THREE ALBUMS THAT I REALLY DON'T LIKE, BUT YOU MAY LOVE

Recently I've been more of a curmudgeon than not when it comes to new releases that aren't either metal or experimental. I am willing to acknowledge that this may be primarily due to a character flaw within myself before I blame it on indie musicians putting out subpar material this year. So rather than write three horrible reviews of the following albums, I thought I would spew out my bile in short order and leave it up to you, the reader, to decide whether or not I am suffering from an aneurysm or if this music really does suck as much as I think it does. Admittedly, each of these reviews puts me on the wrong side of the majority of critics who seem to be fawning over each of these albums, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. Of course, I could actually be the voice of reason, which would not bode well for anyone.

#1 GIRLS - Father, Son, Holy Ghost (True Panther)

If there is an indie rock album that was tailor-made for me this year, this was probably it. I have been hemming and hawing about the sorry state of indie "rock" this year and the lack thereof actual rock for the past couple of years, so one would think that a guitar driven album that covers the waterfront of styles would be right up my ally. Unfortunately, "Father, Son, Holy Ghost" leaves me feeling cold. Nearly everyone whose musical tastes I respect told me that no matter how I felt about their earlier material (in case you were wondering, I hated it) I would love this. Well, I don't. I still respect my friends' musical tastes, but I just can't hang with Girls. The same tired Elvis Costello/Britpop ripoff pyramid scheme that characterized earlier releases is at play here, and in the end I would rather just listen to the first three Elvis Costello albums or the Kinks. At the same time, I have to give major props to this band for playing rock-n-roll, no matter how unoriginal it sounds. In these dark days of synthpop and chillwave, at least Girls know how to play guitars and play them rather well.

I guess in the end my beef with Girls is that they are a tepid version of what I want to hear more than anything else. I'm learning to respect them, at the same time I'm never going to throw this on the stereo Friday night and rock out to it, because there are about a thousand better albums to actually rock out to on a Friday night. It really isn't a bad album, it just doesn't...well, it just doesn't. For what it is worth, apparently everyone but me loves this record and you probably will too, and in the end I recommend this about a hundred times more than the next two entries on this list.

"Vomit"

#2 BALAM ACAB - Wander/Wonder (Tri Angle)

Hey Balam Acab, I "wonder" why you "wandered" away from your rather haunting and beautiful take on witch-house and turned in this far too precious little record that sounds like Enya mixed with Passion Pit. Seriously, what the fuck happened here? Last year's mournful "See Birds" ep was one of 2010's best kept secrets. To say that I was more than a little excited for Balam Acab's debut album is an understatement. To say that I am little more than disappointed in this new age post-dubstep tripe is an even bigger understatement. Yet, just as with The Girls new record, I seem to be in the minority of critics who are crying foul on this one, but on this I'm 100% right and they are 100% bandwagon jumping wrong.

If you are a fragile person who likes fragile music, or a critic attempting to be on the right side of what you think will be the next hip album, then you are going to love the shit out of this. Everyone else need not apply. This is music for people who think the most delicate song by Sigur Ros sounds a little too much like Sunn 0))) and needs something prettier. I better stop writing now before I get really mean.

"Oh Why"

#3 NEON INDIAN - Era Extrana (Static Tongues/Mom + Pop)

I've saved the best/worst for last. It is no secret that I hate Neon Indian. I've taken about every chance I can to mock and taunt his work while constantly citing it as an example of everything that is wrong with music these days, couple that with my increasing disdain for chillwave, and it is a wonder that I ever broke the seal on this cd. Yet, in the interest of fairness and because he recorded an ep with the Flaming Lips earlier this year that didn't offend me, I thought I would give him another try. Amazingly I made it to track nine before I was finally faced with the choice of ripping my hair out or hitting the eject button, so that's something (I chose the eject button).

Basically this is an archetypal chillwave record through and through that in it's best moments sounds like an Air knockoff and in it's worst moments sounds like Neon Indian. If you like synthpop or chillwave, you will likely love this record, and who am I to judge your shitty tastes. For what it is worth, I would rather hear this record ten times over than I would sit through "Psychic Chasms" a single time more.

"Polish Girl"

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM - Celestial Lineage (Southern Lord)

There is something intimidating about reviewing the new Wolves in the Throne Room record. For one, "Celestial Lineage" is the final cumulative installment in the band's trilogy that started with the much loved "Two Hunters" and continued with the brutal but anthematic "Black Cascade." That fact alone is not what makes approaching the album so daunting, but doing justice to the unique world that WITTR have created over the course of these records is no small task. Part of that is because in many ways this is religious music, as much as it is an exceptional black metal release. For those who don't know already, WITTR live on an organic farm outside of Olympia, Washington where they focus on sustainable growing practices informed to some degree by pagan lore. Their interest in ecology and nature-based spirituality is well documented, and their music is a reflection of both. Their lyrics have focused on pagan primitivism, humankind's connection to nature and man's destruction of himself in losing that connection. While the trilogy's first two records focused on the feral naturalistic side of things, "Celestial Lineage" is a more stately vision of the nature-based spirituality that has always been present in the band's work as it evolves into something more ritualized and refined. In that context the band also explores the contradiction between the order of religion and the chaos of nature, and by extension the tension between civilization and primalism, making for a record that alternates between ethereal beauty and grim darkness. There is really no way I can do justice to everything that is going on throughout "Celestial Lineage," it is an epic record that marks the end of an even grander trilogy, and one that could very well act as holy art for a new world beyond our crumbling one. In fact, you would do better to just read Amy Miller's excellent interview with drummer Aaron Weaver and then go lose yourself in the band's trilogy than read anything I have to say about this record. Yet, I can't help myself but to say something to try and capture that which is ultimately inexplicable, which is the essence of this great work.

Unlike the more straightforward "Black Cascade," "Celestial Lineage" sees the return of heralded classical vocalist Jessika Kenney. Her ethereal voice introduces the record, giving it the air of religious ceremony before the band breaks loose with the grandiose atmospheric black metal that has become their trademark. Yet, there is something more massive in the band's sound and approach here than anything they have done before, which is really saying something for a band who has never sounded anything less than epic. Part of that is due to the marrying of the supernal with the grimness of the cold earth and forest simultaneously. While there are distinct moments of beauty and ugliness present on the record, much of it is spent blending the two, as if to reflect the contradictions, and possible dissolution of tensions, between the rawness of nature and the organization of society and ceremony. For instance, the second-half of opener "Thuja Magus Imperium" sounds a bit like Popol Vuh if they were a black metal band. This seamless blending of disparate tensions is found even more so on "Subterranean Initiation" and "Astral Blood," arguably the band's two most cumulative pieces, running the gamut from Xasthur-like blackened atmospherics to muscular metal to transcendental cascades of sound, all often played out simultaneously. One cannot help but be enraptured by the profound and brilliant execution of the band's ideas throughout "Celestial Lineage," but these tracks in particular are the perfect distillation of everything WITTR has been working toward.

Elsewhere the band focuses on ambient interludes, such as "Permanent Changes in Consciousness" and "Rainbow Illness," the former which sounds like metal being sharpened for a ritual and calls to mind the naturalistic experimentalism of the Bay Area's Thuja, while the later sounds like a kosmische interpretation of technology in decline. Then there is "Woodland Cathedral," a doomy and stately vehicle for Kenney's voice. There is an inescapable religious feel to the piece, making for WITTR's most refined production to date.

The record ends with "Prayer of Transformation," a piece that finds the band branching out in new directions and mining a sound that is more majestic than grim. There is both a victorious and elegiac quality to the number, as well as a overwhelming sense of finality. It is a fitting end not only for the record, but the trilogy as a whole. It is the sound of culmination and transformation, containing within it the sadness of death and the joy of rebirth. There has been much speculation as to whether this is not only the final album in the trilogy, but the final album by Wolves In The Throne Room entirely. From what I have read that does not appear to be the case. Instead it seems that the band will be moving on from black metal to create something new. Intentional or not, "Prayer of Transformation" seems like the perfect bridge toward a new sound for the band, and one that holds much promise. Whether it is or not, it is a perfect ending for one of modern music's most auspicious body of work.

"Thuja Magus Imperium"

STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS - Mirror Traffic

If you are of a certain age and maintained a proclivity toward independent music in the 1990s then chances are that Pavement are the most important band in the world to you. I don't mean to say that they are objectively the most important band musically to emerge from the 90s (although the argument can certainly be made), what I mean is that Pavement, far more than any other band, has soundtracked a good part of yours and my life. As Stephen Malkmus rightly noted in a recent interview, "a certain strata of middle-class hipsters share Pavement." I would only add to that quote that those "hipsters" are not only middle-class, but have presently either arrived at, or are approaching, middle-age. The days of listening to "Range Life" on long road trips with college friends in-between bars has faded into the rear-view mirror, and Malkmus' core audience is now more likely to be jamming "Cut Your Hair" in the family vehicle while their children sing along.

Of course, Pavement called it quits right as the century was turning, calling an end to the decade that they helped define, but that hasn't stopped fans from playing their records religiously, or traveling long distances to catch them live on their recent reunion tour. While fans have not necessarily wanted to accept that Pavement is no longer, Pavement's members, particularly Malkmus, have clearly moved on. Over the last ten years Malkmus has looked more forward than backward, releasing five albums with his new set of bandmates the Jicks. While nearly each release has been worthwhile, particularly "Pig Lib" and "Real Emotional Trash," nothing has come close to the magic of Pavement-era Malkmus that is until now. Simply put, "Mirror Traffic" is Malkmus' best work since Pavement's "Brighten The Corners."

What makes this record so excellent is that it sounds as relaxed as Pavement once did while maintaining a focus unlike anything before. Gone are the long beefy jams of "Real Emotional Trash," the bizzaro experimental rock of "Face the Truth," and the moody prog of "Pig Lib." In their place is a distillation of the best parts of all of the above coupled with the most inspired pop of Malkmus' career since "Shady Lane." Lyrically and musically Malkmus is switched to the "on" position throughout the Beck-produced "Mirror Trash." Opener "Tigers" is exactly the kind of catchy, sunny tune that made Pavement legends. It is no surprise that my two young daughters picked up on the song's jangly little hooks immediately, requesting that I play it over and over again, which I was able to do without losing my mind - no small reward for any aged "hipster" stuck carting around their respective broods. Even as I write this review I hear one of them off in the distance singing the chorus "We are the tigers, we need separate rooms, we are so divided, let us in." For my part, though, I am partial to the opening line, "I caught you streaking in your Birkenstocks, a scary thought in the 2Ks," a rather choice lyric that announces that Malkmus' wry wit and humor is in effect for much of "Mirror Traffic," which should put a smile on any Pavement fan's face.

"No One Is (As I Are Be)" follows "Tigers" and finds Malkmus at his most relaxed on the record, with a mellow acoustic strummer that is elevated by the addition of french horns midway through. More than any other track, Beck's hand as a producer is evident here, but only as a complement to Malkmus. In fact, with the exception of this song, it is easy to forget that Beck had anything to do with the record. Rather than impose himself of Malkmus' singular talent, Beck focuses solely on making Malkmus and the Jicks sound better than ever, which he succeeds at wildly. The entire record is absolutely pitch-perfect in terms of production, not too much, not too little. Beck's production allows Malkmus to take all of the tightness that has characterized his most recent work with the Jicks and marry it with the easy feel of his earlier career. It all comes off like the most concise and tightest Pavement record never recorded.

Then there are the songs themselves. These 15 tracks are - sorry, but I have to say it - "all killer, no filler." Certainly some tracks are better than others, but each and everyone of these pieces are superb in their own right. Not every song can be as deliriously perfect as the punchy "Senator" or the bombastic "Forever 28," but I'll be damned if I don't to lose myself to the "Wowee Zowee"-like swing of "Long Hard Book" every time it comes on. For my money though, the beautifully melancholic "Asking Price" followed by the elevating "Stick Figures In Love," as well as the epic and emotional "Share The Red" are the album's real sleepers. Yet, the joy in discovering all of the large and small gems throughout "Mirror Traffic" is half the fun of the record, so I won't spoil it any further.

Maybe there will be a few other records that come before this on my best of the year list, or maybe not, but one thing is for certain; there is no other record this year that I will listen to more. That isn't for nostalgia's sake either. "Mirror Traffic" is not a "return to form" or an attempt to recapture youth from twenty-years ago. As Heraclitus said, "you can't step in the same river twice." That is just one of life's many bittersweet truths, and Malkmus is not pretending otherwise. Instead, over the years his music has become timeless, as all great music does. As a result, "Mirror Traffic" will sound just as good on a long road trip with your college friends as it will taking your kids to school and aging. Of all the indie-rock records I've heard this year, this is the one that I'll remember and listen to twenty more years down the road.

"Tigers"


"No One Is (As I Are Be)"


"Senator"