Music - Summer Discoveries

This past summer I was in Malaysia doing research on substituting rice husk ash into concrete mixtures and although that was as exciting as it sounds, I also managed to find some time to listen to music. This summer was filled with some excellent new releases (notably Slow Focus by Fuck Buttons) but I also finally got around to listening to some music on my lengthy “To listen to” list. I thought I’d share three albums from this past summer that really stood out to me from this list. All three are from very different genres, so hopefully there’s something for everyone. Hit the jump to see my top three album discoveries of the summer.

1) Cross -Justice

Every review I’ve read of Justice’s Cross begins by stating the obvious – on the surface, they seem to be the second coming of Daft Punk. Both are a French electronic duo with a knack for composing inexplicably catchy hooks and putting on fantastic live shows. But on closer evaluation, the songs of Justice seem to be darker relatives to Daft Punk’s work. The work eschews airiness and space in exchange for a more gritty and compressed sound whose impact is hard to describe. “D.A.N.C.E.,” which is the most radio-friendly and well-known song off the album has a unique children’s choir but is strangely not very emblematic of the album as a whole. Instead, listen to opener “Genesis,” paying attention to the grandiose beginning themes before the beat kicks in. It’s quite a proud statement, and fortunately the rest of the album fulfills that promise. The one-two punch of “Stress” and “Waters of Nazareth” is a personal favorite. The aptly named “Stress” contains a myriad of wince-inducing sounds that somehow manage to fit together in a way that sounds like a train barreling forward, held together only by a few bolts and prayers. If you’re not a fan of Random Access Memories, this could be what you were looking for.

 

2) The Monitor - Titus Andronicus

The Monitor is a concept album loosely based on both the American Civil War and the band’s muddy New Jersey roots. Add in frontman Patrick Stickles’s furious energy and raging lyrics, and you have something so perfect you wonder why nobody thought to do it before. To be honest, lyrics are generally not a priority for me when I listen to music – I’ve listened to The Blue Album at least 50 times and still don’t know most of the words to the songs. But on The Monitor, the passion with which Stickle’s delivers his lines is second to none. His ability to convey miserable anger and disgust coupled with an unerring will to live is delivered hand in hand with the hardest rocking songs of 2010. “Richard II” was the song that got me hooked, but if you’re into epic ballads you’re in for a treat: five of the ten songs clock in at over seven minutes and not a second of those songs is wasted. Even the voice actors delivering period-era lines from figures like Lincoln, Davis, and William Lloyd Garrison do their work perfectly. If you’re not banging along on your virtual drum set at the end of “Four Score and Seven,” you should get that checked out.

3) The Year of Hibernation -Youth Lagoon

Quite possibly as far from The Monitor as you can get, The Year of Hibernation is a wonderfully quiet and understated album. Created by twenty-two year old Trevor Powers, TYOH is an album that relies on lush instrumentation coupled with basic beats that is refreshing in its simplicity. Album centerpiece “Montana” is quite simply the most beautiful song of recent memory although other standouts include “Posters” and the melancholic “July.” I can’t express the elegance and beauty of this work in words, so do yourself a favor and go listen to “Montana.” You won’t regret it.