Thursday - Five Stories Falling

There's music playing 
Though we dance to the beat 
Of our own black hearts 
And draw diagrams 
Of suicide on each other's wrists 
Then trace them with razorblades

An EP that shows off the ferocity of a Thursday live show. I'm going to miss seeing them live, always one of my favourite bands to see in person, but I guess I'll at least have this disc. The first four songs of the EP are all live tracks, and while not perfect versions of the Full Collapse songs, they have an emotional dynamic that can't be matched on record. The real appeal of this disc for me isn't the solid live renditions of album tracks though, it's the inclusion of, in my opinion, Thursday's finest song, Jet Black New Year. It's energy is infectious and could have easily gotten me in any pit... if I didn't hate that crap.






4/5

Favourite track - Jet Black New Year

Fugazi - End Hits

"If we're so fine maybe you can tell me why no one counts until they're dead"

The problem when choosing a Fugazi album to review is that when I'm done listening to it I'll swear it's my favourite album ever, until the next time I listen to another Fugazi record. They really are the absolute best. This record really shows off the amazing rhythm section of Joe Lally and Brendan Canty, unsung heroes in a band consisting of absolute brilliance in Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto. "Break" is a rhythmically driving masterpiece that turns into a jazz number midway through and succeeds on every level. "No Surprise" drips with tension with veritably no release, but that's okay because the next two tracks, "Five Corporations" and "Caustic Acrostic"  serve that purpose exceptionally well. "Closed Captioned" is my favourite song on the album, and proof to me that writing a song in which you have passion for the subject matter will always come out strong. Ian MacKaye bleeds the lyrics, and it shows. If you're still reading this, you should stop and go listen to Fugazi... all the time.

5/5

Favourite track - Closed Captioned

Dinosaur Jr. - Dinosaur

Here's a record I've never actually listened to before today, I really had only listened to "Without a Sound" and "You're Living All Over Me" by the band. This, the first Dinosaur Jr. record, is not their best, but it did show a lot of promise and very evidently inspired Nirvana... not that this hasn't already been well known. I found it to hit it's stride, more or less, half way through the record with the last three tracks really being the strongest. Mountain Man is a great 80's hardcore punk song and sits perfectly in the SST records catalog. I'd have wanted to record an album as good as this when I was 20 years old.




2.5/4

Favourite track - The Leper (love the Joy Divisionesque bass line)

Vampire Weekend - Contra

I heard you play guitar down at a seedy barWhere skinheads used to fight

I did not even remotely like this band when their first record came out. Maybe this was due to the enormous hype they received from magazines and internet sites such as pitchfork media, or maybe it's because their music annoyed the piss out of me... one of the two. But after settling into my incredible hatred for the band and feeling okay about it, I heard the song, "Giving up the Gun"  from this, their second LP, and couldn't help but enjoy the crap out of it. With this new knowledge I decided to give the entire record a chance and found myself to enjoy most of it too. It's well documented that this sounds like a Paul Simon, Graceland era rip off, album (sans African choirs and instrumentation), but why is that a bad thing? Who else is doing that? I happen to like that record, it's a classic, so quit giving them crap. Not to make it sound like every song is great on "Contra", but they weren't all great on "Graceland" either (trust me, give it a listen today), but I'd say over half of them are pretty good so might as well give it a listen.


3/5
Favourite track - Giving up the Gun

Cursive - Burst and Bloom

I'll try to make this perfectly clear,I'm so transparent I disappear.These words I lyrically defecate,Upon songs I boldly claim to create.

This EP is an excellent precursor to my favourite Cursive album, The Ugly Organ. To me it's almost a companion piece. The was the first of their records to feature Gretta on Cello, whom I greatly miss in the band. The best thing about this record, for me, is it's beauty in it's ugliness. The guitars play lead lines that aren't in key and Tim Kasher's voice is pushed with emotional extremes until it breaks, not just screaming for screaming's sake, and to me it all works amazingly. The only difficult thing about this record is choosing a favourite track.













4/5

Favourite track - Sink to the Beat

Moneen - Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now?

"Screw you and die I hope you burn"

Back when I was purchasing these albums, Emo albums that is, every review I'd read would complain about the adolescent whining that prevails throughout them, but couldn't understand why they would be giving the artists I loved such grief, and now... I guess I can kind of see their point. Not to say I don't still really like this album, but explaining in depth on every song, not terribly poetically, that you've been wronged by a girl doesn't really fit into my life anymore. That said, there are few albums that are as blunt with their lyrics as this one, which can be admired. The instrumentation on the record, while seldom not cranked to ten on the intensity meter, is great. I never really realized that when I tried to play post rock sounding songs that I wasn't imitating Mogwai but trying to duplicate the last bit of "Thoughts weigh Heavy Don't get drowned in the weight of it all" (actually a song  title). I also always tried to duplicate there delayed guitar noises. I still enjoy listening to Moneen, but they don't quite register the same emotional connection as when I was 21.

3/5

Favourite Track - The Last Song I will Ever Want To Sing

Catherine Wheel - Chrome

There's no doubt 
Of the future in my head 
It's all worked out 
I'd hate it to go left unsaid 

Such a good record, with amazing song arrangement and guitar tone throughout. It's a wonder to me how this band wasn't bigger than they were, but I guess when you decide to throw a bone to a younger band and take them out on the road with you, and that band is Radiohead, you may get overshadowed a bit. The quiet\loud dynamic, that producer Gil Norton is known for , is just as excellent here as it is on any of his previous efforts with The Pixies.




4/5
Favourite Track - Pain, but here's the video for Crank

Oasis - Be Here Now

"Sun in the sky never raised an eye to me"

I don't know if it was intentional or if has been noted in the past, but the cover of "Be Here Now", with it's image of a Rolls Royce dunked in a swimming pool perfectly sums up the record... extravagant and reckless. This is the album that most Americans quit listening to Oasis, which is shame because there are not only some great songs on this record, but also on many albums after it. Noel, may have over done it a bit with the instrumentation on pretty much all the tracks, but what else are you going to do after "What's the Story Morning Glory", that would be a waste of the arrogance that came from it's success. Everybody knows Oasis was at their best at their most arrogant. Noel was so arrogant that he decided to write "Wonderwall" twice and put it at the beginning of "Be Here Now" in the form of my favourite song on the album, "D'You Know What I Mean". The only moment of slight restraint comes on the nearly equally great "Don't Go Away". The only thing I regret about this album is that I think of AT&T every time I hear "All Around The World"

3/5
Favourite Track - D'You Know What I Mean?

Metallica - ...And Justice For All

Do you want what I want?
Desire not a thing
I hunger after independence, lengthen freedom's ring

I'll start with an already well known gripe about this era of Metallica's recordings... There is no bass anywhere on this album. I know Jason Newsted was the new guy, but it wouldn't have hurt to crank him up to an audible level. As a result, the album is incredibly thin sounding, which is a shame because there are some really great songs on this, the last of the golden age of Metallica, album. I can also say that I would not have wanted to be in this band because there's no way I'd have ever been able to remember all the tempo changes in every song. James Hetfield's rhythm work is amazing on songs like "Eye of the Beholder" and Kirk Hammett is the most melodic lead guitarist in all of metal music as evidenced on "One".

4/5
Favourite Track - The Frayed Ends of Sanity

Prince - 1999

"All the critics love you in New York"

In my eyes, this is Prince's third best record. That means it's better than most every other record, ever. It contains some of Prince's greatest singles in the title track and the pop masterpiece that is "Little Red Corvette". But pop hits aside, 1999 has some of the best and most recognizable synth work on any album from the early 80's. Some of it sounds a little dated, such as "Let's Pretend We're Married" but I still dig it.




4/5
Favourite Track - Little Red Corvette

My Morning Jacket - Z

"A kitten on fire, a baby in a blender, both sound as sweet as a night of surrender"

Easily My Morning Jacket's best album. The perfect blend of alt country and The Flaming Lips... and a little Kermit the Frog. It's more concise than "It Still Moves" ,their previous work, less of a jam session and more of an organized head trip. I like My Morning Jacket a lot, especially as a live band, but this is their only album I can sit and listen to all the way through in one sitting without getting bored. Oh, and "Into the Woods" is a really weird song.




4/5
Favourite Track - Gideon

Favourite albums of 2011

I don't feel I was really up on album releases this year, so take from this list what you will.

1. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
This is a dramatic step up from "For Emma, Forever Ago" in my opinion. It's fully fleshed out, but still leaving lots of space in the songs.

2. Ben Howard - Every Kingdom
Discovered this one while watching a Kelly Slater surfing video online. A really good and catchy British folk like album.

3. The Dodos - No Color
Incredible acoustic guitar and drum work on this record.

4. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
I love me some Swedes

5. Drake - Take Care
Jimmy from Degrassi being painfully candid.

Also enjoyed these records
Thursday - No Devolucion
Ryan Adams - Ashes and Fire
Mogwai - Hardcore will never die but you will
Wilco - The Whole Love
Drive - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
The Decemberiststs - The King is Dead
Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys
Arctic Monkeys - Suck it and See
Mastodon - The Hunter
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds