The Walkmen - Lisbon

Taylor's Choice:

The Walkmen - Lisbon

Hipster Review:

The Walkmen are a one-of-a-kind band; their echoey baroque/rock & roll mixture is distinguished from every other indie rock band today (except maybe The National), and this uniqueness provided the last decade with some of the most gripping music around. Their last two records both offered something that the other didn't: one (Bows + Arrows) throwing a rock/post-punk barrage, the other (You & Me) providing a more atmospheric, disarming sound.
Now the group kicks off in the new decade with Lisbon, perhaps their most restrained, relaxed album yet. The songs here are very exotic-sounding, pulling out more horns, drumming up (see what I did there?) more flavorful beats, and overall varying their sound pallet a bit more. While it's not a dramatic sound shift (it's stylistically similar to You & Me) Lisbon still feels very fresh, in fact fresher than most albums I've heard this year. There's a huge surf rock vibe, and that influence makes each song catchy and fluid. The band feels at their most playful here, giving each song plenty of room to breath, and while each song feels breezy they don't feel empty. And some of the compositions here rank among the group's best, such as "Angela Surf City" and "Woe Is Me". Overall, even though Lisbon isn't the Walkmen's best album, it's still one of the most enjoyable, pleasant albums I've heard all year.

Hipster Rating:

8.7

Friend Review:

Hey guys, sorry it’s been so long. I’ve been really bogged down here at school, so I’m gonna try to post a bunch of quick reviews up just to get caught up on stuff. So these’ll be short but hopefully they’ll get the point across. Again, sorry.

Oh! But first here’s some super rad news!

I have a radio show here at Texas A&M! It’s called Paulcore, and it airs Thursday nights/Friday mornings from midnight to 2 AM. You can listen at kanm.tamu.edu. I play indie pop and rock so I always make sure to throw in a few pieces of stuff that we’ve reviewed recently in there. It’d be really cool if you would listen!

I first heard The Walkmen after hearing their song “The Rat” on the radio. I feel like this song is simply brilliant and impressive and shows what they are really capable of. Before this album I listened to Bows + Arrows and the only track I really liked was “The Rat”. This album follows in the same nature as Bows, everything is very slow and it drags on a lot. Each song gets repetitive within the first minute. There’s just not much energy in this music and the songs get long very very quickly. It might just not be my thing, but I wasn’t impressed. These guys remind me a lot of The National and I’d always prefer to listen to the latter.

Friend Rating:

5.7

Coming up next, I’m Having Fun Now by Jenny and Johnny!

Best Coast - Crazy For You

Paul's Choice:

Best Coast - Crazy For You

Friend Review:

Hey guys! Sorry for all the delay, this Sunday I moved into my dorm at Texas A&M University! So woo for that, but the downside is I’ve been really really busy since I moved. So unfortunately, updates may be a bit more sparse now, but I’m gonna try my best to keep my grades up while still staying in touch with the world of music!

But anyways, I first listened to this album before I actually went to college and all I could really think was, “Blah.” But that was a while ago, so I gave it another listen today. For the first few songs, I was actually surprised (“Boyfriend” and “Crazy For You” are golden) and was planning on changing my rating to something better than originally intended. But after the first four tracks, everything gets really boring really fast. The one thing I absolutely love love love about this album is the lyrics. Very simple, while still creative, and they can get the point across so yippee for that. I also think that’s the first time I’ve used yippee on this blog so yippee for yippee. But oh right, I should be talking about the music… Well, it’s just a slow-paced album, all the songs have very similar tempos and overall there’s just not enough to keep a casual listener interested. Best Coast has potential, but there definitely needs to be a lot of improvement before I become a fan. Each track on its own is decent enough, but listening to the album as a whole is just a big dull dud. Also, put another tally on the count for “Hipster Albums With Absolutely Awful Cover Art” (yes, there is a count). I don’t care how much you like cats, Miss Cosentino, drop your joint long enough to realize that crap suuuuuucks.

Friend Rating:

6.7

Hipster Review:

Best Coast is a relatively new group (they're about a year old) who has gathered a sizable following with a string of EPs and catchy singles. They follow in the lo-fi movement, alongside such groups as Wavves, and when you're part of a grouping such as this, it is of the utmost importance that you find some way of distinguishing yourself in order to keep yourself from just blending in with your peers. Gladly, Best Coast takes a more relaxed, chill vibe to their songwriting, which makes the music more accessible. The band is clearly inspired musically by 60's pop music, which contrasts effectively against frontwoman Bethany Cosentino's drowsy vocal delivery. So what you have here is a nice, fun, reverb-soaked summer garage pop record. And it's pretty good; however, I'm just not all that crazy about it. I mean, its good, and there's not anything terribly wrong with it. It's just a bit samey at times; too often I found myself not noticing a song going into the next, as a song would just kinda drifted right into the other without much change. But it's not bad by any means; if love 60's pop, the current trend of lo-fi rock, or if you just like some sunny music with a healthy dose of distortion, you'll dig this.

Hipster Rating:

8.0

Coming up next, Interpol!

Wavves - King of the Beach

Paul's Choice:

Wavves - King of the Beach

Friend Review:

So I got into Wavves when I guess I felt like my raising my indie cred a little bit so I just randomly decide to listen to their sophomore album Wavvves. I honestly think Wavves is one of the dumbest band names ever created. Honestly, why? One v wasn’t good enough for you? Screw you and your damn v’s. But nonetheless, I fell in love with the music. It was my first experience with lo-fi music and I definitely dug it. The one problem I had with the album was that it had too much filler to me. There’re a lot of instances where it just seems like noise to me. Now, you might say it’s “2deep4me” but whatever, I think Wavves is at its best when it’s full of the pop-punk sound I love. This is why I think King of the Beach is definitely a step up from Wavves’ past attempts. I gotta get this out of the way first, this is the ugliest album art in the history of the world. MGMT’s Congratulations looks like Jenna Fischer in comparison to this piece of crap. However, King of the Beach definitely has a more mainstream feel to it in comparison to Wavvves (seriously, dumbest album name ever as well, multiplied by the band name). It has what I believe to be the theme song of the summer, “King of the Beach” as well as several other pop dancers. What detract from this album are the slower droney songs which I think just takes away from the bouncy rhythm of the album. Nevertheless, I am very impressed with this album and in my opinion it is one of the best of the year so far.

Friend Rating:

7.9

Hipster Review:

Wavves' first two self-titled albums were noisy, feedback-laden records that, upon close listens, revealed frontman Nathan Williams to be a pretty impeccable pop craftsman. The emotions that the songs conveyed seemed empty to the naked eye (song titles like "I'm So Bored" don't exactly scream "inspired"), yet nevertheless a present sentiment was felt, even if it was a bit obscure.
Now, with a full rhythm section comprised of the late Jay Reatard's backing band, Wavves has made some changes to it's sound. The arrangements on King Of The Beach are more varied and dynamic compared to the previous albums' more simple song structures, and Nathan's singing is significantly more audible, which pulls the curtains away to reveal his surprisingly emotive voice. The songs here are, to my ears at least, reminiscent of 90's Alt-rock, which is actually a fitting sound for them ("Linus Spacehead," musically at least, brought Nirvana to mind). The lyrics are still in the general area that the first two albums were in; generally, Nathan mostly talks about being bored, being apathetic about being bored, and getting high from being so apathetic about being bored. It's not the deepest lyrical pattern ever, and he's aware of it ("I hate my writing; it's all the same."). But he's not as emotionally dead as that pattern might suggest; "Baseball Cards" and "Green Eyes" have Nathan showing a child-like romantic side, and are very simple and sweet in their sincerity. Overall, King Of The Beach is a good evolution for Wavves' music, and honestly I wasn't expecting much of a maturation. But the album is undeniably their finest moment, and I'm excited to see what else they have to offer in the future.

Hipster Rating:

8.3

Coming up next, /\/\/\Y/\ (Jeez that’s a stupid name for an album…) by M.I.A.!