October Mini-Review Blitz, Part 2

Frog Eyes - Tears of the Valedictorian
Rating: 8

Frog Eyes are in the unfortunate position of being heard of more than heard, due to associations with better-known peers Wolf Parade and Arcade Fire. I don't know to what extent that was merited prior to this album, but the consensus seems to be that Tears is their best to date. And all that aside, it's REAL high on my list and has totally whet my appetite to explore their previous work. Carey Mercer is like the vocalist of my dreams. Get out your thesaurus if you're going to try and explain what he does with his voice, and you will definitely need to scuttle any previous notions about "singing." Carey cajoles; he wails; he harrangues. His voice cracks with passion or outrage or (faux) pain. The lyrics are completely inscrutable, though there's lots of railing against authority and a lot of violent imagery and an overall lack of faith in structures (whether literal or societal). The music, while not as remarkable by itself, does a great job of framing and/or battling with him. Organs and insistent tribal drumming are front and center, the pace is usually breakneck (the slower songs on Tears are the ones that didn't make my personal cut) and appropriately frenzied. (Anyone who needs ABABC song forms should skip this album)."'Stockades'" features insistent banging on the piano for the first two verses and chorus before it shifts into an organ-driven coda that morphs into a swinging outro. Album highlight "Reform the Countryside" starts out as a frightening stomp. Twice through verse and chorus and then it all falls apart, Mercer moaning and grunting "...on and on..." for half a minute before the full band comes roaring back in for a last run-through and yet another extended ever-quieter outro. Months after I first heard it, it still gives me the chills. There are a couple places where Mercer's histrionics are a bit hard to swallow, but overall I find this album fascinating, endlessly engaging, and still surprising.

Kammerflimmer Kollektief - Jinx
Rating: 4

Cokemachineglow put this experimental German electronic/folk group on my radar screen, and after one listen to the seriously-creepy title track I knew I wanted the album. "Jinx" is one of the most disturbing things I've ever heard. Steel guitar, violin, zither, piano, and an unobtrusive drum track set the downtempo faux-spaghetti-Western tone. But what will stick in your head is the deranged vocal by Heike Aumüller. It starts out as quiet wordless moans. As the song progresses new instruments quietly enter the mix, the tone becomes ever more claustrophobic and eerie, and Aumüller becomes increasingly frantic. By the last runthrough she's gibbering as if she's either possessed or maybe being electrocuted. It's incredibly vivid and cinematic, like having the front seat to someone's nervous breakdown.

Unfortunately nothing else on the album is as noteworthy, and a good chunk of it could even serve as nice background music with nobody commenting on it. I don't regret the purchase - but "Jinx" is probably the only song from the album that will persist on my playlists for any length of time.

Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Rating: 9

It's probably late enough in the year now that I can venture this is going to take my #1 spot for 2007. I've pretty much been obsessed with this album for the last couple months. What amazes me about Hissing Fauna is how incredibly fresh it sounds, even as it recycles every trope from electronic pop music from the last thirty years. At various points you can draw lines to Bowie, Queen, Prince, Depeche Mode... the list goes on. It's pop, sure - there isn't a song on here that won't sink into your ears like candy and have you humming along by the third listen. But it's also surprisingly weird, inventive, and darkly personal. Kevin Barnes knows that subtle self-awareness is the key to well-executed camp, so every song comes packaged with a sly wink. "There's the girl that left me bitter / Want to pay some other girl to just walk up to her and hit her" is not a line that anyone - no matter how caught up in their personal drama they might be - could deliver with a straight face, so Barnes follows it up with a hiccoughing "But I can't I can't I CAN'T!!!!" First single "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" starts out portentous but quickly turns into a quirky 80s keyboard jam, complete with hilarious chorus "Come on chemicals! Come on chemic-oh-oh-oh-oh-als!" And then there's the delightful put-down "Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider", where Barnes informs a woman who's not taking the hint, "Eva, I'm sorry but you will never have me. To me you're just some faggy girl, and I need a lover with soul power. And you ain't got no soul power." (Add Barnes to the list of male vocalists I find it hard to believe is straight.) The verses of "Labyrinthian Pomp" are such a spot-on channeling of Prince that the Purple One should be looking into an infringement lawsuit; except, of course, it's ten times better than anything Prince has put out in decades. Finally, Hissing Fauna is the most consistently great album I've heard this year. Only the nine-minute motorik centerpiece "The Past is a Grotesque Animal" elicits an occasional jab at the "next" button from me; otherwise there isn't a dud song in the bunch. In short - buy this, and get your falsetto ready to sing along.