Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

I still feel really amazed when realizing – or I guess when I’m corrected – when a band/artist is way more/way less popular than I think/assume. I bring it upon myself, sure, but I mean I don’t really think you should have to watch TV or get on social networks unless you want to and so well, I didn’t know Lykke Li was a huge star now. I remember her last album being previewed on a Carson Daly show and her music seemed very intriguing. And so while I kept her new album on my radar, I got onto it a few weeks after it was released and definitely realize why she’s so beloved. I mean I guess it’s lame to be so behind and out of it but once I got Wounded Rhymes soaked in; it was maybe better that the hype was kept locked away. I’m not sure how much influence such mediums play but there has to be some kind of head trick with it all?
Either way, the first song I instantly loved and couldn’t get away from was “I Follow Rivers.” For obvious reasons, the music’s bumping beats away played that forceful, yet carefree boom to her honest words about following him all the way down the river, into the deep sea. I think part of her magic is the fact that she weaves these personal, introspective stories through playfully clever metaphors and while she’s obviously someone still very young, her songwriting is great. So even a song about following him ‘deep sea baby’ is sincerely from the heart and still, poppy and smooth.


The ten songs that span the album are rich and filled with depth that by the time you get to the pouring sounds of the closer, “Silent My Song,” everything just seems to wash away. The pensive manner of the stomping sounds give in to Li’s towering vocals as she doubles her layers so that her voice comes shining through. It’s like a call-and-response type of feel but where her voice clashes against the music in a great wave of immersing voices. She’s incredibly sad, too, and again it’s genuinely clear as she sings, “No fist is needed when you call,” because he hurts her so much without ever needing to even touch her, he ‘silents her song.’ And in many ways, it’s a cheerless way to close it but for me, a resounding, resonating story about harsh, bitter life that simply makes us stronger and hopefully, for the better. – Bryan

The Antlers - Burst Apart

I know that by now, this album has to be a pretty safe bet to land on a lot of year-end lists and I know that it’s probably really HUGE, too, but I’ve been listening to The Antlers’ Burst Apart non-stop for the past week or so. I was a fan of their previous album, Hospice, a lot and I was really mad at myself for waiting so long to finally dip into this new one because it’s truly amazing. And although it might not be the desperately sad album Hospice was, it’s soaring sounds are every bit as good. I mean, Hospice was about a sordid, broken relationship with no hope and here they open with “I Don’t Want Love” and a declaration for the openness that is life without complication. It depends on how you look at it but after the sadness that love can bring, there’s strong resonance in saying, “I’ll pass on it for now” so, in other words this is definitely different territory for The Antlers.

Still, I love the way that aforementioned song bleeds into “French Exit.” With its chiming guitar, it leads way into the second song’s stuttering new guitar melody and towering keyboards. The entire song is decorated with layers of sound before lead singer/songwriter Peter Silberman sings about the bitterness around his unforgiving lover. I love how he describes the unbearable feeling of it all, “If I don’t take you somewhere else, I’m gonna pull my teeth right out.” The stunning music is gradually built into a massive wall of noise; you can definitely hear The National’s influence with a style that is still very personal. In the end, it’s best not to get any kind of pity really, “I’m not a puppy you take home, don’t bother trying to fix my heart.”


There are so many good songs on this album and I’ll try not to overhype it too much but I love “Hounds” and its almost, advising words. “Slow down” is what he’s calling out and it’s somehow about how he’s only trying to protect her, trying to just “belong to you.” The music is pensive and reflective with the soothing tones of a melodic guitar and while the words still leave a lot to wonder, the title implies a racing dog just trying to get to the breast of his lover. Even in the night while others are trying to loosen her up with drinks and trying to look at her, he declares: “While I look everywhere for you.” It’s a beautiful sentiment, one that makes perfect sense in the moment and in the end, a gorgeous way to deliver it all; this album’s filled with special songs all over. – Bryan

Wolf Parade - EXPO 86

About a year ago I wrote this pretentious post about how I was so excited to hear the new Wolf Parade album, EXPO 86. Bad ass as they are, I got around to the album, wrote a long-winded review of it here and never came back to share how I felt about it. I’ve gotta be honest in that although I heard it many times, something always felt a bit empty about it for me. I always maintained that it had to be the fact that I never got around to buying a physical copy of it on vinyl or CD because the quality was not up to par. And still, I felt stupid because they’re definitely one of the better bands out there and I couldn’t find time to buy a vinyl copy in all of 2010? I’m terrible I know but come on. But now, I’ve gotten down to the heart of the album with a copy that is rich and pretty gorgeous.

The guitar and synths on “In the Direction of the Moon” are such a driving force that they shake and rattle the song with a defining presence. It’s the same menacing melody over and over; traded between different instruments that get’s passed around through a swirling mist of noise. It’s this massive, very nearly six-minute long, song that pummels with a relentless drive and the entire time, you can’t get enough of that singular melody. The best thing about Wolf Parade is that Spencer Krug’s styles go so well with the more muscular stuff Boeckner creates. On this song Krug delivers climactic lines with the help of soaring lines and raucous thumps of drums. These songs sound so epic, so HUGE, and still, lines like “I - I'm a wall of sand and stone. And you - you're some kind of ivy I'm trying to hold, as best I can.” are so bitterly personal.


So much so that when it trades into Dan Boeckner’s “Ghost Pressure,” you find yourself sort of still left with a missing feeling but by the time you hit the glorious chorus on this song, everything is downright seamless. If the wall on the previous song wasn’t enough, the nervy groove on this song is where it’s at. There’s times where everything slams away against a pounding drum before it all comes together on a blissful tremble of Boeckner singing “Little vision come shake me up…” I love the way they blend all of their styles onto a song that is merely part of a rather diverse entity. So even with each song sounding different from the rest, within the song there is so much territory covered that the band’s range is amazing. – Bryan

The National - Terrible Love

I’ve been slowly getting into a huge lust over The National’s High Violet. I’ve been lucky enough to see them live twice now and I think just that – seeing that energy, that passion, that amazing spirit – has moved me into digging even deeper into their music than before. Compared to the way Boxer starts, many would say the new opener was a slump but “Terrible Love” is a downright classic and I’ve finally realized that. It’s got the heart of a champion and the bitter re-telling of sordid advice. They sing about how it “takes an ocean not to break” and it highlights the many themes they cover on the album: drinking, adulthood, love, etc. And even still, it’s a divisive opener because there are other versions that for some sound better than the album version.

I think the drums on the alternate version – with the way they relentlessly pound away and the way they mix in different amazing rhythms – would’ve been a more ‘signature’ way for The National to open the album. Something like “Secret Meeting” or more sure-fire, like the “Fake Empire” magic that broke them through onto the other side, it probably would have made more ‘sense.’ But then you have the album version’s murkiness with the opening piano notes and more somber, subtle drum pound. When the music breaks into the section where he’s singing about he “can’t sleep without a little help,” the breakdown in the middle is gorgeous before he announces that he won’t follow her into the rabbit hole. The thing about The National’s lyrics is that they’re never printed anywhere so a lot of the lines could be blurred out for intended purposes. The haziness of the song is what makes the album’s leading songs, especially with the back-to-back hits of “Sorrow” and “Anyone’s Ghost” that much more compelling. I love the imagery of how “It’s a terrible love and I’m walking with spiders” and how he probably knows it’s a terrible, horrible mess of a relationship he has and yet, he’s already well deep in the spider-web. It’s just a small glimpse as to why they’re such a great band and why their main man’s songwriting is so beautiful to many. Here’s both versions for fun. – Bryan