Archive for the ‘The Mars Volta’ Category
Top 5 Records of 2008 (Jon Pinkus)
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5. Fucked Up – The Chemistry of Common Life
Many Fucked Up fans were disillusioned by how many rules of punk rock were broken with this album. While the vocals still sound as dirty as ever and the energy is still there, the songs are much longer than punk songs are supposed to be, the guitars are massively layered, atmospheric, and the entire album seems drenched in reverb. The record somewhat echoes early Sparta material, but with a more bizarre, jagged approach. From the first jolting scream to the drawn out feedback closing the album, «The Chemistry of Common Life is one of the most engaging listens of the year.
Fucked Up – Son the Father
4. The Mars Volta – The Bedlam in Goliath
The Mars Volta are the most well known act in the world of intense progressive rock, and with this album the band has renewed its title as king. Bedlam surely is not a major departure from anything they’ve released previously, but it is the most intense encapsulation of the band’s abilities. Almost as if to apologize for the droning, anti-climactic nature of Amputechture, this album is relentless from start to finish, with a momentum that barely takes a breath for the entire 75 minute assault.
The Mars Volta – Metatron
3. Beast – s/t
This Montreal band has been touring with You Say Party! We Say Die! on a relatively unsuccessful tour that seemed endless up until now, but with this new record they have finally broken out. Falling somewhere between Nine Inch Nails, RATM, Portishead, and Muse – it’s Alternative, Hip Hop and Industrial, all tied together by the intense and all encompassing voice of Betty Bonifassi. Though one or two tracks on the album drag on, it’s strength is in powerful epics like Fingerprints and Devil. A must-listen of 2008.
Beast – Fingerprints
2. Portishead – Third
It seems like every album we`re so priviliged to get from this band is more incredible than the last (sadly Portishead does not adhere to the “album every two years” rule). But this isn`t 90s trip-hop anymore, this is 21st century Portishead. Songs like Machine Gun are darker and more haunting than ever before, but others like The Rip are some of the most beautiful songs ever written in the world of alternative genres. This album blends both jarring and pretty sounds like few records I have ever heard in my life.
Portishead – Machine Gun
1. Brazilian Girls – New York City
Behold what I would argue is not only the best experimental/alternative album of 2008, but the best record of the year, period. Exotic, intense, beautiful, sexy, bizarre, and mindblowing. It`s hard to put to words what this album does to you when you listen to it, but you may be a different person for listening all the way through just once. An incredible live act, and an equally impressive studio band, Brazilian Girls are exactly the kind of boost the alternative world needs in this unprecedented oversaturation of bands lobbying for our attention.
Brazilian Girls – Nouveau Americain
