Eihwaz
Jun 13, 2008, 02:32 AM
It's true, 2007 was a fantastic year for music, but there's been a lot of good stuff out this year so far. Mention some of your favorite albums that have come out this year, as well as any related discussion.
Third by Portishead: Trip-hop is so 90's, this is true. It's only appropriate that Portishead, the rather reclusive trip-hop innovators who realized that tortured torch songs and dense spy-music samples could go together so well, have produced a totally brilliant album. It sounds absolutely nothing like their older work, and I often am rather hesitant to call it "trip-hop," as it is more innovative than that. The sexy chase-scene vibe of "Silence" a try, the beautiful folk-bleeding-to-electronic of "The Rip", the ominous drone of "We Carry On", the shards of noise in "Machine Gun"...this is the sound of a reinvention that works on every level. Currently my favorite album to come out this year.
The Slip by Nine Inch Nails: I read an article on Time.com that said that Trent Reznor has realized that whereas people used to view albums more like novels, now they view them more like magazines. This is somewhat appropriate, given how quickly he's been releasing material lately. This is his second album this year, which is shocking given the average between his previous releases was more like five years instead of five months. No matter. The Slip is no nonsense, no filler, and all rock. I like any album where the brutal fun of "1,000,000" can sit comfortably next to an angst-ridden piano ballad like "Lights in the Sky." If you thought Year Zero was great but a bit overwhelming, or if you thought Ghosts I-IV could've used some, y'know, songs, you'll love The Slip.
Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend: What happens when a bunch of Ivy League indie kids perform a dark ritual while listening to afropop and begin channeling the collective spirits (and sound) of Paul Simon and Talking Heads? Well, you wouldn't get a collection of sweet, sunny, literate indie pop like Vampire Weekend; you'd just get some Lovecraftian punk-funk nightmare. "A-Punk" is impossible to resist, "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" is the perfect background music for a summertime date with that shy cutie from your art history class, and "Campus" goes through the joys and frustrations of college life in under three minutes. The rest of the album is just as strong, and is light, refreshing, and totally unpretentious (unlike this review).
I also have enjoyed the new LPs by Coldplay (which I cannot stop fucking listening to), the Futureheads, and British Sea Power, as well as a few others, but I don't feel like lapsing into any further overly pretentious Robert Christgau-lite reviews. :wacko:
Third by Portishead: Trip-hop is so 90's, this is true. It's only appropriate that Portishead, the rather reclusive trip-hop innovators who realized that tortured torch songs and dense spy-music samples could go together so well, have produced a totally brilliant album. It sounds absolutely nothing like their older work, and I often am rather hesitant to call it "trip-hop," as it is more innovative than that. The sexy chase-scene vibe of "Silence" a try, the beautiful folk-bleeding-to-electronic of "The Rip", the ominous drone of "We Carry On", the shards of noise in "Machine Gun"...this is the sound of a reinvention that works on every level. Currently my favorite album to come out this year.
The Slip by Nine Inch Nails: I read an article on Time.com that said that Trent Reznor has realized that whereas people used to view albums more like novels, now they view them more like magazines. This is somewhat appropriate, given how quickly he's been releasing material lately. This is his second album this year, which is shocking given the average between his previous releases was more like five years instead of five months. No matter. The Slip is no nonsense, no filler, and all rock. I like any album where the brutal fun of "1,000,000" can sit comfortably next to an angst-ridden piano ballad like "Lights in the Sky." If you thought Year Zero was great but a bit overwhelming, or if you thought Ghosts I-IV could've used some, y'know, songs, you'll love The Slip.
Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend: What happens when a bunch of Ivy League indie kids perform a dark ritual while listening to afropop and begin channeling the collective spirits (and sound) of Paul Simon and Talking Heads? Well, you wouldn't get a collection of sweet, sunny, literate indie pop like Vampire Weekend; you'd just get some Lovecraftian punk-funk nightmare. "A-Punk" is impossible to resist, "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" is the perfect background music for a summertime date with that shy cutie from your art history class, and "Campus" goes through the joys and frustrations of college life in under three minutes. The rest of the album is just as strong, and is light, refreshing, and totally unpretentious (unlike this review).
I also have enjoyed the new LPs by Coldplay (which I cannot stop fucking listening to), the Futureheads, and British Sea Power, as well as a few others, but I don't feel like lapsing into any further overly pretentious Robert Christgau-lite reviews. :wacko: