It's time for no one's favorite feature, Brian gives his thoughts on the day's new albums (working title).
The best thing I heard today was the Menzingers' new album On the Impossible Past, which is really quite good. These guys caught my attention because they were compared to the Gaslight Anthem. The similarities are certainly there - they both play anthemic punk about Americana like muscle cars and diner waitresses - although the Menzingers' punk is a lot more rough around the edges, and their lead singer sounds more like a cross between the guy from Rise Against and the guy from Alkaline Trio than the Gaslight Anthem's singer. Also, the Menzingers aren't real big into the whole verse-chorus-verse thing, which means their songs aren't quite as instantly catchy or familiar as anything the Gaslight Anthem's done. Still, this album won me over on its back half. It consistently rocks, and the anthems struck home for me. It's probably my favorite album thus far that was actually released in 2012 (I'll likely be counting Mayer Hawthorne as a 2012 album, even though it was released in the middle of 2011). I think it will have something in it for fans of the Gaslight Anthem, any modern "punk", or even a group like the Hold Steady.
Sleigh Bells released their second album today, called Reign of Terror. I was a little disappointed by this album, although they were probably in an impossible position, as what I liked about the first album was likely not able to be duplicated. Aside from the song Rill Rill, whose catchiness was based on a Funkadelic sample, Sleigh Bells' first album was enjoyable for just how goddamn loud it was. It was obnoxiously, disorientingly loud, like that first heavy metal or grunge song you heard after being raised on oldies or something. This new album is still loud, but not in a revelatory way. If the first album was cranked up to 11, this one is more like at 9, and though that may not be a huge difference in actual decibel level, in terms of thrills, it's pretty important. With the first album you'd never ask, "Why's it have to be so loud?" - its loudness was the entire point - but the question is fair on this new album, which focuses more on the group's songcraft. This album also has them getting away from the stomp-clap beats of the first album as well, and I'm not sure why they decided that. In its' place are some straight up Sabbath metal riffs, and some midtempo songs that venture into dream pop territory, like a more assertive Cocteau Twins. None of this is bad per se - some of the dream pop stuff could even be described as beautiful, which would have been a preposterous description of anything on their first album - but I was really hoping to be able to play this album at high volume (preferably in a residential area). I'll probably need to let this thing percolate a bit before I render any permanent judgment.
After sending out my previous email about the beginning of fun.'s new album Some Nights being good, the band sure did lose the thread on the second half of the album. I think my final opinion is that the album is an utterly fascinating mess. It's occasionally ass-awful and frequently problematic, but I now desperately want to talk to the producer of the album why he made the bizarre choices he made. Why name the first two tracks on the album "Some Nights" (also the name of the album)? Why add a loud hip hop drum machine to a series of anthemic singalong songs, and why is the drum machine so prominent in the mix? Why add ostentatious autotune to some later tracks when the lead singer has shown previously on the album he has a powerful voice, even one that can be described as a passable Freddie Mercury impersonation? What the hell was going on with the midsection of the album, when you decided to add what I will call freak beats? Why, if the production seems to suggest that you are going for mainstream success, are there so many casual swears? You could tell me that this producer's favorite band is just about any band on the planet, and I think I would believe you. Anyway, I have no idea exactly what they were going for with this album, but when it's on, it's cheesily singalongingly enjoyable. I think the first four tracks are legitimately good, but anything after that enters insane territory, which can itself be enjoyable but not necessarily good.
Not a new album that was released this week, but while I'm talking about music I've recently been listening to, Of Monsters and Men's song Little Talks is good. They're the band from Iceland whose album I was bitching about not being stateside yesterday. They do have an EP here, and I like all the songs. Catchy, in the vein of what is considered indie, can't quite put my finger on the band they remind me of. I look forward to eternally getting them confused with Of Montreal.
