AWmusic

The path to me finding indie rock is a little strange but I think I’ve narrowed it down when looking at the past. Pretty much growing up in the “ghetto” area of Toronto, hip-hop and R&B were and still is a huge musical influence for children growing up. This pretty much dominated my “young” adult years before entering high school.

Then came the rise of this band Linkin Park that mixed both rap and rock elements into their music. Right now it probably wouldn’t be very cool to say that I like Linkin Park and I’ve grown from the mainstream style of rock. But I do have to give credit where credit is due. I would have never started listening to rock if it was for them. Here’s my favorite song my them:
A Place for My Head (download)

The next period followed into liking mainstream rock like Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Blink 182, Green Day and much more. There was nothing wrong with liking songs that garnered a lot of radio and television airplay. Eventually like most people, the media outlets base their promotion on ever seeming young audience and I just seemed to outgrow radio/television and needed to find music that was out there but just didn’t get the respect it deserved.

The first actually indie band I started to like was the Stills. I think this was in grade 10. Thankfully the Edge had to keep up with CRTC rules and had to play Canadian content so some of the Canadian content were from independent sources. The “Still in Love Song” exemplifies my exact thoughts on the the Stills. I was compelled by their other songs such as “Lola Stars and Stripes” and “Love and Death”. Liking so many songs I was interested in downloading “Logic Will Break Your Heart” and at that time it was probably the best album I have EVER heard at that time. I was in love with that album but there was really no one else it seemed who were also fans of them (except maybe Xulander). Here’s one song off the album:
Let’s Roll by The Stills (download)

At this point I liked mainstream rock mainly with some independent bands I stumbled across that got some airplay. The big band that really set off my romance with indie rock was the Arcade Fire. There is just something with substance that I enjoyed so greatly the first time I heard “Rebellion (Lies)”. “Funeral” ended up being on the best albums ever and this is without reading a single internet publication. Like the Stills, it was an album I seemed to like myself.
“Neighbourhood #1″ perfectly describes my relationship with indie rock and what the Arcade Fire did for me:
“You change all the lead
sleepin’ in my head,
as the day grows dim I hear you sing a golden hymn.”

If you have never heard this song I suggest you download it or listen to it below:
Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels) by The Arcade Fire (download)

This really set off me looking for different styles of music as I seemed to like the Arcade Fire religiously and was confused as why there was poor airplay after a lot of talk about Rebellion eventually died down after some time.I really think everyone starts with mainstream music because it’s only main outlets that you know to have “cool” music when you’re young. So everyone should have a pathway to why they what they like. What’s your story??

Well to be honest there really isn’t that much hype but enough around the internet to be considerably noticed on various music blogs. This album ends up becoming very solid with some songs that I can see people really liking.

There doesn’t seem to be anything particular special about this band that put it’s close to the favorite albums of the year but I feel it does hold it’s own.

My favorite songs are “No One’s Gonna Love You” and “Lamb of the Lam” which you can download below:

No One’s Gonna Love You by Band of Horses

Lamb of the Lam by Band of Horses

This album gets a 3.75 out of 5 from me. It’ll continue to receive playing time on my hard drive and I’m pretty satisfied with it after hearing “Is There A Ghost?”. It just doesn’t blow you away with particularly anything.

I say theoretical because this only works for a band that is actually world wide recognized. Most indie bands could not of had more blogging hype especially among the mainstream and indie crowds. It was a smart move to say the least.

The reviews for In Rainbows has been OFF the charts. Basically the reviews are saying that this has been one of the best Radiohead albums and currently has an 89 out 100 score on Metacritic making it the top album of the year.

Do I agree with everyone else? Not at all. When I first listened to the album, I just felt as if this was really boring and difficult to listen to. There aren’t many of songs that I specifically can start liking right off the bat. It took repeated listens to actually start to like something.

The songs are different but to me the album was more headache inducing than something I would say is equivalent to some of my top albums of the year like Sunset Rubdown’s Random Spirit Lover, The National’s Boxer and Of Montreal’s Hissing Fauna.

The singing is definitely decent and the songs are mostly growers but does it deserve such a high ranking? I feel as if the ratings are biased for people falling in love with the idea of releasing albums digitally only. Granted, I never have the same opinion as Pitchfork but I don’t let my liking of a band reflect what I think in a review.

The album is only decent. Nothing special. I could understand if it was still critically praised but not to this extent. I just couldn’t force myself to really like this album even with everyone else liking it.

This album as my friend called it feels more like “filler” of the great albums. Add that there are not really any songs I could say I really like, it makes it difficult to really listen to this album for a long period of time. I’m giving it a 2.75 out of 5. Decent overall but just not an album I will listen to in the future nor an album that is staying on my hard drive. If you hate it, feel free to comment or leave me alone to listen to old Radiohead stuff.

Here’s arguably the first song I liked on the album, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (download)

The Antichrist

Raining Blood

Beirut is different and most people respect that and therefore they get very good reviews from almost every publication.

The album isn’t so bad to listen to but there wasn’t really anything I particularly liked. I do enjoy the song “Nantes” but I find that I liked the street performance much better then the produced album version. I think I would love to see them live due to the vast amount of instruments played just like in Arcade Fire (Owen Pallett helped produce the string arrangements – he is formerly of AF).

Anyway every time I look at a video clip on Youtube of Beirut playing live it’s much better. Take for example this live performance of “Scenic World”:

It feels as if the album is OVER produced. Too many extra unnecessary sounds where the ends can be accomplished simply. It’s unique, skillful but does it make sense to say that it’s over done? I’ll give this one a 3.25 out of 5. Let me know when a live album comes out.

Here’s my favorite song Nantes (download):

When first putting on this album, it was very easy to listen to with a typically soft style. There isn’t anything over the top with the instruments just simple singing and not really anything too-catchy. I always take into account ease of the first listen and then see how it grows on me.

Two songs I dug instantly “Right Moves” and “Open Doors”. Both are romantic type songs. Otherwise for the rest of the album, it’s pretty solid. Nothing else I particular LOVED but it’s at least easy on the ears and decent for an album. I’m giving it a 4.25 out of 5.

Right Moves by Josh Ritter (download)

Open Doors by Josh Ritter (download)

I am not quite sure what musical genre you would want to group them into but I’ll just say it’s on the alternative side of things so you can check them out yourself.

Okay, onto the album. This album was really hard to listen to at first. I didn’t know what it was but I was ready to bash this album because it did kind of give me a headache. However when this happens that I find myself not really able to listen to an album, I give it a second chance to see if there are any songs that can save it from going to my computer’s recycling bin.

There were a few songs that stood out and they all happened to be bunched into one. The album gets good by Track 6 with Cycle Time, a favorite on the album would be “Freak Out” and “Clear Island” is a great track to.

I think the problem here is that I still dislike the rest and the album as a whole gives me a headache to listen to. A lot of it sounds repetitive (the stuff I didn’t like) and while the tracks I did like save it from a poor rating it still gets 3 out of 5 in my book. Roughly half the album is going into my recycling bin.

Still a decent album but just not quite good enough for me that I would be raving about it.

Check out Freak Out (download):

Anyway with Random Spirit Lover, the first listen through probably didn’t go over smoothly and it starts with a great song “Mending of the Gown” showing absolutely great instrumentals. All the way through this album there are songs that really got me addicted, usually after the second listen. I think this album is pretty good all the way throughout and picking of which songs you like is of course based on taste.

On a rating scale, I wouldn’t call this album perfect but pretty close to it. It doesn’t capture my fascination completely and I’ll give it a 4.75 out of 5.

Here are some random tracks that I dug:

Up On Your Leopard, Upon The End of Your Feral Days by Sunset Rubdown

Winged/Wicked Things by Sunset Rubdown