"Here comes the feeling you thought you'd forgotten." - "Horchata"

Vampire Weekend's sophomore album, Contra, establishes as a fantastic winter album by not being one. Some albums are great for the dark of winter because they make you want to stay home by the fire with hot cocoa and a good book. What makes Contra so great for winter is that it reminds you that fun can be had during winter too. Maybe this will change as time goes on and I hear it in different seasons, but right now this album reminds me of driving on a early winter's morning, as the dim sun rises over a snow covered golf course. Beautiful and a little bit preppy. 

Contra doesn't possess the same punchy character as their debut, but it is certainly good in its own right, and I've only come to like it more the more I've listened to it. Perhaps more importantly, it accomplishes the goal of a sophomore album: it sounds enough like the first one to be well received by fans, but also not just a direct repeat of previous material. In fact, the album starts in a place musically close to the first album, but pushes further and further away as the album progresses. 

The synths are more prominent here, and definitely listening to Discovery's LP from band member Rostam Batmanglij was good preparation for listening to this album. This is especially true of "California English" and "Diplomat's Son," two electronic heavy romps, the later of which includes a sample from MIA. 

Everyone has commented on how Vampire Weekend songs are littered with highbrow references, but I don't think that's what matters. It's really the fact that these cultural ornaments are weaved seamlessly into lush melodies with a texture not unlike chunky peanut butter. Its an album that feels like a Wes Anderson movie: deliberately scripted, well executed, and done up in Futura. 

Also check out Pitchfork's review here. 

 

There may be no band in the history of popular music more controversial among its own fans than Weezer. Most of Weezer's fans are my age or older, discovering Weezer in the wake of their 2001 album or from their first album in 1994. Among these fans and most music critics, Weezer's debut album and 1996's Pinkerton are the high points of their career. 

One of the reason for the success of early Weezer is that geeks finally had a band they could identify with. Weezer spoke to people who were outsiders in high school as peers, on their level, and in a way they understood. This trend continued into 2002's Maladroit, which while good, showed Cuomo's limits as a person on the outside. 

You see, what made Pinkerton such a later success (and the most influential album of the past 15 years) is Cuomo's heartfelt and personal lyrics. He perfectly captured the feelings of being an outsider, not being able to get the girl, loneliness, not being cool, etc. 

Flash forward to 2005's Make Believe, and "Beverly Hills." Something hand changed. Rivers Cuomo got happy. Basically, from the fans' perspective, this is a disaster. I quite like Make Believe, and I actually think it's better than Maladroit. However, last year's Red Album was an absolute disaster. Some of the songs were fun, but it was like cereal with too many marshmallows. So sweet and sacchrine, you get sick before you finish the bowl. 

And that brings us to Raditude. It is so obvious that Cuomo is a great pop song writer, and he really enjoys writing songs. However, he is only good writing in a pseudo-autobiographical manner. Given that Cuomo is married with children and seems to be really freakin' happy about it. 

Raditude is meant to be an ironic party album. The album you pop in when all your friends are drunk...ironically. It's meant for older hipsters who want to love pop but are too cool for it. Basically, if you're cool enough to listen to Weezer and can survive Miley Cyrus, this might be the greatest albums of all time. 

Moreso than their previous effort, the songs are catchy, if shallow-seeming, and the band has a much more cohesive sound. "(If Your Wandering If I Want You To) I Want You To" is my favorite song on the album, and the best song they've done in four years. Also, "The Girl Got Hot," is an excellent high school revenge fantasy when you consider that Cuomo is the girl in question. 

None of this can explain the embarrassment I feel over even listening to "Can't Stop Partying," which seems to be destined to be the new "Fight For Your Right." Expect most people to miss the point. 

Overall, I actually really enjoyed the album, but as a long time Weezer fan, I almost hate myself for liking it at all. 

*This review is 100% USDA certified Spoiler-free!

I enjoy being "dragged" to movies (because I enjoy it, there usually isn't much resistance) because I often see movies I wouldn't otherwise, and sometimes it really works out. The Informant! is a perfect example. Ocean's aside, I usually give Steven Soderbergh films a wide berth. 

Yesterday I was "dragged" to see The Informant!, starring Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, an executive at Archer Daniels Midland, a bunch of TV actors (ranging from sitcoms to Star Trek), and Biff Tannen from Back to the Future. The cast is certainly eclectic, but along with Damon's ability to lose himself in the role helps to reinforce the idea that none of these people are particularly extraordinary, but the situation they find themselves in is a fantastic one to be sure.

A rare comedy based on a true story, and perhaps even rarer, a comedy based on white collar crime (the only other one being Office Space, though I find Boiler Room to be pretty funny) and rarer still, a discussion of price fixing outside the economic classroom. 

As the audience gets pulled further and further into Whitacre's deception (and layers thereof), one can't help but feel sorry for the man, and Soderbergh is deft at making no one in the movie seem like a particularly bad guy, and using an unreliable narrator to the fullest effect. 

This is a guy who believes he's a spy, and the voice-over insights into Whitacre's mind (polar bears have black noses) and the music used both effectively serve to help the audience understand the protagonists' mind set. 

In short, this movie reminds me of what would have happened if the Cohen Brothers had directed Catch Me If You Can. It's smart even if the characters aren't, and it makes the protagonist sympathetic but not overly so. 

Highly recommended. 

Also, there is a book, and This American Life did a show about Whitacre. 

We've been fighting a long time. We are out numbered by machines. Working around the clock,without quit. Humans have a strength that cannot be measured. This is John Connor. If you are listening to this,you are the resistance. - John Connor, Terminator Salvation

Although this is Muse's fifth album, I hadn't discovered them until well after their 2006 effort, Black Holes and Revelations was out. That album is easily one of my favorite albums of all times, so it's not much of a shock to consider that The Resistance was one of my most anticipated albums of the year. But does it hold up? Here are some initial impressions:

"Uprising" - Love this song. It's a great opener, and definitely continues the popular Muse theme of paranoia. It could easily be part II of the Black Holes track "City of Delusion" and it is easily better than that song. The general theme of the album seems to be the freedom of the common man from the aristocracy, as well as being awesome to play at football games. Also mega bonus points to the band for the amazing cover art for the single (Teddy Bears!?!), and especially for riffing on the Doctor Who theme for the last 20 seconds of the song. 

Here's the video:

 

"Resistance" - Good song about love-as-freedom made at least 30% more awesome due to the background vocals during the chorus. 

"Undisclosed Desires" - A quirky ballad about wanting to be closer to someone. 

"United States of Eurasia" - If you like Queen, you will like this track. It easily could have come off their Jazz album, and in no universe is this a bad thing. It also takes musical cues from either Lawrence of Arabia or Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. While the lyrics may sound serious, this is absolutely the kind of overblown classical-influenced rock that has been missing from our pop charts lately (except for Coldplay, which doesn't have enough guitar to even be rock).

After "Collateral Damage," the drumbeats announce  "Guiding Light," a song about losing that person who is your beacon for life. 

"Unnatural Selection" sounds like a melding of their styles from Black Holes and 2001's Origin of Symmetry, though thematically fits here as a call to arms for the "resistance." A solid track, but not a standout. 

"MK Ultra" is one of my favorite tracks from the album, and is a perfect example of Bellamy & co's style: the blend of classical music with synthesizers and soaring guitars. 

"I Belong to You" returns to the love theme running through the album, making this one of the strangest love discs I've ever heard. I like it. And there's French at the end!

Ah, "Exogenesis." A sprawling 13-minute 'symphony' spreading across three tracks (note: the Rush fan in me just squealed) about humans settling space. What. Is. Not. To. Love. Bellamy has been working on this for years, and the craftsmanship shows. It's sprawling and epic, and they don't make them like this anymore. Not only that, but it fits in perfectly with the rest of the album. 

So I clearly love this album, though it isn't as mind-blowing as Black Holes. Easily one of my favorites so far this year. On one last pop culture note, I want to visit the alternate universe where Muse did the entire Watchmen soundtrack. Because how awesome would that be? 

 

"Right now he's probably saying "totally organic" into his Blackberry" - Jack White on The Edge

Until the past year or two, I was never really a fan of documentaries. Sure, I read a lot of non-fiction, but documentaries always seem to involve people saying weird things to a disembodied camera. Then I saw King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters. Then Helvetica. And I realized that geeky documentaries could be really awesome. 

See, for a documentary to be really good, the people the film focuses on need to be both extremely passionate but also relatable. King of Kong does this immensely well though the perspective of Steve Wiebe. 

ANYWAY*, as someone who loves rock music, a group of generation spanning guitarists meeting for the first time seemed like fantastic docu-fodder. It Might Get Loud is exactly that, from conception to execution. Directed by the guy who brought Al Gore's PowerPoint to the big screen, IMGL is basically three dudes geeking out about guitars. 

Those three are luminaries Jimmy Page (of the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin), The Edge (of U2), and Jack White (of the White Stripes, Raconteurs, The Dead Weather...). Upon watching the documentary, these three choices make perfect sense because the way they approach playing their common instrument is so fundamentally different. Page is almost a classical-rock guitarist, the Edge like electronics, and White likes stripped-down, visceral rock. 

The movie divides its time between the backgrounds of these three legends and "The Summit," where they meet for the first time and talk about guitars and play. 

I learned a lot from watching them, and I really enjoyed the deeper look at why they played the way they did: their experiences growing up, their first exposure to music, etc. I always liked Jack White's music, but was never a big fan of him personally. This documentary changed that. I now have a lot more respect from him personally, and his choices in musical direction(s) now make sense rather than seeming disjointed (though I still think sometimes he's just weird to be weird). 

It was also cool to see legends get excited about little things, like Jimmy Page simply playing records. Easily one of my favorite moments of the film. Watching these three guitarists in the same room interacting, I was forced to choose between trying to watch them play and trying to watch them watch each other play, which are both deeply enriching experiences. 

I do have some minor gripes with the film and one major one. First, minorly, I am really really done with the Ken Burns picture-zoom-in thing. We need to find a new thing, especially since I'm pretty sure my Mac can do that in three clicks. Also I wish they had shown a little more post-meeting. 

Major gripe: Why can't I buy the soundtrack? Even if they only used one or two tracks each from Led Zeppelin, U2, and The White Stripes, there is enough over music in the movie to make a really kickass soundtrack. Especially when they all jam together on guitars. Who would watch this movie and not want to listen to that over and over? 

Overall, this is one of those movies where if you think you might want to see it, you probably should. Basically, if you enjoy rock music, and want a behind the scenes at the creation of song, this is an excellent opportunity. 

It Might Get Loud is currently playing at the Ritz 5 in Philadelphia.

*Apologize to Chuck Klosterman for that.

 

So now all of my anticipated summer movies have come out, and they may have saved the best for last. I’ve been a Quentin Tarantino fan since some point in high school, when I decided Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction were movies I needed to see. The combination of kinetic dialogue, unpredictable action, and fantastic music selections made them some of my favorite films of all time. After Death Proof, even though I enjoyed it, I was afraid the man had lost his touch. Still, Inglourious Basterds was a project long promised, and I was excited (and a little surprised) to see it had actually been completed.

This movie defied all of my expectations. In fact, in this “review” I cannot offer a true criticism. Tarantino made choices I don’t necessarily agree with, but they certainly mesh well with his vision. I also don’t think I’m being too forgiving either, as this is easily his best work since Pulp Fiction, and I suspect it may be better (I need to rewatch both in close proximity to be able to tell for sure).

Inglourious Basterds borrows heavily from one of Tarantino’s favorite films, Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the top of the heap in terms of spaghetti westerns. Unlike Leone’s classic, I had no trouble watching Basterds in one sitting. Sure it’s twenty minutes shorter, but even at 153 minutes the pacing feels brisk, perhaps because a whole two more films worth of material were cut down in the script editing process. Having chapter breaks also helps.

Tarantino also does his career best in terms of building dramatic tension through dialogue and plot, throwing his characters into the exact situations they don’t want to be in and letting the fireworks fly. It’s a beautiful thing, and is note perfect throughout the movie.

Now, I think I may have enjoyed the movie more because I am of Jewish decent. As a revenge movie, this works extremely well. Watching Hitler and Goebbels die in that matter, though gruesome, was extremely satisfying. It is this act, as well as Shoshanna’s turning of the cinema into an ironic oven made the film extremely satisfying on the revenge-flick level.

For people who do not come from that background, the opening scene of the movie, featuring a French dairy farmer and his family, provides a fresh reminder of why exactly the Nazis in the movie get what they deserve. The brutal shooting of hidden Jews under floorboards by the men under the command of the film’s villain, Hans Landa—nicknamed The Jew Hunter—is reminder enough as to why Nazis are the villains in so many films.

The most recent action film where Nazis—brutal Nazis—were the villains might have been Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. There have been plenty of films since 1989 that take place during WWII with Germans as the bad guys, but the German soldiers of Saving Private Ryan or U-571 aren’t exactly very Nazi-like.

Here’s an except from an interview with Chrisoph Waltz, who played Landa:

We are aware that Nazi films, like Downfall, are all historically correct. Inglourious Basterds clearly isn’t. Is it ok to laugh about the Nazis? What do you think the reaction will be in Germany and Austria?

“I have a slightly different approach to this issue, because I detest these movies that try to make us believe that they are telling the truth. I find it ludicrous, but not laughable, unfortunately. I think it’s hypocritical to say ‘we want to tell, especially a young audience, how Hitler really was as a person’. First of all I’d like to know why?

Second I’d like to know why young audiences need to know how Hitler was as a real person, because how does it help them in their lives? Is that really dealing with the subject in a responsible manner? I could go on for a year and a half about why this is the irresponsible approach to turn it into a backdrop for a sh**** movie that’s boring in the first place. It’s neither this nor that because the approach is boring; what are we meant to derive from it? What message does it give us? That Nazi’s were actually people? ‘This is how it really was, you must not forget’? We know! It’s supposed to appease our conscience; it’s the politically correct rubbish - the overlooking of the criteria that helps us to deal with the subject. We are only the second of third generation after the disaster, the biggest disaster in the history of humanity, and we’re using it to think, ‘we are all good, we are all right because we know that they were wrong’, but how does that help us to get an idea about the course of history? It doesn’t.

But look what Quentin does; he rips it open and all of a sudden you gain a completely new perspective. The question ‘what if?’ isn’t irresponsible, it actually triggers a process within you and you think ‘yes, what if? What can I contribute so that the process and the consciousness of this disaster actually turns in to something that helps me, and helps us all to avoid it in the future. It gives us an active understanding and an active way of dealing with the subject, and doesn’t turn the process in to a consumable product so that we find ourselves saying, ‘good, let’s go and have dinner because we don’t have to deal with this any further’.

And that’s why I love Quentin’s work, because he does it again and again and now he’s done it with this part of history. Laughing is a release reaction, that’s why the sound of laughter is explosive; it relieves tension, and the tension in this story is so immense that you need to laugh in order to stand it, in order to endure it to the end. Sorry, I get very passionate about this!”

This interview may reveal why the quadrilingual Landa is such a great villain, and one of the best of the decade. Chistoph Waltz’s performance is the key to the whole movie, and it will take a lot to top it come Oscar time.

The rest of the performances are uniformly great, especially Melanie Laurent’s Shoshanna and Daniel Bruhl’s Fredrick Zoller. Together they are the true central figures of the movie, and it is Shoshanna’s story that the movie is really concerned with. I also immensely enjoyed Mike Meyers’ cameo, and I may change the text tone on my phone to Brad Pitt’s character’s delivery of the word “Nazis.”

These characters populate the backdrop of Nazi-occupied France in a masterful plot. Tarantino shows off his storytelling skills here in a way we’ve not seen before. To this point, Jackie Brown was the only one to have a great plot, and Pulp Fiction’s flaws are hidden behind its non-sequential storytelling. The parallel structure is well crafted, and each portion of the plot serves its purpose toward the film’s resolution, yet (to my recollection) each of the chapters are viewable as a discreet and separate unit (not totally unlike Raiders of the Lost Ark’s status as an ‘uncut’ Republic serial).

This is easily one of my favorite films of the year so far, and I can’t wait to see it again.

Look for a review of the soundtrack this week too, this post is already to long and I need to sleep sometime.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to see Sam Mendes' new film, Away We Go, at the Ritz in Center City (easily my favorite movie theater around) and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Of course, I am a huge fan of movies that mix comedy and drama like Juno, High Fidelity, and Rushmore, and so this movie is no exception. I also think the film did a great job of making a truly laugh-out loud comedy with more heart than is fair to other movies.

The premise is interesting, but it's the characters that are the heart of the film. John Krasinski (aka Jim from The Office) and Maya Rudolph are superb. Liking their characters is key to the whole movie, and they deliverable one of the more lovable movie couples in a long time. I didn't sit there wanting to be Burt or be with Verona, as I often do watching these kinds of movies, rather, I totally bought them as a couple that should absolutely be together. And it's not that there's any sort of true-love/destiny thing going on here, they are just two people who completely love each other and care for each other deeply.

I had always been a fan of Krasinski, who always shines as The Office's everyman, but Maya Rudolph is an absolute gem in this. Now I feel like I'd watch something just because she's in it. However, not everyone agrees with me:

But Away We Go isn’t a gentle road movie amiably spoofing the strange ways of American families, but something darker, a nightmare journey into the twisted soul of American banality. Or something like that.
. . .
Away We Go is one of those movies, like Alexander Payne’s About Schmidt, that takes the boorishness of conventional Americans as a given and valorizes nonconformity for its own sake. While it contains moments of genuine sweetness and human comedy, the overall effect is of an attack upon those of us who work for a living and haven’t the means to indulge our romantic imagination.

I actually don't even see this as a valid criticism. If anything, Burt and Verona are the only sane characters in the film. Not only that, but all these people who are seen as "banal" by the critic above are really the outlandish type. 

Burt's parents (the hilariously paired Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels) are insanely selfish, as after the young couple moves nearby for their child's sake, they decide to move to Antwerp for two years. And rather than just leave the house to the couple (who have a carboard window) they decide to rent it to someone they've never met. Then to Phoenix, where they meet Maya's former boss, now an alcoholic mom whom mocks her kids (Allison Janney) and her apocalyptically cynical husband (Jim Gaffigan). It's clear to me that these aren't supposed to represent typical Americans, as these wackjobs even admit they've "had trouble fitting into the social scene" in their new town. Both Burt and Maya and the population at-large are revolted by these sad people who have nothing better to do than go to the dog track and complain how terrible their marriage is. 

Then we meet Burt's "cousin" Ellen (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who now goes by "LN" a post-feminist uber-hippie who hates strollers ("Why would I want to PUSH by child away?" she shrieks) and shares a bed with her whole family. Due to her inheritance, her husband is basically a slacker. Truly these are not "conventional Americans," and the elitism here would certainly run both ways. These scenes are some of the funniest in the movie. 

And Burt and Verona certainly do not look down on their Montreal friends and their brood, nor do they judge Burt's brother harshly. Rather, what the couple sees on their trip is a collage of American families. Obviously some families are dysfunctional to the point of scary situations, while other families have other issues to deal with, be it the absence of a parent or an unorthodox lifestyle.

It's Tom Garrnett's (Chris Messina) soliloquy over pancakes that really drives home one of the core message of this movie. A family is what you make it. You can plant it wherever you like and it can take on any number of configurations, but what holds it together, what makes it work through obstacles great and small is love. And not the romantic kind of love, but storge, the love that pushes a parent or a spouse or a child to be something beyond themselves. This ties into the other lesson Burt and Verona learn on their trip: you are never without roots. 

Warning: This “review” is ridonculous in length. Still, you should read it.

Perhaps no one should be more thankful for George W. Bush’s reelection than Green Day. American Idiot was released a mere weeks before the election, and was rife with political references. While nominally about deeper themes of conformity and breaking out, Billie Joe was still introducing “Holiday” as “a big ‘fuck you’ to George W. Bush as late as 2005.

I remember these days vividly, riding around northern Delaware with my College Republican cohorts, campaigning for days upon days for candidates both local and presidential. Whenever the lead single “American Idiot” would come on the radio, my fellow CRs would change the station (unless we were already listening to country, in which case there was no danger of political strife from the radio). My feelings were a little different. A lot of times I would listen to the album on the way to class or at night doing homework, as I’ve never been one to let my personal politics get in the way of good music (or film). It was a masterpiece; a punk equivalent to The Who Sell Out, high in concept, but not-quite-a-rock-opera.

Five years later, and no one should be happier that George W. Bush was reelected than Green Day. It has taken this long to follow up American Idiot with 21^st Century Breakdown, and I can’t imagine Idiot would have been as successful over the long term (especially showing the FM radio stamina that its five singles have) had John Kerry been president. The half the country that would have been angry were mainly listening to country and classic rock anyway (Journey and Kenny Chesney were staples at CR events).

I only bring this up to demonstrate the anticipation that Green Day has built. By contrast, The Who Sell Out was released in 1967, and was followed by Tommy only two years later. Billie Joe may have the concept down, but he is nowhere near as prolific as The Who. Still I eagerly anticipated this album (second only to No Line on the Horizon) and picked it up at the nearest opportunity.

This is definitely not a post-W album. I would characterize it as a Year 7 or 8 of W, but it does not move beyond it. What do I mean by that? One of the biggest blockbusters of 2008 was I Am Legend, a post-apocalyptic tale of the struggle to survive in a messy world left behind. What does 2009 bring us? Star Trek. Shiny and hopeful, Trek tells us the future is bright , and we will all come together to spread our (spacefaring) wings. Amazingly this is in spite of the economy! 21^st Century Breakdown is very wrapped up in the later days of W. Compare Springsteen’s last two releases. We went from “Radio Nowhere” (there’s that post-apocalyptic theme again) and “The Last to Die,” to “Workin’ on a Dream” and “My Lucky Day.” This isn’t necessarily a criticism, I just hope people are aware of this.

I suppose at this point in the review, I should actually talk about the music.

After a short intro, the album starts Act 1: Heroes and Cons with the title track, which is not only a good song, but also a great introduction to the landscape. One part “Sgt. Pepper…” it serves to establish the mood and introduce our hero, Christian. It also offers one of my favorites lines on the album “raised by the bastards of 1969.”

Following that is the lead single, “Know Your Enemy,” which is excellent. It is classic Green Day, and a standout on the album. You’ve probably already heard it on the radio, and will for years to come. It’s reminiscent of “Minority”—one of my favorite Green Day songs—in both topic and sound, but also serves to underscore one of the albums main themes: kids today aren’t even working class heroes because they are unemployed and apathetic.

“Before the Lobotomy” is a song that deals with the overmedication of America’s youth, who are only high on the drugs given to them to make them feel “normal.” It’s a good song, and the complexity here is interesting. There are three distinct sections in a song that is under five minutes, but none of the individual parts feels lesser.

“Christians Inferno” ups the ante on the anti-religious undercurrent of American Idiot, bringing it to the forefront. The last song of Act I is “Last Night on Earth,” which is very different from what Green Day is known for, as it is a slow downbeat love ballad. And you know what, it’s really good.

Act II: Charlatans and Saints opens with the excellent “East Jesus Nowhere “ which is very anthemic, and I really like the mini drum breaks that are interspersed with the guitars on this one. “Peacemaker” and “Last of the American Girls” are awesome both and the latter really drives home who Gloria is: a ‘typical American girl’ who wants to run away from her looming responsibilities. “Restless Heart Syndrome” rounds out the act, and intertwines the themes of medication from “Before the Lobotomy” with typical teen angst/heartbreak.

Act III: Horseshoes and Handgrenades has an overall feel of revolution/apocalypse, and it probably the most ‘punk’ feeling of the acts. “Static Age” is my favorite song from this third of the album, but I have to say I really enjoy the Kinks-esque ‘Modern World’ half of “American Eulogy.”

Overall, I agree with John Scalzi on this one:

I’ve seen reviews that say it tops American Idiot, and I don’t think that’s even close to being true. Even if 21CB has more of thematic through-line than AI (which it does) and the songwriting is close to par with that album (and it is), the fact is AI is substantially more significant, both for the band — it was the album where a fading set of yesterday’s heroes said “fuck it,” went for broke and watched it pay off big – and for its time, in which its snarly WTF? attitude perfectly encapsulated a generation’s growing disgust for Bush’s America. Lots of musicians were pissed off about Bush in 2004, to be sure. But Green Day was the one that hit the sentiment right out of the park and went multi-platinum with it as a consequence. Right place, right time, right band, right album.

I may end up liking this album better over time, but American Idiot will always likely be more “important.”

I’d give the album 4.5 stars, with Act II being my favorite section. Not all of its 18 tracks are stellar in their own right, but as a whole, the album is fairly spectacular.

Swoon is the sophomore album from from LA's Silversun Pickups, who kind of sound like the Smashing Pumpkins by way of The Velvet Underground, though that almost sounds too complimentary. They also have a chick bass player/singer (Nikki Monninger). That's hot. I have to say "Lazy Eye" from Canvas, their debut album, completely knocked me down when I heard it the first time. It instantly became oft-played on my iPod, and has remained that way (it's also one of my favorite songs in Rock Band). However, I wasn't a fan of the album, as most of the songs sounded like lesser versions of "Lazy Eye." Not so with Swoon. The album shows a nice maturity, and a lot more depth to their sound. The vocals were the highlight for me on the previous album, but I feel like the guitar work really shines here. There's a lot of parts that straightforward "rock," but overall it's a really chill album. The two singles thus far, "Panic Switch," and "There's No Secrets This Year" are standouts, as well as the excellent "It's Nice to Know You Work Alone." Overall: B

This is probably my most anticipated album of the past two years. U2, along with Rush, are one of my favorite bands, and you can judge that on it's own merit. I'm not a U2 apologist, I don't think everything they touch turns to gold (see 1993-1997), but I do think they happen to be a band unafraid to tinker with thier sound, messing with the particulars, playing around with sounds they like while not changing the core. Think of U2 as Bono and The Edge's hot rod. Going into this album, they happen to be coming out of my second favorite of their efforts, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which features a very Edge-prominent U2, his guitar melting metal while Bono sings some of the best lyrics of his career. So in essense, my expectations are high. Track by track thoughts after the jump. "No Line on the Horizon" - This first track echoes the expansiveness of the beginning of The Joshua Tree with a blend of the sounds they've been experimenting with lately. Like the sound, but the repeated "oh's" will have to grow on me. Still, a solid opening track. "Magnificent" - Definitely hearing a lot of electronic here, like the kind that weaves in and out of Achtung Baby. This is a good thing. Also like the "only love" repeated lyric. I like this song a lot. Not entirely sure why. Really like the outro-guitar solo on this one. "Moment of Surrender" - A track heavy on the rythym. Could go either way on this song until the chorus, where Bono's shouting vocals open up to more voices. That makes the song. Echoes "Original of the Species," off the previous album, which was one of my favorites on the second half of that album. This is definitely the spiritual U2 showing up on this track. Also I believe this is U2's longest ever album track, beating "Lemon" by about a half minute. "Unknown Caller" - Lots of long intros so far. I like the guitar lines on this track so far. Definitely a comment on modern technology. "Force quit and move to trash." Someone in U2 (Bono?) is a Mac user. The chanting vocals are an interesting chant. Lyrically the themes are from U2's failed 90's efforts, but musically, this is all new. Ohh, another Edge guitar outro. I dig that. "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" - This is a fun song. Interesting lyrics, and nice backing guitar by The Edge. The build up in the first part of the song really pays off nicely in the "Baby, baby,.." section. Nice track. "Get On Your Boots" - I have heard this one a dozen times already, and still amused by the grammatically correct title (No ending in a preposition Mr. Aspiring Jounalist!). The fuzzy guitar here definitely echoes HTDAAB, making this song almost feel out of place in the context of this album. "Stand Up Comedy" - Awesome bassline here. I'm beginning to think this album belongs to Adam Clayton. Really like the guitar line too, come to think of it. I think this is my favorite song on the album so far. "Fez - Being Born" - Definitely the most experimental track so far. Reminds me a lot of "Exit" from The Joshua Tree. Not a standout, but a solid, interesting track. "White as Snow" - A ballad of sorts, interesting vocal arrangement. "Breathe" - Cool song. Looks like Bono really played around with his vocal style for this album. The band is certainly as solid as ever. "Ceders of Lebanon" - Another contemplative track that really rounds out the album thematically. Overall: This is one of those albums whose depth is only revealed over repeated listens. This is not a hit-single-machine album like their last two efforts. Those were rock albums. Not entirely sure, but while this album rocks in places, it does not have the sonic oomph of the last two. The "Window In the Skies" single from 2006 really fits in with this album thematically, as love reigns supreme within this album. It doesn't blow you away sonically, but this is an album with depth to be listened to and revisited. A-