by Nick Courtright
It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly first glance at music discovered in the last seven days, whether it be just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained under the radar. Click here for other recent editions of Hot Off the Press, featuring acts such as of Montreal, Vivian Girls, Bodies of Water, White Denim, Conor Oberst, The Walkmen, The Bug, Fight Bite, and Grizzly Bear.
Peter Bjorn & John – Seaside Rock
to be released on September 23 by Almost Gold Recordings
Report Card: B
Nothing like flaunting the international fame and acclaim you got with a dyed-in-the-wool pop album by making its follow-up an instrumental collection destined to be slept on by most everyone who was chanting your name last year. But at the same time, while Writer’s Block got all the teenagers in a tizzy with the dazzlingly poptastic “Young Folks”—not to mention the rest of the album, which was undoubtedly one of the last five years’ most solid and unabashed homes for catchy-as-hell sugar hooks—Seaside Rock is a testament to a band who’s willing to say a little bit of “fuck you” to the slavering masses, a testament that declares that musical integrity and continued exploration are more important to this band than a continued assault on the tender eardrums of the thoughtless youth. Either that or they’re running away, like pansies, from expectations.
Regardless of which interpretation you choose, Seaside Rock is a confounding piece of work. Here we have everything from cranky jazz saxophone to island-worthy steel drums, from deliriously surprising flute to spoken-word vocal samples from real-life Swedes that seem so questionably placed that you have no choice but to give them credit. After all, once Peter did his solo turn with the mostly acoustic (and often insufferable) The Last Tycoon, the last thing one would expect from this band would be an artsy amalgam of ideas all smashed together over the course forty flaky minutes. Truly, even at its most danceable moments, it’s damn difficult to see the festival crowd digging this mix with nearly the same ferocity that made Peter Bjorn & John some of last summer’s most adored world travelers.
When all’s said and done, though, this is an intriguing album, and offers greater proof of the band’s Scandinavian roots than Writer’s Block, and for that you have to commend our first-name-only friends. You also have to give them a pat on the back for being so frustrating as to deny us a natural follow-up to their breakthrough album, a follow-up which most likely would have been one of the year’s best pop albums, if not most criticized. And really, taken for what it is—a collection of semi-ambient, semi-danceworthy, semi-engaging, semi-inspiring, semi-songs—Seaside Rock is pretty good.
Listen to songs by Peter Bjorn and John here
Grouper – Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill
released June 10 on Type
Report Card: B-
Grouper is an act that’s always been on the verge of being very interesting, but has never been able to scrape together quite enough momentum to pull it off. Very likely as the reason for this inability to cross over into the realm of first-rate indie projects is that Liz Harris’ music is always covered in a sheet of haze about as thick as a two-by-four. No, really, you have to turn the albums up ridiculously loud just to feel out the melodies (often beautiful) which hide beneath the wall of muck and apparently shoddy recording quality that coats every second of music—if it weren’t for the fact that Grouper makes her music almost impossible to hear on purpose, you’d really want to suggest that she find a better producer, or at least stop strumming the guitar seventy feet underwater.
So is Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill any different? If the complication of saying that album title is any indication, Grouper’s latest effort is more of the same, even though the sound is clearer here, and the melodies are some of the most gripping of her career. The first half of the album, with grave attention by the listener, is very satisfying, and the simple gorgeousness of Liz Harris’ voice and instrumentation makes this an album perfect for sipping tea and curling up with a good book…but for driving on the highway at night? Not so much. After all, there’s a reason why this album has been out for more than three months and is just now getting reviewed—it’s just that difficult to pay close attention for the duration of its twelve tracks.
In the end, even though Dragging is certainly one of the most—if not the most—accessible and user-friendly albums Grouper has put out, the dankness of its production still weighs down its potential, and it’s pretty easy to imagine this album being a lot more gripping with brighter recording and a bit more urgency, not to mention a stronger conviction to making a complete record (the disc’s second half pales in comparison to its first). But all in all, it’s a step in the right direction for an act which has an undeniable knack for prettiness, and hopefully next time Harris will get out from under the sheets before she presses record.
Listen to songs by Grouper here
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