My Amazon Reviews: Band Of Horses "Cease To Begin"

Band at a Gallop
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Fronted by the otherworldly voice of Ben Bridwell, Band Of Horses make dreamy folk music ala Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket. Alternating between cushiony pop, unabashed folk and guitar rock, "Cease To Begin" cuts a wide swath musically. Sometimes the jumps can be jarring, like when the bashing guitars of "Cigarettes Wedding Bands" slips into the country ballad "Window Blues," complete with a banjo. There's a great opener in "Is There A Ghost" that mixes both the dream-pop with an eventual cascade of guitsr, combing the band's strength in the best offering here. What ties this all together is Bridwell's voice and an uncanny sense of melody; even his brashest songs have underlying hooks. Add some really gorgeous harmonies ("Window Blues" again), you get one of those indie bands earning their cred the hard way, by working outside the system. "Cease To Begin" is a relaxed and understated album.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Bon Iver "Bon Iver"

Bon Iver makes his "Kid A"
3 Out Of 5 Stars

There was a joke on "Saturday Night Live," where Justin Timberlake plays Justin Vernon, and sings a Bon Iver song to a newborn baby. The punchline is that Timberlake/Vernon falls asleep singing to himself. That's a cut a bit too close to the truth for "Bon Iver," the new CD from Vernon's namesake. There's a lot of tinkling drone, falsetto sweeteners and the occasional surprise instrumental appearances (a slide guitar in "Towers," etc.).

Taken in small doses, "Bon Iver" comes off as an even moer laid back version of Fleet Foxes, or an Ambient Peter Gabriel. Try and listen to the album all at once and you're going to get the SNL baby effect. Sometimes, like on "Calgary," he plays with traditional rock, other times, like "Hinnom TX," his experimental side takes him into "Amnesiac" territory, and that is not meant as a compliment. "Bon Iver" is, like that Radiohead album, both an acquired taste and a love it/hate it recording. I find it far more boring and static than exciting and artful.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues"

Q: What is the opposite of Sunny Harmonies? 4 Out of 5 Stars

A: "The Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes. These folkies have the rich, gorgeous harmonies of the Beach Boys or CSN down to almost museum quality, but where most would call Beach Boys harmony sunny and fun, Fleet Foxes' hit you like 42 sad movie endings spliced together into a 40 minute compilation. They make feeling glum feel oh, so groovy.

Clouds of vocal atmosphere are what Fleet Foxes specialize in. "So now I am older than my mother and father/when they had their daughter" are the first words on the album, and that sets the tone on the remainder of the album. It helps that heaping stacks of near gospel harmony climbs the hills behind lead vocalist Robin Pecknold cushions the fact that Robin is pouring his soul out on each song. The band also eschews traditional instrumentation (marxophone? Hammer dulcimer? Water harp? Tibetan singing bowls?) to enhance the other-worldliness of their sound. That's not to say Fleet Foxes are totally out there; hearing "sim salabim" in the middle of a tune made me smile and think of Jonny Quest. (Well, maybe that wasn't their original intent, but it works for me.)

"Helplessness Blues" is an album that never goes static, never stops to judge what it's doing and sometimes erupts in surprising ways (the cutting, dissonant sax barks and string arrangement at the end of "The Shrine/An Argument"). While often rooted in a familiar base - like the CSN harmonies in "The Plains/Bitter Dancer" - yet taking routes that aren't staid, "Helplessness Blues" moves Fleet Foxes into a place of their own. As the title song draws to a close, Robin wistfully sings "someday I'll be like the man on the screen." There's a hope and idealism to that one line that belies just how deep and treacherously much of the album looks at life, and on their sophomore album, Fleet Foxes sound like they may be up to the challenges.

      

       

My Amazon Reviews: The National "High Violet"

High Violet, Low Aim

3 Out of 5 Stars

I guess I am missing the hype. But when I read the Amazon review about "melodic and explosive," I wonder if we're spinning the same CD. One thing "High Violet" is not is melodic. Droning and almost brutally depressive, yes. Melodic? No way.

OK, I get it, every hipster band these days worships either Joy Division and Jesus & Mary Chain or Beach Boys (and in the case of Fleet Foxes, both). But what The National seems to have missed here is writing any actual songs. Joy Division whipped up a credible melody when they wanted to, and there's nothing here I am going to hum after a few weeks of listening to "High Violet." It's like Interpol with no hooks or JMC without the wicked subversive humor.

There are two moments that I can get hints of what all the excitement is about, and they're both at "High Violet's" midpoint. "Bloodbuzz Ohio" sounds like The National just finished watching a season of TruBlood and hit the studio. As a love song gone wrong, it's the best thing here. It's also the moment where the depressive poetry of the lyrics hits a level of intrigue that most everything else here doesn't.

Right afterwards is "Lemonworld," which carries along only a stuttered chorus and its brevity. I guess it is one of those old songwriting saws that if you run out of words, 'la la la" (or in this case, doo-doo-doo) will make it all OK. Those two songs keep "High Violet" from sinking below an average 3-star rating. If anything, The National remind me of The Editors at the moment they recorded "An End Has a Start," seemingly stuck in a loop of what made them interesting early on. The Editors broke that chain by moving off towards a new direction. Maybe next CD, The National will make that kind of leap as well.