Category: Quickspins

The Maine – American Candy (Big Picnic Records; 2015)

Ringo Starr – Postcards from Paradise (Universal Music Enterprises; 2015)

Doldrums – The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (Sub Pop; 2015)

Montrealer Airick Woodhead’s The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, begins with scorcher,“HOTFOOT,” a song that storms in with grainy laser-like synths jutting out in every direction. Woodhead explores the album’s underbelly with the lower bass layers: the percussion ranges from beats pulsing quickly in 16th notes, to sometimes thumping loud and languidly. Synthesizers battle for space throughout, ambivalent in their tone. On “Blow Away,” one light and dainty synth riff dances over a basal synth, which sounds like it’s being manipulated like a malleable metal. The real charm is its production, some sounds hailing from a manufactured electronic background, to others featuring the inimitable sound of real reverb slapping back off of four walls.

Midway through, “Loops” punches in with a pop beat pleading to be danced to, then breaks periodically for Woodhead’s dreamy voice to amble over his emotional past relationship. “My Friend Simjen” flushes out like a pop song boiled in a pot of chemicals and showered in hallucinogens. A dialogue between Woodhead’s boyish voice and Simjen’s guttural snarl plays-out, while synths are stretched to the brink, and sound like liquid fuzz.

Trial track: “Loops”
Rating: 10/10

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (Constellation; 2015)

When it comes to politics, Montreal post-rock outfit Godspeed You! Black Emperor has never been one for subtlety; 2012’s ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! explicitly took on the Maple Spring student protests, going as far as to include direct references to Bill 78 and Plan Nord within its cover art. If Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress’s politics feel undefined, its meandering drones curiously robbed of conceptuality and rendered faceless, Godspeed nonetheless bring forth a more destructive and anarchic sonic dimension to their already packed tonal palette. Strings roar with the nagging ferocity of a buzzsaw on both of the album’s uncommonly violent musical suites, with opening movement “Peasantry Or ‘Light! Inside Of Light!’” radiating with acid western-tinged fervor. While the album’s origins as a mammoth-sized live staple are as clear as day, proving less than conducive in the case of the un-rewardingly drawn-out “Lambs’ Breath,” “Piss Crowns are Trebled” serves up a soaring crescendo of a closer on what would’ve otherwise been better suited as an EP.

Trial Track: “Piss Crowns are Trebled”
Rating: 7/10

The Go! Team – The Scene Between (Memphis Industries; 2015)

The Go! Team’s appeal lies in the group’s kitchen sink approach to pop music, smashing everything from plunderphonics to noise rock together with a sort of manic, jittery vigor akin to a high-concept K-Pop music video. Rather than take another go at replicating Thunder, Lightning, Strike’s blown-out cotton candy-infused cacophony, Go! Team brainchild Ian Parton has wisely reorganized all of the band’s trademark bells and whistles into more concrete, catchy pop songs. The Scene Between, their fourth studio album in 15 years, feels like a refreshingly pared-down, albeit incredibly familiar refinement from a band who’s struggled for memorability time and time again. Whereas the Go! Team’s last few albums often proved exhausting, The Scene Between reveals Parton’s pop sensibilities as a songwriter; refitting the group’s buzzing guitars and lo-fi percussion into more conventionally digestible molds, Parton trims away at the usual bombast and excess while never compromising his band’s signature identity. Sunny, sweet and just busy enough, The Scene Between isn’t so much an evolution as it is a very welcome sidestep.

Trial Track: “Waking the Jetstream”
Rating: 7/10

Death Cab for Cutie – Kintsugi (Atlantic; 2015)

It’s been four years since Codes and Keys was released, an album that strayed too far from the formula for many fans, and nearly a decade since Death Cab for Cutie released an album worth listening to. Kintsugi is named after a Japanese philosophy that encourages embracing flaws and imperfections. Rather than an inspiring metaphor for life, however, the name seems to be trying to garner sympathy for a flawed and imperfect album. Sure, some of the imagery invoked is interesting, but as a whole, the album is as bland as its cover. The lyrics are the album’s strongest asset, but many rely on clichés. It’s disappointing to hear a band that came up with dark and beautiful lines in the past now spit out upbeat meaningless verses. As a whole, Kintsugi tries to connect with the vibe of older Death Cab albums, making it slightly better than Codes and Keys, but the group has a long way to go if it ever hopes to recapture the talent displayed in Transatlanticism.

Trial Track: “Little Wanderer”
Rating: 6/10

Follakzoid – III (Sacred Bones Records; 2015)

The elusive Chilean space-rockers hit it off again with their EP-sized tracklist of an album that exceeds the 50 minute mark in thumping soundscapes, fit for trippers and study sessions alike. Follakzoid’s appropriately named third album, III, showcases their electro-psych prowess in creating trance-inducing rhythms that never fall under nine minutes in length. While its intensity is indisputable, its overwhelming repetitiveness might not be ideal for those not prepared to sit through a (mostly) lyric-less mind melt that is Follakzoid. While you can skip to any point of a chosen song and it sounds more or less exactly the same as the opening, it’s more about the foreplay than the orgasm. That being said, it is best listened to at high volume levels on a pair of decent headphones, lest the magnetic charisma they exude be lost.

Trial Track: “Piurre”
Rating: 7/10

Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty; 2015)

“The only thing that keeps me from driving this car/Half-light, jack knife into the canyon at night” whispers a 39-year-old Sufjan Stevens, voice quivering, breathy and faint. Carrie & Lowell is by no means an easy album, both for the singer-songwriter and his audience, but it feels necessary. An incredibly effective and intimate portrait of a bruised talent, the album finds Sufjan purging his dizzying thoughts in an effort to cope with loss. Unconventionally sparse and naked, Stevens seeks solace through an open, frank and often uncompromisingly direct dialogue, omitting his now signature knack for ambition in favour of simplicity and a raw efficacy; even 2004’s Seven Swans, the album’s closest structural counterpart, feels emotionally distant in comparison. While themes of abandonment and death linger throughout Carrie & Lowell, Stevens’ approach feels therapeutic in nature, granting the entirety brief glimmers of hope and striking a heart-rending chord few albums come near. Freed of clutter, Sufjan Stevens has accomplished his most affecting work.

Trial Track: “The Only Thing”
9/10

Death Grips – Jenny Death: The Powers That B Disc 2 (Third Worlds, Harvest; 2015)

Blown-out and inexorably bleak, Jenny Death represents a culmination of virtually every sound Death Grips has previously dabbled in, now dished in 11 brain-melting doses and powered by sharp, searing live guitars; the addition of the latter is simply transformative, enabling the band with a powerful new tool. MC Ride’s typically manic vocal delivery is also back in spades, serving as a welcome release from The Powers That B’s A-side, Niggas on the Moon, and its comparatively laid back brand of glitch hop. Where some songs, namely the furious opener “I Break Mirrors with my Face in the United States,” find Death Grips channelling the shrill digital hardcore of Atari Teenage Riot to thunderous effect, Jenny Death’s biggest surprises lie in its most accessible tracks; “On GP,” the album’s penultimate build-up, is a noisy, psychedelic wave of gloom and unnatural beauty, with Ride delivering some of his bluest words to date. While we haven’t heard the last of the frustratingly enigmatic trio, Jenny Death is a deafening return to form.

Trial Track: “On GP”
8/10

Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom & Pop/ Marathon Artists/ Milk!; 2015)

Following up two acclaimed EPs, Courtney Barnett has released her first full-length album. On the record, the Melbourne-based songstress and guitarist is able to vividly capture common struggles faced by the average 20-something. Her observational lyrics based on everyday occurrences like a commute to work or grocery shopping are honest, simple and relatable, but manage to tackle some pretty heavy-duty themes. On “An Illustration Of Loneliness,” the track’s protagonist is dealing with heartbreak and the inevitable nighttime insomnia and longing that comes along with it. On “Depreston,” she’s house-hunting, but can’t shake the eerie thought of the home’s late owner and her life story told through the photos still hanging on the walls. Barnett is able to weave between fast-paced, ‘90s-sounding Seattle grunge, blues-infused guitar solos, and stripped down acoustic playing. Courtney Barnett’s anthology of daily life over 11 tracks reminds us to take the time to relish the little things, no matter how ordinary they may seem.

Rating: 8.5/10
Trial Track: “Depreston”

Modest Mouse – Strangers To Ourselves (Epic; 2015)

A lot’s changed in the eight years since Modest Mouse released their last album: the first generation iPhone was unleashed, Paris Hilton was still on The Simple Life, and Spider-Man 3 had everyone confused over casting choices. (Why would they pick Topher Grace to play opposite Tobey Maguire? They look exactly alike and it’s confusing.) “Lampshades On Fire” is a perfect fit for the first single, with its carnivalesque ‘bop bop bop’s’ sporadically interspersed between Brock’s sharp and jutting lyrics. The album manages to balance emotionally gut wrenching tracks like “Ansel,” dedicated to the frontman’s late brother, with witty folk-inspired ones like “God Is an Indian And You’re An Asshole,” all the while maintaining their signature percussive, guitar-laden, danceable sound. Despite its title, Modest Mouse’s latest album is no Stranger to us: Isaac Brock’s unmistakable layered vocals are at the forefront of every song, nudging us gently back into an early 2000s alt-rock nostalgia.

Rating: 7.5/10
Trial Track: “Lampshades On Fire” or “The Ground Walks, With Time In A Box”