It's been a while. This column hasn't existed since March, which is fine. No one missed it.
Parquet Courts - Wide Awake! (2018)
It's almost more coveted in indie rock to become a consistent band than a successful one. Of course, blowing up overnight and getting massive acclaim over one record is probably fantastic, but then every subsequent album is a disappointment. Consistency, on the other hand, means that each album is good-to-great, and everyone's left satisfied and smiling. Parquet Courts is the representative from New York by way of Texas in the "good indie" Olympics. Wide Awake! keeps the trend going with another collection of witty, political, punk-funk. The political angle specifically is emphasized, because of course it is. That being said, the band offers a lot of clever insights about why 2018 (and most other years) sucks in this country.
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House (2006)
The Indieheads subreddit had a folk-off this past month and implored people to listen to and rate some of the most critically acclaimed indie folk albums of the millennium. This include Fleet Foxes, The Glow, Pt. 2, Ys, and Yellow House. I've loved the first two albums for a while now, and Joanna Newsom absolutely blew my mind. Grizzly Bear was somewhere else, where I've listened to and enjoyed several of their albums but have never quite gone head-over-heels for them. I wanted to like this more. Some of this might have to do with the context, but I still found this to be very middling. Songs like "Knife" and "On a Neck, On a Spit" stood out, but the rest were all very solidly 7/10 or so. This is their folkiest album so I can see why it was included in the competition, but I feel like their later releases would see them at greater heights.
Daft Punk - Discovery (2001)
In my time with the two albums I've listened to the most (this one and RAM), I've found a trend. The first 2/3 of the record is absolutely fantastic. Crystalline production, great songwriting, catchy as hell, and so on. Then, there is a brief lull for two to three songs, and the closer wraps it all up perfectly. RAM holds up a little better with the ending trifecta, but "Too Long" works in a wonderfully ambitious fashion for Discovery. As far as high points go, there really aren't any. High points imply some of relativity or discrepancy in song quality. For nine straight tracks, Daft Punk slam your face into the most delectable electronic pie you've ever tasted. Even the lesser-known cuts are iconic.
The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief (2006)
It's some pretty good Swedish electro-pop! That is all.
Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018)
I'll need to give this sucker at least one more listen, but in the meantime, I'm going to refrain from regurgitating what every other writer has said about this record. I really like "Four Out Of Five." There are good lyrics, there are bad lyrics. I respect their stylistic shift, but I still prefer their previous sound. For me, that means the first two albums and AM since I'm a bad fan and still haven't listened to Suck It And See or Humbug. What'cha gonna do about it, huh?
Disclosure - Settle (2013)
I have no idea why I used to hate this. I tried sitting through it like four years ago and I gave up. After another listen, it's good. A lot of whiplash production, great vocal features, and the only Sam Smith song I like make Settle something worth hearing.
Clairo - diary 001 EP (2018)
This was probably the most "meh" EP of the year so far. "Pretty Girl" is decent and "4EVER" is a banger, but the other songs just fade into the haze they were produced under. Yeah, yeah, I know it's lo-fi but lo-fi doesn't mean boring. Not even PC Music's Danny L. Harle could elevate a song to a point where I would return to it. If anything, this EP gives me hope for what Clairo can do on diary 002 and other future projects. To be honest, I enjoyed her Brockhampton cover from a little while ago more than anything here.
CHVRCHES - Love is Dead (2018)
CHVRCHES goes pop! Wait, what? They've always been pop, this time they just brought on some guys known for working with Ed Sheeran and Adele. I didn't have high expectations going into this, but it was still very okay. A lot of the best songs are just echoes of what the band did better on their last two albums. The opener, "Graffiti," sounds like it was produced by this and Lauren Mayberry's vibrato sounds like Post Malone (which isn't bad, just...unexpected). "Get Out" has grown on me and it's definitely one of the best tracks. Matt Berninger doesn't sound that good over synth-pop. Third single "Miracle" sounds like a CHVRCHES cover of The Greatest Showman soundtrack. "Graves" is a certified bop and I love it so much. The main reason the album feels "bad" is because of the ridiculous highs of the other two. It's not bad by any means, but I'm already looking forward to their next album as a way of righting their course a bit.
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