Fever Ray - Fever Ray
I don't know why The Knife never really connected with me; I heard a couple of their songs via on-demand videos and thought they were interesting but not really worthy of my attention. The Fever Ray album takes the seeds of what I thought were interesting and implodes them into an inescapable black hole of awesomeness, simultaneously chilling and beautiful. A lot of people have talked about how terrifying this album is; I don't really see it. Maybe the video imagery evokes some horror tropes, but the music itself is all about icy, mechanised love. Truly wonderful.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
Holy shit. Every time I listen to this album, I get more out of it; another song stands out as being the best thing the YYYs have written to date. The middle section especially is amazing; two songs that are much more restrained in their structure ("Dull Life", "Shame and Fortune") use that to launch into fantastically aggressive performances, leading into the full-on steamroller of anguish that is "Runaway", easily the sledgehammer of awesome among the songs offered here.
The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die!
It is probably gross overstatement to call this album "Fat of the Land done correctly" but I've never let hyperbole stop me in the past. The great thing about this album is that it goes through a slow build on the first four songs, where each one is good but not necessarily AMAZING, but then it drops "Take Me To The Hospital" on you, a song that both launches the album firmly into the stratosphere (honestly, I think it's the best tune they've done in 18 years) AND does the neat track of making the first four songs click into place. From that point on, even slight missteps like "Piranha" are fucking fantastic.
Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
Real talk: if you cannot get behind "In Chains", you are a sad, soulless person. The anguish in Dave's voice hasn't been this palpable since Songs of Faith and Devotion and the slow build and breakdown in the music shows a band that didn't decide to age gracefully; in fact, aging isn't really a consideration here. They've taken aspects of all of the things people loved about them: bleak and/or oppressive lyrics about life and relationships; warm analog synth lines; layered vocals; industrial percussion; all of these make their presence known on the album, contributing to an ever-permutating groove that is at different times angry, rebellions, seductive, indignant, resigned, menacing, welcoming, yearning and indifferent. I thought that Playing the Angel was the clarion call that signaled DM's return to greatness; the degree by which that album is eclipsed by SotU (ugly album cover and all) is astonishing.
Coint & Plick 2011 109b: Brink
12 years ago
I'll have to check out the Yeah Yeah Yeahs album. I liked their first album but the later stuff didn't do much for me. I love the Fever Ray album, but, then again, I also love the Knife.
ReplyDeleteOh, by the way, TheBigLow = Blond Freak #1 (unless Curley was #1 and I was 2...).
ReplyDeleteHa!
ReplyDeleteThe YYYs album is equal parts dance rock and smooth indie ballad; there isn't anything on it as aggressive as stuff I've seen in their live recordings and (full disclosure) before this album I wasn't that huge a fan outside of "Maps", which I thought was easily one of the best songs of 2004. If anything, _It's Blitz_ has made me want to go back and re-evaluate the rest of their stuff because usually bands don't produce stuff I like this much out of nowhere.