Audioholic Media

»Album Reviews For Release Date: 05.04.10
by Joshua Krage

Lots of live albums out this week, but we’ll summarily ignore those and get right to the really good stuff, starting with one of the biggest bands (literally, at +/-18 members) in indie rock and continuing on through a carnival of various beats, fiddles, remakes and Italian operas. And that’s just to begin with:

A-Ha
Michael Bolton
Bone Thugs
Booka Shade
Toni Braxton

Broken Social Scene, Forgiveness Rock Record – I’ve been debating the merits of even reviewing this album, since it’s pretty much a must-buy for anyone hoping to retain any ounce of hipster cred, but will likely be inaccessible to anyone not into indie rock. The scene-making Canadian collective is still umpteen members strong and has the same amount of scenester royalty present on this LP, with members of Stars, Metric, Leslie Feist and more dropping choice performances across the landscape. The best news is that a good number of these tracks are the most straight-forward and punchy rock, electro, and danceable numbers this band has made thus far, catchy without sacrificing innovation. Highly worth buying.

Zac Brown Band – live
Chickenfoot – live

Court Yard Hounds, Court Yard Hounds – it’s the Dixie Chicks–minus firebrand frontwoman Natalie Maines–and sounds pretty much like you’d expect it to sound without her. Solid songwriting from sisters Martie & Emily, great instrumentation, less vocal presence but a still strong sense of melody and interplay, and even a downtempo bonus duet with Jakob Dylan. A pleasant diversion until Natalie feels like joining them for another outing.

Deftones
The Fall

The Flaming Lips w/ Stardeath & the White Dwarfs, Dark Side of the Moon – yes, the timeless Pink Floyd album, re-cast and re-imagined by Wayne Coyne, his cousin and a full guest cast including Peaches and Henry Rollins. (And you thought it was trippy before). I wonder if it’ll still play right in time with the Wizard of Oz?

Flying Lotus
Free Energy
Future Islands
Godsmack
The Hold Steady
Jackyl
The Joy Formidable
Richard Julian
Kidz Bop Kids, Kidz Bop Dance Party! – notable mostly for hearing a bunch of pre-teens open up and confess they “woke up in the morning feelin’ like P. Diddy”…
Carole King / James Taylor – Live at the Troubadour

Greg Laswell, Take a Bow – when you start with as full and emotive of a voice as Greg Laswell’s, it’s easy to write songs that will get a response from the listener; to then craft a full album musing on lost love and wrecked emotional center, you’re aiming to destroy. G-man does this in spades on this new album, and ups the ante in orchestral fashion by pulling out all the arrangements you could ever hope for to buoy these raw, massive, and meditative missives. Thus said, this album has it all: subtle, finely-sculpted lyrics, amazing instrumentation, catchy and memorable hooks (even on the slow songs), all sung in Greg’s warm, heady tenor which brings so much gravity to the tracks it is, at times, unbearable. An emotional ride, and a fantastic album front to back.

Lazer Crystal, MCMLXXX – what would you get if you let your pet robot make its own dance music? Well, probably Daft Punk. But if your robot weren’t a French dilettante from space and was instead assembled from parts of your old Chevy Impala and Intellivision circuits, you’d get these electro-breakbeat enthusiasts from Chicago. Big, biiiiig beats, 8-Bit soundscapes, and amazing programmed (and live!) dynamics don’t so much get you dancing as uncontrollably head-bobbing at a pace which will put your neck in real danger, and what vocals that are present are rarely discernible behind synth layering and vocoders off the chain. This is the sound of your vintage ColecoVision getting it on with an original NES console on the dancefloor, and it’s glorious.

The Letter Black

MercyMe, The Generous Mr. Lovewell – it’s difficult to top an album so amazing as their last full LP, but getting a new start on INO Records probably has something to do with the new, slight electronic layers and poppier sound of this new album.

Minus the Bear

The New Pornographers, Together – at this point in all their respective careers, it’s not a question of if the new album will be good, but rather in what way the album will be good. Both Carl Neuman and Neko Case consistently release list-topping solo albums on a biannual basis, and pretty much all the NP albums have been reliable for having arsenals of hooky, rock choruses, ace arrangements and smartly- and snarkly-crafted wordplay, qualities which are not skimped on this new LP. Lots of guest spots here, including Zach Condon from Beirut, Okkervil River’s Will Sheff and a dimension-shifting guitar solo by Annie Clark (St. Vincent). They even did a very professional-type behind-the-scenes interview with Adam Goldberg about it.

Nonpoint

Mike Patton, Mondo Cane – looks like a full-on operatic album, sung by Patton in Italian, with full orchestra. You really shouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if you’re at all familiar with this eclectic genius of popular culture–he made an entire album from nothing but human vocal sounds way before Bjork ever thought of it, and have you seen the roster on his Ipecac Records imprint? Yup, this is nothing shocking, just honest, traditional Italian opera by the frontman for Faith No More. Move along…

Josh Ritter, So Runs the World Away – tinges of orchestration frame this soft-mannered folk songcrafter’s new tracks this time around, with the savvy wordplay you’ve come to expect from one so accustomed to standing on his literary laurels in the folk tradition.

Rachael Sage
Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim – Complete Reprise archives
Stereo Total

The Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt, I Love You I Love You I Love You and I’m In Love With You – wow, I thought they were kidding with this, but it’s a real band and they’re honestly “creating” this overly-giddy bunch of hipsterkid-party dance tunes. The levels of optimism and ridiculousity border on unbearable, but there are some memorable moments hidden under the blatant silliness. Plus they have a song called “In Your Face, Suckiness!” How can you beat that? With baseball bats. But honestly a very unique and somewhat enjoyable experience.

Tonic
The Whitsundays
Chely Wright
Nikki Yanofsky

Not bad for an average week, right? Even better news coming later this month, with new LPs from the Dead Weather, Band of Horses, LCD Soundsystem, and the triumphant return of Devo.
Q: Are we not men?
A: we are Joshua Krage \m/

—–

To view past reviews, visit our archives.