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(#11-20) – The 50 Best Rock Albums of the Decade, 2000-2009

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By Chris Moore:

I’m glad you’ve decided to tune in once again for what is the penultimate segment of the Weekend Review’s list of “The 50 Best Rock Albums of the Decade, 2000-2009.”  As we draw nearer and nearer to the top picks of the past ten years, I’ve found myself returning to not only the music on this list, but also to the all-time great albums in rock music history.  I just wrapped up a rotation of the Beach Boys’ 1971 classic Surf’s Up, and I continue to stand in awe of the variety, the flow, and the conceptual focus of this record.  Decades have passed, but the excellence of this album has not.

As I’ve compiled this list, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, specifically wondering which albums that I love now will be the ones that I will dial up in years to come.  Which albums will I play ten, twenty, thirty years from now and still experience the same emotions as I listen?  For that matter, which albums will offer up new insights and feelings, even after double or triple digits worth of plays?

With all this in mind, I present to you my #11-20 albums of the 2000’s.  Don’t forget to hurry back tomorrow for not only the top ten list, but also the full Weekend Review article about the Number One Best Rock Album of the Decade.

11) Room For Squares (2001) – John Mayer: John Mayer didn’t develop the respect of the critics until after this record, specifically after going through a blues phase wherein he jammed with a number of highly authentic and credible singers and guitarists.  What seemed out of place to me was the order of events — shouldn’t the roots apprenticeship come before an artist develops his own unique and entertaining style?  Well, in this case, Room For Squares established Mayer as a writer of catchy pop music that had a backbone.  It’s all in the subtle details here, the guitar stylings and the recurring lines that repeat across multiple songs.  The packaging further suggests that this was a well thought out and executed album, one of the best of the decade.

12) Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005) – Paul McCartney: As he did with his great 1997 album Flaming Pie, McCartney took on nearly all of the instrumental duties for this record, and the result is another excellent addition to his catalog.  And, if we’re being entirely honest, McCartney is known for his tremendous success post-Beatles, if perhaps not so much for his outstanding albums.  And yet, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is one of the two McCartney works to make this list.  It’s simple, really: great acoustic fingerpicking, great drums, and overall great songs make for a great album.

13) Mind If We Make Love To You (2002) – The Wondermints: Better known as the core of Brian Wilson’s talented backing band throughout this decade, the Wondermints deserve as much, if not more, appreciation for their own work.  They somehow managed to be strongly influenced by the Beach Boys while avoiding being entirely derivative, instead carving out their own beautiful, upbeat brand of power pop.  Mind If We Make Love To You is truly their masterpiece; it is catchy without being annoying, and it manages just the right balance between a classic and a contemporary sound.  Not as easy to find as a Brian Wilson or Beach Boys album on the shelf, but well worth the extra effort.

14) Love and Theft (2001) – Bob Dylan: Released on September 11, 2001, this album was immediately read as an apocalyptic sequence of songs that felt like the soundtrack — some sort of oddly real-time soundtrack — for the greatest national tragedy of the decade.  I’ll admit that there were some lyrics that were difficult to ignore, especially the reference to twins falling down — but the context is all off, as the twins are the bumbling Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, not buildings.  Still, Love & Theft came on the heels of Dylan’s 1997 “comeback” album and, with the easy “comeback” tag no longer available, critics were likely looking for a lens through which to view this album.  Nearly a decade later, forget the 9/11 lens, and you are left with an outstanding album, easily one of Dylan’s best.  And this is saying quite a bit if you consider even his sixties albums alone.  Some of his last true rock and roll is documented on this record, and even the more folky, dated sounding styles shine in all their glory, tight instrumentals and raw vocals driving all the pieces together.  Listen to “Mississippi” and try not to be hooked.  Even better, try “Honest with Me.”  If you can resist loving these tracks, you should probably recalibrate your tastes in great rock music.

15) Everything To Everyone (2003) – Barenaked Ladies: Even the tracks that make you shake your head when you really think about them are fun and add to the feel of this excellent album.  That is perhaps the best, most true statement I can make for Everything to Everyone, an album that manages to hit on all the major types of songs — happy songs, sad songs, protest songs (of sorts), love songs, post-breakup songs, and more.  The aforementioned “Another Postcard” and “Shopping” are the standout tracks that demonstrate the Barenaked Ladies’ singular ability to successfully walk the line between ridiculous and outstanding.  The true standouts are songs like “Celebrity” and “War on Drugs” for those that like serious, thoughtful lyrics, “For You” for those who love beautiful acoustic numbers, or perhaps “Testing 1, 2, 3” and “Second Best” for those that prefer downright fun rock music.  The sound is unsurpassed on any of their albums, before or since, and I can’t fully describe how much it feels like home to return to this album and let it play through time and again.

16) Welcome Interstate Managers (2003) – Fountains of Wayne: Rarely has a band produced one album with so wide a variety of styles represented and yet still maintained form and focus.  From the eighties pop-rock of “Stacy’s Mom” to the hard rock of “Bought For a Song” and back to the straight up country stylings of “Hung Up on You,” Fountains of Wayne have created their masterpiece — at least for now — in this album.  Preceded by solid if somewhat pedestrian records and followed by a lame attempt at either humor or conceptual continuity, Welcome Interstate Managers is one of those albums that feels like a greatest hits collection in that each track begins with a catchy, memorable part that keeps your interest.  And, by the time the pretty yet somber “Yours and Mine” fades out, it is the rare occasion when I can control the urge to crank the volume up further for “Mexican Wine” again.  This is one of my favorite albums of the decade, and I’m truly indebted to the friend who turned me on to it so many years ago.

17) Accelerate (2008) – R.E.M.: My purchase of Accelerate last year set me off on a quest to find other great R.E.M. albums.  I’ve steadily, if randomly, been acquiring their studio albums (as well as a really quirky B-sides and rareties collection) and my reaction has been the same with each: it’s not Accelerate.  This is an album that finds Michael Stipe at the top of his lyrical game, putting his gritty vocal chords to perfect use on these wonderfully subversive songs.  Track after track, this is one of the most underrated rock albums of the decade and, thus far, my pick for the best overall album in the R.E.M. catalog.

18) Memory Almost Full (2007) – Paul McCartney: The second of McCartney’s two excellent albums this decade.  Two years after Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, McCartney had returned to the studio with more energy and electricity than he had brought on perhaps any previous record.  One listen to “Mr. Bellamy” will demonstrate just how willing he was to experiment with more modern forms of rock music as well.  Speaking as a big fan of Paul McCartney’s work throughout his career — yes, even including Wings! — this was a stronger, more fun and rocking album than I could ever have hoped for.  Even if you don’t like his music, it’s worth buying this album just to play with the multi-layered packaging…

19) SMiLE (2004) – Brian Wilson: Nearly four decades after the SMiLE sessions crumbled around Brian Wilson’s mental decline, he returned with a final sequencing of songs that, as a whole, added up to much of the not inconsiderable hype and legend surrounding this album.  Click HERE for my full review.

20) Maladroit (2002) – Weezer: Crunchy guitars and catchy vocals drive the most tightly composed music in the Weezer catalog.  And, in many ways, Maladroit is the pinnacle of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo as a guitarist and as a songwriter.  It caused a great deal of debate among fans, and I think it is apparent where I fall in — strongly on the side of reading this album as one of the best, not only of the band but of the decade.

Ben Folds’ “Rockin’ The Suburbs” (2001) – The Weekend Review

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** This is the third in a five part series of music reviews, counting down from the #5 to the #1 albums of the decade, 2000-2009. On January 2nd, 2010, the #1 album will be revealed, along with the complete Weekend Review picks for the Top Thirty Albums of the Decade. **

By Chris Moore:

RATING: 5/5 stars

Ben Folds’ 2001 solo debut Rockin’ The Suburbs is one of those rare albums that thoughtfully balances all-seeing self-confidence and heartbreaking vulnerability.

It is also one of those albums that has gone largely unappreciated.

At the time of its release — September 11, 2001 to be exact — the album received moderate reviews and modest numbers on the album and singles charts.  Folds’ subsequent records have also been dismissed by many sources, holding steady around the three star mark from major reviewers like Rolling Stone.  Still, his more recent work has scored higher on the charts, with Songs For Silverman earning the “mature record” stamp and Way to Normal garnering an inordinate amount of attention from the media, as well as the distinction as Folds’ highest debut on the Billboard charts.

Say what you will about his other work — and Songs for Silverman is a truly great album — but he has never matched the sound, feel, and overall conceptual focus that was present throughout Rockin’ the Suburbs.  Listen after listen, the latter reveals itself to be an exploration of that most basic of all human conditions: loneliness.

Whether intentionally or not, Folds is making statements, track by track, about what it means to confront the truth that, in the end, we’re all alone.  His contemporary landscaping lends itself to this task quite well, as he sets his songs in cubicle-dominated office buildings, behind the doors of extravagant corporate offices, at funerals, and in any number of mundane suburban settings frequented by aimless and/or lost young people.

This was an album I could relate to as a young college student, beginning to think about the world around me and the career — the life — ahead of me.

Likewise, nearly a decade later, this is an album that not only has meaning for me as an adult, but that I also expect will speak to me in decades to come when I find myself, as Michael Stipe would say, staring down the barrel of the middle distance.

Ben Folds' "Rockin' the Suburbs" (2001)

Ben Folds' "Rockin' the Suburbs" (2001)

“Annie Waits” is the ideal opening track, establishing mood with the tale of solitary Annie, waiting on a call that never comes, expectantly watching the cars driving past and wishing she was alone.  Alone, there would be no expectation, there would be no disappointment.  There would be no vulnerability.

The second track moves quickly into the territory of the disenfranchised, featuring two young people, uniquely spelled names and all, screaming out loud to a world that’s not listening.  Zak is the more introverted of the two, choosing to plunk away at guitars, while Sara is rattled by the dreary banality, choosing instead to verbally lash out against a car salesman.  Even Sara has to snap out of it in the end, clapping at the end of her song.

“Still Fighting It” is certainly one of the most personal songs on the album, written as a direct statement to his son.  While expressing the pure joy of fatherhood, Folds also notes that “everybody knows it hurts to grow up,” recalling that “it was pain, sunny days and rain; I knew you’d feel the same things…”

The next four tracks can be viewed as various takes on separation and loneliness.  It begins with “Gone,” a rant against an ex-lover who moved on too quickly, and concludes with “Losing Lisa,” the lament of a lover uncertain of what he’s done to merit a break-up.

The interceding tracks introduce the two sides of a coin all too often stamped out by a contemporary, corporate world that values profit over personality, hubris over humanity.  “Fred Jones Part 2″ describes the final day of a man who has spent twenty-five years working for a newspaper at which he has remained utterly anonymous.  “No one is left here that knows his first name,” Folds sings.  He continues, “Life barrels on like a runaway train where the passengers change; they don’t change anything.  You get off, someone else can get on.”  And so Mr. Jones goes quietly into that good night, ostensibly to conclude a life lived without meaning or true substance.

In other words, a life that many modern-day office workers are in danger of living.

“The Ascent of Stan” an equal and opposite life journey.  Stan is described as having been a “textbook hippy man, and yet somewhere along his path he chose to play the game that would earn him the prestige, the paychecks, and all the financial security that accompanies them; this leaves him, of course, morally bankrupt.

“Carrying Cathy” and “Not the Same” follow the stories of two people who have become lost.  Cathy ends up committing suicide, leaving the narrator with nightmares and regrets.  The subject of “Not the Same” takes LSD, climbs a tree, and returns to the ground as a born-again Christian.  In a sense, the latter song centers around the narrator’s disbelief that he has seen so many people change, “drop like flies from the bright, sunny skies,” and he is left alone with “one good trick.”

For all the bleak subject matter that dominates much of the disc, it is easy to dismiss the levity that the title track offers as contrary to the overall tone of the album.  And yet “Rockin’ the Suburbs” is Folds’ signal to his audience that he has put all things in perspective.  If nowhere else on the album, it is on the title track that he lets all the walls fall down to reveal his sense of humor and unique perspective in as uncensored a manner as possible.

Go ahead and watch the music video.  Try not to laugh, I dare you.

“Fired” continues in the same vein as previous tracks like “Losing Lisa,” describing the painful revelations of the narrator.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, “The Luckiest” completes the album on a fittingly somber-sounding note, providing a hopeful story as the singer confesses his love — albeit in a unique manner — through a description of his perspectives on l0ve, life, fate, and choice.  And isn’t this ability to start all over again, heartbreak notwithstanding, the key factor in being able to break free of the loneliness that threatens to haunt all human souls?

It would only take one listen to Way To Normal to reveal that the starting over may also lead to future heartbreak, but that is indeed the story for another review…

When Robert Christgau labeled this album a “dud,” tossing it into the general category of “a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought,” he clearly missed not one but many outstanding attributes of Folds’ debut.  He missed a provocative exploration of the modern human psyche, that lonely, longing, and bruised side that many of us attempt to push aside for the ease of survival.  He missed a fascinating lineup of characters populating the album from front to back — characters like Annie, Zak, Sara, Fred Jones, Stan, Lisa, Cathy, and Lucretia — who are representative of the negative toll society can take on individuals.

And he certainly missed the finely layered vocals, bass, and drums that are always supporting, yet never surpassing, Ben Folds’ considerable talents on piano.

This is an album that I hope you won’t miss.  It shaped the way I see my world, and continues to merit further thought every time I listen to it, all the while being a great deal of fun to listen to.

As I’ve inquired in the past, what more could you ask for in a rock album?

The Weekend Review: December 2011

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By Chris Moore:

Here they are: the final two reviews of the year!  It’s taken me a week, but I’ve prepared all my “end of the year” lists, and they’ll be going live a day at a time, starting tomorrow…

 

El Camino (The Black Keys)

Producer: Danger Mouse & The Black Keys

Released: December 6, 2011

Rating: 3 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Little Black Submarines” & “Lonely Boy”

Instantly accessible, this new Black Keys album picks up more or less where its predecessor, Brothers, left off, though this time around some of the nuances have been dumped in favor of a streamlined, more formulaic sound.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it does create a sort of unity on the album, but it also tends to make the tracks run together a bit too seamlessly.  “Little Black Submarines” is the standout here, if only for its use of acoustic guitar to establish the track before picking up, though “Lonely Boy” was the perfect choice for a lead-off single (you’ll get no argument from me there).  Others, like “Run Right Back” and “Nova Baby,” are notable for their hooks, but the remainder of the songs generally feed into one album-length grunge/blues-rock fest that is, again, instantly accessible for the tracks’ consistent tightness, brevity, and catchiness.

 

Cloud Maintenance (Kevin Hearn)

Producer: Kevin Hearn & Michael Phillip Wojewoda

Released: December 20, 2011

Rating: 4 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Always Changing” & “Northland Train”

Cloud Maintenance is about what you would expect from a Thin Buckle or a Kevin Hearn solo album, with an added sense of sonic and thematic unity that hasn’t always been present on previous releases.  Perhaps due to his soothing vocals or to the overwhelming sense of utter calm his instrumentation often projects, Hearn’s releases have the potential to be overlooked, or simply admired for their quirkiness yet denied the honor of future listens.  Here, however, there is a thread that weaves each track together, and the lyrics, though quite simple in most cases, tell a story for those willing to listen.  From the opening refrain of “Northland  Train,” there is a theme of departure and loss — of presence, of position — that pervades the first several tracks.  “She Waved” adds a bus to the transportational imagery (not to mention a gorgeous barrage of lush vocal harmonies), just as “Don’t Shuffle Me Back” brings in playing card imagery to express, again, the loss of a position once held dear.  “Grey Garden” delves deeper into the sense of loss, and “Tell Me Tell Me” ponders, albeit from afar, on what Hearn has disclosed as the cover painting by artist Don Porcella.  In “The House of Invention,” the tone begins to shift to a brighter, fairy tale-esque perspective.  The touching, beautiful “Always Changing” settles the contemplation explored earlier in a sturdier, life-encompassing paradigm that suggests wisdom and ease arriving at last.  “The City of Love” opens up a brief window that hints at fresh possibilities in a world that was previously possessed by the “could have been” and the “once was.”  Finally, “Monsters Anonymous” takes a twist, adding the humorous MA meeting introductions of seven classic scary fellows, each suggestive of a deeper layering of underlying thoughts, concerns, and regrets.  In this sense, there is the same positive, if pensive, energy here on Cloud Maintenance: you just need to experience the indecision and sad feelings of loss to reach it.  (And, with only eleven days to share, Hearn offers up my favorite stanza of lyrics of 2011: “I’m Frankenstein’s creation / and here’s my explanation, / why I’m bad at pro-creation: / my nuts are in my neck.”  So, there’s that.)

The Weekend Review: October 2011 Report

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By Chris Moore:

 

Is for Karaoke EP (Pt. 2) (Relient K)

Released: October 4, 2011

Rating: 2.5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Interstate Love Song” (originally performed by Stone Temple Pilots) & “You’re the Inspiration” (originally performed by Chicago)

This is already the second time this year that a young band has performed a cover of the Wallflowers’ “One Headlight”: first by Parachute in concert and now here as the opener to Is for Karaoke Pt. 2.  My first thought on this is that this is suggestive of some communal desire, subconscious or otherwise, for more of the sort of music Jakob Dylan specializes in.  His band’s masterpiece Red Letter Days (2002) may have gone even more unnoticed than 2000’s Breach (as if that was possible), and Rebel, Sweetheart (2005) fared even worse, but perhaps the time is right for a new Wallflowers record.  I think I heard something about that being in the works…  But we’re here to examine Relient K’s second EP of covers this year.  This seems like an odd distribution plan, and though I downloaded both, I must admit that these might as well have been a set of individual downloads than two supposedly cohesive EPs.  The production quality of this second set of covers may be as high as the first seven (who could deny that after hearing their take on Cake’s “The Distance”?), yet the selection is decidedly less dynamic.  One of the standouts is their version of Chicago’s “You’re the Inspiration,” taking this epic love song into our decade, perhaps reminding some who have forgotten it.  (Though I’m not certain how expansive the market is for Relient K covers…)  The presence of certain tracks defies understanding; I have to wonder if they decided to tackle “Africa” simply because they stumbled across the same keyboard effect that Toto took for their own in the eighties.  Still, other tracks, like “Interstate Love Song,” are remarkably true to the original performances, and serve to further stretch Matt Thiessen’s range and show off his capabilities.  All told, I would download “Interstate Love Song” and “You’re the Inspiration,” maybe “Motorcycle Drive By” (originally by Third Eye Blind), return to Bringing Down the Horse (1996) for the Wallflowers version of “One Headlight,” and forget the rest.

 

People and Things (Jack’s Mannequin)

Producer: Jim Scott, Rob Cavallo, and Andrew McMahon

Released: October 4, 2011

Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Amy, I” & “10 Days Gone” (Amazon Bonus Track)

As with 2008’s The Glass Passenger – which, by the way, gets name-dropped in “Hey Hey Hey (We’re All Gonna Die)” – People and Things is eminently listenable: always energetic, accompanied with passionate vocals, and all upon a foundation of rock piano.  Andrew McMahon is like the poppier Ben Folds: using piano to characterize his somber and reflective tunes, yet more predictable and, specifically, more predictably pop/rock than the aforementioned Folds.  This familiar style of arrangement works against People and Things concerning repeated listens, but once in the mood to listen, the album rolls out one expansive, epic production after another.  Some blend into the mix, none really falter, and a few rise up from the median: the heavily rendered ballad “Amy, I,” the near –scream of “Release Me,” and the gorgeously layered “People, Running,” not to mention the outstanding bonus track “10 Days Gone” (how that didn’t make the final cut is a head-shaker at best).  Jack’s Mannequin is a band I want desperately to hate, to despise for churning out formulaic piano indie pop/rock, and yet… I’m taken by it, every time; if only for that reason, I must recognize their achievement.  And they seem to be one of the few acts today – with a few exceptions, like the Wallflowers (see: Rebel, Sweetheart) – that understand how to use a comma, so there’s that…

 

The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams (Various Artists)

Released: October 4, 2011

Rating: 3 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart?” (performed by Norah Jones) & “You Know That I Know” (performed by Jack White)

I can’t stomach modern country music.  I review a relatively wide range of popular music: generally, if there’s a guitar or piano or some bass or drums in the mix, if the track is at least performed by an artist who wrote the song, I’m willing to give it a shot.  I’ve recently expanded my reach into rap a bit.  But country…  Country…  I’ll save this rationale for another time, but suffice it to say that my distaste for country music is specifically for that of the modern variety; when it comes to Johnny Cash, I’m in awe.  Some of his peers and predecessors receive the same reprieve in my book, Hank Williams being one of them.  How could I not reserve such a space in my musical heart for a hero of Bob Dylan?  So big a space, in fact, that I’m willing to grant the Alan Jackson performance of “You’ve Been Lonesome, Too” a thumb’s up.  Norah Jones, Jack White, Jakob Dylan, and Sheryl Crow: who could ask for a better variety of popular artists to balance out the more straightforwardly country artists who perform the other half of the songs on The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams?  It’s a fascinating concept for a tribute album, really: take the lyrics to unfinished songs by Hank Williams, found with him after his death, and inject twelve new songwriting styles to put music to them.  What you end up with is a sort of collection of posthumous collaborations between Williams and contemporary artists.  Some have criticized the songs for being too flatly like Williams’ other originals, or too interpretive, strongly taking on the sound of the contemporary artist.  Regardless of your critical standpoint, it would be difficult to ignore this project as anything less than an interesting approach.  What would be the alternative: an album of covers?  Instead, curated by Bob Dylan and highlighting the second set of outstanding contributing performances by Norah Jones and Jack White this year, The Lost Notebooks is no Mermaid Avenue, but it’s almost on the level of Mermaid Avenue Volume II.  I would even recommend individual downloads for a more consistently enjoyable experience, but I wouldn’t suggest missing the liner notes that tie this project together.

 

The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective (Ben Folds)

Released: October 11, 2011

Rating: 5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “House” (new Ben Folds Five recording) & “Rocky” (Ben Folds demo)

More than sixty songs, an additional five-song EP via free download, expansive and fittingly funny packaging, and all tied together with detailed liner notes by Ben Folds himself: The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective is, without argument, the best packaged Folds effort in a decade and perhaps ever.  Ever since the poorly designed barrage of EPs post-Rockin’ the Suburbs (2001), I’ve been hesitant about Folds’ non-album releases.  There have been more recent releases of questionable overall quality (the a cappella album, anyone?).  And yet, I had a good feeling about The Best Imitation of Myself, one that was confirmed in every conceivable way.  Whether you have loved his work since Ben Folds Five or have never heard of him before, I would strongly recommend picking up this set of essentials, live tracks, rare/unreleased songs, and three new Ben Folds Five recordings.  Speaking as someone who is not generally a fan of “best of” and “greatest hits” collections, I have no doubts that you won’t regret it. 

 

Bad As Me (Tom Waits)

Producer: Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan

Released: October 21, 2011

Rating: 4.5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “New Year’s Eve” & “Bad As Me”

Straight from the vocal chords that make modern-day Bob Dylan sound downright angelic comes an album from Tom Waits that, somehow without compromising his uniquely quirky – at times disturbing – sonic sensibilities, offers itself up as an immediately accessible work of artistic expression.  Its raw quality engineered by some of the best darkly folk musicians available, drawn together thematically by the failing state of the man, society, and morality in general, Bad As Me offers itself up to new realizations regarding vocals, instrumental performances, and perhaps most deeply through its lyrics with each listen.  The ramshackle stomp-rock of “Chicago” shakes the album to a start by riffing on escapist sentiments, “Raised Right Men” reinforces the reasons for leaving, and “Talking at the Same Time” adds a shockingly smooth quality to the mix, Waits’ voice rolling over the typically rough edges.  With nary a clunker in the set, all thirteen tracks of Bad As Me contribute hauntingly, fittingly to the stark culmination of the album in “New Year’s Eve.”

Mylo Xyloto (Coldplay)

Producer: Markus Dravs, Daniel Green, Rik Simpson, & Brian Eno

Released: October 24, 2011

Rating: 3 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Us Against the World” & “Hurts Like Heaven”

Mylo Xyloto isn’t a step forward from 2008’s Viva La Vida, or Death and All His Friends, but it would be overstatement to suggest that it denotes a regression.  Instead, it is the logical blending of the pre-Viva La Vida style exemplified on X&Y (2005) with their new big picture perspective on the album.  As such, the concept-level of Viva La Vida isn’t quite achieved here, but neither is the uniform pop soundscape that came to a head for Coldplay in 2005.  Here, there are instrumental pieces added to provide transitions at key moments, and there is a sense that Mylo Xyloto embodies an attempt at cohesion (stronger in the first third than thereafter), a mixture of art and consumption-ready pop, clearly weighted toward the latter.  This is, after all, the band that, for three consecutive albums, has hit number one in all eleven countries deemed worthy of recognition in their Wikipedia profile.  Not a number two to be seen.  Last time around, the band’s work seemed much more worthy of the aforementioned accolades than this latest record, but Mylo Xyloto is far from a throwaway effort.  Why the world at large seems incapable of balanced criticism of this band, tending instead toward either blind devotion or deeply felt disgust, I will most likely never fully understand.  Simply put, Mylo Xyloto is good: it isn’t bad, but it isn’t great.

 

In the Key of Disney (Brian Wilson)

Producer: Brian Wilson

Released: October 25, 2011

Rating: 3 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Colors of the Wind” & “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”

What, oh what, to write about an album of Disney covers…?  The eleven-track collection is surprisingly – or, given Brian Wilson’s legacy and recent track record, not surprisingly – In the Key of Disney is eminently listenable, adding maturity and characteristically Wilson-esque flairs to these children’s songs.  Some are transformed, as in the nearly perfect arrangement and performance of “Colors of the Wind” and the groovy rock version of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” while others offer greater resistance to assimilation into Wilson’s catalog at large, namely “The Bare Necessities” and, the admittedly typically brilliant vocal arrangements notwithstanding, the “Heigh-Ho / Whistle While You Work / Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” medley.  For the hardcore fan, In the Key of Disney won’t shake your faith in the master, but it probably won’t distract you for long from the news of the new Beach Boys material to be recorded by the four surviving members in 2012 either.

 

Ceremonials (Florence & the Machine)

Producer: Paul Epworth, James Ford, Charlie Hugall, Ben Roulston, Isabella Summers, & Eg White

Released: October 28, 2011

Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars

Top Two Tracks: “Never Let Me Go” & “Breaking Down”

As promised by Florence Welch herself, Florence & the Machine’s sophomore effort Ceremonials offers up more in the way of beats this time around, adding vitality to her murky lead vocals and the deep intonations of her piano work.  There is a decidedly heavier, more epic feel to much of her work here that makes good on the potential she demonstrated on 2009’s Lungs.  There is still a certain dynamic quality lacking in even Ceremonials, but this album certainly suggests a significant step forward, a surging of confidence in the tenor and energy of tracks like “Shake It Out” and “Never Let Me Go,” as in the compositional ambition and vocal saturation apparent in “Breaking Down.”