WK8 - Yuck - Yuck (9.5)

Released - 2/15/11

Label - Fat Possum Records

BLURB - I really wanted this album to be great. There's been some ok releases to date, but nothing that overly jumps out. I had researched and featured Yuck in my 'Artists to Look Out For in 2011' article, and was more then anxious to pick up the record when it finally came out. As soon as I heard the opening track 'Get Away,' I knew this was going to be one of the best albums of the year. Yuck brings a raw and youthful interpretation of rock music that will take you back to the 90's. It's something of a fusion between grunge, alternative and pop that conjures up all your fond memories of bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth. The album as a whole is extremely balanced, ebbing and flowing from aggressive rock to beautifully composed acoustic tracks. What's most impressive is the maturity and talent that comprises Yuck. This album is well beyond their years, yet the oldest member is 21. Unbelievable.

Rating - 9.5 out of 10

FULL STORY - I do have some bias around this record, so you'll have to bear with me. I bought tickets to see Yuck play at Glasslands the day they were released, in what would be their second US performance ever. They had been scheduled to play at Mercury Lounge the night before, but after their passports and Visas weren't approved in time (they're from England), the show had to be cancelled...making the Glasslands show their first ever. Lucky me. I showed up around 8:30pm and sat through three awful bands that will remain nameless. Yuck took the stage around 12:30am and the crowd went nuts. They were amazing and so thankful for their first opportunity to play in the states, and since I had been there for four hours, I literally had the best spot right next to the stage. The show ended and everyone headed outside...what we didn't know was that in those five (plus) hours it had snowed 19 inches. The subways weren't running regularly, one of the busses that I could have taken home skid out and was on a side walk, dozens of cars were stuck...and it was two in the morning on a Tuesday night. Thus, the only way to get home was to walk the 1.7 miles (yes I google map'd it) in the blizzard. It sucked, but all it really did was make the night that more memorable. It will forever be known in my mind as the Yuck Blizzard of 2011.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago where I found the Yuck record at Barnes and Noble, of all places. As soon as I heard the first ten seconds of 'Get Away,' I knew this was going to be one of my most played albums of the year. The track opens with a flood of distortion and energy that weaves it's way into quite the little pop song. While the song does have a rough exterior, it's innocence and obvious youthful persona creates a mood and feeling that instantly pulls you in. The lyrics are surprisingly bright and introspective and help add a catchy element to the track, something I was not originally expecting with Yuck's music:

"Oh I can't get away. Summer sun says get out more. I need you, I want you. But I can't get this feeling off my mind. I want you, I need you."

'Shook Down' displays Yuck's mature songwriting skills as the band pens a beautiful acoustic track that will definitely turn your head. Contrary to much of their lo-fi, distortion filled material, 'Shook Down' gently flows through the speakers. The song reminds me of any number of random 90's acoustic alternative artists, but with a much more authentic and raw feel.

'Georgia' is perhaps the best track on the album. It has energy, hooks and depth. As the theme goes, the song once again reminds me of the 90's music scene. Imagine if the Gin Blossoms weren't cheesy and really kicked on the distortion. 'Georgia' is playful and gets lodged in your head, but is also delivered with force and some subtle aggression. This combination of delivering instantly likable tracks, while retaining an indie and almost 'punk' style is what makes Yuck's tracks so credible and accessible. The hooks and catchiness of their songs is almost a guilty pleasure.

When I want to get fired up for the gym or work or something, I usually throw on 'Operation.' The song is bubbling with energy and might be the 'loudest' on the record. It's so easy to throw yourself into it and just let the music and ferocity of the song take over. Despite this energy and what sounds like chaos, the track remains somewhat grounded and is something I would still consider to be catchy.

This album as a whole, should turn some heads this year. It's balanced, exciting and all too refreshing. Every time I listen to it, I feel like I'm in 8th grade listening to Bush, Smashing Pumpkins or even the first Strokes' album. There is this weird combination of youthful enthusiasm and subdued excitement on the album, which is packaged into energetic and distortion filled material; and for whatever reason, is extremely addicting. Complimenting these high energy tracks are graceful and slower acoustic songs that do nothing but showcase the band's versatility and talent. Well done...hopefully this album is the first of many.

Take a listen to 'Get Away.'

Tracks

1.) Get Away

2.) The Wall

3.) Shook Down

4.) Holing Out

5.) Suicide Policeman

6.) Georgia

7.) Suck

8.) Stutter

9.) Operation

10.) Sunday

11.) Rose Gives a Lilly

12.) Rubber

WK7 - Ducktails - Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics (5.5)

Released - 1/18/11

Label - Woodsist

BLURB - 'Man, everyone's been buying this cd lately - I don't get it. I'm friends with the one guy and even just last year he was begging me to try and find gigs for them,' said the cashier as I bought the album. Who really knows why some bands become or don't become popular. But like the cashier said, they're just now starting to get big (at least by Brooklyn standards), so I had to check out Ducktails. What I ultimately discovered was that "Arcade Dynamics" is just another over-hyped, hipster blog-worthy release that isn't anything spectacular. Musically it sounds like Real Estate meets Panda Bear and is something mindless you can listen to in the background at work, but I'm still having trouble justifying the $13.99 I paid for it.

Rating - 5.5 out of 10

FULL STORY - Most of "Arcade Dynamics" is a collection of airy and light do-it-yourself tracks, that sound like something any of my friends could have made over a long weekend. It's not this special album that so many people are making it out to be. One aspect of the record that does come off as somewhat creative is the way in which the guitars are packaged. The majority of the songs were recorded with multiple guitar tracks going on at once. This gives the music a nice texture and warmth. Despite the lo-fi production values, the inclusion of so many varying guitar lines in each song provides a great sense of depth.

What's unfortunate, is that this depth of atmosphere and mood gets lost in a sea of redundancy. There is almost no variation on this Ducktails record. So even when you come across a bright spot, it just gets endlessly repeated until you grow sick of it.

'Hamilton Road' is one of the few songs on the record that I actually haven't gotten sick of yet. The track is extremely relaxing and mellow, and you just kind of drift off as you're listening to it.

'Killin the Vibe' is what some would say, the 'single' of the album. In all seriousness, it's an OK track, but like much of the album, becomes all too monotonous after about two minutes of listening to it. There is another version of the track out there that features Panda Bear (which is much better). Why it's not on the album is beyond me. This was also a contributing factor to the hype of Ducktails. Everything Panda Bear touches usually turns to gold (see also collaborations with Atlas Sound and Pantha du Prince), so once word got out that Ducktails and Panda Bear had done a track together...basically everyone rushed out to get their hands on the album.

"Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics" is nothing short of lackluster. If you're thinking about maybe picking it up, I'd probably advise to just download 'Hamilton Road' and the Panda Bear version of 'Killin the Vibe.'

Take a listen to 'Hamilton Road.'

Tracks

1.) In the Swing

2.) Hamilton Road

3.) Sprinter

4.) The Razor's Edge

5.) Sunset Liner

6.) Little Window

7.) Killin the Vibe

8.) Arcade Shift

9.) Don't Make Plans

10.) Art Vandelay

11.) Porch Projector

WK6 - Mister Barrington - Mister Barrington (9)

Released - 1/17/11

Label - Mister Barrington

BLURB - Sometimes the best music out there inexplicably finds it's way to you. Whether it was initially a track you saw on someone's playlist, a song you heard as you walked passed a co-worker's cubicle or a great opening band you had no intention on seeing. If you're a music person, good songs and bands will somehow find their way to you - as is the case with the virtually unknown Mister Barrington. It may have been shear luck and happenstance on how I came in possession of their debut album, but clearly it's no coincidence. The record sparkles with stellar musicianship and creativity. Rarely will you find a track that is anything less than dynamic, meticulously structured or entertaining. Mister Barrington seemingly takes everything out of the pantry for this release, carefully blending jazz, electronica, funk, pop and r&b into a meal that is best served with the volume up.

Rating - 9 out of 10

FULL STORY - My roommate, who is also my co-worker, came back from lunch a few weeks ago with "Mister Barrington" in hand. He said, 'you won't believe this, but I just ran into Owen on the street and he had just gotten a bunch of these albums made - they're from some side project I guess.' So almost immediately we posted them on our shared hard drives and forwarded them around to some other friends at the office. Almost every response was, 'woah - what is this?!' That was really the question of the day. Much of the rest of the afternoon was spent analyzing this album and I think we finally settled on calling it the end result of a night of recording with Medeski Martin & Wood, John Legend, Dam-Funk, Lotus and T-Pain.

Weeks later, I'm still listening to it ad nauseam. The album is really all over the place and is constantly genre-hopping from one song to the next, while for the most part, keeping a steady foundation of laid back jazz and electronic grooves. It's extremely tough to put down, as with each listen you're hearing new sounds, effects and progressions. Aside from all of this creative chaos, what jumps out when listening to the Mister Barrington are the vocals - which are entirely crafted via auto-tune / vocoder... whatever you want to call it. So after I listened to one song, I was immediately like, 'what the hell is this cheesy auto-tune doing on here,' thinking it was just for one song.

At first I was kind of hesitant to offer the album it's just credibility due to the vocals, but I'm starting to hear how well it compliments the music. The auto-tune fad of the past decade really set hip-hop and pop music back. Instead of writing the best music they could and working with great vocals, auto-tune was used basically as a crutch to turn terrible singers into cool robot-voiced hook machines. Mister Barrington takes this auto-tune notion to a more practical approach. The band, in all seriousness, operates without any strict musical guidelines or boundaries. So it shouldn't really come as that big of a surprise that the album operates with mostly electronic voicing. Ironically, this process turns out to be a huge compliment to the music which, while heavily influenced by jazz, is filled with electronic and digital accentuations. Mister Barrington has the capacity and ability to blur the lines between not only genres and moods, but even the definition of what a song should sound like. The digital voicing allows the group to also blur what is meant to be a 'vocal' with the actual music, riffs and harmonies. The end result turns into a record that is ambitious, experimental and clever - three adjectives that every band should strive for.

For me, the second track, 'Running Away' is what really turned me into a fan of Mister Barrington. The song begins with a breezy piano introduction that reminded me of something John Legend would write. Seconds later, this ephemeral intro fades as distortion and effects build up to a head - turning into what would become the actual song. What gets spit out into the speakers is a funky, electronic groove that is immediately likable. Floods of organs establish a jazzy background while the vocals create an early 2000's hip-hop vibe (sans rapper). The drums and bass are locked tight and play off of each other extremely well - there are variations, fills and runs creating almost a conversational feel in the background of the song. As the track runs it's course, the pace, tempo and instrumentation continuously morph in and out of different colors and moods. On top of all of this, 'Running Away' has hooks and riffs throughout the verses, chorus and bridge turning the track into what I'm calling a non-traditional pop song. It's impossible not to fall in love with this song - it really has everything.

I couldn't imagine calling 'Mrs. Waters' Shopping Trip' by any other name. It's perfect theme music. The vibe is a mix of old and new school, set to a walking pace of relaxing pop and jazz. Permeating the minimal groove are tons of effects, dialogue and cool little sounds. While the main foundation of the song is gentle and airy, the instrumentation and pace vary...you can tell the track is gaining steam and momentum for some kind of powerful climax. We're teased around the 1:30 mark with a brief break that eventually turns back into the original progression. However, the song continues to build towards something and around the 2:50 mark you know something is bubbling under the surface. Finally we're met at 3:20 with the culmination of every thing the song had been moving towards - an extremely creative and powerful outro that's comprised of auto-tune vocals, a slew of more effects and background noises. What's great about the outro, is that the original progression that had been wandering around for the past three minutes is still used, but reworked into a newer, dynamic version.

'Losing My Mind' sounds like something Dam-Funk would have written. For whatever reason, this song has a real 'west coast' feel to it. I don't know what makes me say that, but it's what I'm hearing. The track has the potential to be commercial smash in some other world. The songwriting is incredibly pop yet does have some kind of tangible edge to it. The chorus and bridges have a large, full sound that engulfs the listener. It's very easy to just throw yourself into this song. One of the later bridges sees the song using many of the same riffs, but set to a steady diet of piano and even some horns. Again, this is what really makes Mister Barrington amazing - their creativity and willingness to vary the tempo, construction and instrumentation of their songs without ever compromising the song itself. Every variation or tangent they veer off on to, almost always works.

'Losing My Mind' eventually fades into 'Slippery Rail Conditions' where a silky smooth groove grabs your attention. Here it's the piano and bass that really lock in with each other. Different riffs and motifs are effortlessly bounced off of one another - showcasing the band's musicianship and precision. By the end of the track, it feels like you're sitting in some lounge listening to a great jazz open mic and everybody is clicking. The piano feels warm and inviting, as the bass maintains the groove while constantly throwing in some clever licks, courtesy of Owen Biddle.

I really don't know what will come of Mister Barrington or where they will go. Their debut album is both ambitious and adventurous, and could prove to be something of a barrier to get through. But for those that do push through and jump in, you're rewarded with each listen. Mister Barrington is that creative and fun album you've always been looking to find while digging around in someone's crate of music. You may have to throw your expectations out the window and take a risk, but it's worth it.

Can't embed it, but check out 'Mister Barrington's Daydream' here.

Tracks

1.) Place in My Mind

2.) Running Away

3.) Mister Barrington's Daydream

4.) Interlude One

5.) Wrong Number!

6.) Don't Wanna Be

7.) Mrs. Waters' Shopping Tree

8.) Interlude Two

9.) Losing My Mind

10.) Slippery Rail Conditions

11.) When I Go

12.) On a Journey

WK5 - Millionyoung - Replicants (5)

Released - 1/1/11

Label - Rix Records / Old Flame Records

BLURB - I had completely forgot about Millionyoung since I last saw them play during CMJ last October. I remember the singer mentioning that they were recording some new stuff, but that information got lost somewhere in the dark caverns of my brain. For those they don't know Millionyoung, they are one of the more established DIY lo-fi electronica groups of the past year or so. Clearly, this is right in my wheelhouse of musical tastes, and their performance during CMJ was amazing. The problem though, is "Replicants" seems to be a bit of a misstep. The vocals seem 'off' on the entire album, and much of the tracks sound like throw away filler material. Granted, for the most part, the music is unbelievable. It's varied, creative and atmospheric while not straying away from the natural dance-ability of Millionyoung's sound. But the vocals and lyrics absolutely sandbag this album. I'm giving this album a 5, but I can't help but think that number would be 2-3 points higher if there were no vocals at all.

Rating - 5 out of 10

FULL STORY - In all fairness, I'm a big fan of Millionyoung. I got tickets for their Mercury Lounge show next week the day they were released. Whenever they play in my area, I'm more than likely going to their show. They're fun, have good energy and are very tight. The best part of their act, is that they really are a true band (ala the route Toro y Moi is moving in). I don't know what it is, but having a band up there with you is 1,000x more interesting than just someone with a laptop.

"Replicants" begins with a modest introduction ('Obelisk') that flows right into 'Cosmonaut.' While it does take some time, 'Cosmonaut' definitely finds some spacey grooves. The track is moderately slow, but it feels like the right tempo. It's laid back, relaxing and very breezy. As for the vocals, they are few and far between, and are basically used with delay to create more space and atmosphere to the track.

'Easy Now' showcases some of the better music on the record. Waves of fuzzy synth chords create the mood, while a great bass line, wah-guitar and some higher pitched synth lines are gelled together nicely. Then the vocals come in. You'll just have to listen to them. They completely clash against the music. They're emotionless, painfully slow and more often than not, out of key. What's unfortunate is that the music on this song is so good - the vocals completely take away from it. At the 2:19 mark, a bright collection of strings and electronica effects come in and you're just thinking to yourself...man, this should have been an instrumental.

The fourth track, 'On-On' begins with a cool vocal sample loop that eventually fades into the beginning of the song. Once again, the bass lines are incredible. They sound like something off of an 80's european dance record. Electronic keyboards and synths deliver numerous hooks and riffs that keep you invested in the song. As the song continues to grow, electric guitars emerge and they too deliver some excitement. But once again, the vocals ruin this song for me. They really serve no purpose.

The best collection of terrible vocals comes on '001.' The song begins with more of a rock lean, with furiously strumming guitars. From there a bright progression of keyboard and synth chords form over the guitars, creating a match that shouldn't work...but does. Pretty impressive. So we have all of this creativity and genre blending going on, which is turning into this amazing song - but then we also have the vocals. They're terrible. They once again completely ruin another song. There's no balance, no harmony, no tone, no enthusiasm...it's brutal.

As a music listener and a fan of Millionyoung, it's all too frustrating to try and comprehend these uninspired vocals. The music is there, the talent is there...but the vocals aren't. And two out of three is not enough to get it done. It's almost as if Millionyoung never even listened to the playback of "Replicants." All the had to do was listen to a couple of the songs, have a discussion and say, 'hey these vocals aren't working out, we really need to figure something out or take a different approach.' That's it. Until then, they'll always be the group with the awesome music and terrible singer.

Take a listen to 'On-On.'

Tracks

1.) Obelisk

2.) Cosmonaut

3.) Easy Now

4.) On-On

5.) Replicants

6.) Tokyo 3

7.) 001

8.) Forerunner

9.) Perfect Eyes

10.) Calrissian

11.) Sentimental

12.) Gravity Feels

13.) Syanthropic