Music

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• 07/08/08

  Jay Reatard—Singles 06-07 Despite what his name implies, Jay Reatard is a very competent pop songwriter. His music builds on the sound of throwaway '60s garage rock, which means that there's plenty of distorted guitars and Farfisa organs. But there's also some relatively stripped down songs that give you a good opportunity to hear how catchy and perfect his pop songs can be when they're left relatively unadorned. He's an unexpected addition to the legacy of Memphis music, though there's absolutely no chance you'll ever see this record in the Stax Museum.
  
  Ponytail—Ice Cream Spiritual This album is a very raw and tribal take on prog rock from a Baltimore group that was born long after the demise of that much loved and hated subgenre. Over the course of the album, the band members shred and scream their way through polymorphous songs that sound like they're about to fall apart. Of course, it takes a lot of practice to teeter on that edge between order and anarchy. Recommended for fans of Deerhoof, Animal Collective, or any other band that's learned all the rules and chooses to forget them.
  
  Allez Allez—Best of Allez Allez We just found out about this compilation of the best tracks from Belgian post-punk group Allez Allez. Somehow this group missed out on the trend a few years back when every single album that sounded remotely like Gang of Four was being reissued and declared a lost classic. These guys play funky new wave in the vein of ESG and have great female-led vocals. The remixes by some of our favorite new DJs (Lindstrom and Prins Thomas, Quiet Village, and Optimo) are an added bonus, if not the main draw.
  

• 06/24/08

  Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds—Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Nick Cave is one of those artists where the quality of the releases has been so consistently high, it's necessary to buy pretty much anything he and the band put out. We particularly love his lyrics—at this point, Nick Cave is probably one of the few songwriters in rock who has lyrics that can truly be referred to as "literary." Each of his albums adds a few more classic tracks to his already impressive oeuvre, and this one is no different. Also, how could you not buy a record that punctuates itself with no less than three exclamation points?!!!
  
  Dennis Wilson—Pacific Ocean Blue (Remastered) Dennis Wilson, as the youngest of the Wilson brothers in the Beach Boys, distinguished himself early on in the group by being probably the least talented (he couldn't play the drums, but to his credit he was the only member of the band who could surf). Somehow by the mid-'70s, when everyone else in the band had pretty much gone off the deep end, he managed to release one of the lesser-known gems of the whole introspective singer-songwriter movement. Up until now this record was a well-guarded secret of obsessive record collectors and Beach Boys fanatics, but all that should change with this newly remastered edition. Fair warning—this album walks a fine line between cheesy and brilliant (but that could be said about most of the Beach Boys output over the years).
  
  Gas—Nah und Fern So, what you have here is a 4-disc box set, collecting all four albums from Cologne's Gas (aka Wolfgang Voigt). As one of the founders of the Kompakt label, Voigt is responsible for a lot of the popularity of minimal house music in Europe. His own music is a brand of ambient soundscapes that are underscored by the quiet thud of a bass drum. It's the sound of a dance party happening three miles away and underwater, but it's one of the most blissful sounds we've ever heard.
  

• 06/12/08

  Lil Wayne—Tha Carter 3 Despite the fact that the tepid lead single "Lollipop" is inescapable this summer, Lil Wayne has delivered a very good album. Sure, it doesn't tread the same fine line of goofy spontaneity and offhand brilliance that Wayne displays on his mixtapes, but it comes pretty close and features a few really strong songs in the process. We particularly enjoy the Jay-Z collaboration and "Dr. Carter," a throwback song that delivers the hip-hop metacommentary that we used to love—rapping about rapping.
  
  Fleet Foxes—Fleet Foxes A very beautiful and well-recorded debut album from Fleet Foxes. It features two things we love dearly—three-part harmonies and droning organs. It also, at its best, reminds us of the early '70s California rock that we grew up on, then renounced, and now have
  rediscovered as we realize just how fertile a time that period was for music. This record should get some nice Sunday morning spins sandwiched between your Buffalo Springfield and Gene Clark records.
  
  Lykke Li—Youth Novels You hear the cold, mechanical rhythms first, and you naturally expect to hear some austere Teutonic voice singing over these tracks. But then you hear Lykke Li and everything seems a bit sweeter and organic. Youth Novels is probably the hundredth perfect, catchy Swedish pop record we've reviewed since 2005. Frankly, we don't think it's fair, but as long as they keep coming up with good tunes, we'll keep buying them.

• 05/28/08

  Jamie Lidell—Jim This is a really fun record. Jamie Lidell makes blue-eyed soul that shows a deep knowledge of the history of the genre. Formerly an electronic artist, Lidell has hung up his laptop and picked up the microphone, making vocal soul music that ranges from the Memphis-style horn-heavy variety to New Orleans-style R&B upbeat numbers. All the while, there's a certain sensibility at work that let's you know this is a record by a guy on Warp Records, but also that he won't let this fact stop him from singing his heart out.
  
  Quiet Village—Silent Movie Quiet Village is the first sample-heavy album we've heard in a little while, and it instantly reminded us how great it can be when a skillful producer recontextualizes forgotten records. When we first heard the concept of the record we were skeptical because the idea of a sample-only album that sounded like exotica music seemed like a very '90s concept. Well, it goes to show that music is always better listened to than described. In the spirit of that statement, I'll shut up and simply say that this is a great beach record.
  
  Bonnie "Prince" Billy—Lie Down in the Light Fifteen years before moccasins and beards became ubiquitous in Bushwick and other gentrified neighborhoods near you, Will Oldham (aka Palace Music aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy) was exploring the darker side of folk music, delving into the gothic ballads of Appalachia and the English countryside. Since then, he's been consistent above all else, and though his voice may crack a little less than it used to, every album he's released has merited at least a few spins (some haven't left our CD changer for months). His latest is a cut above his most
  recent records and sounds damn good on a sunny day.
  

• 05/12/08

  Cut Copy—In Ghost Colours And finally, the long-awaited Cut Copy album. The Australian trio again delivers the dancefloor-friendly indie rock that we've been waiting for all this time. The genre description on their Myspace page says it all: "Pop/Pop/Pop." The album is catchy as all get-out. These guys have albums that go number 1 in Australia, and after listening to this album we can't imagine why they haven't caught on the same way here. If you're curious what all the fuss is about, we heard they're touring the U.S. right now.
  
  M83—Saturdays=Youth When M83 first washed up on our shores a few years ago, their digital soundscapes were the perfect counterpoint to the beautiful washes of guitar noise we loved in bands like My Bloody Valentine. This French group is at it again, but this time the work is solely that of Anthony Gonzalez. There is still the meticulous layering of keyboard sounds that we originally loved, but with an added immediacy and a hint of 80's synth-pop. We love it when something as cold and mechanical as a synthesizer can make us feel such strong and visceral emotions.
  
  The Black Angels—Directions to See a Ghost Yet another great band pops up in Austin, Texas. In all fairness, this band has been around for a few years now but they've just popped up on our radar. Dabbling in the dark psychedelia of the Velvet Underground at its most menacing, the Black Angels create raw rock music that drones instead of strutting. Just listening to this album makes us want to have a change in lifestyle that includes dark sunglasses, leather jackets, and whiskey.
  

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