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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.
Amidst all the standard Spring flings, I've been diggin' a few new things. Most of all, The Tallest Man on Earth. Don't be afraid, he's actually quite normal-sized. He (Kristian Mattson) is Swedish, though, which can be unsettling for some. He gets lots of music geek buzz and all sorts of comparison reviews that say he sounds like Bob Dylan. Yeah sure, that's in the sound. But there's something else masterful, infectious and just downright surprising in his music. I don't think I've played a new album more often in the first week after buying it than his latest ("Wild Hunt"). Sarah and Maya agree. This guy's something special. My rating for this album - a solid A. Check it out.
I need to also weigh in on the NYTimes Sunday Magazine profile of Mike Allen's "Playbook" obsessive political news/media insider shtick that runs daily on the Politico. I was an early adopter, especially since I'd been reading Mikey's work for years at the WashPost and the NYTimes. "Playbook" is just a newer iteration of the sort of tipsheet compendiums so many others have been doing for years (The Hotline, ABC's The Note, lots of others without the buzz - I just noticed that Seattle's Publicola does a good, short "Morning Fizz"). Does "Playbook" have influence because so many people are reading it? Probably. Is this worth thousands upon thousands of words in a magazine piece that goes absolutely nowhere? Nope. Insiders love this crap. I'm no insider. This article isn't worthy of fish wrap, to be totally unfair. But, admittedly, I still skim through the "Playbook" most mornings. I'm so meta.
More interesting for me in that same issue of the NYTimes was the profile of the band, The National. I just love what a writerly example of highly skilled and nuanced musicians they represent - editing and remixing and riffing up until the last minute before release on their new album ("High Violet"). I really look forward to that release next week. Mmm, dork dork dork. I'm sure I'll review it here, so feel free to check back. Why the hell not - won't cost you a thing.
On the home front, Maya really got a kick out of planting a serious stack of vegetable seed packets this weekend. I have absolutely no confidence in my abilities in that realm, so this one will be up to ol' Momma Nature. And since we hope to be eating all that stuff, I pray to Jeebus that the compost I collected in our bin and then spread is fit for raising such crops. If only we were raising a crop of lawn moss. We'd be rich, beeyatch!
Hope your own playbook has a few tricks worth trying out today. Rock on.
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