After suffering through a lay-off after working for 15 years straight, I'm in desperate need of a vacation. So, starting today, I'll talking off this coming week to parts with little or no net access. It's not a very deep release week for music, so it makes it easier to keep it short looking at the latest release from Radiohead and the much hyped debut from Puro Instinct. Elsewhere, there's interesting releases from Tahiti 80, Danielson, Toro Y Moi, The Cave Singers and The Low Anthem.
The King of Limbs, Radiohead's eighth long player, is easily the slightest release in the band's career, and yet it still works. Released again as a suprise to combat leaks, and mess with the music industry, TKoL is a mood piece, primarily. While it's tempting to compare it to the more recent and similarly released In Rainbows, TKoL harkens back to Amnesiac, only sounding a bit more like a transition record than a statement of sound. If this is merely a stop over in the journey to Radiohead's 'next,' then count me eager to get to the destination.
Early in 2011, this debut was getting 'album of the year already' hubris from music bloggers, which has turned out to be mostly hubris. The sisters (Skyler 16, Piper 23) may be leapfrogging over Seattle's own Smoosh as far as talented young sisters, but there's little here to warrant 'album of the year' talk. It's a nice entrance for the duo, but the tin-y production leaves a lot to be desired and contributes to many of the songs sounding the same after a while. The early 80s demo sound can only take you so far.
Frontman Bradford Cox has had a very busy year, first releasing a fine album from his solo project Atlas Sound, and now the latest from his primary vehicle, Deerhunter. The timing of these albums contribute to the belief that perhaps the differences in his bands are getting to be a lot less, thanks in part to Microcastle relying more on pop conventions than past releases. There's still plenty of noise and artful moments here to be sure, but the swing to convention is concrete to the ears, and the sound is thrilling. In fact, the two songs that have the biggest impact have less to do with Cox than previous albums, "Agoraphobia" features guitarist Locket Pundt on vocals, and "Nothing Ever Happened" was mostly written by bassist Josh Fauver. The album is supposed to be reliant on pop of the 50's and 60's, and it's there if you look hard enough... like hearing The Everly Brothers through the ears of My Bloody Valentine.
"Where have I been? I was waiting for the time to be right." Q-Tip
I guess the right time is election day 2008, which is amplified by the early version of the album's closer "Shaka," which earlier versions contained snippets from a Barack Obama speech (not in released version). While many folks have been waiting for Guns n' Roses' Chinese Democracy, I've been eagerly awaiting Q-Tip's latest, if for no other reason than to see if it actually saw the light of day. This is the third album QT has recorded since Amplified (1999) and the first to get a physical release (2002's Kamaal the Abstract came the closest, getting shelved by his label at the last minute after deeming it uncommercial). Needless to day, the Bush years haven't been too kind to Q-Tip. It's no wonder that The Renaissance signals a return to QT's A Tribe Called Quest days, specifically the jazz collage of Midnight Marauder, from the syncopated piano of the opener "Johnny's Dead" to Norah Jones guest vocals on "Life is Better" (the best song she's ever sang on, in my book,) it's apparent that QT is back.
Early in 2011, this debut was getting 'album of the year already' hubris from music bloggers, which has turned out to be mostly hubris. The sisters (Skyler 16, Piper 23) may be leapfrogging over Seattle's own Smoosh as far as talented young sisters, but there's little here to warrant 'album of the year' talk. It's a nice entrance for the duo, but the tin-y production leaves a lot to be desired and contributes to many of the songs sounding the same after a while. The early 80s demo sound can only take you so far.
