I was somewhat familiar with Apologies to the Queen but now I can really see the similarities among Sub Pop's artists - This Wolf Parade album is great, but certainly has it's Shins moments as well as those of Sunset Rubdown (even though Wolf Parade is miles better than SSRD.) And actually, as I finish up the album now with "Fine Young Cannibals," there's a lot of Spoon in here too. I think they're pretty great though.
*all pics retrieved from prefixmag.com - I was too involved to take my own.
This concert was good - I wish they played "Homme," though, and also that Celebrate Bklyn's neighborhood laws weren't so stingy as to prevent BG from playing "Jique" at only 10:30! Regardless, the crowd was wylin'. Brazilian Girls / Crosseyed and Painless (Talking Heads cover) and download their single "A Good Time" from the upcoming Aug. 5th debut New York City
1. Brian Eno returns - He introduced Bowie to noise, and Talking Heads to polyrithms.* Who wouldn't want Eno to produce their record? Even if his last project, U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is not that great, the work seriously shows- (this might be a testament to the band.) With everything from lyricless interludes in the beginning to Chris Martin's vocal reprises of "ooooh" in every other song, all of these aspects mirror the timeless qualities of a record. I wouldn't like this album as much if I heard it in pieces. Eno makes you want to listen to the whole thing. "Life in Technicolor" fades into "Cemeteries of London" seamlessly. This is, frankly, moreso Eno's cool comeback than it is Coldplay's. After "Clocks," I thought this band had totally sold out, and it somehow deterred me from liking their music as much. I soon realized that you should just like music because you like it, and this record assisted me in coming to that conclusion. Props!
2. No more sun moon sky space bullshit - On X/Y this was all Chris Martin sang about. The band literally lives their lives on Earth in Viva la Vida and their is a musical death to all his celestial friends.
3. More reverb - it just sounds more produced. This goes back to Brian Eno...
4. Influences - If you're going to have Brian Eno on your team, and everything but "Violet Hill" is going to sound a bit different than your old music, you might as well learn from the best. Eno evidently shed light on Pink Floyd for "42." The entire those who are dead sequence is very Floyd. As well, in "Lovers in Japan," I found myself subconsciously mashing up U2's "I still Haven't Found what I'm Looking For" with it. It's that driving drum beat that underscores the guitars.
5. The lyrics are better - In "Violet Hill," Martin says "when the future's architected by a carnival of idiots on show, you better lie low." Pretty good.
I found this notepad with a glaring blue stain from a sharpie on it, and on the four sheets behind it were the remains, so I drew something on each sheet inspired by the stain.
