Thursday, April 29, 2010

Quick 'N Dirty Review: Shout Out Louds | Work

Before we start, here's a quick look at the rating system that we use here at The Dirtywhirl:

100 - Classic Album; One Of The Best Of All Time
99-90 - Exceptional Work; Rush Out And Get This
89-80 - Very, Very Good; You Should Still Go Out And Get This
79-70 - Not Bad At All; Might Actually Be Worth Your Time
69-60 - Has Its Moments But On The Whole... Meh
59-50 - Won't Make Your Ears Bleed; Won't Make You Dance, Either
49-0 - Don't Waste Your Time; You're Smarter Than This (Probably)
 

Now... onto the review:

Shout Out Louds | Work
We're taught from the time that we begin school to never judge a book by its cover. Just as anything this isn't an absolute, though. There are plenty of times that you CAN judge an album by its cover, or that there are enough times where an album's cover will end up dovetailing nicely with its sound and tone. Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon for example - you know you're going to get a spacey mindtrip looking at those triangles and rainbows. Personally (and this is going to be a left field choice) John Mayer's Heavier Things with its grayish/blueish hue and Mayer standing forlornly with his guitar evokes the melancholy feel of the majority of that record to me. Why do I bring this seemingly strange point up now? Take a look at that picture to the left. Fairly boring black and white portrait of the Shout Out Louds, right? Not very exciting and nothing really jumps out at you, does it? Congratulations because you now know exactly how this record sounds. After debuting with the largely forgettable Howl Howl Gaff Gaff in 2003, Shout Out Louds surprised many with the Cure-influenced (and therefore Dirtywhirl-approved) Our Ill Wills in 2008. As an admitted Cure freak, I loved that aspect of the album and it set the bar fairly high for the Swedish act's third record, Work, and it's a bar that the band not only failed to clear, but one that they came in very far below. Work is nothing more than the sound of an average band putting out an average record. There's no real crime in that, but there's no joy in it either. Part of the problem is that the beats and energy of Our Ill Wills are largely absent here. Whether that was a deliberate choice by the band is unclear but it's something that's sorely missed. A large chunk of the record sounds like faceless '70s AM soft rock ("Play The Game," "Paper Moon") and lacks the personality that the band displayed on Our Ill Wills. Clearly, Shout Out Louds are at their best when they're able to craft strong hooks on tracks like "Throwing Stones," "Show Me Something New," and, to a lesser extent, lead single "Walls." They also demonstrate that they're adept with gentle melodies on "Too Late Too Slow," but too much of Work has a throwaway quality that does Shout Out Louds no favors. To be completely honest, I listened to this record once or twice when I first got it and then put it aside for the simple fact that there really isn't anything that's strong enough here to deserve my time. Although being average in the music industry isn't the worst thing - many average bands are able to break through for one reason or another - it's not really the best way to get noticed either. Work could serve as a (bland) case study in that theory.

Standout Tracks: "Too Late Too Slow;" "Throwing Stones"

Dirty Rating: 50/100


Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The New Shit | 4/27

The New Shit is taking a break this week as there really isn't any... well, new shit worth mentioning. We Were Promised Jetpacks' new EP? They're OK, I guess. Sherlock Holmes? We previewed that last month. This was probably the lightest week of 2010 thus far but we'll be back and ready to go as May is set to bring a plethora of new releases in both music (The National, Band Of Horses, The Black Keys, LCD Soundsystem, the reissue of The Cure's Disintegration) and movies (Avatar, Crazy Heart, The Road, Legion, The Messenger, Mystery Team). It all kicks off next week with Broken Social Scene, Deftones, The Hold Steady, and Nine. See you then.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Quick 'N Dirty Review: The Album Leaf | A Chorus Of Storytellers

Before we start, here's a quick look at the rating system that we use here at The Dirtywhirl:

100 - Classic Album; One Of The Best Of All Time
99-90 - Exceptional Work; Rush Out And Get This
89-80 - Very, Very Good; You Should Still Go Out And Get This
79-70 - Not Bad At All; Might Actually Be Worth Your Time
69-60 - Has Its Moments But On The Whole... Meh
59-50 - Won't Make Your Ears Bleed; Won't Make You Dance, Either
49-0 - Don't Waste Your Time; You're Smarter Than This (Probably)
 

Now... onto the review:

The Album Leaf | A Chorus Of Storytellers

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it apparently takes A Chorus Of Storytellers to spin a tale that's as boring as shit. There's probably any number of different things that could be listed that can elicit the same effect as listening to The Album Leaf's latest release, A Chorus Of Storytellers. Gazing at a blank wall, for instance. Or, staring at a linoleum floor. Even counting ceiling tiles would work. Essentially, any pointless activity would be akin to listening to this record for 50 mind-numbing minutes. Really, it's not like Album Leaf records are likely to wow you, but Album Leaf mastermind Jimmy LaValle has done some stellar work in the past (particularly on 2004's In A Safe Place), which is part of what makes A Chorus Of Storytellers so frustrating. Its tracks are so interchangeable in their indistinguishability that "Within Dreams" might as well be "Summer Fog" which might as well be "Almost There." And honestly, with song titles like "Blank Pages" and "Stand Still," LaValle is making it much too easy to mock the record's banality. Nothing here makes a positive impression and almost everything about it will leave your mind the minute the track ends. It's very difficult to avoid checking out before the album's over because it's so ineffectual and, it's not even that it's actively awful - there's at least a perverse joy in mocking a record like that - it's just that it's so... bland and that's often the worst offense an album can commit. What's even more galling is that one of the only songs that has a chance to be anything, "Falling From The Sun," is tainted by a skittering blip that appears at random points during the track, making it sound like a download that's gone haywire. It's a very annoying element and, as is this album's wont, seems to be intentional for some inexplicable reason. Was the intent to piss off the listener? To evoke some kind of emotion, even of the negative variety? It's very difficult to imagine that anyone who's introduced to The Album Leaf via A Chorus Of Storytellers would feel compelled to check in on any future releases as this record is essentially background music that background music would listen to and for longtime fans it's probably an album that accomplishes nothing more than raising the question of whether In A Safe Place is was anything more than a wonderful fluke.

RIYL: Watching paint dry; Disappointment; Wasted talent
Standout Tracks: None

Dirty Rating: 21/100



Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The New Shit | 4/20

Calm before the storm as April closes because the next wave of giant releases hits in May. It gives us the chance to highlight a few worthy releases this week that might otherwise get lost in the flood. (Apologies for the water imagery - we're hopelessly hooked on HBO's new post-Katrina drama, Treme).


CDs
THE DIRTYWHIRL'S PICK OF THE WEEK: Caribou | Swim
A friend of the blog swears by this record and that dude usually hates EVERYTHING, so our interest has been piqued. First single "Odessa" is pretty strong and features some of the best dance beats we've heard since the Hercules And Love Affair album two years ago so we have some high hopes for Swim.



The Radio Dept. | Clinging To A Scheme
Swedish shoegazers The Radio Dept. first came to our attention in 2006 when three tracks (including the super-excellent "Pulling Our Weight" and the just-as-excellent "I Don't Like It Like This") were included on the soundtrack to the Sofia Coppola flop Marie Antionette. This is their first new output since then so it's been a long wait. Good thing our memory is still... wait, what were we talking about?



The Delta Mirror | Machines That Listen
Imagine The Album Leaf when The Album Leaf was actually good and you'll have a decent approximation of what The Delta Mirror's debut album sounds like. If that's your kind of thing.



DVDs
A quick note before we get started on the DVD releases. Two weeks ago, 20th Century Fox and Universal joined Warner Brothers in requiring a 28-day rental window for Netflix and Redbox to carry their films. Basically, movies from these studios are not available to be rented until 28 days after they've been released for sale on DVD. It sucks, but what are you gonna do? In Netflix's case, they're getting more back catalog selections for their streaming catalog so it's not all bad. Point is, since three of the major studios are insisting on this exclusivity, we're adjusting this space to look at movies that are available for the first time on Netflix or Redbox since no self-respecting person goes to Blockbuster anymore. And if you are still going to Blockbuster, what's wrong with you? Seriously.


The Blind Side
I already made a joke at Sandra Bullock's expense when we previewed this movie last month on its DVD release date so, since we're recycling an entry, we figured we'd recycle a funny we heard on Tosh.0. Gabourey Sidibe probably didn't have much of a chance at an Oscar for Precious because the votes were split with her starring role as Michael Oher here. Heyyyyyyooooo. Johnny Bench called.



The Lovely Bones
Yes, this is an adaptation of Alice Sebold's chick book but it's also Peter Jackson's first directorial effort since the polarizing King Kong back in 2005. That's worth something, yeah? No? Probably no.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Quick 'N Dirty Review: The Pacific

Before we start, here's a quick look at the rating system that we use here at The Dirtywhirl:

100-95 - Classic Show; (In best Bill O'Reilly voice) "WE'LL DO IT LIVE!!"
94-85 - Upper Echelon Show; You Should DVR This And Watch It The Same Night
84-75 - Very, Very Good; You Should Make An Effort To Watch This Within A Few Days Of Airing
74-65 - Not Bad At All; Let These Shows Pile Up On Your DVR But Watch 'Em Eventually
64-55 - Fold The Laundry While You Watch These
54-0 - Don't Waste Your Time; You're Smarter Than This (Probably)
 

Now... onto the review:


The Pacific

As a broke college working a barely above minimum wage job, I didn't have the luxury of affording HBO back in 2001 when Band Of Brothers first aired. The years have passed and the acclaimed miniseries has become a cultural touchstone (that now sits forlornly in my home begging to be watched for the first time) for war aficionados and television fanatics alike. When HBO announced that Band Of Brothers' production team of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg would be delivering a follow-up miniseries to the pay cabler, this time focusing on the oft-overlooked war in the Pacific during WWII, I began to steel myself to get in on the ground floor. I wasn't going to miss out this time. With many critics declaring The Pacific to be the best series that would air in 2010 before the first installment even premiered and with nine years passing since the airing of Band Of Brothers, expectations grew to an astronomical level. It would be all but impossible for anything to live up to that hype, right? So, does The Pacific meet those lofty expectations?

The answer is an unqualified, "Yes." Go to your local video store (if there's even one left - big ups to Netflix) and your eye is bound to catch one or two or 437 movies that deal with war. The subject matter is one of Hollywood's favorite standbys. In order to break out from the morass, a project like The Pacific needs to possess something unique to differentiate it from similar films/series. What The Pacific does better than any military project I've ever seen is convey, without a shadow of a doubt, the toll that war takes not only on a man's body, but more profoundly the toll that it takes on his soul. Saving Private Ryan, Generation Kill, et al are very effective in accomplishing their goals but I've never seen the type of pain, seen the type of drain on soldiers like what's shown in The Pacific.

In "Part One," bodies float through the waters of Guadalcanal after the first staged battle and the weight of what these soldiers have entered into becomes strikingly apparent. Later, in "Part Two" as they forage for supplies and food, they seem somehow less than human, almost animalistic in a way. When we see them in battle with the Japanese, we experience for ourselves the sense of terror and dread that they themselves must feel as the enemy charges towards them with bad intentions (and kudos to "Part Two's" director, David Nutter, for choosing to shoot this battle in a POV fashion, which adds to the fright factor exponentially). The war is robbing their spirit and there isn't anything that they can do about it. The visuals are shockingly powerful.

Another effective choice made by the series was the decision to focus on less characters than its predecessor. One of the main criticisms of Band Of Brothers was that the narrative was difficult to follow since there were so many characters for the viewer to track. The Pacific has largely learned from that misstep as the series focuses on three soldiers: PFC Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale, 24), a writer with a sense of duty to country; Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone (Jon Seda, Homicide: Life On The Street), a career soldier (and soon to be Marine legend) from a large family; and Corporal Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazello, Jurassic Park), a young man with a chip on his shoulder due to a medical issue (and parents) that initially keep him out of the service. Of the three, Dale could have the best chance at a breakout as not only does Leckie receive the majority of the screen time through the first half of the series, but Dale's performance of a man slowly breaking down in the face of unimaginable horrors is very impressive.

And break down these men do. When Corporal Sledge's father, a doctor, points out to Sledge that, "The worst thing about treating these combat boys from the Great War wasn't that they'd had their flesh torn. It was that they'd had their souls torn out," it's an explicit statement of what we're seeing (and have yet to see) play out on screen. We witness it yet again when Sledge's unit finally arrives for battle in "Part Five." They stand in stark, stark contrast to Leckie's battle-tested and battle-scarred platoon, which itself was fresh-faced and wide-eyed in its own right in "Part One." 

The series also makes the smart decision to humanize the Japanese instead of demonizing them (at least from the producers' point of view; the soldiers... that's another story). It adds to the weight of war to see that the enemy is very similar to you - doing what they feel they need to in service of country. At the same time, Hanks and Spielberg exclusively tell the story from the American point of view (unlike, say, Clint Eastwood's dual visions in Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima) but to its credit it never feels jingoistic. Visually, since this is an HBO project with titans like Hanks and Spielberg guiding it, the production values are unsurprisingly off the charts. It's been reported that the budget for The Pacific came in at upwards of $140 million but every single dollar shows. It's breathtaking to watch.

Not everything about The Pacific is perfect. As powerful as it is, the series does seem like it will play better on DVD when it's possible to watch chunks at a time instead of the single hour that's parceled out over a 10-week span on HBO. There are also times when it's hard to shake the feeling that The Pacific is something important that's supposed to be watched as opposed to just being watched for art/entertainment's sake. It's almost like it's your duty as an American to see it, but at the same time it never feels like a chore. Will The Pacific end up being the best series to air this year, as it was touted? Maybe not, but it will definitely be the most moving and affecting series of 2010.  Does that make it "the best"? I'll let you decide that for yourself but I, for one, am happy to have been able to afford HBO this time around.

Dirty Rating: 88/100

Monday, April 12, 2010

Coco's With TBS

In a move that surprised almost everyone, TBS announced today that they've signed a deal with Conan O'Brien for a late-night show that will begin in November. Timed perfectly to coincide with the launch of O'Brien's nationwide comedy/variety tour, the announcement comes on the heels of last week's reports that O'Brien and Fox were in late-stage negotiations to bring the deposed Tonight Show host to a network that could use the jolt that an O'Brien late-night show would bring as it prepares to bid adieu to longtime stalwart 24 and faces the prospect of a Simon Cowell-less American Idol in 2011 (and that's the first and last time you'll hear about American Idol on this site). The sticking point apparently was that not enough Fox affiliates would commit to airing O'Brien's show, leading Team Coco to head to TBS for a lucrative deal where O'Brien will own his own show (much like David Letterman does with The Late Show) and air four nights a week (Monday thru Thursday). This is a surprise as everyone and their mother expected Fox to finally exorcise the demons of late night failures such as Joan Rivers and Chevy Chase while giving O'Brien a network platform to compete with Satan... er... Jay Leno. Instead, O'Brien takes over George Lopez's timeslot (a move he reportedly was reluctant to make following Leno's coup but one that he proceeded with after receiving a personal call from Lopez asking him to join TBS) and immediately makes TBS a player in the Late Night Wars. A couple of opinions here - first, maybe cable is actually the best home for O'Brien. There will be less pressure (and likely less network interference) that will allow Conan to be Conan without receiving any bullshit feedback from morons like Dick Ebersol on how to dumb the show down so that it will appeal to Middle America. Secondly, hey Fox affiliate owners. You bunch of GD morons. You have a white-hot Conan O'Brien with a built-in fanbase looking to come to your network with an axe to grind against a direct competitor in Adolf Leno but you don't want to give up the timeslot currently occupied by Seinfeld reruns and effing TMZ? Really. Enjoy fourth place, bitches, 'cause that's where you're headed. You can only schedule So You Think You Can Dance (last time for that one on this site, too) so many times before it bites you in the ass. And do you really think that Glee is going to hold up as anything more than a fad? I mean, you know how this Ryan Murphy-helmed movie ends. It was an unwatchable cartoon called Nip/Tuck. Also, think about this - you just got scooped by effing TBS. TBS - the former home to WCW and Atlanta Braves games. Suck on that one. But, hey, you have eight-year-old Everybody Loves Raymond repeats to keep you warm at night, right? Right.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Quick 'N Dirty Review: Hot Chip | One Life Stand

Before we start, here's a quick look at the rating system that we use here at The Dirtywhirl:

100 - Classic Album; One Of The Best Of All Time
99-90 - Exceptional Work; Rush Out And Get This
89-80 - Very, Very Good; You Should Still Go Out And Get This
79-70 - Not Bad At All; Might Actually Be Worth Your Time
69-60 - Has Its Moments But On The Whole... Meh
59-50 - Won't Make Your Ears Bleed; Won't Make You Dance, Either
49-0 - Don't Waste Your Time; You're Smarter Than This (Probably)
 

Now... onto the review:

Hot Chip | One Life Stand

Many people experience in extremes. Either something is the greatest thing they've ever seen/heard/ate/whatever, or it's so horrible that it must be mocked and belittled to no end. There's no in between -- everything is about absolutes. Hot Chip is a band that deals in absolutes. They are capable of completely dazzling songs ("Ready For A Fall,'"Boy From School,""Made In The Dark"), but they're also more than capable of tossing acrid stink bombs which is what makes them extraordinarily frustrating as an act. Why is Hot Chip unable to extrapolate their success with singles out through an entire full-length record? Their last two albums, The Warning and Made In The Dark had moments of brilliance coupled with tracks that were less so. Unfortunately, the stinkers are as smelly as ever on their fourth record, One Life Stand. One Life Stand actually gets off to a fairly solid start as the pulsating synthpop beat of "Thieves In The Night" opens the record and rolls along behind vocalist Alexis Taylor singing, "Happiness is what we all want/ May it be that we always don't want." After the average at best "Hand Me Down Your Love" follows, "I Feel Better" evokes thoughts of New Order through its beat and use of sequencers and serves as the setup for the album's best song, title track "One Life Stand." "One Life Stand" succeeds by employing a multitude of disparate sounds as Hot Chip pulls out every trick in their playbook behind Taylor querying, "I only want to be your one life stand/ Tell me do you stand by your whole man?" And then, right about here? The stink starts wafting in. Seriously, One Life Stand falls completely off the GD rails at this point. Why the band made the decision to follow up the album's best track with a sequence of bland to outright horrible songs is unfathomable. To get the idea of the sound of "Slush" (apt title, by the by), try to imagine LCD Soundsystem's "New York You're Bringing Me Down" if it wasn't brilliant and was, in fact, terrible. "Slush" is completely maudlin and seemingly never-ending and is inexplicably bookended by the dull and completely forgettable "Brothers" and "Alley Cats," not to mention the insanely forced house beat of "We Have Love." More smelly crap follows before the oasis that is "Take It In" at least finishes the record on a high, though it's honestly hard to tell whether that track's legitimately good or if it sounds better than it is since it's buttressed by such garbage. It's funny that One Life Stand seems to act as a microcosm of Hot Chip's career -- moments of brilliance in concert with pure ineptitude. Well... I guess not so much funny as sad, really. Pity.


RIYL: New Order; Pet Shop Boys; Dancey stuff; Beats; Half of a good record
Standout Tracks: "One Life Stand;" "Take It In;" "Thieves In The Night"


Dirty Rating: 47/100





"One Life Stand" On YouTube

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Quick 'N Dirty Review: Sade | Soldier Of Love

Before we start, here's a quick look at the rating system that we use here at The Dirtywhirl:

100 - Classic Album; One Of The Best Of All Time
99-90 - Exceptional Work; Rush Out And Get This
89-80 - Very, Very Good; You Should Still Go Out And Get This
79-70 - Not Bad At All; Might Actually Be Worth Your Time
69-60 - Has Its Moments But On The Whole... Meh
59-50 - Won't Make Your Ears Bleed; Won't Make You Dance, Either
49-0 - Don't Waste Your Time; You're Smarter Than This (Probably)
 

Now... onto the review:

Sade | Soldier Of Love

An extended hiatus is rarely a good thing in the music industry as one of two things usually happens. As an act, either you're so inconsequential that people forget about you while you're gone or you're so extraordinary as a band that you create impossible expectations for your return. Sade falls into the latter category. If you're a Sade fan, it's really difficult to hate on their first record in a decade, Soldier Of Love, because in many ways it's a classic Sade album. Not to mention that after ten years, frankly, it's good to have them back. The expectations were a killer, though. When the "Soldier Of Love" single was released in January, it created an excitement not only for Sade's return but also for an updated, beat-centric sound that fails to materialize on much of Soldier Of Love. Is that the band's fault for not following through or is the audience to blame for reading into what the single seemed to promise? That's probably a larger discussion for another time but, after getting past the initial bit of disappointment, Soldier Of Love reveals itself as a more than worthy entry into Sade's canon, albeit one that could have been a little stronger. "The Moon And The Sky" opens the record with that familiar Sade sound that hasn't changed much in the last 25 years. It's clear that the Sade that we knew and loved has returned as frontwoman Sade Adu coos, "You'll always know the reason why/ We could have had the moon and the sky/ You'll always know the reason why this love/ Reason why this love ain't gonna let you go." "Soldier Of Love" follows and is one of the year's early highlights, yet proves to be an anomaly on the record. With its martial snares and backing vocalists sounding off in the chorus, it unquestionably fits the soldier motif and seems to suggest a different, more modern and harder (relatively speaking, obviously) course than the band has previously charted in their career. Everything comes crashing back down to earth with the arrival of "Morning Bird," however. It's not really that the track is bad in any way, but it takes the record in an unexpected direction following "Soldier Of Love" and is one of the album's few missteps. Soldier Of Love does get back on track with the social critique of "Babyfather" (this record's "Slave Song"), the Nick Drake-esque "Long Hard Road," and the breathtakingly gorgeous 80s quiet storm throwback "In Another Time." In what would have worked as the perfect closer to Soldier Of Love instead of the tepid "The Safest Place," "In Another Time" is the type of track (with "Soldier Of Love") that proves why Sade is still relevant in 2010. Soldier Of Love is the sound of a band willing enough to dip their toes in the pool of different sounds, but one who sounds like they're more comfortable, as a group now in their 50s, to stick with what brought them to the dance in the first place. But oh, what a dance it is.


RIYL (Recommended If You Like): Classic Sade; Everything But The Girl; Quiet storm R&B; Intelligent R&B that isn't all about fucking; Triumphant returns
Standout Tracks: "Soldier Of Love;" "In Another Time;" "The Moon And The Sky;" "Babyfather"



Dirty Rating: 80/100