New Release Albums: 2005
Submitted by heyrocker on Tue, 06/14/2005 - 05:45
Tags:
- The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike *
- Low - The Great Destroyer
- Sigur Ros - Takk
- Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
- The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
- ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Worlds Apart
- The A-Frames - Black Forest
- Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
- The Wedding Present - Take Fountain
- Spoon - Gimme Fiction
- DangerDoom - The Mouse And The Mask
- Wilco - Kicking Television
- Gang Of Four - Return The Gift
- Amusement Parks On Fire - s/t
- Explosions In The Sky - The Rescue
- Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
- Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
- The Evens - 12 Songs
- Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing My Choir
- The Epoxies - Stop The Future
- M83 - Before The Dawn Heals Us
- The Decemberists - Picaresque
- My Morning Jacket - Z
- Idlewild - Warnings/Promises *
- The Kills - No Wow
- Sunn 0))) - Black One!
- Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
- The National - Alligator
- The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
- Kings Of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
- Coldplay - X&Y
- Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
Author Comments:
HEARD BUT NOT RANKED AS YET
The Doves - Some Cities
50 Foot Wave - that record whose name I forget
Kinski - Alpine Static
Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw
Broken Social Scene - s/t
Animal Collective - Feels
This list is ranked from best to worst, and only the Eels album is truly bad (although the Coldplay comes close.)
* Officially released earlier in its native country but not released domestically until this year
What is Amusement Parks on Fire like? I've been wanting to hear that National record. Worth it if I can find a cheap copy?
The 50 Foot Wave record is called Golden Ocean.
Amusement Parks On Fire is this very dense wall of guitars band from England that sound kind of like My Bloody Valentine with J Mascis singing. I first heard them when they played onair on KEXP but it doesn't seem to be in their archive yet. Keep checking at
http://www.kexp.org/aspnet_client/live.asp
Sounds like something I'd like. I'll investigate.
Also as far as The National, its not bad, its just a) not my thing and b) I don't see what the hype is all about. Its definitely worth a bedroom crate attempt, as its not completely unworthy. Its just not particularly noteworthy. Also, I could see this being a creeper, but I don't knwo if I have the inclination to give it the time.
Speaking of bedroom crate, my dumb ass had a copy of Vol.3 on me at the BPH and I forgot to give it to you. I'll send it to you with Vol.4 when it's done.
Any chance you can divide these into categories or something? For all I know, the Eels album is brilliant, and it just gets better from there.
Or if that's too much trouble --- howz the new Spoon?
I would say that Amusement Parks On Fire marks the dividing line between "Highly Recommended" and varying levels of "Not Bad" (and it toes that line itself.) Note that in many cases a lower rank doesn't mean "bad" it often just means "this is not my thing at all." The Kills is a classic example of that (although its title track is killer.) Coldplay marks the line between "Not bad" and "This is actively garbage"
I really love the first half of the Spoon record, but I feel it falls off a bit after that. Even the second half is not bad, its just not superlative. I can't compare to their past albums, since this is my first exposure to them.
I enjoy the Eels album, and I usually agree with Scaruffi's reviews, but he's mistaken when he rates Blinking Lights as one of the best rock albums of the decade.
Are you an Eels fan? 'Cause I'd agree that the new album is disappointing (all the previous Eels albums were exactly as long as they needed to be; this is twice that), but actively garbage is kinda pushing it.
Cutting in: I don't have a problem with the length at all, and Everett is a solid songwriter, but Blinking Lights sounds just like his other work, and isn't as passionate as Electro-Shock Blues. I'm all for concept albums (in fact, I think every serious album should be a concept album if possible), but Blinking Lights shows Everett reworking all his favorite techniques rather than inventing new ones. Still a good album that I really like listening to, though.
But in defending the length, you hit upon exactly why the album is too long -- there's too many songs that sound like Everett blandly revisiting old material instead of forging ahead with things like the beautifully delicate "I'm Going to Stop Pretending I Didn't Break Your Heart". I mean, even something like the hilarious atonal jam "Going Fetal" still sounds kind of pale when you set it aside something like "What Is This Note?" (from "Souljacker").
Also, enough with the instrumentals. The minor variations just aren't that interesting, E. Jesus. (Damn, I have a lot of complaints about an album I pretty much kinda like, don't I?)
I had never actually heard The Eels before this and I just found the record REALLY boring. Given all the hype that had come in front of it, I expected at least something a little more distinctive.
Well, there's your answer. This is SO the wrong album with which to introduce yourself to the Eels (because, yes, a lot of it is damn boring). Go back to "Electro-Shock Blues" or "Daisies of the Galaxy", both of which are certified works of genius.
Excellent: finally, someone else who thinks the new Coldplay album is poor!
I'm interested to hear if that Fiery Furnaces record is as awful as I've heard. I'm completely reevaluating some of my picks and I expect my list to change a lot by year's end.
Gonna go see The Wedding Present at Neumo's in February? I wonder if they'll be boring live.
Its actually kind of fun, I do not by any means think it is "terrible". I enjoy the grandmother's ramblings and the wacky tunes. I've only listened to it once, and I can tell already its not something I would listen to a lot, but I give them credit for stretching out and doing something interesting.
Also, once you get past the fact that its a waste of talent and why mess with perfection, the Gang Of Four record is pretty interesting. Not "good" per se, but listening to the versions side by side reveals various aspects of how working in the studio in differing conditions can make worlds of difference to the end product, and I can appreciate that a lot.
I saw the Weddoes back when Bizarro came out and they were pretty hot shit. Cop Shoot Cop opened too, what the hell ever happened to them? They fucking ripped.
They (and by they, I mean CSC) tore the world a new arse until about 1995, at which point Tod Ashley and co. decided they'd done enough damage and split. Ashley promptly put his asskicking boots back on and formed the excellent Firewater; no idea what the rest of 'em went off to do...
Also, the Pelican album is so awesome.
Really love Eels- blinking lights.. though some weak parts like " going fetal " or " Hey man ( now you're really living) I haven't heard any other albums from him, which album should i listen next from them ?
I'd recommend "Daisies of the Galaxy" as their best album, though if you're into the slow-n-morose stuff, you might want to give "Electro-Shock Blues" a look first. (If you think the bouncy, dissonant "Going Fetal" and "Hey Man" are the album's weak points, then stay the hell away from "Souljacker".)