Recognizing that the pace of posting here is unlikely to give me a chance to issue full reviews of records that didn’t quite tickle my fancy, here’s a short post to offer a one or two line review of a variety of good records that I just wish had managed to be a little bit better.
Efterklang – Magic Chairs
Their last record inspired dreams of magic and danger; this one reminds me of the kind of dreams you get when sleeping in an uncomfortable airplane seat. You’re happy to be sleeping, but it’s still more a facsimile than the real thing.
Shout Out Louds – Work
It’s got 5 or 6 pretty nice songs, but it’s still a disappointment how restrained and tepid it feels compared to their previous one. The whole thing is immaculately constructed, but it feels a bit like a toy train set just going in circles.
The Apples in Stereo – Travellers in Space and Time
What you’d get if you baked a loaf of bread but used sugar instead of salt.
Cloud Cult – Light Chasers
The Mission – Unexplainable Stories
They can still write a great tune, but are quickly falling into an abyss of preciousness. It’s really a shame to see glimpses of what went into making one of my all-time favorite records a couple of albums back strewn in the midst of embarrassing autotune effects.
Eels – End Times
Oh Mark Everett, why have you forsaken me? Eels were one of my all-time favorite bands a decade ago, but it’s getting to the point I don’t even bother to listen to them any more. This one is a bit of a return to form, but it’s just too dreary to give me much. Back in the day, Eels records tore my world apart. This one just makes me glum.
jj – n° 3
I’m so close to getting this one. It’s just a little bit too geometrical for me to process.
Josh Ritter – So Runs the World Away
He’s got a couple VERY nice tunes but–sort of like Cloud Cult–seems to be getting a bit too enraptured with himself (and an ill-fated pseudo-hard guy persona that ruins a couple tracks) to be able to turn out another record like The Animal Years. “Folk Bloodbath” is right up there with his very best work, though. It’s big and beautiful and scarring in all the best ways. It’s the sort of song that asks for, and deserves, your full attention.
The Kissaway Trail – Sleep Mountain
They went for big and bold. They pretty successfully manage the former but come up a bit short on the latter. The first four tracks are great, but it tails off quite a bit from there.
Ted Leo – The Brutalist Bricks
No real surprises–it’s a Ted Leo record. Maybe even one of his better records. I just can’t get into it. Dunno.
Again, none of these are bad records. I’ve listened to them all a decent amount. They’re just all flawed in some unfortunate ways–because there are elements in each that gestures toward what could have been. I can see each of them being a big hit for someone who gets a little something different. So they get a tentative Heartache With Hard Work seal of approval.
That’s kind of been the theme for the whole year, though. Even the records that I’ve really enjoyed (posts forthcoming for many of these) include a ton of not-quite-as-good-as-their-last-one albums. Stars, Frightened Rabbit, New Pornographers, Antarctica Takes It!, Gaslight Anthem, Magnetic Fields, etc. All great albums, but none of them the best from those bands.
Sorry for a slight downer of a post. I’ll try to get some more enthusiastic stuff up here soon!