New Music Roundup, 9/25

Green Day - Uno

Initially, I would say this album was a return to form for Green Day, but upon further reflection, I'm not sure that's really the case.  For some reason, I've linked Green Day with bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers or Weezer, bands who have seemingly suffered a decrease in quality while bidding to stay relevant in today's music scene.  Green Day has undoubtedly managed to stay relevant - it's still weird to see them on the music-playing portions of the MTV empire (usually MTV2 around 2 in the morning) right next to Katy Perry and Lady GaGa - but I do question whether that sustained relevance came with a cost in quality.  Green Day's last album 21st Century Breakdown seemed a little underwhelming coming after American Idiot, but it still was a fairly solid album, and despite those two albums completing Green Day's transition from a snotty punk band to an arena rock band, the music never stopped sounding like Green Day, at least not to my ears.

All that said, their newest release Uno does seem to hearken back to pre-American Idiot days.  Billy Jo Armstrong's voice does sound a little overproduced on this album, but the majority of the songs are the kind of driving three chord punk songs that wouldn't seem out of place on Dookie or Insomniac.  We can debate whether at this point the band could write these types of songs in their sleep, but who cares about the difficulty of creation: the formula still works.

Selections
Nuclear Family

Let Yourself Go

Angel Blue

New Music Roundup 9/19

In honor of the veritable orgy of aural delights that was released yesterday, I'm not wearing any pants as I write this post.

alt-J - An Awesome Wave

I may be out on an island on this, but I absolutely love this arty, schizophrenic, occasionally just plain weird debut album from the British band alt-J.  It's difficult for me to describe their sound, and that's part of the appeal: though you hear traces of other indie or folk acts in different parts of their songs, alt-J has more or less managed to create a sound of their own, which is one of the highest compliments I can give a debut album.  This band manages to accompany folky guitars and vocal harmonies with off-kilter polyrhythmic beats that sparkle at times, bounce at times, and rock at times.  Over all this the lead singer Joe Newman gives what I will call a quirkily affected vocal performance, singing out of the back of his throat in a way that reminded me several times of the lead singer of System of a Down.  People's mileage may vary on the guy's voice, but unlike some other bad indie singers - the guy from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah comes to mind - it seems to be an intentional effort on the Newman's part: on a couple of the more straightforward songs, he sounds perfectly normal.

Anyway, this is my favorite album of a week filled with some great music.  I will most definitely be tracking this band's career:

Selections:
Fitzpleasure

Dissolve Me

Breezeblocks

New Music Roundup 9/5

This week's post is pushed back a day because of Labor Day.  And, you know, laziness.

The Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits

A supergroup only under the loosest possible definition of the term, the Divine Fits combines Spoon's Britt Daniel with one of the guys from Wolf Parade and a drummer from some other band or something.  This albums to me sounds extremely similar to a Spoon album: were I interested in more than just recommending new music, I would wonder what exactly were the benefits of this side project versus Daniel just recording another Spoon album.

But fortunately, I am really only interested in whether the effort sounds good.  And if you like Spoon, as I do, you're bound to enjoy this album.  Despite the presence of a higher number of keyboards than on the usual Spoon album (the thing that makes this side project unique from Spoon perhaps?), this album is reminiscent of Spoon's more rock-oriented offerings: there's plenty of those patented spiky angular riffs that Spoon has become known for.  I'm still anxious for a proper Spoon release (and an honest attempt to follow up the populist leanings of Ga Ga Ga Ga, although perhaps that is a pipe dream), but this Divine Fits album is a good effort in its own right.

Selections
My Love is Real

Shivers

Like Ice Cream