My Poproks

8.5

I think a universal law should be voted into place that states that every album can only be 10 tracks in length. With the latest offerings from artists like Coldplay and Radiohead releasing 10 track albums that overwhelmingly outshine their respective predecessors, it’s time to entertain the possibility that in this iPod age, solid, compact albums may be a great compromise that will actually work in everyone’s favor (even Tha Carter III starts to lose me midway through “Playing With Fire).” That wasn’t true…the Carter III thing. Actually, 20 track albums don’t really bother me at all.

With that said, Beck’s 8th album, Modern Guilt is practically perfect in every way. The songs are good enough to stand on their own, but are also part of a cohesive hole that flows in a way few albums manage to do. After the 33:60 is up, it leaves you satisfied, yet consciously aware of the fact that it was short; Short and sweet.

Beck Barkley? Danger Beck? This plays more like a collaboration than it does a Beck album, but I have no complaints. Danger Mouse’s production is immediately recognizable, as a drum and bass line that is very similar to The Odd Couple’s opener kicks off the album. Highlights like “Chemtrails” and “Volcano” play like a musical acid trip, while more upbeat tracks like “Gamma Ray” and “Youthless” combine electronica and 60’s pop in a way that is indescribably good (hence, why I did not describe it).

Beck’s done his acoustic folk record, his hip hop record, his Prince record, and now his psychedelic rock record. He’s also somehow done it without ever coming off like a Jack of All Trades dabbling into genres. Beck has proven once again that he can pick any style out of a hat and create an entire album of amazing material.

8

Time for some action.

Pharrell Williams, 1/3 of the rock-pop-funk-R&B-hip-hop band, N.E.R.D. (also including fellow Neptune Chad Hugo, and third member Shay Haley), hasn’t exactly been keeping a low profile since their last release, 2004’s Fly or Die. He’s basically produced every huge summer/spring/winter/fall hit for the past 4 years, some would say, to the point of over-saturation. His own solo album, In My Mind, actually left a lot to be desired when compared to the rest of his production.

With that said, this record is addictive. With a bit less “sure-thing” element to the songs than the Neptunes recent work, the hit-maker masterminds reveal more of their true colors; and they are still quite an assortment. The mix of sounds and production styles that this band pulls off on one record is more than impressive. As it stands on it’s own, the tribal-funk, dance track, “Everybody Nose,” is enough to warrant my 8/10 rating for this. Horns, hand-claps, synths, bongos, and an unlikely catchy as hell hook, “All the girls standin’ in the line for the bathroom.” Genius.

“Anti Matter” and “Spaz” rock so funky that it’s hard to believe they’re the most dominant hip hop tracks on the album. “I’m a little teapot blowin’ off steam/You put me on the heat/I don’t whistle, I scream,” pounds a distorted vocal over a quick hip hop beat that leads into a techno chorus that could be on a Prodigy album. Halfway through the record, songs like “Sooner or Later” play like classic pop hits, while Pharrell proves that his #1 talent could possibly be singing. An epic 3 minute rock ending, complete with a Prince style guitar solo, ties the album together perfectly.

The rest of Seeing Sounds flows unsteadily through the guitar driven “Happy,” the orchestral finish on “Love Bomb,” and a virtual house remix of “Everybody Nose” featuring Kanye West screaming “FI-YA.” I have no complaints about this. On Seeing Sounds, N.E.R.D. stomp through a third straight awesome record, full of true genre bending songs that simply do not want to be labeled and do not want to leave your head. They almost manage to make you think that they don’t care whether or not anyone likes this; though, surely, they know everyone will. Billionaire Boy Pharrell seems to be at his strongest and most fearless as a member of this eclectic trio.

Don’t be a punk bitch. Don’t give a fuck.

7

A lovely little sophomore album via the Springfield Missouri indie band; Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (referring to the first elected president of Russia – I don’t know why) released a moderately critically acclaimed debut in Broom in 2005. Yet somehow, their second full length, Pershing, sounds like it was recorded in early ’93.

It has all of the best qualities of an underground indie band from a time when bands that sounded just like this made television theme songs and were playing the local club in ABC teen dramas (ah, the 90’s). With light rock guitars, simple production, soft vocals and high-school-break-up-letter lyrics, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is caught somewhere between flannel shirts and tight jeans, but I don’t mind them staying there.

9

I feel I haven’t posted enough about Jim Noir. His latest self titled album continues where 2005’s Tower of Love left off. Known best for his song “Eanie Meanie,” which was featured in a World Cup Soccer commercial in ’06, Noir is a psychedelic, 60’s pop loving, multi-instrumentalist who manages to combine that with futuristic electronics without sounding pretentious.

The retro sound that it creates is one of a kind, and Noir hasn’t faltered any on his follow-up. Tracks like “Don’t You Worry” and “Happy Day Today” switch off from cooky keyboard verses to multi-layered choruses filled with beautiful harmonies and arrangements. Noir loves repetitive lyrics, usually using 3 or 4 lines over and over in each song, adding instruments on top of each new chorus. He creates some of the most well-rounded pop melodies I’ve ever heard, and remains among my top favorites in music.

8

Keep Your Eyes Ahead = Indie-Pop Yumminess. Helio Sequence’s 4th LP is a welcomed shift from their earlier records. Singer Brandon Summers apparently blew his voice out and had to re-learn how to sing, and it did wonders for the band’s overall sound (and you can clearly hear that his entire vocal approach has changed from 2004’s Love and Distance).

On Keep Your Eyes Ahead, this Portland duo creates 10 tracks of soothing indie-rock in the vein of new school Nada Surf, Rogue Wave, and yes, Modest Mouse (drummer and keyboardist Benjamin Weikel also played with MM circa Good News). This is a solid record all around, and one of my top picks for the year thus far.

6.5

Besides being a seemingly rushed recording and release, The Raconteurs’ Consolers of the Lonely has its moments. Like Broken Boy Soldiers, the combination of Jack White’s balls out guitar rock and Brendan Benson’s poppier musical approach makes for a good record…just maybe not a great one.

The album opens up with the classic rock title track, whose crunchy guitars and matching cymbal crashes sound more like a certain two piece band we know (the one with the girl drummer and the matching red and white outfits?). The album’s single, “Solute Your Solution,” which has a pretty cool video under its belt (must navigate through the clever DOS set-up to find), finds Benson and White trading off vocal duties in a way that’s a cross between Lennon/McCartney and Delonge/Hoppis (Blink 182, I know…sorry). It’s hard rocking 70’s feel is interrupted only by White’s 21st Century garage band howl.

Softer tracks like “You Don’t Understand Me” and “Pull This Blanket Off” sound more One Mississippi than White Blood Cells. As the record plays on, White and Benson’s vocals seem to bleed together and sound more and more alike. The horns on “The Switch and The Spur” don’t compliment the track as well as I’m sure the band intended, but add a strange sound that could actually just be categorized as “The Raconteurs.” A healthy mix of Mexican (perhaps inspired by White’s bull-fighting days) and American folk is pulled off wonderfully. How it translates on their pop record is quite another story.

The 3 chord versed rock of “Hold Up” falls a bit flat, and the not-so-catchy shouted chorus is saved by a pretty bitchin’ guitar solo. “Top Yourself,” an album highlight, shows White sticking to the bluesy-indie-rock sound that made records like De Stijl and Elephant so memorable. “How you gonna stop yourself/When your man stops ringin’ your bell/You’re right between heaven and hell/And you’re gonna need the good lord to help you.” Enter banjo. I even think drummer Patrick Keeler had Meg White in mind on this track.

After some more oddly placed horns (“Many Shades of Black”) and keyboard-driven classic rock (“Rich Kid Blues”), it becomes clear that there’s nothing nearly as prominent as Broken Boy Soldier’s “Steady As She Goes” on this record. The Raconteurs still get away with a good album here, mostly due to Jack White’s merciless ‘Cool’ factor, and the afore-mentioned bitchin’ guitar solos. ::Patiently waits for another Brendan Benson album::.

8.5 9

Remember that fan-boy review that I told you wasn’t coming? Well, here it is. Let’s just get this out in the open first; I never expected another “Crazy.” Anyone who did…is crazy. You will not find that in the paragraphs that follow as a reason not to like Gnarls Barkley’s long awaited second disc/iTunes download. Not that I have any reasons not to like this, but you see where this is going.

The odd couple themselves have created yet another collection of sonically enriched and breathtakingly original tracks; all of which are painfully not skippable. Perhaps some of the high-speed energy of St. Elsewhere has gone missing, but the quality and intensity of the songwriting, production, lyrics, and vocals have not.

If the video for “Run” doesn’t give you epileptic seizures, the song alone may do the trick. The album’s first single (and early leak) was a good first glimpse at the record, but is arguably the most energetic (and possibly, the only energetic) track on The Odd Couple. To say that it’s misleading would be a bit of a stretch, but the fast beat, wacky effects, and dark comedic lyrics are more St. Elsewhere-ish than any track that was actually on that record. “You can’t win child/We’ve all tried to/You’ve been lied to/It’s already inside you/Either you run right now or you best get ready to die.” Singer Cee-Lo Green delivers these lines in a way that very few other pop singers could match. Through-out the record, whether he’s bringing the soul on vintage tracks like “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” or belting at the top of his lungs on “Open Book,” Cee-Lo continues to shine with his extraordinary vocal ability.

Musically, the boundaries between hip hop and electronica, rock and soul, the past and the present, and pop and underground are erased as they were on the duo’s debut. The movie reel starts up again, but this time with a very different opening track to follow (much unlike St. Elsewhere’s “Go Go Gadget Gospel”). The low-key percussion, synths, and mellow harmonies of “Charity Case” introduce a whole new animal, one that shouldn’t and couldn’t be compared to the first. “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” goes even lower; a soul track so innovative, it sounds like a 40 year old song from 40 years in the future. Yes. Dig that shit. (Yes, I read that somewhere else. Sue me.)

The next track, “Going On,” mixes reverbed, Brit-pop styled guitars with upbeat hip hop drums. The result is a track that only Danger Mouse could have created. Meaning, it makes no sense…unless it’s on a Gnarls Barkley record. “Open Book’s” jumpy electronic beat and hesitating strings are purposely not on time, and are, coincidently, purposely awesome.

The only track I do not love unconditionally is the filler-like “She Knows,” which still has some pretty cool moments. Though this is towards the end, the album doesn’t lose your interest – the catchy (and *lovable) “Blind Mary” (*”She has never seen the sunshine, yet she’s getting along just fine…/I love Mary/blind Mary, marry me…/She’s my friend, she doesn’t judge me/She has no idea I’m ugly”) honestly sounds nothing like a Gnarls Barkley track, but I guess the point is that you can’t really say that…ever.

I don’t even really know how I would peg any of this if I had to, but that’s my favorite part about The Odd Couple. You can’t peg it, and you shouldn’t bother.

I love this. Fan-boy review, out.

7.5

I’ve fallen a bit behind on my Albumoftheweek’s, so I thought I would try and catch up (I swear, this will have some consistency at some point). While it’s clear that Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt hasn’t heard that many records in the past 20 years (“Psychocandy is the last significant event in popular music production. That’s the last thing I’ve heard which sounds blaringly original. I haven’t heard anything else since then that says, ‘this is a new way of making records’.”), it’s pretty hard to hold that against him after one listen of the band’s latest album, Distortion.

The record is obviously inspired by the shoegazey lush Jesus and Mary Chain album (and in some ways, is almost a tribute), but combines that with Merritt’s pop savvy songwriting (“California Girls”) and pathetically lovable lyrics (“Sober, you’re a cromagnun/Shitfaced, you’re very clever/Sober, you never should be/Shitfaced, now and forever”). Even though this is a bit of a grower, and a pretty sizable departure from i and 69 Love Songs, this is one of those records that you can close your eyes and get lost in.

Anyway, someone get this man a copy of Kid A and some Brian Eno, stat!

8

My floating top 10 albums of 2008 is already pretty crowded. Enter Saturnalia. Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan’s debut is not really much like either of their past projects (though, I do hear a strange mix of Gentleman and Twilight). Lanegan’s voice is so deep on tracks like “The Stations” and “All Misery/Flowers,” that I can’t even sing along without going up an octave; which…I’m totally into. It makes these already dark, creepy tracks even more so. Ambient guitars, epic orchestras, haunting melodies, the devil, hell, and Bête Noire. I don’t see what’s not to love. This is, without a doubt, one of the best albums of the year.

8

Liam Finn, the Australian singer-songwriter (son of Neil Finn), has recently added to my ‘early decision’ heavy Top 10 List for 2008 (I know, I need to relax with that). I’ll Be lightning is a sort of mixtape of the different qualities of some of the best singer-songwriters there have been. The album plays like the soundtrack to an Elliot Smith biopic (which needs to be made, by the by), cruising through soft guitars, looped drum tracks, and clever melodies.

Acclaimed for his impressive live performances (involving looping the entire song all by his lonesome and backup vocals via EJ Barnes), sensible pop songwriting, and poetic lyricism, Liam Finn is the new musical revolution. He wrote, recorded, and mixed this entire album by himself, which was released to rave reviews all over the world. Liam was one of Rolling Stone’s Artists to Watch in 2008, and received a 7.6 rating from Pitchfork (which, let’s face it, is like a 9 anywhere else).

The first single, “Second Chance,” (performed last Thursday on Letterman), winds up with a quick drum beat and some depressed guitar chords (soon followed by some equally depressed lyrics; “Remember me/honestly, I don’t remember who you are/the memory has never been the best/you want a second chance”). A crunchy distorted bass-line, which reappears through-out the record, storms through the track like a rumble of thunder (no lightening yet, though). One thing you will definitely remember is the song. By the time the second chorus comes around, you sing along as if you’ve known it your entire life.

“Gather to the Chapel” is most likely a top track for 2008 on everyone’s list; the kind of guitar ballad that The Universe intended when it sprouted trees on Earth (you know, for making guitars). The song’s beautifully filmed video matches its beautifully written song; depicting Liam playing his guitar…in a chapel, a graveyard. And of course, there’s some lightning.

As the record plays on, songs like “Fire in Your Belly” make you swear that you’ve heard this music before. If The Beatles and The Beach Boys had joined forces for Pet Sounds and Rubber Soul, I imagine that something like this would have been the result (well, you know what I mean). His overlapping vocals on the 2/3 acapella “Lullaby” are haunting. Finn’s Brian Wilson like harmonizing sadness and his “I’m Only Sleeping” guitar strums make for the kind of pop songs that last forever.

Liam asks such simple and contemplative questions as “Remember when you said that I was your best friend and I could tell you anything?” The matter-of-factness of his lyrics are fogged with the vulnerability in his voice. The combination is something refreshing, yet exceedingly familiar. Luckily for us, he’s just getting started. The 24 year old Finn is well aware of his place in all of this (and yours), as he states most complacently (yet hesitantly), “I’ll be lightning. You’ll be lightning.”

8

If you watch television, you’ve probably heard Yael Naim’s “New Soul” at least once in the new MacBook commercial. Possibly even more instantly infectious than Feist’s “1,2,3,4,” the track had me googling the lyrics before the 30 second spot was even over. Within a day, I had downloaded the album, listened to it 10 times in a row, and fallen in love with it. I’d say that’s a job well done for that licensing deal.

Yael Naim is a French singer-songwriter who was raised in Israel and was a classical soloist for the Israel Airforce Orchestra. Her debut album, In a Man’s Womb, was considered a failure by Naim, and almost discouraged her from continuing in music. Luckily for us, she met West Indian multi-instrumentalist David Donatien, who helped arrange what would become her breakthrough record. Most of Yael Naim’s self titled sophomore album (which will be released in the states on March 18th) is sung in French and Hebrew, and all of her self titled sophomore album is incredible.

Naim is exactly what you would imagine a French singer-songwriter would sound like if you’ve never heard one before. The opening track, “Paris,” is so beautifully crafted in every way, that any chance of it being cliche is automatically dismissed. Translated, the songs chorus doesn’t have the same effect, but you get the basic idea; “Now your voice/It whispers to me from far away/I miss you and Paris.” You can almost see this being strummed under the Eiffel Tower with a crowd of tourists eating it up like fresh baguettes.

The album’s first English track, “Too Long,” is laced with synths and back-up vocals, and creates an atmosphere that’s somewhat eerie (You can almost see this playing in an independent film as the main characters have an awkward moment walking by Notre Dame). “New Soul,” the song that is sure to be a hit (it’s already a pretty big hit on iTunes), is an upbeat piano ballad so charming that it mocks you for trying not to like it (you almost see this playing in the big season finale for a new Dawson’s Creek esque teen drama that was going more for an HBO kinda vibe).

As the record plays on, songs like “Levater” and “Shelcha” stay along the lines of the eeriness of “Too Long,” but have a romantic element as well (mostly ’cause of the French thing). The soft guitar and piano in these tracks sound as if they themselves are crying (much like you will be while listening), and Yael’s voice is painfully articulate, compensating for the mostly simple lyricism. “Lonely” is another utterly charming piano ballad that, again, is so beautiful that the cliche becomes you for loving it. Loving it.

A perfect record for a walk through the park or a train ride over the Manhattan Bridge (If in New York, I highly recommend it), Yael Naim will have a place on my year end list, and “New Soul” will hopefully continue to send people to their computers to google “I’m a new soul in this very strange world.” Sure, the songs on this record can be a bit cliche, but it doesn’t stop them from being great.

7

As I watch The Godfather Part II on AMC, I felt compelled to give Albumoftheweek to this mixtape. DJ Skee, the L.A. DJ who broke into the music industry at age 15, is known as “the definitive DJ for the West Coast,” and recently premiered Kanye West’s “Hey Mama (Grammy Version)” on his myspace page. American Godfather, released towards the end of December as a free download, blends music and dialogue from The Godfather saga with Jay-Z’s American Gangster. The result is a release that almost rivals the original (though, it’s still my second favorite Jay-Z mixtape - Gray Album?).

100000000000

Until now, I’ve only ever had Michael Jackson’s Thriller on vinyl. It never occurred to me how hard it would be to walk around in public with this record playing on my ipod. Honestly, during “Baby is Mine” and “Billy Jean,” I feel completely uncontrollable. I want to bust out the “Thriller” dance on the tube. Since we’ve already discussed the remixes (which I kinda like), we can talk about how effing fly these tracks sound remastered; Particularly, The creek of the door in the beginning of “Thriller,” the tolling bells on “Beat It.” It’s crispy! I still find it hard to grasp that these tracks are on the same album. Am I the only one? “Billy Jean,” “Thriller,” and “Beat It” would each have done just as well on their own…within reason. That’s the thing. This album is not within reason. Nothing about it is.

7

The buzzing guitar that leads into opening track, “All In It,” is a testament that British Sea Power like rock music. Question: Do you like rock music? No, really. The title of the album is Do You Like Rock Music?. Since I’m going to assume (for the good of this review) that it is not a rhetorical question, I’m going to answer. Answer: Well, sometimes.

British Sea Power’s third and arguably strongest album comes at a time of genre bending and blending in music; just around the corner of a year when Rolling Stone (the rock magazine named after the most rockin’ “rock” band of all time), named MIA’s world-reggae-grime-dance-afro album Kala their Album of the Year; a time when the biggest rock stars are rappers who sample indie-techno; a time when “rock” music as it were has been dead for years. Hell, even British Sea Power’s Do You Like Rock Music? isn’t a completely straight forward rock offering. However, I see where they are going with this.

BSP have never made a record that grabs you unmercifully at first listen. Do You Like Rock Music? does the best job of that, but still takes a good 3 or 4 listens to really penetrate. “All In It” is short and sweet (re-appears as an outro at the end of the album). The instrumental rock intro leads us into “Lights Out For Darkier Skies,” not one of the album’s stronger tracks, as there are many songs towards the end that would be better suited for a top slot on the tracklist. It’s rockin’ none-the-less. “No Lucifer” is a subtle mix of every early 90’s alternative band from both the US and the UK (only rockin’ ones), and it’s anthemic chorus recalls early Replacement’s and the like. It will have won you over by the last roaring chorus of guitars and chants.

“Waving Flags,” the record’s first single, continues with the same formula as “Lucifer” and is quite the Brit-pop anthem - lots of anthems on this record. Maybe it’s because I was just talking about Greg Dulli this week, but there is a bit of an Afghan Whig swirl in lead singer Yan’s voice (aka Scott Wilkinson). You know what I’m talking about. That changes a bit on tracks like “Canvey Island” and “Down on the Ground” (sung by a much softer voiced Hamilton/Neil Wilkinson, the bassist who took half of the singing and writing duties on this record).

The instrumental “Great Skua” is a slow and steady paced…well…anthem, that builds slowly into an opera of drums, synths, and a killer string section [that rocks]. The piano intro on “Atom” (pianos….::rolls eyes::….that doesn’t rock) quickly drops out for a fast-paced Clashy punk-rock tune that reminds you that even though we’re getting towards the end of the record, it’s no reason to stop rocking (track 10, “No Need to Cry,” aside. That’s a bit on the wimpy end of the Brit-pop spectrum).

Lyrically, there are a few cheesy lines to be found, but nothing to cringe over. “Open the Door” asks “Are you gonna live or die?” repeatedly in it’s chorus, while “Lights Out For Darkier Skies” rhymes “seven” with “heaven” (Unless two thousand and seven becomes a pitch black heaven). “Waving Flags,” the dreary drinking anthem (another anthem), reminds us that “Beer is not dark/Beer is not light/It just tastes good/Especially tonight.” Fair enough.

Some of the tracks are not as infectious as others, and there are a few moments where the clock ticks impatiently…

But it’s no reason not to like rock music. Sometimes.

9.5

I suppose that this is more than appropriate. After winning 5 of the 6 Grammys she was up for, Amy Winehouse made the sort of courageous showing that we’ve been waiting for from the wrong troubled pop stars. If it were up to me, Back to Black would be Album of the Year before I could even get up to Herbie Hancock as I read down the list. The decision is that easy. Winehouse and “Grammy award winning” producer Mark Ronson created one of the most innovative and exciting albums to come along in a while. Between the early Motown influence, her balls-out lyrics (What kind of fuckery is this?), and her brutal honesty (“You love blow and I love puff”), Winehouse creates a new class of pop like nothing before her. It’s obvious that her addictions have attributed to the sincerity and quality in her songwriting, but hopefully she can stay focused enough to keep up with the success that her raw talent has acquired her. This is one of the finest pop records ever made, and a few trips to rehab not-withstanding, Winehouse could be one of the great singer-songwriters of our time.

7.5

Even though William Bevan records under the name Burial and “remains anonymous,” [as you can see from what I just wrote] his name isn’t exactly unknown. Let me start by saying that this record was not on the top of my list for 2007, but pretty much everyone who was able to review it gave it 5 stars (or 8.4…you know who you are). This is a beautiful record. One review I read called it “Moby on Acid” or some such nonsense. Not sure if I see where that’s going, but if Moby had no money and a smaller apartment, he’d maybe sound like Burial. As I walked through Brooklyn with this album on my headphones, I realized that London’s Burial/Bevan knows what it’s like to live in a cold city in the winter time; to be sad; to struggle; etc. This album captures a rainy day in the north as if it were a photograph of a gloomy cobblestone street near Piccadilly. This is atmospheric electronica at it’s most moody (and, at points, even borders on ‘new age’). I guess I would be the first to say that this is not a perfect record, but it is a great one.

9.5

I received an email yesterday from someone wondering my opinion on Vampire Weekend. My initial response was that this was another product of the music blog hype machine in this Pitchfork age; Where one rave review can turn into 10 can turn into 100, and before you know it the band is selling out headlining gigs at the Bowery Ballroom. Well, this is me eating my words. Take a picture, it will last longer.

A closer listen to this record reveals the undeniable truth that this…unfortunately…is an amazing, amazing record. I say ‘unfortunately,’ because I dislike “hype” bands with the strongest bias. I dislike the term “Hype Bands.” The only hype band that has been worthy of the ludicrous amounts of praise that they have received are the Royal Arctic Monkeys of England (“How many pingbacks can I get out of this post?” she wondered). A great record? Yeah. The greatest thing since Poptarts? No.

I’m not going to sit here and brag about how I first posted about this band 12 years ago (OK, 1), how it’s the best record of the year no matter what comes out from this point forward (regardless of the fact that it’s January). I’m not going to link you to their student film trailer, or live performances from their unconventional concert at Roosevelt Island, OR the debut of their new song “White Skies” from the Bowery show this week. I just don’t buy into hype that easily.

Now, on to the record. It seems to be the censuses that the backlash of this over-hype will be minimal. This is due entirely to the fact that every song on Vampire Weekend’s Self Titled XL Recordings debut is, in a word, stellar. Forget the world-music-afro-beat genre dropping you’ve been hearing about (though, clearly, it is a huge influence – and the band was first “hyped” on an African music blog). This is pop music. And it’s great pop music. The clean island-influenced style, catchy melodies, and Ezra Koenig’s swirl-y vocals recall the best of early Police; or early Paul Simon; or the Talking Heads at their most rebellious; or, yes, even Peter Gabriel (who is cleverly name-dropped in the cleverly titled “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” which paints a picture perfect bedroom in a picture perfect weekend house with a sandy lawn, Louis Vuitton…and Peter Gabriel too).

Forget the fact that they are rich New York City boys from Columbia University who sip cosmos on the Lower East Side after the gig discussing fresh sea food and Bazillion funk (I don’t know if this is true, but can’t you just see that?) with friends named Blake and Bryn (who have “a new face” and “eyes like a seagull”…?). Even though they do poo poo Wellfleet, Provincetown, and even Hyannisport (it’s “a ghetto”) on album highlight “Walcott,” you don’t get the sense of snobbery as much as irony from the snooty references. After all, they’d rather chill in Jersey.

Between the 80’s ska infused pop of “A-Punk” and the classical strings of “M79,” there is no possibility of pegging this band with any one style, genre, bla bla bla. The student-professor love story that takes place in one of the most expensive schools in the country on “Campus” (”You’re out on the stone and grass/And I’m sleeping on the balcony after class”), is hardly regular subject matter for an album by an underground four piece from NYC.

You can call this Afro-pop, Reggae-post-indie, ‘Upper West Side Soweto,’ whatever you’d like. You can hate on the hype and hope to Delancey that this is a terrible record. Alas, this is 11 perfect pop songs on a perfect debut album, no matter how you toast it.

Sorry, Matt.

8.5

Set for a physical US release in April (almost a year after its XL digital only release) on the indie rap label Def Jux, Dizzee’s third effing bangin’, critically acclaimed record Maths + English is “grime” at it’s best. More simply, it’s hip hop at it’s best. This record has a little bit of everything (including fellow Brits Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen), and features eclectic, innovative beats, clever wordplay, and an East Ender accent that makes it so you can not mistake Dizzee Rascal for anyone else. Though Boy In Da Corner may still be my personal favorite, this is coming up from behind faster than the BPM on “Temptation.”

7.5

The first great record of 2008 has already arrived, and it goes by the name Oracular Spectacular. You don’t know MGMT, the electro-pop duo from Brooklyn, but you’ll recognize the songs. The partially cooky 80’s keyboards, the reverb and echo heavy classic rock vocals, the 60’s power-pop choruses, and the disco funk bass lines are all too familiar. Most likely, it’s meant to be that way. Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, who started out doing genre parodies and joke songs, never intended to make a serious record. Their Sony debut is just that.

“Time to Pretend,” the album’s first track, is a joke song within itself. The uber-distorted sounds and dance beat make it as sarcastic as it is catchy; “Let’s make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.” Sounds like a plan that only a song like “Time to Pretend” could bring to fruition. Other plans inslude, but are not limited to; “move to Paris” and “shoot some heroin.” Rock ’n’ Roll. The album quickly changes pace on “Weekend Wars” and “Youth,” both a sort of folky electronic classic rock tribute to all of the above.

The lead single, “Electric Feel,” brings the disco funk I mentioned earlier in modern/retro Scissor Sister style. Some overly dramatized high pitch vocals and swimmy “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” keys make the song almost an audio caricature of what it’s meant to be; “Oh girl, shock me like an electric eel/Oh baby girl, turn me on with your electric feel.” Throw in a video that looks like it was made on a $500 budget with an audio visualizer program for Windows 3.1, and…basically, it’s all kinds of awesome.

Album highlight (my personal favorite, whatever), “Kids,” is described by the band as a song “filled with all those college feelings: naivety, idealism, nostalgia, happiness, sadness.” It’s also filled with catchy everything, and sort of reminds me of what The Killers would sound like if they didn’t listen to so much Bruce Springsteen (not that that’s a bad thing…you know what I mean).

Make no mistake, these are a couple of hipsters from Brooklyn; they used to perform 15 minute sets that would feature experimentation with one new song per show, and their debut EP was released by a bunch of NYU students. This is a heavily synth laced electronica album, but other influences of classic rock and pop are ever-present on Oracular Spectacular. The combination makes it arguably more interesting than most of their “dance-rock” peers, and any mix where the keyboard is the loudest track is A+ in my book. Not taking itself seriously is the most important thing this record accomplishes - and, in retrospect, makes the songs even that much better.

9

This is not a hip hop record.

While Lupe Fiasco is technically a hip hop artist with a hip hop label, The Cool is something different. With a handful of tracks featuring only sung melodies, and production that sounds like a James Lavelle project (well, there is an UNKLE sample on there), The Cool transcends the limitations of the genre in many ways. According to Lupe, the record was to be a sort-of-concept album that told the story of three characters; The Cool, The Streets, and The Game. He did elaborate pretty extensively on the story of these characters before the album came out, but much of it didn’t translate musically. Though, Lupe admits it’s not a full concept album; which…we did notice.

The album’s first track, “Free Chilly,” ends way too soon, but it does set the stage well for the kind of music making that is to follow. In what sounds like a clip of a song rather than a song itself, Lupe sings over a slow and steady pulsating drum beat and strings that belong on a Moby album. On “Superstar,” the hit pop song that wasn’t enough of a hit or nearly as popular as it should have been, Lupe’s prodigy Michael Santos (think Adam Levine meets…Adam Levine) belts out one of the catchiest choruses of the year; “If you are what you say you are/A superstar/Well have no fear/The cameras here.” Stadiums should be erupting with this the same way they do for “Stronger.” “Paris, Tokyo” grooves like an old Tribe Called Quest beat, which the Snoop cameo on “Hi Definition” would have been better suited for. It’s still pretty badass.

The second half of the record gets pretty heavy on the subject matter: A bit of a social commentary on violent video games/war, etc. on “Little Weapon;” (“We’re calling you/There’s a war/if the guns are just too tall for you/We’ll find you something small to use,” goes the chorus of the surprisingly well produced Patrick Stump track…yeah, Fall Out Boy), a first person account of a cheeseburger in the ghetto (ya know, they don’t eat right in the ghetto), and his flat out refusal to dumb down his music to gain a wider audience (“Them big words ain’t cool, nigga”). Not to mention the general mood of “Intruder Alert;” which somehow touches on rape and immigration within the same 4 more minutes. You might even cry.

Then we’re up to the afore-mentioned UNKLE sample on “Hello Goodbye,” which features the entire eerie track “Chemistry” off of War Stories, with Lupe adding some eerie lyrics to match. One of the best songs on The Cool, it pretty much makes you ache for a Lupe Fiasco UNKLE remix album. For a minute, you forget that you’re listening to that hip hop skater dude and wonder if this is one of Radiohead’s In Rainbows bonus tracks (yeah, I said it).

Even though Lupe’s characters and story-line are a bit lost on this loose concept album, the concept of making a great record is not. For a rapper who has already announced his final release (L.U.P.End), Lupe certainly has a lot to say. Sadly, he is one of the few mainstream rappers who actually has interesting things to say. Hopefully he’ll re-consider the early retirement.