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a considered opinion: modest mouse - no one’s first and you’re next ep
Modest Mouse’s latest release, the No One’s First And You’re Next EP, puzzles me. I don’t mean it’s a particularly strange record that challenges any of my musical sensibilities or preconceptions or anything like that. In fact, the EP is by and large a rather pleasant, undemanding affair: most of its songs gently roll along at a mid-tempo, devoid of any jarring sudden changes. What I don’t understand about this release is precisely who it’s intended for. Consisting of eight previously released B-sides from the band’s two previous albums, Good News For People Who Love Bad Newsand We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, it surely can’t be intended for die-hard Modest Mouse completists; they will already have heard these songs. I’m not entirely sure how well the EP will go over with more mainstream audiences, either. As I said before, the majority of the material here is rather easy on the ears, bouncing innocuously from one track to the next. However, that’s precisely where the EP’s greatest weakness lies. These songs, with some exception, sound exactly like what they are: B-sides. None of the songs here are so radically different from everything on the band’s two previous releases that they couldn’t have been included therein. For the most part, they simply sound like they got left on the cutting room floor, and for good reason.
The EP isn’t completely without its charms, though. You’ve doubtless already heard of “King Rat” for its Heath Ledger-directed video, and the song itself is a dark, stomping affair that strikes a perfect balance between protracted swells and sudden crashes. The strengths of “King Rat” are what actually serve to highlight the weaknesses of the rest of the EP. While the verses in “King Rat” have a similar mid-tempo, nonchalant feel to “Satellite Skin” or “History Sticks To Your Feet”, “King Rat” succeeds where they fail by building momentum and actually going somewhere – it’s the transitions between the horn- and banjo-heavy verses and the brooding, snarling chorus built around Isaac Brock’s repeated refrains of “Deep water, deep water” that lend the song its sense of urgency. “The Whale Song” is the other standout here, with a chorus built around a line that showcases Brock’s knack for hinting at feelings of paranoia and self-doubt:
“I know I was a scout I should have found a way out
So everyone could find a way out”
Surrounding the chorus are two long instrumental passages that recall both the crashing waves of “Ocean Breathes Salty” and the dark isolation of that runs throughoutThe Moon and Antarctica. I don’t think I’m being overly effusive when I say that either of these two songs hold up against some of the best numbers on the band’s previous two albums (and stand head and shoulders above some of the weaker ones, I’m looking in your general direction “Missed The Boat”…). However, outstanding though they may be, they don’t make up for the faults of the rest of the EP. While none of the songs here are particularly bad, most of them aren’t particularly good either. Since everything here has already been released in some form or another, one can’t help but wonder whether No One’s First And You’re Nextis just an attempt by Modest Mouse’s label to generate some cash while the band works on its next proper release. Puzzling, indeed.
Some American DOES NOT RECOMMEND Modest Mouse’s No One’s First And You’re Next EP
a considered opinion: radiohead - “harry patch (in memory of)”, “these are my twisted words”
So, Radiohead have gone and done it again. Much like they did with In Rainbows in 2008, they’ve managed to sneak up on the world with some new music. Either they have somehow managed to prevent the early leaks that plague virtually every major release today, or they have begun putting material out within days of its completion. I’m going with the latter. Unlike the fall of 2008, though, this time around we’re greeted not with an entire album’s worth of (stunning) new material, but two songs (singles? Who’s even counting anymore) released in the same week, “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” and “These Are My Twisted Words”. Given Radiohead’s unorthodox means of releasing music (i.e. trickling new material out on a song-by-song basis), this will be a somewhat unorthodox considered opinion. But enough of my rambling –the songs:
Thom Yorke was allegedly inspired to write “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” upon hearing a BBC interview with the titular veteran, who, up until his recent death, was the oldest living World War One survivor. The song’s lyrics are all either directly taken from or inspired by this interview, and it’s no surprise that Yorke felt moved to put Patch’s story to song. The interview, which can be heard here, is a haunting insight into the experiences and memories of a man who refused to speak of the war (even to his wife) for 80 years. Working around Patch’s experiences should have been a walk in the park for Yorke, always one for a spot of doom n’ gloom. It’s genuinely puzzling, then, that “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” feels so flat. Consisting solely of strings arranged by Johnny Greenwood and Thom Yorke’s yearning warble, it doesn’t even come close to evoking the haunting sensation of listening to Patch himself. Yorke’s vocals sound as though they were shoe-horned to fit around Greenwood’s string arrangement, which sounds like a mixture of a poor man’s Sigur Rós and schmaltzy film scores.
Following quickly on its heels, “These Are My Twisted Words” makes the shortcomings of “Harry Patch” even more evident. Built around a shuffling beat that recalls some of the more driving numbers on In Rainbows and arpeggiated guitars that sound simultaneously fragile and menacing, “Twisted Words” takes its time to warm up, with an instrumental intro lasting until the 2:30 mark. Once they finally do arrive, the vocals are sparse and distant, with Yorke stranded in a distant tunnel of reverb. Though the lyrics are far more oblique and vague than those in “Harry Patch”, Yorke’s repeated chorus of “When are you coming back? I just can’t handle it” sounds far more desperate and urgent than his direct use of Patch’s words.
Ultimately, while “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” is a compelling idea on paper, and makes for a half-decent eulogy, the execution falls considerably short of its potential. And, while “These Are My Twisted Words” is by no means a great song (and one that certainly doesn’t measure up to some of In Rainbows’ highlights), its lonely pleas and tense guitars shine in comparison.
Some American DOES NOT RECOMMEND Radiohead’s “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)”
Some American does, however, RECOMMEND Radiohead’s “These Are My Twisted Words”
a considered opinion: mount eerie - wind’s poem
If Wind’s Poem is anything to go by, Phil Elverum is a sponge. A goddamn musicalsponge. The creative force behind Mount Eerie, Elverum has claimed that he has, of late, been heavily influenced by black metal acts such as Xasthur. The onslaught of opening track “Wind’s Dark Poem” supports this claim instantly with its dense squall of pummeling guitars bathed in layers of distortion. Although the first few bars sound alarmingly like they were written by some funeral makeup-wearing gentlemen from the icy expanses of Scandinavia, once Elverum’s voice creeps in it becomes clear that that’s not quite the case. Rather than an incomprehensible guttural roar, Elverum sings with a slight, vulnerable voice that sounds as though, regardless of the fact that it is surrounded by thunderous guitars and crashing drums, it could be knocked over by a gentle breeze. His voice is one of the few constants throughout the album, never deviating from the quiet, humble tone established in the opening track. This lack of change never feels tedious, however, since everything around Elverum’s voice is constantly in flux, shifting moods, tones and genres between songs (and sometimes within them). Although he cites black metal as a primary influence, it’s clear that Elverum draws from whatever genres he sees fit. Although the dense, crashing sounds of “Wind’s Dark Poem” pop up throughout the album on tracks like “The Hidden Stone” and “The Mouth of Sky”, he frequently veers wildly away. At times, he sounds like The Flaming Lips, in the delayed piano and reverberated guitars of “Ancient Questions”, and at other times he sounds like Rain Dogs-era Tom Waits, with the chicken-scratch guitars and vibraphones of “Between Two Mysteries”, possibly the album’s best song.
Elverum has described the sound of his latest release as “black wooden”, which seems to encapsulate both the direct influence that black metal has had on his own sound and the tone of his work in general: he writes dark, haunting songs that rely on (at times excessively) heavy evocation of natural imagery. Wind’s Poem frequently reminded me of Grouper’s Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill. If Liz Harris were a) male and b) willing to explore the furthest extremes of both the delicate and harsh aspects of her music, then her next album might sound a whole hell of a lot like Wind’s Poem. It is Elverum’s willingness to explore and stretch his sound in different directions, however, that often births the album’s weakest points. All of the heavier songs on the album sound infuriatingly similar, relying on the same wall of noise guitars and endless cymbal crashing, and the left-field sonic experiments of “(something)” are self-indulgent, meandering, and worst of all, pointless. Although it may be inconsistent in terms of quality, Wind’s Poem does manage to evoke a continuous sense of melancholy and expansiveness: the whole album feels like a soundtrack to sitting on a mountainside at dawn and feeling gloomy. While it is most certainly a complete downer (oh GOD would I love to see someone put this album on at a party), it is so thoroughly evocative and persistent in its emotional themes that it’s almost a pleasure to sit back and let the gloom and doom set in.
Some American RECOMMENDS Mount Eerie’s Wind’s Poem
