Reviews

Record #783: M83 – DeadCities, RedSeas&LostGhosts (2003)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Before the double-album pop masterpiece that was Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming brought them widespread acclaim, M83 was an obscure, mostly instrumental act that blurred the line between shoegaze, post rock, and electronica.

On paper, the transition from experimental instrumental band to Billboard Charting Pop Group seems like it would yield albums that sound like completely different bands. However, the group’s sense of composition gives Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts the same sort of emotional storytelling and cinematic soundscapes that made Hurry Up such a huge hit.

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Record #782: Lush – Spooky (1992)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For all the affection that early 90s shoegaze gets across the blogosphere, most of that attention is given to a very small number of bands. Namely, this attention is given to My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive (I’ve recently noticed that Ride, the third member of the longstanding Shoegaze Trinity, has been ignored or maligned by modern listeners).

And while these two powerhouses may be the most indelible members of the Scene that Celebrates Itself, there’s a lot of gold to glean in the history of the genre. Loveless aside, there are plenty of bands who offered the lush atmospheres and, otherworldly, dare I say spooky, melodies that are synonymous with shoegaze.

Take for instance, London fourpiece Lush and their debut album Spooky, which is both of those things.

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Record #781: Lungfish – Love Is Love (2003)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

For much of my life as a fan of punk, hardcore, and emo music, I have come to trust Dischord Records almost implicitly. The Ian MacKaye-founded DC label has released many of my favorite bands of the 80s and 90s, including Rites of Spring, Jawbox, Minor Threat, and of course, Fugazi. Their roster is filled with bands that practically defined post-hardcore and emo without ever falling into cliche.

And so it’s strange to me that it took me until this year to hear of Lungfish. Even among the Dischord catalog, the Baltimore art rock band sounds alien and a little unsettling—yet strangely beautiful at the same time, like a moment of spiritual transcendence.

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Record #780: Low – C’Mon (2011)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

On paper, slowcore giants Low don’t seem like the most obvious candidates for an Americana album. This is especially true for those of us who came to the band through the glitchy, atmospheric noise project Double Negative and worked their way backwards through their sparse soundscapes.

And while this album and Double Negative are as dissimilar to one another as anything else in the Low catalog, C’Mon delivers the same sort of minimalist compositions, just augmented by lap steels, fiddles, banjos instead of effects pedals and synthesizers.

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Record #779: If These Trees Could Talk – Red Forest (2012)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

From the moment I heard The Bones of a Dying World, I was enamored. The way it infused post rock with prog, metal, and arena rock was absolutely spellbinding. It quickly became one of my favorite post rock albums of all time, and its allure has not faded since then.

Imagine my surprise then when I saw that among longtime fans of If These Trees Could Talk, that album was considered a disappointment, compared unfavorably to Red Forest, which seemed to be universally heralded as the superior album.

With a copy of Red Forest now firmly in hand (with a beautiful gold foil design on the jacket!), I can now firmly state that I still don’t understand why fans would be disappointed in its follow-up. But as for me, I am grateful to have another album as masterful as the record I’ve loved for so long.

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Record #778: Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race (2019)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

As much as I love metal, I don’t usually mess around with technical death metal. By and large, I’m not totally interested in musical pissing contests to see how fast and brutal a band can play.

But I’ve faced a new mystery lately. I’ve had trouble sleeping on and off my whole life, and while it’s not a new thing for me to wake up in the middle of the night, it is a new thing for me to wake up to vinyl purchases that I don’t remember making. These purchases are usually albums that I’ve been meaning to listen to but haven’t yet. The first was Smashing Pumpkins’ Adore, and for the most part, my subconscious purchases have been on a hot streak.

So when I woke up to this order, I thought perhaps Sleepytime Nat had finally stumbled. After all, he should know I’m not into tech death, right?

But to my surprise, this album is staggering. Blood Incantation manages to avoid the pitfalls that ensnare so many of their contemporaries. They don’t abandon the conventions of the genre, but they aren’t limited by them either. They stretch into ambient, psychedelic, and prog, creating an album that feels truly transcendental.

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Record #777: Stryper – To Hell With the Devil (1986)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

To paraphrase Larry Norman, “Why should the Devil have all of the [heavy metal]?”

Thus is the guiding principle that founded Stryper, who were young Christian rock and roll fans who loved heavy music but hated all of the debauchery and occultism that pervaded much of the lyrics.

It’s certainly not a unique story (see also: Resurrection Band, Petra, Larry Norman again, the Christian music machine in general), but To Hell With the Devil is maybe the most emblematic distillation of the ethos of what Christian metal is. And it does so without compromising on either their Christian faith or their metal riffs.

It worked too: it went Platinum, spawned numerous hits on MTV, and remains one of the most important albums in the genre.

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Record #776: Chevelle – Wonder What’s Next (2002)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

One of the surest signs of maturity is allowing yourself to enjoy the music that you liked before you were “too cool” to know better. As I’ve been getting a bit older and realizing that life is too short to heed the jeers of elitist snobs, I’ve been revisiting a lot of the Edgy Teen™ music I loved as a fourteen-year-old.

While a lot of it has proven just as try-hard and toxic as I had dismissed it for being, one band has gained a whole new appreciation in my eyes. That band is Chevelle, whose ability to weave heavy riffs and sweet melodies raises them head and shoulders above their early-aughts alt-metal, radio rock peers.

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Record #775: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – B.R.M.C. (2001)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The phrase “style over substance” is often thrown out as a pejorative—especially in music critique. But to use that phrase as an insult misses just how much weight style can carry when done right.

Take, for instance, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, shoegazer-garage rock revivalists whose appeal is often distilled with a simple, “they’re just so freaking cool.”

That isn’t to say that there’s no substance here—there’s plenty. But these songs wouldn’t be nearly as irresistible if they weren’t marinated in the Cool factor and slow-roasted over a fire of leather jackets and Wayfarer jackets for a full twenty-four hours.

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Record #774: Lantlôs – Agape (2011)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The very first time I heard Melting Sun was a revelation. From the very first listen, it captured me in a way that very few records have. That record changed the way I thought about heaviness as a sonic element, especially as a guitarist.

When I went back to the albums before it, though, I found them to be abrasive and unappealing, traditional black metal that lacked any of the atmospheric and melodic sensibilities that drew me to Melting Sun in the first place.

But then I gave Agape a deeper listen. Much to my delight, everything I loved about the record that followed it is still here—just with some sharper edges.

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