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urgencytobleedSo... um, I haven't posted in a couple of months, have I? Sorry about that. It's not that there's been a lack of music to inspire me, it's just that I'm lazy and... yeah, mostly lazy but I've also been burned out on writing in general for awhile now. All kinds of writing apparently: music reviews, fiction, fucking around with no purpose but to entertain myself. Yep, it's all been pretty difficult to accomplish lately. But here I am, trying to amend that! By briefly convincing you to check out some albums from this year that I haven't gotten around to mentioning yet! There are quite a few because, as we have established, I am a lazy fuck so this will be split up into a couple entries. It's basically a mix of albums I adore, albums I really like and albums that aren't so great but have a few really good songs and, hey, sometimes it's fun to say bad things instead of good all the time, isn't it? So, yeah, have fun, discover new music, be merry. I will try to be more prompt regarding the next installment.
Arcade Fire is one of those bands I've never quite been able to form a solid opinion about. For years now, I've been trying to decide whether I really love them or not. There were a few songs I completely adored but, overall, they never really clicked with me in a way that allowed me to feel passionately about them the way I do with other bands. The first few times I listened to their latest album, The Suburbs, I liked it but, again, it just wasn't having as much of an effect on me as I would have liked it to. But then, slowly, it started opening itself up to me more and one by one, I began to crave hearing the songs, until I realized that I legitimately loved the majority of the album. It probably does run two or three songs too long and gets a bit tiring and same-y sounding by the end, but it's mostly full of very good songs that are a lot more subtle and less focused on being epics than their past efforts, which is perhaps why I find myself coming back to them so often. As much as I love the exuberance and bombast of several of the songs on Funeral, they can be a bit too much at times. The Suburbs is much more reigned in but, in my opinion, still just as enthralling to listen to. "Ready to Start" is, simply, catchy as hell and I think that's reason enough to fall in love with it. "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" finds Régine Chassagne taking the lead and the result is, to put it mildly, glorious. I love that it's almost a dance track yet at the same time it is so distinctly an Arcade Fire track and the thing I love about it most is that it's pretty epic but it doesn't make a big deal about it, if that makes sense: it's epic in a really natural-seeming way. And also, Régine owns and I do wish she had a couple more songs to herself on this album.
It's good to see that seven years after their previous album together, the ladies of Azure Ray can still be counted on to make some of the most beautiful, stirring, dreamy folk-pop music you've ever heard. I'll admit, I wasn't sure at first that they could re-create the magic after so long, partly because I thought 2003's Hold on Love was just about perfect and most definitely the highlight of their careers together and partly because I was rather disappointed by both of their solo releases last year. (After going back to them recently, I do find Orenda Fink's more engaging than I did initially but I still think Maria Taylor's was a pretty bland and disappointing effort for her overall.) I was even more unsure when I heard the single, "Don't Leave My Mind," and was rather crushed that it reminded me so much of the most lackluster songs on Maria's Ladyluck. It's grown on me considerably since that first listen but I still think it's probably the weakest track on the album so if you're going to judge it based solely on that song, don't or you'll be missing out on something really special. Because I can say with considerable certainty that nearly every other track on Drawing Down the Moon is flawless and, with time, it may overtake Hold on Love as my favorite Azure Ray album. Most importantly, Orenda and Maria's voices are still just as heavenly as ever. They blend so well together and the songs here are so well written and arranged that it's just as if they never parted ways at all. "Larraine" is one of my favorite tracks and follows along the lines of older Orenda-led songs like "We Are Mice" and "Look to Me" in that it's ridiculously beautiful but also extremely disturbing once you dig deeper into the lyrics. And when Orenda lets loose and belts passionately for those few moments near the end, it's just breathtaking. "Silver Sorrow" highlights Maria's voice and I honestly am not sure how to describe what makes me love it so much in words but something about it just really profoundly affects me. Though I could pretty much say that about the entire album. Overall, just how good Drawing Down the Moon is has been a genuine and very pleasant surprise and I couldn't be happier with it.
First Aid Kit is two sisters from Sweden, Klara and Johanna Söderberg, who together create some of the most beautiful harmonies I've heard in recent memory. Really, the way their voices sound together, it's just an unbelievably lovely listening experience. Of course, great voices don't really mean much when the songwriting chops aren't there to back them up but, luckily, these girls are fantastic in that area as well. Their songs are simple: cute but not twee, acoustic-based but not bland, slightly twangy but not overbearingly so. Yet despite their simplicity, they have a lot of staying value and continue to surprise and delight the listener even after several listens. "Waltz for Richard," for example, was not one of my favorite tracks the first couple of times I played The Big Black and the Blue but now I can't get enough of it. There's something effortless about it; somehow, the girls manage to sound both wise beyond their years and young and fresh at the same time. The same can be said of pretty much every song on the album, including "Hard Believer," which is infectious and feisty and tons of fun to listen to. It's hard to believe the sisters are still teenagers and have managed to craft such a promising debut album. Theirs is a talent I'm definitely looking forward to seeing develop even further in the future.
I hate to say it because everyone knows how massive of a Jenny Lewis fan I usually am, but I'm Having Fun Now isn't nearly as entertaining as the title implies. I don't begrudge Jenny and Johnny their fun one bit but it really doesn't translate into an interesting or memorable album. The biggest problem here is Johnathan Rice in general. I think he's a bland vocalist and a mediocre songwriter at best and he brings Jenny down. A couple of his songs are downright offensive, to my ears anyway, and though the rest are listenable and maybe even a bit enjoyable, they're forgotten before long. That's not to say that the disappointment lies solely with him because Jenny doesn't offer much of substance here either. The only song that has really stuck with me in a big way is "Big Wave" which I've loved since I first heard a live version of it last year sometime. It's actually catchy unlike many of this album's songs, which seem to be aiming for catchy but don't quite hit the mark, and there's a bit of fire behind Jenny's voice which comes out less and less these days. At risk of turning this into a five-page essay on the downfall of Jenny Lewis as I see it, I think the main issue with her at this point is that she just doesn't sound like she means it anymore. Her voice is incredible yet she rarely uses it to its full extent. She was once capable of writing catchy but complicated melodies (though I'm wondering how much of that was Blake, based on what she's done without him) yet her past three albums of material have been increasingly simplistic and forgettable. And most noticeably, I once thought she was a fantastic lyricist. She was never showy, her lyrics were always straightforward and matter-of-fact, but there was so much emotion injected into them. Her lyrics now, to me, feel dead, impersonal and, frankly, like she is putting in minimal effort. It's a bit sad that the most lyrically strong track on the album, "My Pet Snakes," is a vitriol-filled song about someone who seems to very closely resemble her Rilo Kiley bandmate, Blake Sennett, though I guess it could just as likely not be about him. I could go on about this for ages but I won't and maybe I'm wrong, maybe this is the kind of music she's been the most passionate about making for a long time and just hasn't had a chance to until now. But if that's the case, I'm afraid the two of us are going in very different directions. I'll always love the first three Rilo records and even, to a slightly lesser extent, her two solo albums and Under the Blacklight and I'll probably keep up with her future releases and still like them on some level but at this point, I'm not even holding out hope for a new Rilo album anymore because I'm almost certain it'll just be a massive disappointment.
Talking about the circumstances surrounding Lydia's latest and final release, Assailants, just depresses me. At the beginning of the year, I had them pegged as my album of the year. Maybe that was a bit too much hopeful wishing on my part but I think it was warranted, given how unbelievably beautiful and near perfection I thought Illuminate was. But then, suddenly, everything changed. Instead of dominating the year with another strong release and even stronger potential for more greatness in the future, Lydia literally came tumbling down to the ground. First Mindy White left the band then the band announced their break-up. At that point, anticipation was still strong for their final album and farewell tour. But, unbelievably, things just got worse from there - more members left before the tour even started, leaving Lydia reduced to frontman Leighton Antelman, drummer Craig Taylor and a couple of randoms, their final album turned out to be an all-too-short EP with two of its seven tracks wasted on pointless, minute-long interludes and then when the tour finally happened, no one seemed to be talking about it anymore. And so that's how Lydia went out with a whimper instead of the bang that they deserved. It's all a shame, really, because Leighton was on such top form at the show I attended that I barely even missed Mindy and the actual songs on the EP are all rather excellent, once you get over the fact that they probably could've been so much more if only things had been different. As they are, though, they're certainly an adequate enough goodbye, considering we could have not gotten anything at all. "A Place Near the City" is the clear standout to me, as it's the song that feels the most fully realized and probably the only one with a real chance of winning if head-to-head with something from Illuminate. When Leighton sings passionately at the end, "Whatever happens, it's supposed to/Whatever happened, there's nothing I could do," it's hard not to take that as his message directly to the band's fans: that sometimes things don't work out and, in the end, it's probably all for the best. He's already working on new material, as are most of the other members of the band, and I'm sure it will be lovely in its own way but still, it's hard not to mourn for a band that crumbled just as it was reaching its prime.
I'll admit it right off the top: The Narrative's self-titled debut album, which I'd been anticipating for probably a year by the time it finally came out, failed to live up to my admittedly rather lofty expectations. But even if my expectations had been less high, I still think it's a bit of a disappointment in general. Their EP, Just Say Yes, was just so beautiful and really hit me in a way that not a lot of music manages to. I can still listen to any song from it now and feel just as strongly about it as I did on my first listen. Unfortunately, the album isn't as full of those truly amazing songs. There are several there - the three Suzie Zeldin-led tracks are all spectacular in their own way and some of Jesse Gabriel's songs like "Silence & Sirens," "Winter's Coming," and "Trains" invoke the EP's best moments - but there are also more than a few lackluster ones. Oddly, it sounds to me like Jesse especially has actually devolved as a songwriter in this short time. Maybe I just feel that way because in my opinion, the album is a little too focused on him, but I'm certain his lyrics used to be better. I mean, look at the lyrics to "Castling" or "The Moment That It Stops" and then at "Cherry Red" or "You Will Be Mine" and you have to notice a massive dip in quality, right? "Dress, dress me down/I don't mind/Leave me to my insides/I don't need this lonely skin anymore" vs. "You look so dumb with your cherry red lipstick on" - it's a no brainer, isn't it? And also, he seems to be getting very comfortable in a certain style and so after awhile, his songs all start to blend together. It's not exactly that I hate any of them, it's just that only the ones mentioned above (and probably the closer, "Turncoat") move beyond being simply enjoyable to listen to. I'm hoping this is something he manages to iron out by the time they're ready to record another album. Suzie, on the other hand, shines here and it's a shame she only gets about three-and-a-half songs to really showcase that. "Empty Space" is insanely catchy and I've known "End All" was brilliant since I first heard the demo version but her best moment is easily "Don't Want to Fall," a simple piano-only ballad that really allows her to show off her vocal talent, which she's kind of been hiding. The sheer power and control behind her voice at times in this song is incredible and, thankfully, the lyrics here are among the highlights of the album too. When she belts out, "We used to own these streets/Head to head, you spinning me/And now we say that we were young/And what we had has come and gone/We used to own these streets/Head to head, you spinning me/Your back's against a concrete wall/Your body buzzing on the intercom," her voice is infused with such emotion that you feel like you're right there in the moment with her and then you just wish you could spend a couple more moments with her instead of going back to Jesse again. Let me stress this because I feel bad doing all this dissing: I do actually really enjoy this album, I was just expecting it to go a lot further beyond that than it actually does. But it's a debut album. There's still plenty of room for growth.
After listening to The Orchard a handful of times, I have to say it's not nearly as immediate for me as The Rhumb Line was. Maybe it's just that I've gotten over Ra Ra Riot a bit - I hadn't really listened to them much for months before this album came out - but there are only about four songs here that I really like and the rest, I couldn't even tell you what they sound like they've left such little of an impression on me. Perhaps it's just a massive grower. I'm certainly going to give it a few more chances before writing it off as a disappointment. But anyway, even if the entire thing never quite clicks with me, "Keep It Quiet" is just a gorgeous, gorgeous song and the perfect ending for the album. Funnily enough, I didn't have an opinion either way on the version that appeared on the "Boy" EP before the album's release but I loved it here the first time I heard it. It's just so perfectly sparse and haunting and singer Wes Miles' vocals are completely flawless. That's the one thing I can never praise enough: even if the songs themselves aren't that memorable, his voice is so incredible that it manages to bump them up a notch or two regardless.
And, truly, saving the best for last, even though this is more a review of two songs instead of an entire album because regarding these specific releases, that seems far too daunting a task to even comprehend for at least several months...
I'm not sure which of these songs I'm more in love with right now. They're both completely different so let's just say that I love them equally in their very different ways. "The Owl and the Tanager" comes from All Delighted People, Sufjan's EP (though it's actually longer than the typical full-length album is) that was released in August, and it is almost impossibly beautiful and entirely devastating. The melody of those "ooh-ooh-ooh"s and the female harmony vocals that come in partway through (which I'm pretty sure are either Annie Clark or Shara Worden though I can't settle on one for certain) and the slightly cryptic yet chilling lyrics and the perfectly sparse instrumentation, guh. It's just all so stunning. As in, "this is capable of making grown men weep" stunning. "I Walked," on the other hand, is the complete musical opposite: it's layered and complex and heavily electronic, the lyrics are more direct and basic and it's ridiculously catchy. At the same time, it's much more passionate than you may expect most electronic music to be and it's also really fucking devastating when you actually take a moment to pay attention to the lyrics: "I should not be so lost/But I've got nothing left to love." Sounds like poor Sufjan's had his heart broken. If you're wondering, the rest of his upcoming album, The Age of Adz, is just as if not more impressive. He even manages to turn the prospect of playing a 25-minute song on repeat into an appealing concept (though I haven't actually done it yet) which is quite a feat. In fact, the album is so spectacular that it may actually end up stealing my top spot for the year and this is coming from someone who, until a couple days ago, was pretty indifferent to Sufjan for the most part. It must be pretty amazing to so quickly sway me, yes?
Arcade Fire is one of those bands I've never quite been able to form a solid opinion about. For years now, I've been trying to decide whether I really love them or not. There were a few songs I completely adored but, overall, they never really clicked with me in a way that allowed me to feel passionately about them the way I do with other bands. The first few times I listened to their latest album, The Suburbs, I liked it but, again, it just wasn't having as much of an effect on me as I would have liked it to. But then, slowly, it started opening itself up to me more and one by one, I began to crave hearing the songs, until I realized that I legitimately loved the majority of the album. It probably does run two or three songs too long and gets a bit tiring and same-y sounding by the end, but it's mostly full of very good songs that are a lot more subtle and less focused on being epics than their past efforts, which is perhaps why I find myself coming back to them so often. As much as I love the exuberance and bombast of several of the songs on Funeral, they can be a bit too much at times. The Suburbs is much more reigned in but, in my opinion, still just as enthralling to listen to. "Ready to Start" is, simply, catchy as hell and I think that's reason enough to fall in love with it. "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" finds Régine Chassagne taking the lead and the result is, to put it mildly, glorious. I love that it's almost a dance track yet at the same time it is so distinctly an Arcade Fire track and the thing I love about it most is that it's pretty epic but it doesn't make a big deal about it, if that makes sense: it's epic in a really natural-seeming way. And also, Régine owns and I do wish she had a couple more songs to herself on this album.
It's good to see that seven years after their previous album together, the ladies of Azure Ray can still be counted on to make some of the most beautiful, stirring, dreamy folk-pop music you've ever heard. I'll admit, I wasn't sure at first that they could re-create the magic after so long, partly because I thought 2003's Hold on Love was just about perfect and most definitely the highlight of their careers together and partly because I was rather disappointed by both of their solo releases last year. (After going back to them recently, I do find Orenda Fink's more engaging than I did initially but I still think Maria Taylor's was a pretty bland and disappointing effort for her overall.) I was even more unsure when I heard the single, "Don't Leave My Mind," and was rather crushed that it reminded me so much of the most lackluster songs on Maria's Ladyluck. It's grown on me considerably since that first listen but I still think it's probably the weakest track on the album so if you're going to judge it based solely on that song, don't or you'll be missing out on something really special. Because I can say with considerable certainty that nearly every other track on Drawing Down the Moon is flawless and, with time, it may overtake Hold on Love as my favorite Azure Ray album. Most importantly, Orenda and Maria's voices are still just as heavenly as ever. They blend so well together and the songs here are so well written and arranged that it's just as if they never parted ways at all. "Larraine" is one of my favorite tracks and follows along the lines of older Orenda-led songs like "We Are Mice" and "Look to Me" in that it's ridiculously beautiful but also extremely disturbing once you dig deeper into the lyrics. And when Orenda lets loose and belts passionately for those few moments near the end, it's just breathtaking. "Silver Sorrow" highlights Maria's voice and I honestly am not sure how to describe what makes me love it so much in words but something about it just really profoundly affects me. Though I could pretty much say that about the entire album. Overall, just how good Drawing Down the Moon is has been a genuine and very pleasant surprise and I couldn't be happier with it.
First Aid Kit is two sisters from Sweden, Klara and Johanna Söderberg, who together create some of the most beautiful harmonies I've heard in recent memory. Really, the way their voices sound together, it's just an unbelievably lovely listening experience. Of course, great voices don't really mean much when the songwriting chops aren't there to back them up but, luckily, these girls are fantastic in that area as well. Their songs are simple: cute but not twee, acoustic-based but not bland, slightly twangy but not overbearingly so. Yet despite their simplicity, they have a lot of staying value and continue to surprise and delight the listener even after several listens. "Waltz for Richard," for example, was not one of my favorite tracks the first couple of times I played The Big Black and the Blue but now I can't get enough of it. There's something effortless about it; somehow, the girls manage to sound both wise beyond their years and young and fresh at the same time. The same can be said of pretty much every song on the album, including "Hard Believer," which is infectious and feisty and tons of fun to listen to. It's hard to believe the sisters are still teenagers and have managed to craft such a promising debut album. Theirs is a talent I'm definitely looking forward to seeing develop even further in the future.
I hate to say it because everyone knows how massive of a Jenny Lewis fan I usually am, but I'm Having Fun Now isn't nearly as entertaining as the title implies. I don't begrudge Jenny and Johnny their fun one bit but it really doesn't translate into an interesting or memorable album. The biggest problem here is Johnathan Rice in general. I think he's a bland vocalist and a mediocre songwriter at best and he brings Jenny down. A couple of his songs are downright offensive, to my ears anyway, and though the rest are listenable and maybe even a bit enjoyable, they're forgotten before long. That's not to say that the disappointment lies solely with him because Jenny doesn't offer much of substance here either. The only song that has really stuck with me in a big way is "Big Wave" which I've loved since I first heard a live version of it last year sometime. It's actually catchy unlike many of this album's songs, which seem to be aiming for catchy but don't quite hit the mark, and there's a bit of fire behind Jenny's voice which comes out less and less these days. At risk of turning this into a five-page essay on the downfall of Jenny Lewis as I see it, I think the main issue with her at this point is that she just doesn't sound like she means it anymore. Her voice is incredible yet she rarely uses it to its full extent. She was once capable of writing catchy but complicated melodies (though I'm wondering how much of that was Blake, based on what she's done without him) yet her past three albums of material have been increasingly simplistic and forgettable. And most noticeably, I once thought she was a fantastic lyricist. She was never showy, her lyrics were always straightforward and matter-of-fact, but there was so much emotion injected into them. Her lyrics now, to me, feel dead, impersonal and, frankly, like she is putting in minimal effort. It's a bit sad that the most lyrically strong track on the album, "My Pet Snakes," is a vitriol-filled song about someone who seems to very closely resemble her Rilo Kiley bandmate, Blake Sennett, though I guess it could just as likely not be about him. I could go on about this for ages but I won't and maybe I'm wrong, maybe this is the kind of music she's been the most passionate about making for a long time and just hasn't had a chance to until now. But if that's the case, I'm afraid the two of us are going in very different directions. I'll always love the first three Rilo records and even, to a slightly lesser extent, her two solo albums and Under the Blacklight and I'll probably keep up with her future releases and still like them on some level but at this point, I'm not even holding out hope for a new Rilo album anymore because I'm almost certain it'll just be a massive disappointment.
Talking about the circumstances surrounding Lydia's latest and final release, Assailants, just depresses me. At the beginning of the year, I had them pegged as my album of the year. Maybe that was a bit too much hopeful wishing on my part but I think it was warranted, given how unbelievably beautiful and near perfection I thought Illuminate was. But then, suddenly, everything changed. Instead of dominating the year with another strong release and even stronger potential for more greatness in the future, Lydia literally came tumbling down to the ground. First Mindy White left the band then the band announced their break-up. At that point, anticipation was still strong for their final album and farewell tour. But, unbelievably, things just got worse from there - more members left before the tour even started, leaving Lydia reduced to frontman Leighton Antelman, drummer Craig Taylor and a couple of randoms, their final album turned out to be an all-too-short EP with two of its seven tracks wasted on pointless, minute-long interludes and then when the tour finally happened, no one seemed to be talking about it anymore. And so that's how Lydia went out with a whimper instead of the bang that they deserved. It's all a shame, really, because Leighton was on such top form at the show I attended that I barely even missed Mindy and the actual songs on the EP are all rather excellent, once you get over the fact that they probably could've been so much more if only things had been different. As they are, though, they're certainly an adequate enough goodbye, considering we could have not gotten anything at all. "A Place Near the City" is the clear standout to me, as it's the song that feels the most fully realized and probably the only one with a real chance of winning if head-to-head with something from Illuminate. When Leighton sings passionately at the end, "Whatever happens, it's supposed to/Whatever happened, there's nothing I could do," it's hard not to take that as his message directly to the band's fans: that sometimes things don't work out and, in the end, it's probably all for the best. He's already working on new material, as are most of the other members of the band, and I'm sure it will be lovely in its own way but still, it's hard not to mourn for a band that crumbled just as it was reaching its prime.
I'll admit it right off the top: The Narrative's self-titled debut album, which I'd been anticipating for probably a year by the time it finally came out, failed to live up to my admittedly rather lofty expectations. But even if my expectations had been less high, I still think it's a bit of a disappointment in general. Their EP, Just Say Yes, was just so beautiful and really hit me in a way that not a lot of music manages to. I can still listen to any song from it now and feel just as strongly about it as I did on my first listen. Unfortunately, the album isn't as full of those truly amazing songs. There are several there - the three Suzie Zeldin-led tracks are all spectacular in their own way and some of Jesse Gabriel's songs like "Silence & Sirens," "Winter's Coming," and "Trains" invoke the EP's best moments - but there are also more than a few lackluster ones. Oddly, it sounds to me like Jesse especially has actually devolved as a songwriter in this short time. Maybe I just feel that way because in my opinion, the album is a little too focused on him, but I'm certain his lyrics used to be better. I mean, look at the lyrics to "Castling" or "The Moment That It Stops" and then at "Cherry Red" or "You Will Be Mine" and you have to notice a massive dip in quality, right? "Dress, dress me down/I don't mind/Leave me to my insides/I don't need this lonely skin anymore" vs. "You look so dumb with your cherry red lipstick on" - it's a no brainer, isn't it? And also, he seems to be getting very comfortable in a certain style and so after awhile, his songs all start to blend together. It's not exactly that I hate any of them, it's just that only the ones mentioned above (and probably the closer, "Turncoat") move beyond being simply enjoyable to listen to. I'm hoping this is something he manages to iron out by the time they're ready to record another album. Suzie, on the other hand, shines here and it's a shame she only gets about three-and-a-half songs to really showcase that. "Empty Space" is insanely catchy and I've known "End All" was brilliant since I first heard the demo version but her best moment is easily "Don't Want to Fall," a simple piano-only ballad that really allows her to show off her vocal talent, which she's kind of been hiding. The sheer power and control behind her voice at times in this song is incredible and, thankfully, the lyrics here are among the highlights of the album too. When she belts out, "We used to own these streets/Head to head, you spinning me/And now we say that we were young/And what we had has come and gone/We used to own these streets/Head to head, you spinning me/Your back's against a concrete wall/Your body buzzing on the intercom," her voice is infused with such emotion that you feel like you're right there in the moment with her and then you just wish you could spend a couple more moments with her instead of going back to Jesse again. Let me stress this because I feel bad doing all this dissing: I do actually really enjoy this album, I was just expecting it to go a lot further beyond that than it actually does. But it's a debut album. There's still plenty of room for growth.
After listening to The Orchard a handful of times, I have to say it's not nearly as immediate for me as The Rhumb Line was. Maybe it's just that I've gotten over Ra Ra Riot a bit - I hadn't really listened to them much for months before this album came out - but there are only about four songs here that I really like and the rest, I couldn't even tell you what they sound like they've left such little of an impression on me. Perhaps it's just a massive grower. I'm certainly going to give it a few more chances before writing it off as a disappointment. But anyway, even if the entire thing never quite clicks with me, "Keep It Quiet" is just a gorgeous, gorgeous song and the perfect ending for the album. Funnily enough, I didn't have an opinion either way on the version that appeared on the "Boy" EP before the album's release but I loved it here the first time I heard it. It's just so perfectly sparse and haunting and singer Wes Miles' vocals are completely flawless. That's the one thing I can never praise enough: even if the songs themselves aren't that memorable, his voice is so incredible that it manages to bump them up a notch or two regardless.
And, truly, saving the best for last, even though this is more a review of two songs instead of an entire album because regarding these specific releases, that seems far too daunting a task to even comprehend for at least several months...
I'm not sure which of these songs I'm more in love with right now. They're both completely different so let's just say that I love them equally in their very different ways. "The Owl and the Tanager" comes from All Delighted People, Sufjan's EP (though it's actually longer than the typical full-length album is) that was released in August, and it is almost impossibly beautiful and entirely devastating. The melody of those "ooh-ooh-ooh"s and the female harmony vocals that come in partway through (which I'm pretty sure are either Annie Clark or Shara Worden though I can't settle on one for certain) and the slightly cryptic yet chilling lyrics and the perfectly sparse instrumentation, guh. It's just all so stunning. As in, "this is capable of making grown men weep" stunning. "I Walked," on the other hand, is the complete musical opposite: it's layered and complex and heavily electronic, the lyrics are more direct and basic and it's ridiculously catchy. At the same time, it's much more passionate than you may expect most electronic music to be and it's also really fucking devastating when you actually take a moment to pay attention to the lyrics: "I should not be so lost/But I've got nothing left to love." Sounds like poor Sufjan's had his heart broken. If you're wondering, the rest of his upcoming album, The Age of Adz, is just as if not more impressive. He even manages to turn the prospect of playing a 25-minute song on repeat into an appealing concept (though I haven't actually done it yet) which is quite a feat. In fact, the album is so spectacular that it may actually end up stealing my top spot for the year and this is coming from someone who, until a couple days ago, was pretty indifferent to Sufjan for the most part. It must be pretty amazing to so quickly sway me, yes?
