Michael Jackson RIP

We here at This Damn Enlightenment just wanted to take a moment to send our deepest condolences the entire Jackson family. Michael Jackson may be as crazy as a coconut but his musical legacy will be one never forgotten and one never repeated. The king of pop has also left the building but his music remains. Michael, I think you've just made your comeback.

Top Albums of the 2000's

Reading through Lineout on the Stranger this morning, David Schmader made a lame attempt at formulating his Top 10 albums of the decade and it got me thinking that I will start on mine as well. I won't re-post his list, but can tell you that he must've not started listening to music until about 2004 and that only a couple records on our lists match.

Now, before you go off readin half-cocked, I'll explain how I came to this list. I'd say 60% of my reasoning goes into how much I think the songs from these albums will be listened to in the future or their staying power. Another 15% into their popularity at the time of release or soon after and another 15% into the quality of the music and songs. The final 10% must come down to personal taste, because it is impossible to make such a list without this influencing the outcome. I'll continue to look at this and maybe even rank them in the coming months.

Without further ballyhoo, here's the beginning of my list with a Top 25 (in alphabetical order at this point):

Arcade Fire - Funeral
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Burial - Untrue
Common - Be
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Damien Jurado - I Break Chairs
Death Cab for Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
the Decemberists - Picaresque
Deltron 3030 - S/T
Dizzee Rascal - Maths & English
the Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
the Hold Steady - Boys & Girls in America
Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
John Vanderslice - Time Travel is Lonely
Mum - Finally We Are No One
PJ Harvey - Stories from the City Stories from the Sea
the Postal Service - Give Up
Radiohead - Kid A
Sigus Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
System of A Down - Toxicity
the Knife - Silent Shout
TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Wilco - A Ghost is Born
Yo La Tengo - And then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out

Dark Night of The Soul

Most by now have heard the hullabaloo surrounding the release of the Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse (Mark Linkous) and David Lynch collaboration so elegantly titled, Dark Night of The Soul. In a nutshell, Danger Mouse heard some unreleased material by Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous and wanted to join forces. With the assistance of some highly renowned vocalists including James Mercer of The Shins, Wayne Coyne of the The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, and Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Gerbils, these two music innovators then commissioned David Lynch to create a book of photography to go with the theme (he also sings on two of the tracks!!). Although the concept behind the record sounds incredibly intruiging, I can’t help but feel somewhat disappointed in what we get in terms of the music. Yes, the tracks are produced well and the singers for each are appropriate, but there is still something lacking to really make this as forward-thinking as the title suggest. Perhaps it’s the familiarity of the chord progressions from Sparklehorse’s previous work or the lack of innovation interjected into recreating these older tracks into something brand new. The songs seem a bit fleeting and I only returned to a selected few for repeat listens. Bottom line: it could have been better executed to fit with the theme of Dark Night of The Soul. The music on the album just doesn’t feel very dark or moody. Lyrically, we hear Linkous' trademark prose both surreal and metaphoric and I did enjoy several tracks on the record including "Revenge", "Everytime I'm With You", "Insane Lulluby", and "Dark Night of The Soul" (the last very effectively capturing the hypnotic, eerie, atmospheric feel of Julie Cruise from David Lynch's Twin Peaks days).

Dark Night Of The Soul may never be officially released with the actual music thanks to an ongoing grudge between EMI and Danger Mouse (currently they are shipping the album with artwork and photography book by David Lynch with a blank CD with the intentions of hoping you will just download it from the web) but if you’re a fan of any of the guest vocalists it's definitely worth a listen. Just don’t go into it expecting anything darker that vanilla.
Grade: 7.5

Luna is Honey-Raptor Red

    Luna is Honey use various instrumentation in a constantly evolving level of sound fidelities to create a darkly experimental pop music that is more Ariel Pink than Animal Collective, but with strong elements from both.  "Raptor Red" is their newest self-released record and the recording methods and techniques continue to improve while not overwhelming their vision and music goals.  The band uses the traditional setup of drums, bass, guitar, and vocals, but add a turntable and effects to add organic sound elements to their art.  

    LiH's soundscapes are what make their songs beautiful.  7th and Witmer Blues, while only a little more than 2 minutes long, has a depth that only simplicity can create with waves of sound building to a intentionally anti-climatic let-down.  WLT (Wicked Little Thing) is a completely different jam relying more on a repetitive verse to lead to breakdown, which while is not compressed quite enough, leads to the desired effect of a complete song.  

   Still Killing Creeps is almost a soul-jam, but the lo-fi element gives it a kind of cruisin' during the apocalypse feel or a dark-sunshine vibe.  Rhino Sinners feels like the top of the pyramid for this record.  Beginning with a sound collage, the song enters a well-developed verse but deteriorates gradually until it unwinds and runs out of gas.  The record ends with Tail End, which sounds like a four-track recording of a sunset on a beach of toxic waste. The listener walking down a barely populated Venice Beach boardwalk heading towards another darkened doorstep.  

Check out LiH here!

Grade: 7.6

Titus Andronicus - the Airing of Grievances

     Titus Andronicus is a band from New Jersey that I've been hearing whispers (or screams) about for several months now and their record is finally being re-released on XL here in the states.  They have a sloppy, fun, and drunken sound but their songs are easily memorable in a sing-songy kinda way.  Unfortunately, they don't even come close to living up to the hype.  Imagine if a big label had gotten ahold of the Black Lips and put some Polo's on them and told them to sound edge-y, but not too offensive.  That's Titus Andronicus.

     The record starts out with a lo-fi, tin can-ny into and after a resounding "Fuck you!" launches into a lyrical opening track Fear and Loathing in Mawah, NJ which reminds me more of Flogging Molly with its bouncy rhythm aggressive jigginess.  While the songs are decent, I don't believe they can truly be beyond good as they do nothing special.  It feels more like another rich-kid band trying to relate their experience in yet another uncommunicative way.  Sonically, they sound no different than a cleaned up garage sound with a B.A.  The vocals feel affected in the same way Conor Oberst's sounds when he attempts to yell.  

   The decent songs on the record appear toward the end: Titus Andronicus (oh, how I love when a band has the same name as one of their songs) and No Future.  I have to briefly mention the last song on the record, Albert Camus.  Seriously, be more creative guys.  This is so amateur that it makes me nauseated.  

    When people start saying they like a band because they named themselves from a seldom-mentioned Shakespeare work (which made a better movie, anyway) and because their is a quirky reference to a beloved TV show (that EVERYONE watched anyway) them I'm hesitant to attribute any kind of high-brow vision on their work.  Titus Andronicus do their part in not even living up to half of their billing.  I'm going to listen to Bishop Allen now so I can gain some brain cells back and feel a little more intelligent. 

Grade: 3.1