album review: 'oklahoma lottery' by karen jonas

So here's a problem in the internet age that only critics will really complain about: with the advent of iTunes and Bandcamp, it has become very easy for a lot of music to be released independently - which, more often than not, is a very good thing, as it allows the artists to retain their unique sound and flavour and not get hammered into a marketable brand by the label system. But what it also means is that if I only covered new releases that showed up on Bandcamp and released reviews 365 days a year, I would still fall even more hopelessly behind than I already am.

As such, when an act from the independent country scene that I've never heard of starts to get some serious critical acclaim, I take notice, especially when I start to hear one of her biggest selling points is her songwriting. This takes us to Karen Jonas from Fredericksburg, Virginia and her debut album Oklahoma Lottery. Apparently, she has less of a web presence than I do - which, for an indie act building buzz, is a little startling - but then again, it's a little more excusable than mainstream country acts that have the same problem. And as always, I tempered my expectations: even though one of my top albums of the year thus far is the Texas indie country release Daylight & Dark by Jason Eady, I'm also very conscious of the fact that critics can tend to upsell indie acts that catch them by surprise. It's a natural human instinct, and sometimes it can eclipse critical thought and analysis. So with that in mind, I bought Oklahoma Lottery from Bandcamp and gave it my due: did Karen Jonas deliver?

video review: 'salad days' by mac demarco

Honestly, I thought I'd skip this review, but it turns out I had enough to talk about in this review.

Okay, next up... huh, not sure yet. Stay tuned, you'll see!

album review: 'salad days' by mac demarco

One of the biggest tropes in comedy is observational humour. You know the stuff, the material that fills the acts of the late George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, and Louis C.K.. The moment-by-moment notes about the little things in life in life that are quirky or odd or out-of-place, the things that might seem inessential until you dig into the reasons why we do them. And this sort of observational style shows up in other art as well, for obvious reasons: observing the normal world around you allows outlets to create plenty of stories, and implying depth in said stories can take elements that everyone can relate to and make them seem a lot bigger than they are.

And I'll be honest: with few exceptions, the sort of music that works through 'observational commentary' doesn't do a lot for me, especially if the tone of said music is more muted and mundane and actively seems to avoid drama. Sure, it's often effective in creating atmosphere and critics will eat this material up for its immersive factor and its relatability, but music that coasts by on mellow observations just does not interest me, especially when the 'insights' it presents aren't remotely revelatory. And that's not saying music about suburban or rural life can't be interesting - far from it, Arcade Fire, Lorde, Sun Kil Moon, and a whole slew of country artists have proven that wrong time and time again - but a slice of that sort of life without deeper commentary or insight often for me comes across as small-minded, bland, and rather pretentious.

And really, that was my first reaction when listening to Canadian singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco's debut album 2, an album that I don't really dislike but nearly puts me to sleep every time I listen to it - which, for the record, is not a good thing. Sure, the melodic progressions were interesting and the production was pretty solid, but with the too-smooth guitar tones, DeMarco's half-stoned delivery, and the lyrics that had some decent text but sparse subtext on suburban life, I just could not get invested in that record. It might not be strictly in the 'white guy with acoustic guitar' genre, but the tone and delivery of the album definitely fell into that category in trying to come across as having depth when there really wasn't much there, either through delivery or lyrics.

So why the hell did I pick up his follow-up album Salad Days? Well, call it curiosity, if you want, because buzz was suggesting this would be the album where the 'laid back bro grows up'. Now this was the same defense I heard used for the new Real Estate album, but given DeMarco's taste for weird melody lines, I had the hope that something on this record might be able to grip me - was I right?

video review: 'head or heart' by christina perri

Well, this took longer than I expected to get out. Glad to see it.

Next up, hmm... Dan + Shay, Lacuna Coil, Mac Demarco, Cloud Nothings, or that apparently amazing album from Karen Jonas. We'll see, stay tuned!

album review: 'head or heart' by christina perri

I've got a complicated relationship with Christina Perri.

Hell, I could make the argument I have a complicated relationship with the entire genre of piano-inspired adult alternative / pop rock - as in, I tend to be more forgiving of it than the male counterparts on acoustic guitars. I cannot in good faith say that everything in this genre is good or works consistently, but when you have artists that manage to come up with some imagination or unique framing or emotionally compelling performances, I'm normally pretty supportive. And thus, acts like Adele, A Fine Frenzy, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, and to a lesser extent Vanessa Carlton and Regina Spektor do manage to work for me more often than they don't.

And at first listen, Christina Perri was on that list too, and I distinctly remember liking 'Jar Of Hearts' more than I didn't back in 2011. But then I listened to that debut album and my liking for her as a performer nose-dived in record time. Like it or not, Perri's greatest strength on her better songs was her emotional vulnerability, but it wasn't long before I noticed that her lyrics frequently approached hyperbole and sophomoric whining. And given she wasn't exactly an impressive instrumentalist, it consigned large chunks of her material to being less compelling and more intolerably tedious. And really, it made all too much sense for 'A Thousand Years' to be attached to the Twilight franchise because it was a song so shallow and bereft of maturity that it made perfect sense to be attached to Stephenie Meyer's masturbation fantasy. So I put Christina Perri out of my mind, resolving that I'd come back when she put out another album and hoping that she might have grown up in the mean time, so when Head Or Heart came out this year, I gave it a few listens. How did it go?

video review: 'forcefield' by tokyo police club

Honestly, didn't expect to get this much material out of this album, so a nice pleasant surprise.

Okay, juggling a couple of different discographies right now, so I'll start with someone easy: Christina Perri! Oh joy...

album review: 'forcefield' by tokyo police club

It's been a while since I talked about Canadian music - so let's change that, shall we?

Specifically, we're going to be talking about the Canadian rock scene, indie or otherwise. The fun fact is that when you move away from the post-grunge scene towards more of the pop/indie rock vibe, there are some really high quality bands. For one, I'm a big fan of Marianas Trench and their intricate pop opera brand of songwriting, to say nothing of great hooks, solid melodies, and at least two incredibly solid albums. On the other hand you have an act like Metric who I also really like - oddly, for a lot of the same reasons: great hooks, solid melody lines, and reasonably good songwriting.

And I think at the intersection of these two, I would place Tokyo Police Club, a band that might call themselves indie rock, but does share a lot of traits with pop rock acts. While they might have a bit of a rougher sound, their lyrics are decidedly lodged in the overly verbose, almost naive landscape of emo pop rock that got popular in the mid-2000s. And while I wouldn't say they're as strong songwriters or musicians as either Metric or Marianas Trench, Tokyo Police Club for me are the definition of a good rock band: good hooks, decent vocals, occasionally interesting lyrics, and a strong pop sensibility both in theme and in execution. And it's really that pop sensibility that's defined the band for me, as there has been a progression towards an indie pop level of polish and lightweight energy that has given them more staying power than anyone would have expected from their early years.

And thus, I was interested enough in their newest album Forcefield, which early buzz was suggesting was even more geared towards a mainstream pop audience, especially with the chart success of certain indie rock acts these days. What did I find?

video review: 'shine' by anette olzon

Glad I got this out. Think I might be one of the few critics who bothered to look at this, and that's a bit of a shame, because it was pretty good.

Next up, Tokyo Police Club. After that, I'll start tackling the April releases, like Dan & Shay, Lacuna Coil, Mac DeMarco, and Cloud Nothings, plus a few more. Stay tuned!

album review: 'shine' by anette olzon

Let me take you back seven years, when word first broke that the symphonic metal band Nightwish had hired a new lead singer - the former frontwoman of Alyson Avenue, Anette Olzon.

And at that moment, the Nightwish fanbase split into three distinct parts. The first were the fans of Tarja Turunen, who were incensed that she had been fired and took a while to come around to the new singer, if they did at all. The second were pro-Anette, embraced the rougher, looser tone Nightwish took with their next two albums, and really enjoyed her more dynamic stage presence. And the third group - where I would count myself - realized that Nightwish had always been the brainchild of keyboardist and songwriter Tuomas Holopainen and the band was still capable of making great music regardless of the lead singer. And with that in mind, acknowledging the change in direction, I like music that was made by both incarnations of the band.

Now fast-forward to October of 2012, where the news broke mid-tour that Anette Olzon had been dismissed from Nightwish and had been replaced by the female singers from tourmates Kamelot and later by Floor Jansen. I'm not going to get into the back-and-forth drama of the whole endeavour, but I will say this: from what I know of Tuomas and the way he runs Nightwish, I was disappointed, but not surprised. But just like Tarja had done ahead of her, Anette Olzon made the choice to strike out on her own and release a solo album - and I did not expect much. Let's face it, it took Tarja three albums to hammer out a working formula,  and Anette had never been responsible for any of Nightwish's songwriting. Furthermore, the buzz was suggesting this album wasn't a metal or even a hard rock record like she made with either of her previous bands, so I wasn't sure what to expect. So how was Shine?

special comment: the finale of 'how i met your mother' - a response (VIDEO)

The more I think about this resolution to this TV series, the less I like it. That's telling.

Okay, I needed to get that emergency out of the way, Anette Olzon's coming up soon, stay tuned!

special comment: the finale of 'how i met your mother' - a response

I've been watching How I Met Your Mother since Season 3. I didn't get on board straight away because it reminded me of Friends and I've never been able to stomach that show. And since then, for nine seasons, I've watched the show and rewatched the show time and time again. I know some of the classic episodes beat-for-beat. I've laughed, I've cried, I've cheered and defended this show even in the seasons I saw it circling the drain - which, namely, was Season 5, because despite the Zoe arc in Season 6, there were moments in that season that had emotional pathos and goddamn it, I bought it.

And then we had Season 9, the season encapsulating just a few days of Barney and Robin's wedding - and I'll be honest, despite the gimmicky nature of some of the episodes and the reliance on callbacks that has become more of a crutch for this show year after year than a strength, I was on board. Some of the callbacks felt like the payoff of seasons of build-up, emotional and character arcs that lasted for years and finally met their righteous ending. I'm not going to lie, there were moments that were glorious and well-earned and I even bought into Robin and Barney as a couple, the two who had always been the most deeply broken inside and how they made each other stronger as they stayed together. 

And there were telegraphed moments throughout that season that built to the finale tonight. Going in, I had a feeling in my gut that there was tragedy in the future. I didn't know if the mother was going to live - I assumed she wasn't, it was obviously telegraphed - and honestly, I expected Ted could have been dead, and he's retracing the moments of his life that led up that climax, and how everything else didn't matter as he faced Purgatory or whatever. That would have given some real weight to the moment when Ted meets the Mother, the high point, the climax, the moment for which we've been waiting. And it would have been devilishly charming if it had ended at that moment, a quiet moment of anticlimax that would have been goddamn beautiful and earned.

The finale went in a different direction. And I will say this: on paper, the majority of makes sense. Friends, even as tightly knit as these have been, drift apart. If you have kids, you'll go weeks or months or years without seeing people. If you're on an insane travel schedule, marriages will fracture, especially when both partners are as driven and free-spirited as the two in question. And when that happens, people regress until they make stupid decisions and are forced to turn their lives around. And spouses die, and eventually, it's believable that you might return to that old flame that you've nurtured in the back of your heart year after year after year. From a position of human drama, I buy everything that happened in the finale of How I Met Your Mother - on paper.

The reason the finale does not work - and really does impressive amounts of damage to the show's many dramatic arcs as a whole - is entirely a matter of tone. And you know, tone is a tricky thing, especially when you're working with footage cobbled together for years and you've had the finale lodged in your mind almost a decade since the very first episode. And here, the misunderstanding of tone is mindboggling - because in the writers' minds, it's always been about Ted and Robin. It's the central locus, the primary element since the pilot that has defined this show - and really, it's never been about the Mother.

It was that pilot in the mind of the writers when they wrote the finale. It's just a shame they didn't consider all the other elements they had brought in, and for a show with this sort of storied history, it's amazing how much they forgot and disregarded to create this finale, most specifically the final moments.

video review: 'pulses' by karmin

Damn, I wish this had been better.

Before the deluge of April releases, I need to take care of some unfinished business, so Anette Olzon and Tokyo Police Club reviews are coming soon - so stay tuned!

album review: 'pulses' by karmin

Well, this is awkward.

See, initially I didn't want to cover this album and for good reason. For one, the reviews from other outlets did not look close to good and believe it or not, I don't like giving negative reviews. It's that same sort of logic that normally keeps me from reviewing true genre trainwrecks if I don't have anything new to say about them - except, well, with country, but that's only because I'm still the only country music critic on YouTube and somebody has to cover them.

But with Karmin, it's a little more complicated - because, like me, they got their start on YouTube, as a upstart duo making pop videos and covers. I'll admit I didn't watch the material on their channel, but I knew they had an upbeat sensibility and a certain self-deprecating goofiness about them that did redeem some of their material. On the other hand, the stuff I did hear from them wasn't great, and I wasn't really a fan of either 'Brokenhearted' or 'Hello', the former which struck me as a Katy Perry wannabe pop track and the latter which bungled a chord progression that sounded way too much like 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' to be ignored. 

And thus, when I heard they got a major label deal and were dropping a new album with plenty of new pop collaborators, I felt a little uneasy about covering Karmin with my typical reviewing style, especially when some of the early reviews were less than complimentary. On the one hand, YouTube is a community and the odds that they might see my review are higher than most, and in the spirit of that community, any review I'd drop might hit closer to home. But on the other hand, I've got my integrity as a critic, and just because they started on the same platform doesn't mean they don't deserve the same level of analysis or scrutiny. And so with that in mind, I cautiously picked up Pulses and steeled myself for whatever might come - how's the album?

video review: 'piñata' by freddie gibbs & madlib

Man, I needed this album. After a tumultuous week of reviews, this was a good breath of fresh air.

Next up, the insanity resumes with Tokyo Police Club and Anette Olzon, to say nothing of whatever is getting released in April. But first, since you all requested it... Pulses, by Karmin. Stay tuned!

album review: 'piñata' by madlib & freddie gibbs

So here's a complaint that only a music critic will ever make: if you want to come across as remotely knowledgeable as a critic, you'll need to have listened to a lot of music.

Now that's not a bad thing by any stretch, especially considering listening to the greats of any genre is often very rewarding. But at the same time, if you want to come across as any sort of expert - and let's face it, most music critics do - you accumulate a pretty impressive backlog very quickly, especially if you talk about more than one genre. And listening to greatest hits albums doesn't cut it - assuming you've already listened to the essential discographies, your next criterion is to tackle all of the music that might be critically acclaimed within the genre, and not just what got popular. In other words, there's a reason why my backlog is now longer than my entire music collection - and that's just the stuff I know about, and it's not including all the new material I need to listen through this year.

Fortunately, it's always something of a relief whenever a new record comes out by an artist who falls into the critically acclaimed category, because now I can tackle two birds with one stone: review a brand new album and take the excuse to visit the works of artists in my backlog under the pretense of 'research' and 'appropriate context'. And since this album is a collaboration, I get to tackle two artists in question, which is even better! The first you should all know: DJ and hit producer Madlib, responsible for some of the most critically acclaimed collaborations in the underground, most notably with MF Doom for the classic album Madvillainy, which showcased his love for great beats, offkilter 70s blaxploitation samples, and a decidedly unique sound rooted in the fusion between over-the-top kitsch and gangsta grime. The second is Freddie Gibbs, who signed to Interscope in 2006 before leaving the label and becoming an underground star in the mixtape scene, where he developed a reputation as a great technical gangsta rapper with an unfortunate habit of retreading similar ground over and over again. And having relistened to his debut album ESGN, it wasn't exactly an unfair assessment: Gibbs' standard methodology for his rapping was as a thug with a conscience, and that's always a tough balancing act to maintain. And thus, I was intrigued to check out their collaboration, for at least at first, it seemed like an odd fit - how did it go?

video review: 'my krazy life' by yg

Well, I'm glad I got that out of my system.

Okay, next up is Madlib & Freddie Gibbs and Pinata. Stay tuned!

album review: 'my krazy life' by yg

I was going to skip this album.

And honestly, on first look, could you have blamed me? I've said a number of times in the past that the current crop of gangsta rappers have rarely interested me if they don't do something fresh with the formula, and YG looked like the poster child of not only cementing himself to that formula, but doing it worse than everyone else combined. Frankly, I was shocked to see him with a new album at all - for a rapper who built the first steps of his career off of the oh-so classy track 'Toot It And Boot It', I thought we had consigned him to the same memory hole in which we dumped Chingy, Mims, and Soulja Boy.

But then I thought to myself, 'Mark, get your head out of your ass, just because it's superficial and dumb party bangers doesn't mean they have to be bad, and it's not like all the material in this genre is stuff you dislike'. And to a point, that's true - I'll admit I've got a soft spot for certain brands of dumb gangsta rap, particularly in the crunk vein that was popular in the early-to-mid 2000s. But I guess some of my unironic liking for acts like Ludacris and especially Lil Jon came from the fact that what they didn't have in intelligence they made up in explosive, high-energy beats or solid technical rapping or even just an ability to go over the top with a populist vibe that can suck you in - call it the Andrew W.K. methodology, if you will. And yet with YG, his main collaborating producer is DJ Mustard, a producer who has already picked up a bad reputation in the hip-hop community for making sterile, lifeless beats that aren't all that interesting. 

In other words, the only reason why I'm covering this at all is because critical outlets that I normally respect started throwing scores that seemed suspiciously high at this album, so maybe I was presumptuous and missed something. And to give YG some credit, he did say he was drawing more inspiration from the 90s G-funk scene, most of which I do like, so I gave this album a couple of listens - how was it?

video review: 'high noon' by jerrod niemann

Ugh, I had no assumptions this would be good, but I didn't expect it to be this bad.

Up next... okay, look, I'll get Madllib & Freddie Gibbs, but this YG phenomenon needs to be explained before I start hitting fellow critics with lead pipes. Stay tuned, this might get messy.

album review: 'high noon' by jerrod niemann

Do you guys remember back when I reviewed the Eli Young Band that I said there was just a period of time I wasn't listening to much country music outside of the material that hit the charts? Well, even with that scant knowledge, I had no idea who Jerrod Niemann was before starting to research this album - and he had a number one country single that actually briefly landed on the pop charts! 

That was the first warning sign I got when I started going through Niemann's discography and those hit singles. Signed to Sea Gayle/Arista Nashville, a label co-owned by Brad Paisley, Jerrod Niemann released his major label debut in 2010 and it's not hard to see some of Paisley's influences on that album - it was silly, hopelessly corny country music, but it wasn't offensive. But then again, I'd have a hard time calling it interesting or all that distinctive either - outside some of the comedy bits and the fact that Niemann had an agreeable voice, I'd have a hard time picking him out of a line-up of other good time country singers. And it looked like the general public agreed, as his second album did have greater musical flavour and diversity, but not a lot else especially in the breezy songwriting to really give Niemann a lot of distinctive staying power. He reminded a lot of Jake Owen, except Owen always seemed to have more charisma or maybe better songwriters.

And thus, I can't exactly say I was enthused to listen to Jerrod Niemann's third album High Noon, especially off of his lead single 'Drink To That All Night', which featured the twin cardinal sins of bro-country in bad low-key rapping and auto-tune, and none of the instrumental diversity or humour that at least made Jerrod Niemann remotely distinctive. And thus, I wasn't looking forward to covering this album but I figured I owed him at least one chance to really surprise me. How did it go?

video review: 'shakira' by shakira

Damn, I wish this album was better. Eh, it happens.

Next up... yes, I'll will be covering 'Pinata' by Madlib & Freddie Gibbs, but I need a little more time to truly process it, so it'll probably be Jerrod Niemann next. Stay tuned!