Animal Collective: Centipede Hz Review

It's a mouth... I think

Album: Centipede Hz

Artist: Animal Collective

Genre: Experimental/Neopsychadelia 

       9.5/10

     Merriweather Post Pavilion was a great album.  I’ll admit that.  But the shitstorm that erupted from music blogs and websites surprised me.  I thought that it was a cool direction from the band, and a definite change in pace, but there were far less memorable moments than in Spirit They’ve Gone or Feels for me.  It wasn’t so much a disappointment as an album that just left me wanting more.  But I didn’t know what.  Then Centipede Hz leaked, and I finally understood: MPP was missing the “weird” factor.

     Centipede Hz is somewhat of a concept album, and it’s a fucking awesome idea.  For four weeks before Animal Collective, they would have a “radio broadcast” of different songs that inspired the writing and production of the record each week, put on by each member of the band.  In interviews with the band, we learned that there was a central idea to the record, that it was akin to an alien race hearing these radio transmissions and playing their own interpretations of it.  The result is a highly dense and fluid album that employs some crazy percussion, electronic wonkery, and some seriously insanely catchy hooks.

     “Moonjock” begins this LP with a robot tranmission countdown: “5432 1! 1! 1!” and some surprisingly heavy hits come in on the off beats.  Panda Bear brings ferocity behind the drum set, or his version of a drum set.  There’s a lot of dynamics on this track.  Distorted synths swell with a weird descending vocals, and the wonderful harmonies add a touch of softness to an other wise demented track.  The song ends with a solid 45 seconds of Geologist going crazy with samples before seamlessly transitioning into “Today’s Supernatural”, the lead single.  The most iconic moment lies in the opening line.  Avey Tare screams “COME ON LELELELELELELELELELET GOOOOOO” before jumping straight into a high energy, latin-influenced groove with many freak-out moments.  The chorus features an actual straight-up rock technique, coordinating hits between the drums, guitar, and synthesizer.  Avey’s lyrics are still weird, but some sort of point is evident on this track.  The song’s about how even ordinary day-to-day situations and things can seem giant and powerful and magical:  “Cause your own is the sweetest thing inside of you/And our home is bigger than a mountain view/You’ll find something you believe that you should do/Sometimes it won’t come so easy/But sometimes you gotta go get mad.”  The track flows into the sublte and quiet “Rosie Oh”.  Deakin’s guitar takes the helm, is this actual guitar picking I’m hearing?  The track features a scary melody, and while it’s still quiet it still retains the craziness promised by Geologist.  Emotions run wild on this track: “As I left my home I cried/And a substituted figure tried/To reconcile the things I’d left behind”.  The album then takes a turn, breaking out into one of the most gorgeously terrifying songs Animal Collective has ever done: “Applesauce”.  Avey Tare’s voice hits all the right places, soft yet intense, passionate yet subtle.  He punches the melody in at certain key moments, highlighted with hits from the instruments, screaming “I DON’T HAVE A POSE FOR APPLESAUCE ON CLOTHES!”  “Wide Eyed”, a song written and performed by lead guitarist Deakin, is an interesting and welcome change of pace.  His voice is much more rooted in traditional rock.  The percussion on this track takes a page from the Middle Eastern handbook.  It was the perfect place for the track.  “Father Time” is about exactly what its title describes, a personification of time, and one that is the “founder”.  It begins with the sound of tape rewinding backwards, reinforcing this “time travel” theme.  Guitar lines mirror the synth lines, and Avey breaks out one of the most memorable lines of the album: “Imagination shows you what only time is supposed to tell you/Time’s got real big hands and bigger plans from a long time ago.  The tame aestheic presented in “Wide Eyed” continues throughout the next song, a track from the illustrious drummer Panda Bear called “New Town Burnout”.  It’s a simple lullaby with intricate musicianship.  Filtered, jittery synthesizers clash against an intricate beat before swirling into an emotion-filled repetitive outro that smoothly transitions into “Monkey Riches”.  Raw-sounding clacks on a snare drum rim keep time on quarter notes while a melody that sounds like its being fed through a printer plays.  (That was supposed to be a compliment).  The lyrics seem to be directed at all the MPP-core fans, the ones who hoped for MPP to be handed back to them with different packaging: “But why am I still looking for a golden age?...Why does dawn leave everybody home with chance?/It makes me wonder how I even wrote this song/Does this not occur to almost everyone?”  And then there’s the chorus: “I MADE A MONKEY RICH!”  Now that’s open to interpretation, but to me it seems like a pretty clear stab at record executives, but who knows that could just be me.  “Mercury Man” settles from a frantic intro into some sort of groove, highlighted by scary synth arpeggios.  “Pulleys” incorporates an actual piano with a very slow moving melody and the signature wall of noise pushig it.  It’s not the most exciting song on the record, but I personally like it because I invested myself into the melody and lyrics.  The last track, however, ups the intensity a little bit one last time.  An East-Asian style synth line leads while Panda’s hands break out a primal sixteenth note hand percussion part.  As the bridge approaches the intensity once again swells into a crazy and triumphant outro.

     Animal Collective is a band that will always continue to do their own thing, and the fact that they are still so acclaimed by fan and critic alike is a testament to their songwriting ability, but with Centipede Hz we find a dip in critical appeal.  While similar, the things that made Merriweather so popular are missing: the glossy production, the pronounced harmonies, even the danceablity.  However I don’t think Animal Collective wanted those things to be present in Centipede Hz.  They wanted it weird.  They wanted it fuzzy.  They wanted to let the people know that their shit is not gonna be played on a rock/alternative station alongside the most accessible of bands.  The music Animal Collective makes is the bridge between the mainstream and the outcast, taking the best of both.  Both Avey and Panda execute pop smarts with the fantastic hooks they write, but the overall song structure, lyricism, and sound is one that will confuse and scare the casual music listener.  Centipede Hz is kind of a middle finger in that respect.  “Here’s the shit we’re proud of, here is who we are, if you don’t like it then suck it, because there will always be people that can appreciate what we’re trying to do.”  I’m proud to be one of those people.  9.5 Centipede Hurt out of 10.

FAVE TRACKS: Moonjock, Today's Supernatural, Rosie Oh, Applesauce, Wide Eyed, New Town Burnout, Monkey Riches, Amanita 

Block Party: Four Review

Album: Four

Artist: Bloc Party

Genre: Post-punk Revival

4.7/10

    

     Let me begin this review by saying that Silent Alarm is one of my favorite albums.  I seriously believe that as far as post-punk revival goes, that album is essential listening.  But the problem is Bloc Party doesn’t want to be a post-punk revival band, they don’t want any specific labels at all, that’s why their discography has been varied and their worked shunned by the bare-bones rock loving fans that loved the debut.  Now I can respect Bloc Party for wanting to evolve, to not make mundane albums to reengage old fans (I’m looking at you Blink-182), but Four represents this No Man’s Land for Bloc Party.  The record is a sort of return to roots for Bloc Party, but the riffs, the grooves, and the overall production takes a steep downturn, with tunes either boring or even offensive to the ears. 

     What makes this album even more of a disappointment is the fact that it begins with a great song.  ‘So He Begins to Lie” has a different, almost awkward (in a good way) heavy riff that couples with a nice laid back groove. Kele Okereke’s vocal work is stellar, soaring over a chorus.  The outro has fast-strumming noisy guitar work that creates an atmosphere of calm chaos, while the drums blister between cymbals and snare drum.  “3x3” dips in quality, incorporating a weirder groove.  It’s much heavier and more dissonant, with the vocals coming across as both scared and scary at times.  “Octopus” is a great song, boasting some cool tremolo effects, some crazy tapping solos, and some biting vocals.  The album pretty much stops being impressive there.  “Real Talk” is a softer ballad that features falsetto and what sounds like a banjo.  The banjo was quite unpleasant.  “Kettling” borrows from the grunge scene with some deep power chord riffage.  The sounds change abruptly from verse to chorus.  There’s a sweet guitar solo on this track however.  “Day Four”, “Truth” and “The Healing” all share disconcerting similarities.  They’re all ballads that seek to add some atmospheric qualities (despite the riffs galore).  However, they all kind of blend together and form this uniform, boring soft alternative rock sound.  “Coliseum” is just an awful song from start to finish.  It comes in with this sort of pseudo-blues riff on an acoustic guitar, I would even compare it to the time Avenged Sevenfold tried to write an acoustic song, but then out of nowhere a fast punk/thrash kind of thing.  It’s up there for the worst track I’ve heard this year.

     Production-wise there’s some apparent problems.  The levels jump around from track to track.  Some songs bring the drums up and distort them a bit, while others bring up the guitar to uncomfortable levels.  On many of these songs, Kele’s vocals are placed through a filter to produce a very generic “megaphone” sound.  Many songs begin and/or end with cheesy “botched takes” and audio from recording (‘Real Talk’ ends with Kele talking about many different kinds of breasts).  Lyrically there’s not much going on, but the lyrics aren’t even supposed to take center stage on this record.  The most memorable line wasn’t even original.  On “Team A” Kele sings “snitches get stitches”.  It was kind of funny

     This was a very disappointing record for me, and I’m sure it will be disappointing to fans as well.  I would avoid listening to this LP, but I would encourage you to check out the songs “So He Begins to Lie” and “Octopus” because those are very strong tracks.

FAVE TRACKS: So He Begins to Lie, Octopus

SPACEGHOSTPURRP: Mysterious Phonk: The Chronicles of SPACEGHOSTPURRP Review

Album: Mysterious Phonk: The Chronicles of SPACEGHOSTPURRP
Artist: SPACEGHOSTPURRP
Genre: Trap/Swag Rap

5.3/10

       With a rap name as sick as SpaceGhostPurrp, a rap group name as sick as RVIDER KLVN (pronounced “raider clan”), and an album name as sick as “Mysterious Phonk: The Chronicles of SpaceGhostPurrp” SpaceGhostPurrp set the creative bar pretty damn high.  His darker, more brooding approach to trap rap leads to some interesting beats and tones, but lyrically it produces some repetitive, unoriginal, and uninspired verses and hooks for the most part.

     The album begins with the sounds of wind blowing on “Mystikal Maze”, and SpaceGhostPurrp jumps right in with his criticism of the rap game: “If it don’t make dollars then it don’t make sense” (yuck, puns are rarely good).  But it’s a good intro into the SpaceGhostPurrp sound, and he’s earnest in his attempts: “I don’t have money, I don’t have cars/All I got is the truth, and a couple of bars”.  The song ends with an oddly repetitive outro: “It’s all about powa, powa”.  Repetition will prove to be one of the main tools SpaceGhostPurrp will employ, albeit poorly.  “Bringing the Phonk” has a hook that is repeated a staggering 10 times at the beginning and end of the song: “Ima keep bringin’ tha phonk, nigga, bringin the phonk”.  The energy picks up, but the lyrics get more self-indulgent and straightforward.  The head scratching begins when he tells the listener “scientifically I’m cocky” (what?)  The next track “Osiris of the East” has nothing to do with the East, but showcases some different beats and slicker flow, but he repeats lines from previous songs (“give her the phonk”, “catch a nut”).  The next tune is the hilarious “Suck a Dick 2012”, a ridiculous romp solely about a great dick-sucker and her love for Alizé (a stereotypical drink he will reference many times throughout the album).  “Get Yah Head Bust” features a well-delivered hook, but it is repeated over and over again, becoming tiresome.  “The Black God” is by far the best song on the album featuring the best hook and flow: “I got to have the world in my hands/I’m a God/I’m no longer a black man/ The Black God”.  But it runs a good 7 minutes with little variation to be found.  “Grind On Me” features a sung hook, establishing SpaceGhostPurrp’s weak singing skills.

     The entire album follows this similar pattern: rehashed lyrics, repetitive hooks, dark beats, and laid back flow (save for the last two songs, which go pretty hard).  This pattern becomes much more of a problem because of the album’s length.  It runs a full hour of some not-so-good lyrics, salvaged only by interesting beats and the unique, dark sound SpaceGhostPurrp brings to the trap rap game.  I didn’t care for it too much myself, but there was some unique production quality that may appeal to some listeners.  I would recommend listening to “The Black God” and “No Evidence” before delving into this album.  I give it 5.3 Ghosts Purrped out of 10.

Fave Tracks: The Black God, No Evidence, Elevate

The Gaslight Anthem: Handwritten Review

Album: Handwritten
Artist: The Gaslight Anthem
Genre: Rock

7.1/10





The Gaslight Anthem likes Bruce Sprinsteen.  I mean they “like like” Bruce Springsteen.  The Boss’ influence on Rock and Roll has been this: simple, straight up rock that gets a theme or point of view off clearly.  The Gaslight Anthem have placed this simple, yet powerful, influence at the forefront of their music, blending punk attitudes and styles with straight up rock instrumentation.  On Handwritten they tone down the punk aspect even more than on their last LP and deliver a group of songs more rooted in simplicity than ever before.

     The album starts off with a simple guitar line and melody that sounds like stripped down Gaslight.  On “45” a theme of listening and experiencing music is stated clearly.  “What’s your favorite song?” Brian Fallon sings, comparing life to an LP spinning on a turntable.  The title track begins with some cliché “WHOA OH!!”s and a more vocal, triumphant chorus.  The Springsteen influence comes out most clearly on this track, but it turns out to be a weaker track sadly, suffering from some major rock clichés.  “Here Comes My Man” takes an interesting lyrical turn, with Fallon singing a song about rejection, from the point of view of the rejecting woman.  The tones are punchy, yet soft, and marks a musical swell in the album, but some “ sha la la”s come out and it feels like its been done before, which it has.  The musical swell continues with Mulholland Drive: one of the coolest guitar riffs and solos Gaslight has ever done highlights the track.  There’s more passion in Fallon’s voice, and it continues to be strong over the next few tracks.  “Howl” picks up the tempo a bit, and I heard a bit of the punk influece that I kinda missed.  Fallon ‘howls’ through a megaphone for some vocal texture.  “Desire” has some more “whoa oh oh”s sadly.  “Mae” turns out to be one of the only ballads on the record.  The drums focus on a more tomtom-oriented beat and features one of my favorite lines of the record “We wait for kingdom come/With the radio on”.  The album ends on the acoustic figerpickin’ ballad “National Anthem” which isn’t a national anthem, but rather a song devoted to an “American love”.  It incorporates some strings for a very different, almost odd tone that is much different from the rest of the album.  Musically this album takes a larger page from rock history than punk, and features much more pronounced guitar work.  Lyrically I have to say this is definitely the weakest of Fallon’s poetic endeavors.  The themes are similar to past albums, but with weaker delivery.  Songs about family, music, lost loves, past loves, and found loves are all present and accounted for but with far less captivating power.  That said, the lyrics are still fine, and nothing is cringe worthy, I just expected a little more from Fallon.  Handwritten has some great moments, especially in the middle with tracks like “Mulholland Drive”, “Keepsake”, “Too Much Blood”, and “Biloxi Parish”.  Overall it’s a little hit or miss and definitely the worst Gaslight album, but the great thing about The Gaslight Anthem is that their worst record is still a good record.  7.1 gaslights anthemed out of 10.

Deathspell Omega- Drought EP Review

EP: Drought

Artist: Deathspell Omega

Genre: Black Metal

8.1/10

       In one of the saddest days for metal in recent years, the infamous Pitchfork awarded the disappointing Yellow and Green an 8.5 Best New Music accolade, while snubbing Deathspell Omega’s strong new EP Drought, giving it a measly 6.7… on the same day.

    Deathspell Omega have planted themselves as powerhouses of black metal.  Innovators in the genre, their albums have experimented with different recording techniques and lyrical themes.  On Drought the lyrics take a biblical direction similar to Si momvmentvm reqvires, circvmpsice.  The stage is set on the desert of the Holy Land, and the images constructed throughout this album illustrates the darkest and most mythological aspects of the Old Testament.  On “Firey Serpents” a narrator describes his situation “Standing, shivering in cold dim light/Waiting for the sentence of the Holy Dead/Like Adam and Eve at the end of time”.  On “Scorpions and Drought” the narrator ventures into a different place, and a different state of mind: “There I stand, in a wood of trees pale as if bones/Eroded by nefarious winds, haunted by their barking echoes/Were doubts to arise that God retreats slowly from this world.”  The somewhat disappointly short “Sand“ returns to the desert and with one single stanza erases what little hope remained after such images presented in the first two songs.  “A desert with no life but scorpions/Coming as a swarm, as a flood/With a abundance of deadly sings/One from every remembrance/One for every comforting echo of the past/For blithe days of hope turned sour.”  The narrator can’t even think of happier times without receiving physical pain.

    But as with other black metal releases, much more emphasis remains on the instrumentation and vocal delivery.  The EP opens with the more ambient “Salowe Vision” that slowly builds into “Fiery Serpents”.  The sound remains similar for the most part, with Deathspell Omega employing loud and high-energy black metal heavy on blast beats and slick guitar lines coupled agains the guttural bellows of the lead vocalist.  The last track ‘The Crackled Book of Life” incorporates a much slower, almost groovy, beat and climbing guitar line reminiscent of “Orion” by Metallica.

    The material on this EP is high quality and will be sure to please fans yearning for more after Paracletus.  It’s nothing revolutionary but it’s a strong EP with enjoyable and well-written material.

Fave Tracks: Fiery Serpents, The Crackled Book of Life, Salowe Vision

One Direction: Up All Night Album Review

Cuppin' some man-boob

Album: Up All Night
Artist: One Direction
Genre: Dance-pop/Shitcore


0.5/10




Well that sucked.  Here's the deal with One Direction: they play sugar-coated, mindless pop, but they don't even do it well.  They could not even deliver a passable album with professional songwriters and top-notch recording and production tools.  I didn't think this was possible, but One Direction sullies the reputation of the Boy Band.
     I'm going to dedicate only one sentence to the lyrics.  The lyrics are literally all about the same thing: girls, breaking up with girls, dancing with girls, but never doing the nasty (except for that one line: "made a mess upon your innocence" that shit's gross).
     Musically this album is incredibly boring, with very little diversity.  Loud and annoyingly distorted synths are present in every song.  Some songs have acoustic guitar to add a "douchebag" effect.  "I Want" has a disgustingly bland guitar solo.  "I Want" and "Same Mistakes" have more "douchebag" piano.  "What Makes You Beautiful" is basically a catchy single that every other song on the album tries to emulate.  The singing is also remarkably unimpressive, with each song fitting comfortably in near anybody's vocal range.
    I would say more, but that's honestly it.  This album is bland and receptive from beginning to end, and I am worse off from having listened to it.

Jesus Christ

Fave Tracks: LOLNOPE

Aesop Rock: Skelethon Review

Zero?  Is that you?

Album: Skelethon
Artist: Aesop Rock
Genre: Alternative Rap


8.8/10






“So what new music have you heard lately Kevin?”  “Well Aesop Rock’s new record is pretty great.”  “Oh you mean A$AP Rocky?  #PURPLESWAG AMIRITE?”  Yikes.

  Anyways, Aesop Rock has delivered a fresh product that retains his distinct cryptic lyrics but with some different production ideas and somewhat clearer themes.  His raspy flow still moves smoothly and effortlessly with a slight intensity, but on Skelethon the lyrics take the front seat for a crazy, clever, dark, and sometimes head-ache inducing ride.

     I’m gonna use this time to comment on the beats before diving into the post-apocalyptic world that is Aesop Rock’s lyrical mind.  On Skelethon Ian Bavitz takes the role of executive producer on his own record, employing live instrumentation for his beats.  “Leisureforce” has an opening guitar line, something somewhat strange, because the beats on this album act as a support system for the rhythm of the flow.  The drums have a fuzzy compression that adds to the dark mood to the record.  The drums on “ZZZ Top” are bangin’ all over the place, driven forward by a recurring tom-tom fill.  “Racing Stripes” starts out with a New-Orleans style brass sample that transitions into an old-school hip-hop beat and a shouted mantra “It’s okay it grows back!”  These beats are subtle for sure, but there is no denying their dopeness.

     Then there are the lyrics.  Hot damn.  “Leisureforce” explodes right off the bat: “Postcards from the bath paint leisure/As a cloaked horse though a stained-glass Saint Peter/Hack faith-healer, cheat death to the very end/Cherry wooden nickels on his specs for the ferrymen”.  The entire song displays image after image of everything from gore to death to religion to love to mothers (?).  “ZZZ Top” uses the alphabet as a vehicle for a journey of redemption and recognition: “Capital Z(ed), slowly maneuver the O/S is the most difficult to control/Finally O/Into the eye of Goliath you go”.  The lead single ‘Zero Dark Thirty” picks apart the entire rap game, assessing his role in rap culture and where it has gone wrong.  “Roving packs of elusive young become/Chock-lore writers over boosted drums/In the terrifying face of a future tongue/Down down from a huntable surplus to one” Ian shouts in the hook.  In the incredibly clever and funny ‘Fryerstarter” Aesop Rock likens Bob’s Donuts in his hometown San Francisco to a church, bashing organized religion by claiming fried dough offers the exact same comfort as religion without the whole opiate-of-the-masses shit: “Now the yeast, a phoenix in the partially hydrogenated/Equal parts flower, faith, healing/Might replace your previously nominated Jesus/But only if you privy to the following secret of all secrets”  On ‘Crows 1” and ‘Crows 2” Aesop brings up some incredibly dark images of death, with the first examining death from being affected by it, and the latter examining death from the point of view of a killer: “Watch your step/Watch your mouth/We all know the way that a punk goes out.”  “Homemade Mummy” also has images of death: “Gadzooks, punk’s dead, last good gut wrenched/Anennae sam cook, black book pushead/ Cat skulls stacked to the black hole sunset/Olive on a toothpick, Dagwood Bumstead” but it also has the most upbeat and inspirational line in the whole record: “Take the brain out/Leave the heart it”.  He’s describing how Egyptians used to mummify corpses, leaving the heart in to be weighed in the afterlife, but its really a metaphor on how one should live their life, to follow your passion, your heart, before logic.”

     Overall Skelethon shows Aesop Rock’s incredible lyrical ability, smooth flow, and producing skills.  The beats pull you in and keep you engaged, and the lyrics make you stop and think and decipher.  Aesop Rock will keep on going “on and on and on and on and on…”

Fave Tracks: Lesiureforce, ZZZ Top, Zero Dark Thirty, Fryerstarter, Crows 1, Racing Stripes, Homemade Mummy