I have been lax when it comes to album reviews the past few months, so here are a bunch of reviews of albums from this year. Passion Pit:  Manners
A Boston band’s debut has not had this much buzz since the 90s. That, and the fact that the lead singer is Greek and we are rare in the music world, (shout out to Art Alexakis of Everclear) made me intrigued to hear what all the fuss was about. In short, Passion Pit’s Manners is the sound of dancing around like an idiot with good friends or people who have the potential to be good friends. They are an electropop band and pretty much all the songs on the album are catchy and infectious. Some have compared them to LCD Soundsystems and MGMT, but what their sound really sounds like is Sonic The Hedgehog music and particularly the Starlight Stage of Sonic The Hedgehog 1. You might think that I am insulting them by comparing their sound to a nearly 20 year old video game, but I happen to love the music of Sonic The Hedgehog Starlight Stage and I can take off my music snob hat long enough to appreciate the joy present in Passion Pit’s sound. Furthermore, while I compare it a videogame, the music has many more layers and variety of sounds/instruments than a videogame (They use a Dulcimer at one point, true story). Lyrically, the album is like well written earnest freshman poetry about wanting to feel connected to people and places. The lyrics fit the vibe of the music well especially songs like “Little Secret” and “The Reeling” which both employ the girl chorus sing-a-long on the “higher and higher and higher” and “oh no” part of the choruses to great affect. . The track “Moth Wings” is written like a letter to a troubled friend and has a great musical built up throughout the song. People are either going to love or hate Michael Angelakos falsetto and I found myself in the former category even though he still needs to work on for the live shows. At the start of this review, I mentioned Passion Pit Boston Artist with the biggest buzz since the early 90s. Even though I still listen to artists from that time like Juliana Hatfield, Letters To Cleo, and The Lemonheads, I will always associate their sound with the sound of the 90s. Passion Pit is what I will forever associate with the sound of 2009 in Boston and amazingly enough through the rapid fire spread of the internet they have already become one of the defining acts of current music across the country and the world. Overall Album Grade A-
U2:  No Line On The Horizon
I don’t hate this album, I am just bored by it. I listened to it a couple of times when it first came out and during the next few months, not once have I played it. When the songs from the album come on when I put my 2009 playlist on shuffle, I don’t skip them because Bono’s voice sounds as great as ever which is a redeeming quality of any song. In addition, some of the songs like “Magnificent” and “I’ll Go Crazy, If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” are pretty good paint by numbers U2 songs, but there is not a single song on this album that I would add to the classic U2 canon of songs Overall Album Grade C+
Lily Allen:  It’s Not Me, It’s You
With all due disrespect to the Katy Perry’s and Lady Gaga’s of the world, they can not hold a candle to Lily Allen. Lily writes danceable pop tunes, but with much more interesting lyrics. Case in point, the opening lines of the entire album “I want to be rich and I want lots of money, I don’t care about clever, I don’t care about funny” Is she being serious or sarcastic? Is she mocking herself or other pop stars? I am not sure and judging by the chorus where she sings “I don’t know what’s right or what’s real anymore, I don’t know how I am meant to feel anymore, and when do you think it will all become clear? Cuz I am being taken over by The Fear” she is not sure either. I admit that now and then her lyrics can become almost a little too preachy during songs like “Everyone’s At It” which criticizes the hypocrisy of many drug laws and “fuck you” with its anti-homophobia screed; however, it is rare you hear issues like that taken on so bluntly in a catchy pop tunes such as the aforementioned “fuck you” with it’s opening lines of “look inside, look inside your tiny mind, then look a bit harder, cause where uninspired, so sick and tired of all the hatred you harbor” and catchy chorus of “fuck you, fuck you very very much.” The track “Chinese” is one of the best pop love songs of the year about the simple pleasures of being in a relationship: “ I don’t want anything more than to see your face when you open the door, you’ll make me beans and toast and a nice cup of tea, and we’ll get Chinese and watch T.V.” Overall Album Grade A-
Yeah Yeah Yeahs:  It’s Blitz
When an artist makes a change as drastic as the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s do with It’s Bltiz by putting down their guitars and going for a synth sound, it is bound to generate some controversy. So how well does it work? Opening track Zero is one of the best songs of the year and you will hear nothing on record sexier than the orgasmic way Karen O sings “get to know it whether you’re crying, crying, crying oh oh/ can you climb climb climb higher?” The bad news is that the rest of the album can never reaches those climactic heights again. If Zero is the sound of hot sex, the rest of the album is the sound of cuddling in bed after. My biggest complaint is that some of the songs sound a little too much alike. I like “Soft Shock” “Little Shadow” and “Hysteric”, the later with its sweet song chorus of “you suddenly complete me” are all very good songs, but not super distinguishable and non reach the classic level of “Maps.” (In their defense that is nearly impossible) In a way this album reminds me a lot of Kanye West’s 808’s and Heartbreaks which is another album from one of my favorite artists that was a musical departure from their previous stuff. Both albums worked very well and where a nice change of pace to keep things fresh, but I hope they eventually go back to their other sound. Overall Album Grade B+
Neko Case: Middle Cyclone
Neko Case has a beautiful voice. Hell, it is almost too beautiful. Almost all the songs on this album sound great and are well constructed; however, for me this is great background music and not active listening music if that makes any sense at all. For example, lyrically the song “This Tornado Loves You” is an obsessive love song, but the way she sings it does not sound obsessive to me. I can understand how someone else might get a different impression and love this album, but for me I will only listen to it as pleasant background music while I am studying for class or something like that. Overall Grade B .
Camera Obscura:  My Maudlin Career
With the opening line of “Fell asleep in a dusty library, waiting for some words to jump out at me” I began to fall in love with this album. The way Tracyanne Campbell sings throughout the album never strays from flawless. Musically, there are obvious influences from 50s pop and even 60s Phil Spector’s wall of sound. That being said, it never sounds like a rip off of those sounds, just and updated version. As the title of the album suggests, this is a lyrically very sentimental album. If that is not your thing, stay away, but it is mine. The song “Careless Love” is one of the best songs ever about trying (and failing) to stay friends with an ex. That theme is in other songs of the album like the track “James” where Tracyanne achingly sings “oh James, you broke me, I thought I knew you well” to an ex/current friend. Overall, this album is the sound of having teenage emotions about love while you are an adult and it creates that affact perfectly. Overall Album Review A