Radiohead - In Rainbows

I hesitate to even write anything about this album. It seems like I can’t even walk by a magazine (or newspaper) anymore without people talking about it. I won’t get into anything in this space other than the music itself…you know, how it’s supposed to be.
I’ve talked to some of you about this already, so I apologize if this entire review sounds like I’m repeating myself. I probably am.
As with many albums that I have grown to love, I didn’t really love this album right off the bat. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. My feelings on this album pretty much follow how I felt about every new Radiohead album. Perhaps my expectations are always too high. It’s alright, though…by the end, those expectations have normally been exceeded.
The first song of the album, “15 Step”, begins with a glitchy, stop-and-start computer beat…pretty much exactly what you would expect after listening to Thom Yorke’s “solo” album. When his voice comes in, it’s, well…a bit odd. It almost sounds like an alien. I don’t really know how else to explain it. As the song progresses, we see some more instrumentation added to the mix…Phil Selway’s masterfully precise drumming, and some excellent guitar work from Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien. Colin Greenwood’s bass is always in the background, driving the song along. In fact, as I listen to this song, I am reminded once again at how well Colin and Phil work together. They really make quite an amazing rhythm section. And still the song evolves: a slightly startling children’s choir, some record scratches. I wasn’t in love with this song on first listen, but it did make me glad to have Radiohead back.
“Bodysnatchers” is a straight rock song. It sounds like it could’ve come from either The Bends or Hail to the Thief…it actually reminds me a bit of “2+2=5”. At about the two-minute mark, they briefly take a break from the “rock”, while Thom sings, “Has the light gone out for you? Because the light’s gone out for me,” over a eerie guitar line. It isn’t too long, though, before they kick it back into high gear, ending with Thom singing franticly while Jonny makes noises on his guitar like it was 1995.
“Reckoner” and “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” are two songs, that, while upbeat, I can’t necessarily bill them as full-out “rock songs”. I’m constantly amazed, though, at how Radiohead can write a song that can have moments of such intensity, without really getting too loud. “Jigsaw” starts out steady enough, but eventually explodes into a flood of music, vocals, and awesomeness. “Reckoner” starts out with some fantastic sounding drums and a soothing, bordering on neo-jazz guitar line. Thom’s voice comes in, and everything else seems to fade into the background for a little bit. The more I listened to it, though, the more instrumentation I heard. It really is a song that gets better with every listen.
There are a number of slower songs, as well. “Faust Arp” is a gorgeous little song, featuring a folkish guitar line backed with a building string section (courtesy of Jonny). “Nude” is a lush, soothing song with an ending reminiscent of a scene from The Little Mermaid (I know…I know. Just listen to it, though, and you’ll see what I mean). I’ve heard “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” described as a jazz song, and I just don’t get it. Perhaps some of the guitar work could possibly described as jazz-ish, but I would not classify it as a jazz song. There may be a bit of jazz (as well as classical) influence in the song, but to call it a jazz song is not really accurate. “House of Cards” is the one song that I may have cut out of the album if it were up to me. It’s not that the song is bad, it just isn’t nearly as good as the rest of the album.
“All I Need” is probably my favorite song on the album. It’s a low, synth-driven, eerie song, backed with drums that may one day be sampled into a hip-hop song. It almost feels like a song that Bjork would have recorded for an earlier album (Vespertine, most likely).
The album comes to a perfect close with “Videotape”, a song that starts with a solo piano, slowly begins to build (behind Thom’s voice and some erratic percussion), but never really takes off. It sounds boring, but I can assure you that it is not.
If I were to sum up this album in one word, it would be this: unprocessed. It has been a mark of Radiohead albums since OK Computer that they are extremely processed. The instruments, as well as Thom’s voice. On this album, they pretty much stripped all of that away. Everything is out there, unbound by the shackles of “studio magic”. After listening to this album, I don’t think they could have made it any better if they had processed to their heart’s content.
This is a masterful album that only gets better with each listen. Watch out, kids… Radiohead is back, and it doesn’t look like they’re going away.

Rating: 9.7

Favorite Tracks: “All I Need”, “Reckoner”, “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”

Check out their website, or preorder the CD from The Rooftop.

iPod Roulette

I know I know...I'm sorry for not keeping up with this better. I've been fairly busy with school and all that...but I suppose that's not much of an excuse. I apologize. I'm working on a couple of reviews that should show up within the next couple of days. I'm pretty backlogged, so they won't necessarily be brand new releases.

That being said, I hope this round of iPod Roulette will be something nice to read while you wait. If you want to join in on the fun, you can post your own results in the comment section.

Here we go:

1. "A Killer Idea" - Bill Hicks
This is actually the first time I've ever listened to Bill Hicks. You know what? This is a fantastic introduction. Tasteless? You betcha. But the idea of using terminally ill patients for better stunts in movies is pretty funny.

2. "A Quiet Little Place" - Seven and Seven Is
It's not a bad song. In fact, it might even be a good song. But, after the kind of music the 77's used to put out, I just expect something better from them. I suppose you could say it disappoints me a little bit, which is sad, because I think that, if you have never listened to the 77's before this, you might actually really enjoy this song.

3. "Mountain Halo" - The Appleseed Cast
How can anyone hate these guys? They have been releasing solid album after solid album over their (going on) 10 year career. This song can pretty much sum up what I love about them: noisy and delicate and huge, all at once. (If anyone is still calling these guys "emo", I will kick their heads off of their bodies.)

4. "You Will, You Won't" - The Zutons
This sounds like a song that The Zombies or The Animals would've recorded. I can definitely seeing myself stomping around to this in a club somewhere.

5. "Golly Sandra" - Eisley
This song just so happens to be my least favorite song from this album (Room Noises, their first). That's not to say that I hate it...it's just that the rest of the album is full of such amazing songs, that this one, less-than-amazing song doesn't sound quite as good. Still a fairly good song, though.

6. "A Better Song/Daughter" - Rilo Kiley
The more I listen to Rilo Kiley, the more I realize that I think I really like them. I can't put my finger on what it is about them that I like, but, apparently, that thing I like is the same exact thing that made me not like them at first (if that makes any sense at all). This song is fantastic, but I can't necessarily put my finger on what makes it fantastic.

7. "Soul Power" - The Smashing Pumpkins
This song is like some sort of metal-funk. It sounds like an old James Brown song that they remade...only they threw a whole bunch of huge, nasty guitars on top. Does it makes me want to shake my rump? You betcha.

8. "Martha" - Tom Waits
One of my all-time favorite songs. No one sings a song about lost love as perfectly as Tom can. If you think Tom Waits is nothing but a growling, snarling maniac, listen to this song five times in a row. This song is perfect.

9. "Mantra Slider" - Soundtrack of Our Lives
I think if this group was around in the '70s, they'd be a lot more popular than they currently are, and this song is a perfect example of that. A slow-starting rock song, that grows and grows into a borderline psychedelic/rock bloodbath by the end.

10. "Waiting" - The Rentals
One of my favorite synth/fuzz-pop bands. This song reminds me of driving on a sunny afternoon with the windows down.

Okay, now it's your turn...

Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

I know there have been over a thousand reviews written on this album, each of them pretty much saying the same thing. I’ll try not to rehash everything you’ve already read, but I can’t promise anything.
Iron & Wine has been a fascinating band to track through their career. It has not been a long career, but they have come a long way in such a short time. Iron & Wine has shown more musical growth in five years than Nickelback would be able to show in a million years. Over the course of their albums, they have steadily added more instruments and have spent more time with production.
That growth certainly shows on The Shepherd’s Dog, their latest album. No longer are Sam Beam’s vocals sung in barely a whisper over a quiet guitar. This evolution was hinted at on the Woman King EP, and further explored on In the Reins (this release could easily be written off as a collaboration, and, therefore, not a real Iron & Wine album).
If you were asked to pick out a trademark characteristic of a previous Iron & Wine album, most people would point out the whispered vocals and soft, gorgeous guitar lines. They wouldn’t be wrong. But those are not the first things that spring to mind when thinking about this album. If I could sum this album up in one word, it would be this: percussion. There is an amazing amount of varied percussion on this album, all of it adding to the songs and overall feel of the album. Songs like “Lovesong of the Buzzard”, “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)”, and “Boy With a Coin” (to name three) are extremely heavy with percussion. It never detracts from the songs, though, which is quite amazing, seeing as how there is so much going on.
He can still have his tender moments, too. Songs like “Resurrection Fern” and “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” sound like they could have been recorded for Our Endless Numbered Days.
More than anything, this album shows off Iron & Wine’s range. No longer are they a band to put on the background. This album demands your full attention…and, after a listen or two, you’ll be happy to give it.

Rating: 9.3

Favorite Tracks: “Innocent Bones”, “Wolves (Song of the Shepherd’s Dog)”, “Boy With a Coin”, “Flightless Bird, American Mouth”

Check our their website here, or buy it here

New Radiohead Album Out on Oct. 10

This is insane.
After a bunch of release date questions (will it be in 2007? 2008? 2012?), Radiohead have suddenly decided to release their new album on October 10. No record label. No promotion. In fact, it is only available as a Discbox set (vinyl, CD, and download code) and as a digital download.
It is titled In Rainbows.
The best part?
The download is of the "pick your price" variety.
No...seriously. You pick how much you want to pay for it, and then you pay it.
It sounds too good to be true...but it's not.
You can find this information at their website and their blog, as well as places like Green Plastic, At Ease Web, Stereogum, and, I'm sure, many other sources.
I can't tell you how excited I am for this.
And I'm expected to go to sleep tonight...

Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter

What is it you look for in an album? Catchy melodies? Great songwriting? Stellar musicianship? Originality? Relistenability?
It doesn’t really matter if you’re listening for all of those things are just one of those things…this album has it all.
At this point I would hope that you all would at least be familiar with the name Josh Ritter. He’s been around for quite some time, and overlooked for most of it. His name started showing up after the release of Hello Starling in 2003. It’s a nice little folk album. It doesn’t really separate itself too much from a lot of other artists in that same vein, but it’s still pretty good. There are a number of fantastic tracks on it. Then, last year he released The Animal Years, which is an absolutely magnificent album, filled with gorgeous songs of love, war, and other related topics. He gained a lot of attention for that album, and rightly so.
And so it was with much anticipation that he released The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. Early reports said that it was going to be a lot different than his previous albums. That can be either extremely good or extremely bad.
After 15+ listens, I can say that it is extremely good.
The first track (“To the Dogs or Whoever”) is definitely different from anything he’s released up until this point. It begins with a strumming guitar and an erratically plunked piano, followed by some highly distorted vocals. In short, it sounds like an outtake from Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot…in a good way. The rapid-fire verses give way to the big, can’t-help-but-sing-a-long chorus (which will get stuck in your head for weeks if you’re not careful). A great start.
The next track (“Mind’s Eye”) starts out with a very Clash-esque guitar line (it’s almost like he took the opening chords to “London Calling” and copied them into his song). It’s a herky-jerky song and takes a while to get used to, but, once you do, you’ll love it.
The high point of the album (and, quite possibly, of Josh’s young career) is “The Temptation of Adam”. The story/song is about two people living in a silo, guarding the button that would send atomic missiles on the world in the days before World War III. Mere words can’t describe the beauty of this song, so it’s definitely worth your time to listen to it again and again. It gets better with each listen.
“Empty Hearts” sounds like a song that Grant Lee-Phillips had written once upon a time, but never got around to recording. That’s not to say that this song (or this entire album) is one big musical rip-off, because that’s not what it is at all. Some of his influences are fairly obvious to pick up on, but that doesn’t take away anything from this album.
I could really go track by track and sing the praises of each one, but I’ll spare you that. Josh tries a number of different things musically on this album, and it’s amazing how he makes them all work. And, not only does he make them all work, he makes them all work within the context of the album. On the first listen or two, you may find yourself saying, “Why would he put this song after the last one?” But, after a number of listens, it all begins to come together. Even the delicate instrumental “Edge of the World” seems to fit perfectly after the big, instrument heavy “Rumors”. I can’t really explain why it works, I just know that it does, in fact, work, and it makes more and more sense every time I listen to it.
Do yourself a favor and check out this album. Just do one thing for me: don’t give up on it after one or two listens. Give it at least five listens before making a judgment. You’ll be glad that you did.

Rating: 9.5

Favorite Tracks: “Right Moves”, “The Temptation of Adam”, “Rumors”, “Still Beating”, “Empty Hearts”

Check out his website here, and buy it here

Manchester Orchestra - I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child

Let’s get this out of the way as soon as possible: Manchester Orchestra is not an actual orchestra, nor are they a symphonic rock group in the mold of ELO or Moody Blues. Rather, they are a relatively new, relatively young pop-rock group with all sorts of potential.
The phrase “all sorts of potential” usually indicates that they’re not really all that good now. It’s like proclaiming a decent basketball player has “tremendous upside”: they may not be good now, but they will be eventually (or so we think). However, that is not what I mean at all. With this album, Manchester Orchestra show that, while they may have huge potential in front of them, they’re also ready for prime time right now.
The album kicks off in grand fashion. The opening to “Wolves at Night” may be the best moment on the entire album. It’s an absolute explosion of sound, with a nice, huge organ right in the foreground, while a distorted, slightly muffled drum set thunders on in the background. It is at that precise moment that you have been introduced to Manchester Orchestra…and now you know what they’re fully capable of.
Unfortunately, the entire album is not filled with songs laced with this kind of intensity and beauty. That’s not to say that the rest of the album is bad, but, after this initial display, it’s hard to not feel like the rest of the album is a bit of a letdown. Don’t worry…after 2 or 3 listens, this feeling will pass, and you’ll grow to love the rest of it, as well.
Their influences are sometimes painfully obvious, sometimes quasi-obvious, and sometimes not even close to obvious at all. There are moments in the course of the album when you can swear you’re listening to Death Cab for Cutie (“The Neighborhood is Bleeding”, “Golden Ticket”), and other times when a band’s name seems to be on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t quite articulate it (“Don’t Let Them See You Cry”, “Now That You’re Home”). Then there’s “Where Have You Been?”, which sounds like a song that Paloma would’ve/should’ve recorded.
One of the many stand-outs on this album is “Sleeper 1972”, a quiet song dominated by a slow organ line. It’s easy to dismiss during the first couple of listens, but be sure to give it a shot. The opening lyric of “When my dad died/The worms ate out both his eyes,” seems a bit odd, and that’s what turned me off originally. It just seemed to be strange for the sake of strange…perhaps a bit of shock value. Repeated listens, however, turn the song into one of the saddest, most genuinely heartfelt songs about the death of a loved one in a long, long time. By the time he sings, “I still see you/Inside of this God-awful house,” you can swear that you can almost see him, too. It is an absolutely gorgeous song, and begs for repeated listens.
This would be a fairly easy album to miss. It is put out by their own label, A Favorite Gentlemen Recording, and is not readily available in a lot of stores. There hasn’t been much publicity, and I very much doubt you’ll ever hear one of these songs on the radio. But this is an album that cries out, begging you to please track it down and buy it. And, if the album doesn’t cry out, then I am. Please check out this album. It is, without a doubt, one of the top ten albums of the year.
Check out this album. Check out this album. Check out this album.

Rating: 8.3

Essential Tracks: “Wolves at Night”, “Now That You’re Home”

Favorite Tracks: “Where Have You Been?”, “Sleeper 1972”, “Golden Ticket”

Check out their website here

Super Review #1

In an effort to clean out my box of albums to review, I have decided to post a couple of super reviews...in this case, you get 4 reviews. They're shorter than normal, but, if you put them all together, they're longer than an average review.

That being said, let's get this thing started.

Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha

People rave about Andrew Bird’s lyrics. “He’s brilliant,” and so on. I picked up his previous album (Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs), and I immediately didn’t get it. So he uses a dictionary and fits big words into his songs. Big deal. I’m not really that impressed.
So it was with slightly less enthusiasm that I listened to Armchair Apocrypha. And, much to my surprise, I liked it. A lot. And why do I like it? Because it’s a great album, filled with great songs. Forget the “brilliant lyricist” tag and just listen to the album. He could be singing the praises of the toilet bug and I would still like it. Songs like “Fiery Crash”, “Imitosis”, “The Supine”, and “Scythian Empire” showcase his tremendous instrumental talents, while “Armchairs” showcases his amazing voice (it sounds like a lost Jeff Buckley track).
The last track (“Yawny at the Apocalypse”), a dark, instrumental track that features some not-so-beautiful violin noises, could be cut off, but that’s just me. I’m also a bit confused by the music of “Heretics”, which seems a bit too similar to that of “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left” (from his previous album) for my liking. Apparently he’s a bright young man, and I’m sure he did this for a reason.
Those (slight) missteps aside, it’s a very solid album that I highly recommend.

Rating: 8.6

Favorite Tracks: “Imitosis”, “Dark Matter”, “Armchairs”

The White Stripes - Icky Thump

How ridiculous are The White Stripes? So ridiculous that they can make an album called Icky Thump, record a song by the same name that includes a crazy bagpipe “solo”…and they can still make it awesome. Is it strange? You bet your sweet bippy it’s strange…but it’s also so awesome you can’t help but fall in love with it.
The backbone of virtually every White Stripes album has been Jack’s guitar work, and it is no different on this album. His talents are in full swing on this album, especially on the riff-driven “Bone Broke”, the opening of which sounds like it is being played by the great Nigel Tufnel.
There is some experimentation on this album, but not nearly as much as there was on their previous album (Get Behind Me, Satan). So those of you who were wanting them to get back to their guitar driven sound…well, your wish has been granted…so long as you don’t mind the occasional nod to traditional Irish instruments.
I’m not a huge fan of “Conquest”, their huge, guitar-raging, trumpet-driven tribute to Patti Page, but that’s one slight misstep on an otherwise stellar album. They try so many different things on this album that it’s amazing that more of their ideas don’t work. I’m a big fan of their oh-so-close to rockabilly “Rag & Bone”, which follows Jack & Meg as they dig through other people’s unwanted items. It’s a kind of strange idea, but they pull it off perfectly, as very few others would be able to.
It’s not perfect, but it may be the best White Stripes album to date.

Rating: 8.8

Favorite Tracks: “Icky Thump”, “Little Cream Soda”, “Rag & Bone”

Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger

Ryan Adams is well-known for releasing virtually everything he records. I make fun of him for this just about every chance I get, and yet every time he releases a new album I get really excited about it. Here’s what happens with every single album: I listen to the album once or twice and declare my love for the album…the more I listen to the album, the more I realize that the album itself is fairly mediocre, and that I have been tricked once again. On every album he releases, there always seems to be 2-4 absolutely amazing tracks, while the rest of the songs are mediocre at best. And this happens to me every single time he releases an album (which can be up to three times a year).
Guess what? I did the same thing with this album. I got excited about a new release, listened through the album a couple of times and decided that I loved it. But then something amazing happened. The more I listened to this album, the more I realized that this actually is a good album all the way through. Those 2-4 amazing tracks? They’re just the icing on the cake. The only track that really fits into the fairly mediocre category is “Halloweenhead”, and it’s not even that bad of a song. In fact, it’s kind of catchy in its own way. It just doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the album. (To be fair, I pegged this song as a bad song before I even heard it, just based on the name, so maybe I didn’t give it a fair shake.)
Musically this album seems to fit right along with Heartbreaker and Jacksonville City Nights as being a generally “old country” album.
If you even kinda-sorta like the whole alt-country genre, give this album a shot, even if you’ve been burned by Ryan Adams before. It is definitely his most cohesive (and, therefore, best) album to date.

Rating: 8.8

Favorite Tracks: “Two”, “Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.”, “These Girls”

Bright Eyes - Cassadaga

Do you remember the Bright Eyes of old? The anger and musical rawness of Letting Off the Happiness? The more mature (yet still angry and raw) Fevers and Mirrors? The orchestration and extreme musical growth of Lifted…? Well, you can (apparently) kiss that group good-bye.
I know I know…people grow up and music evolves and yadda yadda yadda. And I’d be fine with that, if that’s what I thought happened. It appears as though young Conor Oberst has taken his “new Dylan” label – a label thrown on him by a ton of musicians and critics alike – a bit too seriously. (I won’t get into the extreme misuse of that label here, but perhaps I will at a later moment) He went from a passionate musician to “just another folk-rock” singer in the span of a couple of years…and that’s really sad to me. Did I like I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning? Yes…yes I did. But I was kind of hoping that his foray into the folk-rock genre would be short-lived, that he would reinvent himself again. Maybe take elements from the genre and mix that with some of his older work?
I know this seems like a “I really liked him until he got big” review, but that’s not it at all. If this was a good album, I’d be just as excited as the next guy. But this is not a good album…and it makes me sad.
There are some good moments. I really like “Four Winds”, “If the Brakeman Turns My Way” and “I Must Belong Somewhere”. Even “No One Would Riot for Less” ends well, but the extremely boring beginning makes it fairly impossible to make it to the end. “Soul Singer in a Session Band” is such a terrible song that I can’t even bring myself to listen to it. I can’t tell you what’s wrong with it, but I know that it’s terrible, and that’s enough for me. I feel the same way about “Classic Cars”. It just feels contrived. Then there are songs like “Make a Plan to Love Me” and “Middleman” that aren’t terrible…they’re just kind of boring. They could be playing (or not), and I really couldn’t care one way or another.
So, to summarize. There are a couple of good songs, a couple of bad ones, and the rest are just kind of boring. Let’s just hope that this trend doesn’t continue. If it does, then we can all mourn a great young talent that is going to waste.

Rating: 4.7

Favorite Songs: “Four Winds”, “If the Brakeman Turns My Way”, “I Must Belong Somewhere”

Visit the websites!
Andrew Bird, The White Stripes, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes

Make sure to check back next week. Hopefully I'll have another Super Review (or, at the very least, a regular review) up by next Thursday.
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