Vinylworthy

I hadn't quite the appreciation for the lyrics on James Mercer and Danger Mouse debut Broken Bells as I do now. At the time, I was a Danger Mouse fan, and slowly became a Mercer fan through the project. It was a common tale told well: Mercer had fired his band (or went solo depending on how you look at it), The Shins, because it was time to move on. Had I been a fan of The Shins at the time, I would have called it crazy. Wincing the Night Away is a very good album, and brought a lot of acclaim to Mercer. Why throw that away? Surprisingly, listing to Port of Morrow reveals that nothing of value was lost, harsh as that may sound. When you compare Port to Wincing , nobody should be surprised by the aqueous pastiche, but should notice the general tightening of everything that makes a Shins album so good. Mercer took a much larger chunk of the production duties this time around. After taking such a risk in leaving his bandmates behind, I have to imagine there was comfort in workin...

  It's Pavlovian: every reviewer out there is ready to jump any weird rock band that comes out with comparisons to Radiohead. It's understandable--Radiohead has been so instrumental in the landscape of music, especially when they entered their second era with Kid A. Their sadness coupled with both frenetic and melancholy tracks, bending genres to their will certainly sounds like Radiohead, that much can be said. But sit down and listen to their music, and you'll hear a very different band.  That's a very good thing to be; a great career can be made as a post Ramones band (Killers, Jet, Phoenix, The Strokes, Spoon). It's a harder question to answer if you are compared to Radiohead. Alt-J is already having to answer to these comparisons on their debut An Awesome Wave . To be honest, I'm not sure they deserve that kind of scrutiny. In the broad strokes, sure--they are the type of artists a Radiohead fan would want to also listen to. But are they following ...

  Following in the footsteps of Beirut and Sufjan Stevens, Cosmo Sheldrake has brought some very new ideas to indie music. That's no small feat, especially if you've ever listened to Sufjan make saxophones sound like a sunrise bursting with butterflies, Alt-J sample Myley Cyrus, or the cutting room floor samples of Bon Iver. Noel Gallagher is right , and that's why these things keep happening, giving us great music to listen to if you're willing to look for it. The Much Much How How and I is, despite what I just said, not a new idea. But it sounds wholly unique, well realized, and delivered with cool confidence. The pitch is simple: mix Romanian music with Benjamin Britton and have Roald Dahl write the lyrics. Add whatever stupid sounds you hear in your house for one day and mix it up. That's what Cosmo Sheldrake has brought to us. If that sounds like it would be perfect for the next Tim Burton film, you're not wrong. There's a sickly paleness to the music ...

At the time of writing, Kid A is 24 years old. Numerous outlets have called it the best album to come out in the 2000s. The album achieved the rare "Post [x]" label, like the Ramones before them, coloring the discussion of musics to be "Post Kid A" style. Since then, you can see a line in the sand between the Punk fans and the Electronic fans of their music, living in harmony. Today, it's overplayed to even simply ask what left is to say of Kid A. Close to a decade ago, I asked myself that question as I sat down to compile my own thoughts. I wasn't as "understanding" of music at the time. The things I said, I don't agree with anymore. I called it "weird stuff" and referenced Daft Punk. Yeah, they're not entirely dissimilar, but really, they don't share much more than a genre. I also referenced the opening track twice to describe it, but that's the one part that I truly still agree with fully. Everything really was in th...

Florence Welch continues to be one of the most interesting voices on the edges of arena pop/rock in her third album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. Interesting doesn't always mean fantastic, but she's getting there. One of the biggest problems Welch has had over her first two albums is a big head. That confidence has served her well; a timid approach would not work for the indulgent and energetic emotion that is her sound, but it's hard to improve when you believe yourself to be already great. Looking at the album artwork is an immediate indicator that much of that mindset has been scrubbed. Instead of uncomfortably ornate and seductive outfits and poses, we have Florence hunched, wolflike, glaring at the camera in a black and white photo with thin letters above her. I half expect the Carpenters to be in the background. Immediately the album opens with 'Ship to Wreck', a smooth, watery guitar led song that focuses on self doubt. Rolling soundscapes...

  In college, my roommate was convinced that he had found the next big band in MGMT. They hadn't yet released their debut album, so he was listening to their singles on their website. I really wish he was right, or at least right for a longer period of time. I can't say anyone aside from him would have predicted that some of the biggest songs on the radio that year would be from this seemingly drug induced fever dream of an album. Really, Kids is as crazy a song as anything on the album. And yet, as more than one music fanatic has mentioned, they seemed to know it, and started their career off with Fated to Pretend, a song that predicted their own destiny to live a life of fame and fortune, forced to act the part. Bandcamp was kind of popular among some of my friends, and I dug a little bit into the website, trying to find something new and interesting. Much of this album feels like surfing that website, never quite knowing what you'll land on. Sometimes it la...

Vampire Weekend has always been at the top of their game. It's not because they're unique (they both are and aren't). From production, to recording, to lyrics, to melodies, everything is nothing short of exceptional in every album to date. Faux old-money chamberpop for a 50s surfer B-movie music--it's hard enough to describe, let alone mimic. Is there another band you can think of that has released 4 incredible albums, let alone in a row? I'd argue not even Radiohead, Pink Floyd, or The Beatles can make that boast--controversial as that obviously may be. It seems, with all this praise for the band from myself and seemingly everyone else, it would be easy to check a few boxes before diving into the meat. Is it good? Does it sound like good old Vampy Weeky? Is there enough harpsichord? If yes, give it a 10 and act like you get all the references. Done. Their previous album threw that checklist out of the boat and reminded us all that we should just trust they know w...