Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs...First Impressions

So, I bought the new album, Popular Songs, last night on my way home from work. I'm listening to it for the first time right now and here are my intial first impressions:

- It's extremely quiet and subdued, much more than I expected
- It's a late evening/night album for sure
- They have continued their evolution, but it isn't as advanced as their last album in terms of variety and range of styles
- Ira and Georgia's vocals seem more...distant...? I dunno, they just sound a bit different on this album
- It slips into the background very easily
- It's probably going to be a grower (which is good if that's how it turns out)
- They still know how to close out an album better than anyone else around today

All in all, intially I'm a little disappointed, mainly because they set the bar high with I Am Not Afraid of You..., but it's a lot better than Sonic Youth's new output, that's for sure, just for sake of comparison. For as long as YLT has been around, they amaze me with how they continue to put out relevent albums and continue to evolve their sound in extremely interesting ways.

***EDIT***

Ok, after another listen tonight, it's definitely opened up to my ears. There's more poppiness to it than I originally thought, and the subtleties are coming out more and more. I'm pretty sure it's going to get better with each listen. I like the added orchestration and various sounds they've encorporated. So far I'd say it's one of the best albums of the year.

New Yo La Tengo Coming Soon!!!!

After the surprisingly good, and very awesomely titled "I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass," Yo La Tengo comes at us again with a new album. I've only heard the one song so far, "Here to Fall," and I'm already excited to see what they've got to offer this time around. It comes out in 6 days and I'll be one of the first getting it in my hands.

Here's some Yo La Tengo trivia for all of you.

Have you at all wondered where their name comes from? I know when I first heard the name of their band I thought it was going to be some lame Spanish dance music with lots of horns or something.

Ira Kaplan is a huge baseball fan, and specifically a fan of the Mets, being that they're originally from Hoboken, NJ. In the 1962 season, Mets center fielder Richie Ashburn always found himself colliding with their Venezualen shortstop Elio Chacon. Richie was always yelling "I've got it! I've got it!" but Spanish speaking Elio never understood. Finally, Richie learned how to say it in Spanish, and started yelling out "Yo la tengo! Yo la tengo!" He found Elio backing off now that he understood. However, left fielder Frank Thomas didn't understand Spanish, and after colliding with Richie on one occasion, he asked him, "what's a yellow tango?"

Now you know where that seemingly random name comes from.

Slowdive - Souvlaki

7.0/10

Many consider this album as part of the great shoegaze triumverate, consisting of Loveless, Nowhere, and this. But, I think Souvlaki tends to lean quite a bit more toward the dream pop side of things. The swirling guitar fuzzed out effects you normally hear in shoegaze are here, but aren't as dominant and pronounced. Melody and vocals take more precedence instead. I'd compare these guys most to Galaxie 500. Slower in tempo and dreamlike.

"Alison" is one of my favorite album openers ever, and a great way to start out. "Souvlaki Space Station" is one monster of a track with its crazed out reverb effects, and serves as a nice mood piece in the middle of the album. "When the Sun Hits" is another highlight, and comes off especially well right off of "Souvlaki Space Station."

Aside from the three songs mentioned above, the rest of the album has a tendency to float together into one big mass. They get comfortable in a zone and rarely stray from it. Taken individually I'd probably appreciate these songs more. Let's just say that the 10th bite of a great steak is never as tasty as the first. Particularly, after "When the Sun Hits" ends the album seems to go into cruise control and I tend to really tune out and lose interest. "Altogether" and "Melon Yellow" add very little to the album and are very similar in tempo, mood, etc. By the time "Dagger" comes on I'm often itching for it to end so I can put on something else.

So, I'm a little torn. At its best, Souvlaki is breathtaking and sublime - some of the best dream pop you'll ever hear. I just really wish they'd pushed it further and really tried to break out of the rut they seemed to fall back on a little too often, because it just gets a little tiresome by the end.

The Clash - London Calling

3.2/10

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Boy, is that album cover ever decieving.

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The way The Clash combine so-called "punk," white reggae, and rockabilly is pretty different and unique, I'll grant you that. But a horseradish and jelly sandwich is different and unique, too. Just don't expect to see me having one for lunch anytime soon.

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There are some songs that I really don't mind. "London Calling" actually gets my hopes up every time I play the album because it makes me think the album has grown some balls since the last time I heard it. "Brand New Cadillac" doesn't do much to sway my hopes, either. And "Train in Vain" is a pretty good song, and ends the album on a good note. But in between it's all downhill from here. I absolutely cannot stand "Jimmy Jazz." "Rudie Can't Fail"," "Spanish Bombs," and especially "The Right Profile" all feature the most annoying vocals from one of my most dispised frontmen of all time, Joe Strummer, with his whiny croons and yelps. I mean, what on earth is happening to Joe at the 3:07 mark on "The Right Profile?" Somebody get the man some medical attention. Actually, nah, just let him suffer. Instead, get me a paper bag to puke in.

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To top it off, it doesn't help that he has bright and cheery horns backing him up like he's some Las Vegas showman or something.

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An album with "Wrong 'Em Boyo" is supposed to be a punk album? Are you kidding me?

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To these ears, London Calling is nothing more than a really bad experiment gone awry.

The Afghan Whigs - Black Love

8.6/10

Although I still consider “Gentlemen” to be the absolute Afghan Whigs classic, “Black Love” is the one album that makes me reconsider at times. A transitional album as the Whigs were starting to grow past their alt-rock roots and further incorporating soul into their blend of rock, it foreshadows where they would go on their follow up, “1965.”

Every song on here has all the marquees of classic Whigs material – angry rants of past relationships gone bad (“Blame, Etc.”); driving guitar rock (“My Enemy”); slow, crooning ballads of remorse and regret (“Crime Scene, Pt. 1,” “Step Into the Light”). Check, check, and check. But they also add different elements not heard before, such as violins, keyboards (they make a really funky, groovy appearance on “Going to Town”), and…an organ! Any alt-rock band that can successfully incorporate an organ (note to the Arcade Fire – “successfully” is the key word) gets an “A” in my book. Not too mention, they make extremely good use of the piano.

Ok, I must confess, I think it’s just a keyboard with an “organ” effect, but still!

I must say I’ve never found Dulli’s lyrics to be a strong point of the Whigs music. He uses over-dramatic metaphors (“come crucify my heart” – uh, ok Greg, it’s not THAT bad), and he uses the word “baby” about as liberally as a teenage girl uses the word “like.” We get it, already. You’re emotional about things.

The thing I’ve always found interesting about the Whigs work is how they often mesh bitter and angry lyrics with optimistic and high spirited music. They do this more than anywhere else on “Black Love.” I hear Greg’s rants and croons and screams, and ultimately come out thinking hey, this world is worth living in, despite all the crap that happens. There is no better example than the incredible closer, “Faded.” If there is a better Afghan Whigs song than this, I am not aware of it.

Ultimately, this is a very close runner up to “Gentleman,” and achieves a very nice blend of rock and soul.

I like it, baby.

David Bowie - Low

6.9/10

This was the third Bowie album I bought, after Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust. I put my headphones on and pressed play, and within about three songs in I was thinking, why isn't Low generally considered Bowie's best work? The songs were more streamlined and extremely catchy. Bowie doing euro-synth-pop just made sense.

That should have been my warning sign.

The albums I love on first listen nearly always lessen over time, and most of my most adored albums didn't really grab me initially. You see, the pattern is hardly ever broken.

From that first listen on, the album hasn't grabbed me as much. I do still love the first, poppy side, but the second - the atmospheric and instrumental side - seems like an afterthought of meddling and wandering atmospherics.

The other thing I've come to realize is that even the songs from the first half don't seem complete. It's frustrating to listen to the opening instrumental, "Speed of Life," and think of what Bowie could've done with that song if he'd added vocals and maybe expanded on it a little more. Instead, I feel like I'm listening to house music being played while waiting for the final act to come on stage.

When things do come together, they come together very well. "Breaking Glass," "Sound and Vision," and "Be My Wife" are prime examples of how well Bowie can pull off pop music (albeit with a little help from some guy named Eno).

If you split the album into two and reserved them for different listens, I'd probably give the second side more respect. As it is, the drastic change in direction is way to arbitrary and nonsensical and ultimately detracts from the album as a whole.

To me, this will always be Bowie's album of unfulfilled potential.

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See a Darkness

7.8/10

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This is the only Will Oldham album I own, but it's about all I need from him. I don't often feel the burning desire to put it on merely because it requires a very specific mood. I got it at a time in my life when things were kinda gloomy and I wanted an album to commiserate with. But although it's definitely a darker album, there's an element of detachment I feel when I hear it. Like I'm hearing someone else telling their sad story, but I'm the neutral listener just absorbing the story without feeling much of an emotional response. Even when Will sings "Death to Everyone," I feel like he's telling some sort of mythical story or old legend of some sort, rather than a sad, pity-seeking lament. Good thing, too, because it'd be way too dramatic otherwise.

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That said, the "story," or album, is very much worth listening to, even if you're not down in the dumps. It has a very reflective, sad, and even mournful mood, but there's a ray of hope and light that strikes through it all. The perfect example of this would be the title track, where Will sings:

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Oh, no, I see a darkness

Did you know how much I love you?

Is a hope that somehow you

Could save me from this darkness.

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The overall highlight for me has to be "Nomadic Revery (All Around)," which has a climactic buildup with a very effectual peak.

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I don't normally talk about production, but I have to here because the production on this album is sublime. Everything is so subtle and clean, and so crystal clear. The drums, his voice, the piano...everything sounds as if it's being played live right in front of you. And there's an excellent use of overdubbed vocals.

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I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this album to anyone who likes the idea of darker singer-songwriter music with a hint of gothic gloomy storytelling (or something like that).