Blog: angels twenty

[review 2008: favourites] I am convinced that there are two types of aging: the graceful type and the kicking-and-screaming type. As I am almost certainly going to be the second type, musically speaking, it should be absolutely no surprise to anyone who's heard Johnny Foreigner that Waited Up Til It Was Light would end up at the top of my list. Let's consult the features checklist, shall we: heaping dollops of enthusiasm, check; a sound ripped from the pages of the American indie scene circa late-90s, back when emo-core was still a badge of [...]

[review 2008: favourites] I am convinced that there are two types of aging: the graceful type and the kicking-and-screaming type. As I am almost certainly going to be the second type, musically speaking, it should be absolutely no surprise to anyone who's heard Johnny Foreigner that Waited Up Til It Was Light would end up at the top of my list. Let's consult the features checklist, shall we: heaping dollops of enthusiasm, check; a sound ripped from the pages of the American indie scene circa late-90s, back when emo-core was still a badge of [...]

[review 2008: favourites] I am convinced that there are two types of aging: the graceful type and the kicking-and-screaming type. As I am almost certainly going to be the second type, musically speaking, it should be absolutely no surprise to anyone who's heard Johnny Foreigner that Waited Up Til It Was Light would end up at the top of my list. Let's consult the features checklist, shall we: heaping dollops of enthusiasm, check; a sound ripped from the pages of the American indie scene circa late-90s, back when emo-core was still a badge of [...]

[review 2008: favourites] Friend Opportunity , Deerhoof's biggest breakthrough to date, was a thoroughly idiosyncratic album whose euphoric highs—the galloping thunderstorm of "The Perfect Me," the adorable chorus of "+813—outweighed but did not entirely eclipse its too-strange missteps, chief among them the frustrating and distractedly dissonant final track "Look Away." But where Friend Opportunity offered occasional moments of pure joy, Offend Maggie offers moments of heartstopping beauty. Where Friend Opportunity felt like a great collection of songs, Offend Maggie sounds like a single cohesive statement. And [...]

[review 2008: favourites] Friend Opportunity , Deerhoof's biggest breakthrough to date, was a thoroughly idiosyncratic album whose euphoric highs—the galloping thunderstorm of "The Perfect Me," the adorable chorus of "+813—outweighed but did not entirely eclipse its too-strange missteps, chief among them the frustrating and distractedly dissonant final track "Look Away." But where Friend Opportunity offered occasional moments of pure joy, Offend Maggie offers moments of heartstopping beauty. Where Friend Opportunity felt like a great collection of songs, Offend Maggie sounds like a single cohesive statement. And [...]

[review 2008: favourites] Friend Opportunity , Deerhoof's biggest breakthrough to date, was a thoroughly idiosyncratic album whose euphoric highs—the galloping thunderstorm of "The Perfect Me," the adorable chorus of "+813—outweighed but did not entirely eclipse its too-strange missteps, chief among them the frustrating and distractedly dissonant final track "Look Away." But where Friend Opportunity offered occasional moments of pure joy, Offend Maggie offers moments of heartstopping beauty. Where Friend Opportunity felt like a great collection of songs, Offend Maggie sounds like a single cohesive statement. And [...]

[review 2008: favourites] Read a bunch of reviews for Box of Secrets and you'll get an idea of Blood Red Shoes' weaknesses fairly quickly: a tendency to stick too closely to the same basic sound, and perhaps still in search of how much sonic polish is just right and how much is too much. But some of these weaknesses are in fact my favourite things about the band's first album. Taking three years to incubate, Box of Secrets is cobbled together from a mix of live staples and early seven-inches, re-recorded to [...]

[review 2008: favourites] Read a bunch of reviews for Box of Secrets and you'll get an idea of Blood Red Shoes' weaknesses fairly quickly: a tendency to stick too closely to the same basic sound, and perhaps still in search of how much sonic polish is just right and how much is too much. But some of these weaknesses are in fact my favourite things about the band's first album. Taking three years to incubate, Box of Secrets is cobbled together from a mix of live staples and early seven-inches, re-recorded to [...]

[review 2008: favourites] Read a bunch of reviews for Box of Secrets and you'll get an idea of Blood Red Shoes' weaknesses fairly quickly: a tendency to stick too closely to the same basic sound, and perhaps still in search of how much sonic polish is just right and how much is too much. But some of these weaknesses are in fact my favourite things about the band's first album. Taking three years to incubate, Box of Secrets is cobbled together from a mix of live staples and early seven-inches, re-recorded to [...]

[review 2008: favourites] The Kills have always been on the periphery of my musical universe. With the occasional review saying "sounds like PJ Harvey but grungier!" and "way cooler than the White Stripes," there was at least a pleasant-sounding buzz around the band's first two albums. But I couldn't quite take seriously a band whose members wanted to be called VV and Hotel in interviews, and to be honest I'm not one for the hard-living, drink-and-fight stereotype Alison Mossheart and Jamie Hince seem to embody. In short, I wasn't really buying it. Well, I'm [...]

[review 2008: favourites] The Kills have always been on the periphery of my musical universe. With the occasional review saying "sounds like PJ Harvey but grungier!" and "way cooler than the White Stripes," there was at least a pleasant-sounding buzz around the band's first two albums. But I couldn't quite take seriously a band whose members wanted to be called VV and Hotel in interviews, and to be honest I'm not one for the hard-living, drink-and-fight stereotype Alison Mossheart and Jamie Hince seem to embody. In short, I wasn't really buying it. Well, I'm [...]

[review 2008: favourites] The Kills have always been on the periphery of my musical universe. With the occasional review saying "sounds like PJ Harvey but grungier!" and "way cooler than the White Stripes," there was at least a pleasant-sounding buzz around the band's first two albums. But I couldn't quite take seriously a band whose members wanted to be called VV and Hotel in interviews, and to be honest I'm not one for the hard-living, drink-and-fight stereotype Alison Mossheart and Jamie Hince seem to embody. In short, I wasn't really buying it. Well, I'm [...]

[review 2008: favourites] I don't know who decided that 2008 should be the year a few people decide to remount the whole twee-punk thing, but goddammit, I could kiss you. You've singlehandedly saved us from a year full of indie-folk wunderkinds who bore me with their subtle inflections and introspective observations about the mundane life, instead of battering me with yelps and sweet nothings like these young folks from Wales, who are apparently so excited about stuff that they require an exclamation point in their name. Hold On Now, Youngster is [...]

[review 2008: favourites] I don't know who decided that 2008 should be the year a few people decide to remount the whole twee-punk thing, but goddammit, I could kiss you. You've singlehandedly saved us from a year full of indie-folk wunderkinds who bore me with their subtle inflections and introspective observations about the mundane life, instead of battering me with yelps and sweet nothings like these young folks from Wales, who are apparently so excited about stuff that they require an exclamation point in their name. Hold On Now, Youngster is [...]

[review 2008: favourites] I don't know who decided that 2008 should be the year a few people decide to remount the whole twee-punk thing, but goddammit, I could kiss you. You've singlehandedly saved us from a year full of indie-folk wunderkinds who bore me with their subtle inflections and introspective observations about the mundane life, instead of battering me with yelps and sweet nothings like these young folks from Wales, who are apparently so excited about stuff that they require an exclamation point in their name. Hold On Now, Youngster is [...]

[review 2008: favourites] Welcome to Be Your Own Pet, a band that either isn't old enough to know or else has decided to ignore the fact that people mature significantly in the years before and after your high school graduation. Get Awkward loses a bit of the ferocity from their debut, but otherwise the formula hasn't changed very much: teenage boredom and rebellion, pierced occasionally by bouts of fucking shit up, all set to a bubblegum thrash punk sound set permanently on fast forward. And really, if you liked the first album, this is [...]

[review 2008: favourites] Welcome to Be Your Own Pet, a band that either isn't old enough to know or else has decided to ignore the fact that people mature significantly in the years before and after your high school graduation. Get Awkward loses a bit of the ferocity from their debut, but otherwise the formula hasn't changed very much: teenage boredom and rebellion, pierced occasionally by bouts of fucking shit up, all set to a bubblegum thrash punk sound set permanently on fast forward. And really, if you liked the first album, this is [...]

[review 2008: favourites] Welcome to Be Your Own Pet, a band that either isn't old enough to know or else has decided to ignore the fact that people mature significantly in the years before and after your high school graduation. Get Awkward loses a bit of the ferocity from their debut, but otherwise the formula hasn't changed very much: teenage boredom and rebellion, pierced occasionally by bouts of fucking shit up, all set to a bubblegum thrash punk sound set permanently on fast forward. And really, if you liked the first album, this is [...]

The length of a pop album is a tricky thing to get right. Usually you take two or three irresistable formulas for a song and repeat them over and over again to make an album, which introduces the major problem: not enough repetition and you've wasted the hitmaking potential of your formulas; too much repetition and you've worn out your welcome well before the end. By this measure, the Ting Tings overshot by about three songs. The British duo may very well be the final result of an online music culture attacking and then merging with more traditional [...]

[review 2008: half-measures and quiet victories] The length of a pop album is a tricky thing to get right. Usually you take two or three irresistable formulas for a song and repeat them over and over again to make an album, which introduces the major problem: not enough repetition and you've wasted the hitmaking potential of your formulas; too much repetition and you've worn out your welcome well before the end. By this measure, the Ting Tings overshot by about three songs. The British duo may very well be the final result of an [...]