In the past decade of music, I can't think of anybody whose career is harder to map than Sufjan Stevens. Let's go year-by-year:
2000: Sufjan releases his debut, A Sun Came, a mix of indie folk and lo-fi noise. Nobody notices.
2001: Sufjan releases Enjoy Your Rabbit, an ambient techno concept album that sounds nothing like his first one. Nobody notices.
2003: Sufjan release Greetings From Michigan, his first dive into orchestral pop. He plays more than 40 instruments in this long sweeping masterpiece, which is supposed to be part of an ambitious 50-state project. Indie critics and music lovers start to take note. This album is performed at small bible colleges where he stays in their dorms as part of his payment (I only know this because my best friend from high school attended one of such shows).
2004: Seven Swans, a stripped-down spiritual folk record, is released. Sufjan's songs start showing up on TV shows like The O.C.
2005: After much hype, he releases Come Feel The Illinoise, the second (and so far last) of the "state" albums. In case you missed it, this is one of the landmark records of the decade and you need to own it right now.
2006: Sufjan releases leftover: The Avalanche is a disc of Illinoise outtakes almost as good as the ones he kept. He also releases 5 discs of Christmas music, which solidifies our belief that he can take any bad idea and turn it into brilliant music.
2007: T one-up that crazy Christmas thing, he writes a classical piece called The BQE. This piece accompanies a film he directed about the New York highway and features lots of hula-hoops. I swear I'm not making any of this up. For the first year in a long time, he releases no new music.
2008: No new music, no mention of him recording any.
2009: No new music, no mention of him recording any.
So there you go - after a few amazingly prolific years, we get nothing from him for three years except for the BQE. What happened to his "state" albums? Got me.
Even though we are all craving a new standard Sufjan album (whatever that is), it's good to know that he put the care and beauty into this album that he did in the past. The BQE is a short enthralling listen that doesn't require an understanding of classical composition. "Movement III" will remind you of the brilliant building interludes included on both state album, while "Traffic Shock" uses electronic music a lot more gracefully and subtly than Enjoy Your Rabbit did.
If you are already a Sufjan fan, you should know that this guy doesn't operate on expectations of others. In the past ten years he has been so many things that it shouldn't come as a surprise that he wants a new roles, and classical composer suites him perfectly. If you aren't a Sufjan fan, go get Illinoise before you explore everything else he has to offer.
Am I still checking the Internet for anything I can find about his next vocal record? Yes! But this is a nice diversion.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
A few hyped releases
Here's a few releases from the past few weeks that critics have been raving about:
Girls' Album: Every review I've read of this record has made mention of the fact that the members of this band (neither of the duo are girls, by the way) grew up with parents in the California cult Children of God. That information hardly matters when listening to the drugged out emotionally lost lyrics of this record. The singer is a less in-tune version of early Elvis Costello and the music is bright 60's California pop. The building sing-along ballad "Hellhole Ratrace" and the distorted burst "Morning Light" are well-written and fun, but most of this album isn't something you'd want to hear more than once or twice. Maybe this is a band to look out for a few records down the road.
Fuck Buttons' Tarot Sport: Message for electronic music - please go away. Just go away. Every year, I listen to an electronic album just to make sure I still hate it. Yes, I do. And why would you name your band this? Let's just move on.
The XX (self titled): There has been a lack of bands this decade taking on that spare, late-night London sound that Portishead perfected a decade ago, which is probably why this band is a breath of fresh air. Staccato guitar riffs, spare beats instead of a real drummer, and the interplay between two hushed vocalists (some perfect male/female chemistry) make for one of the most innovative and relistenable records of the year. There are some standout tracks, particularly the single "Basic Space", but this entire record flows as one piece and sets a dark yet romantic mood made for after-hours intimacy. This band has hype worth believing in.
Girls' Album: Every review I've read of this record has made mention of the fact that the members of this band (neither of the duo are girls, by the way) grew up with parents in the California cult Children of God. That information hardly matters when listening to the drugged out emotionally lost lyrics of this record. The singer is a less in-tune version of early Elvis Costello and the music is bright 60's California pop. The building sing-along ballad "Hellhole Ratrace" and the distorted burst "Morning Light" are well-written and fun, but most of this album isn't something you'd want to hear more than once or twice. Maybe this is a band to look out for a few records down the road.
Fuck Buttons' Tarot Sport: Message for electronic music - please go away. Just go away. Every year, I listen to an electronic album just to make sure I still hate it. Yes, I do. And why would you name your band this? Let's just move on.
The XX (self titled): There has been a lack of bands this decade taking on that spare, late-night London sound that Portishead perfected a decade ago, which is probably why this band is a breath of fresh air. Staccato guitar riffs, spare beats instead of a real drummer, and the interplay between two hushed vocalists (some perfect male/female chemistry) make for one of the most innovative and relistenable records of the year. There are some standout tracks, particularly the single "Basic Space", but this entire record flows as one piece and sets a dark yet romantic mood made for after-hours intimacy. This band has hype worth believing in.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The Flaming Lips' Embryonic
It's been an interesting decade for the Flaming Lips. Especially considering they peaked commercially in the mid-90's with "She Don't Use Jelly" and peaked artistically in 1999 with the Soft Bulletin, which turned out to be one of the touchstones of indie rock music this decade (even though it was released on Warner Bros.). They took a dive into electronic music and made another masterpiece, Yoshimi Battle's The Pink Robots, before trying to make a perfectly balanced Lips record that would satisfy everybody. The result was At War With The Mystics - a disappointment that showed why they should never try to do anything conventional.
About ten seconds into their new record, Embryonic, all of this becomes unimportant. This album is so different and so unexplainable that any track from it wouldn't fit on any of these other records. "Convinced Of The Hex" starts off with nonrhythmic loud guitar jabs that sound like a band messing around in the studio - a huge departure from the layered production and perfected accuracy of their past three records. The track that follows sounds like 70's psychedelic funk in fast-forward. The second track gets even weirder - "The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine" lets us imagine a collaboration between John Lennon and Joy Division. Wayne sings "What does it mean to dream what you dream" and I'm already dreaming about the possibilities of what the next 16 tracks on this record could contain.
"Evil" is a dark mood piece featuring some of Wayne's best vocals (his singing seems to get better and more versatile every album). After that, things get loud again - "See The Leaves" has a fun bouncing bass rhythm with guitars and drums crashing around it before the song stops and rebuilds around creeping keyboards.
This is an album where every track is a highlight, but every track relies on each other. "I Can Be A Frog" is a playful joke that features Karen O making animal noises - it's not going to be a single, but it works perfectly in the context of the album. "Worm Mountain" proves that no matter how experimental they get, they are always a rock band first. The buzzing bass and driving drums would fit onto a Led Zeppelin album, but the ringing electric pianos come from Miles Davis' acid jazz era. However, the orchestral space-out at the end is pure Lips.
Seventy minutes and not a wasted second, Embryonic is the Flaming Lips best record since the Soft Bulletin (and even then, it's close). If you mixed Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti with Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and Pink Floyd's Animals then threw in the reckless playfulness of Captain Beefhart's Trout Mask Replica, you would be close to this.
And this was released on Warner Bros.? In 2009? Really?
This is too good to be true.
About ten seconds into their new record, Embryonic, all of this becomes unimportant. This album is so different and so unexplainable that any track from it wouldn't fit on any of these other records. "Convinced Of The Hex" starts off with nonrhythmic loud guitar jabs that sound like a band messing around in the studio - a huge departure from the layered production and perfected accuracy of their past three records. The track that follows sounds like 70's psychedelic funk in fast-forward. The second track gets even weirder - "The Sparrow Looks Up At The Machine" lets us imagine a collaboration between John Lennon and Joy Division. Wayne sings "What does it mean to dream what you dream" and I'm already dreaming about the possibilities of what the next 16 tracks on this record could contain.
"Evil" is a dark mood piece featuring some of Wayne's best vocals (his singing seems to get better and more versatile every album). After that, things get loud again - "See The Leaves" has a fun bouncing bass rhythm with guitars and drums crashing around it before the song stops and rebuilds around creeping keyboards.
This is an album where every track is a highlight, but every track relies on each other. "I Can Be A Frog" is a playful joke that features Karen O making animal noises - it's not going to be a single, but it works perfectly in the context of the album. "Worm Mountain" proves that no matter how experimental they get, they are always a rock band first. The buzzing bass and driving drums would fit onto a Led Zeppelin album, but the ringing electric pianos come from Miles Davis' acid jazz era. However, the orchestral space-out at the end is pure Lips.
Seventy minutes and not a wasted second, Embryonic is the Flaming Lips best record since the Soft Bulletin (and even then, it's close). If you mixed Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti with Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and Pink Floyd's Animals then threw in the reckless playfulness of Captain Beefhart's Trout Mask Replica, you would be close to this.
And this was released on Warner Bros.? In 2009? Really?
This is too good to be true.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Miranda Lambert's Revolution
In 2007, Miranda Lambert released one of the catchiest and most memorable country records in years with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The singles were rowdy brutal man-hating, but the insecure ballads were the real gems that made her one of country's most acclaimed artists before she even turned 20. Her eagerly awaited follow-up, Revolution, stretches out and finds her trying to do everything in 15 tracks, and most of it works.
The leadoff single, "Dead Flowers", is a soft but bitter kiss-off to an ex-lover with a gorgeous tear jerking chorus. Tracks like "Airstream Song" shows that she can still write traditional country, but other songs have some inventive flourishes: "Maintain The Pain" starts with a synth-guitar lead that sounds stripped from an 80's hair metal track. The Dylan-esque blues of "Time To Get A Gun" is the highlight of the disc - it's humor and catchy melody showcase everything Miranda does best.
Revolution rivals Eric Church's Carolina as the year's best country album and it has only started to grow on me. You get the feeling that after three solid records, she still has plenty of ideas of where country can go.
The leadoff single, "Dead Flowers", is a soft but bitter kiss-off to an ex-lover with a gorgeous tear jerking chorus. Tracks like "Airstream Song" shows that she can still write traditional country, but other songs have some inventive flourishes: "Maintain The Pain" starts with a synth-guitar lead that sounds stripped from an 80's hair metal track. The Dylan-esque blues of "Time To Get A Gun" is the highlight of the disc - it's humor and catchy melody showcase everything Miranda does best.
Revolution rivals Eric Church's Carolina as the year's best country album and it has only started to grow on me. You get the feeling that after three solid records, she still has plenty of ideas of where country can go.
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