Last October, back when we used to offer quick first impressions of albums before our full 10 Listens reviews, I offered one such first impression of Brian Eno’s Small Craft On A Milk Sea. But although I immediately enjoyed the album, after a couple of listens I decided to wait a few months to absorb and appraise it. See, I had a theory about this album. It initially struck me as a very wintry album: icy, barren, desolate, dark, menacing. I figured I should hear it in that kind of climate in order to fully appreciate it.
Then the more I listened, I started to think that maybe this album wasn’t merely a “winter” album, but was more like a mood ring: that its colors would change significantly with the temperature. Now I’m not saying this is a particularly original theory, at least when it comes to many other Brian Eno albums (or ambient/electronic albums in general), which are often designed to be Rorschachy enough to assume different properties depending on the setting in which they’re experienced. I just thought that this would be extra-specially true of Small Craft On A Milk Sea. And now that I’ve listened to it in various environments and climates, I think my theory was fairly accurate.
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The subtitle of the excellent new Foo Fighters documentary is Back and Forth, taken from a song of the same name from Wasting Light. Looking at their career, which now spans seven full albums, plus other releases, the phrase “back and forth” also addresses their constant touring but more importantly captures a certain restlessness in the band’s music from album to album, even while acknowledging their classic sound. For every louder album, it seems that, singles aside, there’s oddly enough a lower-key one coming up next. I admire bands that try to stretch their sound but, honestly, I was also very much hoping that Wasting Light would be a return to form for these guys, coming home from a largely acoustic vacation and itching to play loud and fast, unapologetically, having some real fun again and, if you like, recapturing the excitement of youth before all this growing up got in the way.
My anticipation grew over the last few months as the band released bits of music, the attacking opening riff and line of the first track, “Bridge Burning,” and even the entire “White Limo,” a souped-up “Weenie Beenie” complete with a typically jaunty video. These songs hinted at Dave Grohl reincorporating some of the energy he let fly with Them Crooked Vultures and, almost ten years ago now, Queens of the Stone Age. Incidentally, that kind of bothered me in recent years, how he’d frequently slow down and soften the Foo Fighters’ music – often to a beautiful degree, mind you – while having louder fun with other bands. Whether those chances were taken elsewhere to protect the Foos’ brand, or Grohl was purposefully using his most popular platform to be widely, if more quietly, expressive, that anxiety has been thrown aside. Wasting Light thankfully shows these guys going with what brung them.
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Note: I’m not sure what the actual order of these songs is. I have an early copy from the label, so I’m going with what I have.
I really don’t care much for the concept of Pharoahe Monch’s album as explained by the title. Instead, I care about PM’s ability to drop a consistently good, charismatic album. The album could be streamlined and the lyrics could be a little more concise rather than abstract or minutiae-laden. Pharoahe could have kept the R&B swells down and dialed up the intensity at times. Then again, he stars on a damn good album anyway.
W.A.R. begins (possibly– wikipedia has a different track listing) with the alternately astounding and inherently flawed “Assassins.” Jean Grae destroys the opening bars, Pharoahe follows and then, inexplicably, the mid-song skit kills the momentum before an otherwise fantastic verse from Royce Da 5′9″. What could be the best track on the album gets too long, too outrageous and overly conceptual. Not to mention, Jean Grae? Not the best voice actor. The song is also preceded by a long narrative voiceover as pointless as the in-song skit. As much as I want to lambaste the production and lack of restraint, the next song completely changes the tone and effect of W.A.R..
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