Reviews

Record #998: U2 – War (1983)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It’s hard to quantify just how big of a record War was.

Up to this point, U2’s brand of anthemic post-punk had brought them modest success, but they were hardly a household name to anyone. War, on the other hand, knocked Thriller off of the top spot on the UK charts.

Thirty-one years later, it remains one of the group’s most definitive and celebrated works, and with good reason. For my own part, it was a chance purchase of this record in a used bin when I first started collecting records that made me a U2 fan in the first place, and it was my favorite of theirs for quite a few years.

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Record #996: U2 – Boy (1980)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

After a career of arena tours, high-profile philanthropy, Platinum records, Broadway soundtracks (remember the Spider-Man musical?), unsolicited album releases, and more hits than you can shake a stick at, it can be hard to remember that U2 was birthed out of the same scene as the Clash, Wire, Joy Division, and the Cure.

But even the most shallow listen to Boy will snap that picture into focus, simultaneously forecasting a prescient image of the iconic band that they would become.

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Record #995: ABBA – The Magic of… (1980)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I admit, I’ve been a bit of an ABBA hater in the past. While we were dating, when my now wife named them among the bands she liked, I rolled my eyes and teased a bit. I’ve endured plenty of nights helping in the kitchen while she played their Pandora Station as she cooked.
But after visiting the ABBA Museum in Stockholm…well, I’m not sure I’d call myself a fan, but I’ve been far more convinced of their importance in pop music history—and especially in bringing Sweden to the international arts scene (which, as a metal fan, is a happy byproduct). Continue reading →

Record #994: Arcem – Arrival at Grief (2024)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

I have spoken at length about the incredible talent in my area. From widely celebrated acts like Cloakroom and Locktender to more underground sleepers like analecta and Jagalchi.

Add to that list the juggernauts Arcem from Valparaiso, Indiana, an hour and some change west of me. They offer the sort of massive, sludgy, post-metal that you might expect to hear emanating from Scandinavia, not the small Indiana basement I first heard them in.

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Record #993: Alcest – Les Chants de l’Aurore (2024)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

No photo description available.If Alcest had hung it up after Ecailles de Lune in 2010, there’s a good chance they would have still been recognized as one of the most influential bands in metal. After all, they were the founders of the Blackgaze movement that Deafheaven imported stateside, inspiring legions of copycats. In many corners of metal’s various subgenres, it’s impossible to escape the French pioneers’ influence. Their name has been printed on more hype stickers for other bands than just about anyone I’ve ever seen.

But amazingly, not only did they continue past that masterpiece, but they’ve released a few more since. While Shelter’s more subdued palette may have disappointed fans of their harsher side, each record since then offers a strong contention to being called their best.

Maybe it’s recency bias, but Les Chants de l’Aurore (French for The Songs of Dawn) might actually offer the most compelling argument.

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Record #992: The Flaming Lips – American Head (2020)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Few bands have had the run that The Flaming Lips had between The Soft Bulletin and The Terror. They managed to several albums of remarkably consistent quality while also sounding nothing alike, traversing from baroque symphonic rock to technicolor glam pop to dystopian psych freakout. While you could easily credit their entire body of work as one of the most singular and inventive careers in music, that period is one of my favorite runs of album in any discography.

I’ve lost track since. I said to some friends recently that I missed when The Flaming Lips were good. It’s maybe more accurate to say that I’ve been unable to keep up with the deluge of projects well enough to sort the inconsequential experiments from the proper albums. But out of this haze, American Head emerges with a seismic scope that combines the best parts of their disparate threads into one immense and gorgeous whole.

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Record #991: Converge – Jane Doe (2001)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

As compulsively as I buy records, if vinyl copies of an album are prohibitively expensive, it’s often easier to pretend it just doesn’t exist. But when you’re dealing with a record as monumental as Converge’s Jane Doe, that ignorance is pretty hard to feign. It is a singular masterpiece in the world of heavy music, offering up a record that is superlative in every aspect—including asking price.

But my wife and I have been working our asses off lately, and we decided we deserved to give ourselves a bonus. The first thing I did was head to Discogs to see what legendary and outrageously priced record I might finally be able to afford. It wasn’t a hard decision to make. And even as much as I paid for it (not quite a hundred, but close enough to sting), it’s worth every penny.

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Record #990: John McLaughlin – Devotion (1970)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

A lot happened in the year between John McLaughlin’s first album as band leader and his second. Extrapolation was recorded in the UK right before moving to the States to join Tony Williams’ Lifetime. By the time Devotion was recorded, he had also recorded three groundbreaking records with Miles Davis, served as a sideman for Larry Coryell, and had a single all-night jam session with Jimi Hendrix.

That’s a lot to fit in a calendar year, and this disc carries the full weight of it.

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