New Album Reviews - 6/19/2012 - Fiona Apple and The Smashing Pumpkins

Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Ever Do

Smart singer/songwriter Fiona Apple, mistress of the unnecessarily long album titles (and I thought When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King was bad), releases her fourth studio album and first since 2005.

The good news is that despite the time between albums, Apple's style hasn't altered in that period still giving us intelligent baroque pop songs heavy on wit and personality with discordant, usually piano-driven, instrumentation that can be both enchanting and off-putting depending on the direction she wants to take you. 

Long time collaborator Jon Brion (Magnolia soundtrack) is left off in favor of her touring drummer Charley Drayton for producing duties although Apple's songs in general still have strong Brion influences to them.

The lyrics writing is once again top-notch with beautiful imagery and brightly colored metaphors peppered throughout the entire album.  The stark visuals she paints with her words are extremely vivid and effective. 

In the extremely witty and well presented "Werewolf," Apple compares her former lover to dangerous things like the previously mentioned werewolf, a shark and a volcano; although she is sure to share in her portion of the blame for setting her lover off.  It opens with the starkly told but beautifully imagined, "I could liken you to a werewolf the way you left me for dead/But I admit that I provided a full moon."

The Idler Wheel... is not the most accessible album out there today but fans of Apple will find it a wonderful edition to her breadth of work.  Her songwriting chops are as solid as ever even if the music with its non-standard melodies and heavy emotions still won't have great appeal for a mainstream audience.  However, indie music fans already in love with Apple now have reason to renew that love.

Score: 7.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Werewolf" and "Anything We Want"

 The Smashing Pumpkins Oceania

The Billy Corgan fronted prog rock band best known for their work in the 90's release their ninth studio album.

This is the band's second album since reforming in the mid-2000's (minus Chamberlin, Iha, and Wretzky) and since they started the Teagarden by Kaleidyscope project, for which they cobbled together enough songs to turn it into a disappointing album released at the end 2010.

This time around its more music from that project although on this version it's actually compiled and presented in such a way that the disc actually sounds like a cohesive album.  In fact, that's not the only thing that returns to form as we get a sampling of music that actually reminds us of what made the band popular in the first place: distorted guitars, a keen indie music sensibility, and Corgan's poetic songwriting.

This 13-track album takes a couple of songs before finding its footing but by the third track, "The Celestials," you begin to feel that Corgan can summon that magic at least one more time.  The track itself builds beautifully starting off with the acoustic guitar but flawlessly and brilliantly transitions to full electric guitar and bass as the song builds and Corgan warbles about finding your eternal love.

There are other gems as well on the disc.  "My Love Is Winter" is a more pop-y song with a big hook and encompassing electric guitar work.  "Violet Rays" is more of a ballad but the standout part of the song is Corgan's vocals emote the same level of tension that made his best songs so memorable.  While on "Pale Horse" they use an Elbow-esque opening guitar melody to craft a bittersweet ballad where Croogan's pleading vocals add an extra level of tension that many other artists would be unable to pull off.

Oceania ends up being a really good album from the Pumpkins and their best release since their heyday.  The songwriting is beautiful and varied, the vocals aren't any worse for the wear, and the absence of the other founding members isn't felt at all.  For a band that had as many seminal albums as the Pumpkins, this album can't top their best but it is a welcome return to them creating songs that are both relevant and entertaining.

Score: 8/10
Song(s) to Sample: "The Celestials", "Violet Rays" and "The Chimera"

New Music from 11/23/2010 - Kanye West, Smashing Pumpkins, and French Horn Rebellion

Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Polarizing hip-hop artist Kanye West releases his fifth full-length album and first since 2008's 808s & Heartbreak.  West has cited Maya Angelou, Gil Scott-Heron and Nina Simone as his musical inspirations for this album.  No offense to Kanye, who is a wonderful musician and producer of music, but the original version of the album cover he was planning on using was absolutely horrible and the relatively vanilla cover you see to the right is a marked improvement over his "WTF?!?" original. 

The album opens with "Dark Fantasy" which has a complex, orchestral opening with angelic singing that transitions to a really catchy rap as the bridge to the song.  It does a good job of presenting the complicated blending of styles that West is so adept at.  "All Of The Lights" will definitely be a future single with horn playing similar to what you might hear in a Basement Jaxx song but with more classic hip-hop sensibilities in the actual formation of the song.  Also, the female vocals (it sounds like a Rihanna clone but I couldn't find who actually performed the singing) add an extra layer to the song and make it a likely song you'll hear in a club in the not-too-distant future.  My favorite song is "Runaway" which has a very simple four note piano opening that slowly builds into a really elaborate and beautiful song as West quickly layers on the other instruments and vocals as the song builds to a muted but poignant crescendo.  "Blame Game" (feat. John Legend) starts off with a slow tempo piano opening that gracefully segues to Legend's always welcome singing although the spoken word part at the end makes it a tough single to add to your MP3 player. 

Overall, it's another well produced and well performed album by Kanye West.  The arrangement of the music, as usual, is extremely complex without being over-produced.  Hardcore fans of West will be slightly upset though because of the thirteen tracks, about half had already been released on West's website as part of his G.O.O.D. Fridays music series throughout the past year and two of the tracks are basically interludes that last between 60~90 seconds.  However, no matter what other craziness West has going on in his life, he sure hasn't lost his ability to write and compose damn catchy music.  I probably like his Graduation Day and Late Registration albums better than this one but Kanye, even when he's not at the absolutely top of his game, still manages to put out an album that's better than 98% of what else is currently on the market. 

Score:  9/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "Runaway" and "Dark Fantasy"

Smashing Pumpkins Teagarden by Kaleidyscope Vol. 2: The Solstice Bare - An EP by the off-and-on again band from Chicago still being fronted by Billy Corgan.  The overall concept for the Teagarden by Kaleidyscope opus is a total of 44 songs released sporadically over time.  The first volume collected the first four songs released plus a bonus track if you bought the vinyl album.  This volume follows the same pattern with four tracks in total plus a bonus track if you buy the full box set album.

The EP opens with "The Fellowship," a mainstream rock song that has hard sounding guitar and keyboard work.  The melody (especially the part done on synthesizer/keyboard) remind me of an early Muse song although Corgan's warble-y singing voice isn't as good a match as Matt Bellamy's to this type of song.  "Freak" is a much better match to the Smashing Pumpkin style with heavy guitar playing and a catchy bridge and refrain.  "Tom Tom" employs an acoustic guitar and a more ballad-like feel, at least initially.  The song then introduces harder pounding drums and moodier vocal work to make a more complex rock song.  "Spangled" has a more alternative feel with a jangly melody and a more somber tempo.  I felt this was the most control the band exhibited on the four tracks and the subdued vocal work a better fit for the now older Mr. Corgan.

The overall concept is a very interesting idea but the music Smashing Pumpkins give us today just doesn't sound as fresh or as relevant as it did when they were in their prime.  Billy Corgan's vocal work, while still sounding familiar, doesn't have the same punch as it used to.  It'll be interesting when they finally string all 44 songs into a completed mega album to see if they can form a cohesive piece of work from the individual pieces but it's not worth getting the individual pieces alone if these are the best songs the band can come up with today.

Score:  5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Spangled"

 French Horn Rebellion This Moment - The band consists of two brothers originally from Milwaukee but now performing primarily in New York.  One of the brothers was actually a French horn player for the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra but decided that way of playing music was too rigid for him so they decided to form this band instead.  The band has a heavy synth-pop sound with some electronic influences.  Vocals are prominent on every song (so it's not a strict electronica album) although the band doesn't shy away from synthesizing them.  

Okay, this EP is five tracks long and from those five tracks we only get two different songs.  You get the original "This Moment" plus three remixed versions of the song and you get a song titled "Last Summer."  "This Moment" is actually a very catchy song that begins with a fast tempo synthesized sound.  The hook and the chorus will both sweep you along and get you caught up in the song.  "Last Summer" is a slower tempo song with less vibrant singing.  It's not a total downer song but there isn't much interesting in it either, at least until the song goes on a complete tangent with a circus-like melody.

"This Moment" is a very good song and is deserving of its own single.  The remixed versions are above average although only Kap 10Kurt remix really bringing anything new to the song.  "Last Summer" is more awkward than good and sounds like a poor B-side to "This Moment".

Score: 7/10
Song(s) to Sample:  "This Moment"