Skip to main content

New Albums [9/13]

This week's a pretty good one for new releases.  Girls' Father, Son, Holy Ghost as well as St. Vincent's Strange Mercy will be officially released.  I've listened through both of them, and I thought I'd give them both a quick review.


Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost: Girls is a San Francisco band, whose singer had a fucked up childhood in the Children of God cult, that makes ramshackle, charming, lo-fi, Beach Boys-sounding rock music. If you haven't heard their music, listen to Lust for Life, Laura, and/or Hellhole Ratrace off their first album (which was terribly titled as "Album").  Anyways, this album is definitely more expensive sounding than their debut, with more intricate and varied arrangements.  However, the songwriting is just not there.  I listened through the whole thing twice and found nothing to like.  Ironically, the only song that didn't make me want to vomit was the one called Vomit.  For that, I'll give this album a point.  Well, actually, by the time they had dragged the song out to the 6 minute mark, I felt pretty sick to my stomach, so I should probably take away a point.  So there,

Score: 0 Points

St. Vincent - Strange Mercy: St. Vincent is a skinny little indie chick that can absolutely shred on the guitar and has a beautiful, clear singing voice.  Definitely someone I would pay good money to see live.  Anyways, Strange Mercy is her third album, and the first new music from her since her breakthrough sophomore album, Actor. It's more of the same: good songs sung beautifully, juxtaposed with some seriously grimy guitar lines, all backed with very clean production.  Songs of note:
  1. Surgeon: Don't know if it's about getting sick, getting depressed, or getting fucked, but it's solid all the way through.  The chorus could be better, but it's all right I suppose.  1 Point
  2. Strange Mercy: The best thing she's ever done, hands down.  I love the melody that goes with "I'll be with lost boys/sneaking out where the shivers won't find you" and the synth line that comes in after it is even better.  For that, 2 Points.
  3. Champagne Year: I love the melody for the "It's not a perfect plan/but it's the one we've got."  Also, love the lyric "I make a living telling people what they want to hear/it's not a killing but it's enough to keep the cobwebs clear."  2 points for that.  On the other hand, the song is down right boring for the whole second half, so minus 1 point for a total of 1 Point.
  4. Year of the Tiger: First, off, she gets 2 point for knowing the Chinese Zodiac; one point for being educated, and another point for the Asian culture aspect.  Other than that, I really like the first verse, and I would really like the chorus, if only it wasn't so annoyingly repetitive.  However, the "Oh America can I owe you one" bit is just awful.  So, minus 1 point, leaving this song at 1 Point.
Score: 5 Point

(Note: All songs not mentioned should be assumed to be garbage and simply ignored.  Well, unless you have a serious hard on for the artist.  Then, you can just trick yourself into thinking it's all good.)

tl;dr: Girls released a complete turd while St. Vincent released a decent album with one great song.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Greatest Song of All Time

The music business has its fair share of complexities, as you would expect from any business with such a long history, and that is, at its core, built upon international law (i.e. copyright). That complexity is almost always hidden from the listening public. However, one piece that is curiously exposed every year when the Grammys come around is the separation between what is a "record" and what is a "song". The second and third most prestigious awards at the Grammys are, respectively, "Song of the Year," and "Record of the Year." What's the difference? Most people, including most musicians, wouldn't be able to tell you. I couldn't either until I took a music industry course in college where someone finally explained it to me: A "song" is melody and lyrics. The best way I have to think if it is, if hear someone play a faithful-to-the-original, acoustic cover, the "song" is what would be the same between the orig...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fallout

This is an old song that I finally finagled into sounding good. The track uses Neon Indian's Fallout and was inspired by Frank Ocean's Strawberry Swing .  As with that song, I stripped the song of its original vocals and used the title as a starting point to craft a story of my own.  Hope you like it. http://www.mediafire.com/?bqv9d7821m7nn7m (I tried posting to SoundCloud, but the fact that I pretty much used a copyrighted track in its entirety did not make them very happy.) Lyrics: [Verse 1] Falling, falling out of control Away we will go To make love, oh how sweet Warm night, city breeze Not so sweet nothings and furtive stares Not the answer to my prayers, but Stagger, stumble through the door Bet tomorrow that’ll make you sore [Chorus] And we’re falling in and falling out of control And we’re falling in and falling out of control [Verse 2] Turn on the night light, not too bright Just enough to set things right, it Won’t go over w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Best of The X-Factor UK

This coming Wednesday, Simon Cowell's replacement for American Idol, The X Factor, will debut here in the states. So, here's my favorite moments from the UK X-Factor, in the hopes that the US version will have moments just as good. Cher Lloyd - Turn My Swag On : A cheeky British teenager (16 at the time) covers the Keri Hilson cover of a Soulja Boy song.  On paper, it should've been a complete joke, but, somehow, Cher made it work.  She totally had the attitude, the look, and the voice to pull it off, and it didn't hurt that the song was actually awesome. Hands down the best and the most unique audition I've ever seen on any of these reality singing shows.   Jamie Archer - Sex on Fire : The song was a huge hit in the UK and an even bigger hit in Australia.  How it never became a hit in the US is beyond me.  Anyways, Jamie Archer has a perfect voice for the song and he just fucking sells it.  I can't help but smile watching this, and, judging by the vide...
Post a Comment
Read more