By Ahmed Mori
Originally published in Z!NK Magazine
Manchester Orchestra
When an album track features a debauch refrain like “alcohol and dirty balls, Pensacola Florida bars,” you expect a soundtrack for dives that serve free cheese puffs and Canadian beer, not an homage to confessional poets.
However, Manchester Orchestra’s Simple Math isn’t easy to enumerate, despite the basic arithmetic its title implies. Lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Hull penned an impressionistic view of life at 23 via a 10-track prie-dieu dialogue with his wife and God that often goes the Willy Loman route.
The wintry “Deers” prefaces the album’s more intricate stylings, establishing a Wordsworth-ian rural tone where Hull’s wails take center stage. “Mighty” follows with beefy riffs and operatic strings that make listeners forget this isn’t a prog-rock concept album about intergalactic war. The album’s abdomen, namely “Pale Black Eye” and “Virgin,” are reminiscent of their days as Brand New’s compadres, with the latter tune embodying the pent-up tension of Steve Carrell in a certain Judd Apatow flick.
Email me to read more, or purchase Z!NK Magazine’s May 2011 issue.
I’m From Barcelona
With a name inspired by a character in a ‘70s John Cleese sitcom, I’m From Barcelona specializes in dopamine-heavy pop that makes listeners want to raid the set of a Spike Jonze-Björk video collaboration. This tattooed smile aesthetic is telling of the band’s founder and lead songwriter Emanuel Lundgren, who would otherwise need Snow White’s forest charm to lure 29 musicians back to the lab every few months.
Forever Today’s opener, “Charlie Parker”, eulogizes the late jazz saxophonist by referring to his aviary nickname over a bed of horns and choral arrangements, as Lundgren commands a bird to “sing to [him] now” with jubilance typically reserved for overseas Coca-Cola commercials. This Haight-Ashbury ethos is exemplified throughout the 32-minute offering: “Get in Line” rejects Asch conformity experiments with the bravado of an indignant Millennial, while “Always Spring” reflects Scandinavian idealism as Lundgren’s concern over life’s pressing questions is expressed with ankle-biting candor and a slight envy of subtropical regions.
Email me to read more, or purchase Z!NK Magazine’s May 2011 issue.
Black Francis
Originally published in VenusZine.com
The title of Black Francis’ latest effort seems worthy of a Justin Timberlake B-sides album—only the former Pixies singer’s falsetto is better suited for a Tokyo karaoke bar after a sake or two.
NONSTOPEROTIK kicks off with “Lake of Sin,” a playground jump rope battle in Dante’s fifth bolgia that pits dueling guitars against Francis’ moribund vocals. The first tolerable song of the record is “Rabbits,” a synth-driven ballad that idly invokes the album title via its namesake’s high-breeding creature.
The brusquer core of NONSTOPEROTIK appeals to the guttural Pixies sound, especially in tracks four through six. Nevertheless, these numbers are plagued by bland arrhythmic poetry as found on “Wheels,” a cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ mind-numbing road-trip song that entices the wheels of my frontal lobe to focus on dinner ideas and to-do lists.
Ahmed Mori 