The Books - The Way Out

Taylor's Choice:

The Books - The Way Out

Hipster Review:

The two-piece electronic/folk vocal-sampling group The Books are in a league of their own; they're one of those bands, like Animal Collective, that literally makes music that's unlike anything you've ever heard before. They've created and developed a unique and singular sound, altering slightly over the course of their career, and whether you like the music or not, their ingenuity cannot be denied. The Way Out is the band's fourth LP, and after three albums of using that same formula, the most important goal of this release is to distinguish itself from their previous work.
The music is a bit more pop-minded this time around, though you'd be hard-pressed to call this album accessible; the album's lead single, "A Cold Freezin' Night," with its unsettling vocal recordings of children making death threats to one another, is disquieting to say the least. The band is, in fact, being more experimental here by using their samples for creating actual tunes. "I Didn't Know That" samples various voices exclaiming just that, backed up by a spare funk groove, and "Beautiful People," the album's other single, is a perfect example of abstract artists putting a good pop song together. Each song has a different feel, which separates this record from the mostly static feel of the group's past albums. However, this is not the band's best album by any means, though it is a great, well-put together work. If you're looking to get into The Books, this is not the best starting point; look to their debut Thought For Food or their last release Lost & Safe. If you don't dig The Books' music, then this isn't for you. But those who enjoy the group's eccentric and unique brand of electronic sound collage will be plenty satisfied.

Hipster Rating:

8.4

Friend Review:

I typically try to stay away from Pitchfork, but occasionally I’ll read their reviews just to see how they feel about a specific in work. In this case, I checked out their review of The Books’ The Way Out and found this:

“Imagine if a blog had posted these clips of goofball hypnotherapist and meditation consultants, or found a tape of a boy and a girl swapping violent threats with each other: You'd chuckle and move on. But when the Books use these samples, they give them integrity.”

This is total crap. I don’t care if it’s me taking a dump or Jenna Fischer taking a dump, a dump is a dump. The Books made a piece of crap song. It's not saved by the fact that it was made by The Books. It's crap. But anyways, that’s the end of my Pitchfork rant.

My main gripe about this album is the use of samples. Yeah, samples can be cool at times (see The Heavy’s “How You Like Me Now” or M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes”) but when 98% of your music is samples, well that’s not very creative is it? A perfect example is their song “A Cold Freezin’ Night”. There’s basically two elements of this song, a loop of a drum machine beat thingy and two children threatening to kill each other. As far as drum machines go, **** drum machines, they suck. Especially using the same beat over and over and over again, boring. For the two children, well, why? It’s annoying, pointless, and stupid. The whole album sounds like the duo just found a bunch of samples and said, “Sure, this is weird let’s do it.” But other than the drum machine with whining children, there’s nothing on the album that’s completely unbearable. Yet, I still have no desire to listen to this again. There’s no feeling or soul to their music.

Friend Rating:

4.6

Coming up next, Crazy For You by Best Coast!