Part 3 of my long ass best of 2011 in Music List. Cheers.
I still remember the first time I
heard My Morning Jacket. It was live and I didn’t know who the hell they were…
the next 3 weeks were spent finding albums in record stores and investing cash
so that they could keep making music. Circuital
follows the trend of excellent MMJ albums and doesn’t disappoint. It’s fun,
relaxed, deep, funky, groovy, and everything in between. Album opener Victory
Dance starts with a gong, a synth line and includes a running-into-battle ditty
strewn amidst grinding guitars just to let you know that, yet again, you’re in
for a ride. Then you’re led into the album title track which is classic MMJ,
with staccato guitars starting up while the southern rhythm simmers in the
background until they come forth at around the 2 minute mark. At the end of
that song, you see as they continue to fade to another song. Taking into
account the visual of the album, it’s as if they’re tuning from cosmic station
to cosmic station. It’s a more concentrated effort than Evil Urges (although I also loved that album). It has delicate
moments like Wonderful (The Way I feel), lush slow burners like Slow Slow
Tune, rockers like First Light, and even
a funky metal song with a choir offering backup in Holding on to Black Metal.
What you get in the end is possibly the tightest My Morning Jacket album you’ve
ever jammed to. Choice Tracks: Victory Dance, Circuital, Wonderful (The Way I
feel), Outta My System
For many people, The Screaming
Trees were the great grunge band that should have been. Truth be told, I was a
late bloomer in regards to the Trees, first listening to Lanegan in detail in
his solo outings and later in other projects. Honestly, as a singer Lanegan is
one of my favorite vocalists of all time, oozing coolness a vampire would get
chills from. Mr. Mark’s awesome vocals aside though, The Screaming Trees were a
really, really good band that didn’t get a fair shake and whose timing was just
wrong one too many times before they called it quits. That said, you’d do
yourself a disservice by not listening to Uncle Anesthesia, Dust or their most
awesome Sweet Oblivion. But that was the past and this album… well this album
is also from the past. These are the recordings of what was going to be the
follow-up to Dust, and it rocks. I know I’m a 90’s child and I know I’m skewed
towards my grungy side, but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a really good
album. Actually, it’s a really, really, really good album and a testament that
I’m not alone wishing these guys would have had more success. Choice Tracks:
Ash Gray Sunday, Revelator, Black Rose Way, Reflections, Tomorrow Changes, Low
Life, Anita Grey, Last Words.
There’s a reason why this album
won Grammies and has sold over 20 million copies worldwide, it’s because it’s
real good. I’ve seen some sub-par reviews and I can’t help but disagree even if
I’m not a huge Adele fan. The reason is simple, I asked my wife to put it on,
start to finish, and I only heard 3 songs that weren’t spectacular, which means
they were just good. The other tracks? Downright amazing. With so much success
it’s almost a moot point to go into detail about this album. Good vocals, great
lyrics, stripped down production, direct approach, interesting vocal phrasing,
powerful voice, inspired performance. The album has all this and more.
Much lighter on the Hip-hop than
Plastic Beach, The Fall is a very flowy Gorillaz album. Starting off with an ultra
spaced out snippet that drags a bit at over 4 minutes, the album eases into Revolving Doors and Hillbilly Man, two fun, funky tracks with airy parts and funky
beats in between. This then fades into the very danceable Detroit, which is about as club ready as I think I’ve ever heard a
Gorillaz track, which is actually a 2 minute segue that leads into Shy-town, a track that seems pulled out
of something from the Air discography. And that’s how the album flows… mellow
genre bending, sometimes danceable, sometimes airy and light in its groove and
at all times very interesting, even if it is without huge hits. Choice Tracks:
Shy-Town, Hill Billy Man, Revolving Doors,
Unlike
other post rock bands, Mogwai has a knack for really challenging themselves to
put forth different albums. I love Explosions in the Sky, then again, the last
album had a couple of tracks that were reminiscent of some of their earlier
work. That doesn’t happen with Mogwai, and Hardcore
will never die, but you will is a great example of how good a set of
musicians they are. In the first three tracks you have three different tempos
and ambiances, there’s no real unifying concept and it just flows from one to
the other. White noise grows starts off with delayed guitars, some background
noise and a wall of sound that’s built one musical brick at a time. From there,
you go to Mexican Grand Prix, starting off with a droning beat and organs
before allowing some the guitar to come into the song and then, vocals… always
a left curve from these guys. In this case, as usual, it’s pretty hard to make
out what they say, which is besides the point. Then you flow into Rano Pano,
which could best be described as post grunge since it mixes both genres interestingly.
I swear I hear echoes of Sonic Youth and Velvet Underground in that song (which
happens on other songs like San Pedro). The rest of the album is equally varied
and top notch and helps Mogwai cement the fact that when it comes to Post Rock,
few bands can push the envelope as much as them. Choice Tracks: White Noise,
Mexican Grand Prix, Death Rays, San Pedro, How to be a werewolf, You're Lionel
Richie.
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