video review: 'human performance' by parquet courts

This review was a lot of fun - not just because of the album, but because it was a tough nut to really explore, even if I didn't all the way love it. Definitely expect some of the songs will grow on me more throughout the year, though.

Next up, A$AP Ferg - stay tuned!

album review: 'human performance' by parquet courts

So I'll admit right out of the gate that I was a little tentative to cover this record. I think I've gone on record about how most lo-fi garage rock doesn't really excite me unless the hooks are stellar or they're doing something incredibly bizarre - see the collected output of Ty Segall - but that's not saying I dislike the genre, more a factor that if you've heard a lot of this brand of indie rock it can start to blur together a bit. 

Well, okay, that's not fair, and I'll admit that Parquet Courts does stand out a bit. Their wordy brand of art punk first materialized around the turn of the decade and immediately racked up critical acclaim for albums like Light Up Gold and Sunbathing Animal. And yeah, I liked those records: the guitar lines were sticky, there was some groove there, and you could tell that the lyrics had a certain cleverness that I could definitely respect in isolated chunks, often taking broad shots at Internet culture and finding something to respect... but more often than not, I got the feeling the band hadn't quite reached the level of ambition or instrumental heft groups like Ought or fka Viet Cong had. Good for sure, but a shade away from real greatness for me.

Granted, I get the feeling Parquet Courts were looking to change things up too, because after dropping two records in 2014 - the latter Content Nausea being released by only half the band under a slightly different name with a much rougher, more punk tone - and an EP that confounded critics, they looked to follow it up after a few years of touring with this release, which promised to be a mellower, yet more eclectic new record. So okay, I'm good with Parquet Courts pushing themselves, so what did we get with Human Performance?

video review: 'blackstar' by david bowie

And there goes one of the hardest reviews I ever had to film. Had to cut the very ending because it got a tad too emotional, but I think it turned out okay.

Next up, let's talk Anderson .Paak and Savages, so stay tuned!

album review: 'blackstar' by david bowie

David Bowie.

That should be all I need to say for this introduction, but the reality is that Bowie has... was always been more complicated than the legendary image and stunning run of classic albums have indicated. One of the most fascinating creative geniuses to have ever worked in music - especially during his run in the 70s - when you have an artist that influential, that powerful, that genre-defying, it's hard to say any more beyond 'the music speaks for itself'... especially now.

But to be completely honest with you all, putting aside my knowledge of some of his best songs, I had never gone through Bowie's discography front to back before doing this review - certain albums, sure, but never from beginning to end. So before I sat down to listen to Blackstar, I went through every single David Bowie album, from the uneven self-titled curiosity in 1967 to his classic albums in the early 70s to the mid-to-late 70s stream of genre bending to his stabs in the mainstream throughout the 80s to mixed results... and it would only get worse from there. Yeah, the 90s and his brief period of activity in the beginning of the 2000s was not kind of Bowie - mostly good, but far from the heights he achieved with Station to Station, the Berlin Trilogy, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, and my personal favourite Bowie record The Man Who Sold The World. Most of that is because I tend to prefer Bowie when he gets rougher and darker, and while I can definitely appreciate more pop-flavoured records like Let's Dance, I prefer the heavier stuff - one of the reasons I have more time for his hard rock side project Tin Machine than most do. As for his 90s work... look, where in the past he was the one who charted a unique path, his work in this decade almost seemed to cannibalize the electronic and industrial music of the time in order to wring out fresh inspiration, with hit-and-miss results. And while albums like Heathen and Reality showed him regain some creative form, I was satisfied with David Bowie gracefully stepping out of the spotlight, a varied career but with heights that by far overshadowed the lows...

So fast forward to 2013, and out of nowhere David Bowie released The Next Day, his first album of material in a decade - and not only did it feel creatively revitalized, it was Bowie taking his textbook self-awareness and focusing on his legacy, half out of the sheer provocation of rebirth and half to break free of the ossifying weight of his classics. Never had the spectre of death and endings hung quite so heavily over The Thin White Duke - not without reason, as we'd come to know - and yet he was going to go out swinging. It's not hyperbole to say that The Next Day was the best record he had made since the 80s, a shot of buzzing, excellently written momentum that managed to recapture the best of the ragged danger that had ran through his best work. And thus when I heard he was going to be following it with an album this year, this time tapping into more experimental jazz on what was heralded as one of his most experimental records to date... well, look, it's not like jazz is entirely unfamiliar territory, look at the title track from Aladdin Sane. In other words, you can bet I was going to review this - so what did Blackstar deliver?

video review: 'ffs' by ffs (franz ferdinand & sparks)

Well, this was a tricky review to get out, but then again all of my reviews feel tricky these days.

Next up, Kacey Musgraves - stay tuned!

album review: 'ffs' by ffs (franz ferdinand & sparks)

I've talked a little about artistic team-ups before in this series, when two distinctive groups merge together to create a distinctly unique musical project. Sometimes the clash between the bands becomes the underlying arc of the album, like on the stunning performance art collaboration between Savages and Bo Ningen last year Words To The Blind. More commonly, one act tends to eclipse the others, especially when the styles of the two bands overlap. And with rare exception, that tends to be the older, more experienced act that takes dominance.

So on some level, when I heard about the planned collaboration between acclaimed, genre-bending cult band Sparks and indie rock group Franz Ferdinand, it almost seemed too obvious. Sparks had been a player in the first wave of glam, disco and synthpop, Franz Ferdinand had been one of the main frontrunners during the indie rock revival of the genres in the mid-2000s. Both featured frontmen who had a knack for overwritten, too clever by half lyricism that was always a little too hyperbolic and ridiculous for its own good and yet still manages to maintain its cool. Now Sparks has done everything as an act from changing genres about eight different times to releasing full on rock operas, and while the quality has been wildly uneven depending on the era, they've got nothing to prove. Hell, when Franz Ferdinand approached Sparks about the idea a decade, Sparks frontman Ron Mael sent Franz Ferdinand a demo titled 'Piss Off'.

But a decade later, with Franz Ferdinand maturing as a band and Sparks not having dropped any new material in about six years, they joined together into the supergroup FFS and dropped a self-titled record. And really, why not? For Sparks, it's a shot to introduce themselves to an audience who might never have heard of them, especially given the massive discography going back to the beginning of the 70s. And for Franz Ferdinand, it's a chance to work with long-time veterans and personal heroes and give them an excuse to get weird again. And while I absolutely adored Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action - which totally holds up as one of my favourite records of 2013 - Sparks might be able to add more focus to Franz Ferdinand's off-kilter experimentation. So, did FFS deliver?

video review: 'no cities to love' by sleater-kinney

And that should - mostly - catch me up on my backlog. Now for that Doomtree record I've been anticipating for months - stay tuned!

album review: 'no cities to love' by sleater-kinney

Let's talk a little bit about comebacks.

Now if you're familiar with sites like Buzzfeed at all - and if you're online, you've probably been linked to one of their advertisements disguised as a list masquerading as legitimate content at some point - you're probably aware that there's a certain market for nostalgic material. To be fair this is nothing new - artists have always had a fondness for looking back and improving or innovating upon the material of those that came before, or at the very least subverting or satirizing it - but the rise of the Internet and nerd culture means that it's much easier to wring something out of that market. And given we're currently riding something of a 90s-nostalgia wave in indie music - most of which was also influenced by the 70s which in turn was influenced by the 50s and all of it is partially driven by whatever's in the underground but that's besides the point - we've seen a slew of artists that were prominent in the 90s make something of a comeback in the past couple of years across a number of genres. 

But even as it can be an easy paycheck for the artist, I'm always a little wary about comebacks driven off of nostalgia, especially in this vein. For one, it's rare that an artist will pick up where they left off in terms of their sound or aim to experiment further - after all, that'll push that treasured fanbase away unless you can guarantee success. So often times you get artists that stick pretty close to their comfort zone with their comebacks - which is fine, you can give the fans what they want - but it's rarely all that challenging or interesting or potent.

But even with that qualification, I have to admit to having high hopes here. I've talked a little about Sleater-Kinney when I reviewed the debut album from Ex Hex called Rips late last year, but that was more of a Mary Timony project. Sleater-Kinney is more of the brain-child of Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker, who along with drummer Janet Weiss managed to craft several great punk and art rock records across the 90s and early 2000s before going on hiatus. And while I won't subscribe to the hyperbole of a site like Vox saying that 'Sleater-Kinney is the last great rock band' or some clickbait headline like that, I will say that with records like All Hands On The Bad One, Dig Me Out, One Beat, and The Woods that they've made some stellar, insightful, incredibly well-written records that I really enjoy.

Yet even with that, at the back of my mind, I was uneasy about this. It wasn't just that Sleater-Kinney had a passionate fanbase that would buy that comeback album in a heartbeat, but Carrie Brownstein could easily use her cult comedy TV show Portlandia for free marketing - in other words, it was something of a guaranteed investment, and given that I wasn't expecting off-beat experimentation to follow from The Woods, they could easily make this just pure fanservice. But even with that, I'm still a fan of Sleater-Kinney, so I made sure to give No Cities To Love plenty of listens - how is it?