Album Review: The Flaming Lips- King's Mouth

The Flaming Lips have had a relatively quiet couple of years. After releasing the somewhat mediocre album Oczy Mlody, and providing instrumental backing for one of the worst albums of the decade, they have pretty much just seen fit to re-release old albums on vinyl, or to remix them. To be honest, I wasn't incredibly excited for he band's next offering. Much like Sunn 0))), the band's last album had soured my opinion a little bit, but thankfully, they made it up to me with this record.

King's Mouth is a step in the right direction and a return to form after Oczy Mlody. The band is staying relatively stripped back; just synths, drums, the occasional guitar, Wayne Coyne's boyish vocals and a sound effect here and there. The instrumentation on their previous was quite similar, though this time they remembered to write songs, and they aren't nearly as uneventful.The songs are also stitched together by a spoken word narrative delivered by Mick Jones of the Clash.

While this album is definitely better than their last, I feel like it doesn't reach the songwriting highs of The Soft Bulletin, and the story is somewhat anemic when compared to a project like Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but I think this is a welcome addition to their discography. This was a Record Store Day release, but it will be getting wider distribution soon, so if you missed out but are curious to hear the record, you won't have to wait long. They'll also be on tour soon, supported by the Claypool Lennon Delirium.

Well, I'm off to listen to some more records, possibly work on some reviews, and write up some more albums in my life entries.


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Album Review: Sunn 0)))- Life Metal

Sunn 0))) kind of have a hit or miss reputation with me. I enjoyed their first few records and some of their collaborations with other bands, but I think their brand of drone metal got a little stale to my ears over time. Their last album, Kannon, a Record Store Day 2015 release, was a little rinse and repeat, with the repetitive feedback laden guitar getting pretty monotonous, with little in the way of progression. It was worlds away from albums like Black One. So when Life Metal was announced, I was a little apprehensive.

The album is produced by Steve Albini, which in my eyes is a plus, since I knew it would be heavy and raw as all hell (which it is. The sound mixing is much better than Kannon. You can really feel the riffs), but the title Life Metal worried me a bit. Is this like some Liturgy crap, where we'll be saving death metal from the stigma of it's name? Thankfully, no, it's just a joke, but it doesn't really do a lot to enhance the songs. The four tracks here are very repetitive, which for a drone record really shouldn't be that surprising, but there is little else to the songs, and they don't really evolve over time.

Take for example, pretty much any composition by William Basinski. The loops he presents are incredibly simple, and repeating them for an hour with no variation would be incredibly boring. However, these loops evolve over time and subtly mutate, to the point where the loop is completely different by the end, but the changes have been so minute that you can't even tell where it changed.
Here, I think they're going for a meditative or hypnotic sound, but I can't really get into it.

Bands like Swans play with extreme volume and repetition to produce depth and soundplay using harmonics and overtones hidden in feedback and distortion only produced at these ear shattering and body destroying extremes in volume, but their songs also are experimental and have many sections to mix things up. Sunn 0))) is essentially just plugging in a few guitars, turning the volume and gain up to 11, playing some incredibly slow riffs, and stretching these dirges out for 20 minutes a pop. These songs, while hiding some sounds in the mix and having some interesting elements here and there, are just far too repetitive for my taste. I'd say it works well for background music for office work, or for your hipster yoga fix, but as a stand alone, it's not up to snuff with some of their earlier work. Plenty of other acts have tapped into what they're trying to accomplish, and have done it more successfully. As for the upcoming sister album, Pyroclasts, I just hope it's a little more engaging and a little less one note.



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Albums in My Life: 2007

2007 was the last half of my junior year and the first half of my senior year of high school. Being 16 for most of it, it was a pretty important year in my development.




Avenged Sevenfold- Avenged Sevenfold
I first heard the band through their inclusion in Guitar Hero II, and this was their first album released after that. I enjoyed their heavier sound (or heavier to me at the time), their guitar skill, and their overall darkness. The first time I saw the video for 'A Little Piece of Heaven', it warped my little mind. It's easily my favorite Avenged Sevenfold song, though not very representative of their sound overall. I just thought the whole cinematic tone and dark subject matter was cool, and them taking cues from the Meatloaf playbook was what they needed for me to really get into it.




Foo Fighters- Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
I've listened to this album a countless amount of time, as when my computer hard crashed my freshman year of college and my music library was temporarily lost (at least until I could grab all my CDs from home), this album, along with Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Gorillaz, were the only CDs I remember having in my dorm room. I always used to study on my bed with my CD player next to my books, and one of those albums on. Maybe not the best album to block out distractions, but it was great. Some of these songs still get me unnecessarily hype, like 'Long Road to Ruin', or 'Cheer Up, Boys (Your Makeup is Running)'.



Linkin Park- Minutes to Midnight
This record initially puzzled me. Being a huge Linkin Park fan as a teen, I got this record the day it dropped, put it in the CD player, and something just didn't click. It was a lot more mellow compared to their previous outings, going for a more alt rock sound. It took me a while to warm up to it, initially gravitating towards the heavier tracks, but after giving it more of a shot, I can appreciate some of their more stripped down songs.





of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, are you the Destroyer?
This was of Montreal's critical peak, and while I love this album, I'm not sure I would say this is my favorite album of theirs. I didn't discover the band until Skeletal Lamping, so maybe I had to be there. This is probably in my top 3 with Cherry Peel and lousy with sylvianbriar. When I saw the band live, they filled the setlist with a lot of songs from this era, and these songs are great for a concert; instantly catchy and interesting with depth. It also marked a major turning point for Kevin Barnes' songwriting, inventing the Georgie Fruit character he'd use throughout the second half of the album, Skeletal Lamping, False Priest, and thecontrollersphere.



Stephen Sondheim- Sweeney Todd OST
Before he ruined his reputation butchering Disney properties, Tim Burton used to make some of my favorite movies. One of the soundtracks from his movies already made an appearance in these lists. So, when this movie came out, needless to say I was excited. I was unfamiliar with the original musical (I now own the soundtrack on vinyl), but the macabre yet musical tone was perfect for me. I still find myself putting the soundtrack on every once in a while, and I feel like this was one of Tim Burton's last great movies.





So, that was 2007. Stay tuned for more albums in my life, and I'll be reviewing a few Record Store Day releases in a double header: King's Mouth by the Flaming Lips, and Sunn 0)))'s Life Metal.


"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."