Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma
The Hold Steady: Heaven Is Whenever
Minus the Bear: Omni
The New Pornographers: Together
While I would love to write reviews for all of these records, and perhaps in time I will, I'm going to focus my attention on the three that I think will play the biggest role in shaping the musical legacy of the year 2010: Heaven Is Whenever, Forgiveness Rock Record, and Together.
The Hold Steady: "Heaven Is Whenever"
"We're good guys, but we can't be good every night. We're good guys, but we can't be good our whole lives."The fifth record from the Minneapolis-bred self-proclaimed bar band The Hold Steady offers a lot of the familiar tricks that Craig Finn and gang have relished in since 2004 while offering a slathering of new layered guitar elements and lyrical themes. Yes, you'll still hear songs filled with religious imagery mixed with adolescent debauchery, and some of these "psalms" are still "sing along songs;" but this time around, the band tackles the role of personal struggle in a joyous life and the rewards that can be reaped from those struggles. Where their last album, "Stay Positive" was admittedly about "being able to age gracefully," this record examines the joys that can be found even in times when life doesn't seem all that graceful.
When the band announced the release date for the record a few months back, following the departure of beloved keyboardist Franz Nicolay, they promised a more guitar-heavy, less-anthemic record. While one can certainly notice the added layers of guitar over the album's ten tracks, but after hearing some of the tracks that dropped before the record was released, including "hurricane J" and "The Weekenders," it was hard to see how this album would be any less anthemic. After heavy listening and some major reflection, I can see exactly what Craig Finn meant. While "Hurricane J," "Soft in the Center," and Rock Problems" define some of the more up-tempo moments of the record, they certainly don't come close to the clap-along, chanting of "Constructive Summer," "Stay Positive," or "Stuck Between Stations." The departure of Nicolay certainly has something to do with that, as his keyboard rhythms often laid the foundation for those almost arena-rock anthems, but the more reflective subject matter also stunts the fist-pumping expression.
Even in it's diluted anthemic nature, this record still shines as one of the best releases of 2010 and has rightly given the band an unprecedented amount of exposure. Everything that you loved about the Hold Steady is still packaged within "Heaven is Whenever" along with some new harmonic and guitar tricks that will make you appreciate the compositions as much as the deep, inspirational lyricism that has come to define the band. It might take a little more listening for this record to grow on seasoned Steady fans, but a growing appreciation is almost inevitable. If this is the first record that you've heard from The Hold Steady, which because of it's exposure I expect it will be for some people, revel in it's beauty for a few weeks, and then take a look back at the band's discography, because the consistency of their records is almost unmatched in this era of modern rock music.
9.0 out of 10
The fourth record from the supergroup-before-it-was-a-supergroup Broken Social Scene is their latest record as a group in five years, following a few releases from the "Broken Social Scene Presents..." and the individual success of some of it's early members, including Leslie Feist, members of Stars, members of Metric, and member of Land of Talk among others. "Forgiveness Rock Record" sees the return of Kevin Drew and his band of regulars as they literally and figuratively explore the vastness of forgiveness. I think Pitchfork really hit the nail on the head when they wroteTheir epochal 2002 breakout You Forgot It In People was the joyous sound of friends banding together to boost each other up, while 2005's Broken Social Scene was the dizzying sound of friends fizzing out into solo endeavors and outside pursuits. Now they're back and they're forgiving.I'm not going to let Pitchfork write my review for me, but I just found that statement to be so true to what their records have been about under the swirling melodic landscapes, which lose no breadth or scope on "Forgiveness Rock Record." From the first track of the album, "World Sick" which also just so happens to be the record's first single, the listener is thrown into a cascade of everything from primitive percussive flourishes to serene electronic progressions. This musical diversity is stretched throughout the entire record, and it never seems to be stretched too thin. "Forgiveness Rock Record" seems to aptly accomplish a near impossible task in modern music: presenting a diverse record while justifying why each track should belong to that record and that record alone. On your first listen, you'll continue to be surprised at how consistently infectious each track is, and you'll find it difficult to get through without playing some of the tracks over again making the album seem almost twice as long as it actually is. This of course, is a compliment to the careful craftsmanship Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning.
If you're familiar with the previous work of Broken Social Scene, you're going to notice that this record, while still diverse in texture, is still a bit more repetitive than their previous works; however, the songwriting shines far and above their previous efforts. In this way, and in it's more accessible compositions Broken Social Scene seems to have finally surrendered to the power of pop, though they maintain their individuality through lucid scope. That being said, while I listened to this astounding record, I never felt a replication of the feelings I had the first time I heard tracks like, "Major Label Debut" or "Anthems of a Seventeen Year-Old Girl." While this may be Broken Social Scene's most ambitious record yet, there's just something about it that make me feel like it lacks the raw emotion of their previous records. Nonetheless, this will most certainly be a record that will hold it's own on the year end Top Albums lists.
"Together," the indie folk-rock band The New Pornographers almost quite literally pick up where they left off on their previous record, "Challengers." While this came as somewhat of an unwelcome surprise, considering "Challengers" is almost unanimously accepted as their weakest effort (kind of like saying "Gangs of New York is Scorsese's weakest picture, still fantastic), "Together" almost immediately transforms into a record all it's own, if not at least hankering back to the bag of tricks that was utilized to construct "Twin Cinema/"
The New Pornographers seem to know where their strengths lie, and this record plays out as pure exploitation of those strengths, with only a few diversions. Namely, "Your Hands (Together)" stands out because it is uncharacteristically crunchy and hard for A.C Newman and his bards, making the track come off as somewhat unnatural amongst its surroundings. The beauty of this album lies in the angelic vocal harmonies and the sunny orchestration and composition that litters just about every track. "My Shepard" stands out as a prime example of these crafty arrangements because it flourishes not only during the simplest moments of vocal/guitar harmony, but also in its instrumentally-ample, thundering chorus.
With all of the talent in this band, with just about every member maintaining some kind of music career outside of The New Pornographers, it seems to be impossible for them to fail. "Together" shines because it profits from the artistic growth of each of its respective members and effectively illustrates how they can do folk-rock just as well as power pop just as well as ballads. While this album doesn't stray far from the formula that makes every New Pornographers album memorable, it rewards us with yet another collection of beautiful arrangements and blissful choruses that will no doubt haunt our musical consciousness in the coming months.
8.3 out of 10
