The hottest music from Chicago & beyond

Category: BNM Page 7 of 9

Album Review: Destroyer – Kaputt [Merge]


Cheesy things and kitschy things are all about perspective. What’s one man’s treasure is another man’s trash and vice versa, and with this ever-changing world of ours, there’s generational gaps and disconnections that help to support that. As a child of the 80s, I find a particular amount of horror in some of the “mistakes” made during that decade, which includes things like shoulder pads, leg warmers, perms, an AIDS outbreak and some serious crap that some artists tried to pass off as pop music when it was anything but. To this day, synth pop or soft rock done in a certain way still really irks me if it dredges up some bad 80s memories. It’d be nice if bad 80s music were confined strictly to that decade, but with so many artists reaching backwards to find and exploit sounds of the past and adapt them to more modern conventions, now and then somebody goes to that spot and tries to pull it off yet again but with fingers crossed for a different result. Chromeo has been working that angle for a few albums now, and while there’s certainly a market for their brand of exploitation, most of the time it disgusts me. One of the people I would never expect to take a crack at bad 80s music would be Dan Bejar aka Destroyer, but on his new record “Kaputt” he does exactly that. Of course if anybody could pull it off with any sense of legitimacy, Destroyer would also be high up on that list.

Over the course of what’s now nine studio albums, Dan Bejar has proven himself to be a brilliant composer and songwriter, piecing together avant-pop melodies that are obtuse but still work in the exact ways they’re needed to. What was a little troubling about the last Destroyer record, 2008’s “Trouble In Dreams” was that it continued to use the same sorts of influences and approaches as the couple records prior to it, thereby turning an oft-unpredictable project into an utterly predictable one. 2009’s “Bay of Pigs” EP was a huge step back in the right direction. The nearly 14-minute title track was spacey, psychedelic and synth-infused with a large brushstroke of disco for a dance party should you desire one. It was a nice curveball that seemed to suggest the next Destroyer album would be in a similar, equally creative vein. With a shortened-by-two-minutes version titled “Bay of Pigs (Detail)” listed as the closing track on “Kaputt”, there was plenty of reason to believe that a more electro or disco-themed album was on the way. As it turns out, “Bay of Pigs (Detail)” is a standout track on the new album, but less because of how great it is and more because it’s the only one that doesn’t fully gel with everything that came before it. Instead of mixing 70s disco with modern electro tropes, “Kaputt” is Destroyer jumping to the late 70s/early 80s by pushing soft rock with a touch of jazz and a hint of pop. As I wasn’t very aware of much of the styles back in that era given that I was somewhere between infant and toddler, the way I generally define music from that era is via classic film soundtracks. While attempting a more John Hughes movie soundtrack probably would have served Destroyer well, “Kaputt” comes off more of a cross between the dark, brassy jazz of the “Taxi Driver” soundtrack mixed with the synth-pop of the “Scarface” (1983) soundtrack. By equating much of what happens on this record with those two classic films, it makes the whole thing that much more bearable and fascinating to listen to.

Opening track and first single “Chinatown” is a shock to the system from the very start, sputtering for a couple seconds at the open before what’s either electronic drums or a drum machine comes in with a steady but unnatural beat. Mixed with a lushly strummed acoustic guitar, the two fare well together until some heavy synths and wobbly keyboards take over the melody as the first verse begins. By the time the chorus strikes, a lone trumpet is fluttering in and out and around thanks to some echo effects. Bejar also gets some serious backing vocal help courtesy of Sibel Thrasher, and this is just the first of many appearances she’ll make on the album. The second verse welcomes a saxophone to the party for an extra touch of jazz. With a tempo that’s a little faster than a heavy ballad but a little slower than something you can tap your feet to, at its core the song is very much a condensed version of what the rest of the record will sound like. If “Chinatown” doesn’t thrill you, “Kaputt” is probably not going to be your record. On “Blue Eyes”, Bejar may make reference to New Order, but the song sounds very little like that band, though it might serve him well if it did. Instead, similar to how eyes come in pairs, you can pair up the different instruments on the song as each is essential to the other’s success. For example, the thinly plucked electric guitar isn’t as effective without the heavy bass as a counterpoint, just as the trumpet holds back some of the jazzy mood without the saxophone to compliment it. The chorus of female voices backing up and providing harmonies for Bejar are equally important as well, while the synths and percussion have their own thing going too. Among other things, those pairings alone are testament to the impressive and intricate way these songs are composed. But speaking of the last track’s reference to New Order, “Savage Night at the Opera”‘s towering synths and bouncy bass line actually does pay legitimate homage to the band. The electric guitar that comes in at the halfway mark is classic New Order as well, and the lack of any brass along with the solid tempo makes for one of the less interesting songs on the album but one of the easiest to fall in love with.

Two minutes of ambient, shimmering electronic sounds with some light acoustic guitar and piano begins the 8.5 minute “Suicide Demo for Kara Walker”, just before the flute shows up for some smooth jazz action. The flute is gone by the time Bejar starts singing though, as the track morphs into some late 70s funk, with a bass, piano and drum machine combination that works well with the brass section that hangs around for awhile before breaking into full-on free form solo mode for the last two minutes. Lyrically the song is significant as well, given that’s Kara Walker’s contribution to the track. She’s an artist specializing in racial history, and Bejar sings her unconventional words to interesting effect here. The six minutes that make up the title track “Kaputt” are remarkable in how they effortlessly blend some 80s-leaning dancefloor beats with brassy, smooth jazz. Without a doubt it’s challenging to pull off something like that, not to mention while Bejar sings the lines, “Wasting your days, chasing some girls alright/Chasing cocaine through the backrooms of the world all night”. When you really think about it in context with how the music pairs together a sexy saxophone melody with a coke-fueled dancefloor beat, there’s nothing more appropriate both for the song and the album as a whole.

There’s so much about “Kaputt” that absolutely screams corny, cheesy, out of style, and tacky. Pull some of the brass out of this record and you’ve got something much more new wave and on the righter/better side of 80s music. Take out all the synths and leave the brass, and you’ve got something severely soft rock/jazz that’s just about the worst sin you can commit to record (in my humble opinion). When placed together as they are on this album, the natural conclusion to draw is that it falls somewhere in between those two parallels. The thing is, “Kaputt” is not an okay record, or a simply good or bad one. Instead, it’s a miracle of an achievement – one of those rare cases where two separate and unequal parts can combine to create something greater than either could hope or dream to accomplish separately. Perhaps the best way to describe it is by saying that the worst elements present here take a nosedive so far down that they fall into the “so bad it’s good” category. It’s a new found appreciation for camp value, and a gambit that on paper appears to make no sense. Hell, reading about it now probably makes very little sense as well. Yet listening to it feels strangely familiar even though you’ve probably never heard anything like this before. This is not only one of the most original Destroyer albums to date, it’s also one of the most original albums you’ll hear this year – that’s virtually guaranteed. What else can satisfy fans of both Roxy Music and Kenny G in one sitting? Or maybe the better question is, why would anyone even want to attempt such a feat? Only Dan Bejar knows the answer to that one.

Destroyer – Chinatown

Buy “Kaputt” from Amazon

Album Review: Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean [Warner Bros/4AD]

When the name Iron & Wine comes up, your first thought should be to Sam Beam. That is to say, the visual picture in your head should go there, not necessarily your sonic memory. Evoking said sonic memory though, your first inclination upon thinking of Iron & Wine may be to recall lush and hushed acoustic folk songs with rich pastoral lyrics that are really worth getting excited about, if only they didn’t make you so sleepy. Yeah, the first two Iron & Wine records, “The Creek Drank the Cradle” and “Our Endless Numbered Days” specialized in such gorgeous minimalism, and that’s largely what helped us to fall in love with Sam Beam, the man who pretty much did it all by himself. Well, on 2007’s “The Shepherd’s Dog”, Iron & Wine became a full-fledged band with auxiliary players. The resulting record was pretty much the exact step forwards that was needed to ensure the life of the band. The much wider array of instruments used really fleshed out what was essentially just a guy and his acoustic guitar into something more vibrant, intricate and gorgeous than most anyone thought possible. Well, now Beam and his cohorts are back at it again for the fourth Iron & Wine full-length, “Kiss Each Other Clean”. This, as the band moves from the indie excellence that is Sub Pop Records and onto the much huger Warner Bros. Records. Would signing to a major label turn the band into much more radio-friendly rock stars? If you think that’s the case, then you don’t know Sam Beam.

There are two big things about “Kiss Each Other Clean” that attract attention almost immediately. The first are Sam Beam’s vocals. Ever so slowly from album to album, Beam has gone from a whisper to a full-bodied singer. His vocals were still mostly hushed on “The Shepherd’s Dog”, but on the new record he sounds like a normal person with strong vocal range. Whether it’s a matter of finding the confidence in his vocal abilities or simply the opportunity to try something different, it’s a welcome change that proves he doesn’t need to resist belting it out to sound distinctive. Speaking of distinctive, amidst the massive array of instruments that appear all over this album are even more impressive than they were last time around, the most notable this time being the saxophone. Whenever it pops up, on tracks such as “Me and Lazarus” and “Big Burned Hand”, it dominates and creates an interesting dynamic that Iron & Wine haven’t really done before.

The band also takes aim at 70s AOR on “Kiss Each Other Clean”, something they’ve never tried before. Between the wah-wah guitar that makes an appearance on a track like “Rabbit Will Run” and the spiky Stevie Wonder-esque organ that permeates “Monkeys Uptown”, they’ve got the sound nailed down pretty good, with just a touch of modernity thrown in so you don’t get too time-disoriented. But you also get moments such as album closer “Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me”, which spends the first few minutes sounding like the soundtrack to a lost 70s cop show about two mismatched partners that are tough on crime yet always break the rules and get in trouble with the chief. “Big Burned Hand” sounds straight out of a classic porn made in the era of “Deep Throat”, with maybe a little too much funk for its own good. Opening track “Walking Far From Home” flirts a little bit with gospel, while “Half Moon” shows its country-tinged roots. And for fans of Iron & Wine’s early material, “Godless Brother In Love” is one of the most gorgeous ballads the band has ever created, mixing piano with acoustic guitar and some seriously great vocal harmonies. Those sorts of beautiful harmonies are actually all over the record, either in tandem with Beam’s lead vocal to give it an extra bump, or more separately as backing “oohs”, “aahs” and “whoaas”.

The influences and instruments may have changed a bit in Iron & Wine’s sound, but there are a couple things you can always count on from Sam Beam and Company. Lyrically, Beam’s storytelling is as vivid as its ever been, and his wordplay is second to none. Despite his claims of being an agnostic, Beam also makes a number of Christian and Biblical references on this record, from the titular Lazarus in “Me and Lazarus” to a more general line-by-line bit like taking a “call from the Lord”. Of course his tales of nature and natural things has not been toned down in the least, nor the life lessons learned by characters both good and bad but always reaching some shade of grey. For example, on a song like the remarkably catchy first single “Tree By the River”, the lines “I mean the world/to a potty-mouthed girl/and a pretty pair of blue-eyed birds/’Time isn’t kind or unkind,’/you liked to say” are nothing short of wonderful. No matter what you listen to Iron & Wine for, the band is firing on all cylinders on “Kiss Each Other Clean”. It’s just the sort of forward progress needed to help sustain the group’s lifespan, though few have done quite this well. Fans of the sparse acoustic folk of the first two Iron & Wine records will surely be disappointed by the new album, but for everyone else, this marks yet another great addition to an already great catalogue.

Buy “Kiss Each Other Clean” from Amazon

Album Review: Tennis – Cape Dory [Fat Possum]


Every band or artist has a story about how things came together and began to make music in earnest. Oftentimes those stories are boring, or at the very least have a lot of the same elements to them. The group of guys that met in high school or college. The band whose members all live in the same neighborhood and it’s a proximity thing. There’s also the couples, two people dating or married that decide to make beautiful music together. Mates of State, Handsome Furs and Beach House are all fair examples of pretty good “relationship duos”. The White Stripes are really interesting because while they’re a duo, they’re also divorced. Sometimes the bond of music really can be stronger than love. The one pairing you’ll want to be paying close attention to in 2011 is that of Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore. They call themselves Tennis, and have a surprisingly interesting formation story. Both had spent time making music with various bands, none of which attracted much of any attention. Despite their backgrounds, music was the last thing on their minds when Riley and Moore met in college, began dating and eventually married. She didn’t realize that he played the guitar and he didn’t realize she could sing. All they really wanted to do was take an adventure. After severely sacrificing and saving as much money as they could over the course of a few years, the couple had enough to buy a boat. With said boat they made the decision to take a two-year journey down the Atlantic coastline. They joked around for a bit during their voyage about starting a band, but didn’t begin to take it seriously until one night at a bar in Florida. They heard the Shirelles song “Baby It’s You”, and Riley said that if he was ever in a band again, he’d want it to sound exactly like that. From that point forward, they worked out all the details, including the exact instruments and recording equipment they wanted to use. The two-year trip was cut short at eight months, taken off course so they could focus their time and efforts on Tennis. Their original idea was to write songs about the trip as a way to remember those fun times, but it was also therapeutic after they left said trip unfinished. After a couple songs made their way online, the hype for the duo accelerated very quickly. Two seven-inch singles released on Firetalk and Underwater Peoples Records last summer only built up the band’s reuptation further, and they played their first-ever live shows around that time as well. This past fall they signed with Fat Possum for their debut full-length “Cape Dory”, which is out now.

What’s attracted so many people to Tennis, and why even more will come on board once they hear “Cape Dory”, are the sunny pop melodies and winning hooks that emerge at every turn. They’re constantly compared to Best Coast and Surfer Blood for that exact reason, and apt though it may be, they’re a bit more than that. Given that a Shirelles song was the inspiration for them to start the band in the first place, Tennis’ sound has a very 1950s-60s girl group vibe to it, but with a small modern twist. Pay close attention to Patrick Riley’s guitar work and you may catch some chord progression similar to artists like The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly or Chuck Berry. At times there are also very obvious surf rock vibes being thrown around, all part of holding down a very relaxed, summery vibe. Bits of organ have their place in a majority of the songs as well, and with that added shimmer you might be reminded of a sped up, catchier version of Beach House. What really helps sink that in are Alaina Moore’s vocals, which come across as both classic and overtly dramatic. Thanks to overdubs and harmonies, there are many points where Moore sounds like her own girl group and it’s all very lush and lovely. If there’s a complaint to be had regarding her vocals, it’s that the emotion doesn’t always project through her voice. Too often she sounds like a friend telling you an amazing story that happened to her instead of placing you inside the experience herself. In other words, she’s telling of all these places and adventures she’s been on while sailing, when the best and most satisfying way of hearing about them is to simply go see for yourself. Some singers have the emotional resonance to put you there, and others do not. With Moore at the vocal helm, she comes very close but doesn’t quite reach that sweet spot. You’re not taken to the beach, but are instead shown a photo of a beach and wish you could go. Perhaps what’s coming through then in Moore’s singing is that longing for the sea once again. Their two-year trip was cut dramatically short, and she’s stuck at a crossroads between the adventure that was and the adventure that could have been.

Should you have collected all the Tennis tracks from their two 7″ singles last year, you’ve already heard five of “Cape Dory”‘s ten songs. The great news is that those five songs are all great and very addictive and re-recorded with much higher fidelity than before. The initial plan was to record the songs on some beat-up tape to both dirty the songs up a bit and give them that much more of a vintage feel. Whether it was being given an actual recording budget or at the request of the label or some other reason altogether, everything on the album is crisper and clearer with just a tiny touch of fuzz – and is much better for it. You can now understand all the lyrics, the harmonies are just a little more prominent, the guitars ripple just a little bit more, and the hooks are just a little bit sharper. That said, those five previously released songs (“South Carolina”, “Marathon”, “Cape Dory”, “Bimini Bay” and “Baltimore”) remain the five best songs in Tennis’ catalogue so far. They don’t do any better with the five new cuts, but also don’t do any worse. “Take Me Somewhere” is a delightful way to start the record, all fun, excitement and anticipation for what’s looking to be a grand trip on a sailboat. The jangly guitar, surf rock drums and lightly shimmering 60s organ pick up the pace after the first verse, just after Moore sings, “make fast the lines, please don’t waste any time/oh i feel the wind blowing”. It’s almost as if that first 1:15 is a sailboat picking up anchor from the dock and creeping towards open sea when a huge gust of wind hits at just the right moment to let you know the trip has officially begun. Things hit a small standstill when “Long Boat Pass” shows up next, but it’s a storyline thing and not a pace thing. Our couple on this trip have spent some time at Longboat Pass in Florida, and as much fun as they’ve had there, she wants to keep going while he wants to stay longer. “Please let me through, we must return to sea”, she pleads near the very end of the song. Along the way there’s a toe-tapping melody that begins with some arpeggio guitar that eventually develops out into chords of the same thing, much like waves slowly getting bigger and bigger on the beach as the tide rolls in. So despite the not-exactly-cheery lyrics, the song itself is a delight, settling into such a groove that a legitimate chorus and hook aren’t even necessary to keep us interested in what’s going on. Moore’s vocals sound absolutely classic on the track too, more 1950s sugary sweet than most anything else on the album. Similar things could be said about how she handles “Pigeon”, a swaying ballad about devotion to your partner. “I Will be there, I promise to take good care of you”, Moore sings over a pulsating organ and sparsely plucked guitar. The urgency with whic she sings it and keeps repeating it, you can’t help but believe her. “Seafarer” is the first single from “Cape Dory”, and it’s an upbeat pop song with some seriously old school guitar chords and drum fills that only make it more compelling. The hook is what sells it though, along with those “oh ohs”. And as an album closer, “Waterbirds” serves its purpose perfectly, maintaining a relatively slow and quiet pace for the first minute and a half before surging to a loud and thrilling finish unlike anything else on the album. Moore spends the entire time reminiscing about all the wonderful little things she misses about their boat trip, including “sleeping deep in the brush” and “the insects chirping underneath the leaves”. She still dreams about it today, soaring in the chorus with, “Did we ever really leave?/This is all that we need”. Clearly the band has learned two things from their eight-month trek down the Atlantic coastline: 1) Home is where the heart is and 2) Memories last a lifetime.

Plenty of people will find “Cape Dory” to be a very “cutesy” and overly sweet record. That’s one way of looking at it, though it may be a bit superficial. The way these songs are constructed, built largely on classic-style melodies and vocals with just a hint of modern influence, says a lot more about the band than their back story does. Yes, how the album came into existence and what the lyrics are based on is important, but style holds court over substance in this case because Tennis might not have gotten our attention otherwise. FOr the most part, 2010 brought forth a whole lot of buzz bands that worked on the same sort of summer fun/beach, surf and sand-type levels, but in slightly different ways. We’re talking Best Coast, Magic Kids, Surfer Blood, Wavves and The Morning Benders all reaping the benefit of such a trend. Now Tennis are taking those same elements and making them over with a 50s girl group twist that satisfies as well if not better than the aforementioned artists. Every song on “Cape Dory” is nothing short of wonderful, and at only 30 minutes long the album is really easy to play over and over and over again. Spending eight months cruising around on a boat and visiting random places sounds like a lot of fun (unless you’re the seasick type), and in turn the record they made to help remember it brings to us a lot of those good times. I wonder if they have enough material for a follow-up.

Tennis – Seafarer
Tennis – Baltimore (7″ version)

Buy “Cape Dory” from Amazon

Album Review: Jónsi – Go Live

With Sigur Ros on a bit of a break while most of the members spend time with family and the like, angelic-voiced frontman Jónsi decided to work on some other music and art related projects. First came Jónsi and Alex, an extremely sparse music and art project he did with his boyfriend Alex Somers. The album “Riceboy Sleeps” was a quiet collection of ethereal instrumentals that was recorded using entirely acoustic instruments. That was followed by a genuine solo album, “Go”, which was released this past spring. “Go” was probably the better of the two albums, even though both definitely had their individual merits. Neither could quite live up to most of what Sigur Ros has done, but that’s an incredibly high standard to live up to. One of the flat-out great things about Jónsi’s solo work was that he felt the need to make every live performance a special experience for the audience. He worked closely with 59 Productions to craft an elaborate stage setup with costumes and other visual pieces such as animation and video to accompany most every song. It made Jónsi one of the best live acts to see in the last year, and if you missed it, you’re basically screwed unless you live in Japan or Iceland which are where his last two solo shows will be taking place this month. Personally, I tried pretty hard to make it out to one of the three dates Jónsi played in Chicago this past spring and fall, but unfortunately just never quite got there. The good news is that this week saw the release of “Go Live” – a CD/DVD package that gives you all that Jónsi audio AND visual goodness you either missed or just want to see/hear again.

First, the “Go Live” DVD is worth the purchase price alone. It was filmed at Jónsi’s very first solo live show on the “Go” tour, back in London in March. He and his backing band play eleven songs, a couple of which are unreleased, in the sense that they didn’t appear on the original “Go” album. No Sigur Ros songs or Jónsi and Alex songs (even though Alex is part of his solo tour backing band), just Jónsi solo stuff. Adding the visual element to these songs in this particular case actually serves to enhance them from their original states, really just taking art to the “next level”. Between flowers growing, birds soaring through the air and rain pouring down in sheets, it’s a visual feast for the eyes that feels as inspired by Jónsi as Jónsi surely was by it. There’s a distinct lack of highlights on the DVD, mostly because the entire live show as a whole can be considered a higlight. As a teaser though, outside of a trailer a lot of the focus has been on a wonderfully extended version of “Around Us” that makes all the right moves. Eleven songs and 73 minutes is more than fair for a DVD such as this one, but that doesn’t quite compare with the 14 tracks and 75 minutes of the CD that comes with it.

Lacking the visual stimuli but packing a nearly equal punch, the audio-only portion of “Go Live” was pulled from a show in Belgium back in May and a few tracks also come from a Brighton, England show this past September. Given that the studio version of “Go” only spans 9 tracks and this CD is 14, that means 5 new songs you might not have heard before. Granted, tracks like “Stars in Still Water” and “Icicle Sleeves” were pretty much played at every solo show Jónsi did, and “Sticks + Stones” appeared on the “How to Train Your Dragon” soundtrack, but in all likelihood you haven’t heard every single one of these tracks. Just to have high quality recorded versions of the unreleased stuff is worth it, and all the songs are so damn good you’ve got to wonder why the unreleased stuff didn’t make the original album. Another great thing about Jónsi live in general is that the crowds are more than respectful. Plenty of live records are marred by too much audience interaction or singing along and things of that nature, but outside of little bits of applause before and after a handful of tracks, most everything is silent as night. It leaves the CD in pristine audio quality to the point where it sounds like a studio recording, only a little more insistent and playful. The DVD fares equally well audio-wise, though the visual element takes some attention away from that. Things to pay close attention to on the “Go Live” CD include a harrowing 7-minute rendition of “Tornado”, another equally great 8 minutes of “Around Us”, plus the new/unreleased songs. Naturally though, Jónsi likes to save the best for last, which is why a 10+ minute version of “Grow Till Tall” ends both the CD and DVD. It’s the sort of thing that makes you wonder why it’s only 5 minutes on the original album.

The majority of live CDs and DVDs are not worth your hard-earned money. Any artist can put 5 cameras in a concert venue, perform a straight show and then release it. There’s no real need to be interesting, provided it sounds good enough. There also seems to be a casual approach to crowd noise, as some artists feel it necessary to prove a “connection” to the audience or are just sloppy when it comes to editing that out. Those crying fans singing along with your every word? Let’s put that on the DVD because our fans are passionate. Jónsi’s fans are every bit as passionate and every bit as connected (if not moreso) than any other artist, but “Go Live” doesn’t play those cards except for very conservatively. The people responsible for putting this package together fully recognize that this show is an artistic expression akin to a play or a painting in an art gallery. You don’t boorishly yell things out in the middle of a play, nor do you rub your greasy hands all over a Picasso. You look but don’t touch. You listen and don’t interrupt. Throw in unique renditions of songs you already know and a handful of new stuff, and an already worth it package becomes a must-own. “Go Live” is better than the studio version of “Go”. The songs retain their beauty but flourish beyond that into something triumphant and even more exciting when heard, and the visual side from the DVD half deepens the art in a different way. Released just in time for the holidays, the “Go Live” package is makes for a wonderful gift for that Jónsi/Sigur Ros fan in your life.

Buy “Go Live” from Jónsi’s website
Buy it from Amazon

 

Album Review: Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy [Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella]

Nobody is denying that Kanye West is controversial. The guy steals headlines for doing shit like calling George W. Bush out, claiming he “doesn’t care about black people”. He throws temper tantrums at awards shows when he doesn’t win things he was nominated for, and on occasion when other people don’t win things he felt they should have. It was after that whole Taylor Swift incident and the subsequent backlash that West really began to realize the world doesn’t bend to his every whim and desire. Well, he probably knew that before, but refused to give the thought much creedence. He wrote missives on his website about it, essentially apologizing and confessing that he needs to take a hard look at himself and work on both controlling his anger and thinking before speaking. It was the start of a self-imposed hiatus of sorts, where he disappeared from the media, from having an online presence, from showing up at friends’ shows to make surprise cameos. He went to Hawaii, one of the most beautiful and relaxed places on Earth, and found some mental health. Playing out like your traditional movie plotline, Kanye reached the low point where all hope may have seemed lost. His storied quest to become the greatest artist that ever lived hit its biggest speedbump as suddenly he had turned from hero to villain. Given the outspoken and completely honest manner in which he’s conducted himself since the very beginning of his rise to fame though, West has probably been playing the villain for some people longer than others.

Everyone loves a tale of redemption though, and after a few months of down time and personal reflection, Kanye West began working on a proper follow-up to his last record, 2008’s “808s and Heartbreak”. There were rumblings of a record reportedly titled “Good Ass Job” that was tentatively scheduled for release in mid-2010, but that failed to happen. Instead, West officially re-emerged from exile by showing up at Facebook and Twitter headquarters to do some impromptu a capella performances of some new material. Videos began to pop up online, and that sparked some interest. Soon after began the G.O.O.D. Fridays, in which West would give away free mp3s of new music once a week, thereby earning him loads of good will and renewed respect. It would have been largely for naught had the tracks he was handing out sucked, but as Kanye himself would probably tell you, “sucking” isn’t really in his vocabulary. The big comeback tour also included a stop by the MTV Video Music Awards, where just a year earlier his on-stage interruption was what sparked his fall from grace. Performing new track “Runaway” completely solo, West spouted off lines like “Let’s have a toast for the douchebags/Let’s have a toast for the assholes/Let’s have a toast for the scumbags”. It was pretty self-deprecating with just a hint of remorse for being one of those douchebag asshole scumbag jerkoffs. And so, Kanye West is officially back, the spotlight firmly on him once again with the much-delayed but finally released fifth album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” officially landing last week. It’s almost as if he wanted to make sure it was out just in time for all those year-end “Best of” lists.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Kanye West over his last few years and albums, it’s that he doesn’t do small. Case in point, the music video for his 9-minute opus “Runaway” officially runs 35 minutes and features such spectacles as fireworks and a parade. “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” runs in a similar fashion, taking a mere 13 tracks and extending out to a grand 70 minutes. Eight of the songs extend beyond the five minute mark, and a couple of the shorter ones are merely interludes attached to bigger main tracks. Take the track “All the Lights” as one of the sharpest examples of excess, with over 42 people getting credit as having contributed something to the final product. There’s a whole brass section, strings, some woodwinds and about a dozen guest vocalists, most of which are impossible to pick out individually. The track itself is deceptively simple on the surface, but a close and studied listen reveals layers that go far beyond what any reasonable person might expect. So it goes for much of the record, jumping through a multitude of stylistic hoops with a who’s-who of guests that include everyone from Jay-Z to Nicki Minaj to Rick Ross and the WTF-ness of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Thankfully most of the Auto-Tune madness that completely covered “808s and Heartbreak” has vanished, though in its place are plenty of other vocal manipulations. “Gorgeous” has West sounding like he’s gone all flat with his vocals hit with a pretty strong mono filter that makes you wonder what hip hop would have sounded like were there recordings of it in the 50s and 60s. There’s also the robotic vocal breakdown near the end of “Runaway” and just a slice of Auto-Tune on “Lost in the World” thanks more to the sampling of Bon Iver’s “Woods” than anything else. But “Blame Game” features the greatest vocal acrobatics, as West’s voice goes from slow to fast to just plain weird speeds all over an Aphex Twin piano sample. It’s also one of his bleakest tracks to date, taking the album’s title and rendering it completely true from a lyrical perspective.

Kanye West spends much of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” talking about some heavy-handed topics. While getting into superhero lore on “POWER”, West also gets into a commentary about his increased loss of innocence and childlike wonder. There was a certain playfulness that took over on his first couple records, but it’s not like thoroughly depressing (but confrontational and real) topics are new ground for him. Hell, “808s and Heartbreak” was a record born out of a tragic breakup and his mother’s death. It was not a fun experience in the least. The fun on this new record really comes in the form of pure indulgence. Whether that means drinking and partying as much as you want or sleeping with a LOT of women, these are topics motivated purely by the pleasure centers of our brain. They’re also the part of the same section that houses the angry and violent urges as well, which is why on “Blame Game” he tells a girl he misses both fucking her and choking her. One assumes the choking bit is a sexual thing, but he says it with such malicious intent that it’s difficult to know where to draw the line. Similarly, “All the Lights” comes across as a celebration of fame but also deals with the perils and pitfalls that go along with it. It’s less “I’m so famous, I’ve had to stop trying to grocery shop” and more “Restraining order/Can’t see my daughter”. This highlights the dichotomy that weighs on this record from start to finish. For every light there is a dark. For every good there is a bad. For every hero there is a villain. For every beautiful fantasy there is a dark and twisted reality. Kanye West is and is about all of these things, and the public perception of him is just as divided. We can see ourselves in it too, which is what makes West such a powerful force in music today. There’s always the intensely relatable moments, like somebody’s reading straight out of our diaries, but thanks to his unfiltered perspective, sometimes West also goes on about the things we WISH we could do or say but wouldn’t dare on account of social convention or what effect it’d have on the way others see us. West gets away with it because he’s one of the few people that simply doesn’t care…or at least not as much as we do.

For inquiring ears that simply have to know, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is a hip hop achievement of the highest order. Hell, it’s a musical achievement of the highest order. Kanye West once again proves he’s one of, if not the best and most talented artists in music today no matter if he’s got love from the general public or not. The whole Taylor Swift thing? You might as well wipe that from your memory because not only are both artists involved sick and tired of talking about it, but they both have extremely well-received new records that deserve your undivided attention. The one thing you can never accuse Kanye West of being is unambitious, and this new album weighs in as a highlight reel of great moments from his past, taking place in the present, with a sharp outlook towards the future. Of course where he’ll go next is anybody’s guess, but at the moment he’s taking a page straight out of his song “Stronger”. With his personal and professional life in complete shambles, West took a step back, assessed the situation, and has risen from the ashes better than ever before. Haters be damned, Kanye West is here to stay. Now if only somebody could get him to shut up about it.

Buy “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” from Amazon
Buy it from Amazon MP3 for just $5 for a limited time

EP Review: Girls – Broken Dreams Club [True Panther]

Last year was very much about Girls. The duo of Christopher Owens and JR White made a whole lot of waves in 2009 thanks to their well-received debut record, ironically titled “Album”. Flanked by the two strong singles of “Lust for Life” and “Hellhole Ratrace”, Girls have become known for sunny pop with a strong 60s influence – great for a day at the beach or catching some waves. So after a year’s worth of touring around the world, including a high profile set at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, the band wants to send a love letter back to the fans that have supported them here there and everywhere. They’ve earned enough money for a proper trip to a recording studio and are eager to show everyone just how they’ve progressed. The result is the “Broken Dreams Club” EP, a six-song, 30 minute collection of songs that really is a celebration of diversity, change and the inevitable compromises we all make when things don’t work out the way we planned.

The “Broken Dreams Club” EP opens with “Thee Oh So Protective One”, a track that feels carved out of time itself, with Owens channeling his best Buddy Holly voice and the vibe being decidedly 50s in nature. It’d be the perfect sort of song to play at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance from “Back to the Future”. As the first piece of evidence that Girls are starting to turn into “young women” (pun 100% intended), the song is also spiked with a horn section that’s both surprising and a delight. As a new single and something that’s been played at Girls’ live shows since “Album” first was released, “Heartbreaker” is a delight. The guitars are remarkably crisp, and the light touches of keyboard with the harmonized chorus just adds a little extra magic to an already catchy and seemingly light song. Of course the stark reality is that the song is anything but bright and sunny, the title alone gives that away. Owens’ sad sack vocals are also another clue, as his ability to convey emotion with a simple chorus and the word “why?” is remarkably great. The five minute title track is a ballad measured out in slide guitar and wistful trumpet, and a splash of organ really brings out Girls’ alt-country side. It winds up falling somewhere between Wilco and Band of Horses…if they used trumpets. The horns show up again on “Alright”, though the jangly guitars really make the melody what it is. What turns the song really interesting is how free form and non-linear it is, largely negating a catchy chorus and verses to simply groove for a bit and keep your toe tapping. The entire second half of the song is just full-on instrumental, save for some echo-laden “oohs” and “aahs”, and for just a moment it feels exactly like something Broken Social Scene would do. Surf rock grooves come on board for “Substance”, which is either an ode to drugs, giving up on life, or both. “Who wants something real/when you could have nothing?/Why not just give up?/Who wants to try?” Owens sings, later proclaiming “I take the key in my hand and it takes the pain away”. The song’s not something you exactly want to be playing when trying to boost your mood, but then again neither are most Girls songs. The nearly 8 minute atmospheric jam session that is the EP closer “Carolina” takes the psychedelic path of least resistance. Effectively trippy is a good way to describe the song, and the main lyrical and catchy chorus portions of it are sitting right in between two instrumental ends. The issue with that midsection is that the way Owens sings it brings up strong memories of the “Album” track “Ghost Mouth”. Listen to both tracks back to back and try to determine how many vocal notes in the choruses are different. I’m willing to be it’s very few. Still, “Carolina” is a very good track and a rather cool way to finish the EP.

There’s great news for Girls fans on this “Broken Dreams Club” EP. The band takes a few steps towards improving their fidelity and diversity of sound, but come off no worse for the wear. In other words, it seems like they are taking the next logical steps forward, and it will likely work to their advantage once again for their sophmore album. There’s not really a clunker among this bunch, even if there’s some interesting stylistic variations. The very innocent 50s-inspired way that “Thee Oh So Protective One” introduces the EP may be effective, but the sharpest moments still remain in some of the catchier, faster-paced songs. “Heartbreaker” is arguably their third best song to date, even if it feels drawn from the same cloth that their debut was. It’s a track like “Alright” that really stands out though, relying much more on atmosphere and a groove than a verse-chorus-verse structure. Chances are that won’t be where Girls go next, but if they do it could yield something truly brilliant and innovative for them. As it stands though, you need to get this EP if you even like Girls a little bit. It’s the perfect little stopgap between where they were as a band before and where they might be headed next. Even more exciting times are ahead for this band, I can feel it.

Preorder the “Broken Dreams Club” EP from Amazon

EP Review: The Tallest Man On Earth – Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird [Dead Oceans]

Earlier this year, Kristian Matsson released “The Wild Hunt”, his second album under the moniker The Tallest Man on Earth. It remains one of the strongest releases of 2010, highly engaging andworking with the most basic tools of a singer-songwriter platform. Armed with just an acoustic guitar (or occasionally a piano) and a voice, Matsson’s singing and songwriting style both have echoes of early Bob Dylan in the best sorts of ways. The songs evoke the desolate highways of America, lined on both sides by nothing but sun, sand and cacti as you roll past in your car. All this from a guy that has called Sweden home for his entire life. For those that just couldn’t get enough of Matsson’s sparse folk stylings, he’s yet another artist pulling double duty this year by releasing additional music in the form of an EP. While you’d expect such small collections of tracks to be castoffs or b-sides, Matsson claims the songs that appear on “Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird” were all written this past summer after “The Wild Hunt” was released. And while these five songs are supposed to function as a standalone collection representative of a certain place and time, they tend to fall right in line with what we’ve come to expect from The Tallest Man on Earth, though with a small surprise or two.

One little difference between “The Wild Hunt” and the “Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird” EP is overall mood. All the hallmarks of The Tallest Man on Earth’s sound are there, including the complex acoustic guitar picking and relatively cryptic but always fascinating lyrics, yet the new EP is a bit of a darker affair. Matsson sounds more reflective and down on his luck than before, and that results in songs that forego much of the triumphant melodies found on the last album. The exploration of this heavier emotion is primarily only limited to the lyrics though, as there’s still some pep in his guitar. Speaking of that, if this EP contains one singular shocker, it’s the use of electric guitar on “The Dreamer”. For two albums, Matsson never once picked up an electric guitar, and perhaps as part of an experiment, he does so here. There’s a tiny bit of reverb thrown in for good measure too, and the whole thing is pretty unexpected. For a guy that makes his living with just one instrument and a voice, a change like that is a big deal, even if the quality stays consistent (which it does). He could have done virtually the same thing with his acoustic (minus the reverb) and it would have been right in line with the rest of the EP. Why he “went electric” that one time remains a mystery, and while the difference is a little jarring, there’s a strange comfort to see him mixing it up too.

As a full EP of original songs, “Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird” is yet another delightful release from The Tallest Man on Earth. What he takes from these songs in regards to future releases remains to be seen, but so long as Kristian Matsson continues to measure out his music in a modest and heartfelt way, he’ll continue to be an artist worth paying attention to. He’s ostensibly proof that the folk singer-songwriter format isn’t dead, just in need of a strong voice and smart guitar player. There’s very good reason why you’ll get deadly silent crowds at Tallest Man on Earth shows, and it’s not just because they’re all trying to hear. The guy could be playing at your local Starbucks and people would wait to order so as to not interrupt a song. Simply put, not only is the music itself impressive, but the way it’s presented is as well. The albums and this EP give you a pretty good set of expectations, and the live show delivers on those in spades. If you’ve not heard The Tallest Man on Earth before, get at least one of his albums first. Then buy this EP. Then go see him live. They’re all essentials for an artist that may very well be our next Bob Dylan, albeit without the political bent.

The Tallest Man on Earth – Like the Wheel

Buy the “Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird” EP from Dead Oceans

Album Review: The 1900s – Return of the Century [Parasol]

Let’s keep this straight, because it’s somewhat easy to get the two confused: there are two great indie bands making music right now. The first is The 1990s, and they’re a three-piece from Scotland. They’ve put out two records, 2007’s “Cookies” and 2009’s “Kicks”. The other band is the 1900s, and they’re a Chicago-based six piece. Their first album also came out in 2007 and was titled “Cold and Kind”, and last year they released the follow-up EP “Medium High”. The EP was more of a transitional piece however, something to keep fans interested as the band prepped their sophmore album “Return of the Century”, which sees release this week. It comes after a very tumultuous period for the band, in which they dropped two founding members and took some time recruiting proper replacements. All the in-fighting of the past couple years has resulted in a much stronger band dynamic overall though, in accordance with the “what doesn’t kill you…” mentality. They’ve also refined their sound a little bit, pushing away from the looser, more psychedelic elements of their debut and attempting something much more delicate and pop-friendly.

True to that promise, “Return of the Century” plays like a lighthearted indie pop record. None of the songs ever reach the four minute mark, hooks and choruses are everywhere, and grand orchestral swells are kept at bay. On “Cold and Kind”, there were guitar solos and small jam sessions, in addition to string sections and other extraneous elements. What was really impressive about that sound was how all those elements came together and created a very vibrant and relatively exciting collection of songs. It helped to put The 1900s on a lot of radars despite being signed to the wonderful (but small) Parasol Records. By contrast, “Return of the Century” sounds sparse. Violinist Andra Kulans is about the only strings player on the album, and she’s used much more sparingly and gently than in the past. Everything else is straight guitar and keyboards. On the surface then, this record can come across as being overly simplistic or just plain cliched within the confines of what’s become a standardized indie pop sound. What separates and elevates The 1900s from their peers in this case are two main things. First and foremost, the album is nothing short of lean. Everything is packed so neatly into each song that you can’t imagine how adding to or stretching what’s already there would make them better. It’s about focus, and The 1900s have found theirs in the best sort of way. Secondly, the vocal performances are simply out of this world good. The band has three contributing vocalists in Edward Anderson, Caroline Donovan and Jeanine O’Toole, and though one of them takes the lead on each song, the other two are always right there playing backup with intense harmonies or call-and-response scenarios. In turn a number of the tracks come off with a distinct Belle and Sebastian-esque appeal, though you can certainly hear a bit of The New Pornographers in there as well.

Highlights on “Return of the Century” are notoriously hard to come by, but that’s largely because as delightful as it is in three minute chunks, it ultimately works best as a cohesive whole of a record. When hard-pressed to pick those stand-out moments, single and opening track “Amulet” strikes immediately with an intense combination of piano, acoustic guitar, hand claps, violin and vocal harmonies. It’s a fun little toe-tapper that certainly has the potential to be a breakout hit should the right people latch onto it. Personally I might place it among the best songs of 2010. Elsewhere the near-ballad “Tucson” hits the right emotional notes vocally and possesses some of the strongest lyrics on the album. “Bmore” is notable for its three-part vocal harmonies for much of the song, and the couple of interesting left turns it makes structurally before finishing on a gorgeous high note. The same could be said for “Babies”, though the final coda breakdown into this remarkable freight train of a melody shows hints that the band responsible for “Cold and Kind” is still in there somewhere, even if things stop just short of a full-on guitar solo freak out.

At this point in the year, new music releases are supposed to be all downhill, slowly petering out to make way for the December compilation records and year-end lists. Really releasing your album anytime after the end of October is potentially problematic because you want as many ears to hear it and develop a relationship with it before the holiday season goes into full effect. The 1900s now face a small uphill battle trying to attract the right sorts of attention that “Return of the Century” deserves. With so many upbeat indie pop songs on the album as well, it doesn’t quite gel with the slow death beauty that fall and winter tend to bring. No matter the month or season though, good music is good anytime, which is what this album is. Those that have grown fond of the band thanks to their 2007 album “Cold and Kind” are right to be a little wary of the changes that have occurred in the past 3 years because in many ways The 1900s now sound like a completely different band. Despite this, their new pop-intense edge does a fantastic job of broadening their sound without dumbing it down in the least. In other words, they’re just as good as ever, only in a new way. Such are the follies of being very talented. “Return of the Century” is one of the most enjoyable indie pop albums of the year, even if it doesn’t quite possess the jaw-droppingly great peak moments or intense experimentation that some other records have. Pick up a copy sooner rather than later, for this is one you might want to fall in love with before the end of 2010.

The 1900s – Babies

Stream the entire album/buy it digitally via Bandcamp

Buy “Return of the Century” from Parasol Records

Album Review: Elliott Smith – An Introduction To… [Kill Rock Stars]

The day that I discovered Elliott Smith was on October 21, 2003. Not coincidentally, that was the day he died. As a fresh-faced 18-year-old with an emerging taste for indie rock, Smith hadn’t yet reached my radar when the internet was flooded with sadness over his death. With both close friends and musicians I admired all pouring in tributes to this man, I felt like I had been missing out on some truly special music. That turned out to be very much the case, as upon my first listen to his 1994 album “Roman Candle” I was instantly enchanted by this scrappy folk singer and his acoustic guitar. And while that record served as my proper introduction to Elliott Smith, I didn’t fall head over heels for the guy’s music until “XO” reached my ears. Like a small brush fire reaching a massive pool of gasoline, an obsession formed, made all the more sadder that Smith wasn’t around to keep making more amazing music. After releasing a posthumous album he was working on prior to his death along with a collection of b-sides, Kill Rock Stars is now putting out “An Introduction To…” in lieu of what might otherwise be called a “greatest hits collection”. If you’re younger or simply just very late to the party, this is expected to be your easy guide into the world of Elliott Smith.

Of course if “An Introduction To…” were a greatest hits set, there would be a bunch of songs from Smith’s two most popular records, “XO” and “Figure 8”. In the end, there’s only one song from “XO” and nothing from “Figure 8”, and presumably that’s because Kill Rock Stars is putting out this collection and those two big records weren’t released on the label. Thankfully 5 of the 15 tracks come from the also-amazing “Either/Or”, and the rest pretty much skip around his discography, hitting most every mark, however briefly. As an introduction like it claims, this provides a well-rounded view of Smith’s career, with the hope that the individual tracks you gravitate towards most are the records you should seek out first. If they really wanted to get “introductory”, they could have limited the track listing to Smith’s first 3-4 albums, or at the very least ordered everything sequentially. Does the jumbled order of the songs make that much of a difference in the end? Not really as the sound and songwriting stays pretty consistent throughout, but it would be interesting to hear the slight pieces of progression over time. If you buy digital then you can order the tracks any way you like, too.

Long-time fans of Elliott Smith may be wondering just how valuable a record like “An Introduction To…” would be in their collection. Like Jeff Buckley or Nirvana, this being the third posthumous Smith release could come off as an attempt to squeeze more money out of a corpse. Some might take that viewpoint, but given the title and absence of unreleased material, this really does seem designed for either a younger generation that hasn’t heard of Elliott Smith or people that always admired the guy from afar but never really got into his stuff. Smith’s mostly sad, acoustic folk songs are tempered back a bit to make room for some (but not all) of his poppier stuff that’s a little easier to like while still running deep with meaning. It’s the unique approach he took to making his songs sound multi-layered full despite a wispy, almost whispered singing voice and a lone acoustic guitar. It’s the heartfelt and heartbreaking words he wrote and the impact they can have on our own personal struggles, made all the more tragic by the his own life and untimely death.

For that angst-filled or depressed teenager that’s looking for a kindred spirit, getting an introduction to Elliott Smith right now could be just what the music doctor ordered. For the stunted adult, trying to find exactly where he or she fits into this crazy world of ours, here’s someone who understands you. And if you discovered the guy awhile back but his music didn’t click with you then, maybe now’s a good time to give it a second listen. This is an exceptional and smart collection of songs, even if it is missing a handful of what might be called “key” tracks. In some ways that’s for the better, because once you inevitably move on and venture deeper into Smith’s catalogue, the discovery of such additional brilliance will be a welcome surprise. What won’t be a surprise though is how this all ends, with just a limited amount of material to digest and the constant knowledge that there won’t be any more. Like the hundreds upon thousands of artists we discover just a little too late, ultimately we can just be grateful to have had these moments and found meaning in these songs that we can listen to and share with others for the rest of our lives. We may know how this story ultimately ends, but the individual journey we take getting there is what makes it so immensely worthwhile. If you’re just now discovering Elliott Smith, congratulations, there’s an amazing, possibly life-changing collection of songs just waiting and begging to reach your ears.

Elliott Smith – Between the Bars
Elliott Smith – Twilight
Elliott Smith – Last Call
Elliott Smith – Angel in the Snow

Buy “An Introduction To…” from Amazon

Album Review: Sun Airway – Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier [Dead Oceans]

Let’s get the obvious comparison out of the way right at the beginning – yes, Sun Airway sounds a whole lot like Animal Collective. Their debut album “Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier” holds many sonic similarities to “Merriweather Post Pavilion”, a record so many regarded as the best thing released in 2009. If there’s a band you’re going to try and imitate, at this point in time Animal Collective would be a smart move. The real challenge comes in the form of pulling it off without making a fool of yourself. There are oh so many artists out there that try to capture the zeitgeist of the times by pushing their sound in a certain direction for critical acclaim or popularity, but if it isn’t good enough there isn’t any point. Sun Airway is the duo of Jon Barthmus and Patrick Marsceill, both former members of the now-broken-up band The A-Sides. It’s taken them two long years of messing around with sounds and trying to put a record together while holding down jobs, but they’re finally done and Dead Oceans is psyched to be releasing it this week. Apparently all that time did them a world of good, because the tide is quickly rising on these guys and “Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier” is set to put them on everybody’s radar.

If you’ve gotten your hopes all high in hoping that “Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier” will be the new “Merriweather Post Pavilion”, don’t set yourself up for disappointment. This Sun Airway record is damn good, but one thing we’ve learned simply by paying close attention to Animal Collective these past several years is that such brilliance takes time to mature and fully develop. Of course every record is typically informed by the ones that came before it, so the proverbial Pandora’s Box has been opened and there’s no way to shove the flood of ideas back in. The noises that permeate and define Sun Airway’s sound are primarily electronic, from your typical bleeps and bloops to samples and beats that maintain tempo. Synths also play a huge role, as do a number of other instruments that are so varied and mixed that it’s nearly impossible to pick out each and every one. Pay close attention and you’ll catch a splattering of flute or a small dose of harp for good measure. It’s also important to note that probably 98% of the sounds that appear on the record are computer generated, meaning that they didn’t so much whip out a harp and hold a microphone up to it but instead used a program that created a “virtual harp” they could work with. Vocals aren’t really something you can fake though, so those were recorded live and the way they’re presented is one of the things that differentiates Sun Airway from Animal Collective. Barthmus is pretty much the only vocalist in the band, meaning that without an Avey Tare or Panda Bear to back him up, there’s less in the way of Beach Boys-esque harmonies. Echo effects are used with relative frequency though, to help add a nice dose of psychedelia to everything. When no vocal effects are used and Barthmus’s vocals come across with stark clarity it’s also effective in a different an unexpected sort of way.

When the vocals aren’t obscured or processed, the songs usually have strong pop elements to them, and compelling hooks are probably Sun Airway’s strong suit. Opening track “Infinity” may not have the band at their most energetic, but it serves as a strong, shimmery introduction to the record. The constant repetition of the lines “Woke up as a snowflake on an ocean/I looked over/I saw you floating next to me/drowned in the moonlight hours” works on you until it’s stuck in your head. With its toe-tappingly danceable beat and verse-chorus-verse style, “American West” is one of the catchiest songs on the entire record. It’d serve extremely well as a single, as does actual single “Oh, Naoko” which follows it. “Waiting On You” comes across as something of a cross between “Merriweather Post Pavilion”‘s “My Girls” and “Summertime Clothes”, though to call it equal to either of those tracks would make it one of the best songs of the year. Perhaps it is, but it’s going to take a little longer to fully earn that honor. Towards the end of the record second single “Put the Days Away” and “Your Moon” also are two sharply addictive tracks that really help balance things out from start to finish. In other words, half the album is packed with hooks, while the other half focuses more on beauty, mood and pure balladry.

For those that found “Merriweather Post Pavilion” a bit too challenging to fully embrace, Sun Airway’s “Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier” might just be the record that skates the balance between anti-pop and pop. The record is experimental without being too experimental, and catchy without being overtly pandering. These are the sorts of things that if done correctly, will generate the right sort of buzz for a band. There are a couple small shakier/almost flat-out boring moments on this album, but they come so few and far between that they’re relatively forgiveable given how well most everything else functions. It is those times though that prevent the record from attaining that much coveted “Album of the Year” nomination but still keeps it well within the “year-end list” range. That Sun Airway began working on this record in the fall of 2008 before anyone had heard a single note of “Merriweather Post Pavilion” just goes to show that they had the right ideas from the start, even if that album did eventually provide some sort of influence in the studio later on. Where Sun Airway will go from here, and how they might benefit from this ripe Animal Collective comparison will be determined in the coming months by the ever-fickle hype cycle. They may not be ushering in a musical revolution that will become the official “next big thing”, but they have made an album more than worth your time and hard-earned cash as we continue to hold a trend towards a strong finish in 2010.

Sun Airway – Put the Days Away
Sun Airway – Oh, Naoko

Buy “Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier” from Amazon

Album Review: Women – Public Strain [Jagjaguwar]

Finding information about the band Women on the internet is tremendously difficult thanks to their name. Do a simple search and you’re more likely to find pornography than these guys. And that’s the other irony – with a band named Women, every member is male. But if you’ve been following the band since their 2008 self-titled debut album, these are things you probably already knew. What you may not have known, given the surprisingly high number of album releases from prolific artists in the past couple weeks, is that Women have quietly released their sophmore record “Public Strain”. It is yet another lo-fi psych-rock affair from the boys produced by their friend Chad VanGaalen, but there are a few changes made this time around that take the band into more fascinating territory than they’ve ever been in before.

On their debut, Women tried to balance dark, psychedelic instrumentals with lo-fi lyrical guitar pop, and they managed it surprisingly well. Their ability to push everything into a distorted fuzz no matter the approach was in part what helped it succeed. On “Public Strain”, the band’s two halves blend far more easily and effortlessly, and it makes for even more positive strides in the right direction. While none of the record is exactly easy on the ears, there are more thrills and more chills than ever before. Speaking specifically to the “chill” part of that, many of the songs on this album are slower than on the last one, and the overall mood is not just cold but frozen. The band recorded this album over a lengthy period of time, but most notably during an especially harsh Canadian winter. The album cover seems to echo that sentiment, with what looks like a massive amount of snow falling from the sky with just a light dusting on the ground. Of course instead of snow it could just be an old photograph that is massively distorted due to wear and tear. But the wintry tone speaks well to the material, as does the idea of fuzzed-out distortion. It may be tough to warm up to a record such as this, but what it lacks in warmth it more than makes up for in creative approaches to the material. There are less lyrical chorus-bound hooks here (though there are some), but more immediately compelling guitar work that sticks in your head just as well. The instrumentals have all but gone away, but in their place are a couple songs that barely any lyrics. The way they approach each track appears to be angular, starting from what feels like comfortable and familiar territory and then diverting from that in a hurry. It’s a very smart move, because not only are the songs unpredictable, but they’re also damn good.

“Public Strain” progresses in such a way that lends it well to repeat listens. “Can’t You See” starts the record almost completely adrift with nothing holding it together, but by the time “Eyesore” punches in for the final 6 minutes of the album everything feels like its in the right place. The quicker, more pop-driven songs are front-loaded to establish dominance early, but somewhere in “China Steps” there’s a spiral into dark and disturbing territory. Not that the first half of the album is light and cheery, but there are moments in later tracks like “Drag Open” and “Venice Lockjaw” that prove to be more difficult and creepy than much of what came before it. Put it this way – it’s like the difference between going to a funeral and entering a haunted house – one is sad and depressing while the other is excessively morbid to the point of scaring you. Yes, Women go for the jugular, but they’re all the better for it. Between the intensely addictive guitar work and the vocal harmonies that are gorgeously asymmetrical, there’s something about “Public Strain” that defies comparison. The best words to describe it might be to call it a “lo-fi 60’s psych-pop record that wasn’t released until today”. This might not quite reach the heights of “Album of the Year” status, nor is it as smartly crafted as similar band Deerhunter’s latest “Halcyon Digest”, but it strongly proves that Women are a force to be reckoned with. As the weather gets colder and terrible snowstorms begin to head in our direction, this record makes for a great mood-setting soundtrack. While it may very well match frozen tundra conditions outdoors, underneath its threatening and harsh exterior is an album that rewards careful and studied listens with unexpected warmth and comfort. There’s shelter and hot cocoa all set out for you, the challenge is hammering through the thick layers of ice to get it.

Women – Eyesore
Women – Narrow With the Hall

Buy “Public Strain” from Amazon

Album Review: Glasser – Ring [True Panther Sounds]

Glasser is Cameron Mesirow. Cameron Mesirow is Glasser. That’s the basic information you need to know. If you’re curious and want to know more, a few fun facts: she’s from Los Angeles, her dad is in Blue Man Group, her mom played in the short-lived (but relatively popular) band Human Sexual Response, and she came up with the pseudonymn Glasser after having a vision of a figure hovering over a body of water. There’s been one EP, the three track “Apply”, which came out in late 2009 and attracted the right sort of attention to build anticipation for what’s now her debut full length “Ring”, which is out this week.

Describing the sound of Glasser is a small challenge, but that’s a good thing considering how many artists fall plainly into certain genres. Mesirow’s early demos were very rough and unproduced, composed primarily in GarageBand and utilizing only a handful of instruments. With a label in True Panther Sounds and a producer in Foreign Born’s Ariel Rechtshaid, she worked for months to not only re-work a couple tracks from the “Apply” EP but also to craft a collection of songs that had deeper and fuller arrangements than ever before. Enter bass, xylophones, strings, saxophones and a vast selection of beats and percussion to help turn these sparse songs into ones packed with enough variety that it takes multiple listens through the record to even begin to process them. The foundation of most Glasser tracks is electro-synth based, but thanks to things like tribal percussion and the presence of woodwinds it goes beyond mere pop music. One minute she sounds like Kate Bush, the next Bat for Lashes, the next Bjork and the next Fever Ray. It may be a somewhat wide range of female artists, but each is brilliant in their own unique way, as is Glasser. “Ring” is exceptionally composed in large part thanks to how Mesirow commits herself to each individual song no matter where she’s pulling from and concentrates a laser beam-like focus to avoid steering off course. The entirety of the record is built around the titular concept as well, each track carefully placed in an order that spirals inwards to the middle and then back out again, returning to where it all began. At the end of the final track, “Clamour”, the first notes of opening song “Apply” pop up again. Were you to have the entire record on a loop (aka ring), it’d move perfectly from end to end by design.

Then there’s Mesirow’s voice. Smooth as silk, but prone to bits of oddities in that good sort of way. On “Apply”, she takes a fairly normal vocal turn amidst the heavy tribal percussion, but as the synths start to push the melody further and further, she gets out of control with a couple yelps, and then balances it out with some multi-part harmonies that eventually take over the entire track, drowning out the drums entirely. For the chorus of a song like “Plane Temp”, Mesirow repeats the same nonsense word over and over again as the vocal track doubles then triples and it all just turns out simply gorgeous (and easy to remember). A track like “T” serves well to show her vocal chops on a synth ballad, and it turns out sounding like a lost Bat for Lashes track in the best sort of way. One of the best things about “Mirrorage” is that it seems to take the title almost literally when it comes to the vocals, because of the sheer number of vocal tracks piled on top of one another. It’s like staring into a mirror with another mirror right behind you, thereby creating an endless mirror that looks like it goes on to infinity (you could call it…a loop). There’s something Karin Dreijer-ish about that song, in a very positive sort of way.

To Mesirow’s credit, for a record that’s so diverse and creatively stimulating, she’s also made “Ring” largely accessible. There are no tracks that feel too “out there” or experimental, even if this is very different from what you might find in a more mainstream female synth-pop album. There’s far too much ambience and tribal fodder to be placed in a bin anywhere near mainstream. Yet she’s also not quite of the same cloth that Icelandic hero Bjork is, which feels “weird for the sake of weird” sometimes. No, Glasser is far more straightforward with her intentions, despite the wide array of instruments that are used throughout the record. The way each song is organized, and the way each track works in collaboration with the ones that came both before and after it are a big part of why “Ring” is so wonderful. Step in at any singular point in these 9 tracks and 38 minutes and ride it all the way back around and you’ll have a far better understanding of the power this record possesses. The issue, if you want to call it that, is when you only absorb bits and pieces. A few songs like “Apply” and “Home” serve as good introductions to Glasser, but for the most part hooks and individual memories are hard to come by. You’ll definitely remember the album once its over, but trying to select standout moments is like spending time analyzing a gigantic “Where’s Waldo?” poster – damn difficult. In today’s single-a-minute world where most everyone is looking for 3 minutes of pure sugary pop, Glasser is the warm glass of milk you typically drink before bed. Its calming and lovely atmospherics are just what the doctor ordered at the end of a long day. Should you actually commit to it in its entirety, it can go a long way towards ensuring you get exactly what your ears have been searching for.

Glasser – Home

Buy “Ring” from Amazon

Album Review: Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest [4AD]

It has gotten to the point where a year without new material from the brains of Bradford Cox or Lockett Pundt feels genuinely out of place. The boys of Deerhunter have been consistently hammering away with more new music than most bands compose across their lifetimes, and they’ve really been pushing hard for only the past four years or so. That was when “Cryptograms” caught the attention of many an ear and brought Deerhunter to the forefront of psychedelic indie rock. Since then, there’s been the single-but-unofficially-double album known as “Microcastle” with its companion piece “Weird Era Cont.” in 2008. Last year saw Pundt’s side project Lotus Plaza release a record, while Cox’s solo project Atlas Sound put out a great sophmore record as well. During that time, Deerhunter was “taking a break”, which for most bands means a couple years off. Yet here we are, 2010 and with all the touring they’ve done Deerhunter has been on break for well under a year. Now comes the new record “Halcyon Digest” and this sort of progress makes you wonder what other bands are wasting their time doing. Not that an album a year is a problem, especially when the music is so great, but there is always the risk of oversaturation aka too much of a good thing. Of course the band also isn’t quite at the pinnacle of what The Beatles did, releasing multiple records filled to the brim with hit singles over the course of a single year. Still, the band’s prolific streak has been impressive, and this new record only continues it further.

Album opener “Earthquake” is a remarkably steady and subdued way to start the record, piecing together a looped guitar, slowly flowing electronic elements, and Bradford Cox’s calming, echoed vocals. The track draws you in with gorgeously psychedelic fever dream and holds your interest without ever feeling the need to expand into something overtly catchy. Accessible has never been Deerhunter’s forte, but mood and atmosphere are their specialty. “Halcyon Digest” keeps that theme going, but there are moments of pure throwback pop goodness. “Don’t Cry” feels like a 50’s ballad filtered through a plume of smoke and gentle fuzz. Chosen as a first single, “Revival” hits all the right notes in that department, with a nice bit of jangly acoustics that stick with you long after the song is over. The purpose of “Memory Boy” seems to be exactly what the title suggests, an energetic 60’s pop tune that holds your brain hostage. “Desire Lines” fills the void needed in a 7-minute electric guitar psych-out that feels most like “old school” (three years ago) Deerhunter, for those that aren’t the biggest fans of some of the stylistic advances the band has made recently. Almost as if purposely trying to echo The Everly Brothers classic “All I Have To Do Is Dream”, Bradford Cox’s extended plea of “dreeeam” throughout the track is almost an update, but with some modern technology and paranoia thrown into the mix. That dream turns from something sweet into what more closely resembles a nightmare. The guitars on “Helicopter” shimmer like the sun reflecting off a wind-swept lake and the plinks of synths mixed with watery electronics make for one of “Halcyon Digest”‘s most gorgeous and memorable compositions. If there’s one track that’s perfect evidence of how Deerhunter has evolved over the last couple years, “Coronado” is it, taking what would otherwise be a simple piano and guitar song and throwing some blaring saxophone in like spice in an already good sauce. The sax is most definitely a good thing, and it was smart of the band to save it for something close to the end of the record as an almost last minute curveball. Provided they don’t overdo it in the future, a little saxophone now and then could really make for a strong addition to the tools already in Deerhunter’s toolchest. Closing out the record is “He Would Have Laughed”, a 7.5 minute tribute song to Jay Reatard. Not only are the lyrics odd and mysterious, but there’s also humor in the idea that the band has put together this epic song for a guy who seemed to prefer plainspoken 2 minute hard rock songs.

If there’s a singular dud on “Halcyon Digest”, it comes from “Sailing”, which is about as boring as doing the actual activity on the most placid lake without a single breeze. It drifts but mostly aimlessly and without purpose, which is pretty much why you might be left questioning its placement on the record. Really though, it fits in for the most part with Deerhunter’s sonic palette, but not necessarily well with everything that comes before and after it. Even without subtracting that song, “Halcyon Digest” remains a drool-inducing amazing record. While it won’t really work if played at a party, giving it a handful of studied listens in your bedroom with headphones will reveal the amazing depths it travels to. This band continues to evolve at an alarming pace, and with the addition of throwing a couple new instruments into the mix and an increased sense of pop accessibility, Deerhunter show they’re not content with simply staying the course. Should they continue the pace they’re on with the same exploratory sensibilities, there could be another handful of brilliant records in their future. Because of their more psychedelic and decidedly un-pop-like tendencies, Deerhunter seems to have avoided the insane level of respect and love that some of the most popular indie artists today are getting. Hey, if Animal Collective can reach that pinnacle with a record like “Merriweather Post Pavilion”, Deerhunter should be able to do the same with “Halcyon Digest”. It might not quite hit that fever pitch where people get diarrhea of the mouth and proclaim things like “album of the year”, but honestly it’s pretty damn close. One of the ten best of 2010 so far? You can put money on it (and you should).

Deerhunter – Revival (ZIP)

Buy “Halcyon Digest” from Amazon

Album Review: How to Dress Well – Love Remains [Lefse]

Bedroom recordings have taken huge strides in the past few years. With the advent of better technology and the ability to purchase sampling and mixing programs for cheaper than ever before, more and more people are making music their own way on their own dime. If it’s good enough and the person or band does the right sort of promotion, the music will be heard and popularity will move up or down accordingly. One of the bigger indie successes in recent memory has to me that of tUnE-YarDs, the one woman project of Merrill Garbus. She recorded her entire debut album “Bird-Brains” only using the microphone built into her laptop, and it pretty much sounds like it. Still, poor audio quality or not, plenty of people fell in love with the songs on that album and she’s also managed to establish a bigger fan base thanks to what many call a jaw-droppingly great live show. So if the DIY star of 2009 was Garbus, there’s little doubt the 2010 one is Tom Krell, a philosophy student that records under the moniker How to Dress Well. Last fall, How to Dress Well surfaced via a blog where Krell began posting a series of EPs for free download. Thanks to that easy availability, a number of keen ears caught wind of HTDW and the press cycle began. Now a year later, How to Dress Well has only picked up more steam as his debut album “Love Remains” has finally arrived in stores thanks to Lefse Records.

For those that caught onto How to Dress Well back in the “early” days of 2009, a number of songs on “Love Remains” should be immediately familiar to you. Much of the debut album is composed of tracks that appeared on the several EPs released months back. Many of the versions that are on this record have been touched up, but never to the point where they sound in any way professional. The new songs also carry that same aesthetic, and in some of the louder moments you get the fuzz that comes with taking your recording “into the red” aka beyond the capabilities of a microphone not connected to a carefully calibrated soundboard. So what makes up the core sound of How to Dress Well? When reading most anything about the man, you’ll catch references to “strong R&B influences”. If you have listened to a lot of R&B, most specifically from the 90s, you can definitely hear pieces of it on “Love Remains”. Where How to Dress Well differs is primarily in the use of general electronic textures and overdubs to create music that’s less rhythmically inclined and more adrift in the ether. Songs flow in an almost organic way, and when it comes to beats, the unconfirmed mixture of computers and handclaps stays static no matter how fast or slow everything else might be going. It creates a few moments of what feels like imbalance, but the reality is actually a bit brilliant, throwing you just off the mark enough to take notice but never enough to ruin what’s already going. The vocals are another highly fascinating aspect of How to Dress Well. Either due to the poor recording quality or through pure manipulation, you’ll barely be able to make out a word of what’s being said at any given point in the record. Without a doubt the words are there, but they’re sung like a person who recognizes a melody from a long time ago but can’t seem to remember exactly how the lyrics go. Suddenly the spotlight and a microphone is in front of you and the crowd wants to hear you belt it out…but you can’t, so you do the next best thing which is mumble to the point where it SOUNDS like the words are right but nobody can make them out clearly. Yeah, the muffled lyrics don’t help should you want to sing along, but if you’re so inclined, feel free to hum along to the melody of a track like “Ready for the World”.

While R&B may be a standard frame of reference for How to Dress Well, should you not normally listen to or enjoy that sort of music, no worries. In indie terms, think of “Love Remains” like a less percussive, early stage Animal Collective record with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver on lead vocals. Krell does sound an awful lot like Vernon, and the overdubbed and often harmonized backing vocals only add further creedence to that. Actually a great model on the whole for HTDW would be the group Gayngs, of which Vernon is a member. They’ve got a slow, soft rock sort of vibe with a hint of that same R&B flavor – the difference in the end being the high level of production and wide variety of instruments used. For a home-recorded, very limited range record, “Love Remains” does an incredible amount of things with an incredibly small number of tools. Krell’s ability to manipulate just a couple of sparse sounds on a song like “Endless Rain” into something that feels fully formed is fascinating to hear and really establishes him as a talent. That he can also pull off such a serene mess of a masterpiece without using much in the way of lyrics is even more impressive. At any moment it feels like the songs could just dissolve into nothingness or simply ambient noise, but none ever do and that’s a big part of what makes “Love Remains” such a gripping listen. It goes without saying that you should pick up a copy of this record. It’s one of the year’s finest, and might just inspire a whole new collection of musicians crafting smart music using just a handful of instruments in their bedrooms. Chances are very few will find the sort of success that How to Dress Well has, but if the next Tom Krell is out there somewhere tinkering around, we’d all be idiots to not give him or her some positive attention.

How to Dress Well – You Won’t Need Me Where I’m Goin’
How to Dress Well – Ready for the World

How to Dress Well – Ready for the World (Twin Sister Remix)

Buy “Love Remains” on CD/LP from Lefse Records
Buy it from iTunes

Album Review: The Walkmen – Lisbon [Fat Possum]

Like riding in first class on an airplane or receiving VIP treatment at a fancy hotel or music festival, there are some life experiences that stick with you for awhile. Should you attempt to repeat the grand experience and fail though, it comes off as disappointing. Suddenly riding in coach seems too pedestrian now that you’ve been to first class. And things just aren’t as interesting when you can’t hang out back stage at a show or have fresh cut flowers delivered to your hotel room free of charge every morning. We get spoiled easily, and that ruins many of our future experiences. The first time I saw …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead I was front and center against the stage as they destroyed everything on stage and invited the crowd to join them. Security had to pull me back as a microphone stand nearly bashed my head in. With adrenaline running high, I loved every life threatening second of that show, and every time I’ve gone to see the band since has been a disappointment. It is based around this reasoning I’ve made the executive decision to never see The Walkmen perform live again. Last month, I saw them twice in a span of 12 hours, the second of those times being at the ear-splitting front and center position. Watching singer Hamilton Leithauser belt out songs new and old to the rafters as the veins bulged out of his neck was simply thrilling and I’m pretty well convinced it’ll never be that good again. Good thing at that show the band played a bunch of tracks off their new record “Lisbon”, as it’s set to become the best thing they’ve released since 2004’s “Bows + Arrows”.

The Walkmen deal in misery, and hearing an upbeat or lighter record from the band would almost come off as disingenuous. Naturally then for “Lisbon” they stay within that range, though things do pick up a bit more than their last album “You & Me”. That’s not quite evident from the start, as “Juveniles” comes in at a slow crawl and deals in warmth and subtle emotional nuance. Of course The Walkmen are practically known for burying the lead in song, typically striking harder and faster with the second track in. Such is the case for “Angela Surf City”, the clearest highlight on the album and one of The Walkmen’s best tracks ever. You’ve got a subtle surf rock guitar, massive drums, and a chorus that builds upon itself as Leithauser brings it home with his whiskey-soaked wail. It’s a rare moment of sheer explosiveness from a band that typically holds back and stays in check. Almost as if they think they went too far, the following two songs return to the very subdued and calm nature they’re known for. “Stranded” provides a little bit of a lift with a grand horn section reminiscent of the band’s 2006 album “A Hundred Miles Off”. It maintains a mopey vibe but the brass really provides the added punch to lift the song to an above average status. What really sends the album soaring is “Victory”, another anthemic cut that feels as triumphant as the title suggests. The problem is, like so many Walkmen songs, the lyrics aren’t so much about winning as they are just barely losing. Still, don’t be surprised if you hear the song used in some sports-related win context within the next year, as somebody will have misunderstood what it’s about. Depressing as the title suggests, “Woe Is Me” is only a lyrical pity party, because a bit of surf rock guitar and a good tempo lift it to a toe tapping level of fun. “Torch Song” is another title that accurately describes the contents contained within, with the rich piano and bass bringing out the warmth of a few thousand lighters held high in the air, swaying back and forth. To be perfectly clear though, the track isn’t actually about longing for a lost love as most technical torch songs are, but rather the longing for a lost song, the right song to provide balance and meaning to a world of insanity. And as they tend to be something of a seasonal band, “While I Shovel the Snow” should be on your winter mixtape, the slow waltz rhythm matching well with the clean up of all those flakes that have landed on your driveway and sidewalk.

While they were recording “Lisbon”, The Walkmen made two trips to Portugal for primarily pleasure purposes. They fell in love with the country and its people, and a number of the songs were inspired by their experiences in the country. That’s also the main reason why the album is titled as such, a manner of thanking a city where they experienced so much magic. Interestingly enough, the songs themselves don’t seem to echo a lot of Portuguese musical influence, though you’d be hard-pressed to officially explain what a Portuguese musical influence actually sounds like. Really though, The Walkmen continue to sound like The Walkmen, as very few other bands are doing much similar to them these days. And though by now, a handful of records into their now 10-year careers, you might think it’s starting to get old, the quality these guys have been able to turn out time and time again remains inexplicably high. For peddling in misery and self-loathing, somehow Hamilton Leithauser still has more to say on the subject and his world-weary voice continues to provide the necessary emotion to convey it properly. Matt Barrick’s drum work remains as strong, if not stronger than ever no matter if he’s tapping on a snare or hammering down on some bass drums. Really everyone does stellar work on “Lisbon”, and in the wake of the also-great “You & Me” from a mere two years ago, The Walkmen are on something of a roll. They’re great live too, as I can readily attest, and some of these new songs are particularly exciting to experience with a large crowd on hand. So go see a show, go buy the record, and rest assured that while these songs will take you to a dark place, it’s okay to crack a smile when you come out the other side.

Buy “Lisbon” from Amazon

Page 7 of 9

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén