And the Macaulay Culkin goes to...

On my run early this morning I found myself trying to summarize three new albums.  Three very different kinds of music.  Three utterly different acts.  But they all share this time, this moment that is the summer of 2010.  Then I stumbled upon a contrivance to connect them all into a somewhat lumpy triple-header review.  Well, let's see how that goes. 

The National came out with one of the most-anticipated albums of the summer just a week ago.  "High Violet" was meant to take them to the next level.  They came across as a most writerly band in a NYTimes Sunday Magazine profile a few week's back, where they were described as constantly re-writing and mixing their multi-layered songs.  The result?  A slow burn that I'm afraid may never generate much heat.  Record store geeks will still love them.  But they certainly won't cross over into big love from the masses with this effort.  If they were a 1980s John Hughes movie, they would be "Weird Science".  My rating - a flat C. 

LCD Soundsystem just came out with "This Is Happening" earlier this week.  James Murphy is LCD Soundsystem, no matter what else is going on there.  He says he's done after this album, and I believe him.  Is it a classic?  Time will tell.  On many levels, it feels like everything we've heard before - great dance moves mixed with enough brains to make it look like a very complete package.  There are great moments.  But in the end, this album is Jake from "Sixteen Candles" soon to head off into obscurity to make furniture and be missed by all sorts of people that will struggle for the reasons why.  My rating - a very minor B.

Much more interesting, Sleigh Bells came out of nowhere with "Treats" last week.  They are a duo, loud, fresh as dew, in your face and smarter than they deserve to be at this stage in their lives.  No one has really figured them out yet, and I believe they are just messing with us thus far.  It never seems to work to predict how a band will develop down the road, but they have everything they need to be insanely big.  There's just something vaguely familiar and cool going on with them, even though they're utterly new.  In other words, they are the Ferris Bueller of this summer's big intros.  My rating - a strong B-plus, maybe heading north with more listens.

So there you have it - a Gen X cliche` forcibly contorted to yet another try at cultural relevance.  Hope your own cartwheels actually get you somewhere today.  Rock on.