Here’s how this segment works:
I’ll listen to as many albums as possible throughout the week, break down buzz-worthy choices and then stamp them with either Unripe (intriguing), Ripening (gratifying) or Ripe (choice of the week).
Albums I listened to that I didn’t feel warranted a discussion:
Arctic Monkeys – AM
- Babyshambles – Sequel to the Prequel
- Body Language – Grammar
- Delorean – Apar
- Goldfrapp – Tales of Us
- Holograms – Forever
- Holy Ghost! – Dynamics
- Jonathan Rado – Law and Order
- Múm – Smilewound
- Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks
- NO CEREMONY/// – NO CEREMONY///
- Okkervil River – The Silver Gymnasium
- Summer Camp – Summer Camp
- Willis Earl Beal – Nobody Knows
Volcano Choir – Repave
- Released: 3 September, 2013
- Label: Jagjaguwar
- For Fans of: Bon Iver , The National or Local Natives .
- The Harvest: Unripe
When your front man is Bon Iver , the biggest issue for Volcano Choir on Unmap was preventing them from sounding like Justin Vernon and the Collections of Colonies of Bees . They were successful because Justin allowed the band to have equal say in the collective artistic vision. However, since then Bon Iver has grown in confidence and his statue reigns supreme over the majority of Repave .
Justin still sounds as if he’s alone in a remote cabin on the opener ‘ Tiderays ’, only he brings friends to play with him, but they haven’t practiced together in a while. In particular the drums sound clunky and harsh against its intimate harmonies. The band is more integrated on the following ‘ Acetate ’, but the mumbling chorus is clustered with more out of sync drumming, coming together like a poor imitation of The National.
Volcano Choir does click as whole unit on the letter to an American troop ‘ Comrade ’ and ‘ Byegone ’. The riff in the bridge where he shouts “ Set sail! ” is the most emotional statement Justin has sung since “ Still alive for you, love ” on ‘ Perth ’.
It then unfortunately goes back to the Bon Iver show, not that there’s anything wrong with Bon Iver, but he only sounds comfortable during the moments when it’s just him on the opening of ‘ Alaskans ’. As soon as he’s forced to integrate the band, he’s distracted and settles for bland lyricism such as “ Rely, rely, rely, rely, behave, behave, behave, behave, decide, decide, decide, decide, repave, repave, repave, repave ”. The lyrics are arguably read straight off a piece of paper on ‘ Dancepack ’ and even worse the band’s arrangement is just following orders and could be the work of anyone at this point. He tries again with the rambling approach on ‘ Keel ’, but it feels unnatural compared with, say, Nick Cave , who’s twisted enough to pull it off.
‘ Almanac ’ breaks even. On one side it doesn’t put Justin in any territory different to what we’ve heard before as Bon Iver, but as the track concludes Justin lets go of his reigns over Collections of Colonies of Bees and the potential Volcano Choir returns, but it’s too late. Justin needs to trust his teammates.
Janelle Monáe – The Electric Lady
- Released: 10 September, 2013
- Label: Bad Boy / Universal
- For Fans of: Aretha Franklin , Erykah Badu or Solange .
- The Harvest: Unripe
The issues that plagued Janelle Monáe ’s debut album The ArchAndroi d (lyrics and her Diva belting over substance) are apparent again here on The Electric Lady , but at least on The ArchAndroid you could forgive those minor details, in context to the album’s larger conceptual scheme. A combination of standout singles ‘ Cold War ’ and ‘ Tightrope ’ in diverse contrast with the closing odysseys tracks ‘ Say You’ll Go ’ and ‘ BabopbyeYa ’. Her ambition covered the rough edges. With her ambition reduced to re-enacting Aretha Franklin on The Electric Lady , those edges are magnified.
When those issues aren’t a problem, Janelle Monáe is as fun swinging as they get (watch her performance) on the grand opening ‘ Givin Em What They Love ’ and ‘ Q.U.E.EN. ’, where she just wants to dance all over the strutting bassline, the swinging ‘ Electric Lady ’ and ‘ Dance Apocalyptic ’ where she’s not afraid to break out. Outside those moments are awful generic lyrics on ‘ We Were Rock and Roll ’ singing “ We were unbreakable ”, ‘ Victory ’ and ‘ Can’t Live Without Your Love ’ that come off as a Saturday Night Live jokes on embarrassingly lame RnB songs. If the painful ballads such as ‘ PrimeTime ’ aren’t enough where she sings about topics never covered before (sarcasm) “ Stars above ”, the songs exit with aimless guitar solos, a common theme among these very average tracks, in particular the Stevie Wonder influenced ‘ Ghetto Women ’ and ‘ Dorothy Dandridge Eyes ’.
While not offensively poor, the interludes feel cheaply constructed, close to something you’d find on a GTA game flicking through the radio stations in your car, especially compared to the pleasant swinging interlude ‘ Suite V: Electric Overture ’.
She’s far more effective when she reframes her intensity and shifts focus from pure force to mood on ‘ Look into My Eyes ’ and the standout closing track ‘ What an Experience ’. The reflective change of pace at this point tastes like a glass of fresh glacier water. Instead of trying to poorly rhyme a chorus as the majority of the album does, she strips it back to one memorable line. Unfortunately the tracks suggestion that you’ve just experience an amazing album is a placebo.
Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
- Released: 3 September, 2013
- Label: ANTI-
- For Fans of: Fionna Apple , Gillian Welch or Liz Phair .
- The Harvest: Unripe
The Canadian band The New Pornographers may be one of the more unheralded bands of the past decade, not just for the albums they produced but for mix bag of individual careers that branched off from each of the four singers. The most successful is Dan Bejar with his work as Destroyer , whose brass instruments wash intimacy all over his work. Lead singer Carl Newman can still write a pop hook or two under the title A.C. Newman but he hasn’t defined his niche quiet as well, while Neko Case ‘s live replacement Kathryn Calder has struggled with her work in Immaculate Machine .
Neko Case sits somewhere in between the confidence of Destroyer and image inconsistency of A.C. Newman. The Worse Things Get starts full of confidence and her experience is evident on ‘ Wild Creatures ’. Combining clever lyrics with a strong melody the arrangement isn’t reliant on a solo instrument. The infectious line “ You never held it at the right angle ” on ‘ Night Still Comes ’ takes advantage of group harmonies and will swing in your head for days. While not necessarily a hook, the contrast between the bassline and quick guitar sequels provides an effective edge to a track where she stamps her authority, stating “ Cause you didn’t know what a man was, until I showed you ”.
Then her A.C. Newman takes over, digging into questionable directional choices on the thin, indistinguishable country song ‘ I’m From Nowhere ’, the pub rock song ‘ Bracing For Sunday ’ and ‘ Nearly Midnight Honolulu ’ that moans closer to Taylor Swift than her 42 years of age. She steadies the ship slightly on the heartfelt ‘ Calling Cards ’ and ‘ City Swans ’ that’s structurally as uninteresting as Powderfinger but it unfolds with enough conviction to sell it. The lullaby ‘ Afraid ’ only cements concerns that this could be just a collection of old tracks.
At least Neko Case returns to her two strengths on the finals three tracks, the group harmonies on ‘ Local Girl ’ and the deeply invested ‘ Where Did I Leave That Fire ’ that builds into ‘ Ragtime ’, where a trumpet triumphantly serenades a victory lap. If she considers The Worse Things Get a victory, she’s unaware that you don’t drive 12 laps and only count your six best lap times.
The Weeknd – Kiss Land
- Released: 10 September, 2013
- Label: XO / Republic
- For Fans of: How To Dress Well , Drake or Justin Timberlake .
- The Harvest: Unripe
Out of all the PBR&B ( apparently a term ) artists of recent years, two really stand at the forefront and for different reasons. Tom Krell works under the title How To Dress Well and draws from not only rhythm and blues influences but ambient, avant-garde and ethereal music. The other is Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd , who shares a common interest in textured details, but unlike How To Dress Well, The Weeknd often uses his production to mask basic song writing.
It’s not always restrictive, however; the opener ‘ Professional ’ finds space to breathe. The airy vocals during the chorus capture the dark arrangement around it. He also avoids predictable structuring on ‘ The Town ’, with memorable verses and a Justin Timberlake influence on the chorus. The stripped back layers enhance the focus on Abel.
Then the signs of a YouTube sensation, the phenomenon of writing lyrics and singing them straight into a microphone instead of perfecting them through live performances are evident on ‘ Adaptation ’. The lyric “ Then I realized, She might have been the one, I let it go, For a little fun, I made a trade, Gave away our days, For a little fame, Now I’ll never see your face, But it’s okay I adapted anyway ” is something you’d expect from a 13-year-old girl’s diary, not a 23-year-old man. His overly high, cinematic falsetto voice is hard to bare at times during ‘ Love in the Sky ’, but while the topic is a first world problem, he’s able to keep it real, stating “ But I’m always getting high, Cause my confidence low, And I’m always in a rush, Ain’t no time to fuck slow, And even if I try, It’s not something I would know ”.
Then the affair becomes draining on ‘ Belong to the World ’, his industrial use of the firing drum machine is the only realistic element in the midst of a material world where everything is an overdramatised musical episode of Glee . If it’s not draining, then the topics aren’t relatable to the common person on ‘ Live For ’, despite a surprisingly motivated verse from Drake . Not only that, but the topic of sex wears thin too on the closing tracks ‘ Kiss Land ’, ‘ Pretty ’ and ‘ Tears in the Rain ’. It’s one thing to have multiple sex scenes in two-hour movie – it’s another to watch a two-hour pornographic video from start to finish.
While Abel Tesfaye can sing, The Weeknd’s strength at this point is still his production. There’s a lot he could learn from the way How To Dress Well integrates the two. This is highlighted by how much ‘ Wanderlust ’ stands out on Kiss Land because the hook is created from the vocal “ Precious little diamond ”, instead of relying on purely the production to elevate him.
Factory Floor – Factory Floor
- Released: 9 September, 2013
- Label: DFA
- For Fans of: Kraftwerk , Devo or LCD Soundsystem .
- The Harvest: Ripe
No pain, no gain. If you appreciate the benefits of going to the gym, Factory Floor ‘s debut album will make a lot of sense to you. The only reason (I think can think of) as to why they didn’t title the album Gym was to keep it universally appealing, because otherwise this is the soundtrack to an intense, robotic work out session.
The London three-piece have built building tension around this album since 2010, when they released the track ‘ Lying ’ and the tension continues throughout this debut in the same way doing sets in the gym does. Every track holds a synthesiser loop or drum roll that’s dying to break out, restricted by the initial pains of using muscles infrequently used. As you push through the sets or the track progresses, you adjust and can feel the improvement, as you get stronger.
The first couple of tracks ‘ Turn it Up ’ and ‘ Here Again ’ work as reminders to stay focused to the end with their chaotic, not clustered, drum rolls. They constantly cut up the momentum of squats that in your head should be routine already, but you’re struggling because you haven’t earned that muscle yet and the lactic acid is only building. Thankfully the group provides three interludes titled ‘ One ’, ‘ Two ’ and ‘ Thre e ’ to allow time to wipe off the sweat between sets.
You’ll need them because ‘ Fall Back ’ is when the speed on the treadmill increases and any distractions you had looking around the gym have now shifted to focusing directly in front of you in a hypnotic state of mind. It’s Kraftwerk locked in a room with Devo ’s ‘ Whip It ‘ stuck on repeat, losing their sanity, yet managing to stay calculated and surprisingly not restricted. Factory Floor use percussion to whip you, so you don’t slow down on tracks such as ‘ How You Say ’, with slices of percussion flying at you from out of nowhere, while not throwing you off completely.
Reasonable convention opens up ‘ Two Different Ways ’ with a 4/4 foot-stomper beat, but this is a equivalent of a regular sit up before a robot starts throwing balls at you to catch, while you’re forced to clap twice between going down again and your legs aren’t allow to touch the ground. It forces your body to work so many muscles (sounds) in unison, but by this point you’ve adjusted to their tactics and the lactic acid (tension) begins to subside.
‘ Work Out ’ is an enjoyable after hour’s workout overload, where the smacking laser synthesiser towards its conclusion is the equivalent of you strutting around the gym gloating about your new found appreciation for endurance. ‘ Breathe In ’ is merely the medium paced cool down jog that you’ll surely need.
While Factory Floor could’ve copped out for more accessible, radio friendly singles, it would have deterred from the whole experience. A tad more chord diversity while sticking to their niche would have elevated this album to classic status, but if you live in an obese country such as Australia, USA or England, this is an album I recommend people to spread around.
WORDS BY Marcus Rimondini
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