3.5/5 This is probably the album that I anticipated most coming into 2008. Their first album, St. Elsewhere, was amazingly creative and contained the best song of the decade in my opinion, “Crazy,” plus another gem in “Smiley Faces.” Now, on to their new sophomore release, The Odd Couple: While it doesn’t produce any individual tracks that top “Crazy” or “Smiley Faces,” it is a more solid, textured, and enjoyable album as a whole. Their lead single “Run” is a frenetic dance pop number with a video to match (it had to be pulled off MTV because it caused epileptic relapses). But that’s not even the best song on the album. “Going On” is probably my favorite, with a catchy melody and thick organ chords. “Whatever” overflows with apathetic attitude. “Surprise” is dark, Latin-influenced, and Beach Boys-esque, all at the same time. “Blind Mary” sounds like it could be a freaked-out Beatles song (and the fact that it’s an ode to marijuana doesn’t hurt the comparison). Cee-Lo's swoon is at it's best on "Neighbors". And “A Little Better” has an impeccable chord progression. The album effectively mixes warm beats with cold lyrics. No sophomore slump here.
3.5/5 It pains me to admit it, but I’m slightly disappointed in the Raconteurs’ second release. Maybe it’s because it turned out to be something other than what I expected and it will eventually grow on me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good rockin’ album. Jack White is a genius, but that’s the thing; I think he overpowers the album with his genius. As one reviewer put it, he’s tripping over himself with all his ideas. But also, I think he’s bulldozing over Brendan Benson. The album is sometimes overbearingly harsh and I would have liked to see more of Benson’s pop sensibility come out, as it did on their first album, Broken Boy Soldiers. Still, the album is a great listen and a worthy purchase. The first two tracks, “Consoler of the Lonely” and “Salute Your Solution”, rock hard. If you mixed the Zeppelin tracks “Traveling Riverside Blues” and “Gallows Pole”, you would get “Top Yourself”. “Attention” starts out with a trudging Sabbath-like riff and then opens up into another good rocker. “Rich Kid Blues” and “These Stones Will Shout” are also good tracks. On the other hand, other tracks like “Five on the Five” and “Hold Up” are far too brash in my opinion and needed a little more Benson to balance White.
Edit:4.0/5 The album grew on me immensely. The high points are very high and the low points are very low, but it's those high points that make the album very good.
2.5/5 Howlin Rain’s second album is good. Nothing more, nothing less. They give off a Lynyrd Skynyrd/Allman Bros vibe, but that’s just the problem: there is nothing new here. There’s nothing particularly bad about the album, but there’s nothing special about it. If you want to hear this kind of pure rock n’ roll, just pull out At Fillmore East or one of the other greats. I must applaud Howlin Rain for their use of the Hammond organ, which dominates many of the songs to my great satisfaction. My favorite track is probably the easy-going “Lord Have Mercy.” All in all, don’t bother buying the album.
2.5/5 Let me start by saying that PUSA’s 1995 self-titled debut album is perfect, and I’m not exaggerating. Clever/funny lyrics set to catchy post-grunge, such as the classics “Lump” and “Peaches”.These Are the Good Times People is an OK album and fun to listen to, but nowhere near as good as their debut. Their new style is a bit too pop-punk for me. There’s also not enough variety in the songs; they all come at full force without room to breathe—something that they didn’t have a problem with on their first album. The best songs on here are the ones that show glimpses of their previous brilliance, such as “Mixed Up S.O.B.”, “Ghosts Are Everywhere”, and “Loose Balloon", but there aren't any tracks that are instantly memorable. Overall, the album is a good listen..and don’t get me wrong, their new style is often pleasing, such as on “French Girl.” And of course, the lyrics are as funny as always.
3.5/5 As I was scanning through recent music releases on different websites, I saw this album by Black Mountain. I read many times that they drew influence from Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and the like. But the album cover, the generic “metal” track names, and the long song lengths had “PRETENTIOUS” written all over it. They looked like a Rush knock-off (and Rush often went over the top, in my opinion). But it was getting good reviews, so I bought it anyway, and I’m glad I did. It was a pleasant surprise. It channels the spirit of early 70’s music without being unoriginal. Parts of the album rock at full force while others are reserved and brilliant. Organs and mellotrons are used smartly to embellish the quiet parts. The female singer smoothly complements the male lead. This is a very solid album. Check out "Angels"
4.0/5 This is a great debut album from Vampire Weekend, the slightly over-hyped indie band from the Northeast. These Columbia graduates put together an album that is refreshing, catchy and enjoyable. My favorite track is definitely “A-Punk”, a frenetic, guitar-driven party of a song. Other highlights include the almost childlike “Oxford Comma”, and the baroque feel of “M79” and “Walcott”, and the nice ballad “I Stand Corrected.” Overall, the album is a very worthy purchase and I expect more good things to come from this band.
3.5/5 On first listen, Johnson’s latest album was boring and weak. Nothing in particular grabbed my attention other than the already-released lead single “If I Had Eyes”, which is undeniably a very pleasant song. But with a few more listens, it started to grow on me. After reading a Rolling Stone article on Johnson, I came to admire his extremely laid-back attitude, where family and just enjoying nature come first in his life. With this in mind, I gave the album another spin. It doesn’t have near as many hooks as his superior In Between Dreams, but I came to appreciate it for what it is: a mellow, easygoing, satisfying album.
So I’m reading my textbook for History 7B—American history from the Civil War until the present—and I notice that words like “steelworkers” and “labor unions” always jump out at me. I realized that I have this romantic vision of blue-collar work, especially that of the early 20th century. A picture of one of those Communist (propaganda) statues pops in my mind and I like looking at it. I guess the Soviets knew what they were doing…sort of.
Maybe my fascination all started with John Lennon evoking his early days in the slums of Liverpool with “Working Class Hero” and how it’s “something to be.” Maybe it’s because I recently saw There Will Be Blood and the amazing cinematography made the oil fields look appealing. Maybe it began after watching October Sky and seeing all the coal workers—but that’s a bit ironic, considering all Jake Gyllenhaal’s character wanted to do was avoid that lifestyle. The irony continues, even more pronounced: I liked the images portrayed in The Jungle. Upton Sinclair intended to paint the whole working-class situation as horrible, and he did, but that still doesn’t stop me from having a romanticized view of the factories. Does this make me weird? Probably, yeah.
Speaking of factories, check out “Factory Girl” by the Stones, haha.
I posted this on my facebook already. The top 40 songs and top 10 albums of 2007
Top 40 Songs
40. Split Needles - The Shins
39. Far Cry - Rush
38. Tarantula – Smashing Pumpkins
37. Party Like a Rockstar – Shop Boyz This song is so unintentionally hilarious, but it never fails to get you pumped. It will always remind me of my senior year: tour, grad nite, etc.
36. Rehab - Amy Winehouse She's a wreck, but it didn't stop me from hearing the old-school jazz/soul influences in this song.
35. Apologize (feat. OneRepublic) - Timbaland
34. Lake Michigan - Rogue Wave
33. I Don't Wanna Stop - Ozzy Osbourne
32. Time Won't Let Me Go - The Bravery
31. Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5
30. Wild Mountain Nation - Blitzen Trapper
29. The Moneymaker - Rilo Kiley
28. Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car - Iron & Wine
27. Young Folks - Peter, Bjorn & John
26. Flashing Lights – Kanye West feat. Dwele Kanye, huge ego and all, really put out a good album. Here’s one of the catchiest of the bunch.
25. Dance Tonight – Paul McCartney Great mandolin-driven song from Paul’s new album.
24. Good Life – Kanye West feat. T-Pain The second of three Kanye songs to make this list.
23. The Way I Are – Timbaland Another surprise, much like “Sexyback” on my 2006 list. No one can deny this infectious dance beat.
22. Sea Legs – The Shins One of the highlights of the Shins show I saw in October at the Greek Theater.
21. Gronlandic Edit - Of Montreal Simple catchy song. The video reminds me of Yellow Submarine, but even crazier.
20. War Pigs – Cake Cover of the Black Sabbath tune. This is one of the best covers I’ve ever heard. Cake does justice to the original, while keeping their own distinctive sound. (If you're a Republican, you may not want to see the video, haha).
19. Same Old Drag - The Apples In Stereo What a great, Beatles/ELO-esque tune. And the video is hilarious. Yes, that is them.
18. Hey There Deliliah – Plain White T’s This song might be further up the list if it wasn’t so horridly overplayed.
17. 1234 – Feist Another song displaying the creativity of the whole realm of indie music that I’m just now getting into. You might know it from the iPod nano commercial.
16. Missed the Boat - Modest Mouse Heard this on KROQ while they were doing a list of songs that would be guaranteed to make you feel good. Well they were right.
15. Nantes - Beirut Beirut's a very intriguing indie band, drawing their influences mostly from Eastern European music. This song is great.
14. Timebomb – Beck Fortunately, Beck decided to randomly release a single in 2007 with no accompanying album. Gets your blood pumping. (The video is unofficial. VERY unofficial, haha).
13. Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem I didn't dig it the first time I heard it, but then I got into the groove. Listen to the lyrics.
12. Paper Planes - M.I.A. Indie/World/Hip-hop. Whatever it is, it's good.
11. Dashboard – Modest Mouse It’s hard to get catchier than this.
10. Bodysnatchers – Radiohead One of the stand-out tracks on Radiohead’s new “ablum.” They released it exclusively on their website, for which you can decide what price you pay. No joke.
9. North American Scum – LCD Soundsystem Clever.
8. Hang Me Up To Dry - Cold War Kids Great bass line. This one gets under your skin.
7. The Underdog - Spoon Motown influenced lead single from Spoon.
6. Sleeping Lessons - The Shins The Shins are probably the greatest indie band out there. Powerful song that starts off soft and then just builds and builds.
5. Ever Present Past - Paul McCartney The ex-Beatle still has an impeccable ability to write catchy songs.
4. Stronger - Kanye West “Stronger” will always remind me of my fall semester at Berkeley: hearing it at the football and basketball games, playing it in the dorms, etc.
3. Don't You Evah - Spoon 5 seconds into the bassline and you're already swaggering.
2. Window In The Skies - U2 This is a beautiful song. It could easily be a classic if it just had more exposure. And the video is AMAZING. Best video I've ever seen, no exaggeration. It’s a montage where it looks like all these different artists are singing the lyrics. Check it out.
1. Icky Thump - The White Stripes The Stripes came up with the sickest, grungiest, most rockin' guitar riff I've heard in a long while.
Top 10 Albums
10. Memory Almost Full - Paul McCartney
9. Across the Universe (Music from the Motion Picture)
8. Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? - Of Montreal
1. Connie told me I should. 2. It will be a place to gather my thoughts and post my many meaningless lists so I can feel validated somehow. Knowing that there will be very limited readership, this is mostly for my benefit. 3. It's what all the cool people are doing.
By the way, someone should tell this guy to put "blogging itself" on the list.
3.5/5
