Author: Nathaniel FitzGerald

Record #112: Cymbals of Guitars – Why There Are Mountains (2009)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
why there are mountains
This album essentially sounds like what would happen if a mixtape with all my favorite bands were dropped in a washing machine and jumbled all together. 

There are flashes of late Fugazi, TNT era Tortoise, Modest Mouse fury, My Bloody Valentine guitar wash, horn section slow jams a la Anathallo, Radiohead-esque effect pedal jams, and Arcade Fire’s indie stomp–sometimes in the same song. It’s a wild ride, and well worth it.

Record #106: Coldplay – Viva La Vida, or, Death and All of His Friends (2008)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
A lot of people have a lot of opinions about Coldplay…
For a while, I didn’t care either way. They had a few good songs, but I wasn’t about to spend a day poring through their discography, nor money buying their records. One of those songs was “Viva La Vida,” with its bouncing string quartet and ruminations on the afterlife. Good, but certainly nothing to make me rush out to a record store with a fistful of cash.

Then, I heard “Violet Hill” on the radio. This wasn’t the Coldplay I had known. This was bombastic and loud and violent.

I loved it.

So I listened to the album online, and finding it filled with brilliant textures (“Life in Technicolor”), carefully crafted guitar lines (“Strawberry Swing”), catchy melodies (“Lost!”), and Paul McCartney-style song cycles (“Death And All of His Friends”), I grabbed that fistful of cash and rushed out to the record store.
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After a careful listen, one could easily credit the artistic leaps found here producer Brian Eno, and you’d be correct. Eno brought his ambient soundscaping and adventurous experimenting to the studio in full force, and Viva La Vida was all the better for it. I mean, not only did it make a self righteous hipster like me care about Coldplay (and their previous albums, for that matter), but it also made an album that I loved, if the wear this album has sustained is any indication.

Record #78: Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run (1975)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
And here, we have the record that made Bruce Springsteen the Boss. ​
And I’ll admit–I didn’t care about Springsteen at all until last year when I got into the double-headed beast of Kurt Vile and the War on Drugs, but I’m glad that I was made to care.

The Boss is nothing less than a force of nature, howling tales of America as the powerhouse that is the E-Street Band races behind him.

And their influence can be seen even today, from the aforementioned War on Drugs to Arcade Fire. And it’s easy to see why: Springsteen pretty much invented the American rock anthem with all its fury and pathos.

​From the opening strains of Thunder Road, painting pictures of screen doors and dirt roads, to the title track’s passionate refrain (the title track is worth the price of the whole record, by the way. Pure gold), the Boss takes Dylan’s mantle upon himself and adjusts it to suit his context, and he does so without hubris or insincerity.

​And while Bruce Springsteen may have spent time some time dabbling in self-parody over the years, his breakthrough record is still, even over thirty-five years later, the stuff legends are made of. 

Record #77: Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record (2010)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
Compared to its landmass, Canada has a rather miniscule population. It’s a wonder then that two of the hardest hitters in indie rock call the Great White North their home. Arcade Fire, which often includes the entire music scene from Montreal, is the premier Canadian indie band, but in my opinion, Broken Social Scene (or, Everyone From Toronto Who’s In A Band) is the country’s true national treasure. 
If you don’t know BSS, all you need to know is that the Associated Acts section of their Wikipedia page is rivaled only by the Members section (notable members include Feist and all of Stars and Metric), and that the group doesn’t get together all that often, but when they do, magic happens (as evidenced by every full length). 

Forgiveness Rock Record is, outside of the context of their discography, an album filled with stage-crowding ensembles, gang-sung lyrics, glistening guitars, and shimmering electronics. A steady pop-ready four four leads most of the record, balancing noise collages and horn freakouts, becoming almost kraut-ish in places. But the record’s greatest asset is the combined skill and knowhow of the ensemble, which keeps the record’s sixty-three minutes from ever getting boring, or anything less than good. A great record from a bunch of people who know how to make great records.

Record #75: Bright Eyes – Cassadaga (2007)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
cassadaga

When I got my first job, and consequently my first steady paycheck, I began to buy music. And I bought a lot of music. It was the same summer I started buying records, but until after I bought about a dozen CDs (that I’ve since upgraded to vinyl). Unlike the cautious and surefooted way I buy music now, the norm back then was for me to buy albums based on one or two songs I heard on college radio.
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