Concert Review: David Byrne @ Radio City Music Hall, 2/27/09

At 8:20 pm on Friday night, David Byrne, and seven back-up musicians took the stage at Radio City Music Hall in front of a wildly eager and anticipatory audience. Byrne once again returned to his New York City musical roots, this time to promote the release of his 2008 collaborative album with Brian Eno titled Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. The album marks the first collaboration between the two since 1980 for their wildly ambitious, world-encompassing LP My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Their newest effort is a huge departure from their last, this time taking a much poppier approach that still manages to intrigue and succeed.

Byrne and his back-up band (consisting of two percussionists, bass, keyboard, guitar, and back-up singers) took the stage in completely white uniforms as if they had just arrived from the future where all humans wear the same, regimented clothing. The set kicked off unsurprisingly with the single “Strange Overtones” from the new album, a track that singly embodies the approach that he and Eno have taken this time around. Byrne uses fresh, polyrhythmic beats and a solid groove in many of the new songs as a foundation for his hybrid, Pavaratti-meets-Urkel vocals. While at times sounding like a frail man being buried by the weight of the world, he intermittently soars above the music with commanding, operatic vocals that stunningly sound just as good today as they did 30 years ago.

One can think of Byrne’s new tour appearances as less of a concert than a fully-fledged theatrical performance. Throughout much of the show, I was often reminded of the nutty, yet hypnotizing stage tactics that he exhibited throughout his masterful performance in Jonathan Demme’s 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense. At Radio City, Byrne continued to mix art and rock on stage, most notably through consistently amazing choreographed dance. For each song, we see Byrne’s three back-up dancers leap, roll, slide, and spin around him as he performs. At times, Byrne would even fall into step with the three other dancers, as if naturally succumbing to the beat that surrounded him.

One of the biggest perks of the show was the surprisingly large number of old Talking Heads songs that were included in the setlist. Since the night was dedicated to Byrne’s collaboration with Eno, many albums in the T-Head’s discography were fair game to be pulled from, including 1978’s More Songs About Buildings and Food, 1979’s Fear of Music, and of course 1980’s Remain In Light. Despite the strength of the newer material, the material performed from these albums was where the concert really felt like something special. Several managed to get members of the audience of all shapes, sizes, and ages up and shaking their groove thing, most notably “Crosseyed and Painless”, “Take Me To The River”, and “Burning Down the House” (which concluded the second of three encores with the entire band wearing tutuseventually being inundated by a flurry of 30-40 younger, female ballerinas).

Byrne is certainly one of the most important influences on the history of rock and roll. As one of the key pioneers of the New Wave movement in the late 70s, his innovation within the genre resonates in much of the music being put out by today’s artists. Now, 35 years after the formation of Talking Heads, his career comes full circle in the city where his roots lie. What began as playing small gigs in the filthy, beer-soaked CBGB’s has slowly (and deservedly) evolved into selling out shows at one of the most regal and elegant performance halls in the world. We can only hope that he continues to press on with his legacy, and that his absurdly influential music never stops making sense to his millions of inspired fans.


David Byrne - Houses In Motion

Conert Review: Andrew Bird @ Carnegie Hall, 1/28/09

Going to Carnegie Hall for the first time, I realized how sensually amazing of a performance setting it really is. Visually, its interior is beautiful, with intricately designed walls that escalate up to five levels of velvet seating, eventually reaching an intricately designed ceiling. Aurally the auditorium is equally spectacular. It's evident that the its spacial architecture was meticulously planned to generate clear and permeating acoustics throughout the room, which sound better than any other concert venue I’ve ever attended. Given this high caliber of performance space, it's no surprise that that Andrew Bird was chosen to play here, a performer fully capable of taking advantage of these acoustics with his musical prowess and huge instrumental capabilities.

Andrew Bird is an virtuostic multi-instrumentalist hailing from Chicago, Illinois. He began playing violin at the age of 4 and was classically trained throughout his youth. Part of what makes him so appealing is his wild creativity in finding different ways to play his violin. Whether plucking, strumming, using his bow, or actually whistling into it, his originality with the instrument is unquestioned. But the violin isn't the only instrument he carries confidently. Bird's vocals share much in common with the late, great Jeff Buckley, effectively deviating from powerful to delicate with continued control. He uses his resonant voice to sing intellectual and often cryptic lyrics that seem to be chosen more for their sound than their content. And of course, I can't go without mentioning Bird's insanely good whistling abilities which carry through and often guide many of his more complex songs into more friendly territory.

Fortunately, all of these characterics were present on Wednesday night. Around 9pm, Bird slowly entered the stage with his frail, stick-thin presence. The first thing that he did was take off his shoes on the small oriental rug that he was standing on, a way of becoming more comfortable with the unquestionably intimidating performance venue surrounding him. He opened the show by himself, playing an invigorating instrumental piece on his violin as a way of showcasing his unbelievable musical talent while simultaneously casting aside any remaining skeptics in the crowd.

Unfortunately, about 95% of the material that Bird performed with his back-up band Dosh came from his new, underwhelming 2009 album Noble Beast. While still implementing his great vocals and instrumental mastery, the songs simply don’t compare to his passionate and constantly exciting older material. The biggest and simplest problem with his new material is its absence of hooks. While his older songs would fearlessly jump from one mesmerizing musical feat to the next, his new tunes indecisively hover around ideas and melodies. At one point in the night, Bird even apologized to the crowd for playing so much of his new material.

While some songs that he played from Noble Beast were enjoyable ("Oh No", "Tenousness", "Effigy"), the excitement over these was constantly hazed over by the need in the back of my mind to hear material from the two albums that I so desperately wanted him to play. The three songs that he actually did perform from his past catalogue were mostly satisfying. While "Imitosis" and "Table & Chairs" (two of my favorites) were enjoyable, they felt a bit deflated compared to the versions heard on record with Bird often exchanging towering vocal climaxes with spoken words. It was only the final song “Palindromes” that really blew me away. Coming back for a second encore for the song, there was some serious energy running through the concert hall as Bird unleashed his searing violin slashes that open and carry through the song, bringing everyone to their feet and clapping for the first and only time of the night.

In no way do I want this concert review to sway people away from Andrew Bird. He is probably one of the most gifted musicians around today and has already put out two albums that I consider to be modern classics in the past four years (The Mysterious Production of Egss in 2005 and Armchair Apocrypha in 2007). However, the moral of the story here is that song selection is absolutely key to a concert’s success. Just like the saying goes, you’ve always got to ”keep the customer satisfied". While I left Carnegie Hall that night thoroughly impressed by Bird’s musianship and still a huge fan, his heavily-weighted newer song selection left me feeling a little gypped.

Andrew Bird - Oh No

Album Review: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

The debut album from Seattle’s Fleet Foxes seemingly came out of nowhere to quickly become one of the more critically acclaimed albums of 2008. While many compare the album to The Beach Boys’ classic Pet Sounds (with its earthy feel, rich harmonies, and consistently great songwriting) simply confining their sound to this is both an injustice and simply inaccurate. Fleet Foxes confidently combine indie folk, Baroque pop, and even elements of Medieval music to create a wholly organic sound that will grow and flourish from your speakers. The band is led by Robin Pecknold who resembles Tom Hanks’ character in Castaway in his unkempt appearance, but more significantly by being completely immersed and in touch with the environment around him (which I’ll explain more later on). Although Fleet Foxes is a five-member band, the other members essentially orbit around Pecknold by backing him instrumentally (guitar, bass guitar, piano, drums, and the occasional mandolin) or vocally (with staggering harmonies).

With this self-titled release, Fleet Foxes have created a stunningly fresh sound for modern music. When we think about past artists that are credited for having pioneered a new sound for rock/pop, the majority did so by skillfully implementing new songwriting techniques, mixing up instrumentation roles, or by using the newest technological advances. Whatever path they took, most of them were intending to capture the sound of that particular era. We have seen this over the past 50 years of rock and continue to see it today. Take for example the Arcade Fire, who over their first two albums have written very anthemic, thunderous songs that can be said to embody the general dissatisfaction with the Bush-era United States. Or take LCD Soundsystem, a musical vehicle that implements electronic instruments alongside guitars and drums to mirror the technologically inundated lives we live. What’s most astonishing about Fleet Foxes is that they are pioneering a new sound for rock not by drawing from today’s world, but rather from a past world. As we listen to these solid, reverb-drenched songs, it’s almost as if we’re listening to an echo that was first generated centuries ago rather than the sound of music being created today.

One of the most remarkable aspects of listening to music in general is its ability to act as an escapist medium. Music has the ability to take us out of our hectic daily lives and into a different, more desirable environment whenever we want to go. As we listen to music, we constantly choose different spaces to inhabit. This space can be familiar or unfamiliar, cheerful or mournful, densely layered or incredibly desolate. More than almost any other album in recent years, Fleet Foxes’ self-titled debut makes you feel as if you are being swept away to a new, entirely different environment than the one most of us live in. As we listen to the album, we feel as though we’re following the band through a rural, unpopulated landscape. Throughout the album we find ourselves marveling at a beautiful sunrise (“Sun It Rises”), strolling over a mountain pass (“Tiger Mountain Peasant Song”), and eventually walking by a river valley and rescuing an abandoned baby who floats beside us in a cradle (“Oliver James”).

Moreover, the Fleet Foxes have created a piece of work that invites us in to explore for 40 minutes, in the end leaving us ultimately empowered by its splendor. It’s difficult to predict how successful the Fleet Foxes' next album will be (which is slated for a late 2009 release). However, what is certain is they have already created a career-defining classic, one that will be cherished and revisited by avid music listeners like myself for as long we still want music to help take us away from the mundane and into the marvelous.

Key Tracks:
White Winter Hymnal
Ragged Wood
Oliver James

Final Verdict: 9.6

Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood

Album Review: Destroyer - Trouble In Dreams

Destroyer is a solo project created and embodied by the wildly talented, Vancouver native Dan Bejar. Since 1995, Bejar has used Destroyer as an outlet to carefully craft and refine his mighty and enigmatic songwriting tendencies. Although falling primarily under the genre of independent rock, Destroyer definitely should not be confined to a single sound. His influence stems from an assortment of past, well-grounded musical roots. Listening to Destroyer, one can hear the musical theatricality of Bowie, the cryptic and poignant sonic touches of Pink Floyd, and the stream-of-consciousness lyrical approach of Dylan. While partially borrowing from these musicians, Bejar adds his own signature to the mix. Some may initially be put off by Destroyer’s sound, especially those who find his vocals a bit too whiny or unsettling. However the deft listener will give Bejar time to settle into their bloodstream before casting him aside, and will most likely be rewarded for doing so.

Trouble In Dreams marks the 8th LP release from Destroyer, an album that fans of the band will quickly understand is more of an extension of the form of his last release than a movement towards new territory. In 2006, Bejar moved away from his past psychedelic and wildly over-ambitious sound to create an album that brought him back down to Earth with a more traditional rock band sound. Akin to Dylan’s classic Highway 61 Revisited, Destroyer’s Rubies (my favorite album of 2006) was the sound of a fully-fleshed out band producing rootsy rock that backed the delivery of incredibly literate and thought-provoking lyrics. With Trouble In Dreams, Bejar uses the same formula and often achieves equally successful songs.

This album is essentially a sequel to the aforementioned 2006 release, picking up right where the last left off. Take for example the opening moments of the first track “Blue Flower/Blue Flame”. Bejar begins the album by exhaling the opening line “Okay fine, even the sky looks like wine,” as if he is continuing a thought from earlier on rather than starting a clean slate. Throughout the album, the lyrics continue to puzzle and intrigue us as they always have. In the same vein as some of rock’s past great poets, Bejar has the ability to write incredibly visual and potent lyrics and support them with music that more often than not matches in quality and effectiveness.

One of the biggest draws for me with Destroyer’s sound is the unique role that his guitar serves throughout the tracks. Many of Bejar’s songs use a distorted, super-charged guitar sound that both completes and complements his vocals in a very lyrical fashion. The guitar tears through the mysterious environment that his voice paints and gives us incredible hooks to latch onto, essentially serving as a second voice to steer us through the unfamiliarity of the rest of his sound. Songs like “Dark Leaves Form A Thread” and “My Favourite Year” prove to be good examples of this formula.

While many songs on his newest album could definitely have warranted a spot on his 2006 masterpiece, there is no denying that Trouble in Dreams stumbles in spots. “Shooting Rockets” simply becomes a repetitive bore, while “Plaza Trinidad” is a bit too over the top for its own good. “Libby’s First Sunrise” is a decent but ultimately lackluster closer, ending the album with an ellipses rather than an exclamation point (or even a definitive period). However, more often than not Dan Bejar succeeds in creating a solid follow-up by using the recipe that he concocted with his masterpiece Destroyer’s Rubies. After all, what did we really expect? Sequels are rarely ever as good as their predecessors.

Key Tracks:
Dark Leaves Form A Thread
My Favourite Year
Introducing Angels

Final Verdict: 7.4

Destroyer - Dark Leaves Form A Thread

Sauw's Top 10 Albums of 2008

1.) For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver
Link to my album review

2.) Dear Science, TV on the Radio
Link to my album review
Link to my concert review of TV on the Radio @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple 10/14/08

3.) Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
Link to my album review
Link to my concert review of Fleet Foxes @ The Grand Ballroom 10/4/08

4.) Stay Positive, The Hold Steady
Link to my album review
Link to my concert review of The Hold Steady @ McCarren Park 6/29/08

5.) The Seldom Seen Kid, Elbow
Link to my album review

6.) Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
Link to my album review

7.) Visiter, The Dodos
Link to my album review

8.) Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust, Sigur Rós
Album review coming soon...

9.) Harps and Angels, Randy Newman
Link to my album review

10.) You & Me, The Walkmen
Album review coming soon...


Honorable Mention:

Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket
Link to my album review

Consolers of the Lonely, The Raconteurs
Link to my album review

Only By The Night, Kings of Leon
Album review coming soon...

Sauw's Top 25 Tracks of 2008

2008 was as good a year as any for music's current best acts to deliver a bountiful basket full of great foot-tappin', knee-slappin' music to our doorsteps. Here are the 25 songs that I personally enjoyed the most...maybe you'll enjoy something here as well.

1.) "Skinny Love" - Bon Iver

2.) "Lord, I'm Discouraged" - The Hold Steady

3.) "Golden Age" - TV on the Radio

4.) "Look At You" - My Morning Jacket

5.) "Ragged Wood" - Fleet Foxes

6.) "Time To Pretend" - MGMT

7.) "Walking" - The Dodos

8.) "A-Punk" - Vampire Weekend

9.) "The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver" - Elbow

10.) "Vid Spilum Endalaust" - Sigur Ros

11.) "So Everyone" - Bonnie "Prince" Billy

12.) "Souled Out!!!" - Conor Oberst

13.) "Carolina Drama" - The Raconteurs

14.) "My Favourite Year" - Destroyer

15.) "Manhattan" - Kings of Leon

16.) "For Emma" - Bon Iver
17.) "Violet Hill" - Coldplay
18.) "Same Old Thing" - The Black Keys
19.) "Pity and Fear" - Death Cab for Cutie
20.) "On The Water" - The Walkmen
21.) "The Time Has Come Again" - The Last Shadow Puppets
22.) "On The Edge Of A Cliff" - The Streets
23.) "Leviathan Bound" - Shearwater
24.) "Laugh and Be Happy" - Randy Newman
25.) "Profanity Prayers" - Beck

Album Review: The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

The Hold Steady are one of those bands that it seems absurd that more people don’t appreciate now, yet if you know their music you’ll know that 20 years from now twice as many people will be listening to them. The Hold Steady is the creation of singer/songwriter Craig Finn, who at first glance you might expect to see in the cubicle next to you rather than leading one of the most inspired and cathartic bands in existence. While the band owes a lot to past rock powerhouses (in this album explicitly paying tribute to The Clash’s Joe Strummer and Led Zeppelin), the band only uses the teachings of these past greats as a launch pad to take off from. In doing so, they have began an entirely unique juggernaut force of a band, not once stumbling in any of the four albums they’ve released over the last five years.

Their newest album is certainly their most ambitious, and debatably their most successful. Months before the album was released, Finn was reportedly taking voice lessons to help tidy up his often sloppy and slurred vocal approach, a first sign that Finn and Co. were shooting a bit higher this time around. There’s also a noticeable inclusion of new instrumentation in a few of Stay Positive’s songs, including harpsichord on “One For The Cutters”, moog on “Navy Sheets”, and even some Frampton-esque talk box guitar on “Joke About Jamaica”. While furthering their sonic reach, the band is still most effective when sticking to their classic rock band sound, featuring electric guitar, bass, keyboard, percussion, and occasional horns, and capturing the spirit of bands as like The Rolling Stones or The E Street Band.

One thing that all Hold Steady fans know is that Craig Finn is a storyteller through and through. He has used his songs over the last three albums to essentially create a universe of youthful characters (better known as Charlemagne, Hallelujah, and Gideon) that interact with each other and all live for one single thing, rock and roll. Of course, there’s plenty of baggage that comes with being a die hard rock fan, ranging from sex, drugs, and alcohol, to love, lust, and often enlightenment. Stay Positive adheres to this lyrical subject material, yet throws a fascinating curve ball into the mix. Throughout the 11 tracks, there is a recurring narrative motif that alludes to the ambiguous murder of two teenage boys which binds the songs together and grounds the euphoria that these characters live for by the weight of life, death, and reality. While more and more details are revealed of the murders through the songs, we are never truly sure as to what has exactly occurred.

And so, while the stories Finn tells of these rock-propelled individuals are often ambiguous, the band reinforces clarity with incredibly powerful and inherently inspiring music. Stay Positive easily has some of the most melodic songs Finn has ever composed. While “Sequestered In Memphis” dictates the hazy details coming from someone in an interrogation regarding the murders, the song's hookiness overpowers the uncertainty with an empowering chorus that's nearly impossible not to embrace and sing along to. “Lord, I’m Discouraged” is the most effective track, standing as the true centerpiece of the album and one of the crowning achievements of the band’s career. The song is told from the point of view of a man torn apart by the disheveled state that he now finds the girl he loves in. As he looks to religion for some sort of guidance, he explains how after spending time with new friends she is continually distancing herself and only coming back with sunken eyes and noticeable sutures and bruises. Around the 3-minute mark, (underrated) guitarist Tad Kubler tears the entire song in half with an unspeakably amazing guitar solo, creating a trememdous example of music's ability to be used as catharsis. It is the single most empowering 45 seconds of music that you’ll hear this year.

And so with their fourth album, The Hold Steady once again legitimize themselves as an incredibly consistent and commanding rock outfit. When I think of how to put their greatness into words, I am reminded of a Jack Kerouac quote from his classic novel On The Road (from which the band derives the title for its third LP Boys and Girls In America). In a passage at the beginning of the novel, the narrator talks about the type of people that interest him, describing them as “the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”. And so, with Stay Positive, The Hold Steady continues to dazzle and amaze, continuing to hold their status as one of the most invigorating and visceral bands around today.

Key Tracks:
Sequestered In Memphis
Lord, I’m Discouraged
Yeah Sapphire

Final Verdict: 9.4

The Hold Steady - Lord, I'm Discouraged

Album Review: The Streets - Everything Is Borrowed

In 2002, Mike Skinner under the name “The Streets” emerged with a confident strut from the depths of a London garage and released one of the most brilliant debut albums of the last ten years, titled Original Pirate Material. His sound was loosely derived from the emerging British 2-step style and garage rap genre, complemented by his signature white boy rap vocals filled with hilarious banter, biting social commentary, and occasional heartache. It was an invigorating and exciting release, one that took England by storm, but unfortunately hardly made an impact in the states. His second release A Grand Don’t Come For Free was equally impressive, which essentially plays out as a continuous narrative from start to finish of a hedonistic (yet sentimental) girl-chasing, 20-something Londoner in search of a missing 1,000 quid. The album solidified his status as one of the most important and innovative artists of the young century.

In the accordance with this newfound rise into celebrity, Skinner released a third LP titled The Hardest Way to Make a Living, which unfortunately brought his hot streak to an abrupt halt. With songs about the misfortunes of fame backed by uninspired beats and melodies, the album was more of a chore to listen through than anything. This brings us to his fourth and most release LP release Everything Is Borrowed, which is as much of a departure from his past efforts that we could ever have expected.

After the first pass through Everything is Borrowed it seems as if Skinner has set down his pint of beer and exchanged it for a book on philosophy. Rather than explain the trials and tribulations that take place on the cruel streets he inhabits, he has lifted himself hundreds of thousands of miles away from the earth, enabling him to broaden his scope and evaluate his existence on a universal stage. Take for example the opening track "Everything Is Borrowed", from which the album gets its title. The song boasts along on a triumphant horn loop and firm, steady beat while Skinner and backing vocalists sweetly sing:

“I came to this world with nothing,
And I leave with nothing but love,
Everything else is just borrowed.”

Many songs are equally bursting with life and energy, leading us to believe that Skinner’s overall outlook on life is positive. “On The Edge Of A Cliff” further validates this assumption, which is a fantastic track that truly shows off Skinner’s gift for vocal and lyrical phrasing. Within three quick minutes, he packs in a tale about a man who is pulled away from suicide by a mysterious, philosophical bystander. The man validates the protagonist’s existence by explaining to him that we were all brought to this world as a result of a marvelous chain reaction of serendipitous ancestry and heritage. Other songs examine big issues that were nowhere to be seen in the matters that Skinner formerly rapped about. Who would have guessed that the beer-toting, club-hopping Londoner from a few years ago would now be rapping about life and death, human sustainability on earth, and the misleading nature of the Bible?

Although Everything Is Borrowed is more successful than not, there are a handful of tracks that are unquestionable filler material. “I Love You More (Than You Like Me)”, “Never Give In”, and “The Way of the Dodo” are all flops, weakly carried by poor melodies or simply annoying and boring lyrics. One of the most cherished parts about The Streets’ first two albums was how incredibly consistent they were, without a single lacking song from beginning to end (at least in my opinion). However, Everything is Borrowed is certainly an improvement over his last release. Skinner’s decision to take his lyrical content and sound into a new direction is an admirable move. While the album is nowhere near the caliber of his initial output, there’s a wealth of contagious inspiration and optimism here, which is more than enough reason to give it a listen. After all, isn’t that what life's all about?

Key Tracks:
Everything Is Borrowed
On The Edge Of A Cliff
The Escapist

Final Verdict: 7.5

The Streets - Everything Is Borrowed

Album Review: The Dodos - Visiter

The Dodos' debut LP begins with one of the most instantly hooky and likable opening tracks of the year. "Walking" struts along to a steady beat, guided by light banjo-plucking and effectively harmless vocals, perfectly easing the listener into an album that will soon lead them into very unfamiliar and often salient territory. Avoiding a fade of any sort, "Walking" rolls right into "Red and Purple", the first track to actually begin to reveal the band's full M.O.

Dodos is an experimental pop duo that hails from San Francisco, sparked in 2006 by the uniting of musical forces between two innovative, out-of-the-box talents. While singer/guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Meric Long lends his boyish vocals and country-blues fingerpicking and rhythmic acoustic strumming, drummer Logan Kroeber equally contributes to the sound with an endless library of experimental, syncopated rhythms. Culminating these two very unique musicians' play styles generates a formula that is wildly creative. Although it may be foreign to some, it's ultimately grounded on great pop hooks that lend to its accessibility.

Visiter catapults the listener into the unknown, delivering a sound that shifts between familiar and unfamiliar, native and exotic, creating a constantly invigorating bipolar approach. As we delve further into the heart of a given song, we soon realize that things aren't quite as we anticipated them to play out. The basic song structure (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, etc.) is often discarded. The timbre of the instruments and vocals jump back and forth from clean to canny, gentle to harsh. The overall tone of a song can unexpectedly switch from subdued to threatening (e.g. "Joe's Waltz"). This idea of "expect the unexpected" is what makes The Dodos such a thrilling listen. One of the triumphs of the album is how, despite its wild and chaotic nature, it is still very approachable for the average listener. At face value the album is immediately welcoming, with its innocent child-drawn cover artwork and cutely misspelled album title.

The Dodos are an incredibly promising new band who, despite a few missteps, successfully pull off the much sought after feat nowadays of creating something completely original, exciting, and stunning. The band manifests a fully fleshed out sound despite only having two members. Visiter is an album that certainly takes time to adjust to and accept. It took me about five or six complete listens to fully become accustomed to the sound. However, I've actually found that my favorite albums of all time are those that I hated at first just because they were so foreign. In my opinion, this is what being a good music listener is all about, forcing yourself to give new material a chance despite how different it might sound from everything else you've ever heard. This is certainly the case for The Dodos, a band that doesn't look like it's going to be extinct anytime soon.

Key Tracks:
Walking
Fools
Ashley

Final Verdict: 8.7

The Dodos - Walking

Album Review: Sun Kil Moon - April

Mark Kozelek is the sole heart and mind behind Sun Kil Moon, which is essentially a continuation of the formula from his last band, the critically acclaimed Red House Painters of the 90s. Throughout Kozelek's career, he has been known to use his songs to paint lush portraits of sorrow and yearning onto a canvas with intimate acoustic ballads that feature his tender, sheltered vocals. While his songs are often mournful, Kozelek usually sheds just enough light onto the darkness to keep us mesmerized rather than distanced. His guitar playing can be simply stunning, as is the case when he delicately plucks and strums with a level of beauty that often stops us in our tracks. The most intriguing aspect of his music is its ability to unravel and reveal itself more and more with each successive listen. While at first many listeners may just hear his songs as being settled and repetitive affairs, more listens reveal how the songs will shift to and fro to expose the innate complexity of the human heart as expressed through music.

I was first exposed to Sun Kil Moon after a spontaneous purchase of Ghosts of the Great Highway at my college’s radio station CD sale. This 50 cent purchase turned out to be one of the best steals I’ve ever been able to pull off. Ghost of the Great Highway is Kozelek's first release under the moniker Sun Kil Moon and marked an undeniable (and sadly overlooked) achievement in 21st century songwriting. While his songwriting was often somber, it never seemed to push the listener away. Rather it drew the curious listener in even further by integrating occasional glimpses of hope and enlightenment. At times on the album, Kozelek also effectively plugged in his guitar to achieve a heightened sense of inner revelation and invigoration through thunderous solos (as heard in the brilliant, Yo La Tengo-esque “Salvador Sanchez”). The album presented Kozelek as a cryptic figure, but one that we could learn more about with repeated listens, as well as one that we actually wanted to make an effort to learn more about.

This marks the main difference between Ghosts and his follow-up April, which arrives five years after his last. While songs on Ghosts often drifted lazily along to a fairly repetitive song structure, they were much more efficient and had just enough subtle deviation to keep us intrigued. April never achieves the lofty heights of his first release, and simply settles into a dreary space that rarely escapes its own dark tone. While the songwriting can be similarly beautiful to Ghosts, the songs themselves are far too repetitive to maintain interest. When listening to a song on the album, there are many instances when we think that Kozelek has gotten as much as he can out of a melody, only to find that he will continue playing it for another three, four, or five minutes. Listening to April reminds me of looking at something beautiful and cyclic in nature. While at first you can’t pull yourself away from studying it and taking in its splendor, after several minutes have passed and you’re still just watching the same thing it can actually take away from the beauty and becomes incredibly boring.

However, there are definitely some tracks that deserve recognition. The opening track “Lost Verses” ranks among one of the more amazing pieces that Kozelek has ever composed. Despite exceeding the 9 minute mark, it maintains its intrigue through a deviating song structure and a stunningly beautiful chorus, featuring backing vocals from Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard. “Unlit Hallway” is also a highlight, which also recruits the help of backing vocals, this time from Bonnie Price Billy's Will Oldman. However, on the whole April is a long-winded affair that favors floating, repetitious songs over the more concise and directional approach that Kozelek took on his previous release. To listen to it from beginning to end requires a huge amount of patience, which makes it much better in small doses or as relaxing background music. I feel like this is the type of album that I will pick up and listen to 10 years from now and completely fall in love with. But for the time being it just doesn’t strike a chord with me like his masterful 2003 release was able to. Take my advice and hold off on this one until you’ve gotten your hands on Ghosts of the Great Highway. If you’re still itching for more Sun Kil Moon, maybe this one will satisfy your thirst more than it did for me.

Key Tracks:
Lost Verses
Unlit Hallway
Harper Road

Final Verdict: 6.5

Sun Kil Moon - Lost Verses