ALBUM REVIEW: The Twilight Sad- Forget The Night Ahead (2009)

Scotland must have a way of affecting the bands it breeds, in a very specific and atmospheric way. The Twilight Sad, along with a number of other up-and-coming bands who embody the dark & stormy, fashionably moody, intrinsically brooding nature of the Scottish landscape, have been bringing this sound to the other side of the world since the mid-2000s. Although they're not the only ones making this type of monumentally moody indie rock (Frightened Rabbit and We Were Promised Jetpacks instantly come to mind), The Twilight Sad have a grasp of how to effectively convey their weighty subject matter, in a way that somehow makes them feel like the requisite elder statesmen of this emerging movement. They have class, they have finesse, and they certainly have the thundering presence that makes this album not only beautiful and dark and ominous, but also very raw and hard-hitting.

There's a dissonant noise that starts the album off, before thumping drums and a plodding baseline fade into the mix and it's only a matter of time before a lingering guitar line drenched in reverb chimes in to welcome the deep tenor vocals that are the trademark tell of this band's Scottish origins. "Reflection of The Television" is a fuzzy, trembling and instantly enrapturing opening track which bodes perfectly for what the rest of this album is all about. The main dichotomy of what The Twilight Sad attempt on this album (and more often than not achieve) is the contrasts between warmth and freezing cold- some of this record feels like cuddling beside a fireplace, other parts of this record feel like walking through a snowstorm. Yet, these two parts of who the band is, are equally represented and mixed together to achieve maximum impact. When the fuzz and the noise swells, a melody of hope usually materializes at just the moment when it feels everything might spin out of control and leave the listener frozen. But that's the point.

"Made To Disappear", the 4th track on the album, perfectly embodies these polarizing sides of the band. Starting off with a quietly strummed clean guitar, the swirling drums and bass soon crash in while the vocal takes the reins for a verse that swells into a beautifully echo-drenched chorus of dissonant notes and cathartic release. The song continues to move between these two extremes, and fades out with a repeated guitar phrase that screams quiet desperation as it tugs undeniably on heartstrings but resolves nothing. It leaves you hanging on, and if there's any emotional disturbance in your head or heart, it will be stirred and forced into the open. The song is raw but also measured, the band knows how to reign in the extremes but doesn't shy away from letting us taste the chaos first.

After the static and echo of the 5th track "Scissors" (which feels more like an interlude than a proper song), the record switches gears and presents us with it's most moody and minimalist offering, the gorgeously heartbreaking "The Room". Made up of mainly a lone insistently pounded piano chord progression and thumping drums over a pleading vocal line, The Twilight Sad distill the essence of their frosty emotional impact with this song. By the time the cathartic swollen ending builds and explodes, we are pushed to the edge of the proverbial angst-ridden cliff; just waiting and teetering as the music crashes and threatens to fuzz out into the ether, but soon drops right back down to just the lone drums and piano... and fades out. The storm starts slow, the blizzard attacks, and then it moves on; leaving nothing but unresolved feelings and destruction in it's wake. But "The Room" is beautiful, even through it's erratic highs and lows.

I could take you through the rest of the album, but that would be redundant. The Twilight Sad are able to conjure so many feelings and so palpably embody a dark and stormy night that it's almost impossible to continue to overstate this fact. It's not a perfect record, although it comes quite close. Forget The Night Ahead rewards repeated spins, and although it is initially hard to tell each song apart, keep at it. This is not an album that delivers immediate thrills. You have to be willing to live in it awhile, to take it with you and keep it close. The Twilight Sad don't only dodge the dreaded "sophomore slump" with this album, they actually turn it into their definitive statement... and it's not easy to Forget at all. Damn near impossible.

ALBUM REVIEW: Wintersleep- Hello Hum (2012)

There's something intrinsically true about Wintersleep's name, as it relates to the band's slightly chilly yet warming and melodious nature. The band has been making waves in Canada since 2003, when their debut self-titled album hit the shelves, and people started taking notice of their enigmatic sound and darkly compelling lyrics. The band's 4th release overall, Hello Hum presents them at their most accessible, yet also at their most powerfully direct. The songs don't deliver twists and turns like their earlier tunes, but they also aren't self-consciously odd like some of those found on their previous album, 2010's New Inheritors. Wintersleep find a cautious balance between melody and melodrama, with the production of the record going in a slightly more electronic direction, but the songs themselves remaining taut and, fortunately, compelling in that very Wintersleep kind of way.

If you've loved Wintersleep since the beginning, it may take some adjusting of your expectations, and a few spins of the record to win you over; but in the end you'll find yourself really enjoying the songs because they are just good songs. The record is, in this humble reviewer's opinion, a drastic improvement over the previous release. Where they went wrong then, was with a new speak-talk vocal approach in certain songs, which could have been interesting in a way, except for the overly simplistic lyrics and underwhelming song arrangements. A few tracks stuck out as signature Wintersleep, but it was an overall disappointing record. I'm glad to be able to say that, with Hello Hum those flaws have been corrected. Wintersleep sounds like Wintersleep, albeit a more focussed and leaner version of the band I've come to love so much.

Wintersleep takes care this time out to imbue each tune with a focus that won't allow for unnecessary deviations into all-out jamming. Although this may read as "boring" to some fans of the band's previous output, Wintersleep doesn't disappoint those hoping for something interesting to sink their teeth into. Between the 3-5 minutes each song typically takes to wrap around you, there's enough going on to keep everything compelling and interesting, even if the band isn't apt to go off on tangents or perform extended math-rock licks. It's okay, they no longer need to. The songwriting on Hello Hum is enough for fans of the band to deliciously devour, and lyrically there's still knots of darkness to untie, but there's also bright sunspots to bask in. The instrumentation is varied, and as mentioned earlier, production-wise the album has an electronicity (I know that's not a word) to it that wasn't there before. Mainly in the way the drums thump and pop with deep bass and fuzzy synths weave in and out of the mix; with the overall effect just making the album sound bigger and denser than previous records did.

In essence, Hello Hum is both a return to form of sorts, and a nice augmentation of a sound the band has perfected. If you're one of the outsiders who (for what reason I can't fathom) haven't brought yourself up to speed with Wintersleep, now's a great time to start.

ALBUM REVIEW: Smashing Pumpkins- Gish (1991)

Before Billy Corgan and the original incarnation of the Smashing Pumpkins were the biggest rock band on the planet, and before Corgan's name was ubiquitous with all manner of cliche and arrogance, there was the band's debut album: Gish. Released in 1991 before the advent of Nirvana's Nevermind, Gish shows the incredible potential SP would soon unleash upon the rock world, with a set of not only explosive grunge-guitar workouts but also beautifully psychedelic pieces of early nineties rock and roll.

By this point, if you don't know who the Smashing Pumpkins are, you either don't care to know or aren't a fan of rock music. It was almost impossible to avoid Billy Corgan and his band throughout the 90's, due mostly to a string of VERY successful singles, sold-out tours, multi-platinum albums, and Billy's own admissions of control-freak excess and rock god status. The band has somehow been lumped into the eponymous "grunge" category, but like a lot of the early forerunners, the Pumpkins weren't just about heavy layered guitar sounds and angsty adolescent lyrics. The Smashing Pumpkins showed a measured variation of sounds on their debut, while staying within the rock and roll framework. Put it this way: if Nirvana drew influence from 70's punk and 80's new-wave, the Pumpkins were pulling from the pool of late 60's guitar rock & psychedelia, 70's arena-rock, and 80s shoe-gaze. Of course the heavy grunge guitar sound is something Billy is well known for, but it isn't the only trick in the bag.

Gish is a memorable and beautiful record because of these varying shifts in mood and atmosphere. The songs I Am One, Siva, Bury Me,  and Tristessa show the aggressive, grunge-tinged side of this album. But don't for a minute assume that means one-dimentional. Even when shooting straight for the jugular, Billy Corgan and the Pumpkins are savvy songwriters and the arrangements not only go for maximum guitar rattle and impact, but build texture and marry that with great hooks. These songs are literally a blast- just try not to grin from ear to ear and jump out of your skin when cranking these tunes. It's almost impossible, and that's a testament to just how uncompromising the band is when defining their core sound. Right out of the gate, they want you to know they mean business-- and it's obvious. On the other hand, Rhinoceros, Crush, Suffer, and Window Paine offer a dreamier, slower, introspective side of the band. The layering of the guitars and the textural songwriting is taken to another level, with dashes of subtle psychedelia as a sign post to the band's (but mostly Billy's) influences. The few songs left in-between successfully tie these two sides of the band together, and what results is a cohesive and stunning debut album.

If it's obvious how much I love this album, then I've done my job well. Although the Smashing Pumpkins may have made bigger albums, or written better songs, there is a distillation of their essence that comes out every time I play Gish, which is only made more apparent through the lens of the band's later work. If you've ever been a fan of the Smashing Pumpkins, 90s alternative rock, or just rock and roll music in general, but haven't given Gish at least one thorough listen, turn off whatever you're listening to now and get your hands on this record. It is truly a masterpiece in it's own right.

ALBUM REVIEW: Explosions In The Sky- The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place (2003)

With a band as consistently exceptional and awe-inspiring as Explosions In The Sky, it's almost a trick in itself to single out any particular record from their catalog without feeling like you're playing favourites. Their 2003 entry The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place falls smack-dab in the middle of their continuing output, and it's the most concentrated encapsulation of their melodic vision as a band. Is it their best? That is certainly debatable, but there's something about this record that makes it feel like their all-time definitive statement, even if they have continued to create ever more compelling collections of moving instrumental masterpieces since.

The main thing you have to remember when approaching this album is that you're going to be moved. In some way, in some shape, in some form, you cannot fully engage with a record as vastly orchestrated as this, an album so full of direct and explosive melodic tension, without feeling something. That being said, it does reward and require a certain diligence and commitment.

Since Explosions In The Sky do not employ the use of a vocalist, the music has to speak for itself. For someone as actively engaged in musical exploration as I am, this is not a drawback at all. In a sense, the music is left out to breathe and pulse on it's own, not being obscured by someone's lyrical stamp or emotional pre-description. But, it is also that nondescript nature that sometimes turns some people off from their sound. Believe me, if you're someone who is always initially drawn in by a good vocal hook, all it takes is a few active listens before you'll forget altogether that you're not being sung to. The fact is, every song in this 5 song set has it's own lyricisms and hooks built right into the compositions. This is the nature of the album and EITS as a band, their collective creative vision can be executed in fully instrumental compositions because the music is strong enough, organic enough, melodic enough, to tell it's own story.

On The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, Explosions In The Sky employ a basic formula of loud-soft dynamic shifts, arpeggio guitar lines, a thundering rhythm section, and lush compositional flair. To someone tuning in for the first time, you may not notice much difference between what EITS do compared to other bands of the post-rock/indie rock ilk. But of course, with repeated spins, the studied compositional nature of each song really becomes apparent. Although the record is orchestrated tightly, EITS are able to hang on to a sense of wide-open spaces and spontaneous-sounding bursts of pent-up emotion. The songs walk a taut balance between ruminative and explosive, and I don't think it's incidental that Explosions In The Sky is the band's moniker. This album manages to pack each song (none less than 8 minutes in length) with enough twists and turns to keep each of them singular and interesting, but none of them taper off so far into the ether that they become cacophonous or unwieldy. It is truly a feat that each song has it's own personality and flow, while fitting into the album's whole like puzzle pieces.

This record has such an indelible impact because it is exceptionally uplifting. Sure, there are moments of intricate despair, and washes of subtle loneliness, but as the title suggests, The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place does not wallow in the dark corners of existence. It is an album that takes every opportunity to turn despair into hope, and when the slow buildups crash into cathartic bursts, the warmth washes over you and all seems well in the world (if only for the duration of the album). The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place is the perfect place to begin your explorations if you're not yet familiar with Explosions In The Sky. If you are, but haven't got around to giving this album it's proper due, then don't hesitate another minute. Highly recommended, in all categories.

ALBUM REVIEW: Arkells- Michigan Left (2011)

I have always been drawn to music that can spell out my inner emotions, and turn them into something compelling and emphatic. For years, I wallowed in music of a downbeat nature, all strained vocal chords and crashing guitars, the sort of cathartic sound of a teenage boy lost in unrequited love and roller coaster emotions. These days, although the emotional ups and downs remain, I prefer something a little more life-affirming most of the time. For a guy like me, Michigan Left, the Arkells second album, hits all the right notes.

I have always loved what the Arkells do. Even for the years I've spent knowing who they were but not paying close attention, whenever I encountered one of their tuneful songs I would smile and think to myself "why on earth haven't I gotten into these guys yet?". Back in December I was given a very good reason to do just that. A friend of mine invited me to see the band live and since I'm not one to ever give up on heading downtown to a cool club to see some Canadian indie talent, I hurriedly picked up their debut album Jackson Square, and spent the duration of the two weeks before the show immersing myself in the record. And really, it's quite a record. The first thing I noticed while connecting to it was how familiar some of the songs already sounded. These guys were made for rock radio, and I mean that in the best way possible. They have huge hooks, and they pepper their music with flourishes of compelling instrumentals, and they make sure to tie all their modern rock vigor to a grounding sense of the past and a classicist pop sensibility. I loved that record as much as was possible in that short time span, and the show only reinforced my affinity with it.

As I am with most sophomore efforts that follow records I've fallen in love with, I was a little bit hesitant to bring myself up to speed with Michigan Left. I had heard a few people talk about how it is overwhelmingly poppy, with a production value geared towards inducing commercial success. I had been so enthralled with the first album that I was sure this next one could be nothing but a letdown, even if it was a fun listen. It took a friend's reassurance to compel  me to actually pick it up and check it out. I couldn't have been more impressed with what I encountered upon finally giving it a spin.

First of all, it is poppy. There's no way around that fact, but don't let that put you off. Arkells know the value of a great hook, or an explosive chorus, and they weave their stories of love and travel into beautifully concise nuggets of rock perfection. The difference between them and lets say, Hedley, is that this sense of pop comes from classic rock and 80s influence, not modern-day chart topping hits. They aren't so much making a bid to be the next "biggest band in the world", but are carving their already hooky (if not quite upfront) pop sensibility into a sound that connects upon first listen but sustains that impact throughout continued exposure. And that's not an easy feat. Somehow, even though I've been addicted to this album for the past month and a half, I'm still being impressed and surprised with how effortless the Arkells make it sound. And for anyone looking for those interesting flourishes that gave Jackson Square cerebral appeal, it hasn't been lost on Michigan Left. Just refined, and slightly polished.

There's still that lingering ghost of Bruce Spingsteen anthemics throughout the album, although the Arkells are starting to sound more and more like themselves. For a sophomore album, that's just about as much as you can ask for from such a hard-working band. Standout tracks are all over Michigan Left; "Book Club" starts the album off with a huge punch of breezy energy as the vocalist tells a lighthearted story about a friend who is willing to share his collection of great literature; "Coffee" has a lounge-type feeling without slowing the pace to a crawl, and is a perfect detailing of how it feels to be on the outside looking in on a troubled relationship; "One Foot Out The Door" actually manages to incorporate an odd space-rock vibe without blowing itself into the stratosphere, a sort of touchstone smacked into the middle of the album for how far these guys have come in the last 3 years. Although all of the songs are really totally worth mentioning, the standout track to me is also the final track on the album; "Agent Zero" starts off with a menacing vibe that slowly builds into one of the most affecting climaxes you're likely to hear. Ever. The song ends with a tuneful gang-sung "Turn all the lights down low..." over and over again until the music fades out and only the uplifting voices are left to end the album on an incredible note. And they do that all in the span of just over 3 minutes.

The fact that only one song on Michigan Left exceeds 4 minutes is such a testament to how well this band has shaped their melodious blasts of rock and pop perfection. And really, if you give it a listen and aren't willing to let yourself fall in love with these songs, you're just being snooty. There's not a snowman on this earth whose heart wouldn't melt upon hearing these fantastic songs. And that's part of the overall appeal to me. The band is so good at crafting their songs that, even with melancholia peppering a good portion of the lyrical content, it never casts too dark a shadow over the album's overall mood. You won't feel depressed listening to this album, and you'll probably be compelled to play it on repeat just to immediately re-live the overwhelming amount of memorable hook-laden moments. And if that isn't something to be excited about, I don't know what is.

Track 3: "Michigan Left"

My Picks for 2011/Upcoming "Music Matters" Podcast

Bon Iver- Bon Iver (June 21st 2011)

-Intricate folk with experimental leanings

-Expanded sonic palette

-Atmospheric and emotionally resonant

-Grammy nominations for best album, best song (Holocene)

-Took woodsy solitary vibe of For Emma, added layered instrumentation and varied experimental textures
-Perth, Calgary, Michicant, Beth/Rest, Holocene

Miracle Fortress- Was I The Wave? (April 26th 2011)

-Heavy 80s influence

-Fantastic flow, every song works on it's own, as well as within the album and in the context of the others

-One-man band, Canadian talent

-Atmospheric/ cold-detached but with warmth and personality

-Creates something new and compelling with dated sound- through the lens of now/2000s

-Spectre, Raw Spectacle, Imminent Domain

We Were Promised Jetpacks- In The Pit of The Stomach (October 4th 2011)

-Scotland-based band

-Very textural in-your-face sound, brash

-Emotionally-direct, high energy

-Great amalgamation of indie & alternative, fresh spin

-Down-to-earth and intelligent without loosing spirit of youth

-"Winter" atmosphere

-Circles & Squares, Act On Impulse, Picture of Health

Favourite song of the year-- "Somebody That I Used To Know" By Gotye

From the album: Making Mirrors

Incredibly catchy, without adhering to current pop conventions. Heavily influenced by world-beat/80s artists such as Peter Gabriel, Genesis, The Police… Great duet performance by Kimbra. Powerful vocals and inventive arrangement.