On Fire!
I was all set to declare The Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca record of the year, but now it looks like The Flaming Lips are making a serious bid of their own with Embryonic. Pitchfork gave the record a rare 9.0, but if anything, I think their review actually underrates the record. Oh, I can hear your fingers typing away in the comments section now: Hype much, Peter? Maybe, maybe not. But either way, hear for yourself.
I’d think Vijay Iyer’s new Historicity leaves this thing in the dust, but that’s just me…
— Sanjay · Oct 16, 04:21 PM · #
Allow my age to show. You kids have very low standards these days. It was a cute video though.
— Steven Donegal · Oct 16, 04:41 PM · #
Which is not to say I wasn’t impressed with David S. Ware’s return to the scene, or Anouar Brahem’s latest: I just wouldn’t call them record of the year. John Abercrombie’s really hitting holes-in-one lately though, and Frisell’s Disfarmer? Perfect. Jim Black’s Houseplant is good but not stellar above his previous outings, but Lovano’s new Folk Art and Peter Bernstein’s Monk — oh, yeah, definitely that last — are all in contention I think for record of the year.
— Sanjay · Oct 16, 05:11 PM · #
I haven’t made a definite opinion on the new Flaming Lips album but I was definitely surprised (pleasantly)by the new direction they took.
— Dylan · Oct 16, 05:27 PM · #
Donegal’s remarks are funny when you consider what old fogies the Lips actually are. They’re practically the elder statesmen of the music we called “progressive” in my college days. Only Yo La Tengo have charted a comparable course.
I first saw them live about seventeen years ago at an outdoor concert next to the Chesapeake Bay. Really, and here was the entire lineup: Flaming Lips, Stone Temple Pilots, Butthole Surfers— in that order. The Stone Temple Pilots had a few hits by then, but the Buttholes were such a notorious live act that they got the final slot. As openers, the Lips were appropriately noisy and disheveled but pretty nondescript, otherwise, nothing like the lavish, power-of-positive-tripping, costume&confetti bacchanalia that their live performances have since become.
While the Soft Bulletin set the bar impossibly high, I’m with you Suderman, the new album is quite good. I really like the cover art, too.
It’s not as openly edgy, but Bill Callahan’s latest, Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle, is terrific in spite of the title. I would rank it at or near the top of the year’s best.
Sanjay’s reply would have been more succinct had it simply read, “I prefer jazz.” Anyway, everybody knows Vijay Iyer gargles Craig Taborn’s nuts.
— turnbuckle · Oct 16, 05:47 PM · #
Or, turnbuckle, Suderman could’ve written “immature hipster crap album of the year” instead of “record of the year,” which I think was my point.
— Sanjay · Oct 16, 05:58 PM · #
On the bright side, I never browse the mature listening section at the record store, so there’s no risk of us bumping into each other.
— turnbuckle · Oct 16, 06:14 PM · #
this is very odd. i was listening to monk this morning. anyhow, embryonic is pretty good. i was preparing to be hostile, but it surprised me.
— ron · Oct 16, 07:25 PM · #
If we’re talking album of the year votes, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention an album that I cannot stop listening to, and one that gets better with each spin: Grizzly Bear’s “Veckatimest.” The old folks who love Pet Sounds and CSN will likely nod in approval, and the young hipsters celebrating both Fleet Foxes-style earnestness with Brooklyn-style periodic chaos in the Panda Bear “Person Pitch” mode will without a doubt enjoy this intricately composed and gorgeous music. Check it out.
Now commence requests to subscribe to my newsletter…
— Tom · Oct 16, 08:36 PM · #
Not a bad album, but overrated. The Frog song is so annoying. The animal noises and giggling are terrible. Maybe worest song of the year by a good band.
— JC39 · Oct 16, 09:59 PM · #
veckatimest. for sense of place if nothing else
— Max Socol · Oct 17, 03:02 AM · #