LOVE IT ON TUESDAY: GRIZZLY BEAR

I interviewed Danish band Efterklang about a month ago. Between many interesting things, we talked about Grizzly Bear, cause Efterklang’s label, Rumraket, was responsible for the European release of their debut album in 2004. Efterklang must think it’s very weird that the band they signed as unknowns 5 years ago are now a thousand times more famous than they themselves are. It took 5 years - 3 LPs and 1 EP - for Grizzly Bear to fully develop their sound, but now they got it perfectly and, seriously, listening to Two Weeks, the first single of their new LP Veckatimest, is a shivering experience. Efterklang must seriously try to figure out what they did wrong.

The thing is that Efterklang craft excellent songs too, but their sound is not original enough. I don’t mean to say that a song is better if it’s original. I think that when you listen to a certain song, if it’s good, it’s good, and that’s all it needs. But from the strict point of view of popular success, originality comes as a very important thing. Cause if two bands sound the same, the best of the two will sell everything and the other will sell almost nothing. Efterklang are excellent, but Sigur Ros are better, so they’re the ones who sell a lot. Grizzly Bear are also excellent, and why are they fucking big now? Cause, like Sigur Ros, they’re the best at what they do… and with Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear are actually the best in general.

To be honest, there ain’t a single song that’s not at least good on Vecka – I’m getting familiar with it already. I’ll just shoot the utterly perfect ones, cause otherwise it would be too long. There’s the folky and intense opener Southern Point, the immediately catchy Two Weeks, the cool and relax Cheerleader, the Pitchfork-gave-me-a-perfect-note-on-best-new-tracks While You Wait For The Others and the most perfect closer ever Foreground. But even if it's got some higher points, that's the kind of album that you listen from start to end, again and again and again. I used to think Merriweather Post Pavilion was well in advance in the run for best album of the year, but I have now to say that Veckatimest caught it back.

LOVE IT ON TUESDAY: PASSION PIT

Download: Passion Pit - Little Secrets Buy it on

For those who don’t follow the musical actuality, I can tell you Passion Pit is considered by many the most exciting new band of the year. With their EP Chunk Of Change, they brought to the world the music all the hipsters were waiting for, a melodic and exciting indie rock that also sounds like soft electro. One of the best examples of this is their amazing single Sleepyhead, that got hundreds of remixes and that is already considered an indie classic. You won’t be surprised that their debut LP Manners, released today, is one of the most anticipated album of the year.

Unfortunately, what was meant to happen happened: their new album is a bit of a disappointment. What is sad about this is that it’s not a question of work or talent, but more like a question of timing. Let me explain myself with the example of Justice. They got known gradually with We Are Your Friends in 2006 and when they were already in the spotlight, they hit the homerun with D.A.N.C.E. almost exactly year later. People were not only amazed, but surprised too, and when they heard the whole album, it was too much, they jizzed in their pants.

Passion Pit had to make something better than Sleepyhead, and though they nearly succeeded with The Reeling and especially Little Secrets, they fell short. And the album? There are as many good tracks on this 11-tracks LP as on their 6-tracks EP (meaning 6). It's kinda ridiculous cause if I would hear this sound for the first time, I’d probably write something like: ‘Wow this band is very promising, I will check them out in the future’. But that didn't happen and now I'm disappointed. So please do me a favour if you're unfamiliar with the band: listen to Manners first and then to Chunk Of Change. The order will be restored.

LOVE IT ON TUESDAY: MAXÏMO PARK

When the best album of the week is a Maxïmo Park album, you know it’s not a great week for music. Well, last week’s best album was by a band in a similar situation, that used to be every other English band too, but succeeded to change its fate with a great second album. However, unlike The Horrors, Maxïmo Park wasn't that successful with Quicken The Heart. The album is fun to listen and all, but it’s pretty far from sounding like an honest work of art.

It doesn’t suprise me at all, cause I’ve seen Maxïmo Park live two years ago at Osheaga and it was as boring as a metro ride. The singer was funny cause he was stoned, but musically, the performance sucked. It’s probably more a question of commitment in music than a question of talent though, cause these guys made pretty good songs like Graffiti and Apply Some Pressure in the past. I don't know, maybe they should just stop smoking weed.

There are still some cool tracks on Quicken The Heart, like the opening track Wraithlike, that’s got a nice 7/4 verse and a catchy chorus, and The Kids Are Sick Again that is a pretty catchy song even though it's a bit weak for a first single. But the best song is definitely the closer I Haven’t Seen Her In Ages, that is excellent as a British post-punk pastiche. Unfortunately for Maxïmo Park, there are loads of real British post-punk bands to listen to before them.

Download Maxïmo Park - I Haven't Seen Her In Ages Buy it on

LOVE IT ON TUESDAY: THE HORRORS

I always kinda like The Horrors. A few years ago, a friend of mine showed me their debut single Sheena Is A Parasite, he asked me what I thought about it and I recall saying ‘Do you even call that a song?’ Sheena is pure intensity, it’s in fact nothing else than intensity and I think it's exactly what the band wanted it to be. I finally liked it, but there were at the time so many cool UK bands doing this kind of half-experimental/half-pop music that the Horrors kinda hibernated in my subconscious for a while. I wasn’t even aware until recently of their debut called Strange House released in March 2007.

A month ago, I heard their new single Sea Within a Sea that is such a serene piece of music that I wondered for a minute if it wasn’t wrongly attributed to them. But the song lasted and lasted until the 8:00 mark, and since Sheena was less than two minutes - which is unconventionally short -, it makes sense that their new single would be eight minutes – which is unconventionally long. The difference is that while Sheena was just unconventional, Sea is also genius. I want to apologize to these guys for thinking they were just every other English band. Listening to their new album called Primary Colours, I seriously feel like listening to Joy Division, Stone Roses and Buzzcocks altogether. But I don't feel like listening to a tribute: it's fresh, it's intelligent and it’s got everything I'm looking for in music.

The first track Mirror’s Image starts with more than a minute of quiet synthesizers. After a quick pass by a drummer who sounds like he was tired of waiting, the whole band kicks in and doesn't stop being good until the last track. The second half especially stands out as one of the best second halves I’ve heard in many years. Starting with the Joy Divisionesque Scarlett Field, going on with the long and calm I Only Think Of You, the weird and noisy I Can’t Control Myself and the happy nostalgic title track, it ends with the epic first single, Sea Within A Sea, that itself ends in the most beautiful way. I hope Pitchfork’s gonna rate it good, cause otherwise, I think I’ll e-mail to complain.

Download: The Horrors - Mirror's Image Buy it on 

LOVE IT ON TUESDAY: BOB DYLAN

 

Bob Dylan is old. I don’t know his exact age, but, since his first album, he’s lived more than twice what I’ve lived since I’m born. His career was so long that it would nearly be impossible review it honestly. Let’s just say that he was a genius in the 60s and for the most part of the 70s, that he turned pretty bad in the 80s and the 90s and that, with Love and Theft in 2001 and Modern Times in 2006, critics made things appear like Bob Dylan was a genius again. He sure did better than during the two last decades, but he’s still far from being the musician he once was.

The truth is that Bob Dylan has some of the most talented musicians in the world around him, and this is enough to fool the average music critic. But it’s far from enough to fool the amateur who listens to music with his heart. I’m even tempted to say that Bob Dylan’s new album Together Through Life sucks, arguing that it’s full of well-executed songs with no soul. That’s what I would say if it was the work of a young new band. I would be wrong to say that though, cause we’re talking about Bob Dylan here: like Jesus, we gotta respect him, even if he’s just a has-been.

Of course I’m writing too fast, cause some songs on Together, like the broken-hearted Life Is Hard, the cool I Feel A Change Comin’ On and my own favorite, the bluesy It’s All Good, are actually honest pieces of music made by a real old man. But overall, I mean… The genius of Bob Dylan was to always challenge our expectations, in order to never become a cliché. With Together, not only is he not surprising us anymore, but he’s become the caricature of the old man he is. Come on Bob, take back your acoustic guitar and your harmonica, I know you can do it.

Buy It's All Good on 

LOVE IT ON TUESDAY: DEPECHE MODE

As you already know, at Les Oiseaux Exotiques, we’re always trying to offer a more interesting product. Did I say that word? I think I did. So here’s the point: on every Tuesday, there are like hundreds of albums coming out in the US and Canada. To help you sort out which one you should hear, we’ll start a new tradition here on Tuesday, which will consist of writing a full review of what other blogs call the album of the week. You’ll be able to easily find the reviews of the past weeks under the label LOVE IT ON TUESDAY, cause that’s exactly what’s gonna happen: you’ll love it on Tuesday.

Kraftwerk were playing with machines way before them, but Depeche Mode could be said to be the first band to make electro-pop - compared to the electro-prog of Kraftwerk - without making crappy disco. Now you’ll tell me that Just Can’t Get Enough is pretty close to being disco. True, but think about their later stuff, like Personal Jesus, Enjoy The Silence and Black Celebration: it's definitely pop, but it's too bad ass to be disco. And believe me, these electro dudes that fill our Top 25 Most Plays, like Boys Noize, Crystal Castles and even Justice sometimes, all owe a lot to these guys.

To be honest, you won’t be able to find anything comparable to Personal Jesus on Sounds of the Universe, but you’ll be fucking surprised how these guys totally own most of nowadays’ bands even after 29 years of existence. First, they managed to sound like 2009 rather than like 1984 and second, they haven’t lost their touch in making scary dance music. Wrong, the first single, will not only scare the shit out of you, but would also make you dance like hell if played very late in a club. There’s also Fragile Tension, probably the best song of the album with the distinctive guitar sound, In Sympathy, that could be a Crystal Castles song if it wasn’t for the voice, and the closer Corrupt, that sounds like 2099, a minute before the earth explodes.

Of course, this album also gets his share of cheesiness, with Peace, Perfect and Jezebel, but these three songs are cheesy in a good way you know, like in a funny gentle way. And they're just weak compared to rest, that's just catchy without being cheesy. When old bands try to reproduce the past – U2 can tell you about it – the result is usually pretty bad, but Depeche Mode did not seem interested to make a Personal Jesus # 2, and they got something interesting with Sounds of the Universe. There may be no instant classic on it, but we can definitely put it on top of our old band's best album of the year list.