A+
Manchester Orchestra
Mean Everything To Nothing
FavouriteGentlemen Recordings
Manchester Orchestra have finally taken the bull by the horns with the release of their powerful sophomore project Mean Everything to Nothing. Instead of singing poignant yet fun-vacuum tunes like ‘Sleeper 1975’ from their first official release, I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child, Manchester Orchestra instead introduce a completely overhauled operation —a sound almost indistinguishable from their earlier work. Mean Everything to Nothing is so different, in fact, that it reached # 37 on the US Billboard charts, and the single ‘I’ve Got Friends’ has reached a coveted marker of success—being featured on Gossip Girl.
So what happened to Manchester Orchestra that thrust them so aggressively into the mainstream? It probably has something to do with the fact that they’ve changed everything.
The album exudes a certain confidence: swaggering guitar work and heavily distorted refrains stomp triumphantly twixt precise, almost ceremonial percussion. Tracks like ‘Shake It Out’ are certified anthems, and even leading man Andy Hull’s voice has transformed his signature delicate whisper into a crazed and often unmeasured rasp. Hull expresses his disenchantment with the Catholic Church and estrangement from his pastor throughout the album, with both heavy themes appearing throughout I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child. Wrought with tension and distortion, ‘Mean Everything to Nothing” is one of the most surprising albums of the year.
Although their live performance could do with a wee bit of personality, the new album is an indie-rock testament to what band jocks and metal fans smugly dubbed ‘emo nonsense’ back in 2005.
—Tom Morgan
B
St. Vincent
Actor
4AD
St. Vincent has talent for instrumentation. Her prog-pop deftly combination of textures—lushness meeting grittiness, sweet bright sounds encountering baroque darkness. Her sophomore album, Actor, is all the more interesting, written entirely on her laptop using Garage Band.
According to her website, she wrote her demos by “drawing” the notes in one by one on her laptop. This seems like the kind of bedroom tweaking reserved for college students with far more ideas than musical talent.
But St. Vincent, née Annie Clark, is known already for her real-life technical chops. A classically-trained guitarist, she has been a member of Sufjan Stevens’ touring band as well as the Dallas-born band Polyphonic Spree.
Actor dodges the music world trend of disappointing second albums. While improving on her first release, Marry Me, the album sometimes suffers from similar faults. Actor is reminiscent of the kind of film soundtrack you rarely notice.
There’s very little dynamic range in the instrumentals and emotional range in the vocals. This creates the strange experience of an album full of distinct songs that are nevertheless difficult to tell apart. There’s a tendency towards orchestral bombast which, while creating some of the finest moments of the album, can cause these moments to run together.
A highlight, however, is the song “Marrow,” in which a dissonant crunching bass battles for attention against glossy synths and Clark’s pretty voice. There are few low points, which ties into the album’s chief problem—one that’s difficult to define. In the end, it seems Actor is definitely best listened to split-up—more or less a series of songs than an album.
—Nicholas Fellion
B+
The Pet Shop Boys
Yes
Parlophone
The boys are back. The Pet Shop Boys have returned for another round of their synth-heavy pop with their new disc entitled Yes.
The British duo known for their ’80s hit single ‘West End Girls’ prove being musically consistent isn’t always synonymous with predictability. The album is, musically, no great step forward for the band as their emotionally driven and melancholic sound has been their trademark for more than 20 years.
What results is an incredibly introspective and deeply personal album. This is especially pronounced in such tracks as ‘The Way it used to Be’ and ‘Vulnerable,’ which is reminiscent of their earlier ‘Always on my Mind.’ This band surprises us on occasion and joins the 21st century by infusing techno dance beats in ‘More than a Dream.’ Yet they misstep in the first single ‘Love Etc,’ which sounds like it could have been written for any generic American R&B or hip-Hop act.
The Pet Shop Boys continue to prove they’re more than just an answer to a pop culture trivia question by churning out new material, with this album their third in the last decade.
No, there’s nothing new to be found in Yes. However, there’s something to be said by the fact that DJs around the world continue to remix their singles and their songs can still be heard at clubs. It’s further proof that when it comes down to it, the 80s were pretty stellar.
—Emily Davies
A
Phoenix
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Glass Note
After listening to French indie electro-rock band Phoenix’s fourth studio album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, I’m not so sure Mozart would approve.
Then again, who am I to assume that the 18th century composer’s style might not have evolved into something with a more danceable beat given a few hundred decades to develop?
It’s hard to believe that as recently as a few years ago Phoenix was a small band struggling for radio play. A recent performance on Saturday Night Live demonstrates just how much the band has grown, along with their North American fan base over the years. At the tender age of 10, Thomas Mars, Deck D’Arcy, Laurent Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai stumbled upon one another, though the group didn’t officially solidify as a band until later.
Before getting their big break as the backing band for the French 90’s electro act Air’s “Kelly Watch the Stars” single, the group had several different incarnations. Some may be intrigued to discover that Brancowitz was part of the originally three-member band Darlin’—a band that now goes by Daft Punk.
With roots like these, it’s all the more perplexing the group hasn’t seen mainstream success until now. Previous albums such as Untitled and It’s Never Been Like That are notoriously packed with varying genres. From dance hall beats to pop hooks topped off with pulsing electro, the contrast in sound inevitably makes it difficult to categorize. This lack of strong musical direction might be on the rise in 2009, may have contributed to the group’s difficulty in breaking into the mainstream in the past
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix provides answers to this issue of long-awaited success and proves that Phoenix deserves it. Filled with bubbly synths and cyclical drum patterns that seem to spiral upwards in intensity, the album is evidence of the rockers’ diabolical craftiness when it comes to finding a balance in genre. The 10 songs on the album are crisp and clean, sounding more musically confident than ever.
The continuity clearly works in songs like “Fences” —spiky and electro packed beats amalgamate with acoustic-guitar riffs urgently running to create a splendid melody. Songs like this are immediately followed up with minimally mesmerizing melodies such as “Love Like a Sunset Part I.” The highlight of the album is the symbolic and catchy “Lisztomania,” a power anthem that plays off of composer Franz Liszt’s infamous Beatles-like effect he had on women in the 19th century. Exuberant rushes of guitar pop under Mars’ soaring vocals solidify the fact that Phoenix are on fire.
—Ally Hall
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