LIVE BLOGGING TO THE FIRST LISTEN!
So the second most anticipated album of 09 just hit the web. Here are my initial reactions to each song in live real time:
1.) Southern Point
Wow, this is jazzy, good groove, building, top of the roller coaster moment of calm, oh man here we go, YES!, this song has already morphed, swirling swooshing guitars vocals and percussion, how do they make that ringing clock noise?, I love all these reverse reverb effects, this song is a jigsaw puzzle, mechanical men playing player pianos in a piano factory instructional video, did they just use wah-wah on woodwinds?, so many overlapping parts and breaks, CSNY (Judy Blue Eyes) acoustic guitar, definitely worth repeat listens.
2.) Two Weeks
HLLS YSS, that is a dirty dirty rhodes, is that shimmering noise what a shooting star sounds like?, tremolo guitar is killing it on the chorus right now, the chorus is so dense, background OOOOhing and AAAAweing is the new bling, DYNAMIX!, this the type of music stereo mixing was created for, this is the complete opposite of what Spoon does it's like painting with oils instead of playing jenga, how can a song with so much going on be so groovetastic?
3.) All We Ask
Ok, coming down, good call after the opening 1-2 punch, pillowy cloud puff drumming, Daniel Rossen's ear for guitar playing is phenomenal, acoustic guitar playing too, Edward Droste's vocal presence hushed, it's a march, man they are really emphasizing drums so far, and now it's a waltz, Victorian is not only a type of house but also apt description of the sonic space this song is inhabiting, R&B breakdown complete with claps, nice vocal harmony outro, dig the morphed cellos.
4.) Fine For Now
Brian Wilson / Van Dyke Parks style vocal intro, cha-ching, man those cymbals sound like they were recorded from the bottom of the ocean and then rebroadcast out of a cave, going big, this should be required listening for every first year music major who thinks pop sucks, oh nice sparkling effect there at the end of the second verse, i want Chris Taylor's pedal board, "there is time, so much time" so appropriate given the pacing of the song, jazzy waltzing again yet it's somehow bluesy?, here's the big guitars, wow, those notes are screaming out that Guild, i never thought I'd want to crank GB to 11 this bad, this is what MBV would have sounded like if they were a vocal pop group instead of morphed punk geniuses.
5.) Cheerleader
Bass Gee-tar, check, lock-step groove, check, glitchy guitar, check, dig the vocal effects and the use of call and response stereo panning, We Are The Sharks! (i guess the album is making me have vague memories of past orchestrations), is that flute wearing a monacle? cuz itz klassy, Ed Droste can make vocals soar to the rafters like no one else, this is their Ok Computer, vocal choir sampling - soooo sick, this is all mixed so well, guitar delay guitar delay guitar delay, tom tom rolls, Vocal line sandwich on rye, knocking on wood never sounded quite like this, Fleetatimest (Fleet Foxes / Grizzly Bear mash-up album concept).
6.) Dory
Chamber pop vocal intro, vocal sampling Panda Bear would be proud of, GB have listened to Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel, what is a dory? (
wikipedia), Ed sounds like he's 64 all of a sudden, hello organ, breathy saxophone, this album ricochets sound from every corner, this album is like a snow globe, every song is a new shake, with the vocals, guitars, drums, horns and effects swirling and falling towards the center in different flurries.
7.) Ready, Able
This bass sounds threatening, angry, gutiar echos sliding from left to right, there's that Ed D soaring angelic vocal thing again, the mish mash soundtrack to a citizen from the 1800's thoughts of what flying would be like, or the soundtrack to a circus from an ancient yet advanced civilization, did they just put a Leslie Speaker on my head?, rawhide whip-crack sound, a sleigh bell ride through an eerily half-way haunted Disneyland.
8.) About Face
Animal Collective aren't the only ones making good use of drumsticks on the rim of the snare, i don't know that sound is (it's like the barber's hair clippers wanted to play guitar), this is acoustic "electronic" music, must be why they're on Warp (duh), this is almost verging on African now, feel it building up, and we're out ( i wanted that groove to go on for at least another 2 minutes).
9.) Hold Still
Dreamy guitar, here we go again indeed, mellow song, oh man that reverberated recycling refrain sound in my right headphone is rad and is such a small part, nice breather, not every moment can be so full of ideas that it overflows the cup, I never thought acoustic finger-picking could be this essential of a rhythmic element, timeless is how people will describe this album; in that it feels so tied to the past but it's reference points are unclear, like if someone smeared Vaseline on your rear view mirror and then halfway fogged up the back window, shadows of the past.
10.) While You Wait For The Others
How can one guitar sound so big and far away yet at the same time close?, DYNAMIX again, i wish more bands understood that word, quiet, loud, quiet, loud, this is the Pixies with post-graduate-level music degree chops, haha, organs are not always of the internal variety, single guitar notes that pull out a different emotion each time, vocal riffing, once again...this album is incredibly mixed, every facet of this song is a groove.
11.) I Live With You
Did they just sample my brain's memory of what Charlie & The Chocolate Factory should sound like?, and now it's reminding me of the other Charlie (Brown) and Vince Guaraldi, "been gone too long" sung with a classic bluesy snarl Ella Fitzgerald would be proud of, Wow, Wow, Wow, I don't even know what they're doing here but my ears feel like they're bouncing up and down with a pack of elephants or camels, elephants and camels bouncing on a circus trampoline that's it, i don't ever want to try to keep Daniel Rossen apart from anyone, symphonic just got defined, this should punish sub-woofers if they can pull it off live, once again people...THIS IS THEIR OK COMPUTER.
12.)Foreground
Hauntingly sparse piano, cue strings, double (mint gum) the piano (double the pleasure, double the fun), oh man Ed's voice is dripping with melancholic presence, this is the dire emotional finish i wanted, breakup song of the year, actually this song will most likely be the backing music to the tribute video montage of all the years passed away musicians at the 2010 Grammys, hear comes that youth choir we were hearing about, man in 3 years since Yellow House they learned how to write pop songs really really well, i want to cry a perfectly formed single tear so bad right now, piano notes fade out on what is going to be a year-end best of list top 5 contender.
