album review: 'everything will be alright in the end' by weezer

It's almost a cliche these days to begin a Weezer review talking about Pinkerton. Because let's be honest, it's an album that took Rivers Cuomo's band into a dark place that split critics and sent fans away in droves. Sure, the album is praised as a classic now, but it sure as hell wasn't when it was released, featuring abrasive production that some sardonic critics branded 'Pavement-lite' and lyrics that went to the uncomfortable dark recesses of Cuomo's mind, with all of its depression, absentee father figures, and myriad fears and insecurities about women. Coming off of The Blue Album, it was a massive change in focus, but keep in mind this was also 1996. Sure, the emo crowd of the time embraced Pinkerton, but the mainstream fans that came for 'Say It Ain't So' and 'Buddy Holly' and instead got 'El Scorcho' and 'Pink Triangle'? Once again, 1996 - even the Brit power pop of Oasis and Blur wasn't getting this explicit or off-kilter, and in a situation where the paradigm was shifting from Nirvana to Aqua, Pinkerton was unlike anything else. 

And its failure crushed Rivers Cuomo. He bared his soul to the world and the world spat in his face, so after a five year hiatus the band came back with the Green Album and the change was stark. Not only were the heavy shields of irony in place, but the loss of Matt Sharp's subtle bass harmonies and lighter than ever production meant the songs were all the more ephemeral and empty. For as good of a songwriter as Rivers Cuomo is - and let's make this clear, he can write great melody lines and is a solid songwriter in terms of lyrical poetry - but it was a mask. And nowhere was that more vivid than 'Beverly Hills', the successful Weezer comeback single that owed its airplay to the pop rock boom and nothing else because that song is one monster riff and that's it. It's a shockingly empty song - empty of ideas and soul, two things that Weezer used to have in spades. And from there, the next slew of Weezer albums fell into that mold, with only occasional flashes of brilliance to sustain the band as their output petered out at the end of the decade.

And so I wasn't exactly surprised to see that Weezer was returning to the original well for their newest album Everything Will Be Alright In The End, a title making a statement to both Weezer fans and critics, the latter of whom had more than their fair share of reasons to be skeptical. And I have to admit, it was really damn hard to work up any excitement about a new Weezer record, even despite the reassurances from the band that 'No, really, it's going to be more like Pinkerton!' I hate to say this, but I'm not looking for another Pinkerton so much as I'm looking for Rivers Cuomo to actually say something that comes from some place real and not just empty artifice. Did that happen?

video review: 'old boots, new dirt' by jason aldean

Well, I needed to get this out of the way... and it was actually better than I expected! Go figure.

Okay, next up is Weezer, so stay tuned!

album review: 'old boots, new dirt' by jason aldean

I haven't been looking forward to doing this review.

Now some of you are probably scratching your heads and wondering, 'Wait, this is Jason Aldean, one of the biggest country stars in the industry. And not only that, he did it by not grafting himself to a major label, instead sticking with the indie label Broken Bow Records, and he's a major success for nearly a decade with massive sales!'

And all of that is completely true... and yet, Jason Aldean has never really been a country star that has interested or impressed me, even at his best. Even though he's on an independent label, he uses the same Nashville songwriting machine that many of his major label counterparts do, and with his thinner voice halfway between Eric Church and Brantley Gilbert, I wasn't really immediately gripped by him as a performer, even if I did occasionally like the rougher edges of his production. It didn't help matters that he tended to have really poor choices for singles: his biggest off of his debut was 'Why' which paired a decent melody with a self-aggrandizing message of why he treats his girlfriend like garbage. He hit a stronger side with the southern-rock tinged 'Johnny Cash', but it's on that song where my other issue with a lot of Jason Aldean's work surface - his production always seemed a little flat and colourless to me. Not his melodic compositions, those were often pretty solid, but his guitar tones and compositions always felt a little dreary, especially with Aldean's lack of a real sense of humor. It definitely did not help matters that as the 2000s ended, Aldean fell into a lot of the southern pandering with songs like 'Flyover States' that always set my teeth on edge.

And then came 2010's My Kinda Party, and the song that would redefine Aldean's career for the worse: 'Dirt Road Anthem', a slow-paced slog of a country rap song that featured Ludacris near the tail end of his commercial success and Jason Aldean rapping with no energy or passion whatsoever, and also managed to land on my list of the Top Ten Worst Hit Songs of 2011. Yeah, his duet with Kelly Clarkson 'Don't You Wanna Stay' was good enough, but as Jason Aldean got bigger, his songs and public persona got less likable. 2012's Night Train brought in more aggressive and macho country-rap inspired tracks like the Luke Bryan and Eric Church collaboration 'The Only Way I Know' and the absolute atrocity '1994', and while songs like 'Night Train' felt sincere and catered well to Aldean's female fanbase, they didn't really stand out for me. And combined with a recent Billboard magazine cover story that only seemed to highlight his aggressive frustration for being one of the acts responsible for triggering all the elements of bro-country that piss me off: the macho posturing, the bad rapping, the inert 'rock-inspired' production, basically a country-flavoured brand of hair metal minus the cheesiness or shredding riffs... well, Jason Aldean did not put forward a good picture. 

And yet with 'Burnin' It Down', the opening single from Jason Aldean's newest album Old Boots, New Dirt, I didn't know what to expect for this new record, so while I didn't expect to like it, I figured that at least he was trying something different, right?

video review: 'bringing back the sunshine' by blake shelton

Goddamn it, as a fan, I wish this album was better... gah.

Okay, next is probably Weezer. Stay tuned!

album review: 'bringing back the sunshine' by blake shelton

You know, the more you think about it, the more Blake Shelton looks like one of the luckiest guys in country music - because at first or even a second look, his career should have ended years ago.

And that's not a slam against him, but as country music has evolved over the past decade, Blake Shelton has managed to ride the wave with uncanny ability. He started off the very viable 'easy listening country' mold with his debut in 2001, with the added benefit of having a few killer singles like 'Austin' to get his career going. From there, he coasted into rowdier material as the 2000s continued on, toeing the line between Toby Keith and Tim McGraw. And while he definitely racked up a fair share of hits on country radio, the mainstream didn't embrace him in the same way, and as the decade wore on, Blake Shelton seemed to fade into the background. So in a move that in all fairness should not have worked as well as it did, he signed on to be a judge on a little singing competition on NBC called The Voice.

And almost overnight, Blake Shelton rocketed back into the starlight, and it's fairly easy to see why. Tim McGraw's career on Curb Records was sputtering, country had never been as ready for his brand of slick, well-produced music that could be corny as hell but was backed with real charisma, and The Voice did a lot to enhance his profile. Coupled with a marriage to the more talented and interesting Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton seemed to have all his stars aligned.

Then came his 2013 album Based On A True Story... and that big hit single 'Boys 'Round Here', and it was the crossover smash for which Blake Shelton had been waiting. Even though that album really wasn't all that far removed from his typical midtempo material, Shelton latched onto the bro-country wagon for a monster single, and coupled with the fact he shot his mouth off on the subject more than he should, he seemingly became one of the biggest symbols of Nashville's embrace of bro-country overnight. 

But now it's 2014, the bro-country well has seemingly run dry, and while Blake Shelton was able to smoothly pivot back to his usual material, it left me curious where the hell he was going with his career. Let's face it, Blake Shelton isn't exactly a trailblazer in country, and with the country sound fragmenting even further, where did Shelton take his newest record Bringing Back The Sunshine?

video review: 'too bright' by perfume genius

Man, this was something special. Seriously, listen to this, it's damn near unearthly.

Okay, next up will probably be Blake Shelton, but you never know. Stay tuned!

album review: 'too bright' by perfume genius

Okay, when you become a music critic, you eventually realize that outside of the generally accepted musical acts that everyone is expected to know, there's also a list of critically acclaimed independent singer-songwriters that are beloved by huge chunks of the critical public, and yet your average music fan will never have heard of the majority of these acts. And in this case, there's a reason why they have never received the slightest bit of mainstream airplay - they're weird, they write uncomfortable songs with offbeat subject matter, they opt for eclectic instrumentation or production that is used to enhance the song's atmosphere over what many would deem traditionally accessible. 

In other words, they fall into a category I like to call Pitchfork Approved Singer-Songwriters, or PASS for short, indicative of the common and frequently unfair response from everyone else. It might be hard for most to understand why critics love these acts, especially when they frequently display less polish, cohesion, or even visible talent in comparison with most, and thus it becomes a bit of a balancing act to sort out those who who might deserve said acclaim and those who can just play to that critical audience's sensibilities exceptionally well. 

Perfume Genius definitely falls into that category. The stage name for Seattle-based singer-songwriter and baroque pop artist Mike Hadreas, Perfume Genius broke into the indie scene with Learning in 2010, a gorgeously melodic record full of lo-fi fuzz, rattling pianos, and uncomfortably explicit songs that didn't shy away from controversial subject matter. And I get why he got the critical acclaim he did: despite the fact he wasn't a stellar pianist or singer, Hadreas brought a warmth and raw honesty to his material that felt authentic and real and balanced the real darkness in his songs quite well, filled with little details that really set a vivid scene and left plenty unspoken in the subtext. Now the risk with this sort of material is that the quickest way to raise the stakes is to go darker which can be an even trickier tonal balance, but Perfume Genius went in a different direction, instead exposing more vulnerability and more complicated portraits on his second album Put Your Back N 2 It, an album that wouldn't be out-of-place in today's indie scene with its cleaner production, focus on reverb, and heavier percussion - and like Lykke Li who would follow him, he made it work because of a continued focus on melody above all else even as the instrumentation got slightly more diverse. And with songs like the damn near transcendent title track, it's no surprise the album got the acclaim - it deserved it.

And so now he's back with his third album Too Bright - would Perfume Genius be able to sustain his streak and sound, even as the indie scene has gotten more crowded with artists in his vein?

video review: '747' by lady antebellum

Well, that was fun in an odd sort of way. 

Okay, next up will probably be Perfume Genius. Stay tuned!

album review: '747' by lady antebellum

I'm starting to get the impression nobody in Lady Antebellum has the slightest damn clue what they're doing.

Now I've talked about this band when I reviewed their album 'Golden' and much of that review was monopolized by the comparisons to Fleetwood Mac that everyone seems to place on this band. And the more I examined the comparisons, the less they seemed to fit - sure, the bands did a fair bit with the interplay between male and female singers, and yeah, they did start with a certain rough-edged authentic power before sliding towards a more pop-friendly direction. But Fleetwood Mac had a loose, rougher edge and they occasionally got weirder with albums like Tusk, a brand of off-beat weirdness that Lady Antebellum will never embrace, given their tendency for more traditional and safe subject matter and slick pop-friendly hooks and production while still staying firmly lodged in the relative security of country music acts like Little Big Town or The Band Perry. 

...or at least that was what I thought was going to happen. The thing is that while Lady Antebellum have always firmly been lodged in pop country, the band has been looking more and more towards pop with every single since Golden with 'Downtown' and 'Compass', definitely a firm cry from their more reserved material like 'Need You Now'. And with the pseudo-rap delivery and very pop production of their leadoff single 'Bartender', I wasn't sure what to expect with their newest album 747, especially considering the lack of producer Paul Worley and frequent cowriter Eric Paslay, the latter being one of the biggest songwriting talents in country music right now. But I figured that Lady Antebellum has always delivered some measure of quality, so 747 was probably worth the look, right?

video review: 'tomorrow's modern boxes' by thom yorke

Well, Perfume Genius was supposed to be here, but let's just say it hadn't synced properly on my iPod, which meant I needed to take a look at one of the other albums I needed to cover anyways. Can only imagine how contentious this review will be...

Okay, not sure next, because there's a couple country records dropping that I want to space out. Stay tuned!

album review: 'tomorrow's modern boxes' by thom yorke

It's been a really long time since I've talked about Radiohead in any capacity, the critical darling of so many music critics, Starting off in alternative rock in the early 90s, they quickly dove into the off-beat land of chilly electronica on latter albums that would proceed to influence thousands of artists for the next several years... and I'll admit right now that they're one of many bands that I can definitely respect without really liking. 

And most of my frustrations with Radiohead circle back to Thom Yorke. It's been a slow process, but for the most part I've gotten over most of my issues with his vocal delivery, even though I'd never say he's one of my favourite singers. But I've always found him a more interesting singer in alternative rock instead of electronica, which has meant that many of his experiments in that direction have left me a little cold, either with Radiohead, with his side project Atoms For Piece who dropped their debut Amok last year, and on his solo projects. The odd thing is that Yorke is an expressive vocalist and much of his lyrics tend to fall into the same category, but when paired with such stiff, regimented electronics, the contrast can come across as jarring, and not in a good way. And yeah, I get why Thom Yorke does it - as a singer and performer, he's always seemed distinctly uncomfortable in the presence of other human beings and that angst informs a lot of his material - but it has never quite clicked for me.

That being said, I was curious to check out his surprise album Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, released via Bittorrent a few days ago. After all, despite my general antipathy towards Yorke, he is one of the more influential artists in the electronic sides of rock these days, so I downloaded the album and gave it several listens - what did I get?

video review: 'queen of the clouds' by tove lo

So apparently the upload failed in the middle of the night, and I was long asleep. Figures. In any case, it's a pretty solid review, generally happy with this one.

Okay, next up is Perfume Genius, so stay tuned!

video review: 'manipulator' by ty segall

First review of tonight, and it's pretty damn solid, definitely like and recommend it.

Tove Lo review coming momentarily, stay tuned!

album review: 'queen of the clouds' by tove lo

So as the end of the Billboard year approaches in a few months, many music critics, particularly those of us who cover pop music, are starting to formulate their ending pieces for the year - and like always, this involves many of us looking back to put things in the larger context of history. And inevitably this means placing 2014 in comparison to 2013 and asking the question of what changed?

Because really, there was a lot of change. 2012 saw the indie boom and the death of the club boom, but 2013 was a transitional, cacophonous mess, with the exploding swell of bro-country, the retro-disco revival, rap's return to trap music, and mainstream rock doing precisely nothing on the Hot 100 if your band wasn't named Imagine Dragons. But more specifically, 2013 was the year where pop music adopted some element of self-awareness and began actively criticizing itself, and it led to the breakout success of Macklemore and especially Lorde. And while we really haven't seen many repeats of Macklemore's formula - mostly because a white, socially conscious rapper who has no idea how to properly manage his social conscience is a hard thing to replicate - I knew it was only a matter of time before Lorde's self-awareness would bleed over into mainstream pop music.

And sure enough, it happened. 2014 has been a slicker, intentionally more reserved year than 2013, with the mainstream success of neo-soul, folktronica, and the collapse of bro-country. And sure, the success of Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalea, and Taylor Swift meant that straightforward pop wasn't dead, but along the margins you got songs like Sia's 'Chandelier', a song about drinking away one's emptiness that sounded way more desperate than you'd normally hear on the pop charts, a critique of the club boom anthems written from the inside.

Enter Tove Lo, Swedish pop singer-songwriter who has written songs for Icona Pop, Girls Aloud, Cher Lloyd, and Lea Michele before breaking into pop with her own hit 'Habits (Stay High)', an impressively bleak song about Tove Lo self-destructing in drugs, alcohol, and random sexual encounters. And while both 'Habits (Stay High)' and 'Chandelier' play in the same emotional playground of desperate, hyperbolic emptiness, the more personal stakes and greater detail of Tove Lo's song gripped me a fair bit more, and I made sure to pick up her album Queen Of The Clouds, which buzz suggested was fairly ambitious in terms of scope and songwriting. So I gave some attention: what did I find?

album review: 'manipulator' by ty segall

Occasionally you see people working the music industry who generate an insane amount of music. They've got work ethics like none other, they drop albums every year, they write perform and even collaborate and seem to do it all. And it's even rarer to find acts who can maintain some vestige of consistent quality along the way, because let's be honest, if you continue churning out material, eventually you're going to slip up. And for some critics, it becomes something of a waiting game, eager if you're not a fan or nervous if you are. 

And if you're a fan of lo-fi indie garage rock, the name that leaps to the top of your list would be Ty Segall. Originating from San Francisco, he's managed to drop a frankly astounding number of records, collaborations, and projects since 2005 - and the amazing fact is that the majority of the albums are pretty damn solid, be it on his own, with his band, or with Fuzz, Mikal Cronin, and White Fence. And that's not counting the truly excellent records he's released, the most notable being the noisy and aggressive Slaughterhouse with the Ty Segall Band in 2012.

Now in recent years, some of the darker edges of the 60s blues and psychedelic rock have bled into Segall's work, which coalesced most on 2013's Sleeper, a more acoustic leaning album that showed consistency but didn't always click for me. That's more because the quieter focus meant more emphasis on the lyrics, which have probably been my one big hangup with Ty Segall. Now he's not a bad lyricist, per se, but a lot of his songwriting has fallen into his brand of simple and aggressive self-deprecation that can lack nuance. And that can work when you're playing fuzz-saturated raucous guitars and howling into the microphone - not everyone is trying to be Perfect Pussy, after all - but a more acoustic ambiance naturally draws more focus to the songwriting.

That said, Ty Segall's music has steadily been becoming more polished with every release, and with early reviews suggesting his new album Manipulator was his most lush, expansive, and long to date, I wasn't sure what to expect. So what did I get?

video review: 'pale communion' by opeth

Finally, took way too long to get to this album, but I'm happy I got to it. 

In any case, next up will either be Ty Segall or one of the many records dropping next week - it's going to be crazy. Stay tuned!

album review: 'pale communion' by opeth

There are certain metal and rock bands that are tricky to talk about - and you wouldn't think, upon first glimpse, that Opeth would fall under that banner. Beginning with some well-received records in the 90s, they eventually would explode with a blend of progressive death and black metal in the late 90s and early 2000s with some of the most critically well-received metal records of the time. Hell, I'd probably go on record as saying their 1999 release Still Life is their most full-formed, cohesive, memorable, and well-written release, even more than the critically beloved Blackwater Park or the twin releases of Damnation and Deliverance, and in my opinion an all-time favourite and one of the best albums of the 90s, hands down.

But it was around that time, and especially across their following albums, that another figure comes to the spotlight: producer, singer-songwriter, and frontman of progressive rock act Porcupine Tree Steven Wilson. Now I've gone on record calling Steven Wilson the 'prog metal Kanye West', and with Opeth he found his Jay-Z - because like it or not, Opeth's work became distinctly coloured by tones that are instantly recognizable as Wilson's, which shows an impressive distinctive sound and incredible skill as a producer. Even on the albums he did not produce for the band, his influence was definitely apparent, and as the 2000s wore on, Opeth began slowly moving away from the death and black metal of their roots and towards the more progressive side. Which wasn't a problem for me - I love prog rock and metal, both on the aggressively visceral side of Mastodon and the methodical brilliance of Dream Theater - but at the same time, Opeth was one of the bands that maintained a stellar, textured balance between textured death and black metal and their more folk-inspired progressive side, to the point where I'd actually recommend Opeth as a good gateway from progressive metal into more extreme genres. And as much as I like prog rock, I'd admit to being a little disappointed to seeing that balance drop away.

In any case, after the excellent Ghost Reveries and the shakier but still good Watershed, Opeth ditched death and black metal altogether for 2011's Heritage... and it was pretty good, but not exactly great. Missing the loud-soft contrast between the heavier metal segments and the progressive rock left the album feeling a little lightweight and strangely empty, the latter being an issue with the mixing courtesy of Steven Wilson - and while I appreciate his commitment to dynamics, it probably wasn't the smartest decision to say the album was the first part of a trilogy encompassing his solo album Grace For Drowning and the self-titled Storm Corrosion debut album - I know you've collaborated with Opeth for years, but presumptuous much? The larger issue was that many of the songs felt spacious but lacking instrumentally and lyrically outside of the killer track 'Folklore'.

In other words, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with Opeth's newest album Pale Communion, but I steeled myself for the worst and gave it many listens. And now, a month late, how's the album?

video review: 'little machines' by lights

Man, I wish this record was better. I do like Lights, but this album didn't really stand out.

Okay, next up is (finally) Opeth. Stay tuned!

album review: 'little machines' by lights

The more I think about it, the more I'm surprised I didn't really get into Lights when I was at university.

I mean, at first glimpse she was the sort of act I'd typically like. Indie pop with a focus on melody, Lights sparked a lot of early comparisons with Owl City with the release of her first album The Listening in 2009, mostly for her keyboard-driven catchiness, her usage of autotune to augment the synthetic sound, her occasional song related to faith, and her lyrics that toed the line between twee and outright adolescent. In fact, it was probably that last part that kept me keeping some amount of distance - her voice had more presence and power than Owl City's, but her lyrics never quite approached the same level of cleverness that occasionally saved Owl City. And to go by that first album, it'd be very easy - and somewhat unfair - to throw the Manic Pixie Dream Girl label on Lights - emphasis on 'girl' because with songs like 'Pretend' there was a certain 'regression to childhood' tendency that had some nuance but rubbed me the wrong way, even if the ultimate message of her album did imply maturity was the natural end goal.

Well, apparently Lights wasn't a fan of those particular comparisons, because most of the cutesy image went out the window for her sophomore release Siberia, at least in terms of her instrumentation. The soft, fluttering keyboards and effects were jettisoned in favour of heavy, icy dubstep-inspired synthpop, which gave the album a darker, grittier feel - and yet for some reason, it didn't really carry over into the lyrics or Lights' presentation. If anything, despite Lights' admittedly solid grasp of interesting poetry, the subject matter felt a little more mundane and pop-friendly, lacking some of the nuance that had characterized her previous work. On top of that, Siberia has not exactly aged well - while it might have preceded the dubstep-flavour that would come into prominence in 2012, it feels very much of its time in terms of mix balance and production, and as someone who has never really been a fan of the upper-to-midrange pop brand of dubstep, it didn't always work for me.

So I have to be honest, I had no idea what to expect with Lights' newest album 'Little Machines', but I was definitely curious to find out, in addition to supporting another promising and interesting Canadian artist. So I checked out the album: what did I get?

video review: 'the big revival' by kenny chesney

Well, this gave me way more to talk about than I was expecting. Good to see that happening, even though, like with Tim McGraw, I don't expect this to get a lot of traffic.

Okay, next up will probably be Lights, but it could be Opeth or Ty Segall either, so stay tuned!