pop

Record #506: Local Natives – Sunlit Youth (2016)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

After Hummingbird, Local Natives got busy. In 2013, they played a total of 188 shows, a figure that earned them the title of the hardest working band in the world from NME.

While the instrument-hopping arrangements on Hummingbird were born out of necessity (having lost their bassist an album earlier), after nearly 200 shows they became quite familiar in their skin.

So when they went to record its follow up, they weren’t afraid to push boundaries and adopt new sonic palettes. They knew what their voice sounded like.

Which is good news, because Sunlit Youth is a massive departure.

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Record #475: Imogen Heap – Speak For Yourself (2005)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

speak for yourself.jpgYesterday, I told the story about how Imogen Heap turned me into a poptimist. And while that narrative informed much of the narrative for that post, this record actually deserves most of the credit for that.

Because if we’re going linearly (rather than alphabetically), the moment that shattered my aversion for all things pop was when I logged onto MySpace and listened to the featured track of the week: a mournful, vocoder-only ballad called “Hide and Seek.”

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Record #233: CHVRCHES – The Bones of What You Believe (2013)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

There’s always been a weird sort of relationship between the independent music scene and Top 40 pop. Often, indie often derides pop for lack of artistic integrity, separating itself from the cheap tricks of pop to make serious music. But there are other times where indie tries to beat pop at its own game, shoving even more hooks and dance hooks into three minutes, which always ends up dripping with irony.

Then, there’s CHVRCHES.

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Record #223: Jackson 5 – ABC (1970)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It is not difficult to argue that the Jackson 5 were a novelty act. But it’s almost impossible to dismiss them as a such. Sure, the lead single’s target audience doesn’t seem to be much older than Michael’s own twelve years, and yeah, all of their originals (four of the twelve tracks) were written by a Motown Records production team dubbed The Corporation (not very punk rock) that was tailor made to write songs for the Jackson 5, but I defy anyone to tell me that they weren’t some of the best performers the world has ever seen.

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Record #86: The Carpenters – Close To You (1970)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

At the surface, it seems the most fitting description of this album (and the Carpenters’ career at large) is “Pleasant. Not much else.” The siblings’ tight harmonies and lush arrangements create an atmosphere that is easy on the ears, without any of that weird experimentation that the Beatles and Beach Boys and Byrds and just about every other hope for good pop music in the 60s dabbled in. But the closer, Another Song, is a riotous jazz improvisation, with no vocals at all. Clearly, there must be more deeper down in the album.

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