Table of Contents:
Alice in Chains – The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
The reformed Alice in Chains make their second record.
In 2009, Alice in Chains had released their first album since the untimely passing of vocalist, Layne Stayley. The album was a massive success, with the grunge legends updating their sound without losing sense of their identity and were able to escape the shadow that Layne Stayley’s tragic death had cast over them for so long.
Hollow and Stone are two of the best songs from Alice in Chains 2.0, both containing killer riffs and harmonies. The title track plays with eastern sounds, similar to what they did on the title track from 1992’s Dirt. The doom-laden Phantom Limb is one of the heaviest tracks here.
The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here is more of the same grunge that you’ve come to expect from modern AiC and while it doesn’t stray far from their established formula, it proves that they are not quite dinosaurs themselves quite yet..
7.5/10
Arcade Fire – Reflektor
A reflection of a reflection of a reflection…
After creating a genre-defining indie rock trilogy with Funeral, Neon Bible and The Suburbs, Arcade Fire decided to leave the past behind by hiring LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy to produce and branching out into dance music.
A recently out of retirement David Bowie guests on the lead single/title track, which is one of the coolest cameo appearances a band could ever ask for (the band had previously played with Bowie live in 2005). We Exist is a pro-gay rights song, but never seems preachy. Here Comes The Night Time incorporates Haitian sounds, on account of Régine Chassagne’s background. Normal Person has Win Butler questioning whether or not he actually likes rock n roll, over top of some of one of Will Butler’s best guitar licks. Porno mixes delicate lyrics with some of the most sensual synths you’ll ever hear — it’s both innocent and sinful. Afterlife is a shimmering disco song, building towards a riveting finale. The pair of Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice) and It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus) are also highlights.
Although any of the band’s first four albums could be considered as their best, Reflektor is definitely the most kaleidoscopic, experimental and adventurous one yet. A well-executed and bold left-turn, similar to U2’s Achtung Baby and Radiohead’s KID A before it.
10/10
Trivia: The rollout for Reflektor involved a guerrilla marketing strategy, where Reflektor logos were graffitied in cities around the world, as well as a limited edition vinyl single of the title track, credited to the fake band, The Reflektors.
Arctic Monkeys – AM
The Monkeys launch themselves into the stratosphere of popularity and success.
Arctic Monkeys had a strong following before AM, but this was the album that transformed them into one of the biggest bands on the planet — total global superstars. This also means that it’s where old school fans started to resent their mainstream success, feeling betrayed by the band and their newfound mass-appeal.
Not only was this the album responsible for their biggest hit ever, Do I Wanna Know?, but it also had other gargantuan singles, like R U Mine?, Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? and One for the Road. AM is a colossal achievement in balancing hit-making with songwriting integrity and in crossover appeal.
Do I Wanna Know? takes a slow blues riff and turns it into an anthem for late night, drunken phone calls and forgettable/regrettable one night stands. Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? owes more to hip-hop than to rock n roll, flexing Alex Turner’s diverse musical influences that seep into his songwriting. R U Mine? throws dizzying power chord riffs right at the listener. Arabella borrows a riff from Black Sabbath’s War Pig, injecting it into the kind of sexy rocker that Sabbath was never known for. The seductive Kneesocks sees a guest appearance from Humbug producer and Queens of the Stone Age frontman, Josh Homme (Alex Turner had appeared earlier that year on their album …Like Clockwork). Mad Sounds is straight out of Velvet Underground (circa 1969), a band that is also paid homage to in the album’s name (the Velvet Underground had a 1985 album called VU, thus Arctic Monkeys’ AM). I Wanna Be Yours adapts a John Cooper Clarke poem. Then you still have Fireside, I Want It All, Snap Out of It and No. 1 Party Anthem. An absolutely loaded album where every song had the potential to be a hit.
This album blends together the band’s very subtle psychedelic side with hip-hop beats, hard rock and some of the finest falsettos and harmonies on any modern rock record.
AM is a masterful attempt at breaking into America and capturing a wider audience by refining the sound of this era of the band’s music (Humbug, Suck It and See and AM all share similar D.N.A.) and making an album full of mega choruses, killer riffs, heavy hooks and groovin’ grooves, but without sacrificing the band’s vision or style. It’s challenging to simplify your sound and make it accessible without neutering it, but the Monkeys managed to do just that here.
For my money, AM is one of the all time greatest attempts at going commercial, without compromising what makes the band so great to begin with.
10/10
Atoms for Peace – Amok
Thom Yorke forms a supergroup.
Compriseing of Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Nigel Godrich (Radiohead’s longtime producer), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.), and Mauro Refosco, and named after a song from Thom Yorke’s debut album, Atoms for Peace’s debut Amok naturally feels like a sequel to that album, albeit with a full band and more emphasis on jamming.
Nothing here is nearly as captivating as Radiohead’s work and most of the tracks feel like jams more than fully-fleshed out songs, but it’s of a similar quality to The Eraser, and still features the generational talent of Thom Yorke.
7.5/10
Black Sabbath – 13
Ozzy Osbourne sings on a Black Sabbath album for the first time since 1978.
Black Sabbath hadn’t released an album with their original singer Ozzy Osbourne since 1978, let alone any albums in 18 years. Their last release was 1995’s Forbidden, which was considered the worst album of any iteration of the band, from its cheap-looking artwork, to an Ice-T feature. With that in mind, it was surprising to see (most of) the original Black Sabbath reform one last time (though drummer Bill Ward was replaced by Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave), especially since Ozzy was still a major solo draw and didn’t need the Sabbath brand to tour successfully.
This album could have easily sounded phoned-in, or sounded like any run of the mill, late-era Ozzy solo albums, but instead, it mostly recaptures the magic that made the 1970-1975 band so compelling, with Tony Iommi still conjuring up incredible riffs like some kind of heavy metal wizard. Rick Rubin encouraged the band to write and record like they had just finished their first album, ignoring Paranoid and everything that followed, so that they could strip everything back to the basics, and while this might sound regressive, perhaps it helped to transport the band back into the mind’s of their younger selves.
Hearing lead single God Is Dead? on the radio felt surreal. The idea of Ozzy getting back with Tony and Geezer seemed too good to be true, but sure enough, it wasn’t just some fever dream — it was really happening.
The album opener, The End of the Beginning, proves that Sabbath still has it in them to conjure up doom unlike anyone else. Zeitgeist is like a spiritual successor to Planet Caravan. The final track Dear Father, ends with rain and thunder, bringing the Black Sabbath story full circle to where it began in 1970.
13 doesn’t get enough credit for being as good as it is, considering other similarly long-awaited reunion albums failed (The Stooges, Black Flag). It might not best any of Sabbath’s albums from 1970-1975 or the first two Dio era albums, but it’s still one of the best comeback albums from a legendary band, helping to bring the godfathers of metal into the modern times.
8/10
Charli xcx – True Romance
A new pop star in the making.
Named after the 1993 Quentin Tarantino-written and Tony Scott-directed film True Romance, British singer Charli xcx’s debut album is 1980s synthpop with modern pop sensibilities.
Opener Nuclear Seasons is a solid opener with a slight experimental edge, evoking the spirit of 1980s Kate Bush art pop. You (Ha Ha Ha) has these chopped-up chipmunk vocals in the spirit of Kanye West. Charli ponders how she can fix what she’s fucked up on the introspective How Can I. You’re the One is a banger. There’s also some hip-hop influenced songs like What I Like and Cloud Aura.
True Romance is a good debut album that shows a lot of potential, though there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
7/10
Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
Daft Punk makes a star-studded disco album.
For their fourth (and now final) album, Daft Punk decided to make a slick, 1970s-influenced disco album, full of incredible guest appearances. Random Access Memories is both their most accessible and most radio-friendly album, but no less exciting than previous works.
The five singles off this album were all massive. The Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers-featuring lead single, Get Lucky, was an inescapable hit; Williams also sings on Lose Yourself to Dance. Instant Crush features Julian Casablancas of the Strokes and Doing It Right has Panda Bear from Animal Collective. There’s Give Life Back to Music, which features the robotic vocoder vocals that are more typical of classic Daft Punk. Giorgio Moroder also makes an appearance via a recorded interview about the origins of the disco beat, on Giorgio By Moroder.
This album has a great mix of radio-friendly hits and old school sounding Daft Punk vocoder songs and instrumentals, so it’s no surprise this album was such a blockbuster smash hit, pleasing old fans and acquiring new ones in the process. Random Access Memories may be the outlier in Daft Punk’s discography, but it’s also their most ambitious album and one of the biggest pop moments of the 2010s.
9/10
Trivia: Random Access Memories won Album of the Year and Best Dance/Electronica Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.
Danny Brown – Old
Danny Brown follows up XXX with a decent, but underwhelming album.
With XXX, Danny Brown’s 2011 mixtape (or album, depending on who you ask), the Detroit rapper had created a modern rap classic where every song was as memorable as the one before it; the rhymes were savage and hilarious and Danny Brown’s persona was dripping with charisma.
I really don’t have much to day about Old, other than it’s a bit on the long side and is serviceable enough. Compared to XXX, it feels much more generic, missing the extremely high highs of that album and its addictive beats. Old is a good album, but somewhat underwhelming next to its predecessor.
7/10
David Bowie – The Next Day
David Bowie comes out of retirement.
By 2013, David Bowie had long since retired to focus on his family and to take care of his declining health. His last album was Reality and though it had a few good tracks and nothing offensive or bad, it was too lightweight of an effort to be a final album for an artist like David Bowie.
And then out of nowhere, nearly a decade later, comes a secretly-recorded album with an image that vandalizes the “Heroes” album cover — I genuinely thought it was a joke, but this is David Bowie we’re talking about: Provocateur, pioneer. Of course he’d do something like defacing the cover to one of his greatest works.
After you get past the odd artwork, you will find Bowie in top form. This is a more mature and comfortable Bowie, but he’s leaning more into his classic artistry, with a sharp focus that had been missing since 1980’s Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).
The title track has Bowie sounding a bit unhinged, like he’s gotten a new lust for life since coming out of retirement and surviving a heart attack. The song can be compared to the styles of his underrated 1979 album, Lodger. There’s Dirty Boys with its baritone sax and sleazy groove. The Stars (Are Out Tonight) has some great bass work and Love Is Lost is has a dark, almost post-punk texture to it. Lead single Where Are We Now? is one of Bowie’s best ballads, like a new age Five Years. Valentines Day mixes upbeat guitars and shalalalas to lyrics about a school shooter, using cupid and his arrows as a metaphor. I’d Rather Be High also sticks out, due to its eastern sound and cheeky chorus. You Feel So Lonely You Can Die ends with the same drum beat from the 1972 track, Five Years.
The Next Day might not quite compare to Bowie’s best albums from 1970-1980, but it comes closest than anything since and is still a remarkable achievement for the aged rockstar.
8.5/10
Death Grips – Government Plates
Death Grips make an experimental record that slightly fails to match the heights of its predecessors, but still provides enough thrills to warrant an interest.
On Death Grips’ fourth album in three years (if you include the mixtape, Exmilitary), they continue to push forward with typically enthralling production, adding in some experimental vocals this time around.
Compared to his role on the previous albums, MC Ride’s vocals are more abstract and unconventional here, often being looped, pitch-shifted and sampled. This results in an album that doesn’t quite feel like an instrumental album, nor a traditional one, but something in between. It does marginally detract from the overall experience, but it’s also what gives the album a unique quality in the band’s discography. If you want Exmilitary or The Money Store, then one can always just re-listen to those.
The best songs here are easily the Bob Dylan-referencing, You Might Think He Loves You for Your Money But I Know What He Really Loves You for It’s Your Brand New Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat and the Robert Pattinson-featuring Birds (yes, that Robert Pattinson). Elsewhere, the production never lets up and will still provides that electrifying Death Grips experience.
8/10
The Flaming Lips – The Terror
The Flaming Lips release their bleakest, most nihilistic work.
Following in the footsteps of the band’s 2009 album Embryonic, The Terror sees The Flaming Lips continuing down a path of musical and lyrical darkness, while also indulging in the experimental electronics of the previous year’s collaboration album, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends.
You won’t find the bright-eyed optimism of anything from The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots or At War With the Mystics on here. Instead, you will feel like you just took too much acid alone in an unfamiliar place, and are being confronted by the horrors of your own isolation. But, there is beauty in the fear that Wayne Coyne and the band are sonically projecting onto you.
Where Embryonic was laced with guitars, The Terror is more electronically-driven, allowing the band to drone with hypnotic synths, most evident on the 13 minute-long You Lust. While nothing here resembles anything commercial like, The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song or She Don’t Use Jelly, there are still plenty of memorable moments and interesting motifs throughout.
Look… The Sun Is Rising is what it must feel like to be trapped inside a psychedelic factory, where every mechanical noise is a different musical note. Try to Explain is like the sunlight shining through the slits of the curtains, barely reaching your eyes, but providing just enough light to keep you hanging on for just a little bit longer. Always There… In Our Hearts ends the album with a schism of corrosive music and hopeful lyrics.
A very stoned and trippy album that will transport you into a distant world and depress you for an hour.
8/10
Iggy & The Stooges – Ready to Die
Iggy & The Stooges return for one last ride.
Compared to 2007’s The Weirdness, which featured the original Stooges lineup (minus bassist Dave Alexander, who died in 1975), Ready to Die sees the return of guitarist James Williamson (who replaces the late Ron Asheton this time). Williamson had previously played lead guitar on 1973’s Raw Power and because of this, this album has more in common with Raw Power, whereas The Weirdness shared more DNA with The Stooges and Funhouse. Drummer Scott Asheton and saxophonist Steve Mackay also return, though Steve Albini has been swapped out as producer for Williamson himself.
James Williamson is a stronger guitarist than Ron Asheton ever was (though I still liked Asheton’s simple punk style), so Ready to Die does sound slightly better than The Weirdness, at least musically-speaking. Burn is a solid opener and does a better job as such than Trollin’ did on The Weirdness. The sax-accentuated Sex & Money is another highlight, as is the title track. DD’s shows that the immaturity of The Weirdness hasn’t fully-dissipated. Unfriendly World is very uncharacteristic of The Stooges, having lap steel guitar. The Departed ends the album with a repeated motif from the band’s earlier hit, I Wanna Be Your Dog, acting like a bookend to the band’s legacy.
Ready to Die might be a more accomplished album than The Weirdness was, but half the album just didn’t feel like the Stooges and felt more like a solo Iggy Pop album and it just wasn’t as much fun as that album was, despite being better in certain ways. Still, this album does work better as a final album than their 2007 reunion album did.
6/10
Kanye West – Yeezus
Kanye West makes a lean, mean, industrial rap album that redefines his style.
Kanye had given hours of Yeezus recordings to Rick Rubin, who then stripped the production down to make it more minimalist and cut off all and any fat, resulting in 40 minutes of sheer, sonic perfection. Like many fans, I’m curious about what got left behind, but this strict editing led to Kanye’s tightest, most concise record yet, after consistently releasing 50-75 minute albums in the past.
Taking a possible influence from recent acclaimed experimental rap albums, like Exmilitary and The Money Store by Death Grips, Yeezus sounds like an evolution of rap into the unknown, where nothing is off limits and convention is left at the door. West had already transformed hip-hop twice already: once with the chipmunk soul that was popularized on JAY-Z’s The Blueprint and on his own debut, The College Dropout, and a second time with the emo rap of 2008’s 808s & Heartbreaks, so another reinvention was not surprising.
Daft Punk were producers on four out of the ten tracks on Yeezus, including the buzz saw opener On Sight, which introduces the world to a new Kanye that knows no bounds; one who doesn’t want to be constrained by any commercial pressures and will go into as strange of territory as he desires to as an artist. He’s now too big to fail and its liberated his madness and vision. Black Skinhead is an absolute powerhouse of a song, with what sounds like tribal chanting. I Am a God sees Kanye take his ego to the next level and features a returning performance from Justin Vernon of Bon Iver (who previously appeared on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). Hold My Liquor also has Vernon and a guitar solo from frequent collaborator/producer, Mike Dean.
New Slaves has what are perhaps Kanye’s best bars yet, full of aggression and anger towards the perceived racist clothing industry, supplemented by one of the best beat-changes of all time towards the end, going from a metallic industrial banger into a beautiful, soulful, Frank Ocean-sung outro. I’m in It is probably Kanye at his all time horniest/perviest (look no further than the sweet and sour sauce line), but is still just pure over-stimulating ear candy. Kid Cudi appears on the futuristic soul ballad, Guilt Trip. Blood on the Leaves sees a controversial use of Nina Simone’s rendition of Strange Fruit and is one of the most definitive Ye songs yet. Send It Up is a siren-heavy Chicago drill song. Bound 2 is drumless and is all about its sample, but for being such a simple song, it’s still one of his best and most endearing songs in his œuvre.
It’s hard to say whether Death Grips directly influenced Kanye or not, but I can definitely hear it in its sonic element, such as screeching, abrasion, yelling, screaming and the general sense of aggression, but none of it actually feels like imitation. Yeezus feels like Kanye is exposing his id to the public and is no longer attempting to be on his best behaviour (not that he ever really was). I can see how this album would turn off fans of his first five albums, but it’s paving the way for the future of Kanye West and for the endless possibilities he can explore in his music. A flawless album with absolutely no flaws.
10/10
Trivia: Yeezus was one of the last albums that Lou Reed (the Velvet Underground) wrote about before his death later in 2013, where he praised it and said that nobody else is even close to doing what Kanye is doing.
The Killers – Direct Hits
The Killers release a greatest hits compilation.
After releasing four albums (two of which are great, two of which aren’t) and finding themselves in a bit of a creative lull, The Killers felt compelled to release a greatest hits collection, along with a couple of new tracks.
Most of the essentials are here, although, Jenny Was a Friend of Mine would have been a nice addition. The album really takes a dive in quality after leaving Sam’s Town for Day & Age; songs like Human and Spaceman resonated with some listeners, but I found them to be a step down from generational classics like, Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me and When You Were Young. Things get even worse when you get to the songs from Battle Born, and while none of these songs are outright bad, they are just outright boring.
The album is sequenced chronologically, so it’s tempting to turn it off at the halfway mark, but at least the first half is excellent.
7.5/10
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Eyes Like the Sky
Album #2: Spaghetti Western / Audiobook
On King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s second studio album, the Australian septet are already changing genres, switching from garage/surf punk to a spoken-word western album, inspired by spaghetti westerns and the 2010 Rockstar video game, Red Dead Redemption.
Like the 12 Bar Bruise track Sam Cherry’s Last Stand, Eyes Like the Sky is also narrated by Ambrose Kenny-Smith’s father, Broderick Smith, whose spoken word delivery makes for the only vocals on the album. Here, Broderick Smith tells a story that takes place on the American Frontier, with tales of cowboys, Indians, horses and gunfights.
The music on Eyes Like the Sky is quite good, displaying the versatility and musical-flexibility of KGATLW, with the band fully immersing themselves in the western theme, though the lack of any vocal hooks or traditional vocals keeps it from having much replay value. As an experiment though, Eyes Like the Sky mostly succeeds.
6/10
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Float Along – Fill Your Lungs
Album #3: Acid Rock / Psychedelic Pop
On their third album and second of 2013, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard change up their sound yet again, this time going in a more psychedelic direction that feels very much like you’ve travelled back in time to the Summer of Love.
Opening track Head On/Pill is a 16 minute trip of a song, accompanied by sitars, increasing tempos and an overall sense of feeling like you’ve just taken too many psychedelics — it’s easily the band’s best composition and most engaging composition yet. A song like I’m Not a Man Unless I Have a Woman sounds like some lost 1960s pop singles that you’d stumble upon on an album like Nuggets. The title track has droning sitars and an overall sense of euphoria and carefree bliss. All of the songs are written by Stu Mackenzie, except for the solo Cook Craig composition, Pop in My Step, and the Ambrose Kenny-Smith co-write Let Me Mend the Past.
Like fellow Australian rock band Tame Impala, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s retro sound doesn’t feel like some cheap cosplay, the way it did for previous bands like Jet, Wolfmother and Airbourne (all coincidentally Australian too), bands that just imitated something that came before, without doing anything fresh — instead, it feels genuine, organic and exploratory. Float Along – Fill Your Lungs is a huge upgrade in quality from the band’s first two albums and the band’s first great album.
8/10
MGMT – MGMT
MGMT gets really weird with it on their eponymous third album.
After becoming overnight indie stars in the late 2000’s with Oracular Spectacular, MGMT’s sophomore album, Congratulations, confounded many listeners, who were expecting and wanting more radio-friendly ear-worms, like Kids, Electric Feel and Time to Pretend. It featured some of the band’s best songs yet, like the 12 minute-long Siberian Breaks and the acoustic title track, but it was a controversial follow-up nonetheless.
Instead of course-correcting and giving the fans what they thought they wanted, MGMT treats the listener to a batch of even more experimental songs than what was on its predecessor. Producer extraordinaire Dave Fridmann also returns, after having been absent on Congratulations.
Where Congratulations still had pop appeal blended-in with the experimentation of its songs, MGMT sounds very anti-commercial for most of its runtime. The songs generally lack any semblance of a hook and have so much going on, with clashing rhythms and overlapping sound effects, that it initially overwhelms the senses, but that aural chaos is part of what makes this album so special — it’s a total mind-fuck. If you can sit through the noise, you will unearth some truly rewarding sounds.
Opener Alien Days might initially give the impression that the album won’t be too weird, but it only gets more bizarre from there — it’s like being abducted by aliens and all the craziness that ensues. The aptly named Cool Song No. 2 feels like something is about to go very wrong, but never quite does, with it’s dark and looming vibe. Introspection is a cover of an obscure song from 1968, but had you not known that, you’d have probably guessed that it was just an MGMT song. Your Life Is A Lie might be lacking in subtlety and seem a bit like the band is jumping the shark, but knowing about the sense of humour that the duo possesses, it would lead the listener to believe the song is ironic and supposed to be campy and once you see it that way, it becomes more enjoyable. The second half of the album might feel like it falls off after the somewhat more conventional side 1, but that’s where you have to just let yourself go and be absorbed by the textures and atmosphere.
MGMT is as important as any other album in the band’s canon, even if it’s the least accessible.
8/10
my bloody valentine – m b v
my bloody valentine release their long-awaited third LP.
22 long years after loveless, my bloody valentine finally gave fans some new music with m b v, an album every bit as flawless and obsessed-over as its predecessor.
The ethereal opener, she found out, makes it sound like no time has passed at all since 1991, but like the songs on that album, is still hard to pinpoint exactly when the song is from — it can be from the past or from the future, and that’s part of the brilliance of my bloody valentine’s music. only tomorrow and who sees you carry a similar musical shade as the first track, with a balancing of both beauty and pain, a combination that few bands have mastered. is this and yes is a mostly instrumental song, with spacey organs and starry chimes. new you is probably the closest thing to a single here, with it’s optimistic guitar phrasing and typically pretty, calming vocals of Bilinda Butcher. nothing is has almost no variation in its three-and-a-half minute runtime, but the slowly-building tension is what makes it so fascinating. wonder 2 sounds as if the guitars are processed through the turbines of a commercial airplane and gives soon a run for its money for the band’s best closing track.
A serene dream of an album from start to finish. Go put on some nice headphones, crank up the volume and let yourself be carried away on the wings of sonic ecstasy for 46 minutes. It may have taken two decades, but it’s here now to enjoy infinitely.
10/10
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds begins to experiment with ambience.
After the more conventionally rock n roll, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, and the two Grinderman albums, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds were looking to shake things up, and instead began to pull back on the rock elements and start focusing more on texture and nuance.
We No Who U R, Wide Lovely Eyes and Water’s Edge are all songs with subtle instrumentation before leading into Jubilee Street, a guitar-based song which crescendos into a finale that is only topped by witnessing it live. The album returns to the more downbeat, textural style in Mermaids and We Real Cool, before returning to a familiar place on Finishing Jubilee Street. Higgs Boson Blues is familiar to Jubilee Street, with it’s focus on guitar blues and then the album caps off with the ghostly title track.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have been tweaking and altering their style for decades at this point, going from gothic post-punk to piano ballads to gospel rock, and Push the Sky Away finds them at another brilliant reinvention. It’s amazing that thirty years on, these Australian art rockers are still able to push themselves into the year end’s best of lists.
9/10
Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks
Nine Inch Nails returns after a 5 year hiatus.
Following half a decade’s absence and then releasing a plethora of music between 2005 and 2008 (three studio albums and a double instrumental album), Nine Inch Nails had disappeared for another half-decade. In this time, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross started branching-out into film scores, creating the soundtracks for David Fincher’s The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; this wasn’t so surprising, considering NIN had already contributed songs for film soundtracks in the 90s, like Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers and David Lynch’s Lost Highway.
Hesitation Marks finds the band revisiting the sound of their synthpop debut, Pretty Hate Machine, along with the hindsight influence of the industrial sound that they had pioneered on Broken and The Downward Spiral; even the cover art is reminiscent of the latter. However, this time Trent Reznor is able to revisit the past with stability, having slain his demons of addiction and depression at the turn of the millennium.
This sound is evident on Copy of a, which is one of the band’s most fun singles since their early days and one of their best tracks yet. Came Back Haunted is another top-tier NIN single, with a slightly more aggressive sound and a hypnotic dance groove — both of these songs are destined to become concert staples.
Like Pretty Hate Machine, this album may not be as heavy and nihilistic as most of the band’s works, but it is far from selling out into pop. There’s still plenty of industrial heaviness popping up throughout the album and it never drops below the musical threshold that the band’s debut had set. Hesitation Marks is like revisiting the past with the wisdom and knowledge of your present self.
7.5/10
Paramore – Paramore
Paramore reintroduces themselves as a trio and releases their most ambitious work yet.
Following the departure of both guitarist Josh Farro and his brother, drummer Zac Farro, Paramore was left as a trio with Hayley Williams, Taylor York and Jeremy Davis as the remaining members. Compared to the pop punk and emo of their first three albums, Paramore is a reinvention, one that boldly experiments and only teases at what the band sounded like in the late 2000s.
Fast in My Car is an opener that sees this new iteration of Paramore confident as ever. Now, Ain’t It Fun and Still Into You are are stunning singles that were all over the airwaves. Part II sounds like a mix of Paramore with the new wave sound of early U2 or The Cure. Future closes the album with a contemplative build-up, before giving way to the heaviest that Paramore has ever sounded. There are also three brief ukulele interludes that give the album somewhat of a conceptual feel.
Paramore features a lot of diverse mixes of sounds and a delicate balance of pop and experimentation. It’s the most colourful album the band has made yet and a wonderful start to this new era of the band.
8/10
Paul McCartney – New
Paul McCartney updates his sound for a new decade.
As Paul McCartney’s first album of original material since 2007’s Memory Almost Full, New finds Paul McCartney in a new decade, with an updated sound, with help from producers like Mark Ronson, as well as Giles Martin (the son of The Beatles producer, George Martin).
Save Us is an electrified rocker with Mark Ronson production — an excellent song that shows us that McCartney’s still got it, even in his 70s. Alligator is another highlight, with a memorable synth riff. On My Way to Work sounds more distinct of Paul’s silly/granny music side, and somewhat derails the momentum and modernity of the previous two tracks. Queenie Eye has a nice bridge section that sounds as if the listener is underwater. Early Days is an acoustic song that has Paul looking back on his time with The Beatles — speaking of which, the title track sounds like a modern-day Beatles song (reminiscent of the 1966 Beatles tune, Got to Get You Into My Life), with its signature Macca bounce. Appreciate is somewhat out of place and sounds more like something early 90s U2 might make, but it’s thrilling all the same to see McCartney still experimenting at his age.
New is a successful modernizing of Paul McCartney’s sound, but without sacrificing what makes him who he is — these songs are still distinctly McCartney, but feel updated and fresh. One of his best albums in years, along with 2005’s Chaos & Creation in the Backyard.
7/10
Pearl Jam – Lightning Bolt
Pearl Jam releases their first album since their twentieth anniversary.
Released four years after their last album (Backspacer) and two years after the PJ20 tour and documentary, Lightning Bolt finds the Seattle legends making more of the music that they love to make.
Getaway is no Once or Go, but it’s still a decent opener for an album 20+ years into the band’s career. Lead single, Mind Your Manners is a punk-tinged song, similar to their 1994, grammy-winning song, Spin the Black Circle. The second single, Sirens, is a ballad with pianos, an instrument not often associated with PJ.
This is your typical post 1990s Pearl Jam album, with plenty of bloat, but nothing below average. The band still knows how to rock, but they could have cut out a third of the album and honed in on the remaining songs.
6/10
Pusha T – My Name Is My Name
Pusha T releases his first solo album.
Since the dissolution of Clipse (the duo Pusha T formed with his brother, Malice), Pusha T has subsisted as one of Kanye West’s greatest collaborators, being featured on several songs on his magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, as well as on the GOOD Music project, Cruel Summer. Despite how prolific he was, hip-hop fans were eagerly awaiting a Pusha T solo project and My Name Is My Name does not disappoint. It’s no classic, but it offers enough hip-hop thrills and shows that Pusha T can sell records on his own.
Kanye West produces seven out of twelve songs, including the chipmunk soul opener King Push, the hardcore Numbers on the Boards, the Rick Ross-featuring Hold On, the ballad Sweet Serenade and the coke jam, Nosetalgia, which has an appearance from Kendrick Lamar. Pharrell Williams (who produced Clipse as the duo The Neptunes) produces Suicide and S.N.I.T.C.H. The weakest songs here are ones that aren’t produced by either West or Williams, but even those are far from bad.
A strong debut for one of hip-hop’s greatest rappers.
7.5/10
Queens of the Stone Age – …Like Clockwork
Josh Homme returns from the dead and makes one of his best albums yet.
After having briefly died during a surgery, resulting in having to be resuscitated and brought back to life, Josh Homme must have been having some insane feelings about life, death and artistry. The intense experience he had survived led to one of the band’s greatest projects yet, the curiously-titled, …Like Clockwork.
The heavy riffing My God Is the Sun was the lead single, and was the band’s first new song since 2007. The six year long wait was finally over and Josh and the boys were back in top form. …Like Clockwork also features the biggest guest list of any QOTSA album yet, with returning musicians like Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), Nick Oliveri (Kyuss, QOTSA), Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, QOTSA), and Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), as well as appearances from newer collaborators, such as Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys, The Last Shadow Puppets), Elton John, Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters) and drummer Jon Theodore (The Mars Volta).
I remember buying this on CD the day it came out. I inserted the CD inside my car and heard Keep Your Eyes Peeled, a song that starts by feeling like you had just come back from the dead, just as Josh had. My attention was undivided for the next 46 minutes. I Sat By the Ocean was the second single and has some excellent guitar work. If I Had a Tail features Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys on backing vocals, a favour that would be returned by having Josh Homme make an appearance on their upcoming album, AM, released a few months after …Like Clockwork. The Vampyre of Time and Memory, I Appear Missing and the title track are Josh had his most meditative and emotional. Kalopsia is one of the band’s dreamiest compositions. Fairweather Friends has Elton John on backing vocals and piano. Smooth Sailing is one of the sexiest songs in the band’s canon alongside Make It Wit Chu.
A masterful comeback from the dead for Josh Homme and the most complete, focused and concise QOTSA album in years.
10/10
Run the Jewels – Run the Jewels
An unlikely duo is born.
Atlanta rapper Killer Mike (who’s early success included being featured on OutKast’s Stankonia) and cult NY producer and rapper, El-P, teamed-up and formed a duo that few could have predicted would become as successful as it became.
The title track introduces the duo to the world of RTJ with sheer and utter confidence. Banana Clipper sees a returning favour from OutKast’s Big Boi. A Christmas Fucking Miracle might just be the hardest Christmas song of all time.
What could have been a one-off project has become one of the most fruitful and interesting collaborations in rap music.
Jack White returns with another serving of no frills blues rock.
Following Jack White’s triumphant 2024 surprise album No Name, which saw a return to the raw garage/blues rock of The White Stripes, Frozen Charlotte gives fans another batch of hard-rocking blues, with no ballads or acoustic tracks to slow it down — Frozen Charlotte is probably also Jack White’s bluesiest album since The White Stripe’s 2000 album, De Stijl.
G.O.D. and the Broken Ribs and Derecho Demonico were released as singles and are the first two tracks on the album, informing listeners of exactly what they’re in store for, with plenty of bluesy riffing and guitar acrobatics from one of the century’s greatest guitar heroes — it feels like being transported back to the early 2000s, when garage rock reigned supreme, though nothing here sounds stale or phoned-in. Instead, Jack White has mastered his craft and feels like he’s just letting loose and having fun. There’s Nobody There has a slinky riff that will keep you on your toes, never letting go of your attention. The echoing slide guitars of Raising the Grain are just killer. Songs like You’ll Never Fix Me, All Alone Again and She’s in a Frenzy seem to address Jack White’s recent divorce from fellow musician Olivia Jean (his third divorce yet), taking the pain and frustrations of falling out of love and crafting something great out of it. Dollar Bill indulges in slide guitars and very much feels like it could have come from De Stijl. The frantic I Can’t Believe What I’m Hearing is a whole lotta fun. Thick as Thieves has a kinetic riff. Making Contact seems to criticize the modern music industry and the shameless commodifying of art. The closer, Neighbor Blues, is an explosive finale with some fiery soloing.
The songs on Frozen Charlotte may not be as immediately memorable as the songs on No Name, but they are definitely as enjoyable and maybe even tighter than those songs were — the addition of plenty of hammond organ also gives the songs some extra pizzazz; Jack White is also in peak form here, with some of the best guitar playing of his career. Frozen Charlotte may be cold, but this album is red hot.
8/10
Steven Wilson – The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories)
Steven Wilson makes his tribute to classic prog rock.
Steven Wilson has never been one to shy away from wearing his influences on his sleeve. Early Porcupine albums sounded a lot like the spacier side of Pink Floyd, albeit with some elements of the then zeitgeist, but you could tell they were his guiding light. In contrast, this album truly feels like a long lost great prog album of the 70s, with better production, and avoiding the worst excesses of that period.
This album embraces the best of bands like King Crimson, more than Pink Floyd, right down to its album cover, which could draw parallels to In the Court of the Crimson King, along with its jazz fusion influence. Luminol and The Holy Drinker are two of Wilson’s heaviest and most intense solo songs, with twisting time signatures and various tempo changes. The rest of the songs (Drive Home, The Pin Drop, The Watchmaker and the title track) fall more into ballad territory, but like classic prog ballads, such as King Crimson’s Epitaph, they are sincere and captivating, rather than cheesy and melodramatic.
The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) is the most definitive Steven Wilson solo album yet, and the closest one to rivalling Porcupine Tree’s greatest albums.
8.5/10
The Strokes – Comedown Machine
The Strokes continue with their 1980s phase.
2011’s Angles polarized fans, as it abandoned the band’s gritty NYC post-punk sound in favour of 1980s new wave; it had also been their first album in six long years, so expectations were high. The new direction had polarized many fans, but some of the embraced the new direction.
Only two years later, The Strokes return with Comedown Machine, whose artwork resembles an old RCA demo tape, which may have confirmed the fear that some fans had speculated: that this album was rushed-out to fulfill a contract with RCA, thus the low-effort, cheeky artwork.
Even if that’s so and despite public opinion that this is the worst Strokes album, I still think there’s a lot to enjoy here and find it more interesting than the overlong, dully-produced First Impressions of Earth. Julian Casablancas’ falsetto is also all over this album, but I happen to enjoy when he sings that way.
One Way Trigger sounds reminiscent of 1980s pop, like A-Ha’s Take On Me. Welcome to Japan is a highlight, with it’s exotic guitars and Casablancas begging the question of what kind of asshole drives a Lotus? 80’s Comedown Machine uses a cascade of synthesizers to create a hypnotic synthethic ballad. 50/50 feels like a throwback to the Strokes’ earlier days. The lounge vibes of Call It Fate, Call It Karma make for one of the most unique songs in the band’s back catalogue.
Although it has nothing on an album like Is This It, Comedown Machine is still quite good and deserves more love than its gotten. The 80s sound here has tighter production than Angles, and while not as colourful as that album, it’s a little more refined than it was. This is well worth a retrospective listen if you initially dismissed it.
8/10
Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
Vampire Weekend make their most artistic and sophisticated album yet.
Vampire Weekend’s first two albums are great, but I can see how they could also be a bit grating to some people. I enjoyed those albums, but I understand why someone may not be as enthusiastic about the band’s afrobeat, Paul Simon/Peter Gabriel sound and their preppy college kid image.
That’s where this album differs, as they tone some of their criticisms back on this album, get a bit darker and are also more experimental in the process. As good as the preceding two albums were, Modern Vampires of the City just gets everything right and is easily the band’s greatest work thus far.
An unusual drumbeat furnishes the gentle opener, Obvious Bicycle. Unbelievers shifts gears up with its lively organ. Step has some majestic piano embellished throughout that you can really feel in your bones. Diane Young has a fun time with its voice pitching. Hudson takes the album into a darker place with a militaristic beat that backs a haunting choir and somber bass lines.
Modern Vampires of the City is a gorgeously-produced art pop album and Vampire Weekend’s magnum opus.
10/10
Trivia: Modern Vampires of the City won Best Alternative Music Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.
FIN
Brett Nippard
