Welcome back to The Daily Spin, hosted by David Peterson of The Low Major (which turned one year old yesterday). Each day, David picks an album (from reader suggestions, new releases, or his own personal favorites) and reviews it, alongside fellow TLM writer Eli Powell and myself. Today, we’re looking back at the month of February, both here and over there!
Best Album
Nominees: Hellfire (9.1), Hailaker (8.8), YAM YAM (8.7), Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (8.6), The People’s Champ (8.4)
I’m not here to offer analysis of 22, A Million. It is easier to analyze poor or average or even good music than to attempt a dissection of an album like this one, which is so purely artistic and simply sublime that it defies any sharp criticism. If there’s any complaint, it’s that it takes a bit before it really hits its stride. But everything from “33 ‘GOD’” on—seven of the ten tracks on the album—is sensational and earned at least a 9/10 from me. The instrumentation is a particular highlight, genre-defying and gorgeous in all its forms, though Justin Vernon’s vocals are plaintively beautiful in their own right. In many ways, 22, A Million brings In Rainbows to mind: simultaneously a remarkable reinvention of the artist in a shifting field and a stunning work of art in its own right.
Personal Favorite
Nominees: New Hell (6.9/+1.47), as a sketch pad (7.4/+0.73), High On Bikes (7.7/+0.63), People Who Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People In The World (3.6/+0.60), Omit (6.6/+0.47)
The central theme of Hellfire is glamorization. Each of the vignettes pictured in ten tracks studies this idea in a different light—a portrait of shell-shocked recruits on the warfront in ”Welcome to Hell”, of an assassin hired by a boxer to murder his opponent in “Sugar/Tzu”, of prostitution for the sake of survival in “The Defence”. The theatricality of this album is its selling point, but instrumentation ranging from peaceful to chaotic sets the mood and challenges the listener’s expectations at every turn. It’s hard to think of anything else like Hellfire; for an album that is as much about protest as it is about music, that’s a hell of an achievement.
Not for Me
Nominees: Wilderado (7.4/-0.57), Deceit (1.7/-0.50), Summer’s Gone (8.2/-0.40), The People’s Champ (8.4/-0.30), A Place Where Mountains Hide (6.8/-0.23)
Heavy Heavy is weird. It’s original to the point of feeling somewhat scattered and disorganized, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing; at the same time, its core of indie and hip-hop is painfully ordinary and doesn’t save itself with great execution. The energy of the album is its best aspect, but Young Fathers doesn’t get at it consistently. Songs like “Tell Somebody”—somehow a slog to get through at a hair over three minutes, dropping a dead weight in the middle of the tracklist—just don’t make sense in the largely upbeat context of the album. The best of it is good, but the album is just all over the place, and most of it isn’t really in their wheelhouse.
Best Lyrics and Vocals
Nominees: Juno, The People’s Champ, Multitude
Geordie Greep’s vocals on Hellfire are an absolute highlight, possibly my favorite on any album this decade. His fast-paced, old-timey-newscaster delivery is a perfect, charismatic match to the cognitive dissonance underlying this album. He portrays characters—a heartless general in “Welcome to Hell”, not one but two hired murderers in “Sugar/Tzu” and “Dangerous Liasions”—that should be despicable by all rights, but his vocals are so damn likeable that you find yourself in their shoes all too easily. Considering how much he’s enjoying himself throughout the album, it’s hard not to enjoy it with him.
Best Instrumentation
Nominees: Here & Now, Hailaker, 22, A Million
YAM YAM is pretty much all about instrumentation, so it’s not much of a surprise that it’s such a strength. This is the kind of music I love to throw on when I’m working on something mindless. A lot of music we listen to wouldn’t sound out of place on a FIFA soundtrack; these songs would fit snugly into a Persona game instead. It’s just quintessentially good jazz, nailing its chord changes and a mellow vibe that simply makes for a really good time. It’s all excellently mastered, too; every instrument feels like it has a distinct voice, with saxes, flutes, electric pianos, guitars, and drums (oh yeah, and the occasional vocals) getting their moments to shine.
Least Consistent
Nominees: A Place Where Mountains Hide (1.86), Deceit (1.62), The Balcony (1.45)
Eli did up his original review of People Who Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People In The World for the monthly recap over at The Low Major, so I’ll take a cue from him and do the same:
From the Wikipedia page for this album, I learned that it was recorded at a studio called Audioconfusion, and that there's a typo in the name of the album on its original cover. Each of those facts is a funnier, more clever statement than any lyric in People
ThatWho Can Eat People.I just don't understand how this album is this bad. The most engaging thing to my brain was coming up with clever ways of describing its badness. The 4-5-6-7 tracks sound more like an AI that was trying to create folk music than actual humans, in all honesty. The lyricism is obviously the lowlight ("half-assed rhymes" sounds about right), although I’d like to point out that the first three songs are all completely redundant musically. With how competitive the music scene is, it's genuinely unbelievable to me that this band (a) was an established act when they released this album and (b) are still active over a decade and a half later.
On the bright side, now I have something to point to when I justify why every other album I've rated is above 5.0.
To steal something else from Eli’s review: I didn’t like it, in other words.
Most Consistent
Nominees: infrequent flyers program (0.69), as a sketch pad (0.82), High On Bikes (0.88)
You know that scene that’s in every Studio Ghibli film, where we get a bunch of short little shots of the main character cooking something or tidying up, just doing everyday things with a certain lightheartedness? This album reminds me of that, in a way. It’s music of the everyday, a portrait of life in all its routine, simple, inherent beauty. You could call it “unambitious” or even “unexceptional”, certainly, but to associate that word with mediocrity would be a mistake. It’s the little things that make up life, after all.
In Short
Metamorphosis (Cloud Cult): Somewhat repetitive, but good at building to a strong finish with its more instrumental tracks.
Death Spells (Holy Fawn): Post-rock that isn’t quite convinced about the “post-”.
Summer’s Gone (ODESZA): The standard-bearer for “unexceptional but good”.
People Who Can Eat People Are The Luckiest People In The World (AJJ): Recorded at a studio called Audioconfusion, which is accurate.
Deceit (This Heat): Ostensibly a protest album, but none of the rave reviews seem to understand what it’s protesting.
The People’s Champ (Quinn XCII): A well-navigated mix of hip-hop, soul, indie pop, rock, and rap that always feels natural.
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (Godspeed You! Black Emperor): Post-rock (and experimental rock) that is completely convinced about the “post-”, and better for it.
Roseville (Roseville): Music for everyday life.
Faust IV (Faust): Never particularly bad, but inconsistent in a way that makes it hard to follow.
Multitude (Stromae): Heavy lyrics, light (and brilliantly multicultural) instrumentation.
Omit (Grivo): Gives you a breath of fresh air in the middle; otherwise, directionless.
Good Girl Gone Bad (Rihanna): Production good enough that anything could’ve been a career-defining hit, which three songs were.
This Is Why (Paramore): Written and produced too well to really get old, despite not being very inventive.
New Hell (Greet Death): Knows how to handle its biggest drops, but doesn’t do much else.
Hellfire (Black Midi): Challenging and rewarding.
A Place Where Mountains Hide (acloudyskye): A solid six-song album with three utterly redundant electronic tracks tacked on near the end.
The Balcony (Catfish and the Bottlemen): Well-made with strong instrumentals, but a little awkward lyrically.
as a sketch pad (as a sketch pad): Nine minutes of forgettable, enjoyable soft indie rock.
infrequent flyers program (defsharp): Much the same, but a little more developed.
Heavy Heavy (Young Fathers): Resolutely upbeat, but undecided on whether it wants to get out of its comfort zone or not.
High On Bikes (dios trio): Jamming out with a couple friends—what’s not to like about that?
Juno (Remi Wolf): Willing to be whimsical without sacrificing serious, intense undertones.
YAM YAM (YAM YAM): Delightfully catchy jazz.
22, A Million (Bon Iver): Beautiful.
Wilderado (Wilderado): It is an indie folk album.
Here & Now (Boxplot): A combination of drum ‘n’ bass with post-rock, two genres that struggle with monotony, that somehow turns out engaging.
Cracker Island (Gorillaz): This could have been a playlist.
Hailaker (Hailaker): A delicate balancing act between acoustic and electronic, yet Hailaker makes it look easy.