I've got a funny old relationship with music. On the one hand I can't live without it, listen to it constantly, get untold amounts of energy and inspiration and enjoyment out of it, and some of my happiest moments are dancing at live gigs. On the other hand...I hate most music. Most music sucks ass. It's a taint, a blight on the audioscape of my surroundings. I can't escape it. It brings me down, how bad it all is. You know how many albums I've bought this year? Five. And one of them wasn't even particularly good.
I download a lot of tracks, about one a day I'd say, when you even it all out. You might think this makes me more of a 'singles' guy, but really, I do love a good album. I'm a huge fan of what I call 'track sevens', those tucked-away tracks that are never promoted or talked about or played live, but you think are the best thing the band has ever done and wonder why it's not the biggest song in the world right now -the destruct\hours consist mainly of track sevens- and albums are really the only way you can find these little gems.
Embarassingly, the best new album I've heard recently was sent to me for Christmas by my mum. I have this great vision of her going into Real Groovy Records on Queen Street Auckland and asking some punk behind the counter: "Excuse me, but what is the 'in' sound at the moment? What's 'hip'?" Thankfully, whoever she spoke to was awesome and gave her Pipe Line Under the Ocean, by Pluto.
It's what you'd call a 'grower'. The first time I listened to it, nothing really jumped out at me. The second time I listened to it, I thought Dance Stamina was pretty awesome. The third time I listened to it, I truly believed, and still do, that it was the best album I'd heard all year.
It's insanely versatile. It rolls from bluegrass to hard rock to dance to country to indie, it's all over the show, but all held together by the lead singer's voice, which has a quality that reminds me of a young Mick Jagger, but I mean, his voice is wholly distinctive, it can't be anyone else singing. It's sort of gravelly and, well, massive, for want of a better word. It's really the standout feature of the album, you really can't believe that tiny little New Zealand produced such a massive voice.
I've more orless had this album on constant replay for the last month (apart from the occasional NIN-whirl for violent chapters, it was the soundtrack to the whole nanowrimo experience), and even listening to it now, it still fills me with energy and excitement, like, I'm sitting in my office right now with a serious urge to like, jump up and dance. That, to me, is the hallmark of a good album.
Great, great stuff- reminds me of why I love music so much.
Track-by-track:
- Broken Hearted - Bizzare choice for a first track, a country-heavy lament for lost youth, which redeems itself (for being country) in the final minute when it collapses into a stunningly beautiful piano solo that brings tears to my eyes even now, like, a hundred listens later.
- Perfectly Evil - Perhaps the first track was just to lull you into a false sense of security before bombarding you with this insane slab of crazy devil-rock, complete with lovely flanging synths in the background. I get the awful feeling this song is about record management, which seems to be a popular topic for second-album rock bands, but it's so rocking I'll forgive them.
Most suprising is the end of the song, which segues into, I kid you not, Satanic Gregorian chanting. Brilliant.
- Rock n' Roll - Oddly, not a rock n' roll song. It's actually more reminiscent of early-era REM (the chorus particularly), which I would probably have described as a sort of country rock. However it's still a very amiable little jig, has an awesome synth freak-out in the breakdown, backed up by a great drum solo. And I love synth freakouts. And drum solos.
- Baby Cruel - Baby Cruel is probably one of the weaker songs on the album, but only because it has the ludicrously catchy chorus that you'll be singing it for weeks in the back of your head. Quite an indiepop feel to it.
- Moja Rijeka - Coming into a 'quiet' patch on the album, this is a lovely ballad to the guys' sister. A large sweep of backing vocals really opens up the landscape of the song, it feels 'big', and then concludes on an outro that is disturbingly orgasmic for a family song, but a joy to listen to.
- Baghdad Boy - This is the big 'ballad' of the album, and is probably the second strongest song on the album- a really sweet melody which rails up and down the quiet/loud spectrum. It kind of falls apart at the end, but the opening piano chord is beautiful (I'm a big sucker for a good pianey).
- On Your Own - Pretty nondescript song, but not a bad one.
- Dance Stamina - WOW! Okay, image, ah, the greatest emo hits of the eighties, and THEN...get U2's The Edge to play guitar on top of it....and stick it to a dance beat with a bizarre uninterpretable vocal loop. And you've got Dance Stamina! It's amazing! Best song in an album of great songs.
- Eight o'clock - This is a great, sad little ballad which you might say has a bit of a classic sound- a bit predictable, but only in the ways that work. Really haunting chorus.
- Long White Cross - Pulp-inspired indiepop song that you can watch the video to here. Realgood.
- Radio Crimes - Fantastic, bassy, barnstorming outro- destined to be the opening track on the next destruct\hour. Look forward to it.
This is a 
Your mum is cool.