The Brutalist Bricks, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2010.

The Brutalist Bricks, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, 2010, :41

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

For quite some time I have heard good things about and from this band.  So I started this one up with great expectations.  Gradually, I became disappointed.  It's... well, it's a standard rock album.  At times, like on "Even Heroes Have To Die," I was reminded of that '90s indie jangle-rock sound like the Rembrandts and Soul Asylum.  It's a very strong rock album, written and played with skill. don't get me wrong. I just expected... more, something hard-hitting.  Oh, there are hard-hitting tracks ("The Stick"), but there's no overarching cohesion.  Favorite tracks: "Where Was My Brain," "End of Days."

Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2009. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix, 2009, :36 

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Indie pop with synth and dance-pop influences.  It's a very pleasant vibe, all fluttery riffs and high percussion and disco falsetto.  It's quite well done, but not really for me.  When they lean more toward rock than disco, though, these guys deliver some catchy beats.  Favorite tracks: "Liztomania," "1901," "Lasso."

We Brave Bee Stings And All, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2008. 

We Brave Bee Stings And All, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, 2008, :32

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Alternative folk-rock with horns. Catchy and pleasant, with an undercurrent. Jangling banjo, fast-paced riffs, lyrics that are about about doing cannonballs and a mother who works hard for her kids and lost love, and yet somehow dark and distressing. "Love large enough to want to shrink / Been done enough to start to think / I might cut right back on the heart attacks." And: "As sharp as I sing / It still soothes you / Doesn't it? / Like a lick of ice cream." It's quite good, but I guess sometimes I like it a little sharper and less sweet. My favorite tracks are three excellent standouts: "Swimming Pool," "Bag of Hammers," "Travel."

Wincing the Night Away, the Shins

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2007. 

Wincing the Night Away, the Shins, 2007, :41

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Delicate indie folk-pop with introspective, image-rich lyrics, with bits of post-punk influence. The drums are front and center, which gives it a more muscular sound than a lot of other indie-pop in this vein.  Much of the album is a little more restrained than I'd like, but "Phantom Limb," an ethereal, enigmatic tale of two lesbian outcasts in high school, is worth the price of admission alone. Of course, I didn't pay a price of admission, but that's beside the point. "Phantom Limb," "Turn On Me," "A Comet Appears." 

Hello Young Lovers, Sparks

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2006.

Hello Young Lovers, Sparks, 2006, :50

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I'm astonished! What a bizarre and pleasant find. This band has been around since 1967 and still releasing albums, yet I've never heard of them. It's a baroque chamber-pop, art-rock band, reminiscent of Queen but with more of a comic and absurdist streak. The first track on the album, "Dick Around," a six-and-a-half minute vocal tour de force about the idle life, shows that right off.  Voices are used as instruments, lyrics are repeated, choruses burst in and layer upon one another.  It's as if written by a modern, post-ironic, self-effacing Gilbert and Sullivan. Favorite tracks: "Metaphor," "Waterproof," "Dick Around."

Searching for a Former Clarity, Against Me!

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2005.

Searching for a Former Clarity, Against Me!, 2005, :47

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 

Against Me! is the best punk band since the Clash.  Growling, snarled, shouted non-rhyming syllable-overloaded personal and political lyrics, percussion-heavy punk riffs.  Laura Jane Grace always-fueled anger at the sickness of the world, anger at not having the courage to be what she wants to be.  Favorite tracks: "Don't Lose Touch," "Unprotected Sex With Multiple Partners," "Pretty Girl (The Mover)."

We Shall All be Healed, Mountain Goats

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2004.

We Shall All be Healed, Mountain Goats, 2004, :44

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

I knew almost nothing about the Mountain Goats when I started this one up; I'd heard a couple of songs and enjoyed them.  Judging from this album, they're pretty clearly a one-man operation.  This is a song cycle loosely based around some friends of the singer who got strung out on heroin.  It's an enthralling, literate, unflinching, and dazzling set of songs.  Singer and mastermind John Darnielle sounds like Phil Ochs leading the Decembrists, Collin Meloy if he were writing true life stories rather than fantasies.  It's sad and sharp and uncompromising.  Favorite tracks: "Letter From Belgium," "The Young Thousands," "Against Pollution."

Nocturama, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2003. 

Nocturama, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 2003, :56

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

So this is the "bad" Nick Cave album, the one excoriated as a bomb, with critics carping that Nick Cave is at this point in time a contented middle-aged father of three with nothing to bemoan or be gothic about, and the Bad Seeds sounding more like the Wallflowers than the unpredictable band they are.  Now I went into this album not knowing any of that.  I wasn't prepared for the worst, best, or anything in between.  So to me it sounds like... a Nick Cave album.  It's true that the lyrical content leans a lot more toward the love song than the murder ballad, but so what?  Rather than assuming Cave had lost his "edge," I just assume he's being moved by a new muse.  Griping that Nick Cave isn't being as spooooky as you want is like complaining that bands that get discovered by more than five people are "selling out."  It's just such a childish kneejerk reaction.  Favorite tracks: "Still In Love," "There Is a Town," the fourteen-minute rager "Babe, I'm On Fire."

Jackknife To a Swan, Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2002. 

Jackknife To a Swan, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, 2002, :40

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

This is one of the Bosstones' lesser works, perhaps.  But really, if you've heard one, you've heard them all.  The final song, "7 Ways To Sunday," is a bit off their beaten track.  But otherwise, it's the same ska-punk formula, all horns, guitar and growly vocals.  If you like it, you like it.  I like it.  Favorite tracks: "Sugar Free," "The Old School Off the Bright," "Go Big." 

Girls Can Tell, Spoon

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2001, A Space Odyssey.

Girls Can Tell, Spoon, 2001, :36

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I come to this album from having heard only the later Spoon albums. This, their second, is apparently the album that critics agree was the first to have that "Spoon" sound. From constantly being compared to the Pixies and Wire, they came into their own. They really don't sound like anyone else, it's true. (Well, "Me and the Bean" sounds like Nirvana.) There's a crisp, spare, yet shambling sound, and Britt Daniels' ragged voice is very singular. One of the great modern rock bands. Favorite tracks: "Anything You Want," "Everything Hits At Once," "Talk a Walk."