Albums I Heard In October

Deerhunter-Halcyon Digest

Touted as "the album they've been building up to", Deerhunter's new album arrives on a wave of critical praise and comparisons to Animal Collective's masterpiece 'Merriweather Post Pavilion'. Although it's nowhere near that work of genius, the comparisons are just, as the band's fourth album represents a big step forward to catchy songwriting, albeit still on their fuzzy, neo-shoegazing terms. The gentle, 'Earthquake' sets things off beautifully, suggesting a new dawn is breaking gently despite its aggressive title. 'Don't cry' and 'Revival' are both fine songs, but from the gorgeous 'Sailing' (sounding just like its title) the album takes off and doesn't leave room for any filler. The brief and joyous 'Memory Boy' makes for a fine early interlude before giving away to the epic 'Desire Lines' ending with an epic fadeout, that on any other album would be a perfect closing track. The album does, however, already have a perfect closing track; 'He Would Have Laughed' is a moving tribute to Jay Reatard who died in January. It's a bittersweet track, epic in length and with a gorgeous fadeout at the end, and it caps off an excellent album. Over the record lyrics float in and out of the mix and the whole album has a youthful, dreamy, nostalgic quality to it. A fine album and one of the best this year.


Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti-Before Today
A so called 'debut album' from cult artist Ariel Pink, working with a full band and keeping in with the 'chillwave' scene he helped to start. Like many of these bands, the songs hark back to simple 60's pop/rock as the catchy melodies blend in with a decidedly cheap sounding production. That said, there are some good songs here, particularly the bouncy 'Bright Lit Blue Skies', 'L'estat', a reworking of one of his older songs, and the MOR, but in a good way, 'Round and Round'. Songwriting-wise, there is little that sets Before Today apart, but the DIY-style production does give it some charm.


Best Coast-Crazy for You
Yet another fuzzy, beach bound American indie band to add to the pile for albums this year. Best Coast are if nothing else, consistent. Their sound consists of simple drum beats, low fi guitar and sunny girl group style melodies from singer Bethany Cosentino. Lead track 'Boyfriend' and single 'Crazy for You' set the tone, and the album doesn't really deviate from the same formula throughout. It's a pleasing enough listen, and at 30 minutes and only one track lasting over three minutes it doesn't outstay its welcome, even if it lacks variety.


Tame Impala-Innerspeaker
Another hazy, neo-psychedelic offering this time from Australian four-piece Tame Impala, who are given some fine assistance from Flaming Lips/MGMT producer David Friedman. He boosts this record quite considerably; the production is very dense and at times reminiscent of some of Friedman's work on the last Flaming Lips album. The songs blend nicely into each other with only the occasional melody floating to the surface. Some of it is undeniably gorgeous, but this kind of sound is, through no fault of Tame Impala, really starting to become over-saturated.


Manic Street Preachers-Postcards from a Young Man
As much as 'Journal for Plague Lovers' was a welcome return to form, it did kind of paint the band into a corner. By resurrecting lost lyrics from Richey Edwards, and going back to a simple rock sound they confronted their past and laid it to rest with a well received album commonly thought of as a natural successor to their 1994 masterpiece 'The Holy Bible'. So, it seems natural that 'Postcards from a Young Man' which the band has dubbed their "last shot at mass communication" harks back to their first real commercial triumph 'Everything Must Go'. Unfortunately, while that album was a triumphant expression of survival in the face of tragedy, 'Postcards...' uses the blueprint to soften and saturate what might have been a worthwhile album. 'Journal For Plague Lovers' and 'Send Away The Tigers' re-established the Manics rock routes in a way that did not seem desperate, and made the most of James Dean Bradfield's considerable expertise as a guitar player, while Nicky Wire reigned in his more sixth form political tendencies. Here, they have taken a colossal step back, and far too many of the songs on 'Postcards...' are just, well...nice. The Ian McCullough collaboration 'Some Kind Of Nothingness' is really awful, the harmonized vocals on this and throughout the album sounding like Queen, while potentially interesting tracks like 'Hazelton Avenue' are missing a crucial guitary punch in the production and are instead drowned in strings. 'Golden Platitudes' benefits a little better from the production, as does the catchy lead single 'It's Not War, Just The End Of Love', but overall this a poor show in both songwriting and production. On 'All We Make Is Entertainment', Bradfield via Wire sings "I'm no longer preaching to the converted, that congregation has long ago deserted", if they carry on down this path, we all might.


Mystery Jets-Serotonin
New album from above-average indie pop darlings. I suppose the main question most people will ask of this record will be: is there anything here as good as 'Young Love' or 'Two Doors Down' from the last album 'Twenty One'? The answer is a negative, but there's still a number of pleasing enough tunes here. Opening track 'Alice Springs' is a fine start, 'Show Me The Light' with a great synth bass line is another highlight, and 'Flash A Hungry Smile' with it's 80's Fleetwood Mac-style synths is terrific fun. There isn't really anything about this album that will make you return to it in the years or even months to come, but as far as indie pop records go, it's ok.


How to Dress Well-Love Remains
Debut album from Cologne based songwriter/producer Tom Krell under the moniker How to Dress Well, is a spacey, ethereal, nocturnal affair. Opening with snippets from what sounds like Twin Peaks, Love Remains is a 'complete album' that moves gently along and has a late night, druggy/sexy feel to it. Classed as 'ethereal RnB' on Wikipedia, the RnB element lurks well beneath the surface, as the dominating force here are the spacey instrumental passages and his haunting falsetto voice. There's a lot of lo-fi reverb here, but the album is never impenetrable and works well as background music and for something to pay attention to. I've only listened to the album a couple of times, but it keeps growing on me and I'll no doubt keep listening to it...so check it out.


Ceo-White Magic
First outing from Eric Berglund, one half of the iconoclastic Swedish synthpop duo The Tough Alliance and the first thing TTA-related album since 2007's brilliant and under-appreciated 'A New Chance' (check it out now). Like that record, it is less than 30 minutes long and breezes by with a fine collection of nu-Balearic (which TTA pretty much invented years before Delorean) pop songs. A little less ravey than 'A New Chance', closer to Berglund's blissed out Sincerely Yours labelmates jj, White Magic still uses catchy pop music as a template for serene dance music. Single 'Come With Me' and 'Illuminata' are instantly catchy and the whole record is very immediate. Better still is the percussion heavy title track, its euphoric synth strings reminiscent of The KLF's 'Last Train To Transcentral'. The final song 'Der Blomsterid Nu Kommer', a cover of a Swedish hymn is a suitable coda to an enjoyable album that's over far too soon.

Album Of The Month: Deerhunter-Halcyon Digest.