Second Guess the Critic: SMACKDOWN! Round 7

[bloop]

bloop: Coconut Records - Davy
murlough: The Reign of Kindo - Rhythm, Chord, and Melody
Josh: The Decemberists - Hazards of Love
plvarona: Molly Jenson - Maybe Tomorrow
Brenden: The Gourds - Haymaker

Rather than ask for more theme round ideas, some of the ideas people have thought about doing before:
"My Other Band" - side projects by artists or band members that you've previously listened to/enjoyed.
I haven't listened to that yet. . . *blushes*  A round in which the critic grades an album that he has heard about for a while, has meant to get to, but hasn't yet.  These might tend to be classic albums, so I'm a little hesitant about this one.
Albums by artists who debuted the year you were born. This could either mean the band played their first gig that year, were formed officially that year, or released their first album that year.
Foreign Artists (or pick a continent)
Instrumental Music

If I missed any, tell me so I can add it here.  You can also add any new ideas, and tell me what you think of these for Round 8.

[murlough23]

"My Other Band" - side projects by artists or band members that you've previously listened to/enjoyed.

Since that was my idea and I had The Welcome Wagon in mind for it, but did it last round under a different theme, let's hold off on that one. (Maybe next month I can do Sara Watkins, depending on how many rounds the game is supposed to last.)

[murlough23]

Argh. Track 5, "Nice to Meet You", has been barfed all over with pops and clicks. Can someone who has TROK's album send me an error-free mp3? Thanks.

[NinjaRob17]

Check your inbox.

[Aaron]

bloop: Coconut Records - Davy
murlough: The Reign of Kindo - Rhythm, Chord, and Melody
Josh: The Decemberists - Hazards of Love
plvarona: Molly Jenson - Maybe Tomorrow
Brenden: The Gourds - Haymaker

Rather than ask for more theme round ideas, some of the ideas people have thought about doing before:
"My Other Band" - side projects by artists or band members that you've previously listened to/enjoyed.
I haven't listened to that yet. . . *blushes*  A round in which the critic grades an album that he has heard about for a while, has meant to get to, but hasn't yet.  These might tend to be classic albums, so I'm a little hesitant about this one.
Albums by artists who debuted the year you were born. This could either mean the band played their first gig that year, were formed officially that year, or released their first album that year.
Foreign Artists (or pick a continent)
Instrumental Music

If I missed any, tell me so I can add it here.  You can also add any new ideas, and tell me what you think of these for Round 8.

I already have 3 albums in mind from 1982. hmm

[Josh]

bloop: 3
murlough: 4
Phil: 4
Brenden: 4

[bloop]

murlough: 5
Josh: 5 (I hope - really looking forward to this album)
Phil: 4
Bren: 4

I should probably hedge my bets and go 4's for all, but I've got a hunch that Josh is dealing with some very high quality music, and I know murlough is.

[plvarona]

My guesses:

bloop: 4
murlough: 4
Josh: 5
Brenden: 4

As for the next theme round, Foreign Artists sounds good to me.  If you want to narrow it to a specific continent, how about Europe?  (Read as: I have something already in hand that fits that theme round.)

[ajyouthguy]

Bloop          4
Murlough     5
Josh            4
Brenden      4
plvarona     4

[murlough23]

bloop: 4
Josh: 4
plvarona: 4
Brenden: 4

[Brenden]

murlough: 4
Josh: 5
Phil: 4
Bloop: 3

[bloop]

We can go for the reveal now.  Hold off on choosing an album until we all get a say on the next theme round.

[Josh]

Well, let me first say that a week is not NEARLY enough time to digest the new Decemberists record. It's a huge, sprawling, ambitious work that requires careful, attentive listening and repeat spins just to get a handle on exactly what they're trying to do. So I by no means claim to have a finalized, fully-formed opinion of the album just yet. I do feel fairly comfortable saying, however, that, after wavering between a resounding 5 stars and a meager 3 stars all week, I've decided that a solid 4 star rating is appropriate.

This is, as many of you know, a concept album, but it's much more than that; it's a full-fledged rock opera, one in which there is no silence between tracks because they all flow together as one big piece, where different singers voice different characters, where the lyrics tell one big, long story, and where there aren't many songs, but, rather, verses and choruses that are repeated, in differing configurations, throughout the album.

It's pretty much impossible to just listen to part of it; you can't just skip to a favorite song, but you have to play the full thing, from start to finish, to really enjoy it. And so, there is much to admire about the album's complexity and ambition-- indeed, it's an astonishingly, masterfully complete album-- but, where The Decemberists have proven themselves to be a great singles band in the past, there just aren't many individual songs that stand out here; in fact, there are only one or two tracks that even compare to the best material on The Crane Wife.

I'm glad they made a record like this one, and I think they're the better band because of it. But I also think that The Crane Wife is a better album-- not just more listenable, but also a better reflection of all their gifts and talents.

[Brenden]

The Gourds were fun, if a bit repetitive. I don't have a lot of time to give a full opinion, so I'll just say that I'm going with 4 stars since it was a solid album.

[plvarona]

Once again, everyone was in agreement on me.  So was everybody right, or was everybody wrong?

Album Reviewed: Molly Jenson - Maybe Tomorrow

Pros: The album gets off to a good start with the up-tempo folk-pop tune (and first single) "Give It Time", and that sound appears to be what Molly does best.  Most of the other fairly simple acoustic songs ("Thinking of You", "And You Were") turned out fairly well, and the quiet "Thank You My Friend" is a nice low-key song tucked at the end of the album.  I do like how Molly samples in different instruments throughout the song.  Overall, the album is mildly pleasant on the surface.

Cons: In terms of quality, this album is very inconsistent.  Molly tends to jump around quite a bit in terms of style, which can work well if properly executed, but Molly does this rather clumsily.  Especially out of the place was the alt-rocker "The Edgy 8 Ball Song", which I thought sounded like a cheap Alanis Morissette (circa Jagged Little Pill) imitation.  Molly also does the "freestyle rhythm" vocal way too much more my liking.  I don't have a problem if it's done on one or two songs in order to mix things up, but if it's done on just about every song like it is here, that's way too much.  In fact, that just comes off as lazy to me.  Overall, a majority of the songs either failed to stand out, or had promise but some unnecessary noodling really hindered it.

The Bottom Line: I really wanted to like this album, but it was just all over the place in more ways than one.  I can't give it anything more than a mild recommendation.

Rating: "C+", which translates to 3 stars.

[murlough23]

I had to hold off on posting in the "Recent Music Acquired" thread this week. Why? Well, when I went to pick up the new U2 record this week, I had just listened to The Reign of Kindo's album for the second time, and I fell in love with it so immediately that I spontaneously picked up a copy of that album as well. It's rare that I buy an album by a new artist so quickly after first sampling it - last time I can remember doing that is Anathallo's Floating World two years ago.

TROK has a loose-limbed, piano-based pop sound with its roots in jazz, and all of those things could be the kiss of death for a band with less capable players - they could sound like cheesy whitebread yacht rock, they could sound like a poor imitation of the Dave Matthews Band, they could fall prey to the temptation to croon like Coldplay, etc. But these guys never lose their knack for savvy performances throughout the entire album. Musically, this thing is a 5-star affair, and I was prepared to award it five stars until I paid much closer attention to the lyrics, as well as their musical approach a few of the less flashy songs. There's nothing bad to be found here, but at times the lyrics veer toward the generic "broad sweeping generalization about the meaning of life" type stuff, which is striking in comparison to a so-specific-it's-disturbing song like "Breathe Again". (There's like, no remorse expressed for the murder in that song. I'm simultaneously appalled by that and impressed that they were so subversive about setting the story to such relaxing, beautiful music.) At times it's hard to hear them mellow out and stretch a song to over five minutes when I've just heard them perform with the fire and precision of a piano-based Burlap to Cashmere. (Like Josh said, these guys can PLAY.) So, due to a few middling songs and the fact that I couldn't leave myself teetering on the fence between B+ and A-, I decided to go with the B+, or 4 stars.

[bloop]

I'll keep this brief as Jason's album definitely.  I liked it - very catchy indie rock, but I wish there was enough new material to justify a higher grade.  As it is, a solid B, 4 stars.  Unless anyone objects, I guess we'll let go of our inner xenophobe and do the music by people from foreign countries (not to be confused with rating the music of Foreigner).

[Brenden]

In that case, I'll do Mika - Life In Cartoon Motion

[Josh]

I'll do Swan Lake - Enemy Mine.

They're Canadian. 

[plvarona]

Put me down for U2's No Line on the Horizon

[murlough23]

Can I do Neko Case? She was born in America but is part of a Canadian group.

[bloop]

Stretching it, but sure.

I see you actually took the time to get the last track.   

[murlough23]

Stretching it, but sure.

You're the one who recommended it to me.

I see you actually took the time to get the last track.   

Fair's fair. Gotta listen to and rate the whole thing.

[bloop]

You'd get the same effect by downloading the first minute and looping it 30 more times.

[bloop]

This Round:
8.75   plvarona
8.75   murlough
8   ajyouthguy
7.5   Josh
6.25   Brendan
6.25   bloop
0   Wanderer
0   Ninjarob

Totals:
56.25   bloop
56.25   murlough
55.5   plvarona
53.4   ajyouthguy
51.75   Josh
50.5   Brendan
43   Ninjarob
24   Wanderer