REQUIRED LISTEN: City Center

ZACH THAT:

A new section here at We Listen For You, "Required Listen" will profile bands that go above and beyond our general recommendations. Bands that receive this label are what we think will be the next "big thing"...a present to all our readers.

City Center is Fred Thomas of Saturday Looks Good To Me and Ryan Howard. The best way to describe their music is basically imagine a sound baby between Animal Collective, Dan Deacon, The Books, and Fleet Foxes. Yes, is your mind blown? The self-titled album is coming out soon and make sure you check out their myspace page for news updates and listen to a few tracks. Very good stuff here.

REVIEW: Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

maudlin (adj.)--tearfully or weakfully emotional; foolishly sentimental

Forgive me for the definition. I know this isn't school time here. And believe me, I've only opened with a definition once before on anything. Whether or not you know the meaning of the word it's helpful to glare at it a few times…just to get it to stick. In the context of Camera Obscura, maudlin is quite a perfect word both telling of the band itself and their newest album: My Maudlin Career.

Camera Obscura consistently goes for the tear ducts and heart strings with their songs but the album titles have just as much of an impact. Let's Get Out of This Country, Underachievers Please Try Harder, and Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi are all titles that give off some sort of air of sadness and mediocrity--one that the band seems to want to escape but never manages to get out of. Hell, if you've even seen them live you will have noticed that Tracyanne Campbell never really looks that cheerful. Thematically My Maudlin Career is a perfect title. There is no trying harder and no getting out. This is Camera Obscura doing what they do--and, happily enough, at their best.

Opener “French Navy” is a fantastic track. At first it may seem like an awkward step with its talk of sailors and dietary restrictions but becomes a love song--one that perfectly fits the old fashioned styling of Camera Obscura. Something the band should be continuously praised for is their sound. You can listen to every song and get the feel like you are taken back to the fifties or sixties. Slow jams that would be played at your mother's prom. “French Navy” feels like a refreshing day at the beach in a striped swimming costume. Camera Obscura's sound transcends it's vintage feel into the realm of new and fresh.

I'm sure many people caught onto the band's charm with Let's Get Out of This Country. The album is incredible and contains what are easily some of the band's most “single-worthy” songs. There is nothing wrong with digging the bubblier, happier side but strip away the pop charm of those songs and you have some real heartbreak. My Maudlin Career doesn't bullshit around with that kind of stuff. The problem with Let's Get Out… was that the pacing. You would go from a dizzying, cheerful song into a slower ballad making song transitions harder and inspiring a lot of track skipping. Here you have one hit after another. My Maudlin Career crafts the perfect balance between the band's signature pop sounds into their delicately crafted ballads of the heart. Songs beat, gush, and pulse with emotion. Even in its most maudlin of tracks like “James” and “Careless Love” the feelings weigh you down; yet they never take a toll on the impact and enjoyment of the song itself.
Catharsis is something that people experience from various types of songs and artists. My Maudlin Career is one of those albums that you can connect with if you have experienced the highs and lows of love. Yeah, it may seem somewhat cliché but as you listen it becomes clear. This album is tightly packed with songs that want to be held and loved and cherished. Camera Obscura presents you with eleven three to six minute slices of the heart. My Maudlin Career is an album of strengths, not weaknesses. The weaknesses here are ones that everyone has felt at some point in their life and set to beautifully crafted music.

It is hard for me to really fault this album at any point. One of its strongest points is that it is paced out so damn well. The album doesn't hit a snag the entire time. One might think with the lack of a “Llyod, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken” or “If Looks Could Kill” time of track things would get boring but that just isn't the case. Even on the slower songs you soak up the lyrics and tap your feet to the slow beat. If I was to complain about something it might be that the album doesn't show a definite straying from what Camera Obscura has established through this sentimental career of theirs. This is not to say that I am begging for a hard rock song or a synthesized romp--it would just be interested to see what they could do outside of their comfort zone.

As for my favorite hits from the album? The top spot goes to “The Sweetest Thing”. Everything that makes Camera Obscura a great band is packed into here: their vintage sound, sweeping music, beautiful vocals and overall enjoyment. “James” is a tear-jerker. The line “Oh James, you broke me, I thought I knew you well” gets me every time. It is powerful stuff. “French Navy” and “Honey in the Sun” aren't my favorites but they are fantastic bookends to the album. They deliver the hooks and pop that made up the best hits from the band's previous album. When it comes to having the title track in their album for the second time, Camera Obscura does not disappoint. “My Maudlin Career” is a great track with all the sadness and plinking of piano keys you could want delivering the lines “This maudlin career has come to an end/I don't want to be sad again”. And from what My Maudlin Career has given, one can only hope that sad or not, Camera Obscura will keep putting out fine works likes this with no end in sight, I love them too much to let them go so soon.

REVIEW: Wooden Shjips - Dos

Wooden Shjips has a lot going for them. A cool name (CSN&Y inspired?), mysterious band photos, Pitchfork-induced hype. Why, then, is it so hard for me to get into them? My history with the band starts with their earliest piece, the self-released “Shrinking Moon” 10” record let loose in 2006. The disc came in an undecorated white paper sleeve, inside of a clear poly bag. The only indication of what this music was was a teeny 1x1/2” sticker on the poly bag and a picture of a smiling moon on the center label of one side of the record. Its brevity left much wonderment to brew inside my head. I had to buy it, get it home and listen to it as soon as cosmically possible. I got home to my record player and threw the slab of wax down hoping to be blown away. I listened to it many times, but was confused and let down. Each spin left me trying to convince myself that I just wasn’t in the mood that day. That it was me and not the record. That tomorrow would bring a better listen and a greater understanding. A few more spins on days thereafter and we just never clicked. I felt let down. I felt I was promised something that was not delivered.

Fast-forward to “Dos.” I came at it optimistically. Well, maybe they’ve improved, I thought. It’s been a long time since that 10” and they’ve had quite a bit of time to grow as a band. Plus that 10” was more of a statement, a piece in restraint, made to test your preconceptions of “music.” Anti-music, with their psychy twist. “Dos” is a full-length album, where they’ll be able to explore themselves… It wasn’t so. Despite the “We Demand to be Taken Seriously” high contrast cover photo and wicked looking title font, the music, frankly, comes off as utterly repetitive and boring with no truly redeeming quality. On each song, bass and drums play the exact same lines over and over and over and over, while the guitar noodles around some mediocre guitar solos set way back in the mix. Perhaps I’m no high-class psych connoisseur, but I am a fan of the genre and I’m sure that if I typed in “psych” under Google’s Blog search, I could come up with a Rapidshare link to something better than this in the first few hits. It seems to me that the key to psych music is not playing in such a tight, rigid style (with the bass and drums), but to branch out and be looser with the music. On every track, the bass plays a meager two or three different notes and the drummer rarely hits more than two drums (bass, snare, bass, snare, bass…). Every song ends up sounding very much the same. There are no “stand out” tracks. There are no lyrics or melodies that will stick with you, as the vocals are so drowned in reverb and other muddying effects they are nearly inaudible, becoming lost in the mix.

Two of the album’s five songs clock in at over 10 minutes. And its not a 10 minutes after which you’ll wonder where the time went. It’s 10 minutes of the same droning guitar, two bass notes and drumbeat. This begs the question though, if that is what your music is about, why stop at 10 minutes? CDs are 80 minutes these days, drag that sucker out for half an hour a la “Sister Ray.” That would get the point across. All in all, there seems to be an inherent flaw with the band’s sound. Despite their Woodstock-era name, Wooden Shjips seem to be influenced by ‘80s and ‘90s psychedelia, like Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine. When compared to those influences, or to contemporary bands seeking the same “drenched in psych” sound (Comets on Fire comes to mind), you can see how Wooden Shjips pale in comparison. The caliber of songwriting, the vocal presentation and delivery, the aptitude of the musicians at their instruments. They all lack. All of these elements together just don’t add up into an enjoyable work. Too many crucial aspects of quality music are absent.

Well then, what is redeemable here? They are able to really get into a groove. How long you want to listen to that groove is another question, but the groove does exists. They found it. Also, the line-up of instruments is nice. Guitar, bass, drums, organ. I can dig it. The organ is a nice touch in this stripped down band. “Fallin’” presents the instrument nicely. Surprise surprise, though; it too stays within the constrains of only few notes throughout the album. (On a side note, on “Aquarian Time” the keyboard can’t help but remind me of Dare-era Human League, which is somewhat out of place.)

If I was pressed to pick one song to play someone off the album (a “single”), “For So Long” is really the only stand out piece. The bass plays a decently complicated but structural line, the vocals are at their most substantial and memorable, and the guitar plays nice ethereal bits throughout. It seems, though, that “Dos” is really a record to be experienced as a whole. It’s not a collection of songs; it’s an entire experience. Just put the record on, sit in a comfy chair and zone out for its 38 minutes (hallucinogenic drugs optional). It’s nice for that specific purpose, but becomes tedious after a few spins. All in all, it sounds like music that was more fun to play and record than it is to listen to after the fact.

REVIEW: Fever Ray - Fever Ray

When reviewing Fever Ray's debut album it becomes necessary to keep in mind a few relevant (and unavoidable) facts during your listen. Fever Ray is the spawn of Karin Dreijer--yes, the same Karin Dreijer who teamed up with her brother Olof to create The Knife's 2006's masterpiece Silent Shout. Of course, I strongly doubt you are unaware of this fact. Remember how awesome that album was? Well get those thoughts out of your head because even before you start absorbing the album your ears are already going to be judgmental. Like I said, keep it all in mind and try not to let anything cloud your opinion just yet.

“If I Had a Heart” opens up Fever Ray and catches its hooks in you. The track offers a lot even at first listen. Here the album takes care of that big elephant in the room. Yes, we have something that sounds like The Knife. Even better, though, we have something that has an eerie feel of familiarity but also freshness. “If I Had a Heart” makes you feel isolated. It's a dark track filling the spaces with pounding beats and Dreijer's familiar high and low-pitched voices. This creepy almost nightmarish tone was one of the things I loved about Silent Shout and it is carried over here. The problem, however, is that there is an absence of the electronic energy that was infused in so many of The Knife's other tracks. Here you feel like you are going to be led into something thicker and your hand won't be held by frantic synthesizers.

After the opening it wouldn't be surprising to feel that the overall tone of Fever Ray would be some sort of exercise in restraint. After a heavy-handed track and such a sparse use of house/techno rhythms it does feel like a departure from The Knife. “When I Grow Up” feels like it might turn out this way too. The first half of the track is delicately packed except for the fact that there is a hook that slowly becomes faster and more frantic throughout the song. If the opening track satisfied your thirst for the chills that The Knife sent up your spine the second track will flesh out those synthesized landscapes of electro-pop you were missing.

In fact, the first half of Fever Ray slowly reveals its true brilliance to you. “Seven” and “Triangle Walks” are two of my favorite songs off the album and are perfect examples of how Fever Ray actually shines. You are bathed in the familiarity of the albums that have come before it and are comfortable. At first listen these songs are enjoyable--something the album does genuinely well. It isn't until a few listens that you actually drawn out of this idea of being comforted by familiarity and listen to the true “newness” of everything. Both “Seven” and “Triangle Walks” blend that insular feeling of “If I Had a Heart” with the familiar house rhythms of The Knife and then add in a surprising touch of world music beats. Here less is scattered and more is concise. The first half of Fever Ray experiments with itself by introducing old and new ideas and then rolling them into something that is wonderfully layered.

It is with this stroke of excellence that the album begins to stutter…if only for a bit. Fever Ray gives off the occasional sense that it is too afraid to come out of the dark shell it has created for itself. There are tracks that can and do plod on for too long trying to ensnare. I found myself being initially intrigued by the opening of “Concrete Walls” but soon lost. The track is the second longest on the album running at nearly six minutes and after the third minute nothing happens. The song tries to retreat back into the barren glow of “If I Had a Heart” but then introduces too many new sounds and beats to sound unique. It has no build and a slow hook, it is a tired track. “Now's the Only Time I Know” comes very close to success. Dreijer harmonizes with herself, sound after sound is added to create a larger scope yet something about the song doesn't fit right. Where “Concrete Walls” felt like it was trying to do too much, “Now's the Only Time I Know” didn't do enough. Then again, maybe I have just not wrapped my head around the songs just yet--they just feel oddly mismatched between the first and last half of the album.

Songs aside, one of my main issues with Fever Ray is if the moniker of “Fever Ray” even needs to exist. The Dreijers have said that they are putting The Knife on hiatus and yes, that is a sad. The thing is, if a new band consists of one half of the original band and sounds quite similar to said band, is the name change really that big of a deal? Bands continuously evolve over time and Fever Ray feels like it could be an extension to The Knife's catalog. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. Like I said at the beginning of the review you need to keep the facts in mind but don't let them get in the way of what you are actually listening to. My other favorite song on the album is “Keep the Streets Empty for Me” which does an almost better job at creating this isolated and complex feel than the opening track. The effort that Karin Dreijer makes to keep an intricate and sonically complex album without adding the extra layers of flash and synthesized spectacle might be the brightest (or the most disappointing) aspect of the album. Even the seven minute long closer “Coconut” is epic but in a subdued way. To some Fever Ray might feel like less of a side project and more of a continuation of an already established and incredible sound. At times this can be true, but Fever Ray/Karin Dreijer is reaching for something more and this compelling first taste makes you hopeful for what's in store.

REVIEW: Ida Maria – Fortress Round My Heart

After tearing up the charts in Scandinavia and the UK, Norwegian rock girl Ida Maria Sivertsen has come straight out of left field and is in the process of bursting onto the American music scene with the April release of her debut album Fortress Round My Heart. This isn’t just any Euro-breakthrough, however. After a close listen it becomes apparent that there is way more to these tunes than, tight rhythms, distortion, booze, and sex.

This is pretty catchy stuff. One might even call it fun. Indeed. Fun. What’s really appealing about this record, however, is not its punk thrash, its crooning lamentations, or its neurotic energy. Rather, it’s all of these diverse elements, threaded together in subtle tension that make it charming, sad, and overall, a rather interesting portrait of an artist. The lyrical moods, musical range and the tangible humanity of Sivertsen’s ragged and quavering vocals stretch just far enough to provide an interesting, listenable album, without making it seem schizophrenic and center-less (Evil Urges anyone?) Fortress Round My Heart is nervous, self-deprecating, and according to the opening track, “Oh My God,” honest. More than that, it is incorrigibly human. This is not the demonic sexuality of Karen O or the self-possessed cool of Chrissie Hynde. It’s something entirely more approachable. If there is one thing to take away from this album, it’s this: there may not be anything paradigm-shiftingly original here, but there is a colorful portrait of a very human, very relatable, subject.

In the opening track, “Oh My God,” Sivertsen dabbles in boozy existentialism, chanting through explosive rock and roll herky jerky: “Oh my God/ You think I'm in control/ Oh my God/ You think it’s all for fun.” Any initial impression, it would seem, is quite the wrong impression –there is indeed no girl behind the mask. Mask is truth. Sivertsen is the sum of her actions with no secret self hidden away from view. I think it would be difficult to underestimate the importance of this track –in a sense, it is a hermeneutical key through which we gaze at the rest of the album. While it serves this function well and is probably a blast live, it does get a bit repetitive, melodically and lyrically.

Almost in answer to the existential declaration of “Oh My God,” Ida follows up with thoughtful tracks showcasing dramatic, open arrangements which give her nicotine-scarred voice room to flex and breathe. Tunes like “Morning Light” and “Keep Me Warm,” and “See Me Through” show off Sivertsen’s voice in an entirely new light –the tones break through in all their color, warmth and vulnerability. We see that while there may not be an ego which hides behind her actions, there was much more than first met the ear. There is a girl who gets her heart broken, who cries, who prays to an absent god. There is a girl who sings a ballad to her closest confidants –a pack of cigarettes and a cup of coffee. Perhaps what makes these images most compelling this how they are set in relief to the ostensibly fun (though lyrically neurotic) rock tracks on Fortress. This is a dynamic personality singing dynamic songs.

“I Like You So Much Better when You’re Naked,” (currently occupying spot 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 Modern Rock Tracks) is another rocker –a punky pop jam about awkward, uncommunicative sexuality which you’re sure to find blasting at you’re local collegiate beer-pong tournament any day now. Like “Oh My God,” Sivertsen does not give us our rock and roll on the cheap. While the music is an accessible, bouncy rock anthem, the themes of communicative breakdowns, self-loathing, and sex are hardly the chomp-chomp of so much pseudo-risque bubblegum (You kissed a girl?! You liked it?! Holy shit…I can’t believe it!).

In all, Ida Maria’s debut is usually fun, never pretentious, and always human. While the lyrics have some rather trite moments, it’s important to recognize that there is some powerful, though cheeky, psycho-drama being laid out here, and it’s worth a listen.

REVIEW: Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle

Bill Callahan's second album after stepping out from his "Smog" moniker begins simply enough. "I started out in search of ordinary things," he half-laments on opener "Jim Cain." It's that half-drawl, half-smile, half-sincerity that Smog fans love. Just enough truth to hook you in and enough sarcasm to make you wonder how serious Callahan is being. For my money, Callahan reaches his apex with that sort of song writing on 1997's Red Apple Falls. And besides, no matter how Callahan may seem to invoke those times, on his latest Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, there's no going back.

For starters, the production on this record is phenomenal. In those early days of Smog, production was a means to an end -- a functionality in and of itself. But, like The Mountain Goats, give Callahan enough albums and the studio begins to kick in. The mentality of taking a polishing a sound; drinking your orange juice without the pulp. So, there's lush orchestration: horns and cellos moving around the edges of Callahan's one hit guitar lines. The essence of what you know from Smog is still there - the singular looping guitar drawn thru space with lyrics and the signature baritone. But what was once earth-driven and crunchy is now high-minded, clean, polished.

It would be easy to lament this change. To say that "the early albums are better," but that's missing the trajectory. Lo-fi isn't the same as it used to be, and it shouldn't be. Something entirely different is going on here. The production values of earlier works made us focus on Callahan's lyrics, wrapping his vocal tone into our ears in lieu of the lushness that appears on Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle. In this album, we're forced to listen to both the music and the lyrics in a more complex and sophisticated way. This has mixed results. If the power of Callahan is his ability to keep us guessing -- to wonder if when he's serious when he says "all of my fantasies are of making someone else cum...on a horse" -- then the instrumentation works against him here. There's a regularity and a tone that pulls us away and the baritone becomes more of an instrument than a speaker of words.

On the other hand, it's a musically beautiful album. And still has those moments of keeping the listener on their toes. Particularly in "Rococo Zepphyr," which evokes Callahan's earlier "Teenage Spaceship" and is also probably about Joanna Newsom (see "Bridges and Balloons"), here the tune gets hijacked and turned around by the female background singer who simply coos "Rococo" while Callahan describes with bucolic alienation the hard fact of being left - "Maybe this was all it was meant to be." In fact, a lot of this album relies on a simple statement, flipped around by the music, fidgeted by instrumentation and left to land differently according to what is being spun around it. Instead of waiting for the words to change, we're left waiting for the music to change the meaning. It's a new chapter in Callahan's work and one that bears us sticking with and trying to adapt to as well.

Animal Collective on Winning March Music Madness '09

ZACH THAT:

Here is a statement from Brian Weitz aka Geologist from Animal Collective on winning We Listen For You's March Music Madness '09:

"thank you very much. we're honored, but we were pulling for syracuse."

It's been a big year for Animal Collective. Any ideas who will win the tournament next year?

MARCH MUSIC MADNESS '09 - CHAMPION: ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

Unlike the real NCAA championship going on right now, this match up between Animal Collective and Arcade Fire was a buzzer beater. AnCo beat Arcade Fire 50.6% to 49.4%! They're cutting down the nets with "My Girls" playing in the background. Congrats Animal Collective and thanks to everyone who voted.

Look forward to March Music Madness '10