Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks

After reading rave reviews from Rolling Stone and Allmusic, I was excited to hear Real Emotional Trash by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks. Now that I've played it a few times, I have some mixed feelings.

The guitar work here is amazing. For this album, Malkmus decided to do more with guitar/keyboard interplay. He also added Janet Weiss, who is one of the most overpowering drummers alive. Instrumentally, this album is a cross between the Grateful Dead and Sonic Youth's more laid back work.

So why isn't this a great album? Two reasons: 1.) there are few memorable hooks or choruses to be found, and 2.) the lyrics are absolutely horrible.

I don't expect good lyrics out of Stephen Malkmus. That has never been his forte. Even on Pavement's best albums, the lyrics were the part I tried to ignore. Unfortunately, I think they get worse as he gets older. Just read the song titles: "Hopscotch Willie", "Elmo Delmo", and "Wicked Wanda". Could he have made an instrumental album?

There are some great moments here though. "We Can't Help You" is the rare beautiful moment that happens about once on each of his records (just like what "Here" was to Slanted and Enchanted). "Baltimore" has some of the best lo-fi buzz guitar soloing I've heard in years. "Gardenia" actually manages to be catchy: it's the only song you might still be humming after the album is over.

If you are looking for a great album to get drunk or stoned to, this one might work. If you are looking for a great rock album, get the new Drive By Truckers or wait a few weeks for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds new one.

Nick Cave delivers again!!!

Nick Cave has a new album called Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!. It isn't out in America until April 8, but you can hear it at:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=212434537

Now that I've heard this album, I think the Album of the Year 2008 competition might be over. This album is unbelievable. It's takes the best elements of Abattoir Blues and Grinderman and serves everything that makes Nick great: mock-gospel choruses, Biblical ranting, rock riffs, and hilarious lyrics about death.

"Dig yourself, Lazarus, dig yourself!!!"

I'm going to be writing about this one for months.

The Cure

The Cure are putting a new album out this year! OK, I don't know if I should be excited. It's been about 20 years since Disintegration now, and their last album was their worst.

However, I did think Wish and Wild Mood Swings were very good albums, even though by then the general opinion seemed to be "the Cure are done for". I remember seeing them on VH1's "Where Are They Now" in the late 90s, which was one of the saddest moments of my life. They aren't done yet! They are still a great band!

I'm not expecting a masterpiece like Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Disintegration, or The Head On The Door, but I'll give anything Robert Smith puts out a chance. He did get me through high school and several crappy relationships; I owe it to him!

If this new album and the new REM album are both disasters, I will be very depressed this year. And not that good depressed you get from listening to Disintegration.

A great one I missed

I bought so many crappy albums in 2006 that I have to kick myself for missing this one: I'm listening to the album Yellow House by Grizzly Bear. I love it. It's kind of like a creepy, suicidal version of Sufjan Stevens Michigan. Some of the songs are kind of shapeless meanderings ("Lullabye", "Little Brother"), but these songs do a great job linking together brilliant building epics like "Knife" and "Plans". This album has that hypnotic mind-drifting feel to it that you'd find on Sea Change by Beck or Ys by Johanna Newsom; therefore, I don't recommend you play this one while driving. It's more of a half-drunk, half-asleep kind of disc.

I love the use of Beach Boys' harmonies and Tom Waits' instrumentation: lots of banjo, horns, harpsicord, and so on. My only complaint about this album is crappy production. It isn't as big of an issue for guitar-drums-vocals albums, but stuff like this needs clarity to hear all of the moving parts.

Anyway, it's a great listen. Give it a try if you like Sufjan Stevens but don't find him depressing enough.

Rap albums you need to hear

If you aren't a rap fan because of crap you've heard on pop radio, here's a few rap albums you need to hear from the past few years:

Madvillian - Madvilliany: Whether they are sampling jazz, accordions, or cartoon themes, these guys sound like a more dark paranoid version of De La Soul. Make this album the soundtrack of your next drug/alcohol binge.

Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury: There's no real trick here: just combine simple beats and two pissed-off MCs. Rich, flashy pop rappers are the target of this brutal assault.

Kanye West - Late Registration: I know it's easy to hate this guy, but he and Jon Brion have an original masterpiece here. Just listen to the orchestral coda in "Crack Music" and tell me if you've ever heard anything like it.

Jay-Z - The Blueprint: Overexposed and irritating? He's still the best. And "Renegade" with Eminem might be the best rap duet ever recorded.

Outkast - Stankonia: If there has ever been one album that shows the potential and excitement of hip-hop, here it is. "B.O.B" puts all the cards on the table: chaotic beats, choirs, guitars, and rapping that makes me dizzy in a good way.

If you still don't like rap after listening to any one of these, I can't help you.

Coming Soon

Here's a couple of albums I'm looking forward to in the next six months:

Counting Crows - Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings (March 25): Am I the only one who misses this band? Am I the only one who thinks they could retap what made August & Everything After a great record? Probably. This album could also be a disaster.

Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple (April 8): Their first album was bursting with wild ideas; I'm sure they have plenty left. I was unimpressed by the first single though.

Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs (May 13): They did a few good albums, a masterpiece (Transatlanticism) and then one mediocre album (Plans). This one is a complete crap-shoot. We'll see.

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (June 10): This is the only album on the schedule that I am sure is going to be great. With this band, I can't envision a bad album, especially after listing to Z. I hope I didn't jinx this one.

I think that's about it right now. Have a good weekend!

Vince Gill

I take back some of the bad things I've said about popular country music. I recently borrowed Vince Gill's These Days and spent about 5 days listening to it in all its 4 CD, 43 song glory. The depth of this album is amazing: pop, rock, blues, country, bluegrass, jazz, folk; it's a lot of ground to cover, and he divides it into four thematic discs to make it easier.

(I only have one major complaint about this album: why did he make one disc of power ballads and call it "The Groovy Record"? I missed something here.)

Are the lyrics corny and too safe? Of course - it's still country music. But after hearing this album, along with Brad Paisley's 5th Gear, Miranda Lambert's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and Loretta Lynn's Van Lear Rose (why doesn't Jack White do a country album?), I've found a lot of good reasons to care about country radio in the past few years.

If you like versitile songwriters and you have 30 bucks to kill, I highly recommend These Days by Vince Gill. Before long, you might find yourself not hating country radio anymore. Plus, rock radio has been dead for ten years now, so try something new.