Tag Archives: new album

Daft Punk Review Royale: Random Access Memories

22 May

Daft Punk
Random Access Memories

daft punk, random access memories, album, cover, art

Austin’s Take

Random Access Memories is one of those records where it is hard to separate the immense hype and expectations from the eventual finished product.  What we ended up with is an album with perfectly executed promotion without the deep satisfaction that we expected.  The album reminds me most of a microbrewery releasing a trendy new beer with slick packaging, and finding the flavors don’t mesh into the clean finish you would hope for.  In the same way, Daft Punk combines disco-era sounds with their electronic home base and even what I would call plain old adult contemporary to create a most confusing brew.

Daft Punk , cheers, beer, brew

Mmmmmm, Daft beer!

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Vampire Weekend Review Royale: Modern Vampires of the City

15 May

Vampire Weekend
Modern Vampires of the City
Vampire Weekend, album cover art, Modern Vampires of the City

Three albums into their career, Vampire Weekend has only progressively gotten better at their craft. In 2008 they released their self-titled debut, which proved to be a cerebrally focused pop-punk album that was a half hour of smart, heavily influenced fun. In the 2010 release Contra, the lyrics only increasingly became more clever, and the music became more layered and complex. Now enter Modern Vampires of the City, where that tack-sharp wit has only seemed to have gotten sharper once again, and their music still remains fresh. The formula is still there. It’s still a concise forty minute album that is chock-full of iconic and modern pop references as well as heavy influences from the likes of not only the usual comparisons of Paul Simon and The Clash, but even some Dick Dale and Buddy Holly. Bundle all this up with Vampire Weekend’s own unique form of jangly baroque-pop music with a bit of a punk-ass attitude and you have Modern Vampires of the City. They truly have become a unique staple to modern music, and one of the more intelligent bands of recent years.
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LxListening: Rapid Fire Album Reviews

8 May

charlie xcx, baths, ghost face killah, savages, deerhunter, new album, review, new music, 2013

With the barrage of great music 2013 has offered up thus far, we at LxL are struggling to keep up with everything we feel we should be touching on. Enter our first mid-week entry of LxListening, and a new concept behind it: Rapid Fire Album Reviews. Granted, all of the albums listed below should be warranted their own full review, but three men at one post a day can only accomplish so much. So here we are in an effort to try and not let some of this springs most dominant releases slip through the cracks. If you haven’t already heard these, I urge you to give the following albums a listen:

 

Savages – Silence Yourself
Savages, album cover, Silence Yourself
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Kurt Vile Review: Wakin On A Pretty Daze

17 Apr

Kurt Vile
Wakin On A Pretty Daze

kurt vile, walkin on a pretty daze, album, cover art, new

Kurt Vile left the band The War on Drugs back in 2008 after the release of his self-recorded debut album Constant Hitmaker garnered a fair amount of critical success. Since then, he has not turned back to his past band and instead fully embraced his solo career with his backing band the Violators. I for one am glad he did so. Vile has a knack of slipping in bits and pieces of Americana folk into grungy psychedelic pop tunes, all with a modern twist to it so it seems current, yet somewhat timeless. His styles have changed slightly from album to album, and with his newest release, Walkin On A Pretty Daze he has found a way to chill out more than ever. The album title is a proper summation for the feel of the album, which it perfectly encapsulates a very dreamy daze-like ambience floating through entire +60 minutes. His pop-grunge vibe is still there, but in a longer and more relaxed fashion. This makes for one of my favorite efforts from Kurt thus far.

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The Yeah Yeah Yeahs Review Royale: Mosquito

16 Apr

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Mosquito

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Mosquito album cover art

Wes’ Words:

Like the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had a huge place in reviving rock music in the early 2000s. Also like the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s latest album stands as their worst to date, with a hammy comic book feel and a slew of repetitive retread songs. It doesn’t help that Mosquito opens with its lead single and clearly best track in “Sacrilege” sort of like the comedy that released all its best jokes in the trailer. Beside “Sacrilege”, which has the band summoning the gospel ghosts of “Gimme Shelter”, the New York trio tries two other new tricks here in dub reggae (“Under The Earth”, “Slave”) and a cartoonish comic book theme (“Mosquito”, “Area 52”, “Buried Alive”) that just don’t really work for me.
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