Courtney Barnett – The Double Ep: A Sea of Split Peas (2014)

Courtney Barnett is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Melbourne, Australia. Her 2014 release, A Sea of Split Peas, is her third studio album with Milk! Records. Throughout all of her songs, Courtney’s vocal style is partly sung, partly spoken and rambled. Hence, the song title “Avant Gardener”. Her lyrics always catch me by surprise. They’re witty, clever, and brutally honest. A Sea of Split Peas is an album full of well-written songs, psychedelic textures, and clever lyrics.

“Avant Gardner” is one of my favorite tracks. While the lyrics on the rest of the album are good as well, Barnett’s lyricism really shines through in this track. This track is about Courtney Barnett having some sort of breathing problem. In one of her wittier lyrics, Barnett describes how her lungs feel: “I’m breathing but I’m wheezing / Feel like I’m emphysem-‘in. / My throat feels like a funnel filled with Weet-Bix and kerosene and…” She compares her ability to breathe with the dryness and flakiness of Australia’s least favorite breakfast, Weet-Bix (similar to USA’s Weetabix). Another one of my favorite lyrics references Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. (Spoilers) In the movie, Uma Thurman’s character overdoses on heroin and gets a shot of adrenaline in her heart. In “Avant Gardner”, Barnett says “I get adrenalin / straight to the heart. / I feel like Uma Thurman / post-overdosing kick start.”

Another one of my favorites is “History Eraser”, one of the more powerful and driving songs on the album. Other than the chorus, this song is entirely spoken-word. At one point, the instruments all stop for a second and sustain a chord while Courtney says “You said “I guarantee we’ll have more fun, drink till the moon becomes the sun, and in the taxi home I’ll sing you a triffids song!” Since there is no real vocal melodic hook, the song relies on the other instruments to carry the track tonally until the chorus.

“Anonymous Club” is also worth mentioning. This song is about separating one’s self from the frantic and stressful world of ‘real life’. There are some really psychedelic textures in this one, especially the sweeping guitar frequencies. This track sounds like a happier B-side to Radiohead’s “How to Disappear Completely” I feel like this could have been alternatively titled “How to Disappear Temporarily”

Courtney Barnett’s double Ep is definitely worth listening to. Her music is incredibly accessible to most audiences. The lyrics aren’t strict in meter or rhythm, but they’re very relatable. This double Ep is a cozy, feel-good collection of songs. I highly recommend it.

Favorite Track: History Eraser

FKA twigs – LP1 (2014)

LP1 is the first full-length album by singer/songwriter/dancer/producer Tahliah Barnett, better known by her stage name, FKA twigs. This is the first major musical production by Barnett. She has released two EPs and has one planned for release in 2015. Previously, she has worked as a dancer for music videos. FKA twigs makes songs that are deceivingly minimal. It seems like there’s not a lot going on if you just scratch the surface. Underneath the reserved song structure and sounds lays a much more complex array of textures. The sounds backing her lush vocals are almost constantly changing.

One of my favorite tracks is “Lights On”. It opens with booming, quickly-moving bass and a music box (or other mallet instrument). Once the chorus hits, an upright bass joins the vastly complex mix. Halfway through, there’s a really neat instrumental break that uses church organ, reversed samples, and deep sub-bass tones.

Another noteworthy track is “Hours”. The opening sounds are a mixture of background noise from both natural and digital atmospheres. The paralleled imagery of man-made sounds and natural noises is really interesting, similar to the electro/acoustic mix of sounds throughout the album.

“Video Girl” is one of the more powerful songs on the album. Barnett used to be a background dancer. This song is written about herself, as she said in an interview: “They’d call my agent directly and say, “We want twigs to come in.” I had a reputation for being reliable. When the camera was on, I’d be the one-take wonder, so a lot of directors liked working with me.” In this track, she’s separating herself from her role as a dancer in someone else’s music video and is focusing on her own artistic visions.

FKA twigs has really made a name for herself with this album, despite the legal issues she’s dealing with regarding her stage name. LP1 is an astounding achievement in artistic prowess in the world of R&B art pop.

Favorite Track: Lights On

Bern/hoft – Solidarity Breaks (2011)

Jarle Bernhoft, known by his stage name Bern/hoft, is a Norwegian vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. Solidarity Breaks is his second studio album, although it is the first album to be recorded under his moniker, Bern/hoft. For the most part, this album falls under the category of soul or funk. The varying and atypical instrumentation for this style of music keeps this album interesting.

My favorite track is “Space In My Heart”. This track starts with a very faint piano (maybe an organ) playing a fast and ghostly atonal arpeggio, giving a backing of eeriness to the track. It sounds like something straight out of a musique concrète recording. Mellow electric guitar plucks out a contrastingly harmonic series of chords. There are some nice space-like synth textures during the chorus, giving the “Space” in the title two meanings. I love the textures that are in this song. This track features the first guitar solo on the album, lagging slightly behind the beat. The chords and ambient sounds add a sense of wonder to the whole track. Towards the end, there are some heavily vocoded robot-esque vocals.

Bern/hoft also covered a Tears for Fears classic, “Shout”, using different chords, higher vocals, and an overall more poppy feel to the 1980’s original.

Another notable track is “Prophet. Surprisingly enough, parts of this song remind me of Gorillaz. Very few artists have reminded me of them. To me, Gorillaz has a really unique sound and has maintained it throughout their career. The quirky chords, interesting bass, and emphasis on keyboards remind me of one of Gorillaz’s latest singles, “Doncamatic“.

Solidarity Breaks is a nice, modern soul/funk album that is full of interesting compositions and musical styles. Nice vocals, good instrumentation, and well-built textures. Check it out.

Favorite Track: Space In My Heart

Brad Mehldau Trio – Anything Goes (2004)

Anything Goes is a modern jazz album by the Brad Mehldau Trio. The trio consists of Brad Mehldau on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Jorge Rossy on drums. One thing I love about jazz trios and quartets is the astounding amount of material they can produce with such minimal instrumentation. Jazz trios generally sound less cluttered, as they have less instruments. Larger jazz groups can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. That being said, there are always exceptions to both of these. I really enjoyed listening to this album. Anything Goes covers lots of ground in jazz music from the upbeat “Skippy” to ballads like “Nearness Of You” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face”. This album also features a more latin tune, “Tres Palabras” and a cover of Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place”.

My favorite track is “Dreamsville”, a ballad. I really love the chords in this track. The first chord alone reminded me of some of Vince Guaraldi’s works, mostly off of his Charlie Brown Christmas album.

Another highlight is the trio’s cover of Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place“, written by Thom Yorke. This track is likely Radiohead’s most popular track, as it is covered by many artists and is played at most of their concerts. This cover starts with an open bass solo, followed by the iconic descending bassline that starts Radiohead’s version.This track was the first song that Yorke wrote on a piano that he bought, although the original version is performed on a keyboard. Considering that the original song was made on a piano, it’s nice to see Mehldau bringing the track back to its roots while still putting his own spin on it.

Anything Goes is a really nice, mellow jazz album that is very accessible to most audiences. You don’t have to be really into jazz or know anything about jazz theory to appreciate this kind of music (or most jazz music, in my opinion). In short, this album is really chill, really pretty, and really great.

Favorite Track: Dreamsville

Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (2008)

Atmosphere is an abstract hip hop and rap group that consists of Sean Daley (a.k.a. “Slug”) and is produced by Anthony Davis, (a.k.a. “Ant”). The whole album is about making the best out of what you have, hence the variation of the saying “When life gives you lemons…” Each song is a story about somebody in a rough situation and the ways that they cope. The tracks are nicely done and the stories are told well through rapped verses and sung choruses. That being said, I do wish there was some variation in the story content.

While there are common motifs of life in lower-class America and botched relationships (romantic or otherwise), there are some over-repeated ideas in some tracks. I could be mistaken; the tracks could be about the same subject. There are some parallels in the stories told in “Dreamer” and “Guarantees”: “No overtime pay, no holiday / Months behind on everything but the lottery / Winter ’round the corner, guaranteein’ that my car dies / Wifey havin’ trouble tryna juggle both the part-times” (Guarantees). Similarly, in “Dreamer”, “It don’t matter he ain’t got a job / So she had to go work / And leave the baby with her mom / Second shift ’til the neck is stiff.”

Structurally, the album is organized very well. The album seems to be split into three parts. The first part consists of tracks 1-5. The second part starts with “You”, along with Slug telling of his relationship with his father in “Yesterday”. The third part has “Me”, and the vague hinting at Slug’s relationship with his daughter in “The Waitress”.

One of the sadder tracks is “Yesterday”, a song about Slug’s relationship with his dad. It isn’t revealed until the very who the song is about. Throughout, he addresses the subject as “you”. He asks himself, “Was that you? Looked just like you. / Strange things my imagination might do … Or am I just going crazy ’cause I miss you?” At the very end, he says “I thought I saw you yesterday / But I knew it wasn’t you, ’cause you passed away, dad.” He reveals that the subject is his dad and that his dad passed away all in one tragic lyric.

“The Waitress” mentions Slug’s (or the narrator’s) daughter, but it isn’t clear what the relationship is between him and the waitress. Similar to “Yesterday” the big reveal is at the very end. The last line is “In the cafe bathroom drinking free tap water / Thinking: “Damn, I should’ve been a better father to my daughter” Either the waitress is his daughter, or she reminds him of his daughter.

Overall, this album has some really nice lyrics, backed by well-produced beats and textures. As I said before, I felt that there could have been some variation in the story content. Despite that, There are many great tracks on this hour-long album.

Favorite Track: Like The Rest Of Us

Perfume Genius – Too Bright (2014)

Perfume Genius is the recording name for Mike Hadreas. Too Bright is his third studio album. This album was such a breath of fresh air. Occasionally, I will run into an artist or genre that blows me away; one that I couldn’t even imagine what it sounded like before listening to it. Perfume Genius falls under that category. I had seen the album cover around and I listened to the first track to see what all the fuss was about. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so I told one of my friends. He listened to the whole thing, then recommended it to me. There were parts of this album that legitimately surprised me, as well as parts that were done well more than once. The instrumentation, production, and songwriting on this album are phenomenal.

Too Bright starts slowly with the slow piano song, “I Decline”. Part of this track’s beaty comes from how minimal it is. The instrumentation is reserved, and the overall sound isn’t over-the-top.

After a polite and mellow intro, the album picks up a bit with “Queen”, one of my favorite tracks. The tone shifts from a soft ballad to a harder, harsher sound. “Queen” opens with steady distorted guitar. The guitar isn’t too overdriven, which is nice. In addition to the guitar line, a choir swells in and out to add harmony for the first few bars. The first time this album caught me by surprise was when the keyboard line comes in. The whole song is unbelievably sassy, especially in its lyrics: “Don’t you know your queen, gleaming, wrapped in gold leaf,” as if to say “how dare you don’t recognize me … No family is safe / when I sashay.” Here, Hadreas is saying that he knows people fear him because of his sexuality. He’s saying that nobody is safe around him because he’s gay.

The following track is my favorite. “Fool” features a low-fi early synth to set up the chords and rhythm. The snaps on the offbeats give a nice, crisp contrast to the otherwise filtered texture it overlays. A clavi-like synth plays a really nice bass line. After a bit, everything fades out while a sweeping analog synth pad takes over in free time. Mike showcases his amazing vocal range in this track. When He’s singing the really high parts, the sweeping synths come back in, followed by the familiar snaps introduced at the start of the track. This time, however, an upright bass is used instead of the sawtooth bass, and a bari sax also plays some bass parts. A pleasant and well-transitioned change of texture. Instead of abruptly changing the scene to something completely different, he throws in a sound the listener is already familiar with and uses that as a basis to introduce something new.

The lyrics and vocals in “Grid” caught my attention. The vocal lines sound like something off of a Radiohead album, namely Ok Computer. The lyrics are pretty humorous as well: “A diamond / swallowed and shit / then swallowed again. / At least we know where it’s been.”

After traveling through the Tron-esque synth arpeggios in “Longpig” and the immensely dark tones in “I’m a Mother”, Too Bright draws to a close with the song it was named for. “Too Bright” puts Hadreas’s vocals and piano playing in the limelight. While the track also features some orchestral instruments, they are not the focus for the majority of the song; they shine through towards the end of the song.

Every song has its fortes and each one fits well in the overall structure. The instrumentation that Perfume Genius uses creates an unbelievably beautiful array of textures. I highly recommend this album.

Favorite Track: Fool

Volcano Choir – Repave (2013)

Volcano Choir is an indie rock group comprised of Justin Vernon from Bon Iver, and members of Collections of Colonies of Bees. Repave is their second studio album and was recorded over the course of two and a half years. Repave is an interesting album that is experimental in both its production and presentation. The first track, “Tiderays”, opens with an organ sustaining a low note. The single note is held while more notes are stacked on top, creating a very drone-like texture. After a while, the freely moving chord inversions finally settle on one stack of notes while an acoustic guitar begins to pluck out a melody. After the first chorus, a throat singer holds a very low note. The second track, “Acetate”, uses significantly lower vocals than the first. The track is fairly static in its progression, minus the changing vocal line. The vocals do a really nice 5-tuplet in the lyrics “having them around”. Later, the vocals sing in a round. Towards the end, the piano has a really nice 5-note pattern that becomes offset, as the song is in 4. My favorite track is “Almanac”, the final song on the album. What starts off as a single guitar note repeated out of rhythm eventually grows into a very cinematic track. A synthesizer quickly arpeggiates a descending chord while the guitar plays some counter-melodic ideas. During the climax of the track, the instrumental ideas that have slowly developed continue their parts while incoherent vocals are chopped and processed in phase. Eventually, all the parts fade out to a lone, dreamy piano that plays one final chord, drawing everything to a close. As a whole, the track feels very conclusive and serves as a good ending track to the album. I feel that Repave was presented very well. The opening track fit well as an intro, and the final track served as a nice, conclusive end. The experimentation in production effects on this album really take Volcano Choir’s music in a different direction and achieves new and exciting textures that cannot be achieved by simply jamming in a garage.

Favorite Track: Almanac

The 1975 – The 1975 (2013)

The 1975 is an indie rock group from the UK. They released their self-titled album in 2013, produced by Arctic Monkeys collaborator Mike Crossey. The 1975’s self titled album spans a wide range of subgenres under the broad label of “indie”. This album includes driving rock songs mixed with instrumentals, 80’s pop, and hints of psychedelic rock. Any artist knows that you shouldn’t paint the foreground first; you start with the background as the foundation, and build from there. From a musical standpoint, The 1975 establishes a solid foundation in and does a fantastic job in the development of the overall structure and texture of their songs from the bottom up. Droning patterns and arpeggios that were once in the limelight slowly fade into the background to add to the rest of the track. One thing I’ve noticed about bands from the UK — notably from the British invasion — is that their accents don’t often surface while singing. A few artists have subtle nuances of their accents shine through, namely Elbow and Courtney Barnett. The album opens up with a very cinematic intro track, also named “The 1975”. My favorite track is “M.O.N.E.Y.” The intro reminds me of Shinichi Osawa’s “London (Home’s Not Where You Lay Your Head)” The song has a bunch of samples and sounds thrown in, adding a really quirky mood to the song. On top of the syncopated synth bass and claps on beats 2 and 4, explosions, short guitar riffs, static, and drops of water create a gorgeous sound sculpture. The drum beat changes towards the end into a much more heavy rhythm while bubbling water and an indecipherable pitch-shifted robot choir chimes a countermelody. The album’s also features two instrumentals, “An Encounter”, and “12” The latter features sweeping synth textures, a choir, and tiny crackling and fizzing pops that repeat at a fairly steady pace while the other textures move freely. The 1975’s debut album showcases some really solid tracks with outstanding production.

Favorite Track: M.O.N.E.Y.

Arctic Monkeys – AM (2013)

AM is the fifth album by the English indie rock group, Arctic Monkeys. Before, they’ve been categorized under psychedelic rock. The Arctic Monkeys are as psychedelic as you can get while still sounding down-to-earth. While the instrumentation used in AM is similar to many other groups, the sound that they produce stands out. During the choruses of the first two tracks, they use falsetto vocals to add a subtle layer of texture. In the opening track, “Do I Wanna Know”, the vocals never stray from the melody. No strict harmony is used, per se, but the vocals stack octaves and sing the chorus together. The following track, “R U Mine?” is more heavy and upbeat than the first track. What’s nice about this album is how nicely everything flows together. The fourth track, “Arabella” has the same tone as the previous tracks but is stripped down to much more minimal parts in each instrument. The lyrics are really nice in this track as well: ” Arabella’s got some interstellar-gator skin boots / And a helter skelter ’round her little finger and I ride it endlessly / She’s got a Barbarella silver swimsuit / And when she needs to shelter from reality she takes a dip in my daydreams.” This track airs more to the side of earlier hard rock while still carrying the familiar vibe that AM has. “No. 1 Party Anthem” divides the album perfectly in half. Stylistically, this is drastically different from the previous tracks. One neat thing I noticed about one of the tracks was how eerily similar the guitar and bass textures are in “I Wanna Be Yours” and “Plastic Beach” by Gorillaz. While the tone of the tracks may be gritty and distorted for the most part, the end result that Arctic Monkeys delivers is clean. Other groups can tend to be immensely over-the-top in their sound, but the tracks in AM are well put-together in their presentation.

Favorite Track: R U Mine?