And 2014 is now in full
swing musically. After being somewhat bored last month, with nothing really
interesting me other than Against Me!'s Transgender Dysphoria Blues,
four (let me repeat that: FOUR) albums from February have not only
come onto my radar, but been interesting enough for me to find something to
talk about in all of them. Some were anticipated, some were unexpected, but all
of them are worth checking out for very different reasons. So, let's get
started.
St. Vincent - St.
Vincent
Prior to late 2013, I had
heard absolutely nothing about or by St. Vincent. "Birth In Reverse"
instantly made me want to check out her work. Strange Mercy proved
to be a compelling and moving album. Then "Digital Witness" and
"Prince Johnny" further amped my hype for her upcoming album. And, lo
and behold, the album is actually quite good overall. In fact, it's probably my
current favorite album of the year. (We'll see if that remains unchanged when Chad
VanGaalen has his chance to blow me away in April.) Starting with a frantic
panic in "Rattlesnake," the album goes through various movements topically, including narratives about personal crises and epiphanies, meditations on modern technological trends, and
drug addiction.
Yet, it never feels
incongruous or jarring. The album is structured wonderfully and every song has
something to love about it (still trying to gather my thoughts on "I
Prefer Your Love," but aside from that, everything's golden). From the
jittery brass of "Digital Witness" to the luscious narrative in
"Prince Johnny" to the restrained teeth of "Huey Newton" to
the unhinged murderous streak in "Bring Me Your Loves," every track
brings something cool to the table. It doesn't hurt that Annie Clark's voice
has a certain bravado this time around that shows real growth and her guitar
chops are consistently engaging and solid throughout. Like the actions
described in "Birth In Reverse," this could very easily turn into a
typical part of my listening habits.
brentalfloss - Flossophy
YouTube musical prodigy
brentalfloss has been a personal favorite of mine since I started watching his
videos about three years ago. Since then, he's had this ambitious streak about
him that has resulted in a surprising upswing in his music's quality, a bold
feat in that I was already a big fan of what he was doing back then.
2012's Bits of Me showed the wide variety Brent is capable of
and displayed great promise in what was to come, a musician able to create
pieces both incredibly humorous and unexpectedly poignant (drawing from video
game characters with minimal explicit background, no less). I haven't had as
much time with this album as the others in this post, but the tracks on this
one continually won me over one after the other, all 20 in all, over the
album's 50+ minute runtime (brentalfloss's longest album yet).
And, not to speak too
rashly, but this might be my favorite of his albums yet. The comedy is the
funniest of Brent's career (particularly the spot-on criticism of
the minutiae in "3DS Streetpass with Lyrics," the hard-rocking
douchiness of "Ken's Theme with Lyrics," and the outright dickish
portrayal of Link in "Zelda: A Link to the Past with
Lyrics") and the resonance is the most powerful it's ever been (I
know it's been released in a video of its own, but the Ben Folds-esque
"Zidane to Vivi" might be the best thing brentalfloss has ever
written). Even previously released songs have been aurally tweaked and spruced
up, some with brand-spanking-new intros with fresh jokes, like the retooling of
the setup to "Super Mario Land with Lyrics." It even
starts wonderfully, with "Earthbound with Lyrics" (after a brief
intro) serving as a perfect musical companion to "Zelda II with
Lyrics" from Bits of Me in its evolving
structure. If you haven't heard any of brentalfloss's stuff, you owe it to
yourself to check it out, and this may be the greatest starting point.
[Random thought: Would
this album's track listing flow better if the "Introspective Bounty Hunter
in Space" piano instrumental came right before "Metroid: Fight for
Love"? Or if the album was bookmarked with ukeleles by switching
"The Bioshock Song" with "Ballad of the Mages"?]
Beck - Morning Phase
And here we have the first
of two major folk rock albums of the month. I know I'm not the only one, but I
like weird, zany Beck better than I like folk Beck. Don't get me wrong: Beck is
a fine songwriter and makes what could be dull, monotonous folk music breathe
with life and sincerity, but I just find the off-the-wall section of his career
far more interesting.
Thankfully, Morning
Phase is interesting enough for me to give it a recommendation. Like I
said before, my favorites from this album are ones where it feels like Beck is
infusing a livelihood into the folk music that just doesn't work as
successfully elsewhere, such as in "Blue Moon," "Heart Is A
Drum," and "Say Goodbye." Alternatively, even some of the rich
musical landscapes he creates when he's not in this mode are compelling, like
the climactic closer "Waking Light." Really, the only songs on here
that I can find legitimate complaints with are the two brief instrumental
interludes, both similar in sound and meaning, with no particular reason for
two of them to exist on the same album that only has nine other songs. Meh.
It's a minor gripe in a light album worth listening to at least once.
Sun Kil Moon - Benji
And, last but not least,
we have THE album of the month. Not mine (St. Vincent takes
that for me, easily), but the one that's been buzzing around in that there
music blogosphere for the past month. I can see why this album's been
attracting a ton of attention in music journalism, as its soul-baring bluntness
is something really unique, one of the rare instances of "narrative
music" if I had to invent a genre to describe it.
Although, it's not usually
a "narrative" necessarily, but more of a stream-of-consciousness look
into Mark Kozelek's mind as he reminisces on moments of life and death (but
mostly death) in his lifetime. "Carissa" simultaneously starts the
album and summarizes it. It's a melancholic, heartbreaking song about Mark's
cousin dying in a freak accident at 35 that really aches and is teeming with
emotional heft.
Other songs chronicling
death are strewn throughout, but the ones that draw my attention are the ones
that break from this thread. "Jim Wise" both musically and lyrically
captures a vivid, bittersweet portrait of a the titular man's tragic life.
"Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes" has an immediacy not
seen in anything else on the album with its vocal intensity (eventually joined
by an equally sharp percussion section) and rapid-fire listing of events.
Coming in after a slew of downbeat songs, album closer "Ben's My
Friend" is like an unexpected left hook with its sunny ukelele, central
drum beat, and booming brass. But my favorite song from the album (and possibly
my favorite of the year at this point) by far is "Dogs," an
incredibly open and detailed account of every romantic and sexual experience in
Mark's life. The specificity and calculated structure of the lyrics alone
impress me, but the way the song continually builds on itself, whether its the
percussion that enters midway through or the subtle guitar flourishes towards
the end, makes it one of the most captivating on the album.
The reason why I love
"Dogs" so much is also the reason why a lot of the album is lacking
to me. I kinda feel like a jerk for saying this, but not much of the album hits
me hard. "Carissa" is heart-wrenching, but there's not much musically
that evokes for me. This may be an entirely subjective thing,
but, while the lack of evolution and variation in most songs leaves the lyrics
at the forefront, there are only a few isolated incidences where I felt
something emotionally. Some songs merely stick with the same melody throughout
which makes sense in context, but it makes quite a few of the tracks feel rigid
and stationary. Maybe if the rest of the songs on the album were as dynamic as
"Dogs," I would be fawning over this album as much as pretty much
every other critic.
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