Climbing Mount Panorama

At Mount Zoomer
Wolf Parade
Sub Pop, 2008
4 stars

Is anyone else really over the word 'wolf' yet? For the past few years it's been popping up in band and song titles all over the place, but while other wolfy acts retreated back into their caves never to be seen again, Quebec's Wolf Parade have emerged from theirs, snarling like the toothy black beast from Neverending Story. Mount Zoomer (named after the studio in which it was recorded) is an exhilarating, cinematic indie rock epic in nine parts, with Spencer Krug's wavering vocals bouncing across sonic landscapes littered with repeated electric guitar chords, energetic piano lines and tasteful space synths. It's hard to single out standout tracks because Mount Zoomer plays so well in its entirity, though the ecstatic Language City and riff-heavy Fine Young Cannibals are fantastic. As a package - artwork included - it's a ripper.

Artwork: A
Sub Pop have done some great work recently (the packaging of No Age's Nouns was spectacular), and they don't buck the trend with Mount Zoomer, tucking a nice poster and decorated CD slip-case inside a nice cardboard pocket. The artwork itself - by Elizabeth Huey and Matt Moroz - is like a mix of Chris Johanson and David Shrigley, with figures and patterns laid over each other in Photoshop to form this great, vastly interesting analogue mess. Ten points.

Published in mX, Thursday June 26, 2008

Good Vibe

Soul Money Gang Vibe
Hit the Jackpot
Chapter, 2008
3.5 stars

Sometimes when I'm listening to Sebadoh I stupidly think to myself 'I reckon I could make music like this, like, really fucking easily'. Then when I go home and pick up my guitar - the poor, neglected foster child that it is - it becomes apparent that, despite its rough edges and bedroom aesthetic, a certain amount of pop savy is actually required to make the brand of slacker rock in which Lou Barlow and co excelled. Adelaide three-piece Hit the Jackpot are going for a similar thing here but, being musicians, they actually pull it off. Soul Money Gang Vibe is a really good yelpy-slacker record (a new musical genre, why not), with the unpolished spontaineity of early Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr, and the 'whatever' art-rock attitude that seems to be in vogue with the checkered shirt crowd. The boy/girl vocals and tight drumming are very Love of Diagrams, and therefore very Sonic Youth (especially on Fireplace), but who cares - these guys aren't trying to reinvent the wheel as much as trying to fit it to their vehicle.

Artwork: C+
Either these guys have tried to emulate the naive cut-and-paste artwork of The Freed Man and hit the nail on the first strike, or they've gone for something more sophisticated, missed and hit their thumb. These days indie kids will take any opportunity to dress up in costumes in the name of 'high-art', and the crowd pictured on the front and back of this album have spent some serious coin at Savers - surely the photographer could have moved his subjects out of the shade.

Published in mX, Thursday June 26, 2008.

Quickly Over The Lazy Dog

Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Sub Pop, 2008
5 stars 4.5 stars

I don't know where to start with this record - there's just so many things to like about it. The band describe their sound as "baroque harmonic pop", and I reckon they've just about nailed it. Vocal harmonies reminiscent of Crosby, Stills and Nash run alongside bright Americana guitars, organs and pianos, resulting in a sound that is part Beach Boys and part Grizzly Bear, with a fabled quality worthy of a Joanna Newsom album. The songs on Fleet Foxes echo with the aural equivalent of reflected sunlight, building from skeletal arrangements of voice and string into romping, all-out folk rock jams. The Seattle five-piece's debut LP boasts more 'honey notes' than a sugar-coated children's breakfast cereal, but it never feels overly sweet or indulgent - the guitar lick at the end of Sun It Rises , for example, could have easily been built into an outro or a song in it's own right, but these guys were happy to leave it be. The vocal harmonies that openWhite Winter Hymnal and Ragged Wood are deeply indebted to gospel, the flute intro to Your Protector has a distinct old-world feel to it, and seventies-inspired guitars feature throughout - as an album, Fleet Foxes has a sound reminiscent of another time but, at the same time, no time in particular. We're only half way through 2008, but this is a serious contender for album of the year.

Artwork: A
Using Pieter Bruegel The Elder's 1559 painting Netherlandish Proverbs as a cover image was a nice move - this fascinating oil painting contains countless references to Flemish proverbs of the day (check out this Wikipedia article for details), and the fabled feel of the album itself is a perfect match.

Livin' La Vida Loca

Viva La Vida
Coldplay
Capitol, 2008
3.5 stars

Like it or not, Coldplay are our generation's U2. Ever-reliable, in five years they gave us a masterful debut and expanded on it's sound with two excellent follow-ups. Now, three years on Viva La Vida takes the experimental tinge of X&Y and turns it up another notch - the simple piano-and-guitar songs that made Parachutes so good are still there, but they're buried under so much of Brian Eno's glossy, cinematic production that they're barely recognisable. Chris Martin has said that Sigur Ros are one of his favourite bands, and on a couple of the more atmospheric tracks on Viva La Vida, including opener Life in Technicolor, he gives a decent nod to their sound too. The organ-and-handclap-driven Lost! is a new sound all together for the band, but it works really well, as does Lovers in Japan with its brisk pace and reverb-soaked guitar. The album's title track even sees the band take a cocky step into the world of dance music - and, surprise surprise, it works too. In fact, the closest Coldplay come to sounding like the Coldplay of old is on the album's final track - but by then the mold is well and truly broken, a thousand kaleidascopic pieces on the recording studio floor. It's refreshing to see one of the biggest bands in the world taking a risk, but the odds were always going to be short - these guys are smart enough to know just how far they can push their sound without making it anything but easy to swallow. Still, it would be nice to see Martin spend more time with his hands on the keys of his piano, and less time waving them around in the air like some kind of stadium rock evangelist.

Artwork: B
It's a brave move, using an important piece of artwork as your cover image - though it kind of has to be an equally important album to pull it off. Past Coldplay albums have had a similar design, combining a striking image with a simple, elegant text layout, but Viva La Vida bucks that trend too. The inside pages of the booklet are a bit amateur, but apparently the band did them themselves, so we'll let it go. Overall, it's not a half bad effort.

Published in mX, Thursday June 19, 2008.

Skimming Stones

Ceduna
The Sand Pebbles
Sensory Projects, 2008
3.5 stars

It's hardly an original idea - to be honest, it's kind of a 'rite of passage' for any psychadelic band - but heading out into the wilderness with a bunch of guitars and a pile of drugs has actually resulted in a decent album for the Sand Pebbles. This brand of pub-psych isn't pretentious or overly self-indulgent - think early Powderfinger playing a gig through a thick cloud of bong-smoke and you're close. The best bits of Ceduna are found in the middle - Future Proofed is a terrific ambient night-driving anthem, and the vocal harmonies on the meandering Purple Flower are genuinely affecting. Psychadelic music can often be overly improvised and experimental (ie: unplanned and disorganised), but the rock tinge of Ceduna makes it, for the most part, a real album with real songs. If these guys ever climb back down off their cloud, I'm sure their live shows will be a blast.

Artwork: C
The cover of this album is a shocker - my poorly-drawn rendition, above, is actually an improvement. Whoever chose the cover font should have their copy of InDesign revoked immediately. The distorted photography on the inside and back cover, combined with some simple, clean text, would have made a great cover.

Published in mX, Thursday June 5, 2008.

Update: Art Critic

As an artist and designer, one of the best things about picking up a new album is the opportunity to examine its artwork. These days CD covers go way beyond the old clear plastic jewel case insert, venturing into the realm of the digipak, cardboard sleeve and beyond. A good album can be let down by a poorly executed cover, and a shit album can be saved by a designer's artistic genius (Architecture in Helsinki's Places Like This rings a bell), but when an album kicks goals both for its music and artwork, everyone's happy.

From now on, as well as the usual mark (F through A+) I will be critiquing the artwork of each album I review in more depth. I realise that by doing this I'm probably opening my own artwork up to a world of criticism, but what the hell. Enjoy!