BEST TRACKS: Quiet Light, Hey Rosey, Hairpin Turns, Rylan
FCC clean
I Am Easy to Find scored a 7.6 on Pitchfork and was ranked as the #1 album of 2019 on Sophie’s Floorboard, edging out PUP’s Morbid Stuff for first place, so I just had to check it out. At 64 hours, this album is The National’s longest yet. I admire that this album takes its time. At no point do I feel like the album was hurried or short-changed.
This album is all about subtlety, featuring soft piano, whispering strings, and humble percussion. The emphasis is placed on the vocals and lyrics. Front man Matt Berninger’s baritone voice intertwined with multiple female vocalists, including Gail Ann Dorsey, David Bowie’s backup singer, brings this album in a certain divine direction. Despite all the outside voices, this album sounds undeniably like a National’s album. All monologuing takes place elegantly and compliments the music, rather than stealing away the spotlight.
I Am Easy to Find sounds like a slow drive through the snowy hills of the countryside. This album expertly captures the quiet weightlessness of being alone and the vulnerability of the human condition. I Am Easy to Find would fit perfectly as the soundtrack to a movie about struggling lovers and fates that never line up. In fact, The National released an artful, black and white short film that shares the name of the album, directed by Mike Mill (20th Century Women), and starring Alicia Vikander (Ex-Machina).
In my heart of hearts, Morbid Stuff is still the #1 album of the year and that will never change. However, I Am Easy to Find is seriously amazing too, but in a different way, for a different audience, and I can certainly see why it receives all of the praise that it does. I recommend this album if you are in the process of finding self-love.
BEST TRACKS: bedroom community, cold weather, yoshi’s island
FCC Violations: cold weather, glass beach, yoshi’s island
Recommended if you like: OK Go, Weezer, The Flaming Lips, the Undertale soundtrack
Los Angeles based band glass beach has debuted with their first album, aptly named, the first glass beach album. Art rock, bedroom pop, garage punk, call it what you will, but this album is definitely not your average, drearily air-headed indie record. I was mind blown that this band’s first ever album could be so phenomenal, but then I realized that glass beach’s lead singer and front man is J McClendon, the artistic genius behind Casio Dad. Then it all made sense.
At first glance, the first glass beach album exudes simple joy, and playful energy, yet the album is also refined and mature. Every element of every song is obviously very intentional. What makes this album so unique is its flawless blend of multiple genres. From the high school marching-band-esque horns and drums to the groovy video game electronic twinge to captivating keyboard melodies to the garage punk fuzz, this album by all means shouldn’t work, but it does. It’s unexpected yet magical, like a pickle dipped in peanut butter (don’t knock it till you try it).
I do think this album could stand to lose a few minutes. Most of the slow, instrumental-heavy tracks like planetarium and (forever?????????) don’t add any value to this otherwise stellar album, but rather are a speed bump to the album’s energy flow.
Regardless, this entire album is a 60 minute daydream you had when you fell asleep in the flowers under a huge oak tree. It feels like collapsing onto a twin bed piled up with cute Japanese plushies in a light pink bedroom. This album is sure to bring out your inner child and leave you with a huge smile on your face. If you love roller skating, the taste of peaches, or ever watched the anime Tsuritama and loved it, then this album was made for you.
Released on November 29, 2019 (Metal Blade Records), Death Atlas is Cattle Decapitation’s eighth studio album. The band has been issuing beat-downs for two decades. Whether or not subgenres are important to you, they do help describe a band’s sound; originally categorized as Grindcore or Goregrind (Deathgrind), Cattle Decapitation’s sound and song structure made a huge leap forward with 2015’s The Anthropocene Extinction, where a more musically progressive band had evolved. Death Atlas, in one sense, is a continuation of that progression. On the other hand, those old “Core" roots are still evident in many songs on this new record, in conjunction with the atmospheric structures we heard in 2015.
Death Atlas is a beautiful beating (IMO)! In just under an hour, the listener is pulverized by the patented double-base, blastbeat ass-whoopin’ one comes to expect from Cattle Decapitation, while being stretched to the point of being burst open by the harmonious Math Metal of the guitars and bass. All while experiencing the emotional agony of lyrical genius in screams, gutterals, and tortured (nearly clean) vocals. An experience is precisely what Death Atlas is! Thrown on the conveyer of slaughter, it is a fatal ride of horror through the mill of misery.
Travis Ryan masterfully delivers (as usual) the vocal onslaught, via no less than four different styles. Josh Elmore continues to amaze on lead guitar, with production and down-right power. Dave McGraw, one of the premier drummers of extreme metal, consistently beats your brains in with break-neck tempo changes, multi-count structures, and symbol combinations. Death Atlas sees the permanent addition of Belisario dimuzio (the band’s touring guitarist) as a solid rhythm guitarist with incredible talent that can’t be missed. And Olivier Pinard (Cryptopsy) is an excellent base player in his own right and is not unfamiliar with punishing the ear holes of the listener. This five-piece is a perfect storm to produce the masterpiece, Death Atlas.
The record is almost exclusively concerning the band’s perceived horrors of humanity on the environment. From the album cover, to the four “spoken word" interludes, to the lyrical content Death Atlas is an expression of this California band’s insistence that 1) humans should experience the evils that we unleash on animals and 2) Mother Nature is growing weary of the human race and will (sooner than later) eradicate its existence. And Cattle Decapitation issues images of these sentiments in vivid order. Whether or not one shares the band’s point-of-view, one definitely must respect the hell out of the way they communicate it! Even if you don’t agree with what they’re saying, you gotta love the way they say it!
Rating: 9.5/10!!
Favorite Songs: Be Still Our Bleeding Hearts; Bring Back the Plague; Death Atlas
BEST TRACKS: Dark Green Water, Rosalie, English Garden, Treat Jar
FCC Clean
Recommended if you like: Strange Ranger, Diet Cig, Fleet Foxes, Speedy Ortiz
A lot can change in a just a couple years. Over the past two years, 5-piece indie rock outfit Great Grandpa, who had previously all lived, toured, and made music together, were split 2,000 miles apart when two of the members moved from Seattle to Milwaukee. This drastic change in their lives seeped through to the band’s music as well. If you listened to Great Grandpa in 2017 and now, you might almost think that you were listening to two different bands. With the release of Four of Arrows, Great Grandpa officially marks their movement past the grunge sound of their slightly younger, Plastic Cough days in favor of a more elegant, folksy sound.
In the third track, English Garden, Abby Gunderson goes above and beyond with her blooming violin, which Pat Goodwin’s banjo dances around romantically in an elegant song, flush with hopefulness. Lead singer Alex Menne does this thing where she beaks her voice switching from a chest to upper register. Menne and Goodwin’s voices sound like they were born to blend together flawlessly like fresh snowflakes dissolving in the palm of your hand.
In Four of Arrows, grunge is tossed aside to make room for cinematic flourishes and soft, fairytale melodies. This album is country-tinged and delicate, but far from dull. Intensity seeps through in the raw and emotional delivery of the lyrics, which is, in my opinion, easily the most impressive element of this album and of this band in general.
Four of Arrows is representative of new beginnings and joy. Even its darker moments, this album can’t hide the pride and love that Great Grandpa has for this album. In this album, they’ve achieved the sound they’ve always wanted.
If you used to listen to Taylor Swift in 2008, and deeply resonated with Katniss Everdeen when you watched Hunger Games, this album is perfect for you.
BEST TRACKS: Heavenly, You’re The Only Good Thing In My Life, Touch
FCC Violations: Kiss It Off Me, You’re The Only Good Thing In My Life
Recommended if you like: Beach House, Slowdive, The xx
Cigarettes After Sex is back after 2 years of absence with a new, self-produced release, Cry. Their self-titled first album is a hard act to follow, containing what is, in my opinion, one of the purest, fuzzy-feeling modern love songs ever written, Sweet. I was excited to see what this album had in store for us. Much like Cigarettes After Sex’s first album, Cry is slower than molasses, and sweeter too.
Listening to this album, it’s obvious that front man Greg Gonzales holds firmly the belief that less is more and executes this ethos flawlessly. Cry is mind-blowingly gentle and slow, yet still somehow manages to keep the listener’s ear perked with ultra-downbeat hints of dreampop. Gonzales’ voice sounds like a moon fairy whispering into your ear. From the first note, Gonzales creates an unshakable atmosphere, like time standing still, through echoing guitar strums, and that lovely low hum of a bassline.
Though the music is unique and fantastic, there is not much substance in the way of lyrics on this album. Though it’s refreshing to see such blatant themes of sexual desire in a genre that is usually so subtle and prude, there is not enough depth or poetry in the writing. Lyrics come off as generic and clichéd. Listening to these songs kind of made me feel like I was reading the diary of a hormonal teenage boy who thinks he’s in love.
I’ll say that this album is still worth a listen purely for the atmosphere created by the music. That is, if you don’t let the corny lyrics jolt you out of the mood. This is an album for horny romantics and painfully hopeless fantasizers. If you are, or ever were, an unashamedly diehard fan of Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey, then give this album a spin.
On November 15, experimental producer Flying Lotus quietly released this EP as part of a series for Warp Records. Consisting of four tracks, the EP was recorded more than 9 years ago in London, around the time his Cosmogramma album was unveiled.
Over the last decade and a half, Flying Lotus has established himself as one of the boldest and most technically skilled producers in instrumental hip hop, pushing the genre to its outermost limits. Influenced by fellow beatmakers Madlib and J Dilla, as well as jazz musicians like Herbie Hancock and Alice Coltrane (who happens to be his great aunt), his output is among the most diverse in recent memory. His songs have an incredibly distinct feel, and yet none of them sound the same. He arguably became one of the defining figures in independent music over the first half of the 2010s, releasing four spectacular albums over the span of five years: Cosmogramma, Duality (under his rap alter ego Captain Murphy), Until the Quiet Comes and You’re Dead!. The latter is perhaps his densest and most complex to date, featuring a strange mix of uninhibited free jazz and glitchy electronic beats. It’s a spectacular album that includes the best song of the decade in this reviewer’s mind: “Never Catch Me”, a lightning fast two parter featuring a monumental Kendrick Lamar verse. In addition to all this, his record label Brainfeeder has put out some phenomenal work like Kamasi Washington’s modern jazz classic The Epic and Thundercat’s Drunk.
After the release of that record, Flying Lotus slowed down quite a bit. Aside from major producing roles on To Pimp a Butterfly and Drunk, he didn’t release any proper solo music for another two years. (Not counting his contribution to the baffling Star Wars: Headspace compilation album or his god awful remix of the Twin Peaks theme.) Part of this was because he was working on his debut film Kuso, a body horror that was labeled the grossest film to ever play on Sundance. His musical drought ended with the single “Post Requisite”, which many thought indicated an imminent full length release, but it wasn’t until early 2019 that he announced his next LP: Flamagra, billed as a concept album about fire.
Needless to say, the anticipation was high. The singles that released beforehand seemed like good signs: “More” featuring Anderson .Paak and “Black Balloons Reprise” featuring Denzel Curry featured some of his best straight forward rap production to date, and “Takashi” demonstrated his tremendous talent for creating groovy, jazz-heavy breakbeats. “Takashi” was in fact the longest song he had released up to that point, which seemed to calm the nerves of some who worried Flamagra’s 67-minute runtime would work against the album. Unfortunately, those worries came true. While Flamagra is not without its standouts, it was indeed overlong and bloated, and felt unfocused in a way that his previous tighter albums didn’t. There were few memorable songs, and the star power on display with the numerous features simply didn’t do enough. It all just felt like a big disappointment.
Which brings us to this EP’s release. Recorded for the BBC with a live band featuring the ever present Thundercat, Ravi Coltrane, and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, it includes 4 tracks and runs a little over 20 minutes. The first track, a cover of “MmmHmm”, evokes the same dreamy atmosphere as the studio version, featuring Thundercat’s shaky yet comforting falsetto and a brilliant sax solo. The next, “Golden Axe”, is a previously unreleased, haunting instrumental that showcases the talents of the live band, especially Thundercat. It’s pretty, even if it doesn’t really go anywhere. “Tea Leaf Dancers” follows, jazzier and less bass heavy than the version on Flying Lotus’ debut EP, Reset. The EP closes with “Drips”, an all-out jam session on which Ravi Coltrane on sax steals the show.
Overall, the EP showcases a lighter, less heavy side of Flying Lotus, and serves as a suitable recovery from the disappointment of his earlier album.
HAN is a worthwhile R&B album that puts its listener is a sentimental yet dance-able atmosphere completed by Berhana’s soothing voice and funky bass guitar. The interesting chord progressions and bass lines are engaging. The album’s themes often touch on nostalgic reminiscences of past relationships or pursuit of current relationships of the singer. Each song is cleverly connected to the next track, allowing for smooth cross-fades. Another thing to mention is that some tracks in this album are not songs, but instead sound bites meant to sound like an airline instruction vehicle of a party-oriented airline, making for a unique and comical touch.
Songs to play: 5, 7
FCC violations: There are occasional expletives in this album, especially in tracks 9, 10, and 11.
Thayer Sarrano is back with her third album, continuing her dark, ethereal style.
As you may expect from an album called “Wings Alleluia”, the lyrical content of the album’s tracks feature spiritual undertones. Backup vocals were performed by The Athens Cowboy Choir, which delves further into the religious theme. “Wings Alleluia” carries the sense that this music could be heard echoing through a cathedral. Sarrano’s sweet, dreamy vocals provide a soft juxtaposition against the heavy guitar and synth that are featured on most of the tracks.
The tracks themselves range in genre. “Totem” has a very americana feel, pairing the gentle twang of Sarrano’s voice with guitar licks of the same style. “Grace Goes On” opens with a chimeatron, which has a dark sound similar to that of a music box.
The album’s title track, “Wings Alleluia”, is nearly 10 minutes long, and is almost trance-like. Sarrano’s vocals are heavily filtered, melding with those of the cowboy choir. However, the lyrics remains clear, unlike fuzz-covered songs by other indie artists.
This album is really something special. Sarrano masterfully blends genres to create a sound that is all her own. Choral music is an important part of my life, and I appreciate how it is incorporated into this album. I believe that it is under-utilized in modern music, and has the potential to create great ambiance as well as to layer complex harmonies into a song. Sarrano uses this to full advantage, allowing it to mix perfectly with other unexpected musical choices. Overall, I really enjoyed this album and would rate it an 8 out of 10.
Favorite Tracks: These Arms, Totem, Wings Alleluia
BEST TRACKS: Picture Perfect, Always Hazy, Upside Down Again
FCC Clean
Recommended If You Like: Oso Oso, Slaughter Beach Dog, American Football, Remo Drive
Macseal has been teasing us ever since 2015, releasing EP after EP, giving us small morsels of delicious music but keeping us ravenously hungry for a proper full length album. Finally, earlier this month, our prayers were answered and Macseal released an exciting, vibrant album that I am gobbling up. From Long Island, NY, Macseal is a 4-piece American indie rock band with pop influences that have a unique talent for forging sunny melodies supported by relatable lyrical narratives. They have an impressive track record for putting on exhilarating live shows and are currently touring the eastern and southern United States and they are coming to Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle on February 4th!
This pop-infused punk album is bliss from start to finish, featuring elements of insane math rock rhythms, light, glittering guitar work, and crystal clear vocals. Super Enthusiast is a romantic, breezy listen, spotted with small emotional outcries that are easily accessible to anyone. With bittersweet tracks like Mystery Inc., which is about outgrowing people, and Graduating Steps, which is about revisiting your old school after many years, this album could easily soundtrack a rebellious teenage coming of age movie.
When I listen to this album, I can’t help from picturing the sun glistening on the surface of a lake. But don’t be fooled, because even though the music is upbeat, if you get into the lyrics, you’ll find that they’re pretty glum, confronting the rapid passage of time and the challenges of getting older in such a cold, unforgiving universe. I find that I can listen to this kind of happy-sad music through thick and thin and it always finds a way to resonate with me. If you like drawing on the sidewalk with chalk or taking bubble baths, you’re probably going to love this album.
BEST TRACKS: Three More Months, Furnace, keys, Indiana Dropout
FCC Violations: Weird, Three More Months
Recommended if you like: Rozwell Kid, PUP, Jeff Rosenstock, together PANGEA, Fuzz
2019 has been an eventful year for DIY punk rock, producing skull-shattering albums like PUP’s Morbid Stuff and BRUTUS’s Nest. Hummingbird is an exciting, captivating DIY punk rock album that belongs right up there at the same level as Best Sleep’s more well-known contemporaries. Song after song, this album just kept drawing me in with the rawness of the lyrics and power of the instrumentation. Best Sleep is a relatively new 4-piece band from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Though they haven’t been on the scene for long, they released an amazing EP last spring that pulled on my heartstrings so hard that they snapped. To my delight, they carried that momentum and released a gut-wrenchingly melancholic full-length album, Hummingbird, right in time for seeping in the winter blues.
Hummingbird has strikingly beautiful, dark melodies and enthralling intensity. Every time the energy shifts, introducing the booming percussion and fuzzy bass, it will release your soul from its earthly bond. My favorite song on the album is track 7, Three More Months. The song opens with a hauntingly dark riff and transitions into anguished vocals. If you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you know that I’m a huge sucker for intense fuzz and feedback, which this song (and whole album) has a ton of.
Just so you’re warned, there is no subtlety or sugarcoating here. Obergfell and Richardson are not afraid of writing blunt lyrics straight from the heart. This album tackles a lot of heavy themes, especially about the struggles that come along with getting older and getting tossed out into the cold, cruel world. Track 2, Furnace is about not having enough money to keep the heat on through the winter. Track 3, Son of the Year, confronts the pressing guilt that comes with feeling like you don’t talk to your family enough.
If Winter is a hard time for you, give this album a spin and you might feel a little less alone.
