The Drums - The Drums (Moshi Moshi/Island)

The Drums' sound is pretty generic. Drum machines, soaring synths, loopy guitar lines and very repetitive bass. You can pretty much take this formula and copy paste 12 times to make up The Drums' self-titled debut. Though repetitive, The Drums have a knack to make some pretty fun and catchy songs that you might accidentally find yourself singing along to.

The song structures of The Drums is so painfully pop that maybe it's to pop. Basic lyrics, instrumentation and a catchy intake makes for a perfect chart topper on the pop lists. Sadly The Drums won't be making any pop charts with songs from The Drums. Though it isn't all bad. The guitar solo on "Me and the Moon" is surprising change from the jangly soaring synths that surround the rest of the song. "Down By the Water" sounds like a prom night favorite and the singing on "Skippin' Town" is one of the best performances on the LP.

The idea works on some parts. Simple melodic tunes gets you so far, but in The Drums' case, not very far at all. Playing one song after another, The Drums all sounds the same. The drum machine might have been a bad decision for The Drums' choice of percussion, but at least it creates a signature sound that The Drums are known for. The one choice that The Drums did make that I do like is the use of heavy reverb in the vocals. The reverb creates a kind of very spacey, open environment of music that sounds a lot like The Doors' debut.

Surprisingly catchy tunes and very repetitive music makes up The Drums. The songwriting is pretty bland and to innocent, especially in the jangly "I Need Fun In My Life". The Drums are simply the definition for indie pop. Sadly the lack of diversity drags The Drums down to a somewhat mediocre level.

Overall: 7.1/10

Track Listing:

1. Best Friend - 7.0
2. Me and the Moon - 7.0
3. Let's Go Surfing - 7.5
4. Book of Stories - 7.5
5. Skippin' Town - 8.0
6. Forever and Ever Amen - 7.5
7. Down By the Water - 7.5
8. It Will End In Tears - 6.5
9. We Tried - 7.0
10. I Need Fun In My Life - 6.5
11. I'll Never Drop My Sword - 7.0
12. The Future - 7.0

Sample:

Matthew Dear - Black City (Ghostly International)

Matthew Dear's progression of mixing elements of pop and minimal techno has been going on since 2003. Appearing as tons of other pseudonyms and aliases, Dear created unique and dance floor-bound music on numerous remixes and LPs. On Dear's debut Leave Luck To Heaven Dear found himself creating addicting techno mixes that had the influence of pop music. On his follow-up Asa Breed, Dear took up the mic and crafted shorter, lyrical song structures. Now it's 2010 and Dear's though third LP Black City combines both elements of his previous LPs with an added theme of dark, desolate metropolis surrounded landscapes.

Dear's change of tone is immediate on the opener "Honey"; from the dark, smooth bass line that flows underneath Dear's deep and mellow voice. Dear's tunes are dancey from the get-go, but have a disturbing, wrath about them. From the compelling organ fills on "I Can't Feel" to the mix beats on "You Put a Smell On Me"; Dear's immerse "black city" is told through the grasps of the dark treacherous theme.

The elements of Black City take some time to mature on you. There are bizarre production elements throughout Dear's songs that are uncomfortable to sit through, especially the noises you hear on "Slowdance" that sound like someone sneezing. At times Black City is an abrasive and others it is smooth, but it it just that variety that makes Dear's musicianship an interesting one to delve into.

The nine minute electronic dance extravaganza "Little People (Black City)" delves into so many different elements into the tight nine minute structures. Starting out with a very traditional '80s Primal Scream dance sound transforms itself into an almost tribal song that transcends into the reaches of Dear's abrasive sound. The beat stays constant throughout the song, but the elements above the rhythms that change and transform into some mutated and ugly makes for a very interesting listen.

Dear's best moments are at his most simple and "pop" oriented. Songs like "Soil To Seed" and "Monkey" have a very traditional pop feel to them, but Dear's voice creates such a tense and invigorating experience. Dear's most powerful song of Black City falls at the end. "Gem" is a beautifully crafted piano ballad that has a very relaxing atmospheric quality and yet has Dear's jagged qualities.

Black City is one of the strongest electronic albums of 2010 along with the likes of Flying Lotus and LCD Soundsystem. The dark and tender themes that Dear explores are invigorating and tense. Dear's music is greatly crafted around immense detail and surroundings. This attention to details makes a beautifully frightening listen.

Overall: 8.4/10

Track Listing:

1. Honey - 9.0
2. I Can't Feel - 9.0
3. Little People (Black City) - 9.0
4. Slowdance - 7.0
5. Soil To Seed - 8.5
6. You Put a Smell On Me - 8.0
7. Shortwave - 8.0
8. Monkey - 8.5
9. More Surgery - 8.0
10. Gem - 9.5

Sample:

Past Favorites 04 - Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand (Scat)

Most musicians pride their work and have the tendency to make the sound of their music as perfect as possible. Big arena rockers like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, etc. spend days in the recording studio perfecting and transforming their sounds into the songs you hear on their albums. Well, of course with everything in life, there are opposites of everything. Guided By Voices are one of the number one opposites of traditional music making. On their groundbreaking 1994 album, Bee Thousand, Guided By Voices simply brought out a four-track player and just took one take and keep whatever was recorded, weather someone made a mistake or not.

All previous albums by Guided By Voices had been recorded in a traditional studio making traditional indie music, but as I mentioned before, Bee Thousand was anything but a traditional indie album. It's as lo-fi as lo-fi can get. All recorded on a four-track player where mistakes were just okay to make on the recording. The earliest examples is how the guitar drops out on opening track "Hardcore UFOs", but then comes back in. GBV did something that was needed in music; to break the cliche of modernized perfect-sounding music and bring in a raw, in-the-moment feel to every song.

The success of Bee Thousand is quite ironic because it was intentionally going to be GBV's last album and they did whatever they wanted with it; and that was creating lo-fi pop songs that have melodies that can stick in your head for days. Taking inspiration from the British-invasion and fast paced short punk ages of music, Bee Thousand is one of the most exciting pop albums of the '90s.

From hearing that first song off of Bee Thousand, "Hardcore UFOs", you're immediately sucked into Robert Pollard British sounding voice and neat lo-fi sound that is produced from the recording of the four-track. Being a 20-song album, Bee Thousand has lots of twists and turns cutting off songs at bizarre spots. There is also a lot of softer spots as opposed to loud, fast-paced punk songs. There are stupidly good songs ("Kicker of Elves"), psychedelic treats ("The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory") and pure rockers ("Smothered In Hugs"). But, the most important thing that all of Bee Thousand's song have in common is that they are short and sweet.

The short and sweet setting that Bee Thousand is perfectly set up. You don't even get tired of one song because it always switches into something more fresh and entertaining, making Bee Thousand the ultimate pop album. I'm glad that GBV decided to stick together and just make one last very ugly record that just exploits their true sound; a beautiful mess of lo-fi pop songs.

Overall: 8.8/10

Track Listing:

1. Hardcore UFOs - 10.0
2. Buzzards and Dreadful Cows - 9.5
3. Tractor Rape Chain - 10.0
4. The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory - 9.5
5. Hot Freaks - 9.5
6. Smothered In Hugs - 9.5
7. Yours To Keep - 8.0
8. Echos Myron - 9.5
9. Gold Star For Robot Boy - 9.0
10. Awful Bliss - 9.0
11. Mincer Ray - 9.0
12. A Big Fan of Pigpen - 8.5
13. The Queen of Cans and Jars - 9.0
14. Her Psychology - 8.0
15. Kicker of Elves - 9.0
16. Ester's Day - 8.0
17. Demons Are Real - 7.5
18. I Am A Scientist - 9.0
19. Peep-Hole - 8.0
20. You're Not an Airplane - 9.0

Sample:

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Merge)

Arcade Fire's career has been a very successful and ambitious one. Starting out on the very exciting debut Funeral, Arcade Fire established their very huge sound that including a large array of instruments that created a raw and very atmospheric layer of music that was never heard before. Following their 2004 masterpiece, in 2007 they released a more ambitious, orchestrated piece entitled Neon Bible. But of course anybody who is following the indie networks of music know enough about Arcade Fire's career, so I'll stop boring you.

Now three years following Neon Bible, Arcade Fire is finally back with a much more anticipated third LP The Suburbs. The title will tell all of the story of the album. It's a loose concept album about growing up in the suburbia of America and Canada. Beforehand to The Suburbs release Win and Will Butler talked about how weird it felt to move from California to Houston, Texas and how they interpret those feeling into The Suburbs lyrics. Indeed "City With No Children" probably shows this interpretation the most with lines like "Dreamed I drove home from Houston/On a highway that was underground."

The sound and instrumentation of The Suburbs is really where it may bring the album down. The production may be very good, but I feel it's way to compressed and deep with bass ("City With No Children") while some songs have the absence of the heavy bass and it feels hallow ("Half Light I"). The instrumentation is really disappointing, I feel that some songs have an idea down, but don't go anywhere. "Half Light I" has a continuous guitar note that goes nowhere, it sounds like it should go somewhere and build into good old Arcade Fire anthem, but that's just the problem, it doesn't. I feel like I'm about to get something good out of some of the songs on The Suburbs but it ends up I don't.

You could say that The Suburbs combines both elements of Funeral and Neon Bible. They stick to some good orchestrations that show towards Neon Bible ("Wasted Hours") and big, huge sounding anthems nodding towards Funeral ("Suburban War"). But even with some of the songs that have those elements, there are new more fresh approaches to their songs. "Month of May" has a very punk and garage element that is probably the most heavy Arcade Fire song to date, "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" has a lot of electro pop influence with the very cheesy synthesizer which really drags a good Arcade Fire anthem down and "Deep Blue" is a very moody acoustic break that follows the footsteps of Neil Young.

Those more different approaches to their new songs are tenacious, but some are a hit and miss. The second half of The Suburbs loses the whole momentum of the album immensely. This may sound bizarre, but the first half of The Suburbs sounds like Arcade Fire, but the second half doesn't. But that's just me gripping about changes in sounds that I don't like. All the big indie artists have changed there sounds for the worst it seems like for me; Vampire Weekend tries to take a more artistic approach to their sound, MGMT is just psyching out into a psychedelic universe but The National are the only artist to really change for the better with deeper more emotional tugging sounds.

The Suburbs has good, immersing lyrics that tie you into the story telling of Win Butler suburbia childhood, but some songs are mediocre ("Rococo") while others are passionately big and classic ("Ready To Start"). You could say that hype might have killed The Suburbs for me, but I don't think so. While listening to The Suburbs I kept waiting for something in the music like The National's High Violet did, but Arcade Fire never delivered.

Overall: 8.0/ 10

Track Listing:

1. The Suburbs - 9.0

2. Ready To Start - 9.0

3. Modern Man - 8.0

4. Rococo - 6.5

5. Empty Room - 8.0

6. City With No Children - 9.0

7. Half Light I - 7.0

8. Half Light II (No Celebration) - 8.5

9. Suburban War - 8.5

10. Month of May - 8.0

11. Wasted Hours - 7.5

12. Deep Blue - 7.5

13. We Used To Wait - 7.5

14. Sprawl I (Flatland) - 8.0
15. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) - 8.0
16. The Suburbs (Continued) - 8.0

Sample:

Best Coast - Crazy For You (Mexican Summer)

If Wavves had a sister band. It would be indie pop trio Best Coast. Surf rock guitars, garage rock drums and indie pop vocals make up Best Coast and even correspond with Wavves' heavily distorted surf rock 2010 third album King of the Beach. Best Coast comes obviously straight out of Los Angeles, Cali. with their debut Crazy For You. Gaining attention from their lead single "Boyfriend", Best Coast's lo-fi, fuzzy sound attracted much attention to the surf pop indie genre.

When talking with Pitchfork, frontwomen Bethany Cosentino said that Crazy For You was "about weed and my cat being lazy a lot", well that's a pretty generic topic to expand upon. Thankfully, Crazy For You isn't just a monotone on over obsessions of Cosentino's famous cat Snacks and crazy weed stories. Beat Coast main theme is relationships and love. Cosentino talks a lot in first person about meeting guys, failed relationships and so many other young adult California activities. It could all be annoying, but you can't help but smile along with Cosentino and feel her pain in her mislead relationships and lazy cat.

Before, I described Best Coast has having a lo-fi sound, you could say that for the guitar, bass and drums, but Cosentino's voice is quite clear and is exceptionally catchy. The use of very clear and near perfect vocals clashing with lo-fi sounding instruments makes for a unique set, but it really makes you focus on the vocals the most which can get a bit monotonous. Cosentino never really seems to stop singing. The primary focus of Best Coast is Cosentino. Her vocals are very dreamy and sound great, but a little more balance with the instruments is greatly needed.

Crazy For You also peaks at the wrong time. That's on the opener "Boyfriend", the most strong and catchy song. The songs after "Boyfriend" all seem to decline down to boring surf pop drone. The worst of these songs is "Honey", a very mellow bass deep song that goes on far to long for a surf pop song. Best Coast sounds like they lost ideas for their songs and just slopped together some very shallow pop songs like "Happy" and "Bratty B" that have no depth and charteristic to them as compared to "Boyfriend" and "Crazy For You".

Despite those gripes, Crazy For You is a really fresh summer album that is perfect for a day at the pool or beach. Best Coast can really appeal to a more wide range of pop music listeners that are trying to enjoy some indie culture. I don't see Best Coast being the most interesting indie poppers, but really it's all innocent fun to have a refreshing summer surf pop album.

Overall: 7.6/10

Track Listing:
1. Boyfriend - 9.0
2. Crazy For You - 8.5
3. The End - 8.0
4. Goodbye - 7.5
5. Summer Mood - 8.0
6. Our Deal - 8.0
7. I Want To - 7.0
8. When the Sun Don't Shine - 8.0
9. Bratty B - 7.5
10. Honey - 6.5
11. Happy - 7.0
12. Each and Ever Day - 7.0
Bonus Track: When I'm With You - 7.5

Sample: