Review: Liz Phair: Funstyle [D]

Artist: Liz Phair

Album: Funstyle

Released: July 2010

Label: Rocket Science Records

Genre: indie rock

Purchase date: 22 July 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: Artist's site

I've been a big fan of Liz Phair since her first album Exile in Guyville came out back in 1993, and I have all of her other records. When I heard that Capitol Records dropped her after her second major-label release Somebody's Miracle in 2008, I wasn't all that surprised. That album hadn't been a commercial or critical success. Phair's music was always best when stripped to its simplest. On her two major label releases, she went for a much more polished sound, with heavy production and a more mellow "adult contemporary" sound... and it just wasn't memorable or distinctive.

So, for her sixth full-length album, I was really expecting and hoping for a return to form, especially as this album was self-produced and self-released. Unfortunately, this record left me scratching my head. Funstyle is a very weird record, and I don't mean that in a positive sense. It has an almost unhinged wackiness throughout, that I think is supposed to be a joke, but I'm not sure. While there are a few decent tracks (and one very good one), the misses on this record are almost unlistenable. We're talking "Revolution 9" - level experimental stinkers.

She raps. (Badly.) She does an almost-racist Bollywood soundtrack "spoof" that falls flat and is just mean-spirited. She attempts a dance-pop number.

And she does one amazing track in the classic Liz style.

That track, "And He Slayed Her," (a play on "Andy Slater," president of Capitol Records) is the kind of song I was hoping the whole album would be: bitingly witty, simple, and melodic. While I recommend that one track, you really can forget the rest of it. This album is a failed experiment. Let's hope that Liz can get her career back on track.

Rating: D

(Would be an "F" but for the one great track.)

Note: Three months after I purchased this album from Phair's website, she re-released the album with a second disc of material: the Girlysound tapes. Phair recorded these songs in 1990-91, and released them as a series of self-produced cassettes under that moniker. I do not have this version of the album, and can't comment on the Girlysound material.

Live performance of "And He Slayed Her"

Album listing at Amazon

Album listing at eMusic

Review: Surfer Blood: Astro Coast [B+]

Artist: Surfer Blood

Album: Astro Coast

Label: Kanine Records

Released: January 2010

Genre: indie rock

Purchase Date: 10 July 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: eMusic

An impressive debut release from this very young band from West Palm Beach, Florida. Astro Coast is a guitar-driven indie rock album with strong influences of garage rock and Afro-pop sounds. The sound is powerful and straightforward, but with some feedback buzz and deep reverb that deliberately muddies the sonic waters, giving it an extra depth. The songs are all very strong melodically, with great hooks and West African-tinged rhythms. The standout track is the single "Swim," a perfect summer song.

A really fun summertime album. Recommended.

Rating: B+

"Swim" official video

Album listing at Amazon

Album listing at eMusic

Review: The National: High Violet [C]

Artist: The National

Album: High Violet

Released: May 2010

Label: 4AD

Genre: indie rock

Purchase Date: 10 July 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: eMusic

High Violet is the fifth album from these Brooklyn-based critical darlings. Their music is driving yet downbeat, and their lyrics run the gamut from depressing to morose. This is one album where I'm breaking with the majority of critics: most are hailing this as one of the best albums of the year, but I just didn't like it all that much. I found the music to be overblown, depressing, and not terribly interesting. "Bloodbuzz Ohio" got a decent amount of radio play over the summer, and it is a pretty good song. However, on the whole, this album pretty much left me cold.

Rating: C

"Bloodbuzz Ohio" official video

Album listing on Amazon

No longer available on eMusic

Review: The xx: xx [A-]

Artist: The xx

Album: xx

Released: August 2009

Label: Rough Trade Records

Genre: indie pop / post-punk

Purchased: 10 July 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: eMusic

While this debut full-length album from this English trio came out in late 2009, I didn't pick it up on my radar until I heard the buzz about this band from the 2010 SXSW music festival in March. (Not that I've ever actually been to SXSW, but I was closely following my favorite critics' reporting from Austin.) Then All Songs Considered webcast an April concert by the band from the 9:30 Club, and I decided that I had to get my hands on this album.

The xx is a master of getting maximum impact from minimal arrangements. Their music draws a deep intensity out of spare instrumentation and quiet vocals. This is another band with both a male and a female vocalist who each sing lead, often on the same songs. The pairing of their voices adds a delicious sexiness to the music, which often reminds me of early Portishead.

Rating: A-

"VCR" Official Video

Album listing at Amazon

Artist no longer available at eMusic

Review: Dum Dum Girls: I Will Be [A]

Artist: Dum Dum Girls
Album: I Will Be
Released: March 2010
Label: Sub Pop
Genre: indie pop / noise pop

Purchase Date: 10 June 2010
Format: AAC files
Source: iTunes

Dum Dum Girls is an all-female quartet from LA. Led by singer-songwriter Kristin Gundred (who goes by the stage name "Dee Dee," a nod to The Ramones), the band radiates a cool feistiness that I just loved. Sounding like a distorted, lo-fi cross between a '60s Phil Spector girl group, a '70s punk act, and a '90s alt-rock garage band, these women have both the musicianship and the looks to really pull it off. They had a minor hit on college radio over the summer with the single "Jail La La," a peppy and upbeat song about waking up in a jail cell and not quite remembering how you wound up there.

I really liked this album. The songs are all extremely catchy nods to bands like the Ravonettes but with a very 21st century style and attitude. This was a perfect summer album, great for blasting on the car stereo with the windows rolled down.

Rating: A

"Jail La La" official video

Album listing on Amazon

Album listing on eMusic

Review: How To Destroy Angels: EP [C+]

Artist: How To Destroy Angels

Album: How To Destroy Angels

Released: June 2010

Label: The Null Corporation

Genre: Electronic / experimental rock

Purchase Date: 7 June 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: Artist's site

When Trent Reznor disbanded Nine Inch Nails in 2009, no one really expected him to retire from music altogether. Less than a year after the NIN farewell tour, he's back with a new release from a new band.

Comprised of Reznor (guitar, percussion, keyboards), his wife Mariqueen Maandig on vocals, and Atticus Ross on electronic wizardry, How To Destroy Angels has a heavy, powerful, post-industrial sound. Lyrically, this music is at least as dark and disturbing as NIN ever was, if not more so. The band actually sounds a lot like late-period NIN with a female singer. While this isn't a bad thing, this new band doesn't seem to be much of a change in artistic direction for Reznor. Fans of NIN need not mourn too hard, as HDA has picked up the same torch.

On the plus side, the band is giving the album away for free on its website. Given the price, I do recommend giving the whole album a listen, even if there's nothing all that new here.

Rating: C+

"The Space In Between" official video

Download album from artist's site

Review: Titus Andronicus: The Monitor [A-]

Artist: Titus Andronicus

Album: The Monitor

Released: March 2010

Label: XL Recordings

Genre: punk / alternative rock

Purchase date: 7 June 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: eMusic

You can't fault this New Jersey-based punk band of lacking ambition. Their sophomore release, The Monitor, is of all things a loose concept album that uses the American Civil War as running metaphor. The music is brash and raw, but the songs themselves are extremely well-crafted, with wonderful melody and clever lyrics. The emotions of the music really carry this record: the highs are high and the lows are low. There's a wryness in the lyric, as if they're at once extremely serious and winking at the camera. They paraphrase their local hero Bruce Springsteen in the opening track, singing, "Tramps like us, baby we were born to die." This music is as subtle as a fist to the jaw, and man, can they rock out, with nods to '70s arena rock and the LA hardcore scene.

There's a joy to this music along with the anger, and that joy is infectious.

Rating: A-

Official video for "A More Perfect Union"

Album listing on Amazon

Artist not currently available from eMusic

Vintage Review: Galaxie 500: Today [B+]

Artist: Galaxie 500

Album: Today

Released: 1988

Label: Domino Records

Genre: dream pop

Purchase date: 7 June 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: eMusic

I was very excited when I heard that Domino Records was re-releasing the three studio albums of the late-'80s dream pop act Galaxie 500. I had been a bit of a fan back in the day, and I still have a very worn-out cassette copy of this album that actually managed not to get eaten by my '83 Dodge Omni's terrible cassette player.

Named for the lead singer's car (a 1971 Ford Galaxie 500), the band was a Boston-based trio that formed in 1987 and released three albums before breaking up in 1991. Their sound owes a great deal to The Velvet Underground, including laid-back rhythms, droning guitars, and half-spoken, half-sung vocals. They were one of the bands of the era that set the stage for the slowcore music movement of the '90s.

Today was the band's 1988 debut album. Standout tracks are "Flowers," "Tugboat," and "King of Spain." I really like this music both as something mellow to play in the background, and as a headphones album. Hearing this album again was a great blast from the past, and it did hold up for me after all those years.

Rating: B+

Live version of "Tugboat" from 1989.

Album listing on Amazon

Album listing on eMusic

Review: Sleigh Bells: Treats [A-]

Artist: Sleigh Bells

Album: Treats

Released: May 2010

Label: Mom & Pop Music

Genre: noise pop

Purchase date: 28 May 2010

Source: iTunes

Format: AAC files

The debut album from this noise pop duo from Brooklyn is brash, loud, as subtle as a sledgehammer, and one of the most fun records of the summer of 2010. Singer/keyboardist Alexis Krauss and guitarist/producer Derek E. Miller form a band that generates some of the most polarized opinions this side of Capitol Hill.

Treats opens with "Tell 'Em": a drum machine assault on the eardrums backed with a heavily distorted blaring electric guitar, showing Miller's previous experience with hardcore punk and thrash metal bands. The intensity of the energy is arresting, and then Krauss' extremely melodic voice brings a humanity to the aggressive energy. The drum beat outro of "Tell 'Em" becomes the intro beat of "Kids," which together make the best one-two punch of an album opener as I've heard in a long time.

Other outstanding tracks include the more radio-friendly "Infinity Guitars" and electro-noise track "A/B Machines." The band slows things down with "Rill Rill," which incorporates a long riff sampled from Funkadelic's "Can You Get To That?" from their 1971 classic Maggot Brain.

While this isn't the kind of music that I normally like, I loved the energy of this album, and I played it a lot on my car stereo over the summer. Critics seem to either love this album or hate it. I'm in the former camp, and I strongly recommend that you give this record a listen.

Rating: A-

Infinity Guitars official video

Album listing on Amazon

Album listing on eMusic

Review: The New Pornographers: Together [A-]

Artist: The New Pornographers

Album: Together

Released: May 2010

Label: Matador Records

Genre: power pop

Purchase date: 06 May 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: eMusic

It's always a good year for music when The New Pornographers release an album. This has been one of my favorite bands for a few years now, so I downloaded their fifth album on its release date without hearing any of it. While I wasn't disappointed, Together finds this indie rock supergroup playing it safe and not messing with their formula: hooky, catchy melodies paired with very obscure lyrics (mostly penned by A.C. Newman). Newman is the main creative force behind New Pornographers. Neko Case provides lead vocals to many of the tracks, with Newman singing most of the other songs that he penned. Dan Bejar sings lead on the two tracks he contributed. The standouts tracks are "Crash Years" and "Your Hands."

While very good, this isn't the band's strongest effort. (That would be, in my opinion, 2003's Electric Version.) The songs sound a little too much like other New Pornographers songs (or A.C. Newman songs, for that matter), and the track sequence is a little disjointed. There also isn't a bowl-you-over-with-sheer-awesomeness track that all of their other albums seems to have. However, all-in-all, it's still a very good album-- just not their masterpiece. In a weaker year for music, this would probably still make my top 10 list, but 2010 has been an exceptional year, so they have a lot of competition in that regard.

Rating: A-

"Your Hands" official video

Album listing on Amazon

No longer available from eMusic

Review: Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue [B+]

Artist: Jenny Lewis

Album: Acid Tongue

Released: September 2008

Label: Warner Bros.

Genre: indie pop

Purchase date: 06 May 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: eMusic

I'd been hearing the title track of this solo record by Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis for more than a year, so I decided to buy it with more of the "loyalty bonus" tracks from eMusic. I was not disappointed. Lewis' solo record sounds more or less like a Rilo Kiley record, but with a slew of guest artists appearing. Lewis' lyrics are just as dark as ever. This time around, some of the music is equally dark. The standout track is the title track "Acid Tongue," which comes in the middle of the album. It's a slow ballad about addiction, sung in first-person. As with many of Lewis' songs, it's hard to tell whether or not the song is autobiographical. It goes to very dark places, and sung with Lewis' honey-sweet voice, has an added creepiness. This is a very solid album.

Rating: B+

Live performance of "Acid Tongue"

Album listing at Amazon

Album listing at eMusic

I'm on the radio!

Back in early December, I left a phone comment for Sound Opinions regarding my opinion about the recent changes to eMusic. They aired my comments on the 12/17/2010 show (#264)! My comments are at time mark 54:35. I pretty much say the same thing I wrote on my blog post on the same topic. Two clarifications on the comments that aired: 1) I mistakenly said that I joined eMusic in 2005; I actually joined in 2007. 2) I said that I quit the service. Actually, I suspended my account at the time, although I have since reactivated it. I'm still not a fan of the changes, and my comments still stand, but I'm going to stick around for a little while longer. Their prices on many (mostly older) albums are still quite competitive, although Amazon's special sales pricing often beats them. This just means that I have to be a little more thorough with comparison shopping.