Heartache With Hard Work

My enthusiasm has slowly grown for Emma Pollock’s solo record, first reviewed here a couple months ago. I’ve found myself listening to it a lot more than I expected, including twice today. Thinking about that reminded me that I needed to post on another band in the running for best post-Delgados record of 2007: Great Northern (named, I can only assume, after the hotel in Twin Peaks). Cascading piano-guitar numbers, ethereal female vocals, epic progressions…you know the drill.

Just A Dream – Great Northern

The record is called Trading Twilight for Daylight, and it’s a very solid effort. They do occasionally overstep a bit and wander into the land of the overwrought, but for the most part they keep themselves on the right side of Coldplay. And a few tracks seem like half-finished ideas stretched desperately thin to make a four-minute song (“Home,” the plodding “City of Sleep,” and the unnecessarily long outro for “Low Is a Height,” for example). But on the whole, they deliver.

I’ve read a couple reviews of Trading Twilight for Daylight which called it overproduced. And while that criticism is fair, I don’t think it’s quite right. There’s not too much production – it’s just not always done with the right touch. Which leads me to my concluding thought: a potentially unfair frustration…

See, this is the type of record I was hoping Stars would make. Atmospheric, shimmering, epic, heart-on-sleeve dreamy pop. Which leaves me with a vague sense of loss on two counts, because not only was I unhappy with the record Stars actually produced, I’m also left to wonder what this material could have sounded like in the hands of pop-geniuses like Torquil and Amy.

The end result is two very enjoyable albums that still somehow can’t quite satisfy me.

I will always have a soft spot for quality bands from Seattle, and Throw Me the Statue are no exception.

They make music that is a whole lot of fun: combining the best of the 80s (poppy synths) with the gentle crooning of Northwest-heroes Pedro the Lion, and topping it off with a splash of the loose-limbed clatter of a whole host of bands running back to The Kinks.

If that’s not enough to give you an idea, there’s plenty of other references that spring to mind: perhaps Stephin Merritt at his most hyper, or maybe The Shins if they didn’t take themselves so seriously. I also can’t help but feel that they’re a more mellow (and lo-fi) version of some modern dance-pop acts like MGMT. Oh, and you’ve got to bring up Bishop Allen, except these guys actually click for me far more than Bishop Allen ever has.

Just give this song a listen and I think you’ll see what I mean.

About to Walk – Throw Me the Statue

Moonbeams came out last year on Baskerville Hill Records, but is getting a full release in a couple weeks on Secretly Canadian.

I know virtually nothing about Collections of Colonies of Bees, except that they have a rather unwieldy name, and that they have released my favorite song of the year so far, an expansive, epic instrumental track called “Flocks III.”

Flocks III – Collections of Colonies of Bees

It dances and lilts like a scrap of paper in the wind. It batters your senses like a drenching rain, and shatters like a crystal glass errantly cast aside. It calls to mind a collaboration between Mogwai and The Six Parts Seven, or perhaps the melding of cool blue and fiery orange in Joseph Mallord William Turner painting.

It’s the sound of water flowing through a thousand underground caverns, echoing, reflecting. And with each passing second it grows, expands until you think you simply cannot take anymore. But still, you can’t tell whether the inevitable release will be gentle – a smooth sled-ride down an endless hill in the clear blue morning after a heavy snow – or if it will be an absolute catastrophe. The tension is maddening and yet…not knowing is part of what makes it so exhilarating.

The album is called Birds (and thanks to Chris at Music of the Moment for turning me onto this track).

Today I wanted to bring up yet another band with a solid 2007 release who play some solid punk-infused pop with just enough of a hardcore edge to keep you on your toes. The band is called The Flatliners and the record is called The Great Awake. It’s about what you’d expect from a solid Fat Wreck Chords release – it may not set the world on fire, but it will give you some catchy punk tunes.

Eulogy – The Flatliners

It makes me think the most of the Lawrence Arms, though (this song expected) they can’t muster quite the guttural snarl of a Brendan Kelly or the folksy pop charm of a Chris McCaughan. Still, if you’re into any band along these lines, you’ll probably find a lot to like with The Flatliners.

It’s pretty obvious I’ve dropped off the pace in posting here a little bit. But never fear my loyal readers, I’m not thinking of abandoning the blog any time soon. I probably won’t get back to regular daily posting for a while, but I’ll be around.

The subject of today’s post is a great new song from Frightened Rabbit. You might remember their song “Be Less Rude” which was one of my favorite tracks of 2007, and I also posted about their debut record back in June of last year.

They’ve got a new album, due out on April 1, called The Midnight Organ Fight. And based on this track it’ll be more of what made their debut so good.

The Modern Leper – Frightened Rabbit

It’s dark, moody, and teeming with the macabre, but with an unexpected buoyancy. The guitars spasm in the background, with an ominous weight. The drums march along steadily, ominously, inexorably. It’s a vignette, with boundaries ill-defined, and as you stare in you realize that you are lost. The edge of the painting recedes into the distance, lost in the swirls of a growing tempest. You’re battered all about, heart beating fast, filled with adrenaline, but you can’t quite tell which way to turn.

And then the veil lifts, the song ends, and you put it back on again.

Back in December, I wrote about a couple of my favorite brit-pop bands of 2007, but left off covering what might actually have been my favorite: The Fratellis. The trio from Glasgow are probably most famous for landing a track (“Flathead”) on one of those ubiquitous iPod commercials last spring. If you remember that one, you’ve got a good sense of the rest of their work.

Still, you’d be well-served to dig deep and explore their Costello Music with a speculative ear. They combine stomping guitars and hyper beats into the sort of solid garage rock that sounds incredibly simple but which absolutely trounces almost anything else in the genre you’re likely to hear. The tunes with the huge riffs and energetic beats are the main course, but there’s plenty else to provide some seasoning, from the “awww, shucks,” hands-in-pockets ditty “Whistle for the Choir” to the skap/punk pastiche of “Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night.”

I initially hesitated on The Fratellis, despite a lot of positive reviews. Constant references to a band as the heirs of The Libertines or The Stone Roses should have got me running out to buy it. But I kept trying to read between the lines, intuiting what seemed to be a sense that they were nothing more than a glorified covers band, aping their heroes and getting people temporarily excited without having any of the substance necessary to sustain interest.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. These songs sound delightfully fresh. People often mention glam when talking about The Fratellis, which honestly I don’t really sense. To me, it’s much more a simple youthful abandon, with none of the pretentiousness that I can’t help but attach to glam-rock.

In fact, even though it will be a major blow to my credibility I’m going to go ahead and say that even though Costello Music isn’t as good in an objective sense as some of its predecessors, I probably enjoy it more than anything from The Libertines. Make of that what you will…

Chelsea Dagger – The Fratellis

Some exciting news about one of my favorite bands of the past few years: Antarctica Takes It!. Via Pitchfork, we hear that they have found a label and will be giving an official release to The Penguin League, which was my second favorite album of 2006 (and which contained my favorite song of 2006).

The label smart enough to pick them up is the UK-based How Does It Feel to Be Loved? The official release date is February 11, but they’re taking pre-orders now.

As a sidenote, it’s a very neat experience when a band that you love gets a chance. And even more when you notice that you click on the link to reviews of the record and you see your own words looking back at you.

Speaking of those old reviews, while I’ve made very clear my love for “Antarctica,” there are plenty of other brilliant songs to be found. For example:

The Song Is You – Antarctica Takes It

Like a macabre and distorted Springsteen song, this is a strangely touching series of vignettes about the forlorn and abandoned. From a father who mourns the loss of his son by placing the heart “in a tiny mason jar” to a man who finds his final destiny in the burning flames, these are far more Ray Bradbury than anything else. And yet, like Bradbury, there is a strange pathos in their bizarreness. For all its peculiarity, the common elements of loss and the madness of love ring true. And could it sound more adorable? I think not.

This Vision have – out of nowhere, apparenlty – produced some of the finest synthpop I’ve heard in a very, very long time. I downloaded a couple tracks last month thanks to a tip from Hits In The Car but never got around to listening until tonight. And oh my, what I have been missing!

It’s full of melancholy, beautiful melodies, and gentle touches. It’s the sort of music that makes you think of long car rides on rainy nights, of the feel of a long-lost girlfriend’s hand in yours. And more than anything else, it reminds you of the delightful way that synths can somehow feel so much more personal than far more “natural” sounds.

They’ve got a four-song EP available at their myspace. Each song is better than the next, so you’ll definitely want to head over and give them all a listen.

Love Comes Easy – This Vision

Continuing on the theme of music from 2007 that rocked, but which I never found the time or space to write about: today’s entry is Holy Roman Empire, who bear a striking resemblance to Paramore, who I talked about last week. These folks focus a little bit more on the punk and a little less on the pop, but it’s based on the same general premise that there are few things more enticing than female vocals on top of crunchy guitars playing catchy melodies.

Undeserving You – Holy Roman Empire

“Undeserving You” is the best track, and also probably the most pop-driven tune on the record. Dig a little deeper, though, and the music will get more aggressive, providing a nice change of pace.

The balance between bouncing tunes and straightforward rock is a tough one to maintain – it risks slipping into bubblegum pop-punk on one side or acerbic hardcore on the other. They suffer a few mis-steps trying to walk this line, but on the whole manage to produce a very fine little record. You definitely get the sense that Holy Roman Empire think of themselves as a hardcore band who deigns to write a nice melody now and again, so if that’s your bag you might not consider them mis-steps at all.

The album is called The Longue Duree (eMusic) and it’s well worth a listen.

I don’t like Mike Huckabee. I think he’s a total doofus, and it’s a sad comment on the state of American politics that he rose as prominently and easily as he did. That said, you can’t let a tagline as devastating as this one go by without comment.

On his recent Michigan ads, he closes saying: “I approved this message because I believe most Americans want the next president to remind them of the guy they work with, not the guy who laid them off.” Oh, snap! Mitt Romney, you just got PWNED.

Elephant Stone – The Stone Roses

Speaking of Huckabee, here’s a great comment on his support for the FairTax: “Basically, trying to explain why the Fairtax is a bad idea is like trying to explain why having trained elephants perform open-heart surgery on every first-grader in America is a bad idea.”

Too busy to say anything else, but it sure has been a crazy couple weeks in politics, hasn’t it?