Twitter Review Session #6

(118) The Visitor - Jim O'Rourke (Drag City)
One almost 40 minute long track. Truly gorgeous. Easy to get lost in, and unfortunately distracted. (6.5/10)

(119) Junior - Royksopp (Astralwerks)
Solid, fun, catchy and dancey electronic pop. Not the best, but there are several JAMS. (6.5/10)

(120) Mandala - Rx Bandits (Sargent House)
An interesting and loud take on The Police and The Clash's dub-inspired pop. Impressive skills, gets monotonous. (6.5/10)

(121) Oohs & Aahs - Say Hi (Barsuk)
Nice, lame, boring, unoffensive indie pop. I have no other words to describe the way I feel about this. (5.5/10)

(122) Bonfires on the Heath - The Clientele (Merge)
Beautiful, moody slow to mid-tempo 60s pop. It's about time I'm not bored by these guys! (7/10)

(123) New Leaves - Owen (Polyvinyl)
Fifth Owen LP is the same ol' same ol', and even cornier than normal, but boy is it gorgeous. (6.5/10)

(124) Other Truths - Do Make Say Think (Constellation)
As much as I hate the genre, not a bad post-rock album. Not nearly as good as the last one, though. (6/10)

(125) Higher Than the Stars EP - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Slumberland)
Four more songs in the vein of their s/t full length plus a remix. Just fine. (6.5/10)

(126) Old Patterns - Alan Scheurman (self-released)
Late 2008 album of spacey, psychedelic folk from ex-singer of Rescue. Recorded w/Warren Defever. Totes good. (6.5/10)

(127) Let Go EP - The Silent Years (Side Cho)
Detroit indie pop darlings and their latest EP of spacey rock ala The Bends meets late SDRE.The goods! (6.5/10)

(128) The Loud Wars - So Many Dynamos (Vagrant)
Poppier, emo-ier version of The Dismemberment Plan's Vagrant debut. Flashlights was better, but still good. (7/10)

(129) Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk (Shangri-La)
Mediocre as shit "all-star" band featuring James, Mogis, Oberst and Ward. Getting real sick of these guys. (5.5/10)

(130) The Eternal - Sonic Youth (Matador)
Obviously a so-so album for Sonic Youth. Is my cred completely shot since I can't seem to care about them? (5.5/10)

(131) Got Nuffin' EP - Spoon (Merge)
A nice thought between Ga x 5 and the next record, but nowhere near as good as Spoon usual is. (5.5/10)

(132) Change Remains - Starlight Mints (Barsuk)
Corny, obnoxious, electro-indie pop. Not my bag at all, no thank you. (4/10)

(133) Vapours - Islands (Anti-)
Listening to Islands just makes me miss The Unicorns. Nick Thorburn has just come to be a little too serious for me. (6.5/10)

(134) The BQE - Sufjan Stevens (Asthmatic Kitty)
Suf, please stop the epic, over-orchestrated sidetracks, and please get back to weird, beautiful folk records. (5/10)

(135) Actor - St. Vincent (4AD)
What a babe, right? Annie Clark also happened to release one of the better, more innovative pop albums of 2009. (8/10)

(136) Dragonslayer - Sunset Rubdown (Jagjaguwar)
Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug's other project, which sounds like his Wolf Parade songs. Best from them (SR) yet. (7.5/10)

(137) Leaves in the Gutter EP - Superchunk (Merge)
Great power/pop/punk from one of the longest lasting bands in indie rock. Release a full length already! (7.5/10)

(138) Dark Days/Light Years - Super Furry Animals (Rough Trade)
Truly fantastic and versatile psychedelic pop. Stupid that this is the first time I've tried 'em out. (8.5/10)

(139) Enemy Mine - Swan Lake (Jagjaguwar)
Creepy-ass Bejar/Krug/Mercer supergroup. Pretty fascinating at times, but mostly pretty boring. (6/10)

(140) The Atlantic Ocean - Richard Swift (Secretly Canadian)
Fun, beautiful, weird piano pop not too unlike Randy Newman, and much better than Ben Folds has become. (8/10)

(141) Now We Can See - The Thermals (Kill Rock Stars)
For some reason I've always thought I disliked this band. Turns out, they do some solid pop punk here. (7/10)

New Favorite Song #3: King of Pain

My real, passionate blogging has been absent of late, and I truly regret this. I have a ton of entries all pent up that I'd like to share. It is just taking forever getting to them, in spite of having SO much time on my hands. This is one of those entries.

Now, I don't really know if it's cool to like The Police any more, or if it even ever was, or if it is incredibly uncool. Regardless, I love 'em, and this has always been my favorite song of theirs. I recently (as in several months ago) decided it is one of my favorite songs of all time.

"King of Pain," from 1983's Synchronicity, balances on the line of nice deep cut and obvious single material. The melody is not only catchy, it is simply a very high quality one. There are some cheesy elements, like the fake marimba sounds and the obvious, popular 80s production.

However, there are some nice, a-typical (for The Police) characteristics of the song that make it stand out to me. For one, Stewart Copeland doesn't wail, and his usual reggae beat doesn't really lurk its head around the song at all. I sort of like the way his snare drum sounds here, too. Andy Summer's guitar isn't really in your face at all, either. Also, the song is quite long and uncomplicated. It's a nice, moody, mid-tempo 80s pop song. There's nothing obnoxious at all, which I think sometimes is the band's downfall. So that is good.

The biggest reason "King of Pain" rules so hard though is that melody and the harmony that goes over it during the choruses. Whoo boy, gives me goosebumps. Is that weird? I don't care. Enjoy if you wish.

PS Please notice how awesome they look in that photograph.

Twitter Review Session #5

(99) Hold Time - M. Ward (Merge)
Never been a HUGE fan, and the album has its low points, but good Lord, there are some absolute JAMS here. (6.5/10)

(100) Losing Feeling EP - No Age (Sub Pop)
Less punk rock and faster tempos and more ambience and meandering. This makes me excited for what they do next. (8/10)

(101) Invisible Cities - Nomo (Ubiquity)
One of the most impressive live groups I've ever seen, but their afrobeat instrumentals lose something on record. (6/10)

(102) Apple's Acre - Nurses (Dead Oceans)
Freakish folk pop that's kind of interesting but really not that much. Not offensive by any means, but also not great. (6/10)

(103) Outer South - Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band (Merge)
Ugh. I am so tired of this guy and his cohorts. (3.5/10)

(104) I Blame You - Obits (Sub Pop)
Ex-Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From the Crypt. Not far off from what you'd expect, except that it's mediocre. (4.5/10)

(105) Mecca - Office (Quack!)
Really great pop record with impeccable production. Helps that it's catchy as all get out. (7.5/10)

(106) The Seaside EP - Owen (Polyvinyl)
Typically gorgeous, but this brings nothing new to the table and even rehashes some older songs. Lame. (6/10)

(107) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Slumberland)
Great, cute, noisy indie pop not far off from early My Bloody Valentine and The Smiths. (7.5/10)

(108) You Can Have What You Want - Papercuts (Gnomonsong)
Really pretty, sad, slow to mid-tempo pop tunes. A more organ-driven version of late-60s psychadelic pop, I guess. (7.5/10)

(109) Manners - Passion Pit (Columbia/Frenchkiss)
Defs obnoxious as hell, but underneath are some really great, huge, dancey electro-pop gems. (6.5/10)

(110) Living Thing - Peter Bjorn and John (Witchita/Almost Gold)
Not nearly as bad as I first thought, but still no good by any means. Three sweet jams, though. (5.5/10)

(111) The Phenominal Handclap Band - The Phenominal Handclap Band (Friendly Fire)
An interesting mix of 70s psychedelic prog and funk. First didn't give two shits. Now I dig. (6.5/10)

(112) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix (Glassnote)
Best straight up pop record I've heard in a while. This record has it all: melodies, awes productch, SONGS. FANTAST. (8.5/10)

(113) Everybody Come Outside! - Pomegranates (Lujo)
These boys have matured and released a nice, spacey indie pop album that's surprisingly original. (7/10)

(114) Blessed Be, Yours Truly in Spirit & Soul EP - Prussia (Common Cloud)
The local Detroit scene's recent darlings whom I just can't get entirely into. Dark, lo-fi, reverby pop, one awes song. (6/10)

(115) Between Noise and the Indians - Push-Pull (Joyful Noise)
Equal parts zany, geeky and badass punk rock with insane time signature and rhythm trickery. Not amazing, but FUN. (6/10)

(116) Album - Girls (True Panther)
Not as good as I was hoping after all the Pitchfork hype, but still a solid and fairly interesting pop album. (6.5/10)

(117) The Life of the World to Come - The Mountain Goats (4AD)
I've never given a shit about John Darnielle, always assumed I hated him, but this is a really nice album. (7/10)