May 2009
You are browsing the archive for May 2009.
Album Review: Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Concept: Several songs dedicated to one of the Elizabeth islands in Massachussets.
Sound: Old-school choral and crooner harmonies with hip drumming and keyboards. The guitarwork switches off between bold acoustic riffing and glassy electric doublepicking binges. The first two thirds of the album are very, very impressive: absorbing bittersweet hookfests that remind you why the Beach Boys were such a continue reading…
Double Album Review: Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez – Cryptomnesia / Despair
Concept: New band members make for a slightly different sound. Oh wait, they’re a drummer and a bassist.
Sound: This is easily the loosest Omar’s formula has ever dared get, which is definitely something for a fellow whose music has already been described by critics as ‘a homogenous ****heap of stream-of-consciousness turgidity’. The good news is continue reading…
Album Review: St. Vincent – Actor
Concept: A soundtrack for the paranoid and frustrated life of an actor out of work. A very private conversation with a very angry Judy Garland, or David Bowie’s misanthropic little sister.
Sound: Built like a musical, perhaps to satirically accomodate the concept, with a huge amount of variety. There’s strings, winds, horns, timpanis, and fuzzy electric dissonance, continue reading…
