A&E summer picks

Beat the summer heat with these cool and refreshingly different album picks from your friendly A&E editors

  • Arts
Bitte Orca is The Dirty Projectors most likeable album to date.
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Bitte Orca is The Dirty Projectors most likeable album to date.

The Dirty Projectors

Bitte Orca The Dirty Projectors’ collaboration with David Byrne on the indie super mix Dark Was The Night was one of the stand out tracks on that record.

Now, hot off the success of that album, The Dirty Projectors have released their first full-length album since 2007. Bitte Orca is one of the most original and complex albums to have come out this year and is indeed perfect for summer. Bitte Orca is the type of record you listen to from beginning to end. It’s refreshingly unpredictable and is honestly, unlike anything I’ve heard before. And although the record takes some trips into unreal sonic spaces, it is probably the band’s most accessible record to date.

Dave Longstreth formed Dirty Projectors in 2002, and the group now also counts Angel Deradoorian, Amber Coffman and Brian McComber as principal members. The band has gained a much-earned reputation for being completely unconventional in melodic structure and chord progression. By rearranging and toying with conventional musical structures, The Dirty Projectors create the type of music that people are not used to listening to. It’s clear these kids have imagination and the talent to try new things.

Bitte Orca as a whole is almost indescribable. Genre and style don’t factor into the songwriting process of this band. Bitte Orca is exciting to listen to because it’s unpredictability. Just when you think a song or a word or a note is going in one direction, it swoops and dives in another, but there’s something about these leaps that could convert the most ardent hater of Animal Collective-like music over to the complicated “art-pop” side. The music is not displeasing or annoying, but fascinatingly melodic and catchy.

And then there’s Dave Longstreth’s voice, which is probably the most interesting instrument on the album. Almost unrecognizable as human, at times Longstreth’s voice is other worldly. At others, others he sounds like some hybrid jazz hipster. Flying in and out of key, at times the vocals seems free flowing and unrestrained, but when you listen carefully there is so much precision and detail to the songs that leaves the listener marvelling at Longstreth’s talent.

It’s hard to say whether or this album will find popularity with critics and music listeners alike. But Bitte Orca is perfect for a hot summers day. It’s restless, wild, imaginative, and all too brief—just like summer.

—Emily Whalen

Florence and the Machine Lungs

It’s quite a challenge to attempt to classify Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine, and experiencing her debut album Lungs doesn’t make this predicament any easier.

The London-born Welch could hastily be lumped with the likes of Little Boots, La Roux or Lady Gaga—a group of young, current female artists who all emerged into the somewhat mainstream consciousness earlier this year. While the other women share a passion for 80s synth pop, she’s alone in her sound.

Just when it seems I’m starting to get a handle on Welch and her machine’s meta folk-pop meets jazz and blues inflected tunes, the next track comes on and throws me for a complete loop. Jumping from crooning jazz pieces to tribal rhythms like “Drumming Song,” the record keeps the listener guessing. By the end of the album I felt like a quirky witch with dark and romantic stories to tell had just chased me through a fairy tale forest.

The record itself comes across as a deeply personal one, with a varying angry and hilarious tone. It can be inferred that when Florence falls in love; she falls hard. In her “Hurricane Drunk” Welch states “I’m going out/ I’m going to drink myself to death” implying the only recourse to her heartbreak is music, rage and vast quantities of alcohol.

Although Florence remains the songwriter and front-woman of the band, she introduces various Indie artists, friends, and compadres she meets along the way and isn’t afraid to switch up her “machine” that accompanies her onstage.

Specializing in dark, gothic imagery, the songs are set to everything from werewolves to wedding dresses, bleeding hearts and masks. No matter the subject, the songs are universally quiet-at-first and deceptively simple gems that build into soaring climaxes bursting with raw energy and passion.

Following in the footsteps of fellow Brits Kate Nash and Adele, the songs evoke a transcending, larger than life feeling largely due to Welch’s lyrics. A standout track can be found in “My Boy Builds Coffins” a loving yet darkly tender anthem where Welch warns, “One of these days he’ll make one for you”. The undeniably powerful “Kiss with a Fist”, the most rock oriented fist pumping song on the album is contrasted with more feeling ballads like “I’m Not Calling You a Liar” where she tells it like it is.

Arguably the most powerful aspect of the album is Welch’s blatant ability and talent to rock every nook and cranny of her genre while bringing something new and thought-provoking to each song. She brings certain continuity to the record with her vocals despite the variance in tone and style to each song. It’s a musical mosaic that works seamlessly. Alhough some initial confusion may befall you, whether hearing Lungs on the highway or on the dance floor, you’re sure to be intrigued and inspired by the sound of someone who has found their voice and is keen to use it—as loudly and freely as she sees fit.

—Ally Hall

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

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