Musiquarium Music Reviews 2017

Table Of Contents:

Arcade Fire – Everything Now

Arcade Fire doubles down on the dance elements of Reflektor and makes a satirical pop album.

Following the reinvention Arcade Fire experienced on Reflektor, Everything Now sees the band digging deeper into dance, with an album that’s more pop-oriented than anything the band has done before.

The title track channels ABBA, and features production from Steve Mackey of Pulp and Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, who both also provide production on the groovy Signs Of Life, the slinky Electric Blue and on Put Your Money On Me too. The cheerful Creature Comfort also features production from Mackey, in addition to Geoff Barrow of the legendary trip hop pioneer band, Portishead. Good God Damn (yet another Mackey produced track) sees Arcade Fire getting a bit funky.

There are weaker songs like Peter Pan and Chemistry (which continue the flirtation with Haitian music that was heard on Reflektor), as well as Infinite Content, which paints itself as an easy target.

I feel like this album’s satirical premise had overshadowed the music itself for most listeners, but if you take away the band’s societal cynicism and focus on the music itself, this is a very rich and vibrant, candy-coated album, with lots of hooks.

★★★½

At The Drive In – in•ter a•li•a

At The Drive-In returns after 17 years.

Between the release of in•ter a•li•a and At The Drive-In’s landmark Relationship Of Command, vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-López had formed the highly successful prog rock outfit, The Mars Volta and the rest of the band had gone on to form Sparta. It was uncertain whether the band would reunite, but 17 years later, the unthinkable happened.

Although At The Drive-In reunited in 2012 for Coachella and Lollpalooza, it would take another several years before new material had emerged. Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-López were joined by previous members Paul Hinojos and Tony Hajjar, although guitarist Jim Ward did not return and was replaced by Keeley Davis (another member of Sparta).

No Wolf Like The Present storms out of the gate, like the band had never gone away. Continuum continues the momentum with a powerful chorus, showing that Cedric Bixler-Zavala can still wail like he used to in the 90s. Incurably Innocent rips along with its fiery guitars. Ghost-Tape No. 9 slows things down a little, giving a break from the full-frontal attack of the rest of the album.

A good return from At The Drive-In, that doesn’t tarnish the band’s legacy.

★★★★

Charli xcx – Number 1 Angel

Charli releases her first mixtape of 2017.

Number 1 Angel is the first of two mixtapes released by Charli xcx in 2017 and is arguably the weaker of the two.

Nothing here is as riveting as Vroom Vroom, or very experimental for that matter; instead, it’s just a collection of conventional pop music, albeit with Charli’s fingerprints all over.

It’s fine, but it’s outshined by the superior, Pop 2.

★★★½

Charli xcx – Pop 2

Charli releases her second mixtape of 2017.

Released ~half a year after Number 1 Angel, Pop 2 sees an improvement over that mixtape, though this one is a little feature-heavy for my liking.

The Carly Rae Jepsen featuring opener, Backseat is the best song here; a romantic love song told from the back of a car. Porsche continues Charli’s obsession with fast and stylish cars, like on 2016’s Vroom Vroom. Femmebot is a tale of synthetic love. I Got It has hard hip-hop beats and shows Charli starting to leave her comfort zone.

Pop 2 isn’t perfect, but it’s still a work of pop art.

★★★★

The Flaming Lips – Oczy Mlody

The Flaming Lips make their most electronic album yet.

After the depressing, defeating nihilism of 2013’s The Terror, The Flaming Lips continue to dive deeper into dark electronica.

How?? feels as hopeless as anything from The Terror, and along with the intro title track, sets the tone for the album’s electronic-heavy sound. There Should Be Unicorns and The Castle are other highlights.

Do Glowy might throw listeners off, with Wayne Coyne’s autotuned and pitch-shifted vocals and the childish lyrics. We A Famly features a return from Flaming Lips disciple, Miley Cyrus.

Oczy Mlody has a lot of repeating motifs, resulting in some of the songs blurring together, as well as a near absence of guitars, so it’s likely to polarize fans wanting another Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi. Despite the somewhat underwhelming nature of the album, it’s still got some interesting experiments and sounds, making for a decent record.

★★★½

Foo Fighters – Concrete And Gold

Foo Fighters continue their march towards mediocrity.

Three years after the Foo’s last album, the conceptually ambitious, but dull Sonic Highways, the band starts aiming for greater accessibility and reach, with an album dabbling in some pop territory, but without abandoning their brand of rock n roll either.

Run is easily the highlight of the album (and the only song worth returning to), with its heavy, metallic verses (it’s also a nice compliment to their song, Walk). The Sky Is A Neighbourhood sounds like it’s going for an Imagine Dragons type thing, which is disappointing, as they’re one of the worst bands to emerge in the 2010s, and are a low-hanging fruit to aspire to emulate. Oddly enough, Paul McCartney appears on drums on Sunday Rain and not bass guitar, and is sonically one of the more adventurous tunes here. Otherwise, the rest of the album is fine, but not very memorable.

Concrete And Gold is a typical Foo Fighters album; nothing offensively bad, but nothing groundbreaking either. It’s an average album, nothing more.

★★½

Kendrick Lamar – DAMN.

Kendrick Lamar wins a Pulitzer Prize.

Coming off of two legendary albums and an excellent companion piece, Kendrick Lamar had become one of, if not the biggest players in rap. The expectations were riding high on DAMN. and he definitely went big on this LP

Slightly more accessible than the preceding albums, with smooth R&B tracks, like LOYALTY. and LOVE., and club-tailored bangers, like HUMBLE.; DAMN. is still chock-full of poetic, hard-hitting lyricism and themes, diverse samples, ecstatic production, and the crossover appeal, such as a U2 feature on XXX.

DNA. is built around transcendental synths and utilizes a clever Rick James voice sample. YAH. feels like the perfect song for cruising through the city streets at 2am. ELEMENT. is a sensual kind of ominous. FEEL and PRIDE. are both soulful, melting like butter into the ears. LUST. is sex for the ears. FEAR. and GOD. add thematic weight towards the end of the album. DUCKWORTH. is the perfect climax, detailing a moment in time where Top Dog Entertainment almost didn’t exist, which would have prevented Kendrick Lamar from ever getting a record deal and thus never becoming the famous rapper poet we all know.

Some found this to be a marginal letdown after the enormous heights that good kid m.A.A.d city and To Pimp A Butterfly had reached, but make no mistake, this is still a damn good album; a masterpiece.

Trivia: Kendrick Lamar went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for this album, which made DAMN. the first non jazz or classical album to ever do so. DAMN. also won Best Rap Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.

★★★★★

The Killers – Wonderful Wonderful

The Killers are back, with an album that’s only half good.

After a 5 year absence since the dreadfully milquetoast Battle Born, Brandon Flowers and The Killers are back with an album that’s half interesting and half tedious.

The good first: The Man is one of the band’s most exhilarating singles in over a decade; a playful funk song where modest Mormon, Brandon Flowers pretends to be a hot-headed, confident playboy. Wonderful Wonderful is a strong opener and one of their most sonically-exciting songs, though it’s a little too similar to U2’s Bullet The Blue Sky. There’s also the robotic swagger of The Calling, which is somewhat reminiscent of Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus. Run For Cover and Tyson vs. Douglas recall the band’s earlier post-punk revival and new wave days.

The rest of the album dulls in comparison to the aforementioned songs, comprising mostly of sappy ballads, like what was found all over Battle Born.

Wonderful Wonderful may not be a comeback, but it’s far more engaging than anything else they’ve released since 2006’s Sam’s Town.

★★★

LCD Soundsytem – american dream

LCD Soundsystem (briefly) returns from the dead.

It had been seven years since This Is Happening came out and only twelve since their debut. The band seemed to come and gone in such a short time, but they were finally back (albeit briefly) in 2017, with more of their trademark dance rock.

oh baby opens the album, like a starry-eyed call from the heavens. other voices and tonite are both delightfully funked up. i used to and the title track are full of dreamy synths. change yr mind sounds like Scary Monsters era Bowie meets Talking Heads. how do you sleep? is a moody piece that slowly unravels over 9 minutes. call the police is a slice of post-punk goodness, as is emotional haircut, which has a Joy Division type factory repetition to it. The album ends with the 12 minute epic, black screen, which includes a lengthy piano outro.

A welcome return, before disappearing again.

★★★★½

Mac DeMarco – This Old Dog

Mac gets sentimental.

2 was the proper introduction of Mac DeMarco to the world and Salad Days only improved upon Mac’s formula. This Old Dog finds Mac slowing things down, utilizing more acoustic guitar, synthesizers and even getting a little experimental, like on Moonlight On The River and its noisy, abrasive, climactic outro.

My Old Man starts off with a midi drum track (in contrast to live drums on previous albums), and explores Mac’s relationship with his estranged father and how one can’t outrun their blood. The folky title track evokes the spirit of fellow Canadian Neil Young. For The First Time and On The Level recall the sound of the previous album’s Chamber Of Reflection, one of his most beloved songs. One More Love Song is one of Mac’s moodiest, most heartfelt ballads. Watching Him Fade Away is a tragic, gentle outro, where Mac comes to terms with his father’s passing.

Definitely Mac’s most grown up work and possibly his best overall.

★★★★★

Nine Inch Nails – Add Violence

Nine Inch Nails release the second EP in a trilogy.

Less Than is one of the best NIN songs since the 90s. The Lovers finds Trent Reznor doing spoken word vocals. The Background World has a 7 minute-long droning outro that progressively gets more distorted.

While it has nothing on Broken, Add Violence is still a decent EP of similar quality to the previous year’s Not The Actual Events and introduces a new classic with Less Than.

★★★★

Primus – The Desaturating Seven

Primus makes a concept album based on a children’s book about goblins that steal colour from the rainbow.

Like Primus’ last album, Primus And The Chocolate Factory, The Desaturating Seven is also based on an existing story, this time a 1978 children’s book called The Rainbow Goblins.

Primus has always had a prog rock disposition in their music (particularly Rush, with Geddy Lee being a major influence on Les Claypool’s bass playing), but they lean into it more than ever here.

The music is fantastic (as always), though the vocals and spoken word narration may not appeal to everybody, but then again, you should know what you’re getting into on a Primus album.

The Desaturating Seven may not be the most remarkable Primus album, nor is it particularly long either, but it’s still an interesting experiment with some typically virtuostic musicianship.

★★★½

Queens Of The Stone Age – Villains

Josh Homme hires Mark Ronson to produce.

After surviving death, which eventually led to the phenomenal …Like Clockwork and making an album with Iggy Pop in 2016 (alongside fellow Queens member Dean Fertita and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders), Josh Homme was back on top of the world.

On Villains, Homme takes the band into a boogie/dance rock direction, though it still very much contains traces of darkness; after all, this is Queens Of The Stone Age and this album is called Villains. This new direction actually makes sense, considering Josh Homme has swagger and swing, and had done similar music with Eagles Of Death Metal. This led him to hiring Mark Ronson, who produced the mega-hit Uptown Funk (side note: I fucking hate that song), making an album that polarized fans and received criticisms for selling out.

Sure, it’s not a top QOTSA album, in fact it’s easily their worst, but hey, it’s still a QOTSA project. Not every album needs to be generational or groundbreaking to be good. It still sounds like the band you know, even if it’s a more sterile version of it.

Feet Don’t Fail Me builds up for nearly two minutes before the music explodes into its verse; it’s a fantastic opener. The Way You Used To Do sounds like EODM boogie rock, and though it’s perfectly fine and pretty groovy, it’s easily the band’s weakest lead single yet. Domesticated Animals is like riding a carousel, about to fall off, but never quite letting go. Fortress, Hideaway and Un-Reborn Again are ballads, but they still know how to rock out.

Head Like A Haunted House lives up to its name, with it’s twisting, hall of mirror guitars. The Evil Has Landed is devilish fun. Villains Of Circumstance is an emotional closer, and I suspect its lyrics are in relation to the 2015 Bataclan terrorist attack in Paris, that happened during an Eagles Of Death Metal concert (though Homme wasn’t on tour with them then).

If you don’t like synthesizers and dance rock, then you may not like this album, but there’s a solid offering if you’re willing to let the band goof off a bit, and it’s still unmistakably QOTSA.

Trivia: This was the first time the band had used the same cover artist (Boneface) twice in a row.

★★★★½

Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark?

The British rock duo releases their sophomore album.

In the same vein of their self-titled debut, How Did We Get So Dark? is musically similar to its predecessor, with a simple combo of drums and bass guitar. It doesn’t reinvent anything, but manages to provide some more of that decent, meat n’ potatoes hard rock.

The singles are among the more memorable songs here (the title track, Lights Out, I Only Lie When I Love You), though the rest of the songs are absolutely fine. A lot of the album falls into blues-based rock with plenty of bass riffs and competent drumming.

Royal Blood’s debut was good, but not great, and the same goes for this record. Solid rock music, if not a little basic. With saying that, it’s still nice to see this kind of rock music alive and kicking.

★★★½

St. Vincent – Masseduction

Annie Clark goes pop, with the help of Jack Antonoff.

Annie Clark had spent the 2010s becoming an indie rock goddess, with a pair of critically acclaimed albums and a collaboration with the David Byrne of Talking Heads. She was rising fast and decided it was time to make her Jack Antonoff pop album. According to her, Strange Mercy was “housewives on pills” and St. Vincent was “near-future cult leader” and this time, the music was something more personal.

Hang On Me is a chilled back intro before going headfirst into the absurdity that is Pills. The title track is St. Vincent at her most seductive and sexual. Los Ageless, Saviour and Sugar Boy are other highlights.

Despite its descent into pop, this is still very much the intricate workings of the Annie Clark you know and it makes me wish all pop music was this good.

★★★★

Steven Wilson – To The Bone

Steven Wilson makes a progressive pop album.

After a strong run of four solo albums that leaned hard into prog rock, To The Bone finds Steven Wilson simplifying his sound and aiming for accessibility, with a hybrid of prog and pop.

The title track brings to mind the art prog of the 80s from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, XTC and Kate Bush. Nowhere Now has a hint of country in it. Pariah is a ballad that features Israeli singer, Ninet Tayeb. The Same Asylum As Before and People Who Eat Darkness are radio-ready rockers.

Permanating sounds like an ABBA song. Blank Tapes is a gentle duet with Ninet Tayeb. Song Of I leans into an electronic direction. The 9 minute-long Detonation proves that even a more accessible version of Steven Wilson isn’t willing to omit longer, more experimental compositions.

While not one of his best, To The Bone is an under-appreciated gem.

★★★½

Weezer – Pacific Daydream

Weezer aims for the Billboard Top 100 and embarrasses themselves in the process.

Starting with 2014’s better than expected Everything Will Be Alright In The End, Weezer was set for a long overdue comeback, after nearly a decade of poor reviews and declining quality. This theory was reaffirmed when they released Weezer (White Album), which was easily their most memorable and sincere work in years. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t complete ass either.

That progress was nearly completely destroyed with Pacific Daydream, an album that strips all of White Album‘s best traits and leaves only the Billboard Top 100-yearning pop elements.

Songs like, Mexican Fender, Beach Boys, Feels Like Summer and Happy Hour sound like generic mid 2010s pop rock that you might hear at a Starbucks, while some non-binary, Liberal arts degree barista is passive-aggresively making your $7 coffee.

I have nothing else to say, other than, how the fuck do you go from Weezer (Blue Album) and Pinkerton to this?

Rivers Cuomo, stop being a pussy and make some music with your balls again.

★

FIN

Britain Chambers

The Musiquarium