ALBUM REVIEW: Kavinsky- OutRun
You can’t talk about Vincent Belorgey, AKA Kavinsky, without bringing up Drive, so I’m just going to do it right away. If it wasn’t for Kavinsky’s fantastic Nightcall being in the opening credits for Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film Drive (One of my favorite movies), no one would really give a damn about Kavinsky. Much like that movie, a lot of Kavinsky’s music relies on an older aesthetic. Specifically, one of a 1980s variety. However, with this album, that aesthetic doesn’t do much to enhance the music. It really acts as a crutch.
If you’ve ever heard anything by Justice or Daft Punk, Kavinsky is basically making the same music. The second track, Blizzard, sounds like something Justice would have released when D.A.N.C.E. blew up. Which is the fatal flaw with OutRun. Nothing feels fresh or original. Aside from Nightcall, none of these tracks do anything original. It’s mostly just french house with 80s synths injected into them.
It does give off a strange mood, and it’s an album that makes a whole lot of sense. It sounds like the soundtrack to an awesomely cheesy 80s flick. When I listened to it, it felt like I was wearing a leather jacket, driving a sweet car, chasing bad guys. So I’ll give it that. It also works as great mood music. Much like the Drive soundtrack, this feels like it would be enhanced when played at night, because a lot of it has an ominous cool to it.
The album does get a bit repetitive. Most of the songs are really just 1/2 songs repeated twice. None of the song structures are remotely interesting, which is typical of House music. It could have been done a bit less obviously, however. There are some tracks that stick out. Nightcall, of course, is still a phenomenal track that, in my opinion, sounds great even without the movie backing it. Plus, the single ProtoVision is an absolute explosion of synthesizers, house, and adrenaline. It’s a really fun track with a lot of attitude, and it sounds great.
There are some vocalists here and there, and the quality varies. The vocals on Odd Look are OK, but are ridiculously compressed and flattened by the production. Also, I don’t know who’s rapping on Suburbia, but he’s terrible. The rapping overshadows pretty much everything underneath it, the chorus is dopey, and the lyrics abruptly pull you out of that 80s mindset the album tries so hard to maintain. I mean, I’m pretty sure he’s talking about Facebook at some point. It just doesn’t feel right.
So, OutRun is really just OK, nothing more, nothing less. It’s rather underwhelming, especially given how great Nightcall is. After Chromatics were featured on the same soundtrack, they released a phenomonal masterpiece in the form of Kill For Love. I just wish Kavinsky could have pulled off the same.
Summary: OutRun is OK, with some alright house tracks, but it comes across as a bit underwhelming, with a huge discrepancy between album highlights and lowlights.
Choice Cuts- Nightcall, ProtoVision
3/5
Stream Dead Cruiser below. OutRun is out now on Record Makers
ALBUM REVIEW: Atoms For Peace- AMOK
The other week, I decided it would be a good day to revisit Radiohead’s divisive The King of Limbs. Since it’s been out, I’ve considered it to be the worst Radiohead album. I mean, most people would argue that Pablo Honey is their worst, but at least that album had Creep and Blow Out, and at least sounded full of potential (Which, thank god, was fully realized). On The King of Limbs, everything is pretty and ominous, but it is a trudge. It was basically the sonic equivalent of watching paint dry. Save the alright Lotus Flower, there was something that just felt off. And it’s not like the songs themselves were bad. The From the Basement session they did was absolutely stunning. However, when all this stuff was recorded, there’s just a lack of passion…almost a lack of humanity.
That’s the same problem I got from this new effort from this “Spin-off” super group. Atoms For Peace has Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, Joey Waronker (who has worked with Beck and R.E.M.), and Mauro Refosco (No clue). The album sounds heavily electronic, spacious, and eerie. It often feels like a balancing act on a tight rope. There’s never any sense of comfort, and there are moments where it seems like it’s going to fall off. Atoms For Peace kind of pull off the balancing act, but they almost hit the ground hard many times.
There are moments that are sonically great. Default is a song that’s grown on me quite a bit. It’s complex, and it’s full of electronic clicks and ominous bass that really make it stick out. But then there’s a lot where things get either monotonous or ugly. The repeated synths on Ingenue are awkward, and Yorke’s singing on the song feels more weak and wimpy than soft and sensitive.
The album’s incredibly sparse, with a whole lot of open space. There are parts where it begins to fill, but most of the time it feels compressed. That gives a lot of the clicks and synths little wiggle room, which makes a lot of things jut kind of…not work. Synths often overwhelm nearly everything else in the mix, save Yorke’s whispers. While his voice is weak, it’s still louder than nearly everything else. While it’s nice to hear Yorke’s whisper every once in a while, there’s no change dynamically at all during all of his vocals. Even the more intense moments maintain an uncomfortable quiet.
Also, there aren’t any songs that really stick out. Sure, there are some albums that have a bunch of songs with equal quality. But this album’s consistent level of quality is relatively mediocre. None of the songs bring much to the table, and after a while each song sounds the same. The first half of the album is somewhat good, but the second half becomes a test of endurance. The songs are complex, but after a while you begin to see the patterns, and the wonder in that complexity begins to wane.
This album really just feels OK. The sonic ideas are somewhat interesting (if inconsistent), but after a while they just get monotonous. Songs just repeat the same patterns. The King of Limbs was a bit monotonous, but at least it kind of felt like the songs grew as they went along. Here, the plant dies in the first two minutes, and then it’s extended for two more verses of the same thing.
Other than Yorke and Producer Godrich, you can’t hear a lot of the efforts of the other band mates. The percussion is nice, but rarely heard. And I could only hear Flea on two or three songs. It really just feels like a Yorke solo album. One that’s really underwhelming.
However, the album isn’t unlistenable. Most of it is pleasant, and there isn’t much that’s terribly offensive. It’s just boring. All of these guys (Save Refosco, who I’ve never heard of before) have done better work before, and this album underwhelms when towered over by all the other projects that proceeded it.
Summary: It sounds nice enough, but Amok suffers from monotony and weak production.
Choice Cuts: Default
2.5/5
Stream Default and Judge Jury and Executioner below. AMOK is out Tuesday (3/26) on XL Recordings.
ALBUM REVIEW: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds- Push the Sky Away
Note: This review was written by someone who did not like Nick Cave’s music prior to listening. That has changed now (As you’ll see below), but I’m not well versed in his older music, so keep that in mind.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (And even Cave’s solo work) are things that I have a strong admiration for. However, he’s yet to make something that I truly “Love”. I mean, there have been a ton of album that are truly great, but I never have desires to revisit them. Until now.
This new album, Push the Sky Away, is easily the groups most depressing effort yet. It feels like a creaky old house, with each step emitting a screechy sound. But at the same time, there’s a strange and surreal urgency to it all. Wide Lovely Eyes shows off both these qualities, with an urgent guitar playing over a more subdued Organ and Cave. Also, this is probably the best Cave has sounded, singing wise, ever. There’s now “Wow” moments from his vocals, but it’s all consistently yearning and powerful.
It’s not a young album. I mean, I compared it to an old house, of course it isn’t young. However, it isn’t aged, either. Nick Cave is 55 years old, but this still sounds incredibly fresh and interesting. It’s an album that’s moody without placing mood over music. It has some great orchestration and arrangements, but it has a consistent tone and sound. It’s oddly gorgeous.
The best thing Cave does here is give sprawling and huge moments without being overwhelming. The end of Jubilee Street (My favorite track off the album) is a rip-roaring guitar and string crescendo, with haunting “Ah-ah’s” floating above them. It’s intense and it really grabs you, but it’s not exactly loud and drowning. It’s a brilliant moment. Plus, the album has many (MANY) quieter moments that don’t get boring. We No Who U R is intense and enthralling, but it all maintains a haunting pianissimo during the entire song. There are no dynamic changes (Save a slight increase in volume during the chorus), and it still manages to sound different. Oh, and the short woodwinds during the later verses is a perfect element. Then there’s the gorgeous Water’s Edge, which keeps feeling like it’s going to explode, but it never does. While normally, that kind of trick would be annoying, it works brilliantly here. It instead falls into a quieter part, which (in retrospect) is ten times as affective as an explosion in sound.
Official Band Image (From Pitchfork)
The lyrics are somewhat unorthodox. They aren’t crazy, but they have a weird undertone to them. Nick Cave’s vocals really add a sense of yearning and emotion to every word. The weird conversation in We Real Cool is strange, and kind of confusing, but still captivating conversation. Cave really is a strange kind of poet, managing to be able to say “Wikipedia” in a song and not sound like he’s just trying to say something familiar. It just takes this album and makes it eve more goregous.
And that’s the thing that really makes me love this. It’s quiet, (mostly) subdued, and more “post” than “Punk”. But it absolutely wraps you up in this sound of wonderment. It’s a sad sound, but it’s still fascinating and beautiful. I mean, this album is gorgeous. The organs and background vocals on many songs take them from creepy little post-punk pieces to subtle and beautiful orchestrations of sadness and surreality. This album is a downer, but it’s a beautiful downer.
Truly great albums do two things: 1) Sound great (duh) and 2) Make you reevaluate an artist. A couple of years ago, I wrote Nick Cave off as being boring. Now that I hear this album, which is even quieter than most of his other stuff, I want to go back and check again. It’s pretty great.
Summary: Intense and gorgeous while being quiet and depressing, Push the Sky Away is sonically gorgeous and interesting, with great lyrics and great sonic ideas and arrangements.
Choice Cuts: We No Who U R, Jubilee Street, We Real Cool, Higgs Boson Blues
5/5
Stream We No Who U R and Jubilee Street below. Push the Sky Away is out now on Bad Seeds Ltd.
MIXTAPE REVIEW: Kool A.D.- 19 and 63
Das Racist is broken up. No more Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. No more Girl. No more Rainbow in the Dark. No more Michael Jackson. Now more Who’s That? Broooooown. No more Das Racist.
Now, the three former members have to go out on their own and figure out what to do. Dapwell didn’t really do anything in the group to begin with, so I’m not sure what his plan is. Plus, Heems should be totally fine on his own. His last mixtape, Nehru Jackets, was pretty great. But then there’s Kool A.D.. He’s probably the better lyricist, but his mixtapes have been leaving me yearning for more. His Palm Wine Drinkard tape was a messy excuse for some kind of experimental music thing. And then 51 was forgotten about 5 minutes after I heard it. I want Kool A.D. to blow the world away with his masterful lyrics and weird musical style, but he’s yet to really prove that.
19 and 63 both don’t really help.
The first mixtape, 19, is probably one of the worst Das Racist affiliated projects out there. It’s not as bad as Palm Wine (Which was easily one of the most disappointing releases of 2012.), but it is still bad. The production is incredibly messy, the lyrics are unfunny and not innovating (Just repeating “Bieber” over 
and over again is neither funny nor a proper form of social commentary). In fact, a lot of this feels like some kind of Chief Keef/ Odd Future cross over, which is just gross. He might be trying to satirize this style (Which, for Kool A.D., wouldn’t be a shock), but it just comes across as…well…forced. The only part I enjoyed was Krispy Kreme (I believe it was Krispy Kreme) ranting over the Workaholics theme. And even that was stupid.
The second mixtape, 63, is nearly good, but it’s still kind of underwhelming when we compare it to Das Racist’s greatest works. While 19 is focused on wonky and ugly beats, 63 takes R&B and eccentric 70s styles and meshes them into a weird concoction of weird. It’s a lot of fun, and there are some tracks that truly are great. The posse cuts are great, and all of the unknowns here bring something to the table, which is kind of strange in this day and age. However, there aren’t any tracks that really stick out in memory. It’s all very pleasant, but it doesn’t stick. Basically, the only thing that made me like this album way more than 19 was the more traditional sampling.
I miss Das Racist quite a bit, and I’ll always wish they stayed together. Now, I’m just worried about Kool A.D. Heems can live in a post-Das Racist world. I’m not as confident with Kool A.D.
Summary: 19 and 63 vary in quality, but neither really cement Kool A.D. as the talented rapper and lyricist he was in Das Racist.
Choice Cuts: Sclera, Red Wine
19- 2/5
63- 3/5
You can download both mixtapes here.
ALBUM REVIEW: My Bloody Valentine- m b v
I feel like Kevin Shields right now. I’ve been putting this review off for a little over a week now, because I’ve been wanting to really process what I’ve heard. This album is so loaded with history and sound that it can be a little overwhelming. However, today I decided to sit down once more, give it an intense listen, and review it. What do I think? Basically, it’s pretty great, but it’s not nearly as world-stopping as everyone is saying it is.
There are tracks on here that, thankfully, sound quintessentially like My Bloody Valentine. The opening track, She Found Now, is an incredibly gorgeous and spacious track that is lathered in reverb and a strange kind of melancholy. It’s a song that, with the quiet vocals and loud guitars and distortion humming over them, is truly what I expected, and wanted, from the group. Keep in mind that I didn’t want Loveless 2, but rather an album that expanded upon Loveless just enough to make it sound different and more daring, but not to a degree where it would be kind of off-putting. Thankfully, Shields and the gang avoided this for the most part.
Also, the production (which Shields said was recorded without any digital elements) is absolutely lovely. Every song feels big, dark, and spacious. They just kind of permeate throughout the air and wrap you in a beautiful haze of distortion. Since this album does sound pretty old, it’s nice that the production doesn’t do anything to try modernizing it.
Now, at first I was kind of upset about how old the album really sounded. I mean, it felt like this as an album from 1993 that we just heard for the first time. Which, after thinking for a bit, I’m pretty sure that’s actually what it is. Yeah, the album sounds old, but that’s a factor that kind of gets thrown by the wayside after a few listens (And after 1 really deep listen).
Courtesy of Pitchfork
The vocals here seem to stick out more, and play equals with the guitars on many songs, which is pretty cool. Shields whispery voice has an odd understated command to it. It’s subtle without being ignorable. It demands attention without really outright saying it. And then the guitars also have their job, too. I mean, there’s a solo in Only Tomorrow that really takes me back in time; assuaging me with its smooth yet oddly rough sound. Plus we still have songs that waver in and out of comfortable keys (Who sees You) that always end up being really great, since this effect just works for some reason. It feels like watching a wave hit a beach and then receding back into the water. Clearly, this is an incredibly beautiful album.
Lyrics on these albums are so hard to here that they’re almost negligible. In fact, the vocals act less as a tool of poetry, and more as just another instrument in the ensemble. The vocals mesh with the rest of the group without it truly coming across as having a vocalist there. Plus, there’s so much reverberating beauty going around that lyrics are the last thing I’m worried about.
Now, there is some experimentation here, which sounded good, but may or may not have really met the standards of some of the rest of the album. Is This and Yes is pretty, but the cheap sounding 90s synths do feel out of place and uncomfortable on this Shoegaze album. It’s also a little overlong for my taste. Yet some do work quite well. The weird organ and trickling guitars on If I Am, while at first are a bit unsettling, eventually kind of mesh. It’s totally weird and makes little sense, but it just does that.
The big thing here is the difference in sound. Loveless was also beautiful, but it had somewhat of a more intense vibe to it. m b v (aside from the more wonky In Another Way and Nothing Is) is more grounded, smoother. It takes their sound and beauty and places it in a more chill mood. This is an album that would be gorgeous for a night drive or sitting in your room at 2 in the morning intensely thinking about things. If that’s something you do. Either way. The only thing I wish would have happened was that the last 3 tracks, while they’re good, would calm down just a little. I do like the tracks on their own, but the twist of the album from the smoothness to the intensity kind of threw me off. I understand their intention of making the overarching sound spiral like that, I’m just not personally in love with it.
This album is not (yet) loveless. It’ll take a lot of time, and a lot of rehearing for it to become that. However, this album still manages to be pretty great. Other bands have left the picture and came back with a comeback album, but they left is disappointed. My Bloody Valentine went on a hiatus for 22 years, and they managed to drop a pretty great album. Now I’m just excited to see how they follow this up.
Summary: m b v is just enough of the old My Bloody Valentine sound and just enough experimentation to work; plus the absolutely gorgeous songs and sounds don’t hurt.
Choice Cuts: She Found Now, Only Tomorrow,Who Sees You, In Another Way
4/5
Stream She Found Now below. m b v is available for purchase over on their site and is streaming on their YouTube account.
EP REVIEW/ RISING ARTIST: Rhosyn- Elbow of Capture
Two rising artists in one week! A couple weeks ago, I was MP3 surfing (As one does), and I stumbled upon a gorgeous song called Glass by Rhosyn. Rose Dagul, aka Rhosyn, is a vocalist, composer, and cellist from Peckham, London. What struck me about that first song (Which is the first on her new EP Elbow of Capture), was how it combined elegant beauty with catchiness and tUnE-yArDs style looping. Glass just flows like liquid, with her gorgeous vocals and cello sounds swimming around each other in an elegant dance. It’s incredibly beautiful and incredibly creative.
The main thing that interested me about her style was how it combined a lot of what tUnE-yArDs did on her 2011 album, W H O K I L L, with a new sense of elegant beauty. She’s a great cellist, who can bring both buoyancy and bounce to any track. For example, on the ghastly Birds, she manages to transition from an elegant and dramatic bowing to one that jumps around her vocals. Everything she does with her cello comes across as a team effort. And the things they do together are amazing.
Courtesy of Rhosyn’s site
It doesn’t hurt that Rhosyn has an absolutely gorgeous singing voice, either. She has the attitude and style of Florence Welch, minus the mountain high loudness. Her vocals never really get loud. This music feels intense and spacious without actually being truly loud. Her voice brings tremendous power to the music, working with and against the cello to make a bubbling river of sound. And that’s what makes this really special and different. It sounds incredibly rich and sometimes big, but it’s made solely by a Cello and her voice (And percussion every once in a while, but whatever).
It manages it mesh different genres without feeling forced. There’s a heavy classical element here, but it never comes across as uptight or old-timey. Her vocals manage to bring an Indie Pop style to the music, and sometimes she manages to throw in some other genres for good measure. For example, the string picking on Volcano sound like they belong in the buildup to an intense EDM breakdown. And none of this feels forced. It’s an absolutely gorgeous crossover that’s effective and beautiful.
Summary: Elbow of Capture really shows off Rhosyn’s talents as a phenomenal cellist, vocalist, and songwriter.
Choice Cuts: Glass
Sounds Like: Florence + The Machine, tUnE-yArDs (At least at a barebones level), Classical Pop
4.5/5
Stream (or download) Glass below. Her EP is available now. Check her out.
ALBUM REVIEW: Frightened Rabbit- Pedestrian Verse
The transformation of Frabbit from their breakout album Midnight Organ Flight to Pedestrian Verse is a strange, but still completely sensible one. On Organ Fight, the band had a raw and emotional sound. They utilized it incredibly well in displaying the intense sadness of a breakup. Plus, that was when they weren’t signed to Atlantic records. The Winter of Mixed Drinks saw them become more sonically powerful, at the cost of losing some of that raw emotion. It makes sense in terms of their growth, but it wasn’t quite as great as Organ Fight. Now, with their major label debut, we have a Frabbit that is finally both emotionally raw and sonically powerful. And it’s pretty great.
While this whole “Faulx-lk” genre taking over the mainstream has boded some good (The Lumineers) and bad (Phillip Phillips), I think it’s opened the door wide for acts that have traditionally been considered real folk. Case in point, Frightened Rabbit. This explosion of guitars and beards on the radio has made now a prime time for Frightened Rabbit to break out, and this emotionally resonant and fantastic sounding record will hopefully accomplish some of this.
The big thing I’ll point out is that Scott Hutchinson has been one of my favorite vocalists since I first heard Midnight Organ Fight. His voice really conveys the immense heartbreak of their music, and he always feels earnest and real. His wailing can also be really spine-tingling. Sadly, The Winter of Mixed Drinks had the band fall back on catchy choruses more than Hutchinson’s powerful vocals. Here, we have a phenomenal vocal performance from Hutchinson on nearly every track. Plus, the tracks manage to remain catchy! It’s great!
The anthem style that the band has grown into also truly suits their sound well. Every song sounds like a call of arms to sad people. Each song soars loudly through the air, propelled by the driving guitars and nice percussion. It acts as a backbone to really help Hutchinson show off his stuff. Even some of the more electronic stuff on Backyard Skulls works incredibly well. While it initially feels out of place, it eases into the song and makes complete sense before the end.
The album isn’t as strong in the songs department as the past two were. Not that anything is bad, because that’s not the case. Except, here, there aren’t as many tracks like Keep Yourself Warm or The Loneliness and the Scream, which their past two albums were chock full of. Songs that had catchy hooks and managed to be incredibly powerful. Here, there aren’t as many “Hook” elements. While this is generally a good thing (It allows for more focus on their already amazing sound and lyricism), it does make it seem like there aren’t as many standalone great tracks here as before.
Also, the lyrics are finally back to where Frabbit is best. The Winter of Mixed Drinks had some nice lyrics, but it didn’t really have the punch or emotional impact from Midnight Organ Fight. Here, Hutchinson has returned the sad lyrics, put in the anthems and production from Mixed Drinks, and that honesty that’s made all of their music good. On a whole, this album has really brought out the best in the group more than the record before it.
It’s not as striking as Midnight Organ Fight, and it doesn’t have as many memorable tracks as Winter of Mixed Drinks, but this album is easily Frightened Rabbit’s best beginning to end album as a whole yet. It really proves that Frightened Rabbit has some great potential, and it shows that the magic that made their breakout so wonderful is still there today.
Summary: Full of powerful music and raw emotion, Pedestrian Verse shows off what Frightened Rabbit does best by mixing the great production and choruses from Mixed Drinks and the raw emotion and lyrics of Organ Fight
Choice Cuts: Holy, The Woodpile, Dead Now, State Hospital
4.5/5
Watch the videos for Dead Now and The Woodpile below. Pedestrian Verse is out 2/5 on Atlantic Records/ Canvasback
ALBUM REVIEW/RISING ARTIST: Night Beds- Country Sleep
Night Beds are a Nashville folk-country group, lead by vocalist Winston Yellen. Country Sleep is their debut album, and it’s one hell of a debut at that.
Unlike a lot of recent Folk style music, this stuff brings in a strong flavor of good old country, mainly through slide guitars and Yellen’s vocals. It’s the kind of Alt-Country that we’ve lost ever since Band of Horses and The Avett Brothers watered down their sound. These tracks all manage to keep a melancholy alt-country flavor while still having elements that keep it rooted in general Indie Folk.
The main thing that sticks out on the album are Yellen’s fantastic vocals. The first track, the acapella Faithful Heights, sounds sprawling and huge with just Yellen’s vocals. On every track, there’s a sense of heartbreak and yearning bleeding through the vocals, making a lot of the sprinkling guitars and sweeping strings feel even more powerful than they were before. Yellen’s voice works like a leader, with everything around him working together to make something truly special. And on Country Sleep, they really do.
The instrumentation, while nothing truly new, is absolutely gorgeous and perfect for what the group wants to accomplish. The electric guitar and bass on Lost Springs really pick the song up and make it feel like it’s blowing around in a heavy wind. Whether parts of songs are backed by solely a guitar or by a ton of violins and drums, the songs manage to make the sadness illustrated on the cover feel painfully real.
Plus, there are no weak spots, and nothing feels truly out of place. Every track flows into the next with grace and power, with the emotional weight being carried through every track. It can sometimes be overbearing, but not enough to overtake the beauty of the music. It really manages to be a wonderful, wonderful little album. There’s nothing else to really say, other than it’s really gorgeous. And really good.
Summary: Country Sleep is an emotionally pulling, gorgeous sounding, well executed debut album, with some fantastic lead vocals.
Choice Cuts: Ramona, Even If We Try, Cherry Blossoms
Sounds Like: Andrew Bird, S. Carey
4.5/5
Stream Ramona below. Country Sleep is out 2/5 on Dead Oceans
Vantage Point Music 