Fluxblog
October 30th, 2014 12:37pm

Your Threshold Is Astonishing


Run the Jewels featuring Gangsta Boo “Love Again (Akinyele Back)”

The second Run the Jewels album is pretty great, but it’d be even better if Gangsta Boo was on all of it except for just this one song. Killer Mike and El-P have amazing chemistry, but this is like finding out one of your favorite foods is even better if you add another less obvious ingredient. Gangsta Boo’s badass femininity is the ideal foil to these guy’s extreme masculinity, and while her lyrical approach is intended to undermine their words in this song, her presence doesn’t undermine them at all. After hearing this, the rest of the Killer Mike/El-P songs feel like they’re off balance and need this female energy to seem truly complete.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 28th, 2014 12:29pm

On The Lips Of Millions


The Vaselines “Inky Lies”

I feel like the vast majority of songs about the dangers of gossip in the media come from famous musicians who obviously have a personal stake in the matter, but here we have a spirited attack on it from a band who are only famous in very, very small circles. I think this song works a lot better because of that – the lyrics aren’t poisoned by bitterness or disingenuous self-interest, and have a more clear-headed take on people’s petty fixations with strangers’ lives. I think this perspective also lends itself well to the style of the song too, which feels rather perky and light-hearted. It’s a song lightly mocking a common foible, not a shrill, paranoid rant.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 27th, 2014 4:59am

Become An Oaf Again


Panda Bear “Mr. Noah”

Have you ever had a hazy memory of a song you haven’t heard in a long time, and then heard the song again and noticed that it wasn’t quite as cool as the version that was there, half-formed, in your memory? “Mr. Noah” sounds like a vague memory of some ‘80s rock song, the super cool version that’s all fuzzed out and blurry because you probably heard it that one time from a bad radio signal in a moving car with the windows down. It’s not common to hear Panda Bear get as rocking as this, but it really works for him – his melodies can sometimes drift away without a strong rhythmic tether, and this vamping distorted riff provides a sturdy structure and lends a sense of momentum to one of the best vocal hooks he’s ever written.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 23rd, 2014 12:43pm

Somebody’s Having A Laugh


Andy Stott “Faith in Strangers”

A lot of songs that are built around a post-punk type of bass line end up having that part completely overtake the rest of the composition, and every other sound is just some decoration for this huge, thudding thing at the center of the track. But that’s not what’s going on in this Andy Stott piece at all – in fact, it’s pretty easy to not really notice it’s there since your ear is more likely to focus on the keyboard tone, the jittery and trebly drum programming, or Alison Skidmore’s lovely ghost-like vocals. The bass just sinks to the back, subtly adding this flat, depressive feeling that isn’t quite the dominant mood of the song, but kinda pulls you down with it, like an undertow.

Pre-order it from Amazon.



October 22nd, 2014 12:31pm

So Hard To See The Stars


Tenashe “Aquarius”

This song starts off in a fairly ordinary place – an R&B song in which a girl is telling a dude about how she wants to chill him out with sex that’ll be better than what he’d get with anyone else – but then makes a hard shift into astrology and paranoia about the government and media. It’s not as though those ideas can’t naturally fit together in the same conversation, but in context it’s a very welcome dose of eccentricity in a song that would’ve been pretty by-the-books if it kept going from the first verse and chorus. I feel like it earns its stoned, slo-mo vibe more by making that jump.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 21st, 2014 12:21pm

The Drums Of The City Rain


Gerard Way “Brother”

The majority of Gerard Way’s first solo album sounds like Britpop filtered through alt-rock and grunge, and you’d think I’d be the biggest mark for that. But as it turns out, my favorite on the record is the one that sounds the most like his old band, My Chemical Romance. “Brother” is a big theatrical power ballad that sounds distinctly mid-‘00s to my ears, and it dramatizes the feeling of hesitantly reaching out for help after every self-destructive thing you’ve done to deal with a deep depression has left you at rock bottom. The dead giveaway that this song is set in the past is in how grand and triumphant it feels, especially as it builds to a climax – that’s not the feeling of being at bottom, but recognizing later on when you’ve had the strength to make a decision that saves your life.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 20th, 2014 12:17pm

Reflecting Your Eyes


Thurston Moore “Forevermore”

I’ve spent enough time listening to Thurston Moore over the past 20 years that his particular rhythms and tics are burned into my mind, enough that I can hear a new song by him and accurately anticipate his every move. He’s basically been on autopilot for a long time now, but I don’t really hold that against him, since I think a lot of great musicians just sorta become more and more themselves over time, and lose interest in “reinvention” and focus more on what they can do within the boundaries of their style. In this way, he’s a Neil Young type.

Unlike his last few records, which pushed him to acoustic and punkish extremes, The Best Day basically sounds like the songs he probably would’ve brought to a new Sonic Youth album, if Sonic Youth was still going at the moment. Since Steve Shelley is pretty much always his drummer, it’s at least half a Sonic Youth song, but the ringers on second guitar and bass aren’t really bringing much to the table, certainly nothing on par with Lee Ranaldo’s inherent grace or Kim Gordon’s rawness. A song like “Forevermore” scratches an itch for me, but I’m too familiar with how all the players in Sonic Youth fit together to have it feel like the same.

And look, I don’t begrudge Thurston Moore’s happiness with his new girlfriend, but there’s just no way I can hear a song like this, which is all about how much he loves her, and not have it feel weird to me. It’s just too much like a dad trying to sell his children on his new lady after splitting from mom.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 17th, 2014 12:53pm

How I Learned Not To Care


Foxygen “How Can You Really”

One of my friends made a joke that Foxygen’s …And Star Power sounds “like disc 47 of the Their Satanic Majesties Request sessions box set,” and yes, it definitely does. (With a bit of Todd Rundgren in there too, I suppose.) This isn’t surprising – a lot of the best stuff on their previous record was flagrant Stones mimicry – but the thing here is how much it all feels like outtakes. This isn’t a slight on the songwriting, which is often quite strong, but rather the sense that everything is being recorded at the point where the musicians either haven’t fully clicked on a song, or have long since moved past the point of exhaustion. There’s a feeling of looseness on the album that feels like hearing a band that doesn’t care about sounding perfect, but is getting a lot of “feel” on the tape. You really get a sense of a room, and people interacting, and a performance that is lacking in self-consciousness even if it’s otherwise rather affected.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 14th, 2014 12:44pm

We Gotta Do It Metaphysically


Prince “This Could Be Us”

Prince’s music over the past 20 years doesn’t have a good reputation, and there’s good reason for that – he’s spent a LOT of that time being very indulgent and making records that satisfy his creative urges but test the patience of even his most devoted fans. You really do need some kind of sherpa to guide you through all that music. But despite this, Prince periodically shows us that he can still do exactly the kind of music he’s loved for, and that he can do it with a real spark of commitment and soul. “This Could Be Us” is one of those songs. It’s a slow jam that breaks no ground for him whatsoever, but it’s lovely and sexy and his voice is gorgeous on it. There is no shortage of other artists who have attempted to mimic Prince in this mode in the past, but when you hear him do a track like this, you get how effortless it is for him. A lot of other music he does – certainly a bunch of other tracks on the Art Official Age record – seem like he’s working, but this is just what Prince is like when he relaxes and goes to a default setting.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 13th, 2014 12:49pm

Heathens Come, Charlatans Go


Electric Six “Alone with Your Body”

It’s kinda amazing that it took Electric Six ten albums to make a fake Motown song, or more specifically, “white middle class bar band dudes playing soul music.” There’s about two layers of ironic distance in the music, and another added in the lyrics, in which Dick Valentine sings from the perspective of an ordinary lunk with zero sense of romance who’s just really honest about his focus on getting laid. The thing that really makes this song work is that the warm vibe of the music and the “hey, I’m just a simple dude” rhetoric in the lyrics make all of this seem friendly and cute, but the obvious irony punctures that, and makes you wonder why anyone would think this type of guy is anything less than pathetic, juvenile, and predatory.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 8th, 2014 12:52pm

Calling All The Human Race


Peaking Lights “Telephone Call”

I like the way Indra Dunis seems so guileless as she sings this song. There’s a pretty high level of kitsch in the music and the lyrics, but she’s just straight faced enough to make the whole song seem ambiguous and inscrutable. It’s a very ‘80s new wave move – being silly, but at the same time giving you just enough intensity or seriousness to keep you off balance and wonder if there’s something deeper and darker going on. The deeper, darker stuff subverts the goofiness, but I think it’s more important to realize that the goofiness also subverts the dark and deep side too.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 7th, 2014 12:18pm

You Could Be My Unicorn


Swick & Lewis Cancut featuring Tkay Maidza “Wishes”

“Wishes” is the sort of pop song that is so catchy and insistent that it dares to be totally annoying, but that’s sorta built into the sentiment of the lyrics. This is about feeling a very particular blend of ecstatic joy and nagging anxiety after connecting with someone amazing, and not being able to stop yourself from putting them on a pedestal and worrying that they are way, way, waaaay out of your league. Tkay Maidza sounds like she’s attempting to make sense of this in every line, and she’s mostly being positive about it. And thank god for that, because this song could so easily tip into being a more creepy or pathetic thing.

Get the Secret Songs compilation for free here.



October 6th, 2014 1:37am

Who Are Smart


Deerhoof “Paradise Girls”

One of the best things about Deerhoof is that their music often conveys a joyful physicality. It just sounds like the product of great fun, and the parts click together in this seemingly spontaneous way, even if it’s not improvised at all. John Dieterich’s guitar parts always feel particularly alive, and seem to jump around the beat like a hyperactive child. “Paradise Girls” aims for a sort of pop aesthetic, but because Deerhoof can’t really sound like anyone but themselves, it ends up in a more interesting place. The beat is busy but immediately engaging, and Satomi Matsuzaki pays tribute to female musicians in a way that’s sorta vague in language but highly specific in sentiment. You can hear a smile in every note she sings.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 2nd, 2014 2:57am

Kiss And Kill Me Sweetly


The_Smashing_Pumpkins_-_Adore

The narrative around The Smashing Pumpkins’ Adore has always been that it’s this bold departure from the band’s sound, but that’s only half true. Yes, it is an album that avoids the sort of heavy psychedelic rock that the band was best known for, but at the same time, there’s really nothing on the record that wasn’t rooted in what Billy Corgan had already done on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the Aeroplane Flies High, or the soundtrack hits “Eye” and “The End is the Beginning is the End.” In terms of aesthetics, Adore was definitely not a shock to anyone who was closely following the band in that era, and its particular palette of bleeps and washes and “beats” were very much in line with other major artists at the time – U2, R.E.M., Tori Amos, Madonna – were doing to chase a modern, millennial vibe.

Few records sound more 1998 than Adore, and I think that’s actually a good thing about it. It’s very rooted in a particular time and place, but it has a lot of moments that feel like a world unto itself. It was definitely a bold move, though, and I don’t think its relative lack of commercial success should be held against it. It’s basically the ‘90s equivalent of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk – there was really no way Corgan was ever going to top the extraordinary success and cultural impact of Mellon Collie, so if whatever came next was doomed to look like a failure, why not make it arty and personal and uncompromising? Lindsey Buckingham had the right idea.

(Thinking right now about just how much Corgan and Buckingham are alike as people and as musicians. It’s kinda amazing. I wonder if they’ve ever talked.)

The Smashing Pumpkins “Pug” (Matt Walker 2014 Reimagined Mix)

“Pug” has always been my favorite of the Adore songs, though “Shame” and “To Sheila” come close. I love the way “Pug” alternates between menace and sensuality, and how lovely and feminine Corgan’s voice gets on the chorus. The lyrics are similarly moody, with him trying to make sense of a relationship that’s just as full of lust and affection as cruelty and loathing. At some points the song is outright bitter and confrontational, but it rings very true when he shifts over to forgiving and pleading on the bridge. The thing that really gets me in this is how he sings “desire me so deeply, drain and kick me hard,” maybe because the emphasis on “desire me” sounds so much like a command. It’s like he’s trying to control the other person, but mostly because he can’t comprehend them desiring him without being implored to do so.

Buy it from Amazon.



October 1st, 2014 1:47pm

The Clouds Were Grey And The Sun Was Bright


Tricky “I Had A Dream”

I feel bad for Tricky sometimes – so much of what he was doing two decades ago has been plundered by other artists, and writers rarely if ever give him credit for being so forward-thinking and influential. He really did himself in by becoming so prolific – that’s a surefire way to alienate casual listeners, especially when you have the bravery to fail and take a lot of weird risks. He keeps making new records, and the general response by my peers has been to do that thing where someone is knocking on your door and you stay totally silent until they give up and walk away. I have not been on board for a lot of what Tricky has done in the later stages of his career, but I do think he’s still good for a few strong songs per record. To some extent he’s spoiled his own reputation, but it’s just so aggravating that he can’t seem to get credit for the truly brilliant work he’s done in his career when an artist like FKA Twigs, who is nothing if not a flagrant Tricky tribute artist, is somehow seen as an innovator by people who don’t really know better. But this is true of Massive Attack and Aphex Twin too – so much of ‘90s electronic music has been recycled, and it’s almost always framed as FRESH and NEW by people with no frame of reference. Well, I guess now I know how all those original krautrock fans felt in the ‘90s.

Buy it from Amazon.



September 30th, 2014 12:39pm

I Just Never Want To Hear That Sound


Ex Hex “How You Got That Girl”

One thing that sets Mary Timony apart from a lot of other artists, particularly those of her generation, is that in over 20 years, she’s never once revisited the past. She’s never reunited Helium, she doesn’t play oldies in concert, she hasn’t stuck to any of her signature sounds. Every phase of her career is a particular idea with a specific set of musicians, and once it’s over, she scraps the songs and moves on. Her current band, Ex Hex, shares its name with one of her mid-00s solo albums, but that’s about as much as you’ll get from her in terms of looking backwards. The new band is a logical progression from where she was in Wild Flag – fun and energetic, with a distinct late ‘70s/early ‘80s new wave vibe. At first I thought this material was regressive, but I’ve come to feel like that’s part of the charm. Yes, she may be far away from the distinct genius of her guitar playing in Helium, but the simplicity of the arrangements in Ex Hex allow her to really focus on melody and hooks, and that pays off with a handful of some of the catchiest and most immediate songs of her career.

Buy it from Amazon.



September 29th, 2014 12:07pm

All Of My Madness


Thom Yorke “Guess Again!”

The funny thing about Thom Yorke is that he drifted away from rock music because he felt it was banal, but culture has shifted in a way that the electronic music he makes now feels surprisingly ordinary. Yorke’s third album outside of Radiohead, Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, is at times alarmingly dull. I don’t know what’s going on with Yorke himself, but the music on this record and the last Atoms for Peace album seems stagnant and complacent to me, as if he’s found this niche where he can concentrate on a cool vibe and not have to put a lot of work into songwriting. I can appreciate where he’s coming from in terms of instrumentation, and there are often cool ideas there, but his singing is on autopilot – there’s melodies, sure, but they feel very unformed and aimless. It’s often just a loose structure for him to make pretty or menacing Thom Yorke noises. “Guess Again!” deviates slightly from this. The melody isn’t quite up to the high standards of the majority of his body of work, but it is definitely there, and serves as a thread holding together elements in a track that might otherwise drift apart. I wouldn’t characterize a lot of the cuts on Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes as failures so much as experiments that don’t quite work because the songwriting isn’t there. No matter what Yorke does, he can’t stop being a guy who thrives on melody, harmony, and structure. When he tries to get too far away from those things, he only reveals his weaknesses. It’s very brave for him to constantly push himself out of his comfort zone, but it’s not always enjoyable to hear it.

Buy it from Thom Yorke.



September 25th, 2014 11:39am

New-Phase Gregorian Chants For Now People


Laetitia Sadier “Quantum Soup”

For a long time I had assumed that the instrumental side of Stereolab’s songwriting was dominated by Tim Gane, but Laetitia Sadier’s solo records indicate that she was either a lot more hands on with that sort of thing in that band, or she internalized their rhythms and aesthetics so much that she naturally writes that way when left to her own devices. This isn’t to say that you can’t tell the difference. Sadier’s music on her own are considerably more relaxed and less busy, and escape the airless, schematic quality of Gane’s work. “Quantum Soup,” the opening track on her new album Something Shines, sounds like a far looser version of late period Stereolab – the telltale sounds are there, but it seems to float on a breeze, and the trajectory of the composition is intuitive and jazzy.

Buy it from Amazon.



September 23rd, 2014 12:04pm

The First A Formal Music


Aphex Twin “Minipops 67 (Source Field Mix)”

Right around the time Syro was announced, a few fake “leaks” of the album started going around. I can’t remember what it actually was, but if you barely knew Aphex Twin, you wouldn’t really know the difference probably. It’s sort of insulting, really, the thought that an electronic record with no vocals would all basically be the same. When “Minipops 67” was released as a single, it was clear just how recognizable Aphex Twin really is – his catalog is varied, but there’s just particular tones and rhythms that are very him. Mark Richardson’s review of Syro pointed out that his approach to drum programming is every bit as distinctive as how John Bonham played the drums, and I think that’s very true. It’s an interesting thing to consider, too – a lot of what is recognizable about music played on traditional instruments is in the way the musician’s body interacts with the object. It’s a unique physicality and sensibility. With programming, I suppose, it’s more about recognizing the way someone’s mind works. That’s present in live instrumentation too, but it’s more the focus here. Even if you haven’t been lurking around Aphex Twin’s mind for some time, you immediately recognize where you are when you’re there.

Buy it from Amazon.



September 22nd, 2014 12:04pm

This Is For Nobody


Julian Casablancas + The Voidz “Take Me In Your Army”

Julian Casablancas’ new record barely sounds like what you’d expect of him – it’s deliberately odd and spacey, gleefully perverse, and sometimes he barely sounds like himself as he sings. It’s a genuinely surprising record from someone we’re used to sounding more or less the same every time. A lot of the musical extremes of Tyranny seem to be a reaction against this, and the way working with The Strokes must feel like a creative straitjacket: They’ve got such a distinct sound and specific brand that they can barely do anything outside the formula of Is This It that wouldn’t alienate their fans. This record feels like Casablancas trying to purge a decade’s worth of oddball ideas in one set of songs, and it’s sort of overwhelming, but in a good way. Not every song and experiment works, but when he and his new band click – like on the dreamy yet creepy “Let Me In Your Army” – it’s like he has a new lease on his career.

Buy it from Amazon.




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