Welcome back, we're back to normal now after yesterday's rather indulgent detour. Here are three more honorable mentions, i.e. albums that I've enjoyed a lot this year and that almost made it to the top ten list. Said list will commence in the next post. All aboard!
Lush is the debut album of Lindsay Jordan, a.k.a. Snail Mail, a singer-songwriter born in friggin 1999. She was just 15 when she released her debut EP, and got a 'Best new music' label from the influential music website Pitchfork, and her album debut has seen both huge hype and raving reviews. But is it actually good, though? Well, curious as to what all the fuss was about I've given it quite a few listens, and yes, I concur that it is good. There's that alluring melancholy 'loner's contentment' vibe that Angel Olsen an Kurt Vile channel so perfectly. Her voice is passionate and raw, and her guitar playing is refreshingly fun and creative. It's certainly a welcome album for those of us still fond of the honest, guitar-based indie rock of its 90's and early 2000's heyday. And I have a sneaking suspicion that's why it's getting as much attention as it is. Still, what makes it a good album is that it pushes forward in addition to looking back. While her fans may be boring nostalgics, Jordan isn't. The skeletal song structures like on "Intro" and attention-grabbing single "Let's find an out" remind me as much of SoundCloud trap as Perfume Genius. But she really is at her best when doing completely her own bedroom-daydream thing. The rerecording of "Stick" off her debut EP is so vulnerable and honest, so completely heartbreaking, so reminiscent of those self-doubting teenage years, it hits me deep in the feels every time.
OK, enough with the 'minor variations on indie rock' shit. Now here's some craziness. I'm not sure what it is, but it's crazy good. There's plenty of jazz on here, some hip hop, a lot of ambientness, some industrial noise rock stuff, even some pop-like R&B in places. Wait, what? OK, rewind. Who the hell is Yves Tumor? Well, it's the unlikely pseudonym of the person given the even more unlikely birthname Sean Bowie. I don't even know what he looks like, since he's as experimental and provocative with his visual and body art (here's the cover of his debut album, Serpent Music, which came very close to making my year-end list in 2016) as he is with his music. Digging up some info while listening to the album, I strangely came across this fascinating shoot just as the amazing "Recognizing the enemy" came on, where he sings "Inside my own living hell / I can't recognize myself". And check out the amazing music video snippets he keeps posting to Twitter (especially that last one). I think I'm starting to get the idea. But hey, the music is awesome. Incredibly well made. As Albumaday put it, "this shit slides so easily into a room it's like a buttered up mosquito." He goes on in hilarious fashion to point out that "It's trippy as balls and relaxing as fuck. And, trust me, that combo ain't easy to make. Yet it'll seduce you faster than Idris Elba asking you if you want to split a bottle of your favourite alcohol." (You, sir, are wonderful.) So yeah, Mr. Tumor, Sean, Mr. Bowie, he knows what he's doing, and he's rapidly getting better at it. He's signed with Warp records now, and if the Aphex Twin nods weren't clear from the music video snippets, he certainly doesn't put labelmates Brian Eno, Flying Lotus, Mark Pritchard, Grizzly Bear or Squarepusher to shame either. Massive Attack's latest also springs to mind. Overall there's just so much going here, so many different things smoothly combined into a majorly enjoyable listening experience for those slightly experimentally minded of you. I mean, I first listened to this while doing yoga in my apartment, and I enjoyed every moment of it. This is a man to look out for.
 |
| First thought: Boring. Second thought: Actually kinda poignant? I mean, the color scheme is striking, the font neat I guess, and her expression intriguing. In a few years this might just become iconic. |
Snail Mail - Lush
Lush is the debut album of Lindsay Jordan, a.k.a. Snail Mail, a singer-songwriter born in friggin 1999. She was just 15 when she released her debut EP, and got a 'Best new music' label from the influential music website Pitchfork, and her album debut has seen both huge hype and raving reviews. But is it actually good, though? Well, curious as to what all the fuss was about I've given it quite a few listens, and yes, I concur that it is good. There's that alluring melancholy 'loner's contentment' vibe that Angel Olsen an Kurt Vile channel so perfectly. Her voice is passionate and raw, and her guitar playing is refreshingly fun and creative. It's certainly a welcome album for those of us still fond of the honest, guitar-based indie rock of its 90's and early 2000's heyday. And I have a sneaking suspicion that's why it's getting as much attention as it is. Still, what makes it a good album is that it pushes forward in addition to looking back. While her fans may be boring nostalgics, Jordan isn't. The skeletal song structures like on "Intro" and attention-grabbing single "Let's find an out" remind me as much of SoundCloud trap as Perfume Genius. But she really is at her best when doing completely her own bedroom-daydream thing. The rerecording of "Stick" off her debut EP is so vulnerable and honest, so completely heartbreaking, so reminiscent of those self-doubting teenage years, it hits me deep in the feels every time.
 |
| Too bad that the cover isn't better, cuz Yves Tumor is a really interesting visual as well as musical artist. This creepy-ish one doesn't do much for me, though. |
Yves Tumor - Safe in the Hands of Love
OK, enough with the 'minor variations on indie rock' shit. Now here's some craziness. I'm not sure what it is, but it's crazy good. There's plenty of jazz on here, some hip hop, a lot of ambientness, some industrial noise rock stuff, even some pop-like R&B in places. Wait, what? OK, rewind. Who the hell is Yves Tumor? Well, it's the unlikely pseudonym of the person given the even more unlikely birthname Sean Bowie. I don't even know what he looks like, since he's as experimental and provocative with his visual and body art (here's the cover of his debut album, Serpent Music, which came very close to making my year-end list in 2016) as he is with his music. Digging up some info while listening to the album, I strangely came across this fascinating shoot just as the amazing "Recognizing the enemy" came on, where he sings "Inside my own living hell / I can't recognize myself". And check out the amazing music video snippets he keeps posting to Twitter (especially that last one). I think I'm starting to get the idea. But hey, the music is awesome. Incredibly well made. As Albumaday put it, "this shit slides so easily into a room it's like a buttered up mosquito." He goes on in hilarious fashion to point out that "It's trippy as balls and relaxing as fuck. And, trust me, that combo ain't easy to make. Yet it'll seduce you faster than Idris Elba asking you if you want to split a bottle of your favourite alcohol." (You, sir, are wonderful.) So yeah, Mr. Tumor, Sean, Mr. Bowie, he knows what he's doing, and he's rapidly getting better at it. He's signed with Warp records now, and if the Aphex Twin nods weren't clear from the music video snippets, he certainly doesn't put labelmates Brian Eno, Flying Lotus, Mark Pritchard, Grizzly Bear or Squarepusher to shame either. Massive Attack's latest also springs to mind. Overall there's just so much going here, so many different things smoothly combined into a majorly enjoyable listening experience for those slightly experimentally minded of you. I mean, I first listened to this while doing yoga in my apartment, and I enjoyed every moment of it. This is a man to look out for.
 |
| In-house artist David Barnes has done some pretty crazy stuff on previous album covers, and this is one of my favorites actually, despite the atrocious color palette. |
of Montreal - White is Relic / Irrealis Mood
OK, from the hip, hyped and modern, we continue to a veritable dinosaur in the music industry. It's been a decade since of Montreal was relevant, and two since they were new and exciting. But, we're a small, devoted fan base sticking out for Kevin Barnes' ever-morphing musical circus. Fans have had different points at which they started dropping off - for some it was when he ditched his longtime bandmates for the 2013 country-rock left turn lousy with sylvianbriar (I really liked this one though - click for Norwegian review). For me it was 2015's completely unlistenable and impenetrable Aureate Gloom (just trying to read that track listing puts me in a bad mood). But hey, I saw them live last year, which has been on my bucket list ever since I heard how surreal their stage shows are. And then this spring Barnes released this little gem. Here he's actually realized that less can be more. Rather than pack as much chaos into each song as possible, he gives these songs time to breathe, morph, evolve. The six tracks are all between 5 and 9 minutes, and "inspired by the extended dance mixes that people used to make for pop singles in the 80s". It really works. It's jazzy, funky and fun, which I still think is Kevin's best sound, also a sound that pairs much better with his still as dense, dark lyrics what than busy indie prog did a couple albums ago. There's a lot of beautiful saxophone here, which I always appreciate. Kevin goes to some new sonical territory he hasn't explored before (not a small feat after a 15-album run), even rapping a semi-confident triplet flow on the final track. That last track "If you talk to Symbol / Hostility voyeur" (they all have double titles) is probably my favorite even - usually a good sign.
Hear: "If you talk to Symbol / Hostility voyeur", "Writing the circles / Orgone tropics"
Hear: "If you talk to Symbol / Hostility voyeur", "Writing the circles / Orgone tropics"
No comments:
Post a Comment