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Best tunes of 2011: #27 Noah And The Whale “Life is life”

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It’s Sunday and I’m on a mini-holiday. So I’m not going to go into an all out rail against Pitchfork, that taste-making, music-reviewing website that sometimes feels like its trying too hard to keep its taste-making credentials intact. But I will say this: if I didn’t listen to all the albums for which they have given rotten reviews, I might be missing out on some of my favourite albums.

Noah and the Whale’s debut, “Peaceful, the world lays me down”, for instance, was given a lowly 2.6 rating out of 10, the reviewer calling it “twee pop you might order in a kit”. For my own part, I guess I must have a soft spot for generic, derivative schlock, because I actually quite enjoyed the album.

Thankfully for me and scores of others, the indie pop band out of Twickenham either has thick skin or never did read the article. I say thankfully because they continued on, releasing three more albums before finally calling it quits seven years later. By 2011, though, Laura Marling and Doug Fink, brother of frontman Charlie Fink, had both left the band and Noah and the Whale’s sound had changed quite a bit. They had dispensed with the ukuleles, banjos, and glockenspiels, and really, the folk pop sound that was so prominent on the debut and then, added synths and crisp production on their third album, “Last night on earth”.

“Life is life” is the opening track and third single released off this third album. The mechanized sounding beats that open the song are definitely no longer twee, nor are the synthesizers. However, the handclaps and crowd vocals still signal that this is Noah and the Whale. A rousing number, it’s a third person observation on the act of scrapping everything to start anew. “Left his house at midnight, resolute and young, in search of something greater than the person he’d become.” Perhaps it’s a little heavy-handed and obvious but it’s got a great beat and energy to spare. And of course, it’s cheerful, like a lot of their work, and sometimes, that’s just what you need.

Almost like a Sunday morning, on a mini-holiday. Cheers.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2011 list, click here.

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Best tunes of 2011: #28 The War on Drugs “Baby missiles”

<< #29    |    #27 >>

In the summer of 2011, I started up my first blog, Music Insanity, which lasted around five years before I decided to stick a fork in it. In its early days, it was pretty scattered and eclectic, its only constant being the music I loved. One of the ideas I had started out with but never finished was to create playlists, mixed tapes of a sort, of all the different alternative sub-genres. It was while putting together the second half of a two part playlist on shoegaze music, a kind of intro to the second wave revivalists, that I came across The War on Drugs.

Some music writer had termed them “Boss gaze” in reference to their second album, “Slave ambient”, and in exploring further, I saw this expression bandied about across the blogosphere. I found the term so humorous, I wrote a post with the term as its title and provided the video below to my, at the time, very modest readership for their consideration. Personally, as silly as the term sounds, I found it apt to describe the sound of “Baby missiles”. The song sounds a heck of a lot like “Born in the USA” era Springsteen, filtered through an early 90s Britain reverb pedal, Ride or Swervedriver, take your pick. Frontman and driving force Adam Granduciel was still finding his voice on this early album but you can almost picture him wearing a bandanna and jean jacket vest, much like a couple other bands (I’m thinking Killers and Airborne Toxic Event) were wont to do about this time. The beat is uptempo, built for handclaps, and augmented with a heavy wash of organs and harmonicas and vocal “whooo”s.

Six years and two albums later, this group has become relatively well-known, especially on the festival circuit, and has gone on to win a grammy for Best Rock Album. Nowadays, though, there’s another dubious term for them: “Dad rock”. Whichever you prefer, I think both fit.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2011 list, click here.

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Best tunes of 2011: #29 Death Cab For Cutie “You are a tourist”

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By the time 2011 rolled around, Death Cab for Cutie had been at it for fourteen years. I had been following them for just over half of that time, discovering them, along with a boatload of others, with their 2003 album, “Transatlanticism”. The Washington-based indie pop/rock band has been pretty solid in releasing quality albums since that time, impressively sustained through a constantly evolving sound. But for some reason, with each album, my interest has faded some. I was fanatical with “Transatlanticism” and then, with 2005’s “Plans” but three albums later, I have been much less so. In fact, when sitting down to write this, I didn’t just listen to this one song. I had to listen to the whole album because I honestly couldn’t remember what it sounded like.

Of course, when I listened to “Codes and keys”, I loved it all over again. It was like I was back in 2011 and I re-experienced the whole gamut of emotions. From the excitement at seeing their name listed as headliner on the main stage on the final night of Bluesfest to the disappointment I felt when I realized I would have to miss it because I had a prior engagement. To the surprise when I heard their set was cancelled that night when the stage collapsed due to a violent storm and the commiseration with those attending that didn’t get to experience them live. They’ve yet to return to Ottawa as promised but I can at least say I got to see them in 2006 when they toured for “Plans”.

“You are a tourist” was the first single released off “Codes and keys” and managed the group their first hit single, charting high on multiple singles charts and hitting number one on a few of these. Written and recorded during the period where frontman Ben Gibbard was married to Zoey Deschanel, the subject matter of the album’s lyrics are less melancholic than previous efforts. The sound, too, is quite a change from its predecessors, being less guitar driven. “You are a tourist” is definitely a drums forward piece, the rhythm catching hold of the listener right away. Meanwhile, the bass line just hangs out, there in the low end, waving hello and minding its own business. The keyboards tinkle and the guitars jump in for flourishes, face grating though they can get at times, just to remind us they’re still there. Gibbard is suggesting that change is a good thing, positively positing that when you feel a tourist in your own town, it’s time to move on.

Yep. I listened to the song and wondered to myself how I let it go so long between listens. It won’t happen again.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2011 list, click here.