No, this site has not gone under! I’ve just been in the army a lot the last couple weeks and when I got off two week ago I was uber sick and couldn’t even bring myself to write anything on this blog. But I’ve returned and today and tomorrow I’ll try and get some posts up and get this thing back to life. To start, I want to talk about the new The National album, Trouble Will Find Me.

To start, it’s clear that The National are still riding their wave of inspiration and excellence – Trouble Will Find Me joins their last three albums as another taught, intelligent, and impressive collection of songs. However, there are some changes to be found, though none all that boat-rocking.

Firstly, the sound is much more wall-of-sound-y; there’s more of a swampy reverb thing going on with everything blending together a bit more. It works, but in a weird way it makes the songs sound more radio-friendly. Not that The National have sold out or anything, but the sound feels just a tad smoother in a way that’s not necessarily good or bad, but will likely divide listeners.

The lyrics, however, are definitely a bit of step down from frontman Matt Berninger‘s previous highs on High Violet and Boxer. It’s not that they’re not good, it’s simply that whereas Beninger used to bust out the most incredible, haunting imagery left, right and centre as if purging his head of it, on Trouble Will Find Me most of the lyrics detail feelings and action, and when he does use imagery, it’s rarely as potent as before. “Mistaken For Strangers” probably contains more incredible imagery alone than the entirety of Trouble Will Find Me. That being said, there’s still a couple great lines throughout the album, like on “Pink Rabbits” when he sings “I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls”, or “Don’t Swallow The Cap” when he sings, “And if you want to see me cry/Play Let It Be/Or Nevermind.”

Vocally Beninger pushes himself. While the signature baritone isn’t in short supply, he often softens his voice up, even getting a bit angelic/Thom York sounding on “Heavenfaced” and “Hard To Find”.

Annnd I don’t know how to end this: it’s a solid album. Though some songs like “Fireproof” and “Heavenfaced” annoy me a bit, the power behind stuff like “Demons”, “Don’t Swallow The Cap” and “Pink Rabbits” makes up for them. And The National also just feel like the right band for right now in a weird way. Or maybe they feel like the right band for where I am in my life at this time – moving through maturity with caution and paranoia. The National are good at soundtracking that kind of thing.

The world’s greatest chiptune band – and noted Scott Pilgrim video game soundtrackers - Anamanaguchi return (finally!) with another full-length – Endless Fantasy. It drops May 14th. The new single from the album, “Planet”, however, moves the band in a more glo-fi direction, sounding something like the follow-up to Neon Indian‘s Psychic Chasms that we all kind of wanted. Luckily though, the ADHD melodies that made the band so bad-ass in the first place remain. And it’s also not as if they suddenly traded in the 8-bit sounds wholesale – there’s still plenty of them. The Game Boy fetishes will be satisfied.

However, the band has also put out another song from the album (+video) and “Meow” sounds pretty much like their last album Dawn Metropolis except maybe a bit more full-bodied. Also, that video is awesome.

In any case, Anamanaguchi show no sign of slowing down or starting to suck – just a great band getting a little bit more interesting while losing none of what made them awesome in the first place.

The Strokes were one of the bands that made me fall in love with music, so whenever they release a new album, it’s a big deal. Are people talking about this back in North America? Hasn’t been the stuff of much discussion in the IDF, believe it or not. Maybe it’s because it’s coming so soon after the underwhelming Angles. In any case, let’s get into this.

So, it looks like we’re gonna have to get used to The Strokes 2.0. Comedown Machine is clearly the new The Strokes that we got on Angles – less NYC cool, more simple, old-school pop-rock band with great guitar-arrangements and a frontman that keep things interesting. But they’re more confident and comfortable in their new skin this time, and they sound good…most of the time. The songs are by and large better and more consistent than those on Angles, and the band feels more engaged in them. The first half of the album particularly impresses – as with Angles, that’s where they stuff most of the straight-on killer tracks, saving the more experimental but less-actually-good for the bottom half.

At this point I feel like I can live with and even enjoy these middle-period Strokes – I even half to give them credit for still sounding relevant while their old-school peers The Hives and even Jack White sound out of place in 2013′s bandiverse. Most of the credit, however, goes to Julian Casablancas, who sounds rejuvenated here – he continues to stretch he vocal abilities and expand his signiture singing territory with a lot more falsetto than we’re used to from the famously baritone-voiced frontman. The production – though similar in feel to Angles – is also a bit better, credit owed to producer Gus Oberg.

Like everyone who remembers 2001, I miss the Strokes of Is This It and Room On Fire and would prefer them – even solo Julian at his best – to the new Strokes. But I can still enjoy the band for their numerous strengths that remain on Comedown Machine.

Well, well…Mr. Shields…took your sweet fucking time, didn’t you?

In any case, it’s good to have My Bloody Valentine back with a new album. And not just any new album, but a new album that’s actually great. The extent to which it is a masterpiece may remain to be determined, but the fact is that this is a solid and often stunning album that somehow manages not to disappoint, and even improve melodically on the band’s past work.

The most amazing thing about the album, however, is that it actually sounds like the My Bloody Valentine album that I think we all wanted to hear as the follow-up to Loveless: all the churning, wall-of-noise guitars, the melodies, the sensuality – everything that made us love My Bloody Valentine in the first place is still there. I would’ve thought that after all this time and with Kevin Shields being as crazy as he’s gotta be they would’ve sprung something totally weird and unexpected on us all, but no, this is the exact My Bloody Valentine we know and love with a couple tweaks maybe in the rhythm department. Whereas Loveless‘ drums were all (or almost all) programmed on account of Colm Ó Cíosóig being extremely ill at the time and unable to play – and pushed far back in the mix – here the man is back in action and all percussion is given considerably more volume and attention. There’s been some writing about Kevin Shields having gotten into jungle music and drum n’ bass or whatever after Loveless, but the influence of such genres is, if not always exactly subtle, at least restrained.

Honestly, if that’s all Shields has in him and we never get another My Bloody Valentine album – something I doubt anyone holding their breath for at this point – it’s cool. The man and the band didn’t have to do anything after Loveless, and the fact that they did and it’s this good is just like…you’re good. You passed. You made a solid amount of great art; you pass at life. That’s not to say it wouldn’t be amazing to hear Shields and MBV putting shit out on some conception of a regular basis – it would – but the pressure is off now. You made your masterpiece and you followed it up. Good stuff, bro.

The now-Montreal based, once-Toronto-based samplegazer Doldrums (aka Airick Woodhead) has a new album on the horizon called Lesser Evil, and the shit I’m hearing from it sounds pretty cum-your-pants-tastic. I’m like not even brown-nosing, this shit really is fucking killer; there’s a reason Pitchfork is pissing itself to write about him.

The song we’ve all got to analyze today is “Anomaly”, a word that most people (myself included) probably learned after watching The Matrix Reloaded and pulling out a dictionary to find out what the fuck the Architect said to Neo in the scene where they have their conversation. Anyways, the song actually (to my great delight) finds Woodhead moving more towards the ‘gaze’ than the ‘sample’ – everything here swoons and moans – it’s pretty beautiful and sexy stuff. And Woodhead weaves a great vocal melody on top of the shifting, swirling whole. Interesting – are we to expect an album more in this vane than the more manic, sometimes Bollywood-inspired sounds of his past work?

Whatever the case, it seems each new develop with the post-Spiral Beach crew brings more impressive surprises. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it hitting critics top-ten lists. Long time since The Drake Hotel shows, eh guys?

I just heard this and nearly shit my pants or somethign. Funny, was just thinking the other day, “Hey, the Besnards are due for a new album sometime soon, eh?” and bam! Got hit by this mofo: “People Of The Sticks”, off an album called “Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO” that drops April 2nd.

First thing I noticed is that this bitch sounds like a motherfucker; the Besnards’ lead man (and co-fronter) Jace Lasek is a producer of no little repute, but it sounds like he’s been taking Phil Spectre steroids or something here – everything sounds huge and gorgeous. And the sounds! The sounds of the song are so gorgeous, what with the synths and the vocals and guitars and apocalypse drums…

As a song, I think it’s pretty good, I feel like it’s got hooks, but I kind of can’t get over the actual sounds of this guy, they’re just a whole new level of awesome – and anyways, the Besnards’ songs always were kind of dense and took a while to get used to, so it’s all good.

As for the album to come: I’m feeling good about it. They sound energized and inspired, and if they can stretch what I’m hearing here to full length, it’s gonna be a killer.

Well, well, if it isn’t David Bowie, back from a long hiatus with a new song and a new album on the horizon, produced by old chum Tony Visconti no less. Alright then, let’s get into it…

“Where Are We Now?” is the first song off The Next Day, which drops March 12th. The song isn’t a smash success, but let’s say it’s decent, and perhaps a sign of good things to come from the full album. Essentially, the song feels like an exercise in songwriting rather than something really genuinely inspired. The chords are kind of basic, not too interesting – the lyrics don’t really say anything much, but rather wrap some vague phrases and streets names around an easy anchor phrase – there’s nothing about the song that really stuns or impresses much. But that being said, as an exercise, it’s not a particularly bad one: the chords are decent, Bowie’s singing is affecting, and the lyrics aren’t downright bad. So let’s call it ‘interesting’, and leave it at that.

As for the album, I can’t imagine that in the course of so many years Bowie hasn’t amassed at least a decent amount of interesting songs out of the fourteen album tracks (plus three bonus). Maybe the record company felt this was a good starter for the moronic masses, who knows. In any case, I’m looking forward to hearing it. Also, Bowie seems to keep up with shit – digging Arcade Fire and TV On The Radio and all – he’s not like Elton John or Bruce Springsteen or other bygone artists who seem these days to just peddle their new shit because they’ve got nothing better to do.

When shit’s tough in the army here, I dream of how afterwards I’m going to move to Beach Fossils‘ home turph of Brooklyn for a couple years. Oh Brooklyn, Brooklyn…where the women are indie, the music is beautiful, people read books, and the menu is vegan-friendly. Oh to be in Brooklyn…

In any case, the aforementioned band – Beach Fossils, that is – have a new album dropping Feb 19th via their excellent label, Captured Tracks. First track “Careless” shows the band trading in its traditional stock of gorgeous, simplistic dream-pop, but the whole package has been tightened up and the compositional and arrangement of the song is a bit more complex than what’s come before, but I really mean just a little bit, they haven’t suddenly become And The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway-era Genesis or anything. As for what we can expect from the album, I’d say more of the same, it would seem these guys are pretty dependable; not expecting much departure from what’s come before, but that’s cool, this is a good bit of growth.

I know I’m seriously late on this one, but I really wanted to write about it because Shut Down The Streets, the latest album by New Pornographers frontman A.C. Newman, is pretttty fucking awesome, and I know that Pitchfork gave it a 6.8 and I want to debate that and try and get as many peeps to hear it as possible.

Ok – let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way.

-The album continues Newman’s move towards more mature songwriting and it is indeed his most ‘mature-sounding’ album yet.

- It may be mature, but it’s still pretty hooky – more so than (the very underrated) New Pornos album Challengers, perhaps Newman’s second most ‘mature-sounding’ album now.

Beyond that, the album is consistent in terms of sound, themes, and quality. Yes – sometimes the tempo is a little slower than power-pop usually is, but that doesn’t mean that when the song is slow it’s not good. It’s just a bit slower, that’s all (though admittedly, the slower tracks are not the highlights).

I think the main thing about the album that Steven Hyden had a problem with in his Pitchfork review was Newman’s inability to tackles mature subjects in his lyrics well enough – they’re too abstract and really, seriously, don’t seem to say much about the subjects that you can tell he’s dealing with moreso musically. This complaint is perfectly legitimate – but the problem with it is that the album is still incredibly enjoyable, and Newman’s lyrics always work well, even if they maybe aren’t Dylanesquely Earth-shattering or anything. Newman’s lyrics have always been pretty abstract (usually meaningless and chosen for sound alone) but they’ve worked beautifully and the man’s mastery of hooks – in my opinion – should really absolve him of all minor lyrical faults.

Ladyhawk – No Can Do

Finally! I’m back on my blog and can talk about how awesome the new Ladyhawk album is.

Firstly - Ladyhawk is an awesome band. I remember when their first, self-titled album came out in 2006, cuz that shit was da bomb. In terms of how many other people thought so, maybe not so so much, but for me, it was a great album, and listening to it again recently, it still is. So I’m glad that after taking a couple years off following sophomore album, Shots, the Vancouver grunge-y, psych-y, and all around rock-y crew are back at it again with No Can Do.

Now, Pitchfork, in their review – and indeed, all indie rock album reviews must be compared to the Pitchfork review, these days – writer Sam Hockley-Smith wrote that this album veered more towards straight power-pop than their earlier efforts, which were perhaps more jammy, rustic, etc. There’s definitely sense to that statement – No Can Do is a collection of sharper, more hook oriented songs than previous outings by the band. But that being said, aesthetically, the album is still pretty grizzled – I’m pretty sure if you listen closely, you can hear the lead singer’s beard bleeding into the mic. And the hooks aren’t exactly prepping these guys to be Vancouver’s next New Pornographers, they’re still grimey, heavy, and noisy. So yeah, nobody worry that the band has totally changed. They haven’t.

But they have written a great collection of songs. At a sharp ten tracks and no bullshit, No Can Do is indeed, all killa no filla, and for those who loved “The Dugout” on round one, there’s a couple great big howling pop songs to be found on No Can Do, notably the title track and “You Read My Mind”, which are both fast and furiously catchy. And lead singer Duffy Driediger has such a great voice for this kind of stuff also.

So yeah, this is my pick for best album of the last week or two or whatever. Glad these stoners remembered that they’re a killer band. Hope they don’t forget again and keep us waiting another four years for the next album.