REVIEW: Porcelain Raft - Strange Weekend

Porcelain Raft

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Grade: 84% (B)

I've dug myself into the trenches of the ambient/chillwave/synth pop genres in the past half a year or so. I've found myself fond of Washed Out, Neon Indian, M83, and countless other groups representing those genres. While they each have their own unique sound to them, I have discovered that Mauro Remiddi, the only member of Porcelain Raft, is the one of the best representatives of the brands as a whole. 

Remiddi himself refers to his music as "sleepwalking pop," which I can understand entirely. I could sleep with this album on repeat for days on end. It is that relaxing. However, in the same vein it has some very dance-ish elements to it. Recorded entirely by Remiddi himself, Strange Weekend is put together in the most optimum of fashions. The music is shaped around rhythms and strong synths while many songs feature acoustic guitar work that perfectly heightens the passive mood of the record.

His vocals and the samples of other vocals take a minor role yet he sings with sincere feelings. He touches on emotions we can all recount on the appropriately titled, "Unless You Speak From the Heart." On "Put Me to Sleep," a breezy track whose pulsating vibes might as well sooth you so a slumber, he sings 'did you tell your friends how much you miss them?' 

This earnestness is found throughout the album and is reminiscent of those lyricists/vocalists you grew up with. With further thought, there is somewhat of a James Murphy attitude going on here. It's as if he's a one man team writing about whatever he wants and evoking it with whatever music he wants. He has no rules and doesn't care what people think about his music. Instead, he's just making it because it's what he loves to do. 

This music is soothing and deep and certainly heartfelt. Along side Trevor Powers of Youth Lagoon, Remiddi is certainly the closest thing to a one man show like that of James Murphy that we have today. While he certainly isn't up to Murphy's level, this album certainly sticks out in a genre which is full of many like it. Much like those similar records, this one wraps you in it's warmth while making you think about it's real emotional depth. 

REVIEW: Hospitality - Hospitality

Hospitality

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Grade: 85% (B)

There's a point during the song "Liberal Arts" from Hospitality's debut album in which Amber Papini sings, "you found your joy on saturdays, friends and fun, fingering your girlfriend." She also repeats twice on the song singing, "you found the lock but not the key that college brings." These two lines compared to each other and played off of each other easily convey the attitude Hospitality shoots through speakers to the listener. 

The Brooklyn trio's sound is both adolescent and mature. The lyrics and Papini's voice relay a youthful message while the musical elements of the record are well developed and accentuated. The collaborative efforts on the choruses' vocals compared to the shrewd horns backing them leave the listener wondering what the motif of this band really is. In one part of their mind they see an upstart indie-pop band with high aspirations while in the back of their mind they have a subtle respect for the band's enterprise. 

These dueling elements feud each other throughout the ten songs on the LP. Amber sings of love found and lost, friends, and just growing up. The music has no lead instrument as samples allow a variety of tones and guitar work to be used. But don't mistake this group as a bunch of kids messing around with a bunch of instruments. They know their way around their tools and even better, they know how to utilize them in certain situations. On "Friends of Friends," they open only with a bass and lead guitar ushered by drums. The simple nature of the collection leads well into the drifting bridge and eventually into the chorus presided over by the brass section.  

These types of arrangements can be found in various formats on Hospitality. While they in themselves could serve well as "elevator music" (really good elevator music), they fit perfectly alongside the innocence and sweet nature of Papini's voice. Her vocal chords are link between the sophisticated instrumentation and naive lyrics. She has a girlish feel in her voice yet there are raspy moments where she shows she can act as a grown and mature woman. Without this, this record would have no real variation from any of the other girl-guy indie-pop groups we have encountered in the past few years. 

The album is not cheap, and it doesn't take advantage of the aforementioned indie-pop boom. Instead the trio takes some minor fixtures from the genre and blend it with the influences from their childhood and teenage years. In this way, it is a tween album that can be enjoyed by all, and it that sense, they certainly deserve credit. While a college freshman can appreciate the "joy on saturdays… fingering your girlfriend," a late twenty-thirty something can appreciate, "you found the lock but not the key that college brings." It's the reflections of a teenager from a fully grown and weary perspective mingling with indie-pop sounds. What's not to love?

REVIEW: of Montreal - Paralytic Stalks

of Montreal

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Grade: 83% (B)

It would be difficult to consider anything that of Montreal does "experimental" in comparison to their other albums. While 2007's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? had a whole lot of triply psych-pop, 2010's False Priest was soul-funk mixed with some pop (see the track with Beyonce's younger sister Solange). However, there is a moment on the opening track of their newest album in which Kevin Barnes' voice skip's with computer filtering and sounds eerily similar to Thom Yorke on Radiohead's weirded out yet excellent Amnesiac. It seems as if of Montreal is doing some similar "weirding out" on Paralytic Stalks. 

The darkness of the record is evident from the very first line of that very first track. While on the cheerful and sexually charged False Priest Barnes opened up singing, "i see it girlfriend, i got so lucky with you," he opens their latest album with, "you are what parasites evolved from, still an unanswered question." Yes, there is a gloomier aspect to this LP than their previous few releases. However, some of the pop elements and escalating harmonies of the albums from their past are still out there to be found. The previously mentioned powerful first track flows into the blissful instruments of the next even though it is still accompanied by some negative lyrics. The whole album is littered with glimpses of their poppier past. 

The record as a whole shows intriguing transitions between this light and dark. It's as if Barnes was battling between a subtle happiness and a deep depression while writing both the music and the lyrics. These transitions grab the listeners attention during the laggish part of some tracks. There are also in between stages, where the mood is of a very neutral feeling, leaning towards a wicked side. 

The lyrics, while more shadowy than in the past, still have their classic form. He takes a perfect combination of those archetypal exteriors and mixes them with the dismal mood of the entire record. On one song he sings, "ahh i got your letter and it hurt me in so many ways," while the very next track he sings, "lately you're the only human i believe in," and later speaks, "i wanna get all fucked up and tell you how i really feel." It's something we've all heard before from the Athens group while it's also new in the sense that it is surrounded by this ongoing battle between light and dark. 

All of this being said, the standout character of this record is in it's structure. It is nine tracks in total, pushing fifty eight minutes. It includes four songs over seven minutes, with one over thirteen, and one under three minutes. The track listing is clearly an integral part of the album.The shortened songs are set to the front, getting the major pop themes out of the way, and then flows into the shortest song, "Malefic Dowery," which leads you into not knowing what will come next. The last four are each over seven minutes and total over thirty-seven minutes as a whole. 

Throughout these tracks, you are set on thinking that predominantly the darkness has consumed Barnes while brief windows of opportunity make you think differently. There is an inspiring moment on "Ye, Renew the Plaintiff" that is only cut off when he is on the verge of screaming, "it's eating a hole in me," over a guitar solo that seems to have erupted from a mental asylum. As it breaks down into an affected voice that is yet again reminiscent of Radiohead, it teases a cracked out ending only to break into a spiraling instrumental jam sampling copious amounts of instruments.

This record is tripped out and poppy, and as we mentioned on "Wintered Debts," it samples a little bit from their discography as a whole. As a whole, the constant struggle between good and evil is both annoying and addicting to the listener as you are holding on to hear what will come next. This is most evident through the last two tracks which combine to nearly twenty-one minutes. The second to last is yet another track that stumbles along like a back LCD trip. As the final song begins, there is hope for a happy ending to the album until it yet again descends into the creepy aura that we have often compared to Radiohead circa Kid A and Amnesiac. However, even as it seems though Barnes has given into the depression, he responds with one of the most inspiring album endings I've heard in my lifetime. The song rises upward into Kevin alone on the piano as he sings, "till this afternoon i was a nomad, no country would call me it's son." The piece is beautiful and stirring as the voice sings of himself as an outcast who is finally accepted. The hair-raising voices that arise are no longer disturbing, but instead warm, as they surround the character and welcome him into their clan.    

REVIEW: The Shins - "Simple Song"

The Shins

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Grade: 84% (B)

The. Shins. Are. Back. Yes, it's true. They're actually back. James Mercer and the new lineup will release their fourth LP (and first since 2007's Wincing the Night Away) Port of Morrow on March 20th. Mercer leads the crew into the new Shins age with this first single entitled "Simple Song." This is a classic cut from the musical genius that is James Mercer. It maintains the same DNA of every Shins song: it sounds like every other track from the Portland band while sounding completely different at the same time. "Simple Song" has towering vocals and a toying guitar in the background. It samples pop features while having the trippy moments that were so heavily featured on their last release. It is something we've never heard before, but at the same time it sounds like the past (and Natalie Portman). I've pre-ordered the album and I suggest you do the same. 3/20 can't come soon enough, and no that is not a typo, it's 3/20 not 4/20. 

REVIEW: Cold Blue Kid - Mimic

Cold Blue Kid

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Grade: 84% (B)

Cold Blue Kid is the Chicago based group formed around the talents of front man Alex Longoria. While I disregarded any major comparisons to the sounds of Broken Social Scene in my first post regarding the group, after listening to their new EP Mimic I have admittedly fallen in love with their closeness to that BSS sound we all love. The record has the gritty lo-fi feel of the lower-tiered Broken Social Scene work that gets no credit for vein great tracks. There is no "7/4 Shoreline" or "Texico Bitches" here, instead there are songs likened to "Major Label Debut," "Highway Slipper Jam," and almost anything off of the BSS EPs. 

From the very start of "Hearts of Steel," you understand that the talent of the band is based around the guitar work. However, the strong and soothing synths layering underneath the poppy guitar work show the band's development from their first releases. Longoria sings of this growth and progression on the opening track with a positive outlook on where things are headed. 

The addition of the full band around him has certainly helped with this development. While most of the songs are clearly the brainchild of Longoria and his singer-songwriter ability with an acoustic guitar, other band members shine on certain tracks. The burning jam "Setback" is crafted around a simple and churning bassline and the lead guitarist takes the lead singing. The song is repetitive in nature yet concludes with a short burst of guitar that leaves you wanting more as it slowly deflates. 

This cohesiveness helps the record tremendously as a whole. It seems as if each of the chilled out tracks features very strong guitar work surfaced with floating synths, a simple bassline, and piloted by impressive percussion. This is certainly headphone music yet songs like "Maybetown" could certainly impress a crowd with a diverse musical taste. The overall instrumentation is clearly the lead, as the vocals take a background sense. However, the talents of this group are undeniable, and maybe their next release they will come forward with their singing and truly turn some heads. 

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Mimic is due out February 14th. 

REVIEW: Cloud Nothings - Cloud Nothings

Cloud Nothings

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Grade: 83% (B)

The opening track off of Cloud Nothing's self-titled debut is almost annoying in a way. "Understand At All" starts with a quick witted guitar riff shortly followed by the rest of the band. Then the singing starts, and the nasally high voice gets going and you feel like sneezing to get all of this out of your head. Even so, there is still something appealing about the song in the end. It is swift and smooth all while being unmistakably catchy at the same time. By the third time you listen, you'll even be singing along to the adolescent chorus. 

By the time the first track flows into the second, you don't even realize it. However, once the new verses jump in, you get the direction that the record is headed in; Eleven songs that are short, sweet, and to the point. That point generally being surrounded by teenage angst and emotions. Even with all of this figured out, the band still surprises you at points. Take the little off-shoot at the end of the second track for example. It comes out of no where and gives you a little smack on the face for being so ridiculously gullible to believe they would end the song without it.

While it holds the elements of your typical startup indie rock band's self-titled debut, Cloud Nothings has a lot of endearing aspects to it. Even though the lyrics are clearly boyish, they are still shaped in a way that is atypical of teenage ideals. Their lyrics are someway in between direct and shady, taking the alternate route around that dilemma which sometimes faces song writers. They are also intelligently formulated. They give off double meanings, and you can truly get a sense of the heartache behind some of the lines. On "Forget You All the Time," Dylan Baldi says exactly that when he sings, "i'm alright, i just forget you all the time." While that seems straightforward enough, when he delivers it with the change in guitar patterns, something else is clearly there to be pondered. Does he truly forget her, or is he telling himself that he does? Just the little hesitation in his voice makes you consider this and he skillfully does this throughout the record.

The album seems to be chalk-full of examples of the narrator falsely convincing himself of things he knows deep down are not true. The song titles are a dead give away of this. Songs like "Not Important," "Nothing's Wrong," and "You're Not That Good at Anything" are self-explanatory in this respect. These two-minute plus songs are carefully padded by the less than two minute thumpers "Heartbeat" and "Rock."

While the lyrics and song length are the first thing that jump out, hidden beneath all of that is also some impressive guitar work and song structure. The quick pauses help highlight the more important lyrical moments and the way certain songs seemingly end quickly, only with their drum beat to be picked up seconds later by the next is an intriguing take on album flow. 

Even though there isn't that much to praise song to song, there is one point that I find most admirable from this album. The fact that the band is able to fit 11 distinct songs into 28 minutes and leave you with a lasting impression about the overall mood behind the album and humming some cunning hooks is, in the words of Darth Vader, most impressive. That being said, if they can step up some of the spotty parts of their arrangements and mature a little with their lyrics, this could definitely be a band to watch out for in the future. And with a new, seemingly different, album on the way, they could be successful with their second album, much like Girls did with their follow-up. 

REVIEW: Cults - Cults

Cults

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Grade: 83% (B)

Remember watching the first Back to the Future and how cool it was to see how things were in the 50's? That's how I felt when I first heard "Bumper," my first introduction to the indie-pop duo Cults. The groovy 50's bassline accompanied by the piano building with the innocent pre-world being destroyed by the internet lyrics leads perfectly into the shimmering chorus. Even with it's chaste lyrics and painless instrumentation, the song is still endearing to someone of the modern age. 

This is somewhat true for the entirety of Cults' self-titled debut. While their images might not portray the same innocence, Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin cloak their Manhattan pop with vintage rhythms and sugar-boppy choruses. Follin's voice is the perfect fit for this manner of sound. On "You Know What I Mean" she sings effortlessly in the verses and then is on the verge of screaming by the time the chorus comes around. She sounds like a young girl waiting for the ice cream man on "Most Wanted" while Oblivion tools around with the guitar just for fun. She even sings the thoughts of an adolescent girl, confused about the temptations that life hands her, saying, "What we most want is bad for us we know," as the song closes with a distant voice speaking, "Flirtation, drug use, and adultery." 

"Abducted" opens the album with a low volume that (SPOILER ALERT) surprises you with a quick expansion and uses the back and forth between Oblivion and Follin to create the metaphor of a boy abducting a young girl's heart and is drowned out before you know the ending. You probably don't need to hear anything about "Go Outside" because even I am bugged by girls whistling it's cute xylophone notes through the hallways of my dorm. That probably best describes the music of the record: cute. The smooth bass is usually accompanied by a catchy high pitched riff of some sort while some quick drum loop is layered by some hearty but diminished piano chords and finished off with some guitar canoodling by Oblivion. 

The songs are all the same in theme but each has it's out distinguishable characteristic to assure that you don't get bored by track four. The record's longest song, "Bad Things" builds by banding particular instruments on top of each other as Follin continually threatens to run away. By the time the bridge comes it is clear that she is only bluffing and she only reinforces this notion with the repetition of the opening verse.

A personal pick would probably be "Oh My God," where Madeline sings of wanting to move on with the life she has boringly created for herself and Brian shows off a rare sign of some power chords and impressive work on the fretboard. I can call them by their first names because they were in college last year. My personal favorite is the closer "Rave On," which showcases a few quick bursts in just under three minutes with it's simple guitar and organ chords.  

With eleven short songs (non span close to four minutes), Cults feels like a record written about a tween girl, by a twenty-something who misses being a tween girl, and for that rare group of tween girls who aren't too pretentious to recognize that they relate to this music more than that of Lady Gaga and Wiz Kalifah. Tween.   

REVIEW: Cloud Nothings - "No Future/No Past"

Cloud Nothings

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Grade: 85% (B)

Cloud Nothings will return with their second LP in a year on January 24th with Attack on Memory. The first bit off the follow-up to their eponymous debut is the track "No Future/No Past." In contrast to the poppy upbeat sounds of the first album, "No Future/No Past" starts with slow rhythms led by the drums and the simply-put downer vocals. With some guitar riffage seemingly screwing around in the background, the song builds and the vocals increase in both volume and intensity until an explosion of slamming drums and power chords and the title being screamed into the microphone. It's very interesting to see where a band can go in a year. This song, which is longer than another from their debut by more than a minute, could give us a glimpse of the maturity of the band after a year of touring and promoting. 

ALBUM REVIEW: Big Troubles - Romantic Comedy

Big Troubles

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Grade: 84% (B)

Hailing from New Jersey, Big Troubles follows up last year’s lo-fi debut Worry with 2011’s upbeat jangle-pop Romantic Comedy. With a voice eerily similar to that of the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Alex Craig crafts his lyrics around a seemingly destructive relationship and the album as a whole could work as the soundtrack for “(500) Days of Summer”. This is especially evident in, “Sad Girls,” where he smoothly sings, “love is in the air, but I don’t care, cause I don’t want to love anymore, and if I hear the word again, I think I’ll drill a hole in my head.” On “Minor Keys,” he touches a nerve with nearly every boy who’s ever been attracted to a female remarking, “It’s the one that got away… It’s the girl you never kissed.” Don’t be turned off by the teenage boyish lyrics though. On the upbeat lead single, “Misery,” Craig looks forward to the days where he can get over his previous misconceptions and, “just have some fun for once.” The overall record maintains a steady rhythm and feel, with basic percussion arrangements (their debut was recorded with a drum machine before they replaced it upon playing their first shows) and guitars that build right into a wide array of choruses.