_Beach House ‘Teen Dream’ Album Review

Beach House -

Teen Dream

85/100

Released January 25th via Subpop

Beach House’s third album and Sub Pop debut, Teen Dream, was recorded in a converted church called Dreamland. The results are nothing shy of divine. The music is so magnificent, you could mistaken it all for a dream. But it’s the real deal, and it’s one of the first gems of the new year.

The band has not abandoned their trademark dream pop sound of electronic drums, clean and twangy guitar lines, and ethereal vocals from Victoria Legrand. Using this as a foundation, Beach House turned the notch up, delivering slightly more uptempo songs compared to their previous albums.

The opener “Zebra,” sets the theme from the get-go with a little drive and backbone to their float-provoking atmosphere. The band sounds more refined than ever before.

“Walk in the Park” lockdowns a tight grove with the beginning pace set by thumping electronic drums, before diving into a sweeping swell of organs, while later on in the same track, the listener tastes some mellowed down surf riffs as guitarist Alex Scally strums in a rapid fashion.

As the album progresses, each piece prevails at being audio art in the most perfect sense. On the pleasantly cheery track “Used to Be,” Legrand exercises her piano chops a polished pop performance, and the electronic drum track on “Love of Mine” sounds like a long lost 80s beat, while the first sounds of “Better Times” resembles an early Super Nintendo videogame, it actually serves as a sensually sleek ballad that centerpieces itself as clear standout in my mind. (more…)

_Album Review: Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster

Lady Gaga -

The Fame Monster

[Released November 23rd via Interscope]

Lady Gaga’s sophomore effort reads like a true project. The Fame Monster delves even deeper in theme both sonically and conceptually than its predecessor, and the translation is even brassier and bossier pop deftness. Lyrically, the new tracks may lack in catchiness where The Fame did not, but after several spins this is sure to catch on at another level.

It’s a sound that is so unmistakably “Gaga,” and at that, a sound that has come to full fruition with a more conscious recognition of who, as an artist, she really is. Where, in the past, she needed to rely on sunglasses, spectacle, and superficial content in her lyrics to stake a claim, this new approach seems a much more liberating expression of what it really is that she’s trying to do. Her constant push to raise the bar is evident and triumphantly executed.

It’s not a bad thing that the album is such an obviously influenced piece of work (for those who are keyed in well enough to catch the references). While other pop production rides the wave of cyclic change, this album guides it. Her influences are unabashed and a futuristic restyling of what would otherwise be considered retro, and some of the instrumentation, themes and chords are hard to mistake. There’s classic 90’s dance (the birth of electro pop), Ace of Base, written all over “Alejandro,” a track that received early buzz when it leaked on the internet along with “Dance in the Dark.” (more…)

_Album Review: Rain Machine Self-Titled

Rain Machine -

Rain Machine

Rating:

[Released September 22nd via Anti-]

With TV on the Radio going on hiatus for what will surely feel like an eternity, just where do you go to feed your hunger for TVotR music? Your answer: Kyp Malone.

Malone goes by the moniker Rain Machine. The music is not like the quilt like blend of various genres TVotR fans are used to. Instead, Malone aims at minimalistic indie blues, using sparse instrumentation consisting of his guitar and a hodgepodge of percussion instruments.

The unofficial First Aid anthem, “Give Blood,” starts off with heavy bells before a guitar riff as fuzzy as Malone’s beard cuts into the mix to spike up the album’s most energetic track.

After the punchy opener, the album begins to drift into a mellower state of conscious. There’s a certain intimacy and vulnerability in Malone’s husky howl and falsetto croon all over the album.

A handful of tracks span past the four minute mark, including the ballad “Smiling Black Faces.” The track is a slowburn song, building up as it goes until unleashing full force in the last minute. His lyrics are the true vehicle that serve this song, as it is sung in a storytelling fashion with some political charge added in. (more…)

_Album Review: The xx – XX

The xx -

XX

Rating:

Out August 17th, released by Young Turks

xx, with their debut LP, XX, have managed to simultaneously embody the elusive vagabond spirit of the young, repressed and creatively conscious art culture, and still introduce something so fresh and inviting, and otherwise, void from a currently indistinguishable music scene. It is an aura so strenuously attempted at by electronic experimentation and rule-breaking acoustics. Yet with the most subtle production and musically simplistic arrangements, The xx has found the perfect formula in beautifully resonating minimalism.

Living up to their blog-raved covers, the band has put together a beautifully crafted album, completely purposeful and artistic in its compilation. Each track reads with the kind of haunting, unsuspecting melodies that creep their way into your head in such a way that when you hum them, you aren’t sure you’ve got it right. This is a thread that rings through the bare, chilling qualities of two voices from the band of four 20-year-olds, Oliver Sim, Romy Madley Croft, Baria Qureshi and Jamie Smith. Their lyrics are pulled off with a blase reduction to mere conversation, but the dialogue is intriguing.

In songs like, “Basic Space,” amidst the perfect application of reverb, their voices have such a beautiful quality that they resonate just enough so that they never actually lift off of the instrumentation, but rather become an instrument themselves. (more…)

_Album Review: Dragonette – Fixin To Thrill

Dragonette -

Fixin To Thrill

[Out 9/29 in Canada, 10/3 in Australia, 10/27 in US]
Released by Mercury Records (Canada), Universal (Australia), I Surrender (US)

Dragonette, a Canadian electronic pop group, is back with their second album, Fixin to Thrill. “Fixin to Thrill,” “Gone Too Far” and “Pick up the Phone,” are all stand out singles from the album, which have grown in popularity over the course of this year. Fixin to Thrill is not a ground-breaking album or a beacon of undeniable greatness, but it is pleasure for the ears and an upbeat poppy record for the collection.

Lead singer and songwriter, Martina Sorbara, said “We were just king of making up shit as we went along and we still are doing that.”

No longer guitar heavy, the album stands out as much more polished than their first. Fixin to Thrill is perfectly produced and carries digitally pleasing blends throughout. It has catchy riffs in almost every track and pop hooks that make it up lifting. (more…)

_Album Review: Freelance Whales – Weathervanes

Freelance

Whales -

Weathervanes

[Released 9/1, 2009]
Record Label: None/ Indepedent

Formed in late 2008, Freelance Whales, a band from Queens, is leaping onto the music scene with an undeniable presence. A few months ago they released their debut album, Weathervanes, and since then its been gaining rapid popularity because they are a group that just can’t be ignored.

Freelance Whales brings us back to “old school” indy, if there is such a thing. They definitely don’t fit into the 2009 breakout band trend of electronic pop, which we see so often. The group has a theme that could be categorized as similar to Postal Service or Sufjan Stevens. Its what emo-electronic would sound like on a nice day in an open prairie field.

Standout tracks include “Generator ^ First Floor,” “Starring,” and “The Great Estates”. “Generator ^ First Floor,” is the influential start to the album. A long instrumental introduction, filled with the guitar, banjo, harmonium, glockenspiel, and synthesizers, sets the tone for the orchestrated heavy album. There is something very powerful and moving about the first song that lures you into the rest of the album.

Continuing the buildup as you progress deeper into the album is “Starring.” This track has a sentimental melody with a poppy chorus that sets you free. The best part of this song and an aspect that makes the album stand out as great is the use of the banjo. Rounding out the epic album is the song “The Great Estates.” It carries a memorable melody that touches your emotions after a few listens, much like the entire album. (more…)