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The
End of the End
Not
quite a year in review
By
John Brodeur
As
we draw near the close of another year, those of us in the
criticism “biz” are beginning to make our hyper-important,
all-encompassing, cannot-be-argued-with best-of-the-year lists.
The following are some recent releases that may or may not
make my own year-end list, and a few shorter recordings that
don’t quite qualify as albums—but might make it if they did.
 The
Hold Steady
Stay
Positive (Vagrant)
Brooklyn’s answer to the E Street Band is back for another
round of indie anthems. But on the follow-up to 2006’s critically
dry-humped Boys and Girls in America, Craig Finn and
company take a step back from the outright Springsteen-isms
of that record (though lead single “Sequestered in Memphis”
certainly pumps the horns and gang vocals to those same anthemic
heights). On Stay Positive, their fifth record, the
Hold Steady push out their boundaries without collapsing the
overall formula completely. That is to say they’re trying
on different influences—Springsteen and the Replacements are
still obvious touchstones, but there’s more old-school punk-rock,
and maybe even some Billy Joel in there.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Stay Positive
is a better record than the rather one-note Boys and Girls.
There’s more nuance here, with different instrumentations
and sparser arrangements scattered between the fist-pumpers;
tracks like “One for the Cutters” and “Both Crosses” take
on a darker tone than we’ve heard from the band thus far,
and it suits them. Of course Finn is still a manic and unrepentant
lyricist—how the man remembers all those words from night
to night is beyond me—but even he shows some restraint this
time out, particularly on the wistful “Yeah Sapphire,” which
favors stanzas over paragraphs. But back to the punk: It’s
called on often here, no more directly than in the title track,
where Finn spits, “The Youth of Today and the early 7 Seconds
taught me some of life’s most valuable lessons.” One of those
lessons might be “Don’t forget your roots.” Finn wears his
like merit badges, much to our benefit.
One
Day as a Lion
One
Day as a Lion (Anti-)
Zack de la Rocha promised a post-Rage Against the Machine
project for eight years after that band broke up. So is it
a disappointment that the debut from One Day as a Lion, his
project with ex-Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore, is A) not
exactly a departure from his former band’s highly profitable
rap-rock hybrid, or B) awfully brief, considering the gestation
period, at five songs? Well, no, and maybe a little. Theodore
is an exciting and lyrical drummer, and his beats are, as
in good hip-hop, the heart of the songs. De la Rocha, meanwhile,
offers more of his trademark howl-rap, while expanding on
his palette with some interesting keyboard-noise riffs, and
even singing (check out the EP’s best track, “Ocean
View,” for an example). Rage fans obviously will dig this
(especially “If You Fear Dying,” which could pass for a Rage
outtake); anyone who’s into hearing some seriously impressive
drumming should also give it a crack.
 Fleet
Foxes
Fleet
Foxes (Sub Pop)
This
reverb-drenched beauty seems to be gunning for the title of
coolest record ever to be sold across a Starbucks counter.
And I’ll give it to ’em—it’s an exquisite recording, full
of pristine vocal harmonies and yearning leads, set to a modern-folk
backdrop that aligns them with contemporaries like Band of
Horses, the Shins, and My Morning Jacket. There’s an if-it-ain’t-broke
attitude to the compositions here; for all of the quintet’s
“indie” leanings, there are palpable and necessary ties to
the past. Which is to say, this is music that defies time
or categorization. Highly recommended.
 Be
Your Own Pet
Get
Damaged EP (XL)
At three tracks and barely six minutes in length, does this
even qualify as an EP? Well, kind of—the three songs on this,
the swan song for the Nashville garage quartet, were removed
from the U.S. release of the band’s early-2008 Get Awkward
disc by Universal lawyers for being “too violent.” Which is
odd considering the nature of some of the other things Universal
companies have put their name on, but this miniature pop-punk
teen-girl party piece stands up just fine on its own. High-school
knife fights haven’t sounded this exciting in years.
 Mercury
Rev
Snowflake
Midnight/Strange Attractor (Yep Roc)
For
their first album(s) in almost four years, Mercury Rev have
more or less ditched the idea of trying to sound like a band
and dove full-on into the psychedelic-electronic rabbit hole.
The results are really something—if you played Snowflake
Midnight next to one of the band’s early-’90s guitar-noise
workouts, you’d think the two were recorded centuries apart.
(Technically they were.) In a way, these tracks have more
in common with those early blasts than with their well-regarded
attempts at Americana, in that song structures have been thrown
out the window in favor of high drama, and a whole different
kind of noise. Snowflake marks the beginning of the
third act for a band who have been defined by change throughout
their perplexing career.
Companion piece Strange Attractor, available as a free
download from the band’s Web site, is the Amnesiac
to Snowflake’s Kid A . . . sort of. Or maybe
it’s the other way around. Made up of 11 instrumental pieces
and experimental soundscapes, Attractor at points recalls
Dots and Loops-era Stereolab and Eno’s ambient works,
both favorably. Tune into Snowflake Midnight; drop
out to Strange Attractor.
 dEUS
Vantage
Point (Phantom Sound & Vision)
Speaking
of experimental, how about dEUS? Man, I hadn’t heard anything
by this Belgian troupe in years, and their latest record nearly
slipped by unnoticed as well, having not been officially released
stateside. (It came out overseas in early 2008. Back in the
day, I would have had to order an import CD. Thanks,
Internet!) On the second full-length dEUS album to follow
a five-year hiatus in the early part of this decade, Tom Barman
is still following his art-pop quirkiness in and out of the
dark and smoky corners of popular music, dabbling in alt-rock,
dance music, and even something approaching hip-hop along
the way. Vantage Point features contributions from
Elbow’s Guy Garvey and the Knife’s Karin Drejer Andersson,
and one of the best songs of the year in album closer “Popular
Culture.”
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