2012's Most Disappointing Records

Let me start out by saying that I don't believe music criticism should ever be malicious or cruel, but there certainly is an inevitability where expectations overpower the actual material, and this is one of the toughest aspects of music: living up to the hype. None of these albums are bad, by any stretch of judgement, they just didn't meet their heightened expectations, and all the large scale blogs were the ones setting them. These are some albums that fell short of affirming early expectations. 

Big Boi - Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors

I still believe Sir Lucious Left Foot the Song of Chico Dusty was the best album of 2010, a year that saw Cosmogramma, The Monitor, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, This Is Happening, etc. That album is a masterpiece of songs. Big Boi is known for his vast taste in music - his favorite artists are Bob Marley and Kate Bush - and this release is a testament to that. VLDR definitely has a wide pallet of songs, but nothing seems to stick with the listener. "Shoes for Running" features Wavves and Big Boi spitting machine gun flow, though it never displays a wow moment. It's obvious to say I had extremely high expectations for this album, which seems unfair considering how long Big Boi's first solo album took to come out - not counting Speakerboxxx as a solo effort, despite being mostly a Big Boi album. This is a good album, better than a lot of rap albums this year; it's just not as good as it could be.

The xx - Coexist

To say Coexist is minimal would be severely understating how stripped back the arrangements are on the trio's follow up to 2009's excellent debut, xx. Early singles "Angels" and "Chained" showed promise, but it was the album's lackluster second act that bored me to frustrated tears. Jamie XX had the blogosphere thinking Coexist would have a much more salient club music presence, though what the effort came to be was spacey, languid, and meandering - none of those comments a compliment. This is isn't so much a sophomore a slump as it feels, well, kind of lazy. I loved the balance on xx, the silence was an instrument in itself, but there doesn't seem to be much music here, besides Oliver Sim and Romy Croft's angelic voices. The xx evolved into a hype band following the band's first record, which set them up for an even higher fall, although I hope this won't be the last we see of the London trio.

Animal Collective - Centipede Hz

Don't even get me started on how disappointing this record is -- well, I guess I have to go into why, as that is the subject matter of this post. I, like everybody else on the Internet, got an early listen through a "radio" service the band set up on a website. "Today's Supernatural" is still an excellent song - the obvious choice for the first single - except it doesn't do a great job of foretelling what Centipede Hz actually sounds like, which is sort of like playing all of Animal Collective's other songs all at once, and then having Deakin show up and add some digital interference. There are only a few songs that can be taken away from this muddled mess - the aformentioned single, "Applesauce", "New Town Burnout", and "Monkey Riches" - and added to an otherwise stellar discography, although "New Town Burnout" just sounds like something that could have come off of Tomboy, BUT WITH DEAKIN NOISES! Is this a flop from a band riding high from a commercial sense, one that was super freaking weird and coherent at the same time, Merriweather Post Pavilion? I doubt it, although I'm still kind of pissed off, months later. 

Passion Pit - Gossamer

I don't know if I expected this to be a great album or I was just curious, after Michael Angelakos made dubiously suicidal comments, but I was certainly interested as to what Gossamer would sound like. A depressed Passion Pit album? A song on a Taco Bell commercial? The hype certainly captured my attention. First single "I'll Be Alright" is romping and bouncy, certainly a highpoint, but the rest of the album is so "meh" that I forgot about it, until I had to start making year end lists. This might be the whitest album of the year - honkeys and their keyboards. I've always been sort of a cursory Passion Pit fan, though Gossamer seems like it'll be my last effort to like the Cambridge band, and, assuming Angelakos wasn't just trying to arouse more hype around the sophomore release, it might be his last too. 

I guess high hopes should never preface an album, but it's nearly impossible to protect yourself from any sort of media coverage nowadays. These albums might end up being some favorites of mine, save for Centipede Hz, despite the fact that, right now, I consider them disappointments. I have already started listening to some of next year's albums, and with those come another set of expectations, so as much as I hate to have a piece of art overshadowed by press, it will continue to be an indelible facet of music criticism. 

Seasonal Music: Five Awesomely Autumnal Albums

With the changing of seasons upon us, we move from bright summer to gloomy autumn. I am always prone to following my mood into the music I become momentarily obsessed with, and for some reason, maybe a completely obvious one, fall brings with it a longing feeling. Maybe it's the departure back to school, losing summer's hormone-driven loves, or just a temperature drop that is the impetus, but I can personally say I am driven toward Emo music. Oops.

Although not all of these albums can be perfectly ascribed to the Emo genre, they certainly due elicit feelings of change and wanting, which is what fall brings for me.

Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) - Home After Three Months Away (2011)

Released just last year, Empire! produced a perfect piece of Emo revivalism. A brooding EP with just four songs, Home After Three Months Away is textbook midwestern Emo with symbolistic lyrics, shifty guitars, and Keith Latinen's higher register vocals. Even the heavily recondite references for song titles are here - "Everything Small Is Just a Small Version of Something Big" is an Adventure Time reference. This was my favorite EP of 2011, and I don't think there's anything about this release that won't age well. There's nothing better than taking a walk listening to this EP; and at ten minutes, Home is just the right amount of Emo to get your day ruined started. You can check out the entire EP at Empire's Bandcamp.


Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

I mean, if you haven't listened to this album yet, I don't know why you are still reading this: Go listen to it. Devil and God is one of those albums you heard in high school and it encapsulated everything you ever wanted to feel about losing someone. Clocking in at almost an hour, "Sowing Season (Yeah)" sets the mood for a record that deserves your full attention. One of Flatted Third's contributing writers, Benjamin Goodheart, detailed Brand New's discography comparatively to Crime in Stereo's last week. Goodheart called Devil and God the defining moment of Brand New's carrer, and after you listen all the ay through, it'll be easy to see why. Just as I was reviewing the album to write this, I kind of fell back into old ways, stopped writing this article, and finished the album. Maybe that's why it took so long...

The Antlers - Hospice (2009)

In 2009, The Antlers released one of the most heart-wrenching albums of all time: a detailed story of a hospice worker falling in love with a patient, and their ensuing descent. During almost every song, there are tender moments that feel as though they could fall apart at any moment, dissolve in time and memory. An extremely personal album -- although lead singer and songwriter Peter Silberman never divulges which parts are fiction and which are autobiographical -- Hospice certainly isn't for anyone who struggles with themes of loss and helplessness, as it can darken any blacks. The record is devotedly beautiful and fragile, never producing a listen that doesn't reveal a new aspect of the sound or arrangements. At the end of Hospice, Silberman sings "You're screaming / And cursing / And angry / And hurting me / And then smiling / And crying / Apologizing," a testament to the emotional range contained within this record; it's not for the weak hearted. 

Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary (1994)

If I were detailing a list with a  preface saying it dealt with largely Emo records and didn't have a Sunny Day Real Estate release on it, people would not recognize this article as my own - I personally love this band and think they're the storied rock band no one knows the history of, and they should. Diary was the band's debut album, with Sub Pop prepping SDRE to pick up where the grunge superstars Nirvana left off; the pressure and weight of these expectations are audibly present throughout the album. Diary ended up being Sub Pop's seventh best selling record of all time, a very impressive feat. The band was just getting off a statewide tour when they recorded Diary, forcing vocalist Jeremy Enigk to sing through the physical strain the tour had caused - this is one of the defining characteristics of the record, producing a more emotionally poignant delivery, on the brink of crackling. "Song About an Angel" is the ideal SDRE song, illustrating the held-back, quiet verse / loud chorus formula the band instilled in the second ave of Emo. 

Bright Eyes - Every Day and Every Night EP (1999)

I could have easily put an Elliott Smith record here instead, but why not give the "boy wonder" some credit. Back when he was anything but a happy kid, Conor Oberst released the Every Day and Every Night EP, everyone's favorite high school breakup EP - well, it was certainly mine, I don't know about you. This is the only Bright Eyes record I own, and I am proud to say so because of what may be Oberst's best song, "A Perfect Sonnet". The mentioned track is one of the best examples of Acoustic Emo music: violent and spiteful lyrics delivered with a palpable emotional ire. I would also like to point out this is the second time Oberst teams up with folk wizard Mike Mogis who handles a variety of instruments and production.




So these are the albums that I will indulge my autumnal self in, and I hope you will too. There's no use in bumping party anthems and sweet tooth pop when you can stay inside, wrap yourself in blankets, and revel in fall's gloomy goodness.  

Can Metal Be Fun? A Look at Baroness' Yellow & Green Album and What ItMeans for Metal to Come

Baroness - Yellow & Green 

In 2011, metal giants Mastodon released their fifth full length album, The Hunter. Though the album garnered some pretty positive reviews, fans of the band were polarized. The Hunter marked a new direction that the band was taking; it may or may not be permanent, but for the time being, Mastodon started to do something many fans didn't appreciate: they started having fun.

Why start this review with a Mastodon album from last year you ask? The reason behind it lies in the recent wave of "pop-centeric" metal that has been released. First, there was Mastdon in 2011. In 2012, Florida sludge-metal group Torche released their new LP, Harmonicraft. And now, summer has brought the long anticipated double album from the Georgia metal band, Baroness. Admittedly, there is a certain "pop" to these records, but each band still holds true to the metal genre they are reshaping for this new generation.

All except for Baroness.

Although Yellow still follows the band's vision of a new sound, it also feels familiar, which will more than likely calm some fears fans may have over this album. Yellow opens up similarly to Green, but as soon as the theme ends, "Take My Bones Away" instantly comes through with a sludge riff that essentially kicks off the mood for the rest of the album. Here, Baroness is showing off a more polished band; the time for harmonized screams and nonstop heaviness seems to be behind them.

The largest amount of change fans will notice though comes from Green, the latter half of the double album. Green starts off incredibly slow with its theme; minimal drums and reverb heavy chords soon give way to the anthem-like break that I can only describe as having a post-rock, hair-metal feel. The next 40 minutes are essentially a test when you first listen to Green. The slight heaviness from Yellow      
is replaced with a more ambient, post-rock feel. One thing that makes this particular album so enjoyable is that it doesn't feel boring. Baroness lines Green with airy tracks that are meant to calm the listener, taking them through a new mellowed out version of the band. "Board Up the House" offers a taste of hard rock, but then glides through tracks like "Stretchmarker" and "If I Forget Thee, Lowcountry" showcasing how versatile Baroness can be.

Many fans are angry with the new direction though, more often than not, for the wrong reasons. While looking at their recent video for "Take My Bones Away", there was a YouTube comment a user left stating his displeasure for the band's new album and direction. Throughout his musings, he kept citing "They are having fun now, just like Mastodon has been, and it has ruined all the good parts of the band." This really got me thinking; since when are bands not allowed to have fun while they play their own music? Fans act as if these bands owe us something, which in reality, they don't. They provide us with hours of listening entertainment, and we thank them by tormenting their music and criticizing it to no ends. If you are familiar with The Simpsons (if not, try to be. I know my wonderful friend/blog frontman Kyle Murphy will reference it NUMEROUS times), entertainment tells us that they don't owe us. If anything, we owe them.

For anyone afraid of listening to this new double album, I'll leave you with this quote from an interview with PitchforkTV. The thing about changing - gaining and losing fans - it shouldn't be part of the thought process when you craft an album. The only thing that should ever matter are the songs - "Are we genuine; are we moving forward?"

Leaky Pipes: A First Look at Coexist

The xx - Coexist

I have obtained a leaked copy of The xx's Coexist. After a couple of listens all the way through, I have reached a conclusion on my first impression of the album: It's lackluster.

What made The xx so interesting was their use of minimalism to inspire such a burning, grand sound. Every track glistened or was so covered in darkness, only an outline of something larger was broadcasted. It was the beautiful dichotomy between songs like "Shelter" and "Crystalized" that drew a listener into a constant rotation of the record. XX bloomed; Coexist sprouts, revealing an almost unfinished product. 

All of these dark, sparse songs come as a huge surprise considering Jamie XX, the band's producer and beat maker, revealed what would be the first details about Coexist, in an interview with Pitchfork:

I think it will definitely sound different than the last album and anything I've ever done, just because our ears have been opened to so much music. Two years ago, I wouldn't have dreamed of listening to most of the stuff I listen to now. Like, I wasn't interested in techno and house at all before but, when I was in Chicago, I bought a bunch of Dance Mania records from the 80s and 90s, and I've listened to a lot of that.

I had Coexist pinned to be more of the dance inspired bass music Jamie XX was doing solo, or the Gil-Scott Heron remix album. I was sure the record would be a lot more of the stuff I loved off of XX, but with more "danceability." What Coexist does do is create a dark veil over the music, one that I'm sure will eventually lift, revealing a melancholic beauty, but for the first time through, it feels too shrouded.

With singles "Angels" and "Chained", The xx displayed the usual slow build, but with shifty, unpredictable drums. These features only make slight appearances in the other songs on the album, "Missing" being a highlight of this; you can feel the heartbeat, uncertainty, and hurt in the production. "Try" starts off with an eery guitar riff, yet it seems to stay at the same pace and never really excites. A lot of other songs, like "Tides" and "Our Song", feel almost like sketches or outlines for a larger song, never fully building into anything.

But maybe this is exactly where The xx is going, a starless yearning that is never fulfilled. It certainly doesn't produce anything you can show to someone and have them instantly latch onto, much like what XX accomplished. For right now, after a half-dozen listen throughs, Coexist feels more like an "honorable mention," for what it aims for, than a "best of," because of what it accomplishes.

Grade: B-

What the Early Stream of Centipede Hz Means

It's not the biggest of surprises the enigmatic Animal Collective chose to stream their newest album, Centipede Hz, nearly two weeks before its release date, using an internet "radio station." Frank Ocean did the same exact thing, although Ocean chose to just go ahead and release his proper debut, in its entirety, for digital downloads. Animal Collective's Geologist spoke with Spin on why the band is streaming the record, saying, "It's not like we're totally trying to beat the clock. It's a way of being like 'Can we beat the clock, but not just beat the clock for beating the clock's sake? But do it in a way that feels like it has been lost. Recapture that a little bit.'" He went on to express that it doesn't matter if people see the early release as a marketing ploy because, at a certain point, you can't control what people think. This feels like something a band such as Animal Collective has always known, being as mercurial as they are.

Obviously the early stream will have an effect on how the album is received. Stereogum has been hosting a comment party on the stream and, most importantly, the critics that will soon review the release get an extra two weeks with it, something that the band can only benefit from. Animal Collective have a dense veil around their music, one that can seem strange and alien to most listeners. But the internet has allowed the band to prosper. The more avant-garde music reviewers are found on the internet, those who have praised the band since its earlier releases. Although Entertainment Weekly did name 2009's Merriweather Post Pavilion as its best of the year, now every critic, small and large publication, will have a chance to let the music absorb and digest. The band is using the same exact tool that has allowed them to pull off such a stunt and have it ring in such a large echo chamber.

There are definitive drawbacks to allowing the public in so early, as the internet never fails to prove. Although Geologist tried to avoid any and all publicity stunt accusations, he couldn't foresee how the public would receive fan's reactions to other band's, Grizzly Bear's twitter account attests; seems convoluted, but it's a much less complicated story. Grizzly Bear, a band that competed with Merriweather in 2009 with the critically lauded Veckatimest, tweeted this, saying it didn't have a radio station to stream their new album Shields, set for a release almost two weeks from AnCo's. What seemed like an obvious joke was misinterpreted, a thousand times over, by the internet's most avid music fans as a shot at Animal Collective's early stream. Grizzly Bear then followed up the witch hunt with this and this, thus defusing anything that might happen to be interesting. Hey, music beefs have always been interesting, back when they would result in shootings or tragedies; turmoil will always drive a fiercer competition, sometimes spilling over into actual violence. I obviously don't condone or endorse any deaths, I'm strictly speaking from an entertainment point of view.

It seems like Animal Collective accomplished what they, and everyone on the internet, wanted: more time with an exciting release. Maybe all the major publications, like Entertainment Weekly, just needed to get to know the band's music a little more before they fully committed. I know I will certainly have fun tripping out to Centipede Hz while watching Abby Portner's visuals.

So, the only thing left for you to decide is what you think about the release. You can stream it here. And feel free to comment below what you think.