It’s a very busy Tuesday for yours truly, and I apologize for not being able to write more as an intro to this edition of Pick Your Poison. All I’ll say is that some of this set’s highlights include tracks from Ducky, Elephant & Castle (featuring tUnE-yArDs), Gangrene, Liz Green, Sidi Touré and Yellow Ostrich. In the Soundcloud section check out new songs from Andrew Bird and Morgan Page (with special guests Tegan & Sara).
In today’s weird music news, it seems that Disney has unleashed an odd piece of merchandise – a t-shirt that repurposes the cover of Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” into the shape of a Mickey Mouse head. Have a look on the Disney Store website where you’ll also notice it’s “sold out”. As somebody that owns a Joy Division “Unknown Pleasures” t-shirt myself (as I’m sure many others do as well), Disney’s version intrigues me for a few reasons. First and foremost, they claim the shirt was inspired by Joy Division. I’m inspired by Joy Division too, but Disney is about the last thing I think of when associating things with that name. Anybody that knows a thing or two about the band realizes they took their name from the brothels in Nazi concentration camps. There was controversy with the band when they changed their name from Warsaw to Joy Division for that exact reason. Ian Curtis and the boys were really just taking the piss out of the name. They weren’t really advocates for Nazi brothels. And while we’re talking Nazis and WWII, one of the icons of the war was Mickey Mouse, a symbol used to represent America and American capitalism and values. In a sense, both Mickey Mouse and the band Joy Division were anti-Nazi symbols, even as the band didn’t take on the name until some 40 odd years later. As to the issue of Ian Curtis hanging himself and the general darkness of Joy Division’s music, those really aren’t things you want associated with beloved children’s cartoon character Mickey Mouse. Now for the record, the shirt is made for adults, and hopefully most that buy it understand the history where I’m sure little kids are none the wiser. And finally, I point out the history of the “Unknown Pleasures” cover itself. The image is not a Joy Division original, but rather something they repurposed themselves. The image was originally generated by a computer in the 1960s, mapping out successive pulses from the first pulsar ever discovered. The image was then published first in a 1971 edition of Scientific American magazine, then a 1974 edition of Graphis Diagrams, and finally a 1977 edition of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy. The boys in Joy Division first encountered the image in that 1977 encyclopedia, which featured black lines on white paper, and simply flipped the two colors for the album cover. The published 1974 version of the image actually had it the same way the cover of “Unknown Pleasures” has it. My point is the Mickey Mouse shirt may have been inspired by the “Unknown Pleasures” cover, but that cover was inspired by an earlier published image that’s entirely science-based. Make of that what you will. I’ve already said way too much on this trivial subject. How about some Pick Your Poison? Tracks I’ll recommend today come from Air Review, Barry Adamson, Coast Jumper, Eric Chenaux, Royal Canoe and The Violet Lights.
Happy Friday! I hope your week was great. I’d call mine solid. I don’t have much else to say beyond that. Oh hey, it seems that SOPA/PIPA has been put on hold for the time being, so that’s a small victory for freedom on the internet, which is great. Let’s hope we don’t have to deal with such nonsense again, though the legislation might be back at some point in a different form. Okay, let’s get to some mp3s, shall we? Today I’ll highlight tracks from Black Marble, Circus Devils, COnduits, First Person Shooter, Lee Ranaldo, Lower Dens, Narrow Sparrow, and Shearwater. In the Soundcloud section enjoy Clams Casino’s remix of Lana Del Rey, as well as a new song from Miike Snow.
You know and love Craig Finn through his role as frontman for The Hold Steady. Now, he’ll be taking on a new role: solo artist! Yes, for those of you concerned about the state of The Hold Steady, fear not, for this is just a side project that won’t affect the band – at least not directly. The entire reason Finn has chosen to go it alone was less because the rest of the band wasn’t ready and more because he wanted to explore other sounds. The Hold Steady’s music is often celebratory, bar room rock with a Springsteen-like appeal. You go to a Hold Steady show with the notion that you’ll have a wildly fun time, fist in the air and a beer in your other hand. With his debut solo effort Clear Heart, Full Eyes, Finn chooses to step back from the energy and heavy guitars, focusing instead on introspective alt-country ballads and mid-tempo rock. It’s a different side to a relatively one-sided guy, though we’re left questioning exactly how necessary of an exercise it ultimately is.
One thing that’s not in doubt are Finn’s chops as a lyricist. His topics du jour in the past have been religion, failed relationships and good times with friends. On Clear Heart, Full Eyes he maintains that same trend, though with the slower and quieter songs the fun bits sort of take a back seat. He’s not without his sense of humor on some occasions however, as evidenced on “New Friend Jesus”, riffing on stigmata with the lines, “People say we suck at sports, but they don’t understand/it’s hard to catch with holes right through your hands.” One of the main changes the lyrics on Finn’s solo effort bring are a real sense of aging and the often depressing aspects that come along with it. Where his Hold Steady characters were mostly dealing with youthful follies and general messing around, the new characters are middle aged and living in a world of regret. On “No Future”, there’s a resigned and given up mentality that ultimately results in the line, “I’m alive, except for the inside”. And the end of the record brings a laser beam-like focus to breakups and winding up single for the rest of your life. When everyone else gets married, has kids and a family, Finn’s character is alone living in a “Rented Room”. He reminisces about a woman he used to love on “Balcony”, expressing frustration in lines like, “Saw you and him out on the balcony/it was the same thing you did with me”. The record closes with “Not Much Left of Us”, about the mutually assured destruction of two people that weren’t right for one another. “The part of us that still remains is rotten and bruised/like the soft spot on a piece of fruit”, he sings somberly and with a sincerity that makes you believe he’s actually lived it, even if he hasn’t.
As much of a bummer as the lyrics on Clear Heart, Full Eyes can be, the purposeful and off-the-cuff conversational manner in which they were written maximizes their power. They overwhelm everything else about the album, and that’s a very good thing because not much else really shines here. The lack of upbeat or even uptempo numbers makes the record a bit difficult to get through. It’s 45 minutes of darker, relatively depressing material, with only a wry smirk or a wink here and there. Songs like “New Friend Jesus” and “Honolulu Blues” function as would-be singles, picking up enough mojo or a halfway decent hook to make them some of the more memorable moments on an album that mostly drags along in a blur. Much of the musical backdrop for these songs was composed by friends of Finn in bands like Heartless Bastards, Centro-matic, White Denim and Phosphorescent, and you can sort of hear their varying styles across the songs. Alt-country (complete with slide guitars & violins) permeates songs like “Terrified Eyes”, “Balcony” and “Not Much Left of Us”, while a more rock and blues mentality gets taken on tracks like “Apollo Bay” and “No Future”. In spite of the variations in style, nothing is really that far removed from anything else, and Finn’s vocals and lyrics are the glue holding it all together anyways.
It’s a little difficult to tell exactly who the audience for Clear Heart, Full Eyes is supposed to be. Maybe it is middle-aged guys living a life they never intended. In some ways that’s every middle-aged person, as we’ve all had to make certain sacrifices or put our dreams to bed on occasion. The topics discussed here are not unrelatable in the least. But do we really want to dwell on them by listening to this music? Unlike The Hold Steady’s best, this isn’t the sort of record you can throw on at a whim. You need to be in a certain mindset to truly enjoy it or relate to it. Think back to some of the more somber ballads of The Hold Steady. Think of “Citrus” and “First Night” and “Lord, I’m Discouraged” as precursors to this record. If you love those songs and feel like an album’s worth of them if your cup of tea, perhaps Clear Heart, Full Eyes will be exactly what you’ve been looking for. It’s nice that Finn was able to take some time off from his main band and craft a record that truly highlights his songwriting ability and emotional maturity, but it also doesn’t necessarily feel like the concept is worth pursuing any further. He’s had his moment to play the adult, now it’s time to dust himself off, leave the pity party and return to the celebration. The kids are waiting by the bar with their glasses raised.
It’s grin and bear it time in Chicago again. For the second time in two weeks, a snowstorm is blowing in and is set to drop several more inches of snow. I’ve got my rations all set for a day spent entirely indoors. I don’t want to go out in dangerous conditions unless I have to. Yes, tomorrow’s going to be a quiet day for me, and I’m pretty happy about that. If you’ll be dealing with a snowstorm at all tomorrow, stay safe. Maybe listen to some new music? There’s plenty here for you to check out. I’ll advise downloading songs from BOY, Fort Romeau, Oberhofer, Thomas White, and Two Suns. Lightouts’ cover of a Guided By Voices classic isn’t half bad either. In the Soundcloud section you may be interested in Flosstradamus’ remix of Major Lazer.
And now, for a word about SOPA. Today is the day many websites “go dark” in an effort to push awareness about SOPA. What is SOPA? Well, if you’re reading this right now, I would hope you’ve got at least a small idea of what it is. Then again, if you’re outside the U.S., these things can be a little confusing. Any and all questions you might need answered about SOPA are available to you simply by typing the acronymn into your favorite search engine. Needless to say, if SOPA does become government policy, this site will very much cease to exist in its current form. It may cease to exist entirely, with the mere possibility that I’d be facing potential jail time for posting copyrighted music, even though I’ve been given permission to post all the songs below. So I encourage you to join the fight against SOPA, to help keep the internet free of government censorship. Okay, important piece said, let’s get to the music. Among the group of songs below, there are a handful I’ll place a special recommendation on for you. Those include tracks from Cold War Kids, Jenny Gillespie, Museum Mouth, Now, Now, The Pharmacy and Viper Creek Club. In the Soundcloud section, enjoy some danceable DFA Records cuts from Prinzhorn Dance School and Cut Copy’s remix of The Rapture. I’ll also recommend streaming the new song from Walls.
Field Music are a very “English” band. Sure, they’re FROM England, but as with so many other bands, that doesn’t automatically dictate what they sound like. It takes a certain style, a certain panache if you will, to make your sound country-distinctive. Beirut tends to do the sound of Eastern Europe justice. Vampire Weekend take on African-inspired pop and are somehow able to get away with it, as Paul Simon did. So with that same sort of trend, Field Music tread heavily in the realms of Britpop and more traditionally stuffy (yet catchy) arrangements. That hasn’t always been the case. 2010’s Field Music (Measure) had the band returning from a hiatus to an engaging 20-song double album that displayed a newfound confidence and looser arrangements than ever before. They also took trips down much more guitar-heavy and psychedelic alleys, which worked to their benefit by keeping you guessing over the course of 70+ minutes. Now two years later, the brothers Brewis are back with Plumb, a 15-track excursion that finds their confidence still intact but their urge for experimentation and expansion falling by the wayside.
The boys in Field Music probably think that they’re still taking risks and innovating, as listening to Plumb that seems to make sense. Orchestral swells, tracks bleeding into one another like one continuous thread, and a few cheeky sound effects are all things they’ve never done before or have done very little of before. Here’s the thing about that though: it’s a new coat of paint on the same wall. Remove those small bits and it’s the same band that made Tones of Town in 2007. They’ve even brought quite a bit of piano back into their arrangements after going largely without it on Field Music (Measure) due to Andrew Moore’s departure from the band. The band has stated in interviews and press materials they wanted to return to the much more angular and non-traditional songwriting of their first two albums, but with a modified and updated perspective that pulls influence from 20th century film soundtracks. Surprisingly, that’s an accurate description of what they’ve done on Plumb, though the film soundtrack references are a little come and go. That is to say from the kick off “Start the Day Right” and bleeding through “It’s OK to Change” and “Sorry Again, Mate” things move smartly, swiftly and with a symphonic bent. Upon the arrival of “A New Town” four tracks in, the band is instantly back in standard mode, ignoring the elements at work in the songs before it. When “From Hide and Seek to Heartache” shows up at track 11, the band suddenly “remembers” what they set out to do for another couple songs. “How Many More Times?” is an effective 40 second a capella experiment while “Ce Soir” would have made for a mournful closing number, though in many respects it sounds unfinished itself. Alas, the record continues for 2 more songs and 6 more minutes, just to get the total running time over the 30 minute mark.
Sometimes you need a couple of pop songs to play through the closing credits, and “(I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing” finally puts Plumb to bed. What’s a little ironic is that it’s the record’s first single and one of its best moments. You need to slog through quite a bit of musical nonsense to get there, and you’re left wondering why the entire thing couldn’t have been that good. Not that there aren’t a few Field Music highlights to keep an eye and ear out for. In spite of how it ruins the experimental mojo generated by the tracks before it, “A New Town” is a solid and one of the more engaging Field Music songs in recent memory. The dramatic dynamism of “Guillotine” fares best on this album though, the verses almost hushed with light acoustic guitar picking and subtle bass matched against the explosive and catchy chorus. The obtuse “Is This the Picture?” is framed in excellent fashion too, with the Brewis brothers trading off falsettos amidst some weaving finger picked electric guitars. Beyond those few highlights though, Plumb is plum out of luck. It may be admirable the band wants to experiment with traditional song structures, but most of the tracks just fall flat when there isn’t a chorus to latch onto or are just plain unmemorable when there is one. The good news is that the record’s best moments are almost evenly spaced across its 15 tracks, meaning that if you listen straight through it won’t be more than a few minutes before another gem comes along. In a perfect world (or a perfect album) of course, they’d all be gems. It’s easy to speculate that maybe if they had held onto the film soundtrack theme for the full album or if they’d tried a few more stylistic shifts like their last record then all would have turned out better. Alas, there’s no sense in arguing about what could be, only what is. Try as they might, Field Music just don’t quite have it this time around.
Class of 2012 update: With SXSW announcing most of the artists performing this year, I’m pleased to say that 7 of the 10 artists on my Class of 2012 list will be there. So will I. Expect updates from their performances. That includes Charli XCX, who teamed up with Alex Metric on the song “End of the World”, two remixes of which you can download below. Also in the Class of 2012 is Azealia Banks, and as of now she will not be at SXSW 2012. She is giving away a new song though, which again you can download below. And though they’re not part of my Class of 2012, I want to make mention that there’s a new song from The Dirty Three available in this set, and they’ve got a new record called “Off Toward the Low Sun” coming out on February 28th. Other tracks I’ll recommend today come from Beat Culture, Julianna Barwick, and Sick Figures. In the Soundcloud section, be sure to stream a new song from Great Lake Swimmers. Oh, and one last mention of the Class of 2012: Lana Del Rey’s SNL performance? Brutal.
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to you. In my mind, I always thought a day like today was about the equivalent of President’s Day, in that while government offices are closed, most everyone else was forced to work. Turns out Martin Luther King, Jr. was more important than George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or both of them combined. Okay, so that’s probably not really the case, one American hero being more important than another, but I do want to say that if all was right and just in the world, we’d have vacations on all 3 of their birthdays. So a big Happy Birthday to Dr. King. The world is a better place today because of the things he did. And so we reach today’s edition of Pick Your Poison. I’ll recommend tracks from Black Bananas, COOLRUNNINGS, Field Music, Pontiak, Porcelain Raft and Tanlines. In the Soundcloud section you can hear some new material from Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, The Jealous Sound and School of Seven Bells.
I just looked at the calendar for 2012. There are THREE Friday the 13ths this year. The first of those is today. If you’re the superstitious type, today’s the day you steer clear of anything that might even look like bad luck. Ladders, black cats, mirrors and salt are just a few things to keep a close eye on (or off), for they can swing your life in some pretty wild and wrong directions should the circumstances turn bad. I’m still staying locked away inside, avoiding the world, even though the snow has stopped falling (for now). Okay, maybe I’ll go see a movie later. Probably shouldn’t do “The Devil Inside” though, what with the evil spirits/exorcism plotline factoring into the whole luck proposition. Eh, I’m not that superstitious anyways. On to today’s lucky Pick Your Poison. I’ll recommend tracks from Andrew Sisk, Field Mouse, Gabriel & The Hounds, Newtimers, Peasant, The Plimsouls and Theophilus London. In the Soundcloud section be sure to stream new stuff from Olafur Arnalds and You Won’t. Perhaps the most fascinating artifact in this entire set though is a song collaboration between Jay Farrar (Son Volt/Uncle Tupelo), Will Johnson (Centro-matic), Anders Parker (Varnaline) and Yim Yames (aka Jim James of My Morning Jacket). They’ve got a record coming out that has them turning old, unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics into songs. The record is called “New Multitudes” and it’ll be out at the end of February. Keep an eye out for that one, and hear the first track from their collaboration in the Soundcloud section.
Cloud Nothings are the sort of band that has been hyped forever but has yet to deliver on the promise of true brilliance. They’ve always been “on the cusp”, without ever fully reaching it. Each of their two previous full lengths has kept them at such a precipice, meaning they’re great enough to be highly regarded but never to the point where their name is on the tip of everyone’s tongues. It is with such continued propulsion that we arrive at the band’s third long player in 3 years, the aptly titled Attack on Memory. This time, we’re assured, things are different. Previously, the band has been very much a one-man show, with Dylan Baldi writing and crafting most of the songs on his own, and then having people back him up in the studio and live. In a sense, it was sort of a “hired hands” band. At this point though, Baldi seems to have reached a point where he’s comfortable with the guys he’s working with, and the new record is more of a collaborative effort than ever before. They also chose to bring in legendary producer Steve Albini, which according to some recent interviews with Baldi, may have been a bad decision. The guy apparently treated the recording process as his time to do anything but pay attention to the job at hand. Still, the album is somehow able to retain that Albini sheen (or is it a lack of sheen?), and makes for the most interesting and ultimately divisive Cloud Nothings records to date.
The title of the album, Attack on Memory, is supposed to be a challenge to the way you think about Cloud Nothings. If you’re familiar with their previous two albums, Turning On and Cloud Nothings, then you should be clearly familiar with the band’s lo-fi pop-punk pedigree. It’s been a bouncy and fun ride, even as the sound hones closer to Sum 41 and Blink 182 than it does Fugazi or The Wipers. The new album tries to shake off those comparisons and re-establish the band as something more visceral and hardcore. They almost completely succeed at this, save for a couple moments of relapse. One listen to opening track “No Future/No Past” and you’ll instantly understand the changes and hopefully embrace them with open arms. Baldi sings like a man possessed, and it’ll be amazing if he can perform that umpteen times on tour and still keep his voice intact. It genuinely feels like this was the sound he was aiming for all along. Yet if that doesn’t do much for you, perhaps the nearly 9 minutes of “Wasted Days” will. To my mind, the song stands as the new piece de resistance of Cloud Nothings, a juggernaut that chugs along and actively engages the listener with every waking moment, doing the exact opposite of what its title suggests. Just when you think it’s on the verge of outstaying its welcome, it gets harder, better and faster than ever, falling somewhere in the path between Sonic Youth and Bitch Magnet. Seriously, the band should use the song as a mission statement for future records it’s so impressive and certainly shows off the talents of all the band members beyond just a series of power chords.
Speaking of power chords, fans of the first two Cloud Nothings albums will find that tracks like “Fall In” and “Stay Useless” are much more up their alley, the former moreso than the latter. Both are fun and speedy doses of proto-punk excellence, and are probably the two most easily memorable songs on the entire album. The 3 minute instrumental “Separation” is kind of the gooey center of Attack on Memory, and its title too is very apt. With the absence of Baldi’s vocals, the weight of the song rests entirely on the sharp and heavy guitar/drum assault, which is more than effective as a statement of purpose going forwards: separate yourself from what you thought you knew about this band. And though Baldi screams, “No nostalgia!” on “No Sentiment”, the song itself actually carries the drudging feeling that you’ve heard it somewhere before. That’s not to say the song is unoriginal, not by a long shot, but rather evokes the goodness of a Sunny Day Real Estate or even Slint, in glorious fashion. You can practically hear Baldi sneering behind the microphone, and there’s a certain kickass quality to that.
In spite of everything, Attack on Memory sort of loses steam in its final two tracks. Both feel like noble efforts to keep the same sort of spirit alive from all that came before it, but they’re a little more emotionally disconnected and drag in spite of their decent tempos. Baldi’s well-written lyrics remain intact, but his voice doesn’t reflect what he’s throwing out there. “It’ll never get old,” he sings on “Our Plans”, ironically sounding like somebody that’s pretty bored. You’d hope that wasn’t the case, particularly as the album is only 8 tracks total, with nothing except for “Wasted Days” crossing the 5-minute mark. In such cases it’d be nice if everything was as explosive as dynamite. Still, there’s so much quality over the duration of this album you’d be wrong to call it a misstep for the band. If anything, this should strengthen their resolve and push them even further in the right direction for the future. Is this finally the record that pushes Cloud Nothings into a new league of hyped bands that finally make good on their promise? It stands to reason that yes, this is finally their time. That said, why am I still thinking they’re still destined for even bigger, even better things?
Snow! Yes, Chicago has officially gotten its first snowstorm of winter. Those of us that live in and around the city know this much: getting your first snowstorm in mid-January is an extremely rare thing. Normally we’ve had a few feet of snow fall by this time in your average winter. Not all at once, but through December and this point in January. While we did get some light dustings and maybe an inch or two back in December, the fact remains that there hasn’t been a true sticking, significant snow since Marck of 2011. As somebody that very much dislikes what snow does to people, that is, makes them drive like the roads are made of glass while also providing ample opporunity for car accidents, I’m happy it’s taken this long for the snow machine to get going. I hope this is the first and last snowstorm of 2012. And we’re only getting 6 or so inches. Of course that won’t be the case, and there will be plenty more snow in the coming months, but for now, I’m just going to take this opportunity to stay indoors and not venture outside until the streets have been thoroughly plowed and salted. Okay, let’s get to Pick Your Poison. Today I’ll happily advise you to check out tracks from Kapowski, Malajube, Mikill Pane, Radio Moscow, Signals Midwest, Tiny Victories and SolarSolar’s cover of Wild Beasts. In the Soundcloud section, you can stream new stuff from Red Wanting Blue, and punk upstarts Say Anything.
Argh, such a busy Wednesday for yours truly. I hope you’re keeping busy so far in this young 2012. I’m just about to head out to a theatrical screening of Sigur Ros’ “Inni”, which I’m excited to see on a much larger screen than my own flatscreen at home. Yeah, the concert film is available on DVD, but I’m sure the theatrical experience is where it truly shines. I’ll report back on that later. For now though, there’s this edition of Pick Your Poison. Tracks I’ll recommend today include cuts from Fauna, Indian Handcrafts, Lux, Long Weekends, “Class of 2012”-er Nicolas Jaar, pacificUV, Shearwater, Shigeto, Simon Felice, and Wavelets. Lots of good, interesting new stuff for you to hear if that’s what you’re after. In the Soundcloud section I’ll also recommend that you stream new stuff from Neon Hitch, Simon Spire and The War on Drugs.
Ah, the dreaded sophomore slump. It is a curse that is inflicted upon many a band, most typically those that are desperate to repeat the success of their debut. If you look at bands like The Strokes and Interpol, both essentially took the blueprint of their first record and followed it to a T with startlingly solid results. Sometimes your sound works well enough to keep it going for a bit without people getting tired of it. Still others fear for their safety, knowing fans want and expect constant innovation and evolution, so there will be a radical sonic shift in a different direction that will either be massively successful or smell of failure. Then you have a band like The Big Pink. Success came rather easy to them, with their 2009 debut album A Brief History of Love earning accolades even while a single like “Dominos” was smartly and deceptively stupid. If that record taught them anything, it was that having a huge, easy to remember chorus brings in people from all walks of life in search of something they can sing along to. As such, their follow-up Future This sees The Big Pink putting aside some of the more artistic adventures of their first album in the hopes of becoming a stadium-sized pop band. If you were hoping to be beaten over the head with a large musical stick, welcome to your new favorite record.
In crafting Future This, the duo of Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell decided to go with a “beats first” approach. That is, they would come up with a beat they liked and would subsequently craft an entire song around it. They started to push forward with the idea that this might very well be a more “hip hop” record than anything else, but the end product certainly doesn’t reflect that, though certainly most of the tracks could be re-worked and remixed with that sort of edge to it. Guitars are hard to come by on this album as well, with the electronic elements and synths handling almost the entirety of the compositional bits. Only “Lose Your Mind” features some heavy riffage courtesy of the only guitar solo on the entire record. The lack of guitars isn’t exactly a bad thing as most everything sounds fine without them, but there are times when you’re left wondering if the blandness of some of the tracks could have benefited from a little extra instrumental spice.
Given that the band is shooting for the stars and appears to be actively seeking greater mainstream acceptance, much of Future This is dedicated to songs in the key of “Dominos”. Opening cut “Stay Gold” is perhaps the closest they come to copying that, so much so that you can pretty much insert the chorus fo “Dominos” in as a replacement and barely have a difference. Of course it’s catchy and moderately enjoyable as well, so it’s not all bad. Following that up is “Hit the Ground (Superman)”, which is most notable for its sampling of the relatively obscure avant-garde 1981 song “O Superman” from Laurie Anderson. Repurposed into a power ballad, it makes for a potential hit, though clocking in at nearly 5 minutes long it outstays its welcome by about 90 seconds. There are a few genuinely creative moments on the album, such as “The Palace (So Cool)”, which has a slow build and doesn’t take the easiest available sonic avenue. Furze is also provided with a chance to stretch a little more vocally, which he takes full advantage of to good effect. The mournful album closer “77” also does very well for itself, cutting away the loose party vibe of the rest of the record for a shot of genuine emotion. There’s piano and strings to accent the slow pulse beat and synths as well, bringing the right air of sentimentality in without being too overbearing. Credit goes to Paul Epworth and his production work for putting the right spin on not only that track, but the entire record, which could very well have come off as overly polished and bombastic.
One of the biggest pluses that A Brief History of Love had going for it was in spite of the many huge melodies spread out across that vast plain of an album, it still had some nuance and character to it. You could strap on some headphones and enjoy it nearly as much as you would were it blasting out of huge speakers at a stadium or beach party. That is, in essence, what Future This lacks. The Big Pink don’t sound completely whitewashed on their sophmore record, just less interested in personality and charisma this time. They’re seemingly aiming for bigger and better, but only got the first part right. And as well-fitting as this album might be for remixing thanks to the beats that permeate each and every song, it’d be far more helpful if the duo would put a little effort into actually writing some halfway decent lyrics. Coming up with an easily singable hook simply will not satisfy when it comes down to brass tax. Not only that, but even the most mindless moments on Future This, the ones clearly intended to bring the band greater popularity, don’t appear to be working their charms thus far. Sure, it’s far too early to write off this band and this record as a failure, but maybe if it is they’ll actually learn from the experience and come back stronger than ever.
Normally on Tuesday I’d tell you all about the great new albums being released this week, so you might stop by your local record store and pick one or more of them up. This early in the year though, there’s little to nothing of note coming out. The only thing I’ll really talk about is Nirvana’s “Live at the Paramount”, which has been available on DVD and Blu-Ray for a few weeks now. The audio-only portion of that show is what’s new this week. As I already own the Blu-Ray and watched it while hungover on New Year’s Day, I’ll attest to its excellence. There’s a lot of great moments to be found from that show, even if you’re a collector and already have a number of already released live bootlegs. The show takes place on Halloween, which was shortly after the release of “Nevermind” but before it completely took off and became one of the greatest albums of all time. Basically the show chronicles Nirvana just before they became bigger than they could handle. It’s a fun little curio, and highly recommended. Also highly recommended are a handful of tracks in today’s Pick Your Poison. Those come from 120 Days, Black Dice, Gary Go, Gracie, Placeholder and Standard Fare. In the Soundcloud section, you’ll be interested to stream tracks from Labyrinth Ear and Nick Zinner’s Grinderman remix.
