NOTABLE COVERS: Rural Alberta Advantage - Eye of the Tiger

I can't quite tell the degree of sincerity with this one, but the track holds up to seemingly earnest acoustification better than you'd first imagine. Now try an alternative version with some "Don't Haunt This Place Drums," RAA!

Eye of the Tiger - The Rural A...

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM

Band: Charlotte Gainsbourg
Album: IRM
Sounds Like: PJ Harvey, Rilo Kiley, St. Vincent lite, Air
Sub Sub-genre: Eclectic French Indie Adult Contemporary
Essential Tracks: Trick Pony, In the End, IRM, Heaven Can Wait

DJ Sub Par Says:
Charlotte Gainsbourg almost died. The effect can be felt in many ways. The sounds of a MRI invade the song IRM, the french abbreviation for the same machine. In the duet with beck Heaven Can Wait she sings, "Heaven can Wait, hell is to far to go. Somewhere between what you need and what you know." Even in the cover art we can imagine her staring death in the face. Beck produces the album, composed the songs and wrote most of the lyrics. Yet, this isn't just beck arranging songs for a pop princess. This  collaboration is two artists using each other. Beck brings his junk yard bag of tricks, but Charlotte gives these songs a warmth. Two artists huddled against the void.

DJ Responsible Says:
I have to admit that this album's unquestionable relevance took me as a bit of a surprise early this year. I must have missed 5:55 a few years back, I know little of her fairly consistent acting career, and I really only know her father Serge from his duet with this female orgasm, which I first caught wind of after reading a dirty anthem breakdown from The Onion A.V. Club. Have I merely been Gainsbourg ignorant over the years?

That said, the surprise was also decidedly pleasant. Charlotte's got the experimental tendencies of a PJ Harvey or a St. Vincent, but with slightly softened edges (with the exception of the aggressive "Greenwich Mean Time"). She knows when to let loose, from the soft-spoken ass kick of "Trick Pony" to the Beck-featured "Heaven Can Wait" to the blues-y "Dandelion," but she'll also reign the mood back in for a gorgeous and vulnerable ballad like "In the End" ("Treading so long I can't see where we've been/Tracks on the trail and nails digging in"). The album might've used a little more edge, given the thematic overtones, but IRM is definitely not a lifeless ride.


And because this video is surrealisticaly beautiful:

Charlotte Gainsbourg "Heaven Can Wait" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

QUICK RIFFS: Why - Eskimo Snow

 

The hype in the wake of 2008's wondrous Alopecia appears to have been short-lived, likely cut short by Why?'s decision to soften his edges instead of building upon his cherished eccentric approach. Eskimo Snow contains the same trademarked apathetic drawl (think The National's Matt Berninger in a quasi-hip hop context), but strewn over lulling piano-string compositions. It's perhaps not surprising that Why?'s half-hearted delivery is especially sensitive to lazy production.

"January Twenty Something" is an engaging and surreal journey, if merely an homage to the much superior "A Sky for Showing Horses Under." But "Berkeley by Hearseback" is the album's most successful effort, a dark-light, saddened-joyous counterpiece that Why? normally makes commonplace.

QUICK RIFFS: Discovery - LP

Here's the test. Take a listen to Discovery's rendition of MJ's "I Want You Back."

I Want You Back - Discovery

How are you feeling? Annoyed? Curious? Infatuated? Angry? Such is the nature of this divisive album by Vampire Weekend's keyboardist and Ra Ra Riot's lead singer. If you're not gonna like it, you're not gonna like it.

For whatever you may make of its substance, LP is surprisingly consistent in its tone and approach. That consistency basically means that every song is inconsistent: they get bored with an idea no matter how ridiculous its initial conception may be. There's a radio pop, or at least an indie pop gem, hidden in "Osaka Loop Line," but they make sure to wrestle their way out of it. Ditto the fast-slow-fast-sow lure of "So Insane." "It's Not My Fault" plays the least tricks and holds the strongest footing, resulting in the best expression of this odd collaboration. If you pass the test, be sure to check this song out.

It’s Not My Fault (It’s My Fau...

Osaka Loop Line - Discovery

So Insane - Discovery

MUSIC IN THE MOVIES: Anvil! The Story of Anvil

Although their music is pretty much an antiquated rehash of what was cool twenty five years ago, it's hard not to root for at least middling success for the wash-out protagonists of Anvil! The Story of Anvil. 

These also-rans shared a brief moment of stardom alongside Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and the like, before somewhat inexplicably being left by the wayside during the late 80's metal pinnacle.

The lead singer-guitarist and drummer's relationship is amazingly complex, like that of the duo from American Movie but one degree more self-aware and one degree less drug-addled. Together, throughout a semi-debacle European tour and the recording of a new album, they share their thoughts on fame, failure, the methodical passage of time, death, love, friendship, money, and, of course, music.

Good luck, gentlemen. Good luck.

THE BREAKDOWN: Four Tet - There Is Love In You

Four Tet have always been on the adventurous side of my listening tastes. A song like "Hands" from 2003's Rounds builds patiently into a hypnotic-yet-unstable rhythm before falling back into pieces, like a talented band trying to play in outer space. And that's on the commercial end of Four Tet's output. Often, it's simply a lulling and futuristic sort of insanity.

There Is Love In You arguably tapers off the eccentricity of previous efforts, but in another way his limit-pushing sensibilities are merely built into the dynamic more subtly. Trust me, there's a heap of madness imbued across the entire album, it's just more melodic and contagious than usual.

As I previously wrote about, "She Just Likes to Fight" is the early frontrunner for instrumental track of the year. "Sing" is the kind of danceable electronica that makes me wish I thought raves were cool, and "Angel Echoes" feels closest to the classic Four Tet sound, something like Burial-goes-pop.

At eight full length tracks, there's no filler on There Is Love. The most succinct might therefore just be the best Four Tet release to date.

There Is Love In You - Four Te...

QUICK RIFFS: Mountain Goats - The Life of the World to Come

 

The religious angle doesn't really do much for The Life of the World to Come, except to make the song titles bafflingly interchangeable. And paying extra close to the lyrics doesn't get you any closer to unraveling the biblical parallels, unless perhaps you're a well-versed thumper or willing to do more research than I. 

As for the music itself, the question becomes how well the more expansive production complements the traditional Mountain Goats sound. "Genesis 3:23" is harmless, although potentially a dangerous sign of things to come, while "Psalms 40:2" benefits from a hint of aggression ("Checked into a Red Roof Inn, stayed up for several hours/And then slept like infants in the burning fusillage"). Perhaps predictably, the best numbers are the most lo-key, such as the sparse "Ezekiel 7."

It's worth a listen, if an unmemorable one by Mountain Goats standards.

Psalms 40:2 - The Mountain Goa...

Ezekiel 7 And The Permanent Ef...