nail Records Release Date: 02/06/09 5 out of 10
Sometimes it's hard for a band to broaden their horizons musically when fans of the band turn their back on the group's new direction. Some bands are able to forge on into this new territory uninhibited, leaving their core fan base the option to either adapt or move on. Others, like post-hardcore stalwarts Emery, give in to the fan backlash and decide to take a few steps back into a more fan friendly sound. While Emery's 2007 release I'm Only A Man was filled with lush thought provoking rock music, fans cried out for the harder side of the band they had fallen in love with while listening to their 2004 debut. In response, Emery released ...In Shallow Seas We Sail, an attempted sequel to 2004's The Weak's End that falls flat in becoming a worthy successor to the band's previous album or the album it's attempting to replicate.
Those who missed the lack of hardcore elements on I'm Only Man, will probably enjoy ...In Shallow Seas We Sail, for the most part. The album is standard post-hardcore music, little frills and lots of screaming. Not only has Emery abandoned their more inventive sound, they also seemed to have abandoned their more mature lyrics. ...In Shallow Seas is nothing but angry heartbreak songs, which only adds to the fact that after 13 underwhelming tracks the album becomes extremely dull, very quickly. The repetitive use of similar sounding, similarly structured songs make it hard to even differentiate one track from another. Other than the interesting album opener “Cutthroat Collapse” and the laidback title track, the album seems to lag along in mundane formulaic fashion. It's always disappointing to see a promising group of artists move backwards instead of forwards, but I guess sometimes you need to keep the diehards satisfied, even at the expense of everyone else. (Tyler Barlass)
Second Wave Artist: Gay Beast Label: Skin Graft Records Release Date: 26/05/09 6 out of 10
As the press release states, Gay Beast is renowned as Minnesota’s premier agit-prog queer band, which already tells you that this is going to make your average queercore act sound like the Carpenters. Songs like “Beach” and “Eeexxxpppaaannndddiiinnnggg” sound downright traditional in the face of most of the rest, even though they’re still ramshackle assemblages of honking horns, de-tuned grime guitars, clipped drumbeats and nail-gun electronics. They seem to stress danceability among the chaos, but only a very select breed could dance to this, in which case all onlookers are gonna be searching their pockets for diazepam since everyone on the dancefloor would be having seizures. “White Diamonds” is four minutes of schizophrenic, tempo-flopping mayhem, and almost brilliant for it. But surrounding it are “Xerox” and “Exploding Knee,” which don’t jar in the good way but rather via a sense of misplaced aggression without the anarchic abandon of the best no-wave updater craze (called now wave, and a Skin Graft specialty) and the tuneful glee of the arty noise pop scene. Daniel Luedtke’s vocals come and go, but you can hardly understand a damn word he says, so they might as well be Ponytail or Melt-Banana in that department. The fractured nature of these songs don’t just extend inward to the zigzag tempos, but also to the incomplete dovetailing of original instrumental strafing to the obtusely hectic close (if “Aspirin” had attempted to come full circle, it might have been a frazzled winner instead of an abstractly systematic clutter of three main jagged fragments that have no sensible correlation). Finding correlation here is kind of like finding a point in Gay Beast besides, well, being Minnesota’s premier agit-prog queer band. For what it is, there are some insanely invigorating moments of herky-jerky delight, but then again, it is what it is. (Matt Medlock)
