This will be one of my last posts before I take my vacation to Tanglwood Resorts in Hawley, PA. For the next few posts, it'll be mostly things I think are awesome.
The recipe did not go over well.
Anyways, this is some music that I think is awesome.
It is also all impressive comebacks from really lackluster albums.
Behold:
Anyways, this is some music that I think is awesome.
It is also all impressive comebacks from really lackluster albums.
Behold:
After the indisputably painful Sam's Town, where but for two songs, the band lost nearly all credibility in my eyes, I never thought to see or hear of the Killers again. Their bubble, in my mind, had burst and they would slowly fade into obscurity while tweens with plastic guitars and acne pumped their fists to While You Were Young as their friend shredded the chorus on Guitar Hero in the basement. I was wrong. Day & Age completely reinvents the band, taking the highpoints of Sam's Town, the 80's retro-jam-vibe of Hot Fuss and mixes in a bit of maturity and a definite world music bend to craft some perfect tunage. Brandon Flowers also sounds almost completely different on this album. I'll chalk it up to the generally mature feel of the album. He manages not to speak-sing like on Bones and Mr. Brightside of yore rather all songs are belted directly from the diaphragm. Beautiful. I've actually spent a good deal of time just now trying to find a song to criticize, but I genuinely can't. I was going to give it a 4 1/2, just to be a hard ass. I can't, it's unfair. I absolutely love this album.
The Killers ~ Day & Age (5/5)
When I first heard Do You Want To from Franz Ferdinand's 2005 release, You Could Have It So Much Better, I was excited. This was going to be another great album from one of my favorite bands of '04. They blew my mind with their self-titled debut and Do You Want To sounded like their followup was going to be just as indie-rock-dancy-awesome. I was wrong. You Could Have It So Much Better sort of hurt to listen to, while not being anywhere as shit-tastic as the Killers' sophomore effort. Franz Ferdinand, to my surprise and delight, pulled their heads out of their asses and made an awesome album, Tonight. The album was so awesome, they talked about it on CNN! Robin Meade actually mentioned how great the album was, and they played Ulysses as their bumps all morning show. It was incredible. The album itself cannot be judged on it's level of press however. The music itself is the indie-rock-dancy-incredible that tinged their first album with a little more volume and a lot more guitar. Still a very saavy album I am proud to own. It's not as universally infallible as their first album, but a thousand percent better than that shit they pumped out two years ago.
Franz Ferdinand ~ Tonight (4.5/5)The Decemberists ~ The Hazards Of Love
Okay, it's a little unfair to lump these folks in with the "Comeback Kings." They really haven't released a bad album. Their last release, however, The Crane Wife, they sort of abandoned their roots and their fans and made an attempt at a pop album. O Valencia! worked very well. 20-something college girls loved The Decemberists because "they, like, are talking, like, all about love n' stuff". But, a large part of the fan base was turned off. Myself included. I was still spinning Castaways And Cut-Outs and the in-fucking-credible Picaresque while everyone was jamming to The Crane Wife. In any case, I hope those bitches that know absolute jackshit about music pick up The Hazards of Love. I hope they fucking hate every beat of it. The Hazards of Love is an indie-rock-opera-fairy-tale about poor Margaret, ravaged and impregnated in the woods by a shape-shifting demon, wonton rakes and forest queens. Not to mention guest stars ala Jim James from My Morning Jacket (also one of my jams), Becky Stark form Lavender Diamond and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden who provide the vocals for several different roles. The album is all over the place, musically, it starts with a gothic organ intro, goes to some folk style picking and crooning, moves to over the top guitar metal crunch, and moves back to heavely, etheral female vocals. So, I hope the gum-chewing scenester queens shit their pants with the crunchy guitar and heavy bass rattle of The Bower Scene and Won't Want for Love and I want their heads to blow the fuck up when it gets calm again and they experience some emotion in their otherwise vapid existence. Though they can probably appreciate being knocked up by a one night stand in the woods, I think that this album strays from the demographic that superficially likes them and returns the band to it's original fanbase of people with IQs above room temperature.The Decemberists ~ The Hazards Of LoveSo, that's all for now. See... it's the Killer's and Franz Ferdinand's 3rd album, so I reviewed 3 albums... in honor of it also being march. Making three sets of threes. It's okay... I know... I fucking rock so hard, thanks.
[[ED. Updated at 2:18pm, Last.fm player & 3Hive link added. Fixed junky html in link box. Added linkage to the LP versions of all albums on Amazon. Play records, bitches.]]
