Music Release of the Week

Japandroids - Post-Nothing

While this album was released in Canada April 28th of this year and made its rounds across music blogs worldwide, it is finally seeing its physical release today in America from Polyvinyl Records. Japandroids fans proliferated to seemingly enormous levels as the buzz about this album was universally positive (as reflected by the 84 earned on Metacritic), as people evidently adore their better living through superior distortion method of music.

The question ultimately is not what does the world as a whole think of this album, but what do I think? While its roots exist in lo-fi, shoegazing guitar rock (not exactly my favorite genre), it is almost impossible for me to not often love this album. On tracks like album closer "I Quit Girls", it is impossible to not get completely sucked in by the dirty and dangerous sounding guitar, the desperate and sorrowful vocals, and the density and simplicity of the sound. This is without a doubt one of my favorite tracks of 2009 so far.

The album succeeds predictably when they pair the vocals and always driving and heavy instrument sound most cohesively, but sadly that is not always a sure thing. On tracks like "Wet Hair", all surging drums and barking vocals about french kissing French girls, they pull it all together and manage to make pop tracks out of something that very few bands could successfully pull off. Yet this does not always work out for the best, as lead track "The Boys Are Leaving Town" created rousing and robust instrumental layers yet leaves me high and dry with faded vocals that often verge on grating.

Very rarely do I find an album to progressively improve throughout, but this is definitely one that works that way for me. It is almost as if with every song their confidence in their sound improves and they start realizing what works and what doesn't. While this album is not the unblemished gem some are showcasing it as, it is an album filled to the brim with unadultered rock. Very few albums rock like this one, and in many ways it acts as a spiritual sequel to the Pains of Being Pure at Heart's debut earlier this year. While that was 2009 way by 1985, this album sounds like 2009 by way of 1995, when you wrote about what mattered to you (in Japandroids case...girls) and you rocked your ass off while singing about it.

Japandroids - Post-Nothing: B+

Music Release of the Week

Music Release of the Week: Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series (Blu Ray)

If I posted anything besides this, I'd be a complete liar. While there are a few interesting album releases this week, Battlestar Galactica is my sweet, sweet baby. It's my favorite television series of all time, and today they are releasing the final half of a season, the full series on DVD, and the full series on Blu Ray. Amazon is chopping 40% off the Blu Ray price to bring it down to the expensive but entirely palatable price of $209.99, and if you haven't seen it and like good television, I will judge you for not purchasing it.

Not even kidding.

The entire series is brilliant, and is full of so many huge moments and stellar characters that you'll completely forget about the money you spent mid-way through the mini-series. Also, if anyone is looking for a Christmas present for me, I may already have the series in almost its entirety, but I don't have it on Blu Ray! Food for thought friends and family. Food for thought.

Music Release of the Week

This week I am going to start a new Monday tradition on my blog - I'm going to specifically target the one CD I would purchase this week if I could only afford one. I'll do this every week for Monday, and then provide links on where you can pick up said album and other helpful tidbits, and then hopefully through my incessant prodding and with the assistance of other far greater writers than I, you'll decide to support the artist of my choice. Seems like a great idea to me. Luckily enough for me, this first week I can specifically target one of my favorite bands.

As per usual, P.tM brings it on album art

Release of the Week: Portugal. the Man - The Satanic Satanist

You could make a fairly strong argument that Portugal. the Man is one of my favorite bands. They're from Alaska, I've seen them more times live than any other band (plus in multiple states - Idaho, Washington and Alaska), and they're just incredible musicians. Not only that, but there is the excitement that comes with their constant reinvention. It seems as if every year brings us a new P.tM album, and with that seemingly an entirely new band altogether. After progressively altering their sound album to album, from the electronic and technical rock heavy Waiter: You Vultures! to the more experimental and funkier Church Mouth to their most recent and arguably most assured album Censored Colors, the guys are back with the next step in their sound on the Satanic Satanist.

In a lot of ways, you could say this album is their most straightforward album yet. I don't mean that in any sort of negative way, but in the way that it is the most accessible from a rhythm and melody sort of way. You can tell a lot about what you're going to hear on the album from the first track, titled "People Say." Starting off with faded drums and moving into some absolutely funky organ and bass, the album feels like a throwback from the very beginning. You can really hear a lot of influence from the Beatles throughout, and there is something just pure and melodic about what they are doing here.

The most complimentary thing I can say about this album is it is pure pop in the best way you can use the term. Second track "Work All Day" works its way into your head so fast, you find yourself singing along within the first listen. It is like lead singer/songwriter John Gourley and the rest of P.tM have channeled everything they've loved about pop music over the entirety of its existence into this album and the results are simply spectacular.

Another one of my favorite things about the album is how it acts as an amalgamation of their previous three albums into one focused sound as well, as if there discography was a mathematical equation and this album is the sum of the parts. "Lovers in Love" really works as the best example of this, as the synth layering in the background, the driving drums, Gourley's smooth jam vocals and the easy falsetto he provides within the chorus, even the electronic flourishes. It is a stunner, and a great finale to an electric trio to star the album.

I really could go on all day about this album. I love every track, as there is a certain sunnyness throughout (certainly more than you would expect from an album titled the Satanic Satanist, but I digress) that is perfectly complimentary to the way people want to live their life, or at the very least the way we want to live our summers. Alternately soulful, retro, affecting, and expertly performed, this is everything I could ask for out of this stellar band.

In a lot of ways, I've found my listening habits to sort of mirror the way they've progressed in their sound. It seems as if every time they release a new album, it is released at a time where I am getting into sounds similar to what they are producing. That makes the experience a more personal experience for me as a listener, and connects me to the music in a deeper way. I highly recommend picking this up tomorrow, and for those vinyl aficionados (*ahem* Erik), the packaging is delightful. You aren't just purchasing an album, you're getting an experience.

Portugal. the Man - the Satanic Satanist: A

Additional links to other opinions/thoughts on this album:

-Interview with lead singer John Gourley
-Review on Lifting Faces
-Stream the whole album for yourself here