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 March, both here and over there!
Best Album
Nominees: Emotion (Deluxe Expanded Edition) (9.6), Fantasy (9.3), RIP Indo Hisashi (9.0), Cannot Be, Whatsoever (8.9), Finch in the Pantry (8.8)
Up until the very last day of the month, it looks like Carly Rae Jepsen’s masterpiece Emotion would land in this spot. Currents nipped it at the finish and in the process became the first unanimous 10/10 from all three of us—no mean feat considering we’d given out just four 10s across 267 precious rankings. The general thrust of the review doesn’t change much, though, because this album and Emotion are good at a very similar thing: piecing together pop hooks that in less capable hands would sound trite, but here stands the test of time as a perfectly constructed masterpiece. It speaks to the absolute quality of this album that, despite not being anybody’s absolute #1 (In Rainbows for me, 22, A Million for David, Emotion for Eli), we all agree it’s this sensationally good.
Personal Favorite
Nominees: Morningside (8.4/+0.53), The Fall (7.9/+0.47), Finch in the Pantry (8.8/+0.43), RIP Indo Hisashi (9.0/+0.37), Jupiter (7.4/+0.37)
David and Eli both pointed to this EP’s main flaw as a certain sameness and banality to its lyrics, which the production brings to the fore. Is that fair? Oh, absolutely (although it’s not necessarily as glaring to me). Even as someone who really likes When the World Stopped Moving, there are certain lines that are just hard to listen to. That all being said, the vocals completely earn their front-and-center place here—Lizzy McAlpine’s voice is made for bedroom pop, and it shines throughout this EP. Beyond the top three albums from this month, this has easily proven the most relistenable for me.
Not for Me
Nominees: My First Car (8.3/-0.63), Cloud Nine (6.3/-0.60), The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition) (7.8/-0.47), The Living End (Deluxe) (7.2/-0.47), Sound & Color (7.8/-0.33)
“Not for me” seems a little misleading here, because I absolutely still liked this album. It’s a very solid collection of synthpop/R&B pieces and has some great vocals that make it very relistenable if this kind of music is your thing (and it is mine). That being said, I don’t feel that it’s in the rarefied air that David and Eli placed it in, as strong as it is. It’s excellently produced and does a good job at maintaining a calm tempo without becoming boring, but it doesn’t take many risks in its 64-minute runtime, and I had to give it a full relisten to confirm this ranking because I honestly couldn’t remember a single track from it.
Best Lyrics and Vocals
Nominees: Sound & Color, When the World Stopped Moving: The Live EP, Communion
No, this isn’t Fish in a Birdcage, that’s in June. It’s more than just the name that sounds similar, though, which is high praise as far as I’m concerned. The Arcadian Wild combines folksy lyrical and instrumental tracks in a way you don’t often see, and the result is refreshingly captivating for an album nearly fifty minutes in length. “Silence, A Stranger”, a track with evocative vocals that defies genre categorization, is a particular standout, but every line on this album rings with feeling.
Best Instrumentation
Nominees: Currents, Finch in the Pantry, Crying in the Prettiest Places
When I saw this album on the schedule, I was excited for more of what I heard from M83 on Junk, which we listened to in January. The very first track—”Waters Deep”, a brilliant instrumental tone-setter—made it clear that this was anything but more of the same. This album demonstrates mastery of a dazzling number of musical techniques, of which the most impressive is a brilliant ability to build each song to its peak. I’m almost tempted to count the vocals as part of Junk’s excellence, so seamlessly integrated are they, but either way it’s an easy pick for this award.
Least Consistent
Nominees: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (1.50), Things Don’t Always Go The Way You Plan (1.43), The Living End (Deluxe) (1.37)
Everything Bright Green Field tries to do could, and has, been done well at other times. There’s nothing wrong with krautrock, long tracks, repetitive lyrics, spoken-word vocals, or music as an artistic statement, and no reason an album using all of those forms couldn’t be great. But to combine these advanced musical ideas into a coherent final product requires an understanding of what they mean and why they work. Squid doesn’t seem to have it, and Bright Green Field ends up falling short of most of its painfully-obvious ambitions. There are glimpses of what could have been—”Documentary Filmmaker” is the highlight—but this album sounds bad, and the excuse that it was on purpose (to parody capitalism!) doesn’t make things better.
Most Consistent
Nominees: The Last Dance (0.53), RIP Indo Hisashi (0.58), Frailty (0.69)
I was very close to giving all six tracks on My First Car an 8, though a couple did pull themselves over the line for a 9. It’s in similar structural territory to Communion, consistently strong and solid but never really all that musically interesting to me. Unsurprisingly, it lands in almost exactly the same space in the rankings—another 8.3 from me and another rating about two-thirds of a point below consensus.
In Short
The Last Dance (Dance à la Plage): The picture in the dictionary for “well-produced soft indie rock”.
Lily of the Valley (Funeral Suits): I’m still not sure whether y’all actually wanted to record this album.
Cloud Nine (Kygo): Spending the back half of every song in a chorus that goes a bit too long gets old after 55 minutes.
Cannot Be, Whatsoever (Novo Amor): It’s a pretty strong positive statement to get Bon Iver comparisons, even if they’re mostly stylistic, and that compliment is deserved.
Sport (Medoed.): It’s a little much, but it really does shine when it backs off for the closer.
Morningside (Faded Paper Figures): Nothing exceptional, but everything is good and the band is clearly enjoying itself, which is a recipe for a fun album.
The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition) (Lady Gaga): I mean, yeah, it’s catchy, but you’ve gotta admit it’s pretty one-note for an hour-and-a-half tracklist.
When The World Stopped Moving: The Live EP (Lizzy McAlpine): Endlessly relistenable…for me, anyway.
The Living End (Deluxe) (Sarah and the Sundays): This would probably work better if the energy level was a little more consistent.
Sound & Color (Alabama Shakes): Good things happen when a band really feels excited about and committed to an album.
Crying in the Prettiest Places (No Rome): Simply tantalizing, especially on the nascent vocals.
Frailty (Jane Remover): Some interesting ideas in the mishmash of glitchcore, electronic, indie rock, and bedroom pop, but it hasn’t quite come together yet.
Things Don't Always Go The Way You Plan (Flume): Shockingly, an album that spans nine years of unreleased tracks is rather inconsistent.
Finch in the Pantry (The Arcadian Wild): A delicate dance between strong instrumentation and strong vocals that go great together.
Home Alone (Totorro): I usually like math rock, I promise; this just isn’t doing it for me.
Blood Rushing Like Current Through A Powerline (acloudyskye): Two years removed from the first acloudyskye album we listened to, their electronic and acoustic sides are clashing a little less.
Communion (Years & Years): A synthpop album that I really like, but couldn’t bring myself to consider an all-time great without something to really catch my ear.
RIP Indo Hisashi (No Rome): Short, but very sweet.
The Fall (Moxie): The vocals are a little unsteady, but this album does a good job at just feeling fun.
Fantasy (M83): Patrick Lyons’ review of this album might be the most insulting I’ve ever read from Pitchfork, and that’s saying a lot.
Jupiter (Maximum Love): Yeah, it’s a synthwave album.
Woman Titles (Hot Dad): It’s really hard to be funny and sound good at the same time; this isn’t funny and it isn’t all that good.
My First Car (Vulfpeck): Every song on this album is good, but it never really grabbed me.
Spreading Rumours (Grouplove): Some very interesting—and different—peaks, with a lot of less cohesive music strewn in between.
Emotion (Deluxe Expanded Edition) (Carly Rae Jepsen): Perhaps the best pure pop album ever; it doesn’t need to be anything more than that, and it knows it.
No Dogs Allowed (Sidney Gish): 20 minutes of good-not-great indie music, 20 minutes of sensational bedroom pop.
Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Lana Del Rey): An album consisting of countless conspicuous artistic decisions, some intriguing, many bewildering.
Bright Green Field (Squid): Lots of good ideas, but a disappointing lack of understanding on how to piece them together.
Better Oblivion Community Center (Better Oblivion Community Center): Another in the long list of well-produced, solid-in-its-genre albums.
The Beauty Between (RVIVR): Quite solid when it paces itself well, although it’s a bit inconsistent at times.
Currents (Tame Impala): A unanimous 10/10—what more is there to say?