Deltron 3030 Shit I Should Have Listened to

                       

I’m assuming that my introduction to Del through Gorillaz is fairly common, right? I am disappointed in not delving into Del’s solo work earlier as “Rock the House” and “Clint Eastwood” are some of my favorite tracks from Gorillaz’s self-titled debut. And now, after listening to Deltron 3030, everything makes perfect sense. This completely batshit insane album stands tall as a landmark in weirdo rap.

You don’t even have to buy into the story of Deltron Zero and his rag-tag crew of space anarchists who are attempting to take down the dictators at the Bank of Time, but it helps. Del paints a world where great flows can have magical properties, killing lesser rappers and taking down the corrupt system that rules the universe in the year 3030. Over ten years since its release it still sounds futuristic. Dan the Automator and Kid Koala mix classical, soul, and industrial backgrounds to make Deltron Zero somehow believable. They could have stopped there, just making it a deeply experimental album; instead we get an album that can be as anthemic as it is strange.  Just look at the first proper song on the album “3030” which is held down by a rusty bass and sliding guitars before a freakin choir comes in and Deltron’s robotitized voice calls the chorus over a spaghetti western background. And it’s damn catchy.

3030 thrives off of making the unorthodox instantaneous. Del turns “Update your gray matter/Cause one day it may matter” into one of the album’s biggest hooks and the cartoony horns of “Memory Loss” will be ingrained in your head for days. But it’s also a flexible album, “Positive Contact” and “Virus,” the two biggest songs from the album, are more straightforward and pure hip-hop gold. Yeah Del’s still talking about alien invasions, but shit bangs.

It’s still Del’s show. He’s a national treasure and one of the most underrated MCs ever. His flow is as fast as it is engrossing and it seems absolutely effortless. Even when the world seems to be crashing down in the production Del stays cool and smooth. This is undoubtedly one of the best hip-hop albums I’ve heard in a long time.

Grade: A-

Relationship of Command- At the Drive-In Shit I should have listened to

                           

When going through this large list of critically acclaimed albums I knew I would stumble across a few thorns. There would be albums here and there that I wouldn’t understand the hype. I just didn’t think it would be the second album in, or that it would be from At the Drive-In. After all I think Frances the Mute is one of the best prog albums of the 21^st century (and I’ll be reviewing De-Loused later on) and I’ve been in love with “One Armed Scissor” for a while now. So why can’t I get into Relationship of Command?

Relationship of Command seems to be an album that would absolutely kill live. Cedric Bixler-Zavala delivers pure insanity through his vocals and all the instruments are charged with a strange energy. But it all seems to veer randomly from one thought to the next. Second track “Pattern Against User” has at least four distinct sections but none of them really feel connected like these pieces were messily stitched together. It sounds cool in theory, a punk band shifting from reggae grooves to math-rock interludes but it feels deeply uneven when placed side by side.

The more straightforward punk anthems can also fall flat. “Sleepwalk Capsules” never quite reaches its full potential and “Mannequin Republic” ends up being more grating than menacing. There’s also the spoken word “Invalid Litter Dept” that owns fascinating lyrics but Zavala’s delivery is so strange it becomes unengaging. Thankfully Relationship of Command does have a few excellent tracks tucked in here and there. “Enfilade” has the album’s best chorus with a massive “FREIGHT TRAIN COMMIN’!” And the thrashing “Cosmonaut” hinted at what the El Paso boys would do in future releases. Of course “One Armed Scissor” looms large above the rest of the album. It’s still one of the finest and most striking punk songs released in recent memory, filled to the brim with mad energy, a near perfect riff, and Zavala’s best non-Volta performance.

Still when it all comes down to it I’m really disappointed with Relationship of Command. I realize I’m in a tiny minority here but the whole album (many consider it one of the best rock albums of the 2000s) has issues with cohesion with only a few songs really standing tall. Definitely taking White Pony over this.   

Rating: C-

White Pony- Deftones (Shit I should have listened to)

                        

The alternative rock radio station in my hometown played Deftones occasionally, but they preferred to pool their music from Incubus, Chevelle, and Silversun Pickups. After listening to White Pony I’m surprised Deftones weren’t played more, because every damn band on that radio station owed something to the Deftones. Like a more concise version of Tool White Pony is a complex but sleek set of alternative metal tunes that’s as smart as it is heavy.

If comparing them to the Incubus-ish bands the main advantage Deftones hold is that they never let their sound be completely overtaken by one influence. There are plenty of hardcore break downs on White Pony, but there are just as many slow grooves, glitchy samples, and quiet melodic moments. A lot of this is thanks to Chino Moreno’s ever flexible vocal range, going from the straight arena shots of “Knife Prty” to the seductive verses of “RX Queen.” Stephen Carpenter never played guitar with the normal nu metal ideals, instead using its pure power, combing massive and silvery chords with Chi Cheng’s rumbling bass. Abe Cunningham is the star on the instrumental side though; he manages to be slippery yet crushing without ever making a noticeable shift. He’s never flashy but he holds everything together. Cunningham is the main reason that so many of these songs seem massive yet spacy. One second they’re beautifully drifting, the next crashing down with brutal power.

If there are any complaints here it comes from the songs that just go for the straight metal feel. “Elite” and “Korea” are fine but next to the rest of the album they come off as lumbering. “Passenger” has Tool’s Maynard James Keenan taking over on vocals, but it breaks the album’s flow, as Moreno has a different control on his vocals. It’s by no means a bad track, in fact the chorus has great vocals from Keenan, but I would have loved to hear Moreno’s version. But, geez this album is spectacular when it wants to be. The opening one-two punch is what every Alternative Metal band should try to be, guest singer Rodleen Getsic has a jaw dropping feature on “Knife Prty,”and "Change (In the House of Flies)" is one of Deftones’ most popular for a reason. The two best tracks are “RX Queen” and “Teenager” for completely different reasons. “RX Queen” holds the album’s best riff, a murky and unsettling beast of a line that holds the song’s alternatively sexy and threatening vibe together. “Teenager” is the album’s most beautiful and stands as one of Deftones’ most gorgeous songs, along with "Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event,” its hazy guitar sampling allows Moreno to deliver a tender vocal line that’s spine-tingling. For all the shit that nü-metal gave us in the early 2000s we did get some absolute stunners. White Pony might have been a single gem in a massive pile of rubble, but damn was it worth it.

Rating: B+

Shit I should have listened to

My musical acculturation didn't truly start until around 2005, and even then it was a long road before I became the obnoxious audiophile I am today. Over this year I'll be going through albums released in the 2000s that I never deeply listened to, but are held in high regard by friends or fellow music critics. Alright, get your head phones on. Time to adventure.

St. Vincent: Self-Titled discussion

                        


Nathan: Obviously this is one of the first BIG releases this year and St. Vincent has a well praised discography behind her. So what was everyone expecting going in?

Ryo: I wasn’t impressed at the singles at first, especially “Digital Witness” (I still don’t dig that song), so I was kind of worried how it might turn out. I imagined St. Vincent going all electronic, which sounded like a big gamble.

Juana: I have to admit that I wasn’t too excited about the promotional singles. Unlike Ryo, it was only “Digital Witness” the one I truly liked, since “Birth in Reverse” reminded me a lot to the “Krokodil/Grot” single that I found too messy for my taste and “Prince Johnny” is still a song I can’t fully understand. I think that in Strange Mercy she took a leap towards electronics, but with these three songs I realized that she was going to focus on her guitar and provide a suitable base for it which explains why the sound is so rough.

Marcel: For me, everything leading up to this new self-titled album of Annie Clark’s was super-great. Strange Mercy is by far one of my favorite albums of the 2010s, and everything before that was totally solid. St. Vincent sounds like a departure in Annie’s sound, she’s not doing it for the sake of being an artist anymore, she’s doing it for the popularity now. At least, that’s what I think. The songs on this LP aren’t as exciting or captivating as the ones on Strange Mercy (while i can make an exception for “Prince Johnny”, which is a track I totally love). Her sound doesn’t sound all that impressive anymore, instead it just comes off as really average art rock.

Nathan: I guess I fall between y’alls’ opinions. I enjoyed all of the singles that came out before hand but I still felt apprehensive. Unlike when “Surgeon” was released before Strange Mercy and I completely lost my shit I simply said “oh this is cool.” Despite enjoying all of the songs just fine I didn’t find any of the songs captivating and unfortunately, with one exception, the singles were by far my favorite songs from the album.

Ryo: So am I the only who's riding this album then? Before I give my thoughts on what I liked from St. Vincent, what are some things you liked about Strange Mercy that you found lacking in St. Vincent?

Juana: I wouldn’t say that I dislike St. Vincent, but I’d rather say that I expected something different coming from her. I think that’s my main problem with her new album, since it’s inevitable for me to compare it to her previous ones. I guess I’m still having a hard time trying to see how it can fit in her discography, since one of the things I most liked about her music, and especially about Strange Mercy, was how delicate and polished it was, while I think she is now rather grotesque sometimes. Strange Mercy is all about subtlety; this can be especially noticed in the guitar and how it camouflages in between the rest of the instruments.There are some moments that you may even doubt if it's a guitar what you're listening to!

Marcel: Strange Mercy was a very textured album for me, while St. Vincent on the other hand wears thin after four or five tracks. I wouldn’t say at all that I hated it, but I was just expecting something more flavorful and lively. Strange Mercy also has that flare that you look for in a St. Vincent record, and this new one from her is just very confusing a lot of the time. Another thing I loved about Strange Mercy was that it was full of blaring guitars and philosophical-like lyricism. And everything that I loved about Strange Mercy is just very toned down on St. Vincent, so you don’t really get the best experience of listening to a St. Vincent record when you’re listening to this album. Hell, I would even say that all of her three albums before this are way better than this new one.

Nathan: I agree with Marcel on this one. It’s really funny but my view/background on St. Vincent is scary similar to the way I felt towards Arcade Fire’s Reflektor. Both are groups with their starting three albums dominating my Ipod, their second album was my favorite out of the bunch, the 4th was highly praised and I didn’t like it nearly as much. Not saying it’s bad, just that Annie Clark made freakin’ Actor (sorry Marcel, I also love Strange Mercy, just not as much) and this is a significant step down. The only song here that is on the same level as some of Actor’s work is “Rattlesnake” which I really enjoyed. If she had experimented with electronics like she did on “Rattlesnake” throughout the album I think I would have liked this project a lot more. Unlike Juana I loved the hell out of “Krokodil” and I thought that she just didn’t bring much intensity to many of these songs, instead they just kind of flounder, especially songs like “I Prefer Your Love.” Seems like you’re outnumbered Ryo, but what did you like about it?

Ryo: The fact I like the self titled more might have a bit to do with the fact I’m a new fan to St. Vincent compared to you guys? St. Vincent is basically the first St. Vincent album -- not counting Love This Giant -- that I actually kept up with and got stoked for. Even then, I didn’t have much preconceptions going in. What I liked most from St. Vincent was that it was her most direct music. She speaks more face-to-face, not scared to push it too far. She speaks for herself, most importantly. And I felt the drums helped push that directness forward. I always thought her drums were an underrated part of her music -- I don’t think “Surgeon” would have hit as hard if those drums were pummeling those guitars on. So I loved that it got the shine in a song like “Birth in Reverse” and have it snake as manic and prominent as Annie Clark’s guitar solos. And I got to step in here: “I Prefer Your Love” is my favorite track from St. Vincent. Maybe it’s because it sounds a lot like a song that could be in Strange Mercy. But I love how open Clark sounds. She confesses her love to you straight up with such a certain voice. My favorite part is when she goes, “all the good in me is because of you / it’s true.” It’s the best thank-you ever. I’ve been listening to “I Prefer Your Love” every day since this album came out and I love it so much.

Juana: That’s my favorite part too, because it’s rather simple but so sincere too. Listening to “I Prefer Your Love” I could also understand why St. Vincent insists that she makes pop music, since it has a Madonna’s Ray of Light vibe. However, my favorite song of the album is “Regret”, though I’m still trying to figure out why. It has one of my favorite lines by St. Vincent: “I’m afraid of heaven because I can’t stand the heights/ I’m afraid of you because I can’t be left behind”, which, unless you try to figure out a metaphorical meaning, it’s quite absurd. But when she sings it, her voice is suddenly lonely and you can even feel its slightly tremor. As keep on listening to the album, I realized that rather than enjoying the songs, what I most enjoy are specific moments that could touch me in different ways. And so when I listen to “I Prefer Your Love” or “Regret” I wait expectantly for those lines that always have a strong impact on me as if it was the first time I hear them. Unfortunately, the album as a whole didn’t reach me emotionally. I think that as an old fan, one of the things that most surprised me about St. Vincent, is that it was joined by a change in her image. Her dark and psychotic side that used to be hidden behind an elegant and innocent appearance, is now definitely at the front. In that sense, I think Ryo is right that this could be her most direct music. But for some reason I still think that this new image and sound is too exaggerated and that to highlight it, she sacrificed her human side.

Nathan: The reason I was in love with the first three records was how St. Vincent held terrifying darkness under pretty melodies. It’s a more subtle approach and I think it’s creepier. Something like “Now, Now” or “Cruel” unnerved me much more than anything on this album because there wasn’t as complex. I was never lulled into security then violently shaken out, instead it was just a constant bombardment. It seemed like this album wasn’t as finely crafted and when compared to the rest of her work it ends up falling flat.