Dear Science

admin — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:56:00 +0000

Once upon a CMJ conference, I unexpectedly encountered TV On The Radio in concert. Crammed into what I think was the Bowery Ballroom, the eclectic men took the stage and took up their horns. The vision—and the music that followed—has haunted me for years. And yet, try as I might, I did not fall in love with Dear Science. I tried many methods: as background music for the workday, on an iPod while in transit, and sitting in my living room, focusing only on the music.

The band’s odd syncopation has always been charming, but this time around, I felt bewildered and uncomfortable after a few songs. Instead of enjoying the discomfort, I was unable to shake the feelings of discontent. Rather than savoring the difficult rhythms, I just wanted out. I have read that Dear Science is about loss, sadness, depression, and fear. Usually, I am quite comfortable with these sentiments; now, they just feel too close to home. Maybe this says more about my own life than this album.

Songs with titles like “Crying” are only a glimpse into the cacophonous gloom of this record. The album begins with “Halfway Home,” which references a “rest stop for the dead” in its second line. The beautiful, eerie “Family Tree” references the gallows that hang from its branches. You don’t have to scan the lyrics to know the impassioned handclaps are a cover for the miserable words. It quickly becomes all too evident.

One aesthetic detail: the liner notes are written as a long form letter than begins, “Dear Science.” It may seem quaint, but I thought it was truly charming.

If you’ve loved TVOTR before, you will likely love them again. If you only previous noticed their singles, this isn’t the time to explore more deeply. I caution that you may step into a murky musical bog from which you may not escape.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, September 7th 2009

It’s Blitz!

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:20:00 +0000

By Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Interscope

Karen O. is back, and she’s dancing—or so she makes us think. The original hipster band from New York released their third album and it’s a love letter—it’s my love letter and yours, read aloud under the scattered light of a disco ball. This album combines the sensibility of MGMT’s enthusiasm, along with Karen O.’s personal finesse and emotional depth and a spot of New Wave. She is this generation’s Hope Sandoval and Beth Gibbons combined, without affectation, without orchestra, and with a lot of attitude. Karen O.’s voice simultaneously kisses you, fucks you, and kicks you out on your ass. This album is ballsy, blessed, and painful.

Amazon has a fantastic description of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs: “At the turn of the twenty-first century, the New York City music scene floated in a surfaceless orbit of samplers, shoegazers, and delay pedals. The city's guitars lay choked by a digital fog, or else they lay dustily forgotten. Then, in 2002, an unbridled five-song EP by an unknown band brought noise, sex, passion, and mayhem back to the stage and to the stereo. The band's name evoked the kid who knows that whoever's in charge is full of shit—"yeah, yeah, yeah"—but it also rang with the affirmation of pure rock and roll: Fuck yeah! The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' first full-length album, Fever to Tell, was simultaneously filthy, infectious, sloppy, and brilliant. You could dance to it, and you could probably die to it. "Maps" was nominated for a Grammy, and the record went gold in the UK.

That isn’t too far off from their latest album. On the deluxe version (which is the one you should get) of It's Blitz!, the first track, “Zero” might convince you that the rest of the album will follow suite, with pounding lines like “Shake it like a ladder in the sun/Makes me feel like a madman on the run/Find me never never far gone/so get your leather, leather, leather on.” But it doesn’t.

The acoustic versions of “Little Shadow,” “Hysteric,” “Soft Shock,” and “Skeletons” torch emotion into you like an erupting volcano. “Hysteric” lights you up—but the acoustic version digs you down. With lyrics like “flow sweetly, hang heavy, you suddenly complete me, you suddenly complete me” show that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs haven’t forgotten to keep life simple.

This album became my personal anthem in April, the cruelest month. Eliot was a prophet. Karen O. and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s are just musicians. But It's Blitz! does something T.S. could never do—and that’s make you dance and cry at the same time.

Written by: Mónica Teresa Ortiz, June 15th 2009