Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't shuffle this time. Today's album is handpicked, fresh off the vine. I needed some relief from all the "teenager's music" that's been popping up lately.


Today's album: Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left (Island 1969)
Genre: Singer-songwriter, British Folk
Running time: 10 tracks, 39:33
In a nutshell: Lush, introspective folk

1. Time Has Told Me
2. River Man
3. Three Hours
4. Way to Blue
5. Day is Done
6. 'Cello Song
7. The Thoughts of Mary Jane
8. Man in a Shed
9. Fruit Tree
10. Saturday Sun

Take a look at the cover art above. Right off the bat, you can tell this is a much more mature album than the stuff I've been covering recently. You see a well-dressed, 30-something year-old man looking contemplatively out a window, as if he's searching for something. Obviously he won't find what he's looking for outside the window, but the act is analogous to what's going on internally, an external method of focus. Ever notice how your eyes will dart about, or turn upwards when you're trying to remember something?

Singer-songwriter Nick Drake is searching for answers, and provides none on Five Leaves Left. What's that cheezey saying about life? It's not about the destination, it's about the journey? Well that's definitely the case with this album. On the opening track, Drake sings And time has told me/Not to ask for more/For some day our ocean/Will find its shore. Perhaps all our problems will just resolve themselves in time, and this should be good enough for us in the present. Likewise, Drake seems to confirm the futility of searching for a master with answers, only to become a slave in Three Hours.

What's particularly beautiful about this album is how well the music synchronizes with the lyrics, like looking out a window when you're trying to remember something. The wandering guitar arrangement on Three Hours seems to follow its character, Jeremy, as he searches for answers and a home. On the other hand, the blaring strings on Way to Blue match Drake's more straight-forward demand Tell me all that you may know/Show me what you have to show.

I don't want to make it seem as though this whole album is just some folkie's mid-life crisis. There are lighter pop moments, like The Thoughts of Mary Jane, or Man in a Shed. There are also more themes in the album than the one I picked up on and described above. Even if you aren't in the mood to analyze the deep, introspective lyrics, the finger picked guitar melodies and acoustic arrangements are pretty satisfying on their own. This was my first time listening to Nick Drake, and I found him to be quite enjoyable.

800Beloved - Bouquet

A slow night spent in the bedroom. And the kitchen, actually. Doris and I made an amazing chicken tortilla soup, minus the tortilla. Fat, happy, buzzing slightly from a couple beers and a glass of wine. Let's get to it...

Today's album: 800Beloved - Bouquet (Self-released? 2009)
Genre: Shoegaze, Goth-pop
Running time: 11 tracks, 46:06
In a nutshell: Punky shoegaze tailored for a new generation of goth

1. Show Me Evil
2. Colours
3. The Skeleton Collection
4. Mortgage Your Organs
5. Go
6. Yesterday Tomorrow
7. Kiss Me Crooked
8. Your High School Photo
9. The Devil Etc.
10. Galaxies
11. Cut Flowers

This album would fit in quite nicely on a Hot Topic CD rack. Bouquet is bread-and-butter teenage music, gloomy and anguished, but somehow fast-paced and energetic. The pop-punk drumming doesn't let the pace slack for even one track.

The saving grace for me on this album is the production. There are enough neat fuzzy guitar effects and interesting synth textures to make the songs enjoyable in shuffle. I particularly enjoyed the buzzsaw guitar stabs in Kiss Me Crooked, or the Shieldsesque warped riffs on opening track Show Me Evil.

But the album as a whole can be too much. The lyrics range from sad-sack, to uncomfortably gothic. Take Mortgage Your Organs for example, in which frontman Sean Lynch sings Spread your legs wide/this may hurt, but you won't feel a thing. Too much, man. Too much. I won't even go into details about the barforama that it is Your High School Photo. Your worst guesses won't be far off, trust me.

Bear vs. Shark - Right Now You're In the Best of Hands

I'm not actually using iTunes anymore. Why? Because iTunes is a fucking piece of shit. I use mediamonkey now, definitely the best player I've ever used.


Today's album: Bear vs. Shark - Right Now You're In the Best of Hands (Equal Vision 2005)
Genre: Post-hardcore, Emo, Indie Rock
Running time: 12 tracks, 40:43
In a nutshell: There's more than one emotion in "emo" you know...

1. Ma Jolie
2. Campfire
3. Buses/No Buses
4. Employee is Not Afraid
5. We Were Sad, But Now We're Rebuilding
6. Kylie
7. MPS
8. Second
9. Don't Tell the Horses the Stable's On Fire
10. Bloodgiver
11. Michigan
12. Broken Dog Leg

Another relic from my adolescence pops up in shuffle. I seriously know this album like the back of my hand, I've listened to it countless times. Like In Reverie, this album has survived the corn and cheeze of my turbulent high school years and proven itself timeless. I remember seeing this on the rack at a Best Buy with a little sticker on it namedropping both Modest Mouse and Fear Before the March of Flames. You can't deny that the combination is at the least intriguing. Also like In Reverie, it does seem to hit the niche somewhere between indie and emo.

Is it 'emo'? I suppose you could call it that, but only if you don't associate angst with emo, and instead embrace the whole gamut of emotions. I've heard the album described as "happy hard-core", referring to the jubilant chorus and hand-claps of opening track Ma Jolie. The screaming on the album confers more than anger or sorrow; rather, what most comes across is some form of indescribable exhilaration. The sappiest tracks seem to be lost-love song Kylie, which I've read is actually the band's least liked song, a product more of label pressure than artistic intent. If I was going to suggest tracks for first-time listeners, I would suggest listening to the MPS and Second back-to-back. The former is somewhat poetic emo, just a clean electric guitar strummed over "deep" lyrics. The latter has lyrics which conclude in 30 seconds, followed by a 3 minutes of post-punk jam, spinning downward and landing softward.

Mux Mool - Just Saying Is All

Aliright, 2 for 2! Let's see how long I can keep this up...

Today's album: Mux Mool - Just Saying Is All (Moodgadgets 2009)
Genre: Glitch Hop, Dance, Electronic
Running time: 6 tracks, 34:57
In a nutshell: Beats and breaks that are interesting, but not too interesting

1. End Guy
2. Merlinfist!
3. Eagle Fantasies
4. B'Genius
5. 2muxLUV
6. Teal Trim

A while back I covered one of Flying Lotus's EPs, which essentially were an opportunity for the popular L.A. DJ to remix and reinvent some of his recent songs. Mux Mool is a similar sort of DJ, taking your everyday hip-hop beats and glitching them out, or gussying them up. However, the purpose of this EP seems less to deviate from styles already expressed or popularized and more to cement his reputation as a new artist on the scene.

Mux Mool's debut LP, Skulltaste, dropped earlier this year. It's amazing, you should definitely listen to it...but listen to Just Saying Is All first. While Skulltaste is a consistently good album peppered with amazing moments, Just Saying Is All is all amazing. Easy enough to pull off on a six-track EP, I know. Nevertheless, at times it seems the catchiness of Merlinfist!, or the cooler pulse of Eagle Fantasies have a little more pop value than any of the other 21 tracks on Skulltaste.

If this vein of electronic music hits the mainstream, I think it'll really take off. It's definitely great music to have on in the background at house parties, or to have on in the car while cruising between bars. I like it much better than all the cheezey, rambunctious shit they play in clubs or on the radio. You know what I'm talking about, the kind of over-commercialized music that really operates on one core principle: the more obnoxious, stupid, or ridiculous the hook the less likely you are to forget after you've heard. I call it the "morbid fascination" principle of music. People who hear it don't actually like it, nor do they think its actually cool. Rather, they take what they are given because they don't know any better, and besides, once the bass gets pounding loud enough, it doesn't really matter what the rest of the content sounds like.

The glitch-hop scene really seems to be the most viable contender to buck this painful trend. Unlike its brainier IDM and glitchcore cousins, this shit is accessible and undeniably cool. If this sounds like a bandwagon you'd like to jump on, I would suggest listening to some Machinedrum, Nosaj Thing, or Bassnectar for starters...and of course, Mux Mool and Flying Lotus.

Saves the Day - In Reverie

I'm serious this time! I'm gonna start posting again, like, every day. I think it would help if I shortened up my posts, just throw out a couple descriptions and some quick musings. It's gonna be hard not to rant about this one though...

Today's album: Saves the Day - In Reverie (DreamWorks 2003)
Genre: Pop-punk, Rock
Running time: 12 tracks, 33:58
In a nutshell: Underrated, mellow/dreamy emo

1. Anywhere With You
2. What Went Wrong
3. Driving In The Dark
4. Rise
5. In Reverie
6. Morning In The Moonlight
7. Monkey
8. In My Waking Life
9. She
10. Where Are You
11. Wednesday the Third
12. Tomorrow Too Late

I want to know why everyone hates In Reverie so much. It seems to me that it was just about the only truly original music Saves the Day ever produced. The melodies are much more complex, the songwriting is more mature (for the most part), and the vocals are entirely unique. To this day I haven't heard anyone reproduce that "ham-sandwhich", mellow vocal tone in quite the same way.

It seems to me that most people just wanted another Stay What You Are, which is why it seemed like such a let-down. Personally, I first picked up In Reverie right when I was growing out of pop-punk, and it really felt like the band was growing up with me. It's too bad they didn't keep innovating; trying to re-create SWYA is what has made all subsequent albums total garbage. I guess once you've grown up, you can't go back, which is why this is the only Saves the Day album I can really stomach nowadays.