Mono – You Are There
Reviewed by Mike

Instrumental rock bands bands are often self indulgent and ham-handed. Mono is not one of them. You Are There was recorded and produced in Chicago by Steve Albini in 2005. It’s release in 2006 was underreported, thus the need for a followup two years later. Mono was founded by guitarist Takaakira “Taka” Goto. What Mono does so well is provide music that is more the pace of the natural world, It’s steps are not robotic or panicked, but rather sure-footed and controlled.

1. The Flames Beyond The Cold Mountain: 10.0

Few rock instrumental acts are able to balance powerful, sweeping strides with delicate nuances. On Cold Mountain, Mono takes us on a breathakingly beautiful journey, played out over thirteen minutes. Usually only the most talented of rock acts can pull off thirteen minute long songs without losing the listener’s interest(see Pink Floyd). Many acts and their identity-seeking fans will claim long songs to be “indulgent”, but that’s only because the bands that make those tracks don’t have the talent to pull it off. In this case, Mono is up to the task. Slow, watery guitar and tension filled backgrounds rise and swell to reveal a gigantic cleansed landscape, like driving hours through a rainstorm only to have the sun pierce through the clouds and your windshield finally translucent. This isn’t all about the calm, however. It’s also about the storm itself.

A sense of place and time pervades the song. I’m reminded of the long drive out to the Northern Rockies of the U.S. via Chicago. The drive through Wisconsin, Minnesota and the eastern half of North Dakota are pleasant enough, but it feels fairly hemmed in. Things start to change about two thirds of the way through North Dakota. The reality as I knew it – the humidity, bright green decidous trees and farmland gives way to a more arid and brown landscape. Tumbelweeds roll into the road. The horizon starts to go on forever, with bigger hills. A few stunted dry pine trees dot the landscape and raptors suddenly appear everywhere, like some altruistic bellhop in the worlds largest and oldest hotel lobby.

This song is that sense of change, of the “unfolding”, of entering an alien atmosphere that in the end, was more comfortable than the one you called home. I can only imagine it’s similar to what Lewis and Clark felt as they plied westward into the unknown.

2. A Heart Has Asked For The Pleasure: 9.4

This feels like a post-rock love song. There are no vocals of course, but the melody and strings convey a human touch. It’s short for Mono standards, rolling along at under four minutes. But it’s no less stunning for it. Simple chimes accentuate the rise and fall of the strings, creating an ethereal musical partnership.

3. Yearning: 9.6

Sonically stunning for all of it’s fifteen minutes. We’re introduced by hushed guitar picking, creating a subdued atmosphere before the song builds into a massive wall of tension. In a way, it’s similar to The Flames Beyond The Cold Mountain, but it’s able to create it’s own identity within the album by undertaking a more defiant and rebelious tone.

Six minutes in, we’re treated to soaring, triumphant guitar work anchored down by a slow pulse of invigorating drums.

4. Are You There?: 9.8

Is it possible for a song to ask a question? It seems Mono is attempting to do just that, swirling on the edge of your consciousness, a playful interrogation on the senses. In the end, the tease reveals itself to be majestic and true.

5. The Remains Of The Day: 9.4

Sunset and dusk. The title eludes to that, and musically there’s an almost resigned quality, of one realizing the day is almost over. Is this the end of the first day in the new landscape, as drawn out in The Flames Beyond The Cold Mountain? Perhaps. Just like the sunset, it’s over before you know it. The best light of the day here, and then gone.

6. Moonlight: 10.0

Night has set in, and moonlight greets us. Echoing shimmers of guitar reflect moonbeams, and a bewitching electric piano strides inbetween. Interrupting this earthy interlude is an upswell of strings, like some great big owl stretching it’s wings in the night, skimming the tops of the trees. A lonely guitar breaks that pattern, taking us over the far off ridge, up and up the slopes, out of the pine and into the apline tundra of the mountainside where waterfalls crash onto barren rock and one of the last wolverines in North Amercia stakes out it’s claim – alone, but the last vanguard of the mountain, of place and of time.

The air is thin, but that’s only because it’s closer to the stars.

Album Total 9.7/10

Response Keywords after hearing this album:

adventurous, patient, melancholic, triumphant, powerful, melodical, grandeur

You Are There is one of the greatest rock instrumental albums ever, let alone post-rock. You can buy a hard copy or download a copy here:

You Are There

My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
Reviewed by Mike

It’s been three years since My Morning Jackets last album, Z. Evil Urges was recorded partly in Manhattan and Colorado, and is the first My Morning Jacket album to have vocals not performed solely by Jim James.

1. Evil Urges: 3.0

The song starts off with a similar vibe to Radiohead’s Subterranean Homesick Alien, although a bit more organic. Unfortunately, it immediately steers into some sort of tropicalia sound, with poor vocals, both in terms of energy, quality and enthusiasm. This isn’t mailed in, this *is* the post office.

2. Touch Me I’m Going To Scream: 2.0

Remember that hippie jam band back in the 90’s that sounded like a cross between Blues Traveler and Phish? Remember how everyone said they were going to be big as they passed around a bong? Remember how they said they were entering their “trippy” phase? Yeah.

3. Highly Suspicious: 0.0

Enter at your own risk.

4. I’m Amazed: 4.0

A big chunky drum beat opens the song, along with some Dave Matthews style noodling. There are some triumphant sounding chord changes, but the song loses the plot soon after. The melody is as familiar as your own feet. The guitar solo is hackneyed and a complete retread.

5. Thank You: 2.0

Thank You enters K-Lite FM territory right form the start. Sadly, it stays there the entire time. There’s enough cheese here for a Green Bay Packers tailgate party.

6. Sec Walkin’: 7.0

More cheese, but at least it’s done reasonably well this time. There’s some great interplay between a steel guitar and an acoustic. There’s Witchy Woman-like background vocals which add an interesting dimension. Unfortunately it seems like they ran out of ideas halfway through the song.

Demon eyes, Demon eyes
Are wathcing everywhere

7. Two Halves: 3.0

This song is tainted by some increbibly bad lyrics. Any momentum the song had musically is crushed.

Twenty one everything stays in place
Forty one somethings start to fade
When you’re so young you wanna be older
And when your older, you want the body you have now

That’s deep.

8. Librarian: 8.8

A beautiful acoustic guitar opens Librarian. It’s a comforting sound, a darker twist on the Youngbloods. Easily the best song on Evil Urges.

9. Look At You: 1.0

Syrupy, off-kilter, forced, cheesy.

10. Aluminum Park: 5.0

Imagine Weed Party by Band of Horses, but remove the enthusiasm.
Wait…wasn’t Band of Horses supposed to be the My Morning Jacket imitator?

11. Remnants: 2.0

Remember that episode of The Sopranos where Christopher and Adrianna were trying to get that bad rock band signed, and the only thing the music exec wanted was Adrianna’s ass? Yeah.

12. Smokin’ From Shooting: 8.7

One of the better songs on the album. There’s a synergistic moment where the smoking guns line interplays with the steel guitar that is truly sublime. The song builds into a powerful climax with a George Harrison style guitar solo.

13. Touch Me I’m going To Scream Part II: 6.0

Sonically interesting beginning with intertwining keyboards. The rest of the song can’t seem to make up it’s mind, but what it lacks in focus it makes up for in beauty.

14. Good Intentions: 0.0

Pointless six seconds of nothing. We will use the editing foresight My Morning Jacket didn’t and not include this track in our final score.

Album Total: 4.0/10

Response Keywords after hearing this album:

Boring, forced, plodding, cheesy, try-hard, derivative, inconsistent, unfocused

My Morning Jacket has been building expectations for years due to an outstanding live act and a handful of excellent songs. Since Z, there have been tell tale signs of a band losing their grip on their studio abilities. What once sounded like a brilliant band now sounds like a bunch of session musicians hanging out, veering into jam band-lite territory. It’s clear to me that My Morning Jacket is becoming sort of the Allman Brothers of our time, starting off with several quality records and maintaining a career based largely on above average live performances. However, they don’t quite have the back catalogue to compete with that sort of longevity.

The biggest problems with Evil Urges are a very refined and MOR engineering/producton level, inconsistent song quality and an overall lack of spark or fire. Hopefully, this promising band’s next release will be less bloated and more focused, both in terms of songwriting and production/engineering.

I’m not going to insert the usual “buy it here” link for this album. Instead, download Smokin’ From Shootin’ and Librarian from iTunes and save your money for Get Together: The Essential Youngbloods

You can buy that album here:

Get Together: The Essential Youngbloods

M83 – Saturdays=Youth
Reviewed by Mike

Saturdays=Youth is M83’s fifth full length release, seeing store shelves on April 14th 2008. For those not familiar, M83 is led by Anthony Gonzalez with a home base of France. The group has always had an outstanding ear for texture and tone within the electronic realm, and Saturdays=Youth proves to be no different. Gonzalez had a large task at hand: how do you top the critically acclaimed Dead Cities and Before the Dawn Heals Us? The answer was simple. You can’t. So Gonzalez entered the studio looking to mix things up a bit.

1. You, Appearing 9.0

The album begins with heavy piano, soon followed by shimmering synth whispers on both sides of the stereo field. This template builds up with various string sounds, and the repeated line:

It’s your face
Where we are
Save me

Is it a flashback to the past, or a look forward? Either way it sounds like we’re about to be saved.

2. Kim and Jessie: 8.5

Somebody lurks in the shadows
Somebody whispers

Top Gun meets Jack and Diane.

3. Skin of the Night: 9.7

Huge 80’s sounding drums, circling, stabbing guitar with haunting female vocals. The uncouth lyrics touch on all we have(our own bodies):

She pulls back her skin to show her ribs

Simply flesh on flesh with galaxies over our head. Morbid, but true.

4. Graveyard Girl 9.2

An upbeat, galloping rhythm section is lined up with an incredibly triumphant and bright sounding wall of electric guitars. Synth noises that sound like ghosts shooting off into the night sky are part of the mix. This is musical fireworks, celebrating the life of the Graveyard Girl. During the song, the Graveyeard Girl gives us her take on things, which comes off incredibly forced. That is relieved however by the brilliant buildup, with the bratty, bird-like synth calls interplaying with the Yamaha DX7 airy synth arpeggios. The summer song of 2008.

5. Couleurs: 8.0

It’s done very well, but we have heard this sort of thing before. You can’t help but love the synth choirs.

6. Up: 8.7

Heavily compressed hand claps skitter about as a dreamy sounding female voice takes us on a narrative around the galaxy.

We fly we feed we suck we bleed we need

Gonzalez again seems to be contrasting the big picture (space,time) with the bottom line essentials here on earth such as our bodies and basic needs. It’s all connected somehow, and always has been.

7. We Own The Sky: 9.4

Gigantic synth lines open the track and soon bunch up against a mellowed out, expansive chorus. The lyrics are fairly simple, alluding to some sort of flight ability, feeling free or simply ego. Synth choirs spread out like spilled water on the table and bass lines pulse. Almost begging female vocals coax the rough edges of this trip.

8. Highway of Endless Dreams: 9.0

The song starts off with a fairly laughable female spoken line about “driving until my bones burn”. I’ve never heard that expression and I doubt anyone who has ever driven a vehicle has used it. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe it’s supposed to be some nieve teenager who has never taken the wheel. Either way the song is an amazing buildup, full of tension and beauty. It’s classic M83, and a clear line from their masterpiece Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts can be seen.

9. Too Late: 10

A few days ago I was out running an errand. This track was playing loudly as I drove through the tail end of a lightning storm. As I drove along a parkland, I noticed rays of sun shoot through the backend of the storm, lighting up a portion of the sky. At that moment, a large hawk could be seen soaring up in this light, circling up and up…… It was one of those perfect moments in an imperfect world.

This song is an extension of the excellent Farewell Goodbye from Before the Dawn Heals Us. The words “epic” and “classic” get thrown around all too easily these days. This song truly qualifies for that distinction. It’s a triumph for Gonzalez in that he finally matched his musical brilliance with a brilliant set of lyrics.

It’s the ultimate testament to love and life.

Like a wall of stars
we are ripe to fail

You, always.

10. Dark Moves of Love: 9.7

Soothing, building pads slam into a wall of guitars, synth arpeggios and drums that run amok. A majestic sounding female voice breaks through the mayhem to announce:

Everything is wrecked and grey
I’m focusing on your image
Can you hear me in the void?

I will fight the time and bring you home
I will fight the time and bring you home

11. Midnight Souls Still Remain: 9.7

…some strange roaving eye slowly flying over the warm summer nights of suburbia as people finally sleep, endlessly capturing the memories and patterns of generations of people and things, of what is to come and everything that has passed. It sees the teens become old, and the baby boomers retire. It sees the babies grow, the abandoned strip malls where kids once hung out with bright cheery faces become weed lots and the ant-workman like construction crews make new strip malls down the road. It sees all the proms and the golfers, the tv watchers and lawn jockeys. It sees the breakups, first kisses and the love affairs under the humid, green landscape.

And it just goes on forever.

Album Total: 9.2/10

Response Keywords after hearing this album:

Beautiful, dramatic, top gun, colorful, powerful, 80’s, futuristic, epic, cinematic

I have to admit that at first I did not care for this album. But like many great records, it sometimes take several spins to get through some of the layers and overall depth. At first I dismissed it as some sort of 80’s relic, a bit too cheesy for my tastes. The problem with that original reaction was that the album is far more of a template for tomorrow’s music than a template for the past. Further listenenings made this eloquently clear. For all intents and purposes, the second half of this album is electronica’s answer to Abbey Road’s second half, building with stunning and emotional(something often missing from electronica works) power until the final climax right between Dark Moves of Love and Midnight Souls Still Remain, one of the musical highlights of the last several years.

Without question the finest record so far in 2008.

You can buy the hard copy here:

Saturdays=Youth