January Mini Reviews

So, I was actually planning on reviewing Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, along with a lot of these records, as stand-alone reviews, but the sheer number of albums that have been coming out this month that I was interested in was just insane, so I decided to share some brief opinions on them here. I'm tackling the aforementioned Panda Bear record, as well as Belle and Sebastian's Girls in Peacetime Want To Dance, The Decemberists' What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, Sleater-Kinney's No Cities To Love, and Tetsuo & Youth by Lupe Fiasco.

Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper

I want to like this record more than I do. I liked Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks, but that solo effort by another member of Animal Collective faded for me pretty quickly. I feel like these solo projects haven't been approached with a lot of care, and though there are some interesting sounds and production details, there's not a whole lot to the songs to keep me coming back. This is just more of the synth psych with Brian Wilson-esque vocal melodies that we've come to expect from Panda Bear. I've heard it called "experimental", which would be the case if it were by someone else, but from one of the minds that gave us Feels and Strawberry Jam, this just feels kind of like middle of the road fare. Still a major step up from Centipede Hz though.




Girls in Peacetime Want To Dance



As it stands, this album has me feeling a little cold at the moment. Belle and Sebastian have been headed down the poppy direction for a while, but the synths and dance rhythms have them pretty far removed from their original sound. Changing sonic approaches is all part of evolving, but as a huge fan of Tigermilk, I'm kind of missing that intimate sound. Maybe later in the year this will click with me and I'll appreciate it more, but I'm a little ambivalent towards this record for the time being.








What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World


Hopes were definitely high for this record, and I really feel like the Decemberists delivered. I was a little iffy on The King is Dead, as it was just a little straight forward in sound, and was a little less ambitious than their previous work, especially my favorite album of theirs, the polarizing The Hazards of Love. I feel like they really blended some of their earlier complexity and verbose lyrical content with their newer, folk rock and Americana tinged sound. I hope I can catch them when they come to the Burgh later in the year.





No Cities To Love

Sleater-Kinney are back, and it doesn't sound like they ever left. A lot of these nineties band comebacks have been pretty disappointing, but this is not one of them. Dialing back a little of the experimentation of their last effort, The Woods, the band has returned with one of their more accessible records, which is good to attract a newer audience as well as please their hardcore fans, though this return album is hardly just a retread of their past work. They are building on their past success, and they definitely still have things to say and a message to spread. It's good to know that some bands can make a comeback and not be shadows of their former selves.




Tetsuo & Youth

I wasn't really sure how I was going to feel about this album. I wasn't a fans of Lasers, and though some of the subject matter and verses on the last album (title waay too long for me to bother typing) were compelling, the production and hooks were rather weak. About 4 minutes in, after some palpable atmospheric buildup, Lupe finally begins to rap, and it's all over from there. This album is absolutely amazing and defied all expectations I had for the album. This album is so densely packed with wordplay and lyrical content that'll take me a lot more listening to actually unpack and process all the project has to offer, but this miles away the best thing Lupe Fiasco has released in a long time, and has set the bar pretty high for my favorite hip hop of the year. I feel like only Run the Jewels 3 has even a chance of unseating this.



And now headed off to listen to Vulnicura and the new Aphex Twin EP, among other releases. This year has already popped out some amazing material, and we aren't even a month into the year!


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